And another Newbie!!

[SimonCornes]

Hi,
I've just acquired my first r/c tank. I have been involved with Rr/c since the mid 80's but have largely not been involved for the last 20 years. When I stopped I was a r/c warship modeller in 1/96th scale and also a radio yacht racer - a lot of fun! After stopping my involvement in r/c I got back into static modelling and I am a member of the IPMS and have been fully involved in that for at least 12 years now with a typically large stash of unbuilt kits. Fingers in too many pies!!

But I have always had an interest in r/c tanks and bought a Heng Long Tiger 1 at the weekend from WKD Distribution via eBay. Ordered Sunday, delivered Tuesday morning at 9.10am!!
Wow, what a chunk! It didn't take long to get the basic operation sorted out although I have resisted firing any BB's! Today I managed to get the top off the hull to have a look inside. I must say that I had trouble in getting help in that direction but I ultimately had a look at the 4 'holes' in the underside of the hull - Thankfully there was a phillips head self tapper at the end of each 'hole' and out came the 4 screws. I realised I also had to detach the 4 vinyl exhaust pipes from the back panel but it was still attached at the front of the hull. So I very gently prized the spare track links off the front - two plastic spring clips (be careful) and found 2 more self tappers and the the top was off. The only issue with my tank is that the main armament barrel goes up when I push the stick forward and down when I pull it back. No servo reverse on the transmitter and it looks like to could be fiddly to get the servo plug out of the Rx in order to reverse that. Any suggestions?

At this point I think I will buy a replacement bow machine gun and MG34 for the commanders hatch but leave the running gear as it is. When it wears out I can replace it - does that make sense?
The tank comes in standard panzer grey so I fancy a change to the dark yellow based 3 colour camouflage. Unfortunately Tamiya XF-88 only comes in 10 ml bottles. How much do you reckon I need? I'm thinking maybe 6 ? I also want to put some mesh under the engine deck grilles a bit of hot glue should do that!

I have a copy of the Osprey on building Tiger tanks on order - unfortunately from a dealer in the USA it turns out so I may have to wait awhile to get some specific reference!

But its all very exciting!!

[43rdRecceReg]

Welcome, Simon.
Given your existing unfinished projects, by the time you've finished tinkering with the Tiger (some never stop ), you'll likely have added a few extra (tracked) 'To do's' to your burgeoning collection. But a new tack, to use a nautical metaphor, can bring you to (or strand you in-depending on your progress) a new modelling landscape.
Tiger, ahoy!

edit: Does your Tiger have the latest HL V.6.0s mainboard and transmitter? It will be helpful to know that for any future queries.

[SimonCornes]

Hello and thank you for your welcome!
Yes, mine is brand new so has the HL V6.0 radio gear. I'm about to buy some bits from Welsh Dragon to improve a few points but I think a new paint job will cover a multitude of sins! Strangely for these days I'm an enamel, not an acrylic painter but I'm going to get Tamiya acrylic paint for this. I'm hoping that no priming will be required and I can just spray directly onto the OTB panzer grey! I can see the running gear will have to come off and the tracks will need painting and weathering and there's a nasty seam line running horizontally about 8mm above the base of the turret so that'll need sorting! One thing that concerns me is the apparent lack of waterslide decals for turret numbers, etc. Is it a case of mask and spray? Not so easy with, say white outlined red turret numbers! Until my Osprey ref turns top I have no particular machine in mind. Another job is the commander figure. Not done figure painting for years but he needs to be done! I assume all German tank crews wore the black overalls, just different caps depending on units?

