Heng Long T34 build and test review.

[Beeg]

Yep, just a little dirt and grime on the Sherman. Thanks.

[Rubicon99]

Looks simple enough. Heck, I can scrap those colors out of my HVAC vents! Need to find my artists chalks.........

Something to keep in mind with your Sherman that a friend of mine who is a HUGE Sherman aficionado/historian explained to me.

Unlike German and Russian tanks Shermans had great 1940s U.S. base paint made with no regard for the environment...LoL This plus the limited time they were in action meant they would almost never show signs of rust because the paint was not easily chipped or worn off.

They got dirty and grimy, but had very little rust during the peak war years.

[Beeg]

Looks simple enough. Heck, I can scrap those colors out of my HVAC vents! Need to find my artists chalks.........

Do you seal your "base" weathering with a clearcoat?

[Rubicon99]

@Rubicon99 Could you expand your weathering techniques? Looking for more ideas for my Sherman...

I tend to do two types of weathering. One for tanks that are mostly display pieces and one for field uses and abuse tanks.

The T34 in this review is a field use and abuse tank, so it’s weathering is rather simple because any more will be covered by dust, dirt, mud and scratches in a good way. Knowing this will happen, they are considered in the overall base weathering plan. I like the term commonly used for R/C tanks “natural weathering”.

All I used were 3 basic Tamiya “chalks” shown below. First I mixed some into the cup shown, then with the large brush applied generously all over the tank. This darkens the “high points” , gets into the nooks and crannies and helped add a grimy base.

After that I used the makeup applicators shown to darken the more “crew touched” areas with black, rust or both chalks. Then added rust and black chalk “run off” streaks to areas I felt would likely have them.

98% of the base weathering was done with chalks. There is some black and rust paint that was used but it is only on the engine deck grills and exhaust. The rest is all Mother Nature.....

Note: In many of my outdoor photos of this and other tanks I have to use “filters” to draw out the weathering colors because raw sunlight washes the nuances out. What looks good in person, does not always translate on “film” without filtering(sorry I am an old school film photographer and still use those terms).

Here is all that was used for the base weathering. Nothing fancy and all super easy for anyone to use.

[Beeg]

@Rubicon99 Could you expand your weathering techniques? Looking for more ideas for my Sherman...

[Alpha]

My issue with some of those movies is how old the tank crews are... I may be wrong but I was under the impression that many crews, the later T-34/85 included, averaged 20 years old. Not all of them, of course, but many of the reference photos I've seen show crews that look much younger than the 26 year old average age of an American GI.

I am not familiar with Soviet insignia of the period but perhaps someone could tell me if these young men on a T-34/85 are crew or another post?

[Elbee]

Nope, none.

[Rubicon99]

I'm certain you have seen the movie "Tankers" but if not it's about a captured T-34 tanker Captain and honestly worth reading subtitles. Best LB

The Russian actually have a few good WWII tank themed movies with some excellent filming angles and approaches to showing tanks in combat that put Hollywood to shame. Though I do find the narratives have a bit more hatred toward Germans then those of Western films. No real surprises there.

[Elbee]

I'm certain you have seen the movie "Tankers" but if not it's about a captured T-34 tanker Captain and honestly worth reading subtitles. Best LB

[Rubicon99]

Just an update to show how “natural weathering” starts to play a big roll in drawing out painted weathering.

These were taken recently to show the changes the T34 is going through as dust dirt and mud build up from running outdoors.

[Rubicon99]

Excellent write up, I just purchased one of these T34/85's as well, but got the standard 6.0 version and plan to upgrade it myself.

The one in the review is a simple 6.0. It is a mid level version that has metal tracks and sprockets but all plastic wheels.

It’s been a really good tank and after a few more IR battles since the one in this review it is proving quite a lethal fighter.

[HDMM]

Excellent write up, I just purchased one of these T34/85's as well, but got the standard 6.0 version and plan to upgrade it myself.

[Rubicon99]

These environmental action shots really excite me, thanks for posting them! I take it that the event was a success?

Nikki 2 looks great on the prowl!

It was a well attended event with lots of fighting, so a good start to the 2020 season. "Nikki II" did well with the 6.0 system, but I am going to purchase a 6.1S system shortly off Ebay to try in her next. I am interested to see if the 6.1S receives hits better then the 6.0 and "Nikki II" is going to be the test bed for that project.

[Alpha]

These environmental action shots really excite me, thanks for posting them! I take it that the event was a success?

Nikki 2 looks great on the prowl!

[Rubicon99]

PART 5: IR Battle Testing

The T34 attended its first “official” IR battle on Jan 5th at the LA TANK clubs first battle day of 2020.

Overall the T34 “NIKKI II “ did really well and looked great doing so. It was an easy tank to fight with and more then a match for some of the big dollar big name brand tanks. Below are a few photos of the T34 in action. (The ring with the 4 red LEDs is a hit indicator only installed during battles)

[Rubicon99]

PART 4: Continued



No words needed............



A little rock crawling.....


Not enough power or grip to climb out of this tank trap.


Simple looking is often the most difficult. This obstacle is notorious for causing "de-tacking". Not so with the T34.

[Rubicon99]

PART 4:

Basic summery of field trials and general impression of overall handing.

Overall handling of the Heng Long 6.0 T34 was rather good. It could crawl at slow speeds with relative ease of control and could make smooth turns at all speeds. The low "power/speed" setting was in my opinion lacking torque at times during some maneuvers in tight terrain and would stall or greatly hamper progress. As such I ended up having to solely use the high "power/speed" setting for the duration of the obstacle testing. Even then, the stock 380 motors and 7.2 volt battery powering them were at the edge of just enough torque. (More power for greater torque could be added by simply increasing the battery voltage, but as this tank is intended for simple IR battling and as a demo loaner, the stock power and torque levels will be adequate for now.)

