RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hi Folks
I am new member from Sussex in England.
I went to Tankfest this year (An excellent three day festival of tanks in Dorset) with my son Jamie and we were inspired to build our first model tank.
I have been looking at 1:16 kits. I would like to be able to build it with my son who is 13 and like it to be able to drive round the garden using a remote control.
I have a workshop and lots of tools but not much experience with model building.
I have a budget of £300 (about $400) and wanted some advice from all you experts out there.
What model would you recommend?
Thanks in advance for your help.
William

Welcome along William
Hehe, bitten by the bug...
Cheap end are Heng Long, ready to run out of the box for around £100, honestly I don’t like them as they are really toys, quite flimsy & tend to break easily.
Taigen are next, much better in every way, they cost more but should be within your budget. These come ready to run but I think you can still get kits.
There are others but beyond your budget at the moment.
You’ll have fun deciding which one to get.
Forgebear Tanks is a very trustworthy site, I’d thoroughly recommend you having a look.
A good starting point is to get one with a metal reinforced hull, if you can get metal wheels & tracks you’re on to a winner
Remember the only daft questions are the ones you don’t ask!
Cheers
Wayne


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lol
I have 2 (oops no 3) hL & they’re both rubbish in comparison to Taigen

Edit, would you really recommend HL to someone with a £300 budget?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you buy a Heng Long Body and Turret which is well under £100 and spend the Balance of the £300 on a Taigen Metal Hull you have the best of both worlds,
I have built a number of Tiger 1s both Taigen and Heng Long and the Heng Long top and the Taigen Metal bottom is far and away the best of them.

Welcome aboard, William. Or should I say welcome to the Dark Side of RC? You're gonna love it.

You say you want a kit, so that makes me believe you have some experience with static model kits? Before finding RC Tanks I spent about 40 years building all kinds of models from kits, mostly WWII fighters, which is why I can tell you more about Supermarine and Hawker than a lot of young Brits. Of course, I can also tell most young Americans way more than they know about Grumman and North American. If only I knew as much about tanks!

Anyway, if you do want all the fun of a kit, with assembly, painting, detailing, etc, I think for your budget the best kit is the Taigen Tiger One. I'm not sure where you can get it in the UK, but I imagine Forgebear or Tankbear, both members here, could steer you in the right direction.

https://www.taigentanks.com/taigen/tiger-1-kit

Of course, if you can squeeze out a bit more budget, Tamiya is the Gold Standard, and both the Tiger and the Sherman are excellent kits at the low end of the Tamiya price range.

Hope that helps.

Thanks chaps. That gives me a few things to research and think about.
Will

Where abouts in Sussex?

I live in East Sussex so could let you come and see mine?

Adam

Hi Chaps
Any view on this model I found on ebay
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hooben-1-16- ... Swr6FaKi8k
I would appreciate your views
Regards
Will

You'll quickly find that there's as much snobbery in this hobby as any other! Tamiya used to be the only player and their prices kept the hobby base small. In the past couple of years the game has completely changed where the Chinese using odd named brands (or no brands!) crept in and, justifiably at first, the various RC fans, not just tankers, held them with suspicion, particularly given they were often just 10% price of the established makes. They nearly still are, but the quality is now up to spec too.

Most Tamiya tanks, when you include the prices of the esentialparts that are NOT in the box, come out around 600+£ yet a fully finished HengLong with radio gear, sound, etc, ready to run, built, airbrushed etc from under £90, posted. That difference is very hard to justify! If you want metal tracks/gearbox you can upgrade, just as you'll need to with Tamiya, but they come fitted with Henglong. Taigen use the same plastics but offer more metal options, as do Torro, so you pay a little more.

My advice: If you have fallen in love with tanks but you are not a seasoned model maker then why not start with a HengLong Tiger 1 or Sherman. Both go for around £89 on eBay from UK based supplier - Dave at Forgebear can maybe help, and will arrive within a week with no customs to deal with and all you'll need is a pack of AA batteries to go. Spend the first few weeks learning how to operate it, practice slow driving, not racing techniques, and fire at each others ankles, not the cat. When you get tired of that, find a good cross head screwdriver and dismantle it, taking lots of photos so you'll know how it goes back together. Before pulling any small plugs out of any socket (there are lots), use a set of permanent marker pens to colour code the plugs and sockets!!

Then, when you realise how much fun can be had from customising, detailing, adding electronics etc, THEN consider spending more. And don't forget, you can buy half a dozen HL/TaigenMTorro tanks for 1 Tamiya!!

I'm not knocking Tamiya, l have several and their quality is great (if you have the skills to build them) but there is now't wrong in being a working class tanker

One last tip. Most UK model shops will not have the stock, the experience or price to satisfy your needs - harsh words! You will need to shop on line to find a good service, including the places mentioned above. They don't buy their reputation, they earn it!

Ad Lav wrote:Where abouts in Sussex?

I live in East Sussex so could let you come and see mine?

Adam

Hi Adam
I live in Seaford.
What about you?
Regards
Will