[jarndice]

Welcome to the Forum Simon,
Note these sites down,
http://www.forgebeartanks.com
http://www.rctank.de/
Steve at Welsh Dragon is a good man but his site does not carry as much stock as the two sites above,
Whatever you do avoid the Decals that come with your Tank, They are rubbish and should be used to line the inside of a waste bin,
http://www.peddinghaus-decals.de/
are a provider of top quality Water Slide Decals BUT they are very thin and the sheet upon which all the decals are printed on is one piece which means you have to cut out each individual decal from the sheet,
Personally I have avoided Decals ever since our own "Rad Schuhart" informed the Forum that he Makes Stencils,
I have not looked back since.
You can commission your exact stencil detail or select from a menu, Either way you will get a top job at a price that will make you feel guilty
http://www.radindustries.wordpress.com/
In my humble opinion you would be making a mistake painting your top coat straight on the ABS Body. This is how I do it,
Degrease the whole Tank with Acrylic Thinners (Isopropanol ) (Servisol) in one litre cans is more than half the price of Tamiyas rival product which comes in a container half the size,
Then using Etching Primer I paint every piece of metalwork,
Next because all German Armour between 1939/45 was painted with a Red Oxide Undercoat,
I would purchase a rattle can of red oxide from the nearest car accessory shop/Halfords,
I would spray the whole tank with it and there will be plenty left over which is more than you could say using the hyper expensive very small Tamiya product.
I avoid Tamiya paint products simply because the only difference between them and other paints is that Tamiya charge a fortune which others do not.
Check the Forum (Weathering & Painting) for advice on the best paints
The above Forgebear and rctank sites sell "ABER" Photo Etch including Engine Grills and MG34/42 as well as Taigen Quick release kits for the Tiger 1 and it requires no modification to fit on to the Heng Long Tiger1, Indeed most Taigen aftermarket parts are interchangeable,
Ask the Forum if you are in any doubt about a particular part,
Do avoid "MATO" as their parts almost never fit Taigen/Torro/Heng Long armour,
All the dealers I have listed are honest and very helpful,

[EAO]

Hello Simon,

Welcome to the best RC site on the planet! I see you've already received a wealth of info from some of our most experienced member's. It's all here; you may have to search a little bit for it, or ask, but there always seems to be an answer for a question or problem here. Great bunch of guys with amazing talents and skills. Enjoy!

Regards,
Eric.

[SimonCornes]

Thank you Eric, I suspect that I might be doing some digging and asking some questions!
Regards
Simon

[Rattlesnake road]

With the V6 version controller you can reset the direction of the up and down of the barrel. The same as you can change the direction control from stick 2 to stick 1 if your left handed. Without digging my tiger out of its storage and charging the batteries I can’t off the tip of my tongue tell you which way to do it. If my Challenger battery has some charge I will check it out after lunch. Off hand it’s use the control stick and press either button K or G at the same time, release and try the function again. On another note be careful as this may also change the forward and reverse control stick so make sure it’s on the floor.

[Rattlesnake road]

Sorry I can’t replicate the issue, must need the grandson down again, I can change the control sticks over but not change the issue with the barrel. I have done it by accident which I found out when I came to use it back in the summer of 2020. At the moment have drifted back into 1/35 Tamiya models, 15 boxes to go, opened 3 boxes yesterday and base coated the faces, have to start somewhere. May convert some figures to represent UK troops to fit the FV 432 I started well over a year ago.

[SimonCornes]

Thanks Rattlesnake - I had the same issue with the left stick - I ended up with backwards-forwards on the left and left-right on the right stick, then I repeated the process and now steering is all on the right stick, but my barrel elevation is still counter intuitive!! Flash up the grandson as soon as possible so that I know what to do!!

[SimonCornes]

Jarndice - many apologies for missing your very comprehensive reply! I have now added the missing websites to my desk top. I'm hoping a wipe over with IPA will degrease and generally make the existing panzer grey paint take a coat of desert yellow. If it doesn't then I will have learnt! I agree with you about the cost versus volume of Tamiya paint, especially in view of the amount that a 1/16 tank will require but I reason that once its done, its done! And XF-88 is supposed to be an accurate shade although, in the real world I expect there was variation between paint batch anyway! The volume of disruptive red-brown and green will be significantly less - I hope. But I will also have a look at the weathering and painting section to see if my mind gets changed! I intend to weather the tracks with 'rust' and also a lighter metallic grey dry brushed for the bits of the track in contact with the ground.
I have just bought some Halfords grey plastic primer for the tracks and a tin of Nissan Gunmetal to put on top - I'm going to run the kit tracks until they annoy me enough to replace them with all metal running gear!