Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

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kernewek
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Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

Post by kernewek »

Hey guys. Like many newcomers to the hobby my first purchase was the ubiquitous Heng Long Tiger 1. This one I picked up off the local version of Craigslist/gumtree as a non-runner with an alleged drive problem. Once I learned to ignore the wife's complaints of "Not another project" and "Don't frighten the cat with that noisy thing" it was time to delve deeper into the Tiger's running woes. The seller advised it only ran in circles, and a quick inspection soon located the root of the problem ... a cracked front drive sprocket that was spinning on the axle. A new plastic front sprocket soon sorted the issue and I let the kids run the grey teutonic terror for a bit, just to see if anything else fell off. Here it is in all its bog-standard glory, complete with poorly applied decals, and the short barrel typical of the earlier models.



About that time I discovered this site, and after seeing some of the fabulous Tiger transformations created by you guys I realised that the poor old HL might need a bit of work to make it a little more realistic. From scanning through hundreds of Tiger images on the web and seeing the great builds by Jimster, Rob59 et al, I decided to build an 'initial' version of the trusty T1. I love the stripped back minimalism of those early Russian front tanks, showing off the massive lower hull and squared-off design, as purposeful and no frills as the bulldozers and ancient tractors I grew up with back home in 1970s Cornwall. The first job was to cut off the side fenders and mudguards. I'm more accustomed to working on 1:1 wheeled stuff, so had to invest in a few essential tools to start off, especially a razor saw as a plain ol' hacksaw or 6" grinder seemed a heavy handed approach to a 1/16 ABS model!


Checking out videos on Youtube soon prompted me to open up the tank, with a view to strengthening the lower hull, and obviously discover what version electronics hid inside. It's here that I found out that my Tiger was of a certain vintage, running the older board with crystals ... yeah, the aeriel on the rear of the tank should have been a giveaway, but hey, I was a complete newcomer to the hobby and all things RC. Some lengths of 20mm alloy angle section plus a thicker angled cross brace made the hull less flexy, and I opted to bin the smoker as I have a loathing for smokey engines :haha: Some magnets were added to keep the two halves intact, and I fabbed up a mount for the on/off switch so that could be accessed by the newly purchased top deck hatches. Just the usual changes that most of you Tiger fans have done before.


So, I had a fenderless Tiger 1 with an out of date MFU and plastic gears that let it run way too fast. Clearly there was a whole lot of extra work (and expenditure!) to get it looking and running more like one of the 502's finest ...

Craig
Jofaur86
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Re: Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

Post by Jofaur86 »

:D Bonjour, bon alors c'est un bon début, et il est certain que vous êtes au bon endroit pour en apprendre plus. Oui c'est un très ancien char en 27 Mhz !! mais il est possible de le passer en 2.4Ghz facilement,avec quelques reprises du cablâge éventuellement ( a voir ?) il y a sur ce forum une liste de fournisseurs .Ci joint 2 liens de fournisseurs sérieux, conseils et SAV au top. Evitez les certains sites de vente du net .Vous trouverez ici des astuces,conseils,avis,et convivîalité.
Allemagne
https://www.rctank.de/
Angleterre
https://www.forgebeartanks.com/store/c1 ... ducts.html
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MrChef
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Re: Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

Post by MrChef »

Craig this is great that you are documenting your build. And I apologize I may have called you Kevin in an old post. So glad that you are bringing us up to date. I think you are a bit further along now than you're letting on here aren't ya? :D Happy New Year and be well.
"Charlie don't surf"- Lt. Col. Bill Kilgore
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Rob59
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Re: Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

Post by Rob59 »

Hi Craig!
I will follow your build with great interest!
And do not forget that weldseam which should be in the middle of the upper hull, going from front to rear (or from rear to front haha)!
It‘s been a while since I did build this one, but if you‘ve questions, just shoot!!
Good luck!
Rob.
Meter rat
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Re: Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

Post by Meter rat »

Unfortunately I am unable to see the pictures of your work. I will follow along anyway.
You don’t get wiser as you get older. You just run out of stupid things to do.
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Stormbringer
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Re: Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

Post by Stormbringer »

As above i cant see the pictures either
Cheers
Alan

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HERMAN BIX
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Re: Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

Post by HERMAN BIX »

I can
Doing a great job so far.
Not many examples of initial Tigers about
HL JAGDPANTHER,HL TIGER 1,HL PzIII MUNITIONSCHLEPPER, HL KT OCTOPUS,HL PANTHER ZU-FUSS,HL STuG III,HL T34/85 BEDSPRING,
HL PZIV MALTA,MATORRO JAGDTIGER,HL F05 TIGER,TAMIYA KT,HL PANTHERDOZER,HL EARLY PANTHER G,TAIGEN/RAMINATOR T34/76,
HL AN-BRI-RAM SU-85
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Rob59
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Re: Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

Post by Rob59 »

I could see his pics from the beginning.
BTW….mine still not finished yet……
IMG_9016.jpeg
IMG_9016.jpeg (2.65 MiB) Viewed 25 times
IMG_9019.jpeg
IMG_9019.jpeg (2.69 MiB) Viewed 25 times
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kernewek
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Re: Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger

Post by kernewek »

Jofaur86 wrote: Thu Jan 01, 2026 10:13 pm :D Bonjour, bon alors c'est un bon début, et il est certain que vous êtes au bon endroit pour en apprendre plus. Oui c'est un très ancien char en 27 Mhz !! mais il est possible de le passer en 2.4Ghz facilement,avec quelques reprises du cablâge éventuellement ( a voir ?) il y a sur ce forum une liste de fournisseurs .Ci joint 2 liens de fournisseurs sérieux, conseils et SAV au top. Evitez les certains sites de vente du net .Vous trouverez ici des astuces,conseils,avis,et convivîalité.
Allemagne
https://www.rctank.de/
Angleterre
https://www.forgebeartanks.com/store/c1 ... ducts.html
Salut jofaur, meilleurs vœux et merci pour les conseils. En fait les photos datent d’au moins un an, entre-temps j’ai changé pas mal de pièces et l’engin ne ressemble plus à celui dans les photos.
Je suis déjà client chez les deux boutiques dont tu m’a parlé et j’ai acheté d’autres morceaux chez Miniplanes à Nantes…ils font de bons promos sur des pièces de char RC.
Niveau electronique, je compte bientôt installé les éléments TK7.1 dans le Tiger, ça me semble un bon compromis entre fonctionnement et prix?
Bon weekend,
Craig
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