Cruiser133

OK, so I pulled the trigger and bought a Hooben elefant from the local hobby place. I have been searching thissite and to be honest, feeling a bit overwhelmed. I have built all tamiya's so far (Pershing,Tiger, KT, Sherman) and the upgrade parts are easy to find. My question is this, what should I be aware of with this kit, what to avoid and where is the best place to buy upgrades, namely metal tracks. I found some on the bay, but the guy wants $167 shipped, seems steep to me. Any help is appreciated, thanks! BTW, I think I found a source for Torro Sturmtigers if anybody is interested. They lack electronics, but they are reasonably priced. I just paid for one, so I will wait and see if and when it gets here....

Jeff489

My Feedback: (12)

I build mine to IR battle and have had my Elefant assembled now for about a year. I've ran it at about 6 battledays (about 30 hours of run time) so far. So, it's still just getting broken in. I rebuilt the elevation unit (the big gear slipped on the shaft, so I pinned it to the shaft, and now it works fine). I added servo traverse (the cam broke on the stock unit). I cut the battery box out to give me more room inside. You have to push everything inside as far forward as you can to make room for the cannon recoil assembly to elevate and traverse. I changed out many of the screws with allen head screws to make it easier to install them in blind holes. I added a Zim kit to make it more realistic looking.

I like flash, so I added a Tamiya flash unit. Funny thing, is that the Hooben barrel isn't drilled to scale. It's too small to fit the flash unit in. So, I drilled my barrel out and now it fits fine.

I went with Tamiya DMD T-03 and an MF-01, so I have no electronic issues. I added metal tracks from ETO. So far, it's still working the bugs out, but seems a good battler and really drives smoothly.

Other than that, it's stock. Oh, you might want to get yourself a 3mm ball end hex driver. You'll be needing it to assemble the front hood deck.

FYI, that price on tracks doesn't seem out of line. Not too many people make them for this tank.

No complaints about the tank, Hooben parts support is there if you need them. It's a bear to adjust track tension after assembly, so...get it right the first time.

MAUS45

Ok, share the SturmTiger info? Who can we get one from?

Cruiser133

I appreciate the heads up bro on the Elefant.

Maus, I would rather wait until the supplier comes through. His communication has been less than stellar, BUT, he did ship my JT quick last month on my last order, so we shall see. I will also ask if this was a one time deal or he would be willing to sell more. He did state he had a few Sturms with bad electronics...If you PM me, I will pass along the info

George Jure

Hi Cruiser133

Could you let us know your source for the Elefant and what it cost. From your post, I guess it did not come with electronics? OR did it But you upgraded them.

George

DirtyBird69

Ihave an Elefant as well(thanks Yellowshaker), as mentioned earlier I to have the Kenny Kong tracks, as well as all other Elefant upgrades....You might wanna invest in a metal gun deck and traverse cam,400/black can motors. You can get these from my friend Carl http://www.radiocontrolcustomtanks.com/index.html, you can also get parts from ETO http://www.etoarmour.com/. I also went with a full El-Mod and converted to servo recoil...took a bit of doing but well worth it in the end....especially when your on the field and there's hardly any Elefants(if any)...kinda nice to be one of the "Big-Boys" lol..now that the TK-22 board is available it will be a lot cheaper then El-Mod which could save you some money...That's the system I'm about to install in my Taigen Tiger...

modeltank

http://www.kennysmodeltank.com/pricelist.html

Elefant tracks at US$135

Cruiser133

thanks dirty, i will look into those options you posted. i already bought a tamiya mf 04, so i will probably go with a t01 to go with it for electronics. how much were the kk tracks?

sevoblast

Here's the tracks at ETO

http://www.etoarmour.com/product_det...oductID=KKT020


Here's the steel gun deck from ETO

http://www.etoarmour.com/product_det...roductID=ETO32

And here's the black long can stump pulling motors:

http://www.etoarmour.com/product_det...?productID=M02

And the Atak Zim kit if you desire:

http://www.etoarmour.com/product_det...oductID=AT1606

These are pretty good kits, but do require a tweak or two.

streetsquid

Cruiser133,
The Hooben Elefant straight out of the box leaves a little to be desired. I built mine box stock with no upgrades and added Tamiya electronics. I ran into a few issues during construction but nothing earth shattering. I've run stock plastic tracks on mine and in about 4 battles and had no issues. But the kit elevation/traverse needs a lot of help (read that thrown out and somehting new engineered and fabricated).

