Oh, this is good news! I think I can find the patience to wait until then.

Most of Taigen's upgrades are plug-and-play. I'm sure it will be just a strait swap.

So, you guys got the rights to all the sound recording they did while they had the Tiger for Fury (all 4 gigs right??)?

You got that right, Bro, and tanks are no different. Here in Detroit we're also known for cars, and we like to say, "Speed costs money - How fast do ya wanna go?" and it's kinda the same with tanks. Very cool tanks cost money - How cool do you want your tank to be?

As for the upgrades, that's also kind of like cars. You buy a new Camaro and soon you want an aftermarket exhaust for better sound. Stuff like that. But with tanks there are a lot more upgrades to do, partly because the hobby is still pretty new. Think about cars in the 60s. They were pretty good off the lot, but they still had a long way to go before you took it out on any kind of track. Now the factory built muscle cars are a lot closer to being race ready than they were back then, and I imagine if you look at RC Tanks in 15 or 20 years they'll have a lot less things that need to be done to them. I could be wrong about this, but I think Imex is working towards the day when ALL their tanks will come with steel gearboxes (Please correct me if I got that wrong, Erik). But to me it makes a lot of sense to spend a bit of money at the beginning to get a better model later on. The Tiger tank you just bought is one of the best stock lower hulls on the market, and it's a great foundation to build on. My first working tank was a TAG12010 (the same tank, only yellow) and now it's the S33.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EM3imwwDm0 You made a very good choice when you bought the Imex Tiger. It's kinda like building a house - start with a crappy foundation and you'll end up with a crappy house. You've got a very good foundation, so I'll be watching with interest to see where you take it from here, and if you need help you know where to turn.

Thanks,

It may take a turn you would never have though of.... I planned on painting the tanks as that was my primary purpose - painting and display but I am thinking of not trying to paint and weather at least one of the tanks, for whatever reason I was looking at the Taigen in the right light and was thinking how cool it would be if were all a satin black, with Batman logos where the German insignia's are... and not the cheesy '66 batman type but turning into more like something you would have seen in the more recent Batman movies... I am tossing that around as an idea... how's that for thinking out of the box?

Talex, let me start by saying I am still relatively a noob in the tanking game, but just like most jumped in head first. My collection started with a cheap tank from Wal-Mart. At the time of that purchase I didn't even know there were soo many awesomely realistic tanks available. I only found out after looking for videos of the cheapie I bought on you tube. The first nice one I purchased was the Walker Bulldog (still my favorite) from Taigen. It had most of the upgrades already, but just like anything else you buy you start looking for ways to improve it. First thing was metal road wheels,and let me tell you when I started taking that first screw out I was lost. Then I found help from all these wonderful gents here on RCU. Don't ever feel stupid or shy about asking ANYTHING. There will be someone with an answer, and if not, someone who will find an answer to whatever challenge you face. And congrats on your first couple of hunks of armor. Taigen is a good brand and Erik is always a big help when you need it. Like he said though, once you get bit by that two tracked monster, it's got you! I am now the proud owner of more than a dozen pieces of armor,(mostly Taigen) and can build one part by part thanks to help from the awesome group of guys on RCU. I even did my first paint job about this time last year on a HL Abrams. And also, being a lifelong resident of the metro-Detroit area, go wings!

Thanks Johnny, Gooooo Wings indeed!! not long time but grew up just north of the D - still visit often as my family is still there.

Hey Crius, is that your video? You in Detroit area also?

Talex, NP bro! Glad to have another tanker in the game.

Yeah, Johnny, that's my little backyard village in the video, and the Detroit City Limit sign is about four miles down 6 Mile from my front door, which puts me in Livonia. How about you?

Looks like you guys should form a northern tank group.

Crius,Sweet lil setup you got! I'm 6 miles due north of the D in sterling hgts.
Roboticus Prime, we have a group near us. The Detroit Tank Command. Would like to join, but I work a lot.... And got 2 babies at home both under 3yrs. So between work,kids,and wife time, I barely have enough time to sneak into the basement to work on my armor. Just got the Chally and it's in pieces right now waiting for upgrades to arrive so I can paint and reassemble. If I could just show up when they gather I would try n make it, but they have dues, and it's hard to drop $ on somethin when I don't know if I'd be able to attend.

Still not seeing a reason not to form a casual group. Gary's setup wouldn't take too much to make battle ready. Hell, it can totally be used for casual tanking right now. That's all up to Gary though.

Casual tanking, hmmmm.... That's an idea I could stand behind!
Sorry Talex for highjacking the thread.😒

I have the village set up most weekends from the first of July until mid September. Anybody that wants to come over and play is welcome, just PM me or if you're one of the many guys here that has my email or phone number just hit me up.

