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M06 Renault Alpine A110

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The Renault Alpine A110 is a shell I have had my eye on for a while. However I wasn't much of a fan of the M02 chassis, the M04 wouldn't fit under it without modification, and a FWD Alpine is just wrong, so I resisted the urge to purchase one. However now that it has been released on the M06 platform, the time has at last come for an Alpine to join my fleet.

Thanks to a few subtle hints and a very understanding wife, a M06 Alpine kit arrived on my birthday, along with a bearing kit, motor, servo and radio gear. This thread will cover its construction.

I started by trimming the shell:

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Although shell trimming comes near the end of the manual, I like to get it out of the way early on in the build, as it is my least favourite part. Whereas mistakes during assembly can be easily rectified by taking things apart and putting them together again in the correct configuration, all it takes is one slip of the knife or scissors for a shell to be ruined.

It took what felt like several hours of careful trimming and sanding, but the shell is cut at last. I daresay I am rather pleased with it - the wheel arches are symmetrical and bang on the cutlines, and the first thing my wife asked upon seeing it was whether it had come pre-cut by machine from the factory.

With that out of the way, I can move on to the far more pleasant task of chassis assembly!

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Looking good so far. What are your thoughts on body color? Box art or something different?

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Nice job on the body trim. These are one of my favourite "vintage" cars and looks very scale. Looking forward to following this build mate.

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Can totally appreciate why this body would make you buy a whole chassis specifically just to have one in your selection.

Working yellow headlamps would get you bonus points though!

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Looking good so far. What are your thoughts on body color? Box art or something different?

Given the effort Tamiya have gone to with the shell and decals, I think this one deserves to be box-art.

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First order of business is to build the diff. The design is no doubt familiar to most Tamiya builders, however as with several newer gearsets, this one comes in black rather than the usual off-white.

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The diff is held together with small screws. I find it handy to tighten these with a small screwdriver bit held in my fingers - helps prevent over-torqueing them and stripping the plastic.

DSC03810_zpsifhstjoy.jpg

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Before the diff is placed in the gearbox casings, the bearings need to be inserted into plastic holders, and the holders need to be clipped into the casings.

DSC03812_zpsxs8o60xi.jpg

This seems to be an arrangement that allows the use of larger bearings as used on the TA06 for example, which in turn allows the fitment of a TA06-style flange-sided diff, as well as the older TA01 style flat-sided diffs and standard bearings. Quite clever really!

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Several steps further in the manual, and we have a rear end:

DSC03815_zpspwxlaavp.jpg

The M06 is an interesting beast, considerably more complex than its predecessor, the M04. For example, all in all it took 17 plastic mouldings held together with 6 different types of screw to complete the rear end. On the M04, the same purpose is served by 5 mouldings and 1 type of screw!

Another thing that made me wonder was the consistency of the plastic - very hard and glossy, reminding me of Hotshot wishbones. As such, assembly of the rear end was a nail-biting affair, involving much careful threading of machine screws, trying hard not to crack or strip anything.

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Unlike its predecessor that could only be built in medium or long wheelbase formats, the M06 can be built in all three M-chassis lengths. The Alpine shell uses the shortest of the three, with the rear end attaching straight to the main tub with no spacers.

DSC03817_zpsuovgn8fw.jpg

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Looking good mate. I had the same opinion of the M06, and "interesting beast" :)

Im a big fan of the Alpine, looking forward to watching the build

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On with the build then!

The front end follows the same design philosophy as the rear, using multiple parts and screw types, and more hard plastic. There are fewer machine screws though, so assembly isn't quite as stressful.

DSC03818_zps9f5zdzwz.jpg

Even though no anti-roll bars are provided in the kit, both ends have the hold-downs for them included in the build instructions. I suppose it is handy to have the hold-down pieces fitted to the car rather than lost in the bottom of a bits box, in case you want to fit the anti-roll bars later.

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The steering is one area where I am grateful for the added complications relative to the car's predecessor. The M04 had a simple, rugged direct-link steering arrangement, but the geometry was not great, with plenty of bump steer. The M06 steering rack is much better in this regard.

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Furthermore, if built with the ballraces supplied as part of the RCBearings bearing kit, it is very smooth and slop-free in operation. I might consider an aluminium hop-up rack if this one shows excessive wear after use, but in terms of operation, the plastic one is very good indeed!

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Looks like an interesting chassis, nice quick build time too. What is the wheelbase of the Alpine body XV Pilot?

Glad to hear you're going boxart, I think the body is gorgeous. It's one of the few cars I'd buy purely to display on a shelf.

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Looking good so far! Those Alpines are a nice looking body, I must admit B)

"Interesting beast" is a suitable claim, there sure is a lot going on in that rear gearbox! I am not happy with the shocks, especially the rear where all the weight is and the factory straight up/down angle doesn't lend favour to it. It bucks and bounces so I ordered some #54000 M-Chassis alloy dampers hopefully to alleviate this problem. It is certainly a 'unique' design those (lack of) friction shocks.

