Hitty40

I'm looking to try something new, but I didn't know where to go.

So, after some thought I wanted to try out RC tanks because I've played World of Tanks a year and a half.

What I know is that the tanks aren't cheap. This makes me a bit sketchy as to how much I wanna put in since I've only got ~300 bucks anyways.

So, I'm turning to you guys and was wondering where I should start, maybe with a tank that won't destroy my current budget, but can still get me set up without a lot of hassle.

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So, a list of what tanks I'd want(plus some Wikipedia-ing):

KV-1/-2/-1S/-4(Personally the KV-2 turret and the 1S in general look really badass)
PzIV Ausf. H
StuG III Ausf. F

ausf

You've made the correct first step by admitting you have a problem.

With a budget of $300, your best bet would be going with the entry level Heng Long type of offerings. You can get them around $100-150 and they'll include a transmitter. They are considered toy grade, but there are an infinite amount of upgrades and inprovements as you decide the hobby is for you.

A basic understanding of RC and some modeling experience will be helpful and there's no shortage of people here willing to help.

Welcome, by the way.

What type of tank interests you (WWII, US, German, etc.) and RC experience will help with the answers.

Strato50

Welcome aboard! You've found the best forum & set of RC enthusiasts to offer you help anywhere. You'll probably find this addicting!

If you haven't dabbled into RC yet, you should learn fast. Tanks have the advantage of avoiding the one-flight RC guy... ie, buy a new toy, take it for its first flight, smash it in 1 billion pieces, GIVE UP... more or less you can't accidentally break a tank... they're tanks!

Hitty40

Thanks.

I don't really mind what specific types of tanks to use. Like you said, there are upgrades and improvments I can put on tanks to help me.



Thanks too, I should have also mentioned I have a little bit of experience with RC cars, so I know how it feels.

tomhugill

Depending on what your wanting from your tank I'd say something like a henglong panther or kv-1 with some select upgrades and a Clark control board. This will give you Tamiya compatibility if you want to battle and a nice runner for back yard use. Alternatively if you can save up $200 more I'd go for a second hand Tamiya, should be a few at this price range! This will give you a hobby grade machine that will hold its value
If you choose to sell and most importantly an excellent runner!

no12skyline

Its great that you've already decided on a budget which neatly eliminates the Tamiya brigade :P

Anyway you next need to decide if you want to plink soda cans in your backyard and join one of the regional tanking groups that IR battle. It would determine if you get a BB tank or an IR tank, even though you could convert it later on.

Smokers are generally unreliable.

Offhand I'd say a M41 Walker Bulldog is a good place to start cheaply, although Heng Long's later offerings tend to be better. You would want to save part of your budget in case you want to convert to Clark TK22 which require you to have a four channel radio as well.

ksoc

Hitty40

If you are the solo tanker in your area, then all options are open. If you of a friend(s) want to get a few tanks running together, then you need to make sure you get them either with 2.4 GHz radios, or different frequencies. To battle each other you can now get Heng Long type tanks with Infrared (IR) battle systems for a little more money up front. It is also possible to add these or other battle systems later. That is where a screw drive, a soldering iron, and this forum will come in handy. Some systems are more compatible than others, so do your homework. Here are some links to get you started.

Darkith makes a kit for a Tamiya compatible IR battle system. He sells two kits. One for the HL radio, and one that supports aftermarket radios. Battle Armor RC sell the kit assembled. Tank Hobby sells another Tamiya compatible system. Clark and ElMod make other systems.

http://darkith.dyndns.org/~darkith/html/dbc.shtml

http://battlearmorrc.weebly.com

http://home.comcast.net/

As a proud member of the Tamiya Brigade I think Heng Long / Mato, etc tanks are a great way to check out the hobby - especially on a budget.

Good luck,

Rustytrax

I have both Tamiya and Henglong. I find the aspect of the IR battle more fun than the airsoft battle. Not to mention that the airsoft guns on my HLs worked very poorly. The HL controllers are total crap for range and multi tank battles. As said some after market options allow other radios to be used.

I went down the road to upgrad some HLs. I bought the HL flash and battle unit along with the IR bulbs to change my BB tank over. I bought the Darkaths board to do this. Well it isn't that simple. My HL tanks needed to have another 8 pin board a resistor here and more stuff to make it work with tamiyas. Sound will still be cruddy.
I'm am now scapping that and going with the Clarke TK22 that is a plug and play replacement for the main board. No piggy backing and comes with the sensor mount for my Tamiya battle unit. Oh it also addresses the sound and gives me the recoil option.

With that back story I suggest a Clarke board. Its offers the ability to move it easily to any other HL, Mato or similar tank. (sounds may vary)
Mato has an IR tiger that has got some metal bits that are pretty nice for a reasonable cost.

Not sure if you know how the tanks battle. There are three classes light, medium and heavy. heavies get 9 hits fire every 9 seconds, Mediums 5 hits firing every 5 secs. Lastly the lights are 3 or 4 hits firing every 3 secs (not sure obout the hits for lights).

This may influence your choice on model. examples

Light tanks
PZ3, Walker M41,( PZ4)

Mediums
Sherman, (sometimes PZ4)

Heavy
Tiger 1, Tiger 2, Panther, KV-1, KV-2, Pershing, (Sherman Jumbo)

Welcome to the hobby.

Hitty40

I think I'm not the only one. There's a store in downtown OKC:http://www.rctanksofokc.com/

I would suspect if there's a store, there's bound to be quite a few guys in my area that use RC tanks also.



Well, I'm just looking to start out, I don't really mind what tank to get, but since there's a KV-2, I would want the 152 variant.





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diabolic-mind

i asked the same question at one point too. i ended up getting the heng long walker bulldog from phil at rctankwars.com. excellent guy to deal with and he tested the tank out before sending it to me to ensure i got a proper working tank. i instantly fell in love with it. the only thing out of the box that i upgraded was the battery pack, i got a 5000mah battery pack for it and was getting almost 1 hour of continuous run time with it. other than a battery pack i ran it all stock, i did seal the bottom of it up to make it waterproof as i live in upsate new york so having snow half the year means needing it to be waterproof. i was extremely happy with the bulldog, alot of fun in a little package

aceisback

My Feedback: (1)

I started with one Heng Long, and now I have 3. Upgrading them is only limited to what you want to do with them. A buddy and I are both using Dave's Battle Circuits and Battle unit for IR battle, and they are very easy to install, work great, and are Tamiya compatible. We are using these with 2.4ghz radios though. Recommend upgrading to metal gears and maybe motors if you want to do a lot of outdoor running.

Hitty40

So, I have a question that just popped up.

FreakyDude

hitty it is possible to do anything, this hobby relies on skill and ideas. For your switch though and I am not a KV expert but I would think a new barrel would be all you need which is an easy mod.