Newbie's attempt at an initial Tiger
Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2026 8:42 pm
Hey guys. Like many newcomers to the hobby my first purchase was the ubiquitous Heng Long Tiger 1. This one I picked up off the local version of Craigslist/gumtree as a non-runner with an alleged drive problem. Once I learned to ignore the wife's complaints of "Not another project" and "Don't frighten the cat with that noisy thing" it was time to delve deeper into the Tiger's running woes. The seller advised it only ran in circles, and a quick inspection soon located the root of the problem ... a cracked front drive sprocket that was spinning on the axle. A new plastic front sprocket soon sorted the issue and I let the kids run the grey teutonic terror for a bit, just to see if anything else fell off. Here it is in all its bog-standard glory, complete with poorly applied decals, and the short barrel typical of the earlier models.
About that time I discovered this site, and after seeing some of the fabulous Tiger transformations created by you guys I realised that the poor old HL might need a bit of work to make it a little more realistic. From scanning through hundreds of Tiger images on the web and seeing the great builds by Jimster, Rob59 et al, I decided to build an 'initial' version of the trusty T1. I love the stripped back minimalism of those early Russian front tanks, showing off the massive lower hull and squared-off design, as purposeful and no frills as the bulldozers and ancient tractors I grew up with back home in 1970s Cornwall. The first job was to cut off the side fenders and mudguards. I'm more accustomed to working on 1:1 wheeled stuff, so had to invest in a few essential tools to start off, especially a razor saw as a plain ol' hacksaw or 6" grinder seemed a heavy handed approach to a 1/16 ABS model!
Checking out videos on Youtube soon prompted me to open up the tank, with a view to strengthening the lower hull, and obviously discover what version electronics hid inside. It's here that I found out that my Tiger was of a certain vintage, running the older board with crystals ... yeah, the aeriel on the rear of the tank should have been a giveaway, but hey, I was a complete newcomer to the hobby and all things RC. Some lengths of 20mm alloy angle section plus a thicker angled cross brace made the hull less flexy, and I opted to bin the smoker as I have a loathing for smokey engines
Some magnets were added to keep the two halves intact, and I fabbed up a mount for the on/off switch so that could be accessed by the newly purchased top deck hatches. Just the usual changes that most of you Tiger fans have done before.
So, I had a fenderless Tiger 1 with an out of date MFU and plastic gears that let it run way too fast. Clearly there was a whole lot of extra work (and expenditure!) to get it looking and running more like one of the 502's finest ...
Craig
About that time I discovered this site, and after seeing some of the fabulous Tiger transformations created by you guys I realised that the poor old HL might need a bit of work to make it a little more realistic. From scanning through hundreds of Tiger images on the web and seeing the great builds by Jimster, Rob59 et al, I decided to build an 'initial' version of the trusty T1. I love the stripped back minimalism of those early Russian front tanks, showing off the massive lower hull and squared-off design, as purposeful and no frills as the bulldozers and ancient tractors I grew up with back home in 1970s Cornwall. The first job was to cut off the side fenders and mudguards. I'm more accustomed to working on 1:1 wheeled stuff, so had to invest in a few essential tools to start off, especially a razor saw as a plain ol' hacksaw or 6" grinder seemed a heavy handed approach to a 1/16 ABS model!
Checking out videos on Youtube soon prompted me to open up the tank, with a view to strengthening the lower hull, and obviously discover what version electronics hid inside. It's here that I found out that my Tiger was of a certain vintage, running the older board with crystals ... yeah, the aeriel on the rear of the tank should have been a giveaway, but hey, I was a complete newcomer to the hobby and all things RC. Some lengths of 20mm alloy angle section plus a thicker angled cross brace made the hull less flexy, and I opted to bin the smoker as I have a loathing for smokey engines
Some magnets were added to keep the two halves intact, and I fabbed up a mount for the on/off switch so that could be accessed by the newly purchased top deck hatches. Just the usual changes that most of you Tiger fans have done before.So, I had a fenderless Tiger 1 with an out of date MFU and plastic gears that let it run way too fast. Clearly there was a whole lot of extra work (and expenditure!) to get it looking and running more like one of the 502's finest ...
Craig
Bonjour, bon alors c'est un bon début, et il est certain que vous êtes au bon endroit pour en apprendre plus. Oui c'est un très ancien char en 27 Mhz !! mais il est possible de le passer en 2.4Ghz facilement,avec quelques reprises du cablâge éventuellement ( a voir ?) il y a sur ce forum une liste de fournisseurs .Ci joint 2 liens de fournisseurs sérieux, conseils et SAV au top. Evitez les certains sites de vente du net .Vous trouverez ici des astuces,conseils,avis,et convivîalité.