Hi everyone,

I have seen you guys battle at the KW flying Dutchmen scale rally for the past 2 years. I really want to get into the hobby but have a few questions regarding the tanks. I live in the KW area and want to know where I can buy a tank? I also wanted to know what brand of tank I should buy? I don't want to spend tons of money on a tank, my budget is around $400 and I already have a Spectrum radio and battery. 

Bacon

welcome to the forum

well sometimes  one of the guys might have something for sale that might be battle ready other than that Matomart  www.matomart.com
but you would have to upgrade electronics to Clark board or something like it

It can be done. Lets use the above website.
New HL Tiger I with all metal tracks, gearboxes, and sprocket/idler wheels. ~200
Clark Board ~130
Paying MikeC or another fabricating wizard $50-70 to add in the barrel recoil, IR emitter and a IR Sensor tower/hit display. (Maybe even Dean, as there are a bunch of us in the KW region.)

Plus remote jar 75 from Mike    hello bacon and welcome

Tiger Power wrote:

Plus remote jar 75 from Mike    hello bacon and welcome

In reality, he wouldn't even need to convert to a recoiling barrel. Which would allow for the $ for a remote. (Recoil just looks cool!)

Is the Henglong King Tiger Super IR Version with metal upgrades any good?

The HL KT is a superb tank to start with. It was what I started with. We have an old saying "drive it till it breaks and then upgrade! :-)

The biggest advantage to the KT is it is large which means lots of room inside for upgrades and conversions. So if you have a $400 budget to start with here is what I would do. Buy the metal IR  upgraded version. Not sure where you are looking but give us a price so we make sure you are not paying too much unlike some other newbies on here! LOL! Next will be a Clark board which can be ordered through the club. It is not the cheapest way to go but it sets you up nicely for the future. The next order will probably be going in next month and I might point out it was never $130. I think the most for a KT would be about $112 to $115. You will need a blue ring set up to indicate hits. They are cheap like $15.00 or something. If you don't want to do anything else you will be good to go for battling as is. You don't need to buy a programming remote at this point as lots of us have them so we can program it for you when you bring it out.

Next meet you can talk to us and we can all give our opinions on the upgrades you can look at down the road. By the way, what is a remote jar 75 from Mike??? LOL! Are you guys talking the basic builds he does?

I think he is talking about MikeC's programmable controller (Jar is the shortform of Jarlath...)

Yes jarlath, if he runs the Clark I was saying

You need a basic 4 channel radio to run the Clark which needs to be programmed. That's what Tiger is talking about.

He has a Spectrum, Jordan may be up to bat! LOL!

You are correct Sir. Tiger and I didn't read the post properly.

Private Bacon wrote:

Is the Henglong King Tiger Super IR Version with metal upgrades any good?

Just remember the Heng Long IR is not compatible with our IR, so will have to switch it out.

One of the things Dean forgot to mention was the Heng Long IR version come with barrel recoil, it not the greatest but it's a start.  It also comes with an apple and mount already installed, so just need to add the blue ring like Dean mention. 

The King Tiger has those wide tracks so it travels nicely across the ground, but you got to watch out for that long barrel when battling especially in town.

Unfortunately henglong hasn't made any ir tanks in a couple years , you might find the odd one on ebay , oz has the whole kit at a great price complete with apple , I have complete kits upon recent purchase from the boys in aussie land , ir kit , mako te boards for heng long , blue ring and wire , all this makes it tamiya compatible , the mako te board is non programmable, so its only a basic 6 hit , I battle tested these setups a few times and found it can hit anything , tamiyas, Clarks , SLU, IBU , with any apple in it , makes for good entry level tank at an affordable price, then they can move up from there

Jughead wrote:

Unfortunately henglong hasn't made any ir tanks in a couple years , you might find the odd one on ebay , oz has the whole kit at a great price complete with apple , I have complete kits upon recent purchase from the boys in aussie land , ir kit , mako te boards for heng long , blue ring and wire , all this makes it tamiya compatible , the mako te board is non programmable,  so its only a basic 6 hit , I battle tested these setups a few times and found it can hit anything , tamiyas,  Clarks , SLU,  IBU , with any apple in it , makes for good entry level tank at an affordable price,  then they can move up from there

http://www.matomart.com/prodview.php?p=968

http://www.matomart.com/prodview.php?p=1178

use to have the KV-1 the Panther G and the Stug that had it but not showing them now but they still have the KT and the Jagdpanther that have them

The  KT is hugely popular so they were probably deep in inventory in it...

OK thanks everyone! 

Welcome aboard and hope we helped you out , I'm sure you'll find a good tank within your budget, see ya out on the field! !!

It's a great hobby. Especially if you are interested about military history, armour, non-traditional RC (being planes/helis/cars/boats), or any or all of the aforementioned...

Maybe we'll see you soon! Come out and visit us during a battleday, the guys will gladly answer all your questions (Some may even give you helpful answers... )