Advice for first R/C tank choice
 

Hello all,

First of all let's introduce myself : I'm Marc, a french guy of 35 years old, living...well, in France..;)
I'm currently looking to get my first R/C Tank...that's why I register to his forum, to get good advices for this choice
As RC experience, I had quite of lot of experience on electrical buggy...but 20 years ago (I use d to have a Tamiya GrassHopper II). I also built some static models..but in fact I guess I prefer R/C.


Now I would like to get into R/C tank world.
For R/C tank I'm looking for the more realistic R/C model in terms of speed, rotation of hull/turret, gun elevation/depression, rate of fire, and eventually noise. Metal models for wheel is a must. Last point I would like an upgradable plateform.
I'm looking for a 1/16 Tiger I or Tiger II for the moment.

I've already found several models, but I can't sort them out, maybe you will be able to help me :

• Henglong Tiger 1 metal version (http://www.mrcmodelisme.com/fiche_chars.php?id=9)
• Taigen King Tiger (Porsche turret) metal version (http://www.mrcmodelisme.com/fiche_chars.php?id=44)
• Torro King Tiger (Henschel turret) metal version (http://www.rctank.de/24-GHz-KING-TIG...moke-and-sound)
• Tamiya King Tiger - metal wheel system (http://www.tamiya.com/english/produc...iger/index.htm)

Here are my questions :

• BB bullets or IR?
• On henglong Tiger 1, I find the spinning speed far too quick
• Tamiya seems to have the more realistic behaviour (sound, gun elevation/depression)..but it's the most expensive and I need to buy separately the transmitter/receiver/power pack
• What about build quality of all models?
• what are your advice in general?

Thank you in advance for your help/advice!

You definitely came to the right place to ask for help on getting started in to rc tanks.I'm still new myself, great bunch of guys here who will give you all kinds of help on where to buy from to the best upgrades for your tank.

Andrew

That's my thought..:):)
It 's clearly a very good place to discuss RC tanks..;)

Out of your choices and parameters, I'd go with the Taigen or Torro.

You won't be happy with the HL as a modeler, there will be too much you'll need to do from the start just to enjoy your purchase.

Tamiya is a kit and hits on you desire for quality and realism, but isn't really upgradeable since you'll have everything you'll to run for years, but you pay for it upfront.

If metal is a must (not my choice) and you want to slowly upgrade things over time, the other two are the way to go.

Keep in mind, with any of those, you're going to want a hobby grade transmitter eventually.

In terms of BB or IR, it depends on whether you just want to drive one around and shoot targets or eventually battle with others (in a club or with friends).

Generally, HL is pretty low quality, not really meant to function over time, built to run for a while with a little tinkering here and there. Taigen is an upgrade of HL, offering parts, service and reliability. Tamiya is a well engineered kit with warranties and service (lifetime in North America, but I'm not sure about elsewhere).

Hey, Marc, you're in pretty much the same place I am, as far as what you want from your tank. Realism is first. The first thing you need to ask yourself is, do you plan to battle with this tank? If so, then you'll definitely need IR and Tamiya compatible electronics. I'm not sure about Tamiya, but none of the other tanks have proportional turret rotation or gun elevation. As far as I know Tamiya is the only one that comes stock with up/down elevation as compared to a set cycle (goes all the way down, then all the way up, no changing direction mid-cycle).

I couldn't make up my mind so I have both, IR and airsoft. :) I started in static modeling many, many years ago so I also like to build, and I've done a lot of upgrades to most of my tanks. If you're not going to battle and you like the modeling part of it, I'd recommend the Taigen Tiger One Airsoft in all plastic. I have one of those (my second tank purchased) and I've had incredible fun turning it into a totally different beast. This is my plastic Tiger One right now, and I'm having a blast with it. It's had tons of metal upgrades so it's almost a full metal by now.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/atta...mentid=2035898

If you don't care so much about modeling and you want the option to battle then the Taigen Full Metal Tigers are pretty cool. I have three of them, so I guess I like them. :) They're great runners right out of the box and if you get them in IR they're easy to add a Mako unit and go battle with the Tamiya crowd. They have the 4 shaft gearboxes so they're slower and act more realistically (in my opinion). Or you can get one in airsoft, but I think the very best way to go with that tank is to get the IR version and then get a metal airsoft turret to go with it. Then you can have the best of both with a five-minute swap of turrets.

