Coolbank Models

[RichJohnson]

Should be interesting. This time around your the guinea pig. We are waiting for you to get one and see what you think of it and how it holds up.

[SoCalBobS]

DKLM RC on FB posted this pic. He says they're being shipped from the factory to him and should go out first week in January, unless Covid brings things to halt. A second shipment should go out the following week. Not stated by him is the looming Chinese New Year, which shuts down lots of stuff.

At least the photo shows the rounded underbelly of the M60.

[JennyC6]

Not necessarily. The Heng Long metal upgrades for the Abrams are two metal wheel halves screwed together with rubber overlays. The plastic version of the wheel is two wheel halves, but no rubber. I would say most of the road wheels that use two wheel halves are molded as two parts and screwed, glued, or press fit together.

Mm. My KV-1E's road wheels are solid metal, but that tank didn't have rubber tires on its road wheels anyway. My Panzer IV has plastic road wheels, no tires on the model but they're painted on as the real tank does have them.

[tank_me]

.....correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Heng Long just mold their road wheels in one solid piece of plastic(Or cast in one solid chunk of likely zinc) rather than do them as a rim and tire like that? Always makes me chuckle a bit, though, seeing dodgy postings like that on sites like Banggood. Always show a complete lack of F(^)s to give on their part.

Not necessarily. The Heng Long metal upgrades for the Abrams are two metal wheel halves screwed together with rubber overlays. The plastic version of the wheel is two wheel halves, but no rubber. I would say most of the road wheels that use two wheel halves are molded as two parts and screwed, glued, or press fit together.

[JennyC6]

.....correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Heng Long just mold their road wheels in one solid piece of plastic(Or cast in one solid chunk of likely zinc) rather than do them as a rim and tire like that? Always makes me chuckle a bit, though, seeing dodgy postings like that on sites like Banggood. Always show a complete lack of F(^)s to give on their part.

[SoCalBobS]

Wow, bizarre! Lists as Heng Long 7.0. 419 NZD is about 266 USD. Lots of misspellings, and I like the tire falling off the wheel in the last page. Speaking of poaching, I'm wondering if some company isn't doing just that to Tongde. I'll wait for DKLM RC. Good find though, Sappo.

[Sappo]

Sorry for poaching your thread Bob but look what I found on Banggood

[RichJohnson]

The DKLM M60a3 comes with abrams sprocket and track. Works just fine, look at my m60.

[JennyC6]

ye I already have his IMR-1 and SU-152 in my stash of STL files.I'm wondering if using the metal tracks/sprockets from the Abrams wouldn't be out of place on it.

[tank_me]

Might just be better to print your own M60...

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/various/m60a1

[JennyC6]

Maybe we can all use that reason..."but dear, I'm working to raise my credit score"!

🤣😂 I can straight up prove it though hahahaha

[SoCalBobS]

Maybe we can all use that reason..."but dear, I'm working to raise my credit score"!

[JennyC6]

This is an expensive hobby once you move into the more unique tanks and or higher quality tanks like Tamiya. It is definitely a pay to play hobby to get what you want.

With your cost concerns the TD M60 is your best bet to use as a base tank to build an M88.

It's what I like about the Heng Long tanks. They're affordable, they're high enough quality to not break on every sortie if one gets the Professional trim, they're super fun. No doubt there's higher quality, more detailed stuff on the market, but at the end of the day even I can afford to enjoy the hobby on my limited budget.

Semi-related note, these tanks are helping me get a car that isn't literally falling apart around me. I have a credit card with a limit of $300, so what I'll do is I'll buy a tank, then pay it down over that billing cycle, repeat. Credit score's gone up 90 points in 3 months and I get to play with fun RC tanks while getting closer to my dream car!

[Rubicon99]

Ahh yeah no. Same reason I won't be buying any Tamiya tanks unless I find one at an estate sale for a song, too. I just can not justify quite literally spending two entire paychecks on a toy tank. Especially not one that I then have to spend another paycheck on to get the rest of the parts I'd need just to drive it around. I have a feeling they're not airsoft compatible, either, which is one of my favorite features of the HL tanks. A little less scale on some vehicles, but on the plus side I can plink soda cans and whatnot which is way too damn much fun. And of course if i'm going M88A1/A2, the airsoft question is moot, but then I'm paying for a turret and upper hull I'm not even going to use? Yeesh. It was bad enough cannabalizing a complete brand new M4A3 from HL for my casemate vehicle build, but it still ended up cheaper than just buying a lower + I reused pretty much every single non-structural part from the upper hull in either that build or modernizing a 5.3 era ZTZ-99 so I can live with that. Plus I only paid $200 for that Pro trim 7.0 Sherman from Motion...

IT leaves me in a frustrating position. DKLM's is too expensive to even think about and Coolbank's is looking to be too toy grade to be worth buying. I'd love an M88A1 or A2 in my collection but it just isn't in the cards at this time. If the Coolbank Pattons are on par with the 7.0 Pro trim Heng Long tanks I can see buying one, but if they're barely on par with the Upgrade editions.....

This is an expensive hobby once you move into the more unique tanks and or higher quality tanks like Tamiya. It is definitely a pay to play hobby to get what you want.

With your cost concerns the TD M60 is your best bet to use as a base tank to build an M88.

[JennyC6]

If you want to build a nice m60 or m88a1 go to DKLM and talk to him. His m60 is like a Tamiya and quite good. I love mine. But it’s gonna cost you.

