New and clueless

[Exhibitedbrute]

I can speak for everyone but for those of us that don’t scratch build I find many of us will go with the cheaper Heng long. The scale isn’t to far off in many cases and as most have said we all make and add our own bits and modernise for accuracy and realism and most parts can be bought easily enough.

There are a number of Heng long related build threads that you could take a look at that will give you some insight

[X82d Pathfinder]

I can speak for everyone but for those of us that don’t scratch build I find many of us will go with the cheaper Heng long. The scale isn’t to far off in many cases and as most have said we all make and add our own bits and modernise for accuracy and realism and most parts can be bought easily enough.

There are a number of Heng long related build threads that you could take a look at that will give you some insight

It's not about scatch building, it's about the engineering that goes into the running gear and operation. Out of the box, no Heng Long or any other tank has comparable reliability or function. It's also why Tamiya armor is 600-1000 U.S. I've built many kits from the box, and a few scratch builds. My M4A1 Sherman Firefly is how far you can go with detail. I cast parts, made them from plastic sheet and shapes. I tried to chronicle the build so that it would be helpful to others. The Tamiya instructions are great and simple for anyone who has a few plastic kits under their belts. I will post the link to my build below. You're more than welcome to PM me if you have questions. I fly for a living, so on occasion, it may take me a day or two to respond. Best of luck. This hobby has many facets and It's quite enjoyable.
There is a ton of information here. This is my build below.

viewtopic.php?f=21&t=7885

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[Exhibitedbrute]

Though I can agree with you on the electronic side of things with Tamiya vs Heng Long since I put ibu in most of mine. I do have to disagree on the Tamiya detailing or more directly the build/adaptation side of it.

In my collection I have a Sherman III firefly Vc su-85 su-100 t34-76 Achilles and an early Sherman I on the way.

All of those are mounted on Heng long hulls. I find the plastic is thicker than that of a Tamiya. They are by far the cheapest to begin with and parts should you mess something up during the build ore easily and cheaply available to replace and start again. I do however remove everything from the hull and replace it with in most cases the Taigen premium gearboxes and as previously mentioned I use the ibu where possible

I also have some pretty standard Heng long tanks in my collection as well and though they don’t get down to the fine points of placing individual rivets and such with a few metal upgrades and some Taigen premium gearboxes after some stowage and a bit of paint/weathering I can’t say that I miss the fine details but if I did I could get it from shapeways or make it myself.

The fact is Tamiya do a very good kit. But for me based on Tamiya Sherman parts I have used there’s nothing on them that I can’t buy or make for something that doesn’t much cheaper and that I don’t need to strengthen.

When it all boils down to it it’s all down to personal preference. You prefer to compromise on strength and rigidity for the detail. I prefer to compromise on detailing for the strength and rigidity

[X82d Pathfinder]

Well, most Tamiya hulls are not plastic. They are stamped aluminum. The road wheels are either metal or plastic with rubber road wheels, arms are metal, drive sprockets and idlers are metal. Many Tamiya kits actually have torsion suspension. The tracks are good quality materials. Some are metal, some are made of plastics. No quirky electronics, good factory gearboxes, well-detailed hulls, not tools and details molded as part of the fenders or body. The Brumbar conversion based on a Heng Long Panzer IV I just started is a nightmare scraping and sanding off old detail It actually warranted replacement diamond plate details. Yes, for something you're running around the yard, sure. Heng Long. If you're planning on actually doing battle Tamiya is the way to go. I have been building models, figures, RC Aircraft, Trains, etc for 45 years. Several of my dioramas and kits are sitting in museums. The upgrades above bring the price of a cheap Heng Long into the Tamiya price range quickly.

[Rad_Schuhart]

Hi, first of all I want to say hello to all of those who reported this thread, me and/or other users. It seems a civilized conversation with no insults, no heated up people, no offenses and no nothing is still too much for some guys.

Heading back to the Tamiya kits:
X82d Pathfinder, let me politely discuss with you your last message:
"Tamiya hulls are stamped aluminium" Yes, Aluminium, but is so thin that warps, specially in the gearbox area (hence the gearbox mounts sold by dklm and Daryl) If the lower hulls were thicker it would be perfect, but it is not.

"Many Tamiya kits actually have torsion suspension." I love the tamiya suspension (much better than the competitors) but it seems is so weak a lot of people places the tanks over a wood block to prevent the tracks touch the ground for prevent sagging. Not that I have experienced it, but definitelly read reports about it.

"Road wheels with rubber" True and I like it a lot. But the modern kits seem to come with full plastic wheels. Step back from Tamiya.

"arms are metal" yes, cheat pot metal/monkey metal that wears. This made me cry and I am even considering to get rid of my jewel of my army, my Panzer IV. Due to a bad design and the use of cheap metal, the suspension is wearing, like what happened with this guy in other forum:

Do you see it? The outher wheel does not touch the track, and that goes to more, and more and more until the tank is unusable. Replacement parts are almost unobtainable and if you find them, prepare 300 euros. I noticed it because the ice cleats on the tracks were more worn in one side than the other and I started investigating.

