HAYA Chieftain Mk3- first impressions

[zooma]

Haya is using Clark boards for the "proper sound". In that case, they are limited by how many Clark can produce and at what price they can sell them at for the same reason. Clark is also a pretty small manufacturer.

Is there any alternative sound board that can be fitted to the HAYA Cheiftain to give an authentic engine sound without any loss to the gun flash with smoke and exhaust smoke that my model already has (these are quite good).

[tankme]

Sorry, can't answer any questions about smoke as the smoker is the first thing I usually pull out when I get a new tank.

[zooma]

Sorry, can't answer any questions about smoke as the smoker is the first thing I usually pull out when I get a new tank.

I really like the combined barrel flash with smoke effect..

By moving the light a little further down the barrel tube, I have found it gives a much better gun flash and smoke effect that I really like to see as it really looks like hot smoke being ejected out of the barrel.

I am not as impressed with the smoking exhaust effect, but maybe it is something that may be improved if it can be effectively linked to the engine revs?

[Meter rat]

Personally, I remove the exhaust smoke system. Tanks, if they are running well don’t smoke. In real life it can give away their position. In model form it saps power for no real benefit. However they are your tanks, so if you like the effects then all is good. Smoke and flash from the barrels makes me smile, because I am very childish, and small things amuse me.

[zooma]

I agree with your sentiment about the gun flash with smoke ....and it amuses me too - quite a lot !

The exhaust smoke is another matter and apart from a cold start, I switch it off when the tank starts running and is able to "clear it's throat" and run cleanly - but during the start-up phase I would like to to be a little more realistic - if possible.........

I have been speaking with Andrew Haya about getting a Clark board with the correct sound on it for my Chieftain so that I can improve the sound and then pair it to work on my FySky FS-16X. I may have to make some changes to the tx but it should work (eventually) and then I can get rid of that horrible (but very competent) "toy" transmitter than came with the tank.

[Herr Dr. Professor]

I just opened my new Haya Chieftain and read the manual. (Yep, I'm the sort who reads the manual first--well I skip the stuff repeated in every manual) The manual insert says one can select among seven engine, some turret turning, some machine gun, and some main gun sounds. Did yours allow those options, zooma?

[zooma]

The little "Toy" transmitter that comes with the HAYA Chieftain is really quite an impressive little unit....but I still don't like it!

It can access all of the sounds that are available (I have not counted them) but none of them give the correct Leyland L60 multi-fuel engine sound, so for me that is a disappointment and is why I will buy a new Clark board loaded with the correct L60 engine sounds........and change to a "proper" HAYA FlySky transmitter that will work with the Clark board.

This is not an expense that I had calculated needing when I bought the Chieftain, but if I want the correct engine sound ( I do) then this will kill "two birds with one stone" and give me a nicer transmitter to hold at the same time!

If the HAYA Chieftain came with the correct engine sound I would have put up with the "Toy" transmitter for a little longer - but I would probably still have been looking to find a replacement transmitter that would work with the board that came with the tank..

[Herr Dr. Professor]

Yesterday evening, I just opened my Andrew Haya Chieftain. Indeed, the transmitter does have a somewhat more toy-like look to it than even the older HengLong or Taigen transmitters. However, it seems to have allow more functional options than the older mass-market transmitters. Haya included two separate sheets of instructions because of the barrel smoke and flash. I certainly do understand your preferring correct engine sound. For the same reason, since late 2017, I have preferred the Taigen/Torro V3 boards and have converted no few earlier Taigen/Torro tanks to the V3 with the appropriate sound module. Of late, however, I have been impressed by the leaps and bound of improvement HengLong and TongDe have made. I doubt I would know the proper sound of a Leyland L60, so for now I will try to select a sound that seems appropriate for a late-twentieth century MBT.

[zooma]

After a rest from my Chieftain activities, I thought it was about time to complete the camouflage painting that ends abruptly on the top of the front and rear decking leaving the lower glacis plate and rear of the tank below the deck unpainted.
Surprisingly, I found that Tamiya XF1 matt black gave the best match to use when I extended the paintwork down to the bottom of the hull (front and back) and also to blend-in any small unpainted areas where some of the black paintwork was incomplete around some of the small parts (that would have been fitted after the painting) and on the areas where the pattern did not quite line up.
I was going to use NATO Black for this job, but the Tamiya matt black blended in perfectly.
The main body of the tank was given a light weathering (dry brushing) - even though I still haven't painted the wheels, sprockets and tracks yet (!) so the next job will be to remove the cast alloy sprockets so I can remove the tracks and return rollers etc and get them primed and then painted.......followed by some more light weathering.
The "tyres" also need to be painted as the plastic road wheel are delivered over-sprayed in green. I am tempted to try one of the new (to me) matt black paint marker pens to colour in the tyres as it could be easier than masking and air-brushing them all as this is quite a time consuming (and boring) job
.....but in the meantime I want to give the tank its first run at our local club where no other Chieftain has been run before as at least one other club member would like to see it as he is hoping to buy a Chieftain in the near future!
I am not sure if I mentioned that I really don't like the "toy" transmitter than came with the Chieftain (!) but I have put the supplied charging lead into a USB socket to prepare it for tomorrow nights excursion and noticed another thing that I don't like about it - the blank screen cover!
It looks very much like this "toy" transmitter would come with an illuminated screen for some other purpose (drones maybe?), but for the tank this screen has been covered over with a sheet of black plastic making an already ugly looking tx even less desirable!

[zooma]

Not the most pretty looking transmitter