HL Tiger 1 - buy cheap buy twice?!

[whitecitadel]

Ok tough love time - I am trying to get a new suspension arm from the seller for the faulty one and they are offering a refund.

Should I just return the HL and buy the Torro/Taigen kit? It seems to have everything I need:
viewtopic.php?t=31111

But I read the Torro upper hull has the tools molded and the HL upper hull is a better option?

Go on - be honest!

[jarndice]

And that is one of the two reasons that I buy the Heng Long Body and Turret the other being it is cheaper,
I hope I am right when I say you are buying a Taigen Metal hull ?
If so I would stick with the Heng Long complete with faults to match the Taigen hull and might I ask from whom you bought the Tiger 1 because some dealers make high and mighty offers of recompence when you point out a failing but then give you a never ending runaround,
Whereas others will go to hell and back to ensure that all is well for you and we know which is which

I would like to go back to the Gearbox output shaft bearings,
Mounting them inboard adjacent to the gearbox is a waste of time as any flex in the shaft will be most apparent at the other end at the point where the shaft passes through the hull side and into the sprocket,
If you are going to use your own bearings/bushes ensure they have a lip on the circumference so they can be butted upto and retained in position against the hull side.
I do not have a problem with bushes versus bearings in the role of output shaft support,
Whichever suits your pocket book

[whitecitadel]

Thanks for replying to rambling madman.

Ok so I bought the HL from eBay seller, they had good ratings and exist on Amazon with good ratings, they were prepared to exchange but that seems a bit dramatic when I only need one part. Will share - I got what I though was an "ok deal" in current climate of £230 as eBay had a discount code - I am sure many paid less in earlier years but at the moment if you want the metal parts that seemed a good price.

If figured with some man maths, even with the Taigen chassis and some supporting parts it was still what I wanted at not massive cost I had seen for some options.

Just had a bit of a wobble that maybe I made a mistake and was missing other Taigen bits.

So... I may have got over-excited yesterday and orderd a Taigen chassis from ForgeBear

I'll stick with the HL and go all in, fit the Taigen chassis so its all metal bottom end (lets hope the track/sprockets/pins work out).

Axle support needs something, but I will work that out once I have the Taigen chassis in hand - its with Parcel Farce at the moment.

[Jimster]

Good choice! I highly recommend the Heng Long dual current gearbox(no axle support needed) then you can use your Heng Long sprockets and use Mato tracks. Just throwing thoughts out there.

[whitecitadel]

They look good, but they are expensive I will use the steel gearbox it came with for now, I thought I read that you had some quality issues with your gearbox in your thread?

[Jimster]

Yes. The DKLM Version gave out on me but these newer Heng Long versions seem bullet proof so far. As a matter of fact I just received another unit for my Taigen Panzer III. So very quiet and smooth running.

[Uni150]

Hi i am also a newbie here (tank wise) but have also learned quickly , i started with a heng long king tiger but now have 3 1/2 tiger 1 tanks my view is go for torro / taigen everytime if you can afford it. My tigers range from standard cheapest heng long up to a taigen tiger one built from parts mainly sourced from forgetanks. The taigen one has metal turret with recoil muzzle and flash and once assembled worked great without any problems. Yes this is/can be an expensive hobby as i now have 8 tanks in my collection and sure will be more soon , be hey lifes too short. Heng long tanks are ok and i suppose you need to trat them right. Also you do need to realise that like the real things these will break and go wrong , but that is part of the fun !

[jarndice]

If you like molded on fittings and tools as well as all the other built in failings of the Heng Long Tiger 1 but at a higher price then go ahead and buy the Taigen/Torro Tiger 1,
I buy the Plastic/abs turret and body free from molded on fittings and tools from Heng Long and feel a lot less guilty chopping lumps out of it to get a more accurate representation because I am doing it on the cheap,
It does mean having to cut out the drivers and radio operators hatches but using a step Drill bit makes short work of it.
I can then fit hatches complete with periscopes and more detail than the Taigen/Torro originals.
As to reliability the actual Tank had problems throughout its service life so nothing new there.
Jimsters DKLM Gearboxes reflecting the Tigers unreliable overloaded original transmission

[Jimster]

Jarndice is correct. Some realism I can do without!

[whitecitadel]

It does mean having to cut out the drivers and radio operators hatches but using a step Drill bit makes short work of it.
I can then fit hatches complete with periscopes and more detail than the Taigen/Torro originals.

I think the fixed hatches are on older hull mouldings? This one came with opening plastic hatches with hinges, the power switch is under the drivers hatch. They don’t push down quite flush, I plan to fit Taigen metal ones as HL plastic ones also have no periscope and the Taigen came with them avoiding need to fabricate some.