Jeff and Yellowshaker's (Dirtybirds) both have more mods than mine, but then again mine has had quite a few issues that still need to be addressed. If you're even remotely interested hers is a link to my build thread when I did mine last year. Becasue it was a stock build a big part of the thread is a tutorial on painting and weathering whci a lot of people had inquired about my techniques.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_10...m.htm#10828748


Hope this helps you some!

Streetsquid

DirtyBird69

whilefar frombeing a tamiya level kit, like anything if you want one bad enough(like me) it's worth every penny....wanted an IMAI so bad when I was a kid but my dad couldnt afford it so I had to let the dream fade away.....but now I have one and I can cross it of my bucket list lol! almost finished after doing a ton of mods to it sincei bought it and will post some pics in the next week or two..I call it "Tragen Dass!" or "Take That!"I'm going topaint it somewhere on the the tank when I finishmy stencil..

Ronan87

What the heck is a IMAI??

sevoblast

Imai Elefant was the Holy Grail of tanks in our hobby, dates, what guys, now 35 years ago?

DirtyBird69

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_79...tm.htm#7921425

Cruiser133

Thanks Squid and Servo for the info. I am going to create a new thread for the Sturmtiger. That Imai looks sweet!

Cruiser133

By the way Servo, the Division's web security browser program(Barracuda) keeps blocking me from getting to your site while at work, the *******s! I will check it out when I get home. lol

sevoblast

That's probably because we are listed as anarchists and we never refill the sugar bowl.

Cruiser133

i dont see a listing for the elefant on kennys site, the price you quoted was for the pz4? would those work?

George, the kit came complete with everything, even the radio and battery charger. i bought it from Robbys hobbies in Columbus. they have a website.

Ronan87

Duh! IMAI as the model kit manufacturer... I kept thinking 'whats an IMAI... somekind of bike/scooter/toy from 30+ years ago?' lol

Cruiser133

I have decided to do a build diary from a noob perspective, namely mine! I have had it pretty easy sticking to Tamiyas, so this willbe my first of a different brand. My cash flow is limited at the moment, so the metal tracks will have to wait. I will bust out the camera tonight when I get started. This kit has just about every option like the metal barrel and full electronics, but I have not heard anything good about the factory CPU....Anybody have a DMD T-01 they need off their hands?

tomhugill

If its any use to you, there a group elefant build on rctankregiment.co.uk they've done some very good mods to get the fant rUnning really nicely.

Cruiser133

Thanks Tom, I went ahead and joined that forum. It is a great source of information.

Well, day one of my Elefant build. Here she is, the complete package I received from Robbie's Hobbies here in Columbus, Ohio. I just want to stress, if you guys see anything I can improve on or have some advice, please throw it at me. I wont be offended, I realize I am quite the noob, so I expect to make mistakes.


As you can see, I bought the complete package. It came with a 2.4ghz radio, quick charger, battery and assorted AC plugs. Here I opened the box and I noted that mine came with the CPU, metal barrel and MF unit. I also realized this is a BIG tank!



I noticed here the speaker leaves a bit to be desired, any suggestions? Me thinks it will need to be replaced....

Again, there are what seems to be miles of grey plastic to be painted, wish Squid was around! Overall, I am pleased so far. A Tamiya it aint, but I will enjoy this non the less.


I have decided to paint her in dark yellow. I wish Hooben would have molder it in tan like the Tamiya KT instead of grey as this took about 5 cans of TS-3 to get a minimum of two coats on the parts and hull. At $7 a pop for the cans, I didnt factor in nearly $40 in spray paint with tax included....ouch! I am sure there is cheaper alternatives, but I had bad luck with Testors, so I chose to build all my tanks with Tamiya paint. Well, the paint is drying so this is it for now. More later!

mustclime

I am not a fan of prepainting.....glue and paint do not play well togaher...remember to sand every joint you need to glue or the glue will noy work.

sevoblast

Don't know if you know, but this kit is not styrene plastic, it is ABS. The glue you will need for it is available. Any hobby shop that sells Plastruct structural shapes will have the glue you need.

Ronan87

One $8 can of white/grey primer (the large Krylon one's) + 1 can of TS-3 and you are done. MAYBE 2 cans of TS-3.