Chinese design
 

Its always occured to me that chinese designers have never quite sussed the difference between toys and models.
I have a vs tiger in airsoft which is a brilliant scale model but the only thing that lets it down is the toy-like recoil.
A short blip of reverse would have been perfect, but no, they gave it far too much reverse and then the same amount forwards.
I saw a video of the vs infra-red and this thing ,when shot, shakes around like a two year olds toy. Why not have the lights slowly expire and then need to manually reset it?, Far more appropriate for a model, surely and would cost no more.
All the HL tigers and panthers have silver painted sprockets and idlers, why? surely it must cost more to paint these silver.
I can understand the inaccuracies, but not those that must cost more to produce.
The HL recoil is also apparently terrible(i'll find out for myself out this week)
I suppose these tanks are made to appeal to all ages but anybody who does run one of these needs to be pretty knowledgeable when it comes to electrical and mechanical repairs.
I'm not knocking HL or VS, but surely they must know that the average age of buyers is well above 10.
And for any Tamiya owners reading this, Tamiya are not immune to this sort of thing.
I spent a weeks wages buying a KT in the eighties( still got it) and with the supplied speed controler and gearing it had a minimum scale speed of 30mph (when the speed controler cut in) and maxed out at 60mph, totally spoiling any scale appearance and not what i expected from the most expensive tank kit of the day.
Rant over,
Geoff

RE: Chinese design
 

Good to get it off your chest Geoff, and I actually quite agree. Im still puzzled to this day how HL got som many basic details wrong, I mean can you imagine the huge DOHwhen they realsied the gun mantlet was upsidown????

RE: Chinese design
 

And yet they still haven't fixed that obvious flaw after all these months. Incompetent designers should be fired immediately. There are many other qualified designers out there that are well versed in tanks.

RE: Chinese design
 

HLs details cant be too accurate due to tamiya prob sueing them for design stealing im guessing thats why the mantle is wrong way and other minor design faults,dont think HL could take on tamiya and there wealth in court lol :D
as for the silver drive sprockets ive always wondered that too [sm=confused.gif]

RE: Chinese design
 

What about the co-ax MG hole totally absent on the Pershing, the missing gun travel lock and drivers periscopes looking up at the sky on the M-41 and the totally stupid way they have MG ammo boxes "stowed" open on the track guards on the Pershing.

They must have their own ideas, but I guess they know we'll get them straight.

Bill

RE: Chinese design
 

Why do people always say this? Why should a manufacturer shoot itself in the foot to lose market share by incorporating flaws on purpose? So all future tanks from the other manufacturers, such as Torro, VS, WSN, will have flaws in them by design just to avoid lawsuits? That is just ridiculous :eek: A tank is a tank, and everybody has the right to make accurate replicas of it.

Rest assurred that when I design a tank for the mass market, it will be the most accurate and it will be superior (not inferior) to the same tank from my competitor.

RE: Chinese design
 

If i could just say, HL would not be copying Tamiya, they would be copying the original Tiger,
Unless of course Tamiya have bought the design rights (off Hitler??), and if so,HL could not call it a Tiger.

RE: Chinese design
 

lol yep hitlers runs tamiya didnt you know :D:D
like you said i dont think they would be breaching any law by making the details more alike its sad that HL wont take on tamiya or the other small companies [:o]
still all those imprefections give us something to do ;)

RE: Chinese design
 

For what it's worth, when I was trying to buy a defective Pershing to gut and build the cut-away and finally spoke with the dealer in California, I brought up the deficiencies in the Pershing and the Tiger mantlet as well. At her request, I emailed them a listing, suggesting improvements which she said she would translate into chinese and send to them. That was about 3-4 months ago and I haven't heard from anyone, nor seen any changes in the tanks. But, they do have a listing of gross mistakes, with photos of a real Pershing. Maybe when they decide to redo the molds (expensive process) they MIGHT think about it. On the Tiger, maybe we could get a letter off to Generalinspektor der Panzertrupen Heinz Guderian and have his office send them a letter....but I feel we are a bit late.

Bill

RE: Chinese design
 

Unfortunately, HL tanks were originally aimed at a much younger audience who could care less about a few inaccuracies. Those tanks were not aimed at hardcore modelers and tank enthusiasts like some of us. Hence, HL didn't feel the need to make their tanks accurate or fix existing flaws. I hope future tanks from HL are aimed at scale buffs, thus more accurate.

By the way, Tamiya neither designed nor manufactured the original Tiger I tank used in the war. Tamiya does not have exclusive rights to it. Therefore, any manufacturers, such as Revell/Monogram, Testors, Gunze Sanyo, Italeri, Heng Long, Torro, WSN, etc... can produce accurate replicas of the Tiger I without repercussion.

RE: Chinese design
 

Yup, that's the point.....Richard L. [sm=thumbup.gif]

RE: Chinese design
 

I think that the early HL's were just sold as Toys but when you read the reviews of the new PZIII it' seem that they've had a change of mind and are now aiming more at modelers.

RE: Chinese design
 

Hi Wozwasnt
I have recently received my PzIII and must say that, although it looks better "scalish" at first glance than the Tiger and, of course, the Pantiger, when you begin the measurement odyssey that ***** HL way of making tanks appears....
The gun barrel is clearly out of scale, it needs to fire those 6 mm pellets [:@]
The stowage bin is clearly longer and taller than the original, it is so because of the housing for the gun elev/depress mechanism. Same problem that with the Tiger aft lifting mushroom....
Antenna needs to be relocated.
Vent openings in the motor compartment need to be rebuilt.
And the electronic guts are the same as the other S&S tanks.....
In the other hand the price is unbeatable, the overall result is very good, and the tank steers and runs fine. Mine has Asiatam (Mato) metal gears installed, but suppose that plastic gears should perform as well, the tank is smaller, lighter and more rigid than his brothers.
Regards
Jose

RE: Chinese design
 

I believe that Porsche and Henschel would have the copyrights on the Tiger design;)

RE: Chinese design
 

They were commisiond by Hitler and as long as he's paid for them, I believe that the designs belong to him. Though I can't see his lawyers trying to sue anyone.

RE: Chinese design
 

Heng Long is producing something at a price that is unbelievable. I can live with the flaws. The rework is a hobby in itself. I personally like the idea of being able to purchase a ready to Run tank with the option of tearing it down and rebuilding, if that is what you want to do.

The fact is, the Heng long tank is what opened up this hobby to me. A $500 tank that takes two months to build would have done nothing to draw me into this. I would much rather spend a few evenings correcting mistakes, and detailing, then I would labouring with a screw driver and an allen key.

The thing that is slightly frustrating is the fact that a little more research, and they could nail it. I know the cost of injection molding. I would not expect Heng long to retool what they already have, but I would hope they learn and produce hobby quality tanks in the future. Maybe the Sherman will be a home run!!!!!