"Drive sprockets and idlers are metal" Idlers not anymore in the modern tamiya kits. Loads of cheapo other brands come with them in full metal. Also in some tamiya tanks the idler has no bearing and no bushing. In the case of my Sherman, the idler is plastic, mounted over a metal axle, with no bearing and no nothing between them. I had to replace it and made a friend install bearings on the new one because it was worn. Now with the bearings is running great for years, but the original design is flawed.

"Tracks are good quality." LOL Most of them poorly designed with open pins that breaks on the first run outside the salon. Also have you seen the price? For what they cost I can buy a full chain for my 1000cc racing honda motorbike. Is this quality?

Notice the open air pins, and the tracks are joined together with like 2mm of thin plastic, that of course, breaks.

"Electronics" Boring and outdated. Even the newer heng long units are way more feature rich (Pity that you cannot use a hobby grade radio with the newer heng long boards tough)

"Good factory gearboxes" all of the ww2 gearboxes except the pershing come with that bad designed bushing causing the destruction of them, as I showed you in that Daryl¨s upgrade.

"Well detailed hulls" With hatches that wont open? yeah.

"No tools and details molded" That is true and I am glad for it.

"If you are planning doing battle tamiya is the way to go" Well, tamiya protocol for sure, but you do have to improve what I stated in my first post in this tread or you will be a phillbox. I have read many cases of tamiya tanks breaking the gearboxes on the first run in danvile, because they cant stand the way of battling (jackrabitting back and forwards) and many more

Yet again, I am not saying heng long/taigen/torro is better than tamiya. Even if I have to choose between a tamiya or other brand I pick tamiya because I LOVE assembling them, but what I keep saying since the origin of times is, for what we pay, Tamiya is a scam, and it has no such stated quality at all. And yet again, here in Europe you can buy a motorbike you can ride for the price of a tamiya kit, so go and figure the profit they have with their kits.

I had this discussion many times here and there, and some guys say "those were the old ww2 kits, the modern ones are much better" well, that might be, but I am not going to buy another kit for checking it. After owning four of them I know the risk of being dissapointed is too big.

Also I apologice with the creator of this thread for derailing it so much, but at the other hand I believe he is getting tons of info so it can help him in his decision.

I think I will create another entry on my website just talking about this.

[Exhibitedbrute]

It is in my view. Based on this discussion. Should I want a shelf queen Tamiya is the way to go.
But I run all of my tanks on a regular basis. Many of my tanks have the upgraded Taigen steel gearboxes. Some still have the HL zinc (monkey metal) gearboxes. Not of which I have ever had any problems with. With the electrics I always use ibu. Apart from in my crusader. With that having dklm gear boxes an ibu won’t fit.

Most of my Heng long tanks where available at the time of the build have Taigen metal suspension and wheels and tracks. Again never had any problems.

All in all it is far easier to get replacement or upgrade part for Heng Long and they are far cheaper. For example I recently bought a toro metal kv-1 hull for 80 pounds. Not including wheels but it does have metal Torsion bar suspension.

The thing is many of us are model builders here so we will buy what ever base version we need for our projects paying what ever price we can afford or want to pay at the time. It does matter what brand the base tank is but by the time we have upgraded altered painted etc it look nothing like what we bought anyway.

I would also like to point out that many of us chop our tanks up to build something else or alter the length or width dependant on what variant we are building.

I can’t speak for everyone hear but if I’m buying a tank that I’m only going to strip, chop and rebuild I won’t be spending Tamiya money when Heng long will do the job at a fraction of the price.

Don’t get me wrong Tamiya is nice to look at. My dad has the Leo one. But for what some of us do to them to make a different variant or make more authentic for me Tamiya is to much money

[HERMAN BIX]

Once again, welcome along Mr Academy, if you are still out there after all this that is................
Have fun deciding what to choose and how to make that choice exactly what you envision.

Please feel free to include us in on your meandering path to "Tank Happiness"

[Rodacademy]

Well...
Thank you to everyone who posted on here! I had no idea what I was letting myself in for!
This is a whole new world! So basically if I want a kit it is either Tamiya or Taigen Is that correct?
Which is the better?
No one has said if I need a 6 ch if I want to add smoke.
Help!

[c.rainford73]

Well...
Thank you to everyone who posted on here! I had no idea what I was letting myself in for!
This is a whole new world! So basically if I want a kit it is either Tamiya or Taigen Is that correct?
Which is the better?
No one has said if I need a 6 ch if I want to add smoke.
Help!

Yes, its always been a loaded question. Glad to have you aboard!

[Rad_Schuhart]

Well...
Thank you to everyone who posted on here! I had no idea what I was letting myself in for!
This is a whole new world! So basically if I want a kit it is either Tamiya or Taigen Is that correct?
Which is the better?
No one has said if I need a 6 ch if I want to add smoke.
Help!

If you want a kit, and you want it to be RC, is a Tamiya what you want. But be prepared for the issues I wrote.
And better than 6, get an 8ch radio. Believe or not you can end needing more. In one tank I have 24ch, go and figure! But my case is sick and extreme, with 8ch I guess you will be well served.