Inside look at the internals on the Abrams HL tank
 

Hey tankers,
Here are a few pictures of the inside of the Abrams. I know I made you guys wait way too long and tomorrow I'll make sure and get some internals of the Chally2 when I get a chance. A few things to note...
Lots of room - modders will love the extra space
Hub caps are very loose - be prepared to order some extra or add a dot or two of glue
No bearings - even on the idler wheels....
Other than that it is just a normal HL tank. I cant wait to make some upgrade parts for this one that is for sure :)
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977782http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977783http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977784http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977785http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977786http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977787http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977788http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977789http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977790http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977791http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977792http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=1977793
I have a video uploading now, but it wont be done until way after work. I will try to upload it at home if PVP is slow :)
795MB for an almost 4 minute video is quite large. I'll make sure and upload the original to my dropbox so you guys can see a better video than youtube can display.

Boy that's a lot of space... you could fit an extra battery pack in there!

RUBBER PAD TRACKS !! Nothing less

I am buying two of these bad boys for starters! Cant wait to get me paws on them...

Oh man I just cant wait.

You will need a Clark or a Benedini to make these sound the part.

Proper wheel staggering is a nice touch, looking good!

Or quite possibly a 8000mAh 2 cell :)
Fine, we will do metal tracks with rubber pads one time to see how it goes. How about that?

Also on another note, here is my quick review on the Abrams: https://www.dropbox.com/s/btucgto82e...313_164218.mp4
I am currently switching over to Drive, so forgive me if there is too much traffic to watch or it streams crappy. The lesser version will be on youtube in an hour or so.

Looks great...but for God's sake why can't Heng Long do something to improve the ridiculous sound effects??????? Surely by now the could at least improve them and maybe offer 3 or 4 basic motor sounds to at least attempt to emulate the tank in question..

Boy my hat is really off to Heng Long.

We have a Sherman, T-34, Leopard, Abrams, and a Challenger, all in the last year. I guess you might as well make use of the design team you have put together, and get a whole bunch done. There is probably a cost efficiency there. Most of these tanks will have a long run, and provide HL with a base income for some time I would think.

I agree with you Dirty Bird on the sound. It seems like a no brainer. That is the reason why I have always been reluctant to spend too much capital on a electronics package, All Heng long would have to do is flash some different sounds onto the chip and the demand for third party stuff would drop dramatically.

The 2.4ghz stuff was a step backward. They should have spent the money developing the sound on the RX 18, or at least when they went with the 2.4 improve the sound at the same time.

If you want good sound, you pretty much have to throw away the 2.4 ghz stuff. The DBC3 won't work with it

Yea you figure they would at least change the engine sound right? We wont make the same mistake :)
They are, trust me :)
Here is the youtube link finally! http://youtu.be/f4Mv5rDXHuk I'm not sure why dropbox has been so bad lately but it is time to move on I guess...

Rubber pad tracks just once? Can you elaborate on that? What I mean is if Taigen makes upgraded metal tracks, they should be with rubber pads. I am sure Mato would do the same as they did with the Leopard. So I would think Taigen should step up and start making the proper tracks for the modern tanks if they want to compete in the track market. I would never purchase tracks that have metal pads and Im sure a bunch more people also if there is the proper alternative on the market.

Yes just once to test it out. So far all I hear is complaints with the rubber pads. My dealers second that. We actually sold a large amount of Leopard tracks that didn't have rubber pads. We will try it once and see how it goes, but right now MOST of my requests are metal. I did get some requests and we will try it at least once don't worry. I'll make sure they are done right though.

I would imagine adding rubber pads on top of metal pads would be an easy conversion. The modeler can cut the rubber pads from sheet rubber (such as a bike tire inner tube) and simply CA them to the metal surface.

Having the patience to do this is another issue altogether ;)

I tossed my metal Leopard tracks and went with the Mato ones. As long as you CA the rubber pad into place they are fine Only thing I lost so far has been a metal traction insert that was not CA'd into place.

So if you are keeping score on complaints, chalk me for one against the Heng Long metal tracks. They are really heavy and not prototypically correct.

You mentioned in the video about your radio system. Can you tell us more about this. Hopefully it isn't a system with an onboard receiver, and I hope uses standard radio architecture.

Help me out here...Where can I get this? I knew the Challenger was coming but missed this?
Is there a release date?



Jeff

If you dont have an indent for the pads to sit in, then they would just rip off pretty easy I would think.
Noted for the rubber pads. As for the radio it will come with our current radio system. The radio system is on my list for an upgrade, but I have a bunch of other stuff first before I can really focus on that and what I can do.
You cannot get this atm, it is a pre production prototype acquired by my boss and given to me to share with you guys. We (Taigen) plan on making a bunch of upgrade parts for this like we did with the Leopard, but better and more. Even we don't know when the tank will release yet. I can say it is looking like the Chally will release first from the molds I see.

Thats ok I'll take the Chally first. Really was hoping for the M1 first but i have wanted a chally for so long also you cant lose either way.

@$#%$#@.....Drat...Thanks for the heads up. We'll do the Challenger first.

All,

In honor of my excitement to buy the Imex upgraded M1A1 Abrams when it eventually comes out. I found, and edited a couple of wallpapers for you all to use.

One is color, and one is greyscale.

War and Peace,
GoDOWaR

P.S. Thank you Imex.

While I love the look and sou d of a good set of metal tracks, as a tank mechanic who has been around and on the Abrams, the black plastic ones actually look more true to life. Now, if there were a way to make square rubber track blocks with a metal "skeleton" inside that could be changed out in place of the plastic squares, that would be amazing. I know this would not be an easy, or cheap, or even profitable, option, I'm just saying it would be cool. Over all, I really like the look of this and can't wait to see what aftermarket products come out. Maybe one day somebody will tackle a metal hull with actual torsion bar suspension.... I have the military shop Manuel....TM....in PDF form on several discs if a manufacturer wanted to contact me for better pictures of how the front idler is set up.

Mato has done it for the Leo, and I image they will do it for the Abrams as well

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...p;d=1384833501

:D It will be done Taigen

Greetings all. Remember one thing, metal tracks look great but they add a lot of weight to the tank and stress on the gearboxes. I had Kenny Kong tracks on my HE M1A1 conversion. Those tracks looked great but were heavy. I burned out one set of HL Gearboxes. I finally purchased the Tamiya Leopard tracks, not perfect, however my speed doubled. I'm not saying don't do it, they look great but be prepared for the upgrades.

No, thank you! I now have a new background lol

I have to say I agree, now obviously with the WW2 tanks everyone wants the "droop" which metal tracks can achieve, but with the modern tanks that isn't necessary and to be honest the plastic tracks hold up just fine on the leopard and ZTZ...save yourself the money and just go with steel gearboxes(and maybe and extra set of plastic tracks/idlers/sprockets) and you'll be good to go.....sometimes in tanks, just like life, Less is More!

p.s. Now plastic tracks with dual pins AND rubber pads would DEFINATELY be nice! :p