i was thinking, you can get really cheep non s+s tanks in the UK from places like tek-uk ... i always try to check online shops before evil-bay

heres the link:

[link=http://www.tek-uk.com/category5_1.htm]tek-uk tanks[/link]

Progress Alert!!

It's been a while, back-burner probably doesn't quite cover it, but I finally got the electronics back together and in a working state. In case I missed writing it here, I managed to wire up my switch completely wrong which basically shorted out the battery, there was smoke and minor panic, after which I couldn't get anything out of it. Thinking about it now, it probably wasn't broken at all, but I'll get to that later.

I ordered a replacement main board and ended up with an RX14P (which came with it's own receiver board). I fitted it, I wired it up, I double and triple checked the circuit to avoid a repeat of my stupid short circuit mistake from before. Powered it up, heard a promising pop from the speaker, turned on the controller... then nothing. Nothing happened when I pushed the sticks. I checked it over, turned it off and on, tried again, still nothing. It wasn't until I tried pressing the three buttons on the controller that it suddenly sprang to life. It never occurred to me that I had to press the key button to start the tank, duh! I got the engine startup noise (at full volume, yikes!) and then tick-over, engine revs when I pushed the stick, machine gun noise and canon firing. Pleased is not the word!

It's at this point (actually while writing this post) that I realise my main board probably was not fried, I just hadn't pressed the start button. Oh well, at least this means that I probably have a spare working S&S board.

So that's pretty much where I am with things right now - I need to sort out my messy wiring loom and secure the battery in it's bay, then it's just little things like the odd stiff suspension arm and sorting out the engine cover that I lifted at the rear of the tank (it gives access to the on/off switch and charging socket, which I have moved and arranged so that I do not need to take the cover off. The underside is completely sealed).

I'll try and get some photos up here soonish.

Been an even longer while! The poor old Tiger (and it's fully functioning new counterpart, which I didn't end up stripping for parts) have been sitting idle on a shelf for over a year now. The project Tiger had a brief outing in the snow and on the frozen pond last winter (Tigers are ****e in deep snow, now I know why the Germans lost against the Russians! Maybe.)

Just recently I've been into rock crawlers, I bought myself an Axial SCX10 Honcho kit which I'm still in the process of building, have to say it's a very nice kit and far better engineered than the Heng Long Tiger, but that is also reflected in the price. Anyway, having fun with the SCX10 encouraged me to look again at the Tiger - I got it out for a test run but very quickly the gears started slipping *sigh* Maybe it was from all that snow, even though I have the slipper clutch gears fitted (that's one thing that I did steal off the other tank), it's the main drive gear that's slipping over the drive shaft. The only way I can see to prevent this is to buy the metal gear set. This tank also still needs a replacement turret turning gearbox, airsoft cannon replacement (it half-fires bb pellets, they either roll out of the end of the barrel or manage about two feet), loader's hatch and complete cupola. I might just buy some parts from eBleh and fix the tank up properly this time. I just recently sold the other good working tank as it was annoying me, just sitting there doing nothing. Had I known my project tank was in such bad shape I probably would have gone ahead and stripped the new one for parts then sold the rest. Such is life!

Still, I'm pleased with the electronics and other modifications I made to the tank. It'll be worth throwing a bit of money at to have it all fixed up and working as it should, even just for my own sense of accomplishment if nothing else.