During the testing I had NO ISSUES with "de-tracking" (loosing a track) and I did try hard to make this happen. Wheel articulation (movement up/down) was smooth and there were no issues with binding or roughness of movement cause by dirt or sand jamming the suspension arms. Track tensioners and suspension arm mounting screws all remained tight through out the testing.

Two glaring drawback to the Heng Long 6.0 T34. First is the track design, regardless of plastic or metal the design does not provide enough grip for climbing or digging in and putting power to the ground. The track slips and spins easily and this limits the type of terrain the T34 can be driven on with a high expectation of traversing with ease. In all fairness this is not solely a Heng long issue and other companies that make a 1/16th r/c T34s have the same issue. The original design of the tracks date back to the 1940s and a specific design purpose that causes the limitation.

The second draw back is the weight balance. The majority of the overall weight is toward the rear of the tank and causes the front end to have a tendency to bounce on rough terrain at higher speeds and causes the front end to drop hard and fast during "break overs" maneuvers like cresting the top of a hill or mound. To a lessor degree the rear weight bias also hampers the ability to climb up steep "step" type obstacles as the front end does not have enough weight to make effect use of the forward two sets of road wheels and the additional grip they could provide to the tracks if under more weight loading. (I will be revisiting the weight bias issues later as it is easily solved with the addition of forward balancing weights. This will help with smoother "break over" transitions and improve track grip somewhat.)

Any issues aside, the Heng Long 6.0 T34 is proving to be a very reliable and tough little tank and I had fun running it over the last few days finding its limits. It has some neat nuances like the "CLAK CLAK CLAK" of its metal tracks a sound the real T34 tracks make which only add too it's cool factor that just screams iconic WWII and Cold War chunky tough warrior. I look forward to seeing how well it earns its keep as time goes on, but right now it is off to a good start.

Here are some of the photos from the field trials. Sorry for the low quality of some photos as these were screen shots from the videos taken during the testing. If you have any question about the testing or this build please feel free to ask.

Monument rock....


Climbing out of a tank trap ditch.


Uneven boards suspension flexibility test obstacle.




Getting in was easy...getting out was not. Tracks could not grip enough to climb out in forward motion and had to back out.


Slamming down hard after breaking over the crest of the mound.

[Rubicon99]

PART 3: Continued

Weathering kept simple and fast with just two colors of chalk, "soot" and "dark rust". As the tank is driven outdoors these two colors mixed with nature weathering will only deepen the used look of the tank. If you would like to know more about of the weathering let me know, I can go into more depth.
.










Next up in PART 4 is where the fun really starts. Shake down field trials!

[Rubicon99]

PART 3:

With the LED lighting modification and track blackening done it was time to mate the upper and lower hulls back together and start putting the plastic detail accessories on. I followed the instructions for placement of the plastic details...well mostly. I did leave out a few and replaced them with other to make the T34 have a closer resemblance to those still in use during the early 1960s.

Painting was also done in this stage of the build and keeping with my simple and fast build time frame, I chose to use only one major color ModelMasters enamel flat Olive Drab and two weathering chalks "soot" and "dark rust". I did use some flat white, silver and red paint on a few small parts, but could have very well skipped these with little apparent visual difference.




Starting to installing plastic details and check placement/fit prior to removing them for painting and re-installing.



First coats of Olive Drab going on to lower hull. No primer was used as it was not needed due to the use of enamel paint.



Fully painted and forced dried with warm air from a heat gun to speed up the building process. Also you might have noticed the loaders hatch now opens to the rear. This was done on a number of T34s that were armed with turret mounted 12.7mm heavy MGs operated by the loader as this one will be equipped.


Fully painted, track back on with most of the plastic details re-installed ready for weathering.

[Rubicon99]

PART 2:

With the upper hull off the tank and having just added the auxiliary power plug in the commanders hatch for "hit indicator" lights, I thought it might be fun to add a few more red and orange LEDs. This time under the engine heat exhaust vents on the sides and back deck of the T34. These LEDs utilize the rear "brake light" power slot in the MFU that was not being used since the T34 has no brake lights. When an IR hit is received all the lights on the tank turn on and flash regardless if they are in the "off setting" (which will have to be engaged when the tank is turned on and only takes a simple push and throw of a switch and stick). So when the T34 is hit these engine vents LEDs will flash red and orange as if there was a fire in the engine bay. This should add an interesting visual effect to the tank and act as another vivid indication of a hit.

Moving on to the metal tracks and adding depth to their appearance. The metal track came in a brushed silver steel color finish which was not bad looking and in time with running in the dirt and sand would dull even more and take on a worn look, but still would be too silver colored for my taste. Painting the tracks is an option for a static tank, but for a outdoor dirt running tank would wear off quickly. The best solution that I have found and that seem to last, plus adds the most realistic wear look over time is to "blacken" the tracks with a "bluing compound". Blackening the tracks is simply a type of fast surface rusting. Brechwood "Perma Blue" gun bluing liquid is perfect for this. It is cheaper then the hobby shop brands, faster acting and can be found at almost any sporting goods store in the U.S.

Here are the photos for PART 2 of the build. If you have any question about this part please feel free to ask.


Testing the left side engine fire LEDs


Another view of the engine fire LEDs


Tracks prior to blackening with "Perma Blue" shown above.


From silver to a super flat black/gray finish in under three minutes start to finish.


This is to show the contrast between the stock steel silver color of the idler wheel and the new "blackened" track color.


PART 3 will be up in a few days so don't forget to check back.