taigen??? what is it

[Silverstalker]

What is taigen?? I see a lot of taigen parts etc... do they all fit heng long what's the difference?

[jarndice]

Hallo, TAIGEN are often viewed as an uprated HENG LONG, they are separate company's although like TORRO and to a lesser degree TAMIYA many parts are interchangeable,
BUT, BUT some parts cannot be swapped, for example the Gearbox mounting plate on the TAIGEN is different to HENG LONG's mounting plate, if you buy a WALTERSONS brass gearbox it comes with an adaptor plate, unfortunately the plate is for the HENG LONG only and the advertising does not always tell you that.
If you are in any doubt about something either ask the dealer or ask us before spending your hard earned. shaun

[Silverstalker]

Ah I did wonder.... places like ebay have a listing for say tracks or something and it says will fit Henglong/taigen?? soooooo which is ebay!!

well I am doing a Q & A what is the difference between a late version and early version of the heng long tiger 1??? I see a lot of parts listed like that to. eg tracks for late version?? is there much difference I just bought a Tiger 1 of E-bay and would not know between the two and if parts will fit one another?

[jarndice]

Up until quite recently most Tiger 1s no matter who made them were early but that is beginning to change,
The Tiger 1 just like a car in long term production evolved,
an early Tiger can be distinguished by a number of giveaways but you must never forget this vehicle was built in wartime so that a number of updates were not always available and the so called "Mid" model Tiger was actually a bitsa, so the Early has a barrel shaped cupola, a ventilation cover to the side and behind the cupola,it had a pair of headlights mounted on the corners then shortly after they were dropped down in front of and to the left of the driver and to the right of the radio op/mg and later there was only one mounted centrally between the m/g and driver. the engine bay had engine intake pipes mounted over the grills which were connected to air cleaners, the early air cleaners consisted of two bins in a frame a little later these were incorporated into a one piece 8 shaped design on each side of the tail plate, later models evolved and gradually the whole lot (pipes/air cleaners)disappeared,the air cleaners were after all originally fitted to deal with the harsh conditions of North Africa, the exhaust stacks were first of all vertically mounted large pipes enclosed in steel covers that took up most of the central section of the rear plate, later models were trimmed right down, the early road wheels were a smooth disc fitted with tyres, later models had a circular ribbed pattern without tyres. there are lots of photos of Tiger 1s that show all manner of differences which makes for an interesting build especially as most of the upgrade parts are readily available, if you go to HENG LONG builds and read up on some of the builds and study the pictures you will quickly get a feel for an early or late model, there are web sites full of helpful information well worth a look . shaun

[DavidByrden]

Yes, you are really dealing with 2 separate questions here;

1. Will the part fit the model
2. Would the part ever be used on that model in real life

[greengiant]

All HL tigers are the early version of the Tiger. Two headlights and the commanders copula with the flip up hatch are the main differences. There was also a mid production version that had some of the late production items like a single headlight in the center front, a commander copula that had the side sliding hatch with a mg ring mount and usually still the rubber treaded road wheels.
jarndice pretty much covers everthing in his post.

[Silverstalker]

Wow a lot of great answers, seems like the Tiger went throught many tweeks along the way, needless to say very effective at dispatching a sherman no matter how they changed it

as for getting parts for my little ''not so dangerous'' heng long it dont seem to be a real problem unless I am going for historical accuracy!

When it arrive I will get a picture up and I can get a detailed analyisis

[jarndice]

If you really want information on the modification and update history of the Tiger 1,I would recommend the Alan Hanby web site which not only records the changes to the Tiger but the dates of the changes.
This is a very valuable source of reference. shaun

[Silverstalker]

I shall indeed

[wibblywobbly]

Just to complicate matters, you have to remember that this was wartime, and that if say an early Tiger went back for repair, it may have been fitted with parts from a later version. If you look on the web you will find Early/Mid/Late Tigers with all sorts of non standard issue parts on them. You can throw battlefield scavenging and field repairs into the mix.

If you wanted to build a standard issue Early, Mid or Late Tiger, there are plenty of books etc that have drawings showing what the factory standard build was for each, but if you want to build a particular Tiger you would need some photo's to work from as there may be detail differences that make it non-standard.

The Tiger is a minefield when it comes to builds, as there is plenty of potential for the rivet counters to pounce amid cries of 'that's not right'. At the end of the day if you have a photo to support your build you can poke them in the eye with a pointy stick and say 'what's this then?' lolol.

RobG