Hi there,

My name is Michael from Toronto.

Here is a quick story on how I ended up signing up here.

My nephew is... umm 10 or 11? (oops) was browsing HobbyKing site for a RC tank to buy one for himself for his upcoming birthday and he just happened to tell me about it (geez~ I wonder why).
He was looking at tanks that was around $50~60 range and when I told him that shipping cost over $50 too.

So few days later I was checking out different local hobbyshop websites, ebay, Kijiji and somehow saw a posting on kijiji by one of the member here.  His name is Dean and he replied back to my email question and one thing lead to another and next thing you know... from browsing for a $50 tank lead me to Taigen, Heng Long 16th scale tanks.

After multiple questions to Dean, I became very interested in RC tank for myself aswell. haha.... being already into electric rc made the addiction to tanks so much easier.

My initial plan was to buy one for my nephew and one more myself but reality check hit me and I only bought 1 Heng Long Tiger 1 S&S BB today.    I decided to test this out myself first before giving it to my nephew and see how I like it too.

Yes, so I would like to blame Dean for making me look deeper into Tank side of the RC.    Ah well,,, I'll probably get one for myself anyways. haha

Once I see how these tanks works and hopefully get many beginner help from you guys on converting this to IR battle ready, I hope to join in soon to battleday gathering.


Thank you.

Hi Michael,

I just replied to your posting on the Tiger I set-up. I am from Toronto so if you need to see some set-ups feel free to come by and I would be more than happy to show you. Can definitely give you an IR LED to get started.

I have two Tiger I's both with Taigen lower and Heng Long upper with Asiatam recoil set-up.

Mike.

Xxgg, 

Welcome to the forum and the hobby.  

Before warned, this hobby is highly addictive! It never stops with one tank.

Yes,
I have few RC cars for several years now...  all modified as well.
I always liked rc cars...

But,,, I would have never thought...  until recently.

Oh well,,, why fight the addiction... lets just enjoy it

I just need you guys to help this newb setup his tank for IR and keep the addiction going

If you're already in the R/c world, you're 60% ready for tanks already  That's probably one of the biggest hurdles.. converted a 'toy' tank with proprietary gear into hobby-grade electronics. The benefit is, you can use a single -$100 radio for every model.

Ask questions, most of us 9 (  ) know what we're doing and are more than eager to ramble on about some topic or another!

xxgg, you will no doubt, enjoy this off shoot of the RC hobby.Welcome

Yes... knowing the other part of the this hobby is making it harder for me to decide on which tank version to buy.

If I were totally new... I probably been happy with plastic version but... because of many years of being in RC make you know which parts should be upgraded and such...

That is why I really want a Taigen metal version.  I fully understand the pros and cons of metal vs plastic.
So I can't decide on Taigen Metal or Heng Long plastic with very few metal parts. haha

Universal answer would be... buy both.

The Taigan (also Asiatam, different label exact same parts & manufacture) metal hulls are excellent. They include the Tiger 1, KV series, Panzer 3, and Taigen has their own T-34 metal hull, which is great too. They cross-match with HengLong upper hulls, so you can actually build your own. 

Got any specific type of tank / nation in mind?

I have decided to gift myself with Taigen T34 metal.
No more thinking, I am just gonna do it. I'll go and buy it in a week or two time.

As for the electronics, maybe get a cheap used RX18 and go with BARC4 and upgrade with Benedini later on.
Or like most of you guys, go with TK22 setup.

The Taigen metal hull has some suspension issues.  You need to ensure you beef up the suspension points or at least bond the metal to the plastic with Epoxy, otherise the suspension will splay out on you.

xxgg wrote:

I have decided to gift myself with Taigen T34 metal.
No more thinking,  I am just gonna do it.  I'll go and buy it in a week or two time.

As for the electronics,  maybe get a cheap used RX18 and go with BARC4 and upgrade with Benedini later on.
Or like most of you guys,  go with TK22 setup.

The metal T34 comes with the latest 2.4Ghz version of the RX-18 so you don't need to get another one. Or if you go with Clark then just rip it out and sell it on eBay for pretty good money ($50+ minimum).

Oooops..... I stand corrected. HobbyHobby's T34 is the Taigen version which comes with Taigen 2.4Ghz, not the new HL 2.4Ghz set. My bad.

None of the 2.4 ghz stuff work with a BARC either.  This 2.4 ghz proprietary radio development was a step backward in my world. To make it even worse Taigen and HL don't IR battle with each other.

One day I think HL will come out with a Tamiya compatible system with decent sound.  I believe there is a prototype kicking around, that may even be available in China already.  IF not Heng Long produced there is a family connection I have been told so I think soon we will see an upgrade set of electronics on Heng Long tanks.

BattleArmorRC wrote:

None of the 2.4 ghz stuff work with a BARC either.  This 2.4 ghz proprietary radio development was a step backward in my world. To make it even worse Taigen and HL don't IR battle with each other.

One day I think HL will come out with a Tamiya compatible system with decent sound.  I believe there is a prototype kicking around, that may even be available in China already.  IF not Heng Long produced there is a family connection I have been told so I think soon we will see an upgrade set of electronics on Heng Long tanks.

I agree, the 2.4ghz is basically a bandwagon-jumping fad. They don't even drive as well as RX-18s (no proportional steering...?!?)

HL / Taigen should (have they?) market bare-bones tanks without electronics. I know HobbyRaw will actually take 'crap' out of a tank that you don't need.

LOL,
I'll be picking up my new tank (decided on Tiger 1 instead) in few days and I am already thinking about 2nd tank.

Thanks a lot for addiction gentlemen. I need to do some overtime work to fund this.

yes the tiger are strong in number for this club