IMEX TAIGEN 3 in 1 Tiger 1

[tomhugill]

Actually on review, its a Taigan hull! I'll start another thread. Enough derailment!

Asiatam and taigen are the same. My three taigen hulls have the same warping issues.

[PainlessWolf]

Tom,
Good Afternoon, did the provided metal brace resolve the warp issue? Michael had noted that the lower hulls were warped without it.
regards,
Painless

[tomhugill]

I didn't get a brace with mine, I did use styrene to improve it but it was never fully solved

[PainlessWolf]

Tom,
Thanks for the quick reply. I'll keep an eye out as I assemble for any warpage issues. Since the tank wasn't delivered by Jesus Christ but rather the USPS, I don't expect it to be perfect since strictly speaking, none of them are. I do think it will be a ton of fun to build a detail rich Tiger the way that I want to. Happy Tanking, Doc. ;o)
regards,
Painless

[ALPHA]

Send that baby to me... I'll put a stop to that flex ...the problem is the aluminum ... just like what Tamiya uses...there are metallurgy tricks to make it more rigid..one of the main problems is the gauge of the aluminum ...that's one of the primary reasons it flexes...

Good luck Painless

ALPHA

[MichaelC]

I think Alpha is right, the metal/aluminum base flexes, and because there is no plastic side braces like in a regular plastic hull to hold the side hull as it is just attached to the metal base and there is all kinds of twisting happening. As you can see in the picture, the front brace helps with the warping, and the back end latch actually also acts as a brace to pull the sides together.

My gap in the middle is not that bad and it just a little below the upper hull but I am very tempted to add in my own middle brace just to hold everything together nice and tight.

[MichaelC]

BTW, the Taigen Panther hull was even worse in terms of warping but they use a different way of strengthening the lower hull by adding a strip down both side....... I have to ask what the bars are for when I first got the hull from Dom @ rctank.de. In hindsight I think the Tiger I way might be better.

[billpe]

That is the problem I had, the flat sections over the tracks are warped. Even if the tank had an aluminum tub like Tamiya tanks it wouldn't help with that. As far as I can tell there is no hull flexing.

[MichaelC]

Well, if the flat section over the tracks are sagging in the middle then the Panther hull brace would work since it pulls the middle up with the front and the back. If however the sagging is everywhere (i.e front to back not just in the middle) then you would need the cross brace like the ones in the Tiger, probably one front, one middle and one back if you don't have a latch mechanism at the back for locking the upper hull. That should fix it.

Painless, did the IMEX kit comes with any braces at all and do you see warping on the flat section above the tracks ?

MichaelC.

[PainlessWolf]

Good Morning,
The kit came with the front brace and the back locking mechanism as well as the idler adjuster. It is basically their all 'metal' Tiger 1 broken down into all of the components and given extra main gun options so you can build either airsoft, IR or a static version of the early Tiger 1. Michael, I have no detectable warp in the flats of the lower hull. Sounds like Billpe has one of the all plastic lower hulls which attach to the upper and he has some molding warpage. If the tank is fairly new and hasn't been modded, he should contact IMEX\Taigen and see about getting another lower hull. They have a good Main Office here in the States and ship\sell world wide. It is in their best interests to keep customers happy with their products since nothing cuts a company deeper than bad word of mouth leading to loss of sales.
regards,
Painless