Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 23.08.2005
Beiträge: 137
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 16.01.2006 - 05:04

Hen Long 1/30 scale Sherman Review:
For 24 US$( mail included), this is a 'steal'. The tank has relatively good in detail. It has forward,back, left& right turn with 2 front yellow lites), but no speed control. You can control turret turns, gun elevation, with canon red LED lighted continuously during elevation but no firing simulation nor sound. The track system is very good with independent suspension & such a smooth ride which should put the maker of Panzer lV in shame especially this tank is so much smaller ! It run better than any 1/35 Tamiya tank because of this suspension system. They included a 4.8V rechargeable battery pack with external charging jack on the bottom of the tank. When I opened up the tank hull, I found every assembled part is of perfect fitting& is surprisingly precise. This tank has a scale of 1/30, of which I could not find any make of it anywhere for Hen Long to copy. 21st century made a 1/32 but looks a lot different. If Hen Long did not copy this one, its precision in engineering would be, in my opinion, Hen Long's best. Now comes the down side. Its tracks are not authentic Sherman tracks, but are the modern German tank tracks, & it has the German WW2 tank machine gun for your turret ! Because it does not have the ' vivid simulation' ( quoted from HL Tiger) of shoot BB nor simulated gun fire sound, it make the running of this tank NOT as exciting as the other HL tanks, & may be that is why this tank is not a good seller. It runs fine straight from the box except I hear a little clicking sound from turret- turning gear box. After openning up, I found the excess plastic on 2 gears was not trimmed off after coming off the mold. After that it runs like a charm. One thing is that the gear might be made of plastic instead of nylon because when I trimmed the excess, it came off very easily & yet I could be wrong on this.
I, therefore, started my modification of this tank, to make it a little bit more interesting. I made a turret hatch . I modelled & put in a Juno beach tank commander. I gave the tabk a coat of dull-coat spray. I took out the gun elevation gear box (no point to elevate it without firing simulation), & put in a gun firing sound card ( from a dollar store toy gun). I now can control this Juno beach Sherman around with its turret turning & commander yelling ' fire !' followed by shooting sound.
For this amount of money, you can treat this as your temporary Sherman, until you save enough money for the Tamiya 1/16 Sherman or until next Christmas & tell your wife you want that 1/16 as Christmas gift.

Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 08.11.2005
Beiträge: 39
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 16.01.2006 - 14:04

Or until Trumpeter bring ouit their 1/16 Sherman???

Nice bag Pierre!

Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 02.01.2006
Beiträge: 7
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 17.01.2006 - 05:00

Thats a neat little desktop sherman. What was your source for $24 USD shipped?

Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 23.08.2005
Beiträge: 137
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 17.01.2006 - 10:21

at e-bay, bidding.

Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 18.10.2005
Beiträge: 503
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 17.01.2006 - 16:17

Hallo Pierre,

thanks for that review !

Greetings

Only from my dead cold hands.

Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 23.08.2005
Beiträge: 137
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 26.01.2006 - 06:53

The Sherman is small but by no means, is of less fun. Because of its smaller scale, accessaries are easier to find & if not available, easier to make. So far I have improved the scale speed by soldiering 2 diodes in parallel(opposite directions) onto the battery. The tank is now running close to scale speed. I have done a few things to improve the look of the tank also.
HAPPY TANKING

Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 07.01.2006
Beiträge: 32
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 27.01.2006 - 07:22

Very cool. As soon as funds permit I have to have one.

Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 26.06.2005
Beiträge: 96
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 27.01.2006 - 14:16

Hi folks,

Having seem this cute little tank in these pages, I just had to order one.....unfortunately not for the bargain price here! I am getting mine from Live-Bazar for €42, which is about £30GBP.


Damn. I keep trying to kick the tank-buying habit, but it just won't go away.....


Nigel

Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 29.12.2005
Beiträge: 21
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 02.02.2006 - 06:18

I have ordered one!
Mike

Status: Offline
Registriert seit: 23.08.2005
Beiträge: 137
Nachricht senden

Erstellt am 02.02.2006 - 20:06

Dear Tiger & Englander,
I highly recommend a small sound card to be put into this tank so to have the 'vivid simulation' of pointing & firing. It does not need to cost anything. I just bought a few cheap toy guns for a dollar each(or half a pound or less than 1 euro). Here are some hints if you are interested in putting one in.
Location: I put it(card& mike) inside the turret because with the hatch open, you do not need to drill holes on the body to transmit the sound or to reach the potentiometer adjustment dial if needed. You also have avoided using the back of the tank so that if your rechargeable battery pack eventually die of old age & you can't locate the same battery, you have space to modify it for a different new battery.
Hardware: For sound card from toy guns that use 3 button batteries or 2 penlight(AA), a resistance of roughly 8 ohms is needed to drop the high current output from your supplied 5V battery pak from my experiments. Of course, it might vary with different sound cards. The sound card I have, uses 2 pen-lites(AA). You have to buy a tiny, tiny potentiometer that can give you roughly, just roughly that range. I have bought a bargain bulk pack of assorted small potentiometers, cheap. Experiment first, because high current will kill your sound card instantly.
Connection: I removed the elevation motor & use the 2 wires for connecting to the sound card. I re-label the gun elevation push-button with 'FIRE'
HAPPY TANKING