Heng Long 1/16th RC Tanks?

Realising it really is a bargain price as I mooch the web... Get 'em while they're hot.
Also realising it may not qualify as an actual 'bargain', as I could easily spend another £200 on 'upgrades'.
Though if I bought a second one, it'd work out cheaper than a full set of spares... hmm.

Search the forum for 'Tigger', RDR.
I should probably stop doing it, as it's made searching for certain stuff an absolute bugger in the past.

 

A mate's been given one now, so the possibility of competitive painting rears it's head, and nudges me to start the process.
(He's also rather well paid, so I might be able to convince him to buy a battle system...)

What's the plastic like for taking paint?
Looks and feels like pretty conventional 'kit' plastic, but has anyone had problems?
Light sanding needed maybe? It is quite shiny.

Second query - anyone seen a step-by-step guide to disassembly? Just wondering, as I know there'll be some breakage if I just lay into it.

 

I think one of the early posts gives a link where there is a step by step guide to dissasembly. It is pretty straight forward, the only snag I had was the wire going from the base to the turret wouldn't disconnect so in the end I snipped it with the hope of soldering it back on when everything is finished. The trick is remembering how it all goes back together.

As for the paint, I had no prolems with the first one i sprayed which I am now using as a test bed for the various painting techniques I am reading up on.

This is the link you were after (I think)
Heng Long Tiger Modifications & Upgrades - RC Groups

I found the plastic good at accepting further paints and the two part epoxy modelling clay by Milliput.

I have to say that I enjoyed the who proceedure, but looking at the Heng Long Conversion site will provide inspiration.

Cheers chaps.
That link's exactly what was needed, and looks to reinforce that we're dealing with normal model plastic here.

~A

 

2000 new BBs dropped onto the doormat today, so combined with a BB gun that was refusing to send more than one shot before cycling without firing, I thought it was finally time to take it to pieces and have a shufti.

Graham's link is indeed a great help:
Heng Long Tiger Modifications & Upgrades - RC Groups
Though I did a few things differently:

Found the tracks an absolute bastard to disassemble, stabbed myself in the hand and thought "I'm going to break these", so I eventually just left 'em linked and gradually rolled 'em off the sprockets. Takes a while, but managed to remove and replace with no damage or real stress (Idlers fully engaged with horns first, and careful rolling onto the sprocket worked best to get 'em back on).

The roadwheels on mine don't just pull off - they're held on with allen bolts that pass through the torsion bar cranks so the end of the bolt sits in a slot on the body allowing the suspension to travel.

Once you're in - not that much to see.
BUT - there's some 'manufacturing issues' going on, at least on mine.
After I disassembled & sprayed out the BB gun and feed with isopropyl from an airbrush (lots of crap in there, dust fluff etc.), I had a closer look at the rest of the internal gubbins, and there's quite a lot of loose swarf round screwheads ready to fall into the works, tiny plastic bits loose in the gears, screws not quite tight.
So I went round tidying up, and flushed/sprayed pretty much everything until it looked as clean as I'd be satisfied with if I'd built it myself.

BIG difference on reassembly - it's much quieter, runs more smoothly, traverses better, and now the BB gun seems to ping 'em out at twice the power and with near 100% feed success. (I bought slightly heavier .2g BBs, that might have something to do with the power too.)

If you've got one, it seems quite likely you'll have to open it up sometime. When you do, consider giving it a proper clean-up, as I reckon it was well worth it.

Now I've opened it once - next time will likely be painting the bugger. Quite looking forward to it now I know it's pretty straightforward.