cicerokid

Bought my first tank--a Taigen Panzer IV and love it. Thinking of buying another Taigen with infrared but wondered about a Tamiya kit for this next winters project. How hard are they to build and paint? How good are the instructions? Know their infrared system is not compatible with Taigen but can you convert them to the Taigen or the Taigen to the Tamiya? Help much appreciated---

Green Amphibian

The Tamyia kits are great. Excellent instructions, good pictures, easy to follow up with paint. A few years ago a Sherman was built over night and battled the next day, but no paint on it. The Taigen's can be converted to use hobby grade radios and to be Tamyia compatible. There are a couple of systems that will do that for you, Clark board, BARC4, IBU3, MAKO2, are a couple.

Herman

sergeantseabass

Tamiya kits fairly easy to build. having a little experience in modelling/ RC will make it very easy. The instructions are well written and easy to follow. Just make sure that you do follow the instructions I.E. no skipping ahead or just looking at the pictures to build it. I just built the Tamiya JS-2 and it only took a couple of days for me to build it a couple of hours after work each night.

As Herman said there are quite a few options to change over the Taigen IR to Tamiya. I'm pretty sure that the MAKO2 board is the only one out there right now that will allow you to still use you stock radio and give you the ability to fire at Taigen, HL, or Tamiya. The other systems will require that you upgrade your radio to an aftermarket or "hobby grade" radio. Most of the systems are pretty easy to use and setup.

Bill

cicerokid

Bill, looked up the MAKO2 board and you are right--lets see if I have this right----I buy and install a MAKO2 in my Taigen tank. I can then use the radio that came with the Taigen to fire at Tamiya tanks. Is this correct? Also does the installation of the MAKO2 in the Taigen--allow the Tamiya to fire at the Taigen? Really appreciate your help. Ken

sergeantseabass

Well you will need at least one other piece the apple. This is the IR sensor that registers the IR signal and causes the vehicle to get hit. The standard apple that most people go for is the tamiya brand. MAKO2 is compatible with Tamiya. But you will also need an IR transmitter as well. The Tamiya apple will run you about $100. that comes with the apple and IR transmitter and a mounting base for the apple. You will need both of these in each tank that you want to shoot and be shot at. The price might be high but the quality is what you are paying and it is worth it. i would get one for your Tamiya if you do get one of their kits.

the MAKO2 has the same plug so you could plug a Tamiya apple into it and be on your way. but if you want to save a couple of bucks on your taigen and get a apple that will take hits and dish them out then you might want to get the Hammerhead III apple from RC Tanks Australia (same guys that make the MAKO2). That system isn't as good but it's less than half the cost and all you really have to do is pop it into the turret and hook up the connection and it is ready. it has a built in IR transmitter on top.

Now if you ever want to go to a club or battle with other guys on here your gonna want the Tamiya. Most groups won't even let you try with the Hammerhead and honestly you'd be at a disadvantage if you did use it. But as a target or test tank. It could be a fairly cheap option. I actually have both i just haven't gotten around to putting the MAKO and Hammerhead into my Taigen Sherman yet.

No matter which way you end up going i would advise that you stay away from the Taigen IR setup. From what i have heard it is the worse than HL and much worse than tamiya as far as sensitivity, durability, and range.

Hope this helps also here is a video I did for a bud of mine that had some of the same questions and I do go over the hammerhead a little in this video as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nLZvd451CM Bill

cicerokid

Based on your good advice---think what I'll do is buy one more Taigen to battle with my Panzer IV and then I'll start making Tamiya kits. Noticed some say "full option tanks"> Are those the ones to buy and what is the difference between them and non-full option ones?

ausf

They're all Full Option. It was a marketing deal when the first Tiger I came out to differentiate between the new breed and some older stuff they put out in the past.

Keep in mind that the kits for the Asian market include the Attack Tx/Rx as well as battery and charger. And that's a serious hobby grade radio made by Futaba, they just can't sell them included outside of Asia as not to piss off Futaba. You'll get the same kit everywhere, just a radio-shaped void in your box. Fortunately, Banzai Hobby, in Japan will ship worldwide. With the strong US dollar, you can pay the $100 EMS 2 day shipping and still under the US retail and get the radio to boot.

I paid $840 total for my JS-2 when it first came out, but a few guys here picked them up recent for a lot less.

If you're just looking for the M4 or Tiger I, both excellent options, you may find the prices closer. The street price on the M4 is under $500 now.

You'll love building it.

Tanker 10

Hello cicerokid, the advise you received from all of the above is good. Being new here myself, I wanted to try a Tamiya kit after owning 6 Taigen IR tanks. The IR range outdoors is terrible on my tanks so I use them mostly indoors if I am going to battle. I also bought the Tamiya JS-2 as my first kit. Mostly because it had the 2.4 gig radio. It was a fun kit to build and very straight forward. The only thing I would do differently would be to try out the electronics before installing them into the tank. I had trouble with my recoil unit. Check out a Tamiya kit from Banzai Hobby, you'll enjoy the experience if you like to build kits.

cicerokid

Thanks folks for addtl info. Question; if you buy one from Japan where do you get the instructions in English? Are they online?

Tanker 10

The Tamiya instruction book is printed in both english and Japanese. Lots of good drawings too.

dirtytanker

what kind of primer did you guys use on your tanks? I was think of putting a Taigen V2 smoke unit in my Tamiya JS-2 if it fits that is.