Ahh yeah no. Same reason I won't be buying any Tamiya tanks unless I find one at an estate sale for a song, too. I just can not justify quite literally spending two entire paychecks on a toy tank. Especially not one that I then have to spend another paycheck on to get the rest of the parts I'd need just to drive it around. I have a feeling they're not airsoft compatible, either, which is one of my favorite features of the HL tanks. A little less scale on some vehicles, but on the plus side I can plink soda cans and whatnot which is way too damn much fun. And of course if i'm going M88A1/A2, the airsoft question is moot, but then I'm paying for a turret and upper hull I'm not even going to use? Yeesh. It was bad enough cannabalizing a complete brand new M4A3 from HL for my casemate vehicle build, but it still ended up cheaper than just buying a lower + I reused pretty much every single non-structural part from the upper hull in either that build or modernizing a 5.3 era ZTZ-99 so I can live with that. Plus I only paid $200 for that Pro trim 7.0 Sherman from Motion...

IT leaves me in a frustrating position. DKLM's is too expensive to even think about and Coolbank's is looking to be too toy grade to be worth buying. I'd love an M88A1 or A2 in my collection but it just isn't in the cards at this time. If the Coolbank Pattons are on par with the 7.0 Pro trim Heng Long tanks I can see buying one, but if they're barely on par with the Upgrade editions.....

[SoCalBobS]

Tongde Models has a website in China. It's wholesale oriented, but they show many of the components we may be seeing in Coolbank's tanks. Offerings of interest is a metal gearbox and all metal tanks. Not available, but it seems the factory is capable of producing this stuff, if you'd like to buy in bulk! Like, shipping container bulk!

https://stplane-tongde.en.made-in-china.com/productList?username=&pageNumber=1&pageSize=48&viewType=1&isByGroup=1&pageUrlFrom=1&productGroupOrCatId=cbTQXIVOCgkz&searchKeyword=&searchKeywordSide=&searchKeywordList=&selectedFeaturedType=&selectedSpotlightId=&viewPageSize=48

[RichJohnson]

If you want to build a nice m60 or m88a1 go to DKLM and talk to him. His m60 is like a Tamiya and quite good. I love mine. But it’s gonna cost you.

[JennyC6]

I've been keeping an eye on these things myself as I'd love to build an M88A1 out of one, but the transmission issues are a huge red flag. and the plastic tracks. I don't run my tanks on smooth indoor surfaces I run them out in rough terrain. Plastic transmissions, suspension arms, and tracks are going to last all of five minutes where I run.

I don't mind the charging setup, though. Matter of fact I'm liable to modify my HL KV-1E for that since for some bizarre reason I need a %*^(ing screwdriver to get the battery hatch open. WHY?! HL's Tiger 1 just has a living hinge clip latch thing which would be fine but it's only on that one tank. I digress. It's easy to see why he went this route, though...Heng Long gets away with underside battery access because they don't use true torsion bars in their tanks. These Pattons do. That gets in the way of a hull floor battery hatch. I suspect this is why the Taigen/Torro tanks have the latch-key upper hull setup; they also use true torsion bars so easy battery access means being able to remove the entire upper hull without tools.

Most of the concern with battery failures/wanting BMS is moot; no doubt the cells in these batteries have built-in BMS circuits because they're most likely harvested from devices from more reputable manufacturers that use protected 18650s. The inconsistency between the 2s packs in my HL tanks lends credence to this; the pack in my M4A3 holds about 800mAh per charge while the pack that came with my KV-1E overperforms its rating by about 100mAh.

I like that the smoker isn't a pumper type unit. The pumper units are just sad and not even worth turning on. Both of my HL tanks have the blower motor style and I'll be ordering a third for my custom assault gun build since I put that blower style smoker in my old 5.3 ZTZ99 to replace its sadville pumper unit.

I have to wonder how he cheaped out further on the radio system. HL's radios are already so damn cheap that it feels like I might crush them in my hands. 'Course that isn't exclusive to stuff sold right from the rock candy mountain either. Traxxas will sell you a $1,000 100mph brushless supercar controlled by a pistol grip radio that feels even more crappy than the Heng Long radios do! Itt'l cost me a bit but I'll be moving all of my HL tanks to aftermarket boards, Futaba receivers, and my 16IZ over time.


It'd be a bit silly to spend this much on such a cheap tank, but does anyone thing the fancy pants PDSGPDPPSG dual current gearbox will work in there? Maybe that's the heng long transmission he was talking about? If that trans can be made to work then perhaps an M88A1 build isn't totally off the table after all. I do see some posts poking up from the hull floor near the transmission area that might just line up with that mounting plate.

[Zippersnapper]

Interesting. A long thread about merits of decals. Of course, involved modelers prefer water slides, while manufacturer’s experience is that new owners have less difficulty with stick-ones.

.......yea, thats the thread I was speaking of. Ol' Monty was beating him up pretty bad. I've seen him in other RC tank FB groups and he sure is "Outspoken"...and I'm being nice when I say that. Having a elitist or braggadocious attitude really rubs me wrong. I dispise that crap.

Its pretty obvious reading the posts here, and watching on FB that Coolbank is building toys for kids and newbies. His target audience is not mine for sure as I wont buy any of his crap, but I wouldnt bash anyone who does. Its thier money, not mine.

I salute your bravery in doing so and will be watching for your Eval & Updates for sure.

[SoCalBobS]

So if you go to this FB group you will find a rather entertaining group of posts by Coolbank or should I say-reply's

https://www.facebook.com/groups/328761067542469

Interesting. A long thread about merits of decals. Of course, involved modelers prefer water slides, while manufacturer’s experience is that new owners have less difficulty with stick-ones.