Matorro King Tiger

[jukebox]

I bought one of the later Matorro King Tigers earlier this year, they have certainly improved the paint scheme from the earlier versions shown in Blake's pictures. As they have done such a good job with the zimmerit and detailing It is a shame Matorro have not done anything to address the most obvious issues with what is otherwise a well detailed tank, these being the tank sits too low, the gearbox bulge, the weak motors and gearboxes and the gaps in the turret front. The gearbox/motor issue and the turret gaps are sorted easily, the suspension is not so easy, I have only seen one build which sorted the suspension without resorting to a new lower hull (http://hobbyhavoc.com/forum/index.php?topic=124.15" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;), he did a nice job on this. The bulge isn't really noticeable when you are driving the tank around unless you are looking at it from ground level so I haven't got around to doing anything about it yet. So far I have only changed the gearboxes for the Mato ones, I don't want to go down the route of changing the lower hull so may have a go at the suspension method in the link above. Despite the issues I really like this tank, it has proved to be a solid, reliable performer after the gearbox swap, the electronics have been fine, although I have to say the engine running sound could do with being louder, but at least it doesn't sound like a Russian diesel tank!

[jukebox]

These two photographs show the difference in ride height between the Matorro King Tiger and the versions from Heng Long and Torro, both of which sit at the correct height. Unfortunately the metal suspension arms which are available for the Heng Long tank do not fit the Matorro hull, which is a shame as they look like the would correct the suspension height, might get a set though and see if anything can be done with them.

DSCF3262.jpg (46.47 KiB) Viewed 4614 times

[Cucumber]

[karel47]

with the tamiya koti henshell theride high is just the same, and the same measurments to ... although the tamiya is much better detailed ... and zimmerit ... note that from nov '44 no zimmerit was used anymore on the koti's ... if you want zimmerit put it on by hand like i do ... cellulose thinner and putty, very cheap and easy and very natural ... don't forget zimmerit was applied by hand ... the plastic of the tamiya upperhull is better and stronger for to work with

here is the prove a tam Porsche at the middle the tam henshell and third the matorro


By karel47 at 2012-02-10

al three the same hight, lenght and wide up to 0,5mm so the scales are identical a good reference for matorro, heng long is not always up to scale as they advertise

[karel47]

the details on the tamiya are far more sharper then the matorro


By karel47 at 2012-02-10

the matorro is from a friend , i stick with tamiya have 7 koti's of them

[PainlessWolf]

Jukebox, Good Morning.
Don't bother with any of the current metal suspension arms that are listed as "being for the new Heng Long King Tiger" They are 3mm too long and cause the Driver side leading Road Wheel to bind against the Drive Sprocket. Moving the gearbox is just the least of what you would have to do to make those work to correct that issue. Yes, those arms fit the hull and are sturdily built but the usefulness stops there. The Road Wheels that Heng Long uses have a shoulder screw which requires more fiddling to make it work nicely with the set screw on those metal arms. I thought that these metal arms were for use with the Matorro King Tiger hull but since you said that they don't even fit on that hull, they must have been made initially for use with the AsiaTam lower hull. The good news in all this rambling is that Heng Long is bringing out a set of metal suspension arms specifically for their new King Tiger. That should resolve the issues I've noted with after market parts on mine.
regards, Painless

These two photographs show the difference in ride height between the Matorro King Tiger and the versions from Heng Long and Torro, both of which sit at the correct height. Unfortunately the metal suspension arms which are available for the Heng Long tank do not fit the Matorro hull, which is a shame as they look like the would correct the suspension height, might get a set though and see if anything can be done with them.

DSCF3262.jpg

DSCF3261.jpg