I just got this Heng long T-34/85, with metal tracks and gears and 2.4 Ghz radio system. I love it!
This tank cost me $232 (£145) for everything from mideatech. The good part of the story is-there's not much to tell. Frankly unless you haven't laid eyes on this tank before, these photos might be a bit dull.
But perhaps somebody may find this post of use since it shows how the tank really looks vs some product photos on a vendor web site. So here's my T-34/85 model fresh out of the box before it has time to get dirty.
The Russian Tank Green plastic finish, with the black smudges added is very appealing and done exactly right...it would be hard for me to improve this paint and chances are I'd probably only make it worse. So I may never bother with a repaint. Am thinking about adding the white stripe on the turret though, along with the commie star.
Before I drove the tank I removed the upper hull. then I greased the gears and put a few drops of oil on the gear bushings. I have some silicone shock oil, the kind for model cars, (I use this oil on plastic parts, I heard it doesn't react to plastic like petroleum based oil might? ) and i put one drop on each road wheel axle, from the inside. I removed the tracks, put them in a metal tray, and soaked them down in Break Free CLP and then wiped them clean with a rag. Then I hung them up from a coat hanger to dry for about 4 hours, while i took the wife over to the in-laws for a visit, and then reinstalled the tracks.
I don't know if any of this lubrication, except greasing the gears, is really necessary or even beneficial or not. But it seemed logical to do it while the tank was brand new rather then later, so I did.
If anybody reading this is brand new to the hobby, my two cents and the most important advice I have is the same advice that I read here from others, repeatedly, but refused to heed until now: "IF YOU ARE IN DOUBT ABOUT WHICH TANK TO GET, BUY THE FULLY EQUIPPED/MORE EXPENSIVE ONE TO BEGIN WITH - IT IS ALWAYS CHEAPER!!!"
Before I chose this particular tank vs. all the other choices available now (it seems like now there are a lot more choices of tanks available then even when I began, just earlier in this year!) I naturally considered others, their prices and how "well equipped" and I present my research below in case it might be useful to someone else. It's the Executive summary, i guess, of cost vs. what you are going to get for your money. Personally I don't want to own a tank anymore that doesn't have the 2.4 ghz radio system-I can't make anything with the cheaper radio systems work-even if i had to add the radio system later. After much money and aggravation wasted trying to fix the unfixable all my tanks (I have 4 now...) MUST have the 2.4 ghz radio system, period.
So there was never a question to me this tank was going to have the 2.4 ghz radio, the only question to me was if I should just buy the cheaper T-34 from Ebay like the one in the image below, with plastic everything, for $109 shipped-or get the more expensive one with the Heng long 2.4 Ghz radio (I emailed the seller about the $109 T-34 with 2.4 ghz radio-they said this one is not fitted with the HL or Taigen radio it is fitted with some kind of off-brand 2.4 Ghz system - but any 2.4ghz is better then the alternatives).
If you chose to get the $109 tank and tried to save a few dollars by buying the gears and tracks separately-here is what it would cost you to do that if you did it today.
So, for anybody who's interested in getting the T-34 model, here's the choices, on ebay as an example.
The differences are obvious-the $109 one is cheap but under-equipped for anybody but a casual "tankey". The Imex ones are more but it is not obvious, to me, exactly what upgrade you would be getting to make the tank worth the cost vs. the Heng Long at $242.
And the lower one in the photo is the one I ended up buying. (In the same image is a Tamiya t-34, but at that price I wouldn't buy a 1/35 scale tank no matter how good it is).
So I like the tank a lot- it's great right out of the box, It's fun to drive it around. The machine gun flashes and the sound is loud. All I plan to do is assemble and paint the add on fuel drums and add those on later).
After driving for about half hour total, the small hex bolt that holds on the idler wheel, on the port side, worked itself loose and fell off. And how i found this out was that the track fell off while driving . i lost the bolt and looked for it for half an hour, at night, and never did find the bloody thing. I put blue loctite on the replacement bolts, I'd say just loctite the idler bolts right out of the box first thing.
By the way I did paint a couple of the add on fuel drums, just to try and make them a shade or two different then the tank itself (instead of exactly color matched the way they come out of the box). And I used spray paint from Ace hardware or Lowe's i can't remember) It's "Krylon Colormaster" brand in "Italian Olive". It is a flat/matte not glossy paint and cost only $5 for the large 12 oz spray can. I thought it would be just a few shades off but in fact it is very close to the Russian Military Green, if not the exact same shade.
Man those guys are kind of expensive compared to other sellers on Ebay...the only tank I've considered from them was the 2.4 gig Tiger...but they wanted almost 300 for it 
...they are good for small bits..but their tanks are a tough pull for me... Mideatech has the T34 for a lot less..free ship....and all of the T34s are 2.4 so no worries on that part 
....you could have saved 20 dollars 
