matisse

Super important to me, such a pain to reset the trims each time

Although it does have longer travel shocks and body mounts posts by the look of it, unlike the sand viper

Obvs I miss the first RC I Had, a madcap, but I really miss a couple of cars from my 1/18th scale racing days. A LWB LRP Shark that I had converted to use big bore dampers, and a Carisma GT14B that I designed a custom chassis for.

Indeed, if this could be made to work on the TF.... Game Changer

Already caught the hop-up bug. Steel ball ends on the way and looking at carbon shock towers. Also made a huge error, got frustrated masking the windows and didn’t do it.... now I’m gonna look at using a sharpie to turn the decals black, happy with the paint job though.

lord i want a madcap again now....

progress slowed here for obvious reasons, but got round to shimming various parts to remove slop: Steering Knuckles: 1 8x5x0.3 shim C-hubs: a single Tamiya 5x3x0.2 mm shim Drive shaft: 10x5x0.1 on the outside of the bearing before the drive shaft exits the gear case Axles: 10x5x0.1 on each inner bearing face / 10x5x0.5 on each outer bearing face behind the drive pin. The whole setup feels a lot better.

Wait.... it’s the same body! How did I not notice that!!!!!

yeah, just wondered if there was one more local, UK based that is

long shot, but anyone have an unpainted Dirt Thrasher or Blazing Star body?

Or freeze frame and wipe.

Srsyly though, need to shim out hubs etc to remove slop, and took the opportunity to use longer bolts at key places where the chassis attaches to the gearboxes etc... In both cases a 3 x 16 was used for a little extra strength.

if you wanna build a chassis really fast you need a montage, MONTAGE!! * cue 80's music* Standy up bits! Bearings! Greased tie rods for easy addition of ball ends! TOP DECK!! DONE!

Been a while since I painted last, so tested the paint job out on the floor plan. Remembered after the first coat about heating the can, and after that it was like riding a bike, you never forget how. 4 coats of Translucent Red and 3 coats of Gunmetal. Looks lovely.

Dampers. Thought about getting the TRF Aeration dampers, but two things stopped me. the price and the colour. The price is fine ,but limited budget and I wanted a few other hop-ups too. The colour, well i'm just not a TRF/Tamiya Blue person (although RCjaz sent blue hexses....), plus it would look awful against the paintjob. So got some of the Gmade. Not as high quality, but not bad either. Pistons are beveled on both sides and nicely made, plastic is a little, well plasticy but it will do. Lengths are pretty much spot on which is nice. Chunky piston rods though, 3.5mm, used a dab of slime to help get the ends on. Set up wise i dredged through old files to find the last time i ran 4wd to mimic that. Went with AE 30wt oil F+R, but set up stiffer at the front with 2 hole Piston and a 3 hole at the rear. Rebound wise, i'll set 50% for the front, and a little less for the rear. used the spring cups to help get as close as is possible across the pairs. other than that a healthy dose of AE green slime as the o-rings look to be okay, but not any better than that. They sit pretty nicely. the come with a mount so just needed a spacer, used a little spare plastic part for the front, and the rear needs less, just a press nut.