Johnny we'll have to get together sometime when your schedule allows. As for DTC, I attend their battles when I can but I haven't formally joined and there really aren't any dues or anything. The club has dwindled and the most members I've ever seen together at a meet is 4. Good guys, though, and I try to get over to Hazel Park whenever they get together. I'm hoping they'll do an indoor event within the next 4 to 6 weeks. One of the guys gets use of a school gym in Oxford. Johnny you should tell your wife about it, and if she's a keeper she'll do her best to make sure you get to attend. 4 hours on a Sunday once or twice a year should be do-able for anyone, right?

no problem, it's happened a couple times.

I'm also new to RC tanks. Last year for Christmas I bought my son a pair of cheap-o IR tanks for like $25. They were fun but toys.

This year I got him a Huan Qi 1:24 scale Tiger with Airsoft. Then I got myself a 1:16 Heng Long Panzer III. Not knowing anything about tanks I discovered both are 27 Mhz tanks and can't play together, and the PIII is an older model with electronics that you cannot change the frequency, which explains why it was only about $70.

I'm not looking for a serious new hobby (I used to build models pretty seriously) so I'm not going to be doing custom paint jobs or weathering or any of that, I just wanted an out-of-the-box toy to run over stuff with in the back yard with my son (who is 7). Plastic bodies and treads and gears are fine with me as long as they are durable.

I just bought a Heng Long Sherman 2.4 Ghz so we can now play tanks together with the PIII and the Sherman.

The first thing I have discovered is that these Airsoft guns are no joke. Way more powerful than I expected. Enough to be painful when you get shot and you could get an eye injury from them. Also there won't be any tank battles with them as I expected. First the BBs go so fast I don't think you'd see a hit. Secondly the guns shoot so strongly they can break the other tank - my son shot my Sherman and it snapped off and blew away the .50 cal machine gun rest on top of the turret. My first "battle damage" lol. I really wanted a tank that could shoot stuff like a real tank but now that I have them I question how fun/useful they will actually be. I think we are going to set up empty soda cans and pretend they are fuel tanks in a bunker or something to shoot at, but we won't be able to have tank fights.

Question on the 2.4 GHz systems: How do you change their channels so that you can play with multiple tanks on 2.4 GHz?

Steve

I think you just got lucky with your tank guns. Most are on the scale of weak to meh in power.

The 2.4 rigs should bind to one transmitter only.

If you're wanting a couple good running IR battle tanks, you should check out Taigen's.

http://www.imex-model.com/category/8...quick&size=100

Note: if you call Erik at Imex, RCU members get a discount.

HI Steve, I hear ya - I don't want a hobby that requires constant money or tinkering either - I plan on painting mine I think and if they break then they are static models... as far as the 2.4 thing - I believe you don't have to do anything in order to use multiple tanks, I believe they are more or less paired similar to Bluetooth.

Nah, that is just the first update I should have that I can release some news on. It takes us a long time to come out with them as we do a TON of QC and we are changing a few things more than just sounds
Yes, it should be a straight swap. However, we might do something different.... Hence me staying quiet with details. Gotta work out a few kinks.

Erik,

Since you seem to be in on the design of these things - any plans to have these things flash-able via software? Potential for programmable? I have built several arcade / pinball machines that has this capability and the hardware was not very expensive, it took input and worked with external motors, lights etc... don't see why these type of controls and systems could not run an RC tank and they are very flexible.

Our focus atm is RTR electronics. Firmware updates and such would be a great addition but would bring the cost up to bring in an in house developer to handle coding/support/etc. I would rather a correct firmware be done the first time However, I believe Clark-Models was talking about bringing some open source hardware/software to the table to help with some tasks. He might be the guy to ask about that

That's actually a cool idea. Especially with the IR battle tanks where you might be able to encode different "projectiles" into different tanks with the light pulsed somehow. Then you could have some tanks have more firepower or armor than others to trade off for mobility or historical accuracy or whatever.

Steve

Yeah, I want this one:

http://www.imex-model.com/product/TA...le.html?cid=88

Sadly, RC tank expenditures since Christmas have reached eyebrow-raising levels with my wife. There's only so much you can chalk up to "spending time with our son playing."

Steve

It would be very cool but to get that involved it would require a lot of programming - Or at least planning - The first thing in a battle situation like you are speaking would be to define "the game" - that alone would take a tremendous amount of time - Like an RTS game on the PC, first one would need to determine a "rock paper scissors" scenario for each tank and how that corresponds to other models, at the very least a generic system with different codes for armor thickness, gun damage etc... this would be further enhanced if say the receiver could determine from which direction a "hit" came from (in other words giving a higher damage value to a rear hit opposed to say a frontal hit) - I am not sure how the IR tanks works now but I would think a hit is a hit correct? Anyways - the battle system like you speak may be something that could be done without the actual tank systems being effected, you can add IR to an airsoft tank now from what I understand. What I was meaning is by being flash-able you could do things like change sounds, trigger lights, probably tweak things like sensitivity in the acceleration, alter what a command from a remote does etc.

The Tamiya battle system is basically that. And other aftermarket boards go even further.