Of course, if you have the cash they do say Tamiya is the very best. Sean (panther commander) has a great Tamiya King Tiger for sale right now that you might want to look at.

There's lots to think about, but it's good to see a new tanker and I hope you find what you're looking for and most importantly of all, that you have fun doing it. :)

Welcome to the forum here Marc. :o Plenty of experience and advice where no single answer is particularly right or wrong but just a variation.

Even with the cost of a Tamiya product is much higher than all the rest, there's a reason for it. It's called quality. Plus, YOU can control the build from the very start. Whether it's an out of the box build or a total modification/upgrade build you will know the tank from the first little bolt to the finish coat of paint. Plus you can get the EXACT radio for it starting at around $80 to a multichannel radio costing hundreds. It's YOUR choice there too. :p

I think RTR's are fantastic and without them I believe there would be a small amount of us around here but if you're into building & assembling AND... you want your tank to act and respond much like the real thing, do yourself a favor that on at least ONE tank in your brigade make it a Tamiya.


If you have any questions on how, where, or when feel free to ask me anytime. I have built many Tamiya tanks, converted HL brands into Tamiya compatible (which is a few of my projects right now) battlefield-ready-fighters to just plain drive around tanks.




Jeff

Thank you for your feedack.

If I understand correctly, in terms of quality, here is the order : HL<Taigen/Torro<Tamiya (good to know)
Is there any other companies that produces good R/C tanks? I found VS tank, waltersons what do you think about them?

About metal/plastic, my request will be to have, at least, all wheel/torsion bar/propulsion device in metal. I guess I would appreciate the metalic sound of tracks..:)
In terms of details, what is better? Metal or Plastics?
I saw that Tiger I in full metal is almost 8kg...isn't it a lot for engine? (overheating?)


About radio transmitter, well I'm completely noob on it, what will your advice?
On Taigen/Torro tanks is it a good/reliable receiver/electronics?

Is it possible to upgrade Tamiya tank in metal version (I saw one video on Youtube showing the change...but I don't know much on that)?

For HL tanks, is it feasible to replace parts to more reliable or/and realistics (sound) one (electronics, engines, etc..)?


I've several scenarii in fact :

• Go for HL Tiger I full metal, and upgrade it step by step (that supposes that HL base is robust enough) (faster and cheapest (to start) way, but toy like)
• Go for Tamiya (break my wallet also), buy a transmitter/battery, take time to build/paint it as I want (more work, more expensive way, best realism)
• Go for Torro metal Konig Tiger and upgrade few things (medium cost, medium performance)

I guess I'm far from decision lol..:)

A quick thought on metal tanks. Metal is heavy, and hard to work on if you're into body work or mods.

Generally metal chassis are good.. metal lower hulls, suspension, torsion bars (On many Taigen hulls), and sprockets. Metal upper hulls and turrets just add weight and wear and tear, they don't improve the mechanics of the tank.

I recommend the Taigen Tiger or their new Tiger II, excellent runners. If you have the option of a plastic turret, choose that! :P

Another positive about the Tamiya kits, is you get the experince of building the tank, which translates into knowledge of how they work. This allows a faster learning curve for trouble shooting and a better understanding of how to upgrade as you already know how your tank was put together. With HL or Taigen/Torro you would have a ready to run tank, but then comes the fun of tearing it down to upgrade it to better parts and electronics. I would suggest looking at the Tamiya Tiger I or II at Banzai Hobby. For $844, U.S. dollars, you get the Tiger II with Radio, battery and shipping is included. I based the price on shipping to 108 Rue Saint-Lazare, Paris, 75008, Île-de-France, a hotel address in Paris, just to get an idea of shipping to France for you. Still not a bad cost considering what you get.:cool: Here is the Banzai Hobby web site.....

http://banzaihobby.com/index.php?mai...pto=&x=16&y=16

You can be happy with whatever you buy. Some take more work then others. There is a direct relationship with quality and cost, so keep that in mind, but ultimately you can make any of them good fun.

One thing about building a Tamiya is that it forces you to learn about how they go together as you build it yourself. The skills learned building a Tamiya can be transferred to the other tanks. If you are into RC already and have worked on trucks or cars, then rolling your sleeves up and learning about these tanks is an easy exercise.

