New guys introduction

[rolling-thunder]

Hello & welcome to my introduction, RC Tanks are a recently acquired hobby {amongst many hobbies} & I started off by picking up a second hand Heng Long Panzer 4 that the owner had tinkered with. Perhaps a second hand Tank wasn't a good idea.So far I have replaced the RC Board, the front drive sprockets & rear idler wheels. It has a built in volt meter & some other quirks, one of which seems to be the lack of range before the radio fails to respond. The turret wont turn all the way so i'm suspecting a broken tooth on the turret ring. The gun wont raise or lower or fire. Now I don't know if I should give up on the Tank or have a tinker myself but i'm looking at buying one of the new metal Panzer 4 Tanks from Heng long or Taigen & seriously considering going outside my particular tastes & buying a Tiger 1 Tank. What I seek is an all metal hulled & turret Tank for the going price of the Heng Long Tanks.
So a bit about myself,i'm 52 & I live on the Northwest Coast in Southport, my various hobbies include Airsoft, camping, shooting,reenactment {Vikings} RC Vehicles etc. I have children so I want to get them into creative hobbies and off their phones & lap tops & I figured RC Tanks is something we can do together.
I will be looking for suggestions where I can get my Tank fixed. At the moment it's a very basic tank but it would make a good vehicle for my Son to play with and join in; if I can get it working properly.
Thanks for your time

[jarndice]

R-T Hi and welcome to the Forum
The very first thing I would ask you to do at no cost is to lightly grasp the Cupola and twist it, (It is held in place by two lugs in slots) Lift it free and turn it through 180 degrees, It will now be facing forward.
There that hardly hurt at all
There could be all manner of reasons for the turret failing to turn BUT the Turret is not supposed to turn 360 degrees because to do so would tear out the wires connecting the various electrical connections in the turret to the hull mounted control board.
I have a great affection for the Panzer 4 having built a few of them.
There is a very large selection of upgrades available for them including replacement HEADLIGHTS (Sorry but what you have are Heng Long headlights not PZ4 ones ) but the amount of detailing will depend on what you have in mind for it,
Many people would get rid of the presently fitted 27 Mhz control board and replace it with a more modern Heng Long 2.4 Ghz control board,
The range will increase and if you shop around a 2.4 Ghz control board and transmitter could be quite literally a couple of ££ depending on which one you get.
From personal experience I would avoid a Metal Panzer 4,
The available Metal Hulls are sadly lacking in too may ways to make such a purchase worthwhile and a metal Body is a dreadful pain if you want to carry out any upgrades because you cannot readily fix mistakes whereas a Plastic/ABS Body can be simply filled , rubbed down and started over again.
Also a Metal Tank requires Metal Wheels, Sprockets, Rollers and a decent pair of gearboxes, none of which comes cheaply.
Many of us started with the Tiger 1 and it has two great advantages,
Firstly there are more upgrades available for the 1/16 Tiger 1 than there is for any other 1/16 R/C Tank and secondly it is big enough inside that the chances of doing any damage whilst fettling with inexperienced fingers is much reduced.
We have a great love of questions and do please remember that while we have heard most of them already everyone of your questions will be knew to you SO ASK
Enjoy this place we almost always do.
Shaun.

[jarndice]

That's why I said GENTLY
Shaun.

[jarndice]

R-T I couldn't help but notice a number of empty spaces on the Tank.
All of which should be filled from an accessory bag that comes with the tank,
There should be an Aerial Trough, An Aerial Base, a rear light unit (Plastic inert), A jack, and two hooks for the rear mounted Tow rope, plus a sheet of grossly inaccurate decals.
You can buy the accessory bag from various dealers for a few ££.
Shaun

[rolling-thunder]

I have been reading a couple of very enlightening P4 threads & I already have a few ideas. As I said, I bought the Tank second hand to see if i'd like RC Tanks & the fact this one doesn't work very well hasn't put me off. I have already found some very affordable Tanks here in the UK & I will acquire them over time. I will probably end up buying Tiger 1 but the Panzer 4 is my favourite Tank closely followed by the Panzer 3.
My Tank has already a 2.4ghz board {two in fact, the first was broken on delivery} & a control box .
The barrel elevation did work before its rewire so i'm suspecting fouling. When I say the Turret doesn't turn, it turns a few degrees to the left & catches & sounds like it's jumping a tooth. I know it's going to require a strip down but having kids under foot really puts a dampner on concentrating {summer holidays}. As for the missing deck pieces, I've been shopping on Shapeways for spare wheel holders & track holders & i'll be buying a tool set. While this Tank may never end up hyper realistic like some of the Tanks I've been admiring I have had quite a few ideas to work on in the future. I have decal set coming so I can mark the Tank up after its repaint.
It has plastic tracks at the moment, I intend buying metal tracks, road wheels & suspension. While wanting my Tank to look good, I want it to work first so i'll be diverting my attention along those lines.
I had seen about updating the lights, I didn't like the ones on my Tank already & I knew they weren't accurate so i'm slowly building {or rebuilding thanks to a new PC} my sources to buy from.
I can see my Tank being totally stripped & refurbished by the time I've finished. Incidently when I first got this Tank it would throw its Tracks.I found out this was because the drive Sprockets had split at the back.It was fine going in a straight line but turning would cause the Sprockets to comes away throwing off the Tracks. Basically I got time to replace the Drive Sprockets & idler Wheels before life distracted me.

[rolling-thunder]

Cuppolla turned, head lights found.Accessories bought but now I need sleep. I've read quite a bit about Panzer IVs on the forum, I guess i'll be reading more when I move on to other Tanks? I've also downloaded a PDF for placement of all accessories.

[rolling-thunder]

Thank you, I have found Forgebeartanks & I have added them to my favourites.

[jarndice]

R-T Hi, Dave (Forgebear) is probably one of the best dealers you will find anywhere BUT if you want a specialist Heng Long dealer I would suggest you try ----
http://www.heng-long-panzer.de
Click on the German flag and the UK flag will drop down,
Click on that and it is then all in English,
A very good dealer who I and other members of the Forum use with complete faith.
It is worth knowing that a number of items on the Panzer 3 are common to the Panzer 4, Cupola, Tracks, Aerial etc, so if you are looking for something and it is marked as not in stock or just cannot be found under the PZ4 heading try looking at a PZ3 listing.
Just one other thing you say you have converted to 2.4 Ghz, in which case the whip aerial is redundant and as the actual PZ4 never had an aerial on the centre of the engine deck it has two advantages you no longer have to fear poking your eye out and it will look more accurate.
The 2.4 Ghz system does not have an external aerial although the actual Tank did but that was mounted either halfway down the right hand side of the body or on the Rear left flank of the body all depending on which "Type" it was.
Shaun.

[rolling-thunder]

Once again thank you, I have already found Panzer.de. I'm looking at basically buying the electronic internals & replacing the lot on my Tank so I know it all matches. In the case of my Tank there is still a wire bundle attaching to the deck at the rear of the Tank so buying a full hit of electronics that match will remove any doubts about what I currently have installed. As I've said, the previous owner has tinkered with the Tank so i'm not 100% sure about any of the installed electronics. Something I intend to rectify {while buying various upgrade parts.}

[43rdRecceReg]

Just be wary of any upgrade that begins with 'Asiatam'- especially the alloy hull . It's a world of pain and unprintable language in the making That said, Asiatam was once one of the most respected and pioneering names in the RC Tankosphere. Just don't try to contact Herr Tam, either...customer care is not a top priority