Battery tray has plenty of room for classic style lipos.

Understeers a bit with the stock front and S-grip rear tyres, I wonder if M-grip on the front would make it a little more neutral?

Still a great chassis, easy to drive and more predictable than M-04.

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Looks like an interesting chassis, nice quick build time too. What is the wheelbase of the Alpine body XV Pilot?

Glad to hear you're going boxart, I think the body is gorgeous. It's one of the few cars I'd buy purely to display on a shelf.

The build is quite involved for a M-chassis, and I wouldn't consider it all that quick. I could probably have built a whole M04 in the time it took to build this car's rear end alone. I am fortunate in that I have had several interruption-free evenings to work on it, otherwise it would probably have taken me at least a week. :)

The bodyshell has a 210mm wheelbase, fitting the shortest of the 3 possible chassis settings. This also makes it compatible with several other chassis from other manufacturers who use the 210mm "M" standard.

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Looking good so far! Those Alpines are a nice looking body, I must admit B)

"Interesting beast" is a suitable claim, there sure is a lot going on in that rear gearbox! I am not happy with the shocks, especially the rear where all the weight is and the factory straight up/down angle doesn't lend favour to it. It bucks and bounces so I ordered some #54000 M-Chassis alloy dampers hopefully to alleviate this problem. It is certainly a 'unique' design those (lack of) friction shocks.

Battery tray has plenty of room for classic style lipos.

Understeers a bit with the stock front and S-grip rear tyres, I wonder if M-grip on the front would make it a little more neutral?

Still a great chassis, easy to drive and more predictable than M-04.

I had read reports of others also having issues with the stock tyres and shocks, so on my build I decided to go for mini CVA shocks and M-size rally blocks.

DSC03860_zpsuwzvtfqo.jpg

The stock kit TT01-style pogo sticks are terrible, with no damping whatsoever. The mini CVA shocks I used in their place are slightly longer than the super mini CVAs which most people use to replace them, which means I have a bit more ground clearance as befits a rally car. And I can still have appropriate clearances between the wheels and wheel arches by mounting the shell one hole lower on the body posts.

The rally tyres are the same compound all round, which I am anticipating will lead to oversteer rather than understeer, as with the fullsize car. I shall see if it is manageable - if not, I might try to use AVC to tame it.

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Anyway, with both ends on the car, it was time to fit the electrics.

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A basic Acoms servo does steering duty, as steering loads are very light. I have fitted a Spektrum SR200 RX for now, although I might swap it for a SRS4210 if I find I need AVC. And even though I have gone for a budget rebuildable 27t brushed motor, I am using the kit-supplied TBLE-02 brushless-capable ESC in brushed mode.

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...Which bring us to where we are now.

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I need to get the soldering iron out and attach the motor cables, and then the car will be capable of moving under its own power.

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With the arrival of the paint, I was able to make a bit more progress:

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Although the manual doesn't mention painting the wheels, I thought they looked better in paint than grey plastic.

There was also a decision to be made regarding the auxiliary driving lamps. The manual indicates that the lamp bodies should be black, whereas the box-art shows them as silver. I decided to go for silver.

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I prefer painting non-plated wheels too - there are often inconsistencies in the plastic which only show up when you photograph the model afterwards. Painting them avoids all that.

Look forward to seeing the build come together. Please say it will have working yellow lamps!?

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In order to have proper working yellow lights for this shell, I would need Pintopower-esque 3D design and printing skills, which sadly I do not have. A homebrew lighting solution using off-the-shelf buckets and lenses would not do the shell justice I think. So no working lights on this build I'm afraid.

If I had not managed to get one of these for my birthday, it would have been a Christmas list item for me too. It is a very satisfying build for such a small car, and I am thoroughly enjoying it! :)

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Today we had a bit of good painting weather in Lincolnshire, so I managed to get paint to Lexan at last.

First the window and headlight masks were cut out and applied:

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Then several coats of PS Metallic Blue paint were applied:

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The windows were tinted with PS Smoke:

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I really like the way it sits on the chassis with the longer shocks fitted. With the short stock shocks, or the equally short recommended upgrades, the chassis is very low to the ground, and a lot of it sticks out below the shell:

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With the slightly longer Mini CVAs fitted, the ground clearance is increased, and the chassis tucks up nicely into the shell, which can be mounted one hole lower on the body posts.

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Another thing that pleases me greatly is how close the match is between the TS and PS paints. The air intakes at the rear match the rest of the shell very nicely I think.

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That particular shade of blue which has adorned Subaru Impreza's since forever is probably one of my favourite Tamiya colours.

Can't wait to see it decal'd up. Probably not enough room under there for a rally cockpit?

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