Cheers

Thank you for the link to banzaihobby...one important thing to note is importation tax from US (about additionnal 20%)...but even with it, it could be profitable..:D

I don't really want a lot of tanks, but I would like to have a R/C tank that be also presented in static mode.

Apart price, the only drawback of tamiya R/C model is painting...;);) I'm not so bad to build (I like mount/unmount pieces) but painting...well I'm not so good..:rolleyes:

A good route to take if your serious about realism would be to decide on a particular tank you like. Say you decide on a Tiger I or even the Bovington Tiger featured in Fury. Research it, find photos of the real item, there's no shortage of info on that particular one, you can get a 1/35 kit and build it to practice painting, etc and apply all to a really nice buildup in 1/16.

In that case, I'd go straight Tamiya. If gives you a metal torsion suspension and the Tiger I is their best kit in my opinion.

I second Banzai Hobby, I bought my Tamiya JS-2 from them. Shipping seems high, but it was in NY from Japan in 2 days. Tamiya includes the Futaba Attack Tx/Rx and a battery/charger for the Asian market, but nowhere else. That's roughly $150 worth of stuff included in the box.

Do not be overly concerned about your painting. In WWII a lot of the camouflaged painting was done by the crews with brooms and mops. The factory camo paint came later in the war.

Herman

O you are truly right about banzi hoby...it's coming from Japan directly and for price, it's becoming really interesting...really...:)
With this reseller, well, Tamiya (incl transmitter/receiver/battery) is more or less the same price as Torro metal...impressive.

Thanks a lot for this advice.

You seem to be in good hands, Marc, but I would like to ask that whatever happens, let us know. And photos are always great, so whatever you decide to do, don't lose touch with these guys. There are some really great guys here and we all love to see how stuff turns out. :)

Well, of course, depending on my decision, I'll make a review of the chosen tank..:)
I'm used to make reviews (here is an example of my last computer http://forum.hardware.fr/hfr/Overclo...t_280806_1.htm
And I have also a small youtube channel where I put my interesting replays of World of tanks (..:):))
https://www.youtube.com/user/MarcParisTV

Well I like sharing my experience..:):)

Now I'll have hard time to decide myself..;)

If you need photos or videos of Taigen tanks I have quite a few different models so just let me know.

I'm an IMEX man myself and purchased the Torro King Tiger a few weeks ago. It really is an outstanding machine and over 90% metal. If you go with the IR you can only get it in desert tan, but the airsoft BB version has a great camo job.

Best,
Joel

Of course..:)
Tiger 1 or Tiger 2 please.

Do they have realistic movement?

During the night I thought to a new question.

Is it possible to update all internal pieces on taigen/torro/Henglong please? Are they all standard or specific?

Another question :
what do you think of this kit : Metal Tiger 1 DIY
http://www.rctank.de/1/16-Tiger-I-ea...ion-panzer-kit

Could be a very interesting solution

The various torsion bar tanks have a more realistic feel and look when moving over terrain. You don't get that 'bounce' that spring suspensions give over bumbs. The Tiger's look very fluid in motion.

Generally yes. Heng Long & Taigen parts mostly fit each other, like gearboxes, wheels, turrets etc.. so the very most basic HengLong gears can be replaced with the best steel & ball bearing gears from Taigen. Same goes for HengLong / Taigen electronics. The different upgrade boards will fit either (DBC, Clark, Mako.. whatever)

The kit has good reviews. Thing is you're paying more for exactly the same thing that the assembled tanks give you, which isn't a big deal + you get to learn the guts of your tank.

Again I'd prefer the Tiger with a plastic turret.. those metal ones are reaaaally heavy and just add stress :P

Ouch I've double check banzaihobby...for tamiya King tiger set.
In total I've for 775€+ potential tax of 150€...so in total 925€...too expensive for me clearly..:(

Thank you for your feedback. (I did see your post only after I post my previous one..;))

Thus HL or Taigen tanks are easily upgradable on most parts...good news.
As Tamiya option has faded due to its price, I will inquiry more on Taigen/HL tanks..:)

Try these, both Taigen full metal Tiger 1s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08zRgeuhmA8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8YSUT0_IlA And here's an Imex Panther G

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRjptZtv_Pw And here's a heavily modified Heng Long Jagdpanther with brass gearboxes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5F75GIkg-0 A Taigen full metal T1 late in IR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SEW_-wBudY That should give you something to look at for a minute or two. :)