Is Hooben a dirty word?

[TankDriver]

Chef, are you implying that the Zimmerit will literally hold it together? You may be right about that!

[MrChef]

Wellllll here we go.....

[ColemanCollector]

Keep expectations low, then people are never disappointed!

Aliexpress sent me a similar holidays-expect-delays message about an order, and it lands on my doorstep the next day.

Mike.

[Dogberry]

Just had an e mail to say mine is on the way with FED EX

[MrChef]

Just had an e mail to say mine is on the way with FED EX

Same. Let's see how it goes.

[Marc780]

I bought a Hooben T-55 a few years ago from some seller called I think, Twin Horse modelling. But I wasn't prepared for just how much work is required to make this tank even driveable (hours and hours), let alone making it with all functions that actually work!
If you're interested in putting a T-55 in your collection, you might have noticed that the Hooben is literally the "only game in town" - nobody else makes one, anywhere. And the price isn't really too absurd for the only T-55 in 1/16 scale there is: the basic kit itself, i.e. the plastic hull, the deck/hull top, the turret, and the wheels and tracks are as good as anything from Heng Long or TongDe at least, so to their credit, at least the Chinese designers made sure the "guts" of a 1/16 scale R/C tank are more-or-less solid as a basis for making a decent R/C tank!

But where the T-55 falls apart - literally - is in the small details. The control arms (i.e. parts where you attach the road wheels) for example, are made from metal castings. But the castings are rock-bottom level quality, and made so brittle they can, and probably will, simply crack and break into pieces as soon as you try to screw in the axles for the road wheels. The parts look pretty good but half of them don't fit where they are supposed to - so you find yourself re-engineering most of the tank. What that means is, the parts are poorly designed...and if you want a tank that actually works, you're obligated to file, sand, reinforce, reconfigure, refit, etc. almost every part in this tank! Out-of-the-box, almost nothing in this tank works right, or even fits properly - so building one is a hundred times harder than it should be.

I tried making one that worked, and except for the turret rotation and recoil, I did eventually get almost everything on my T-55 to actually work - but it was so difficult there was no fun left in the process. The whole tank just became a tedious chore, fitting, reworking, and refitting the parts over and over again. I'd guess that the model-makers in China could probably fix all the faults with this tank kit if they chose, but it sure wouldn't be cheap nor easy! So this means, the Hooben T-55 model will probably always be little more than high-priced rubbish.

I'll never buy another tank from Hooben, that's for sure!

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Marc780: Yet through all your frustration and expense, you sure made a unique RC tank look good!

[Stormbringer]

Wow he made a silk purse out of a sows ear well done

[ColemanCollector]

Great perseverance build! It would nice for a mainstream company to pop out a T54/55. Such a ubiquitous tank...and they're everywhere!

Mike.

[tankme]

Sounds like my 3D printed T54 will run better than my Hooben T55 and the files for the T54 were free.