RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

I bought a Tamiya Panther from letgo. it changed owners twice, not used alot but many details are broken. I would like to change the upper hull with a HL or Taigen Panther f upper hull and also repalce the tracks with metal ones.
Would Taigen or Torro Upper hull, road wheels, tracks with on my tamiya?
I also did not like the speed. I used some mixes from my rc but the starts are still jumpy. Are there any mods, I can install for a more scale speed?
I am into RC airplanes for a long time but tanks are completely new world. Searched the forum but could not find a clear answer on my questions.

Here is what I can answer:

From what I know the Panther G and F were intended to have the same upper hull historically, the only reason you may need the HL/Taigen upper hull is for the turret ring that mates with the F turret.

I wouldn't recommend metal tracks unless you had metal gearboxes, especially if you were planning on IR gaming. For casual driving around, the stock gearboxes would likely hold up.

For the jumpy starts, you can install a Turnigy servo speed regulator to slow things down but if you had a computerized radio that does mixing, maybe all you need to do is to pull down your exponential curves.

The Panther F upper hull had redesigned sliding hatches for the driver and radio operator and a new armour join design between the front glacis and upper side armour as well as replacing the ball mounted hull MG 34 with a ball mounted STG 44

STHV wrote:The Panther F upper hull had redesigned sliding hatches for the driver and radio operator and a new armour join design between the front glacis and upper side armour as well as replacing the ball mounted hull MG 34 with a ball mounted STG 44

Thanks! I learned something new today - but does the Taigen/HL Panther F upper hull come with those features?

r32 wrote:Here is what I can answer:

From what I know the Panther G and F were intended to have the same upper hull historically, the only reason you may need the HL/Taigen upper hull is for the turret ring that mates with the F turret.

I wouldn't recommend metal tracks unless you had metal gearboxes, especially if you were planning on IR gaming. For casual driving around, the stock gearboxes would likely hold up.

For the jumpy starts, you can install a Turnigy servo speed regulator to slow things down but if you had a computerized radio that does mixing, maybe all you need to do is to pull down your exponential curves.

Mine is pretty worn up with many broken details and I believe it is easier to get a Taigen or HL hull. I have a Taigen t34 BB version and I would like to convert my Tamiya with a bb gun as well. But my concern is if the HL of Taigen hull will fit on Tamiya.

It has the hatches but nothing else. A stock Torro/Taigen Panther F also uses the wrong roadwheels, the steel tyred roadwheels where only used on a small batch of if I remember correctly 24 Panther Ausf G's. After the war severl factory workers were interviewed about the Ausf F and they mentioned it was planned to get the Steel wheels but there is zero documentation to back that up so it might have happened later in Ausf F production but we don't know as the war ended and production and development ended.

We do however have evidence that at least one Ausf F hull saw combat fitted with a G turret and hull MG 34 as we have 4 pictures of it after it was knocked out and then towed to an armour dump!

Jagdpantherx wrote: Mine is pretty worn up with many broken details and I believe it is easier to get a Taigen or HL hull. I have a Taigen t34 BB version and I would like to convert my Tamiya with a bb gun as well. But my concern is if the HL of Taigen hull will fit on Tamiya.

Is the upper hull itself broken or is it just the detail bits like tool stowage that have broken off?

Here are some photos of the upper hull.

That honestly looks fine. The only broken parts I can see are the gun travel lock, the barrel cleaning tube, the spare track holders and the headlight as well as missing hubs on the sprocket wheels. Other than that the previous owner has put the muzzle break on sideways or the barrel is just loose and has covered the rear air intakes with spare track both of which would not end well on the real vehicle.
Fitting a Heng Long or Taigen upper hull would just be a downgrade overall.
Getting the replacement parts is pretty easy from aftermarket shops. Depending on where you are based RCTank.de and Forgebear should have all of the parts you need

Thanks a lot for the suggestions. Is there any way to fix the loose barrel. I put her to test on grass today and the barrel was loose moving up and down.
I am preparing a list of items and also would like to upgrade the gearbox to be able to run outside. Any recommendations to for an upgraded motor/gearbox? It seems like there is space for a planetary gearbox equipped motors. I searched but could not find a similar mod.