urban warrior

Well, I don't care too much about "performance" in its "pure form". I need to be touched aesthetically. That's why I came on the Bruiser as my first RC in 1987. A broken front axle and some stripped gears in the "differentials", stripped slipper clutch (we were young and unexperienced). This was never a car for hard action. As I always say to people: "The environment you drive your car in has to suit it in scale, or would you ever try to run up a one meter high step with your 1/1 car at full throttle?". I would guess if you give your car the right treatment, it will mostly be a reliable runner. The Clod was a reliable runner for me, on some point the Pumpkin too. I remember my oldest buddy from school back in 1986/87 buying the Super Sabre we restored recently. He always got his steering knuckles broken off (head-on collision with my Grasshopper - never stand back to back while driving RCs!) and we spent lot of time ordering new ones (Hey, this were the late eighties in Germany, getting RC spares took some time). I never had that hassle with my pure fun cars. If the car has mainly mechanical issues, those are fixed in timely manner mostly. It's the "cosmetic" part that gets me. If a body gets fragged beyond repair, this is putting my rides on the shelf for some time. I am bad at preparing/painting PS/ABS body shells, because of my lack of patience. So I never really had cars completely without issues or "quirks". Since I have only build my G6-01s without having run them yet, I cannot tell much about them. But I assume they work flawlessly. At some point it's the same with my Traxxas cars. Unless you don't "tune" them, they're completely fine. When I bolted on the first hop up part on my E-Maxx it started for me falling down into the rabbit hole. From there on it got only worse. And with my TRX-4 I am making a similar experience ... starting with hop ups and was never really lucky. Maybe all that is the reason why I never get finished and only have a hand full of cars out of actually 84 models/kits "combat-ready". And please, don't take the number of 84 models as boasting. When I think about it, I see it more as a weakness. I read often here, that the one or other member has the discipline to own only a handful of models, and I really admire that. I really have difficulties to separate from models and sell my stuff. I once had a collection of over 100 1/18 die-cast cars. Mostly American muscle cars. There was a time (after my twelfth relocation) when I realized that it was leading nowhere keeping those cars in boxes in the basement. So I went and sold nearly all off at eBay. And folks you can believe me, giving some of the models away really hurt me. I am sixty years old now but there's still the little boy inside me!

Good Morning, after some kind of struggling with myself I did another irrational click on the buy-button: When it was originally released as RC I missed the opportunity due to the quite high price. Now I couldn't resist any longer and got me the display model at least. The good thing, there are some etching parts with it, that you won't get with the RC variant. Next, you can get it running with ordering some additional parts for it. What I am planning to do. I already created an XLS file with all the missing bits. I am not sure if I will go with its's original DMD unit or go my own way. Ordering all of the electronics from the spare part market will make it way too expensive. One real downside is, that Tamiya only got the variant with the one color olive drab paint scheme provided. In principle it looks cool. But I personally like the more colorful camo schemes a little bit more. I already ordered two books where I hope too see some nicer camo options. More like this one for example:

Admittedly this was not the postman, since today is Sunday. I picked it up today from another modeller ... another neglected victim: I would say the frame doesn't look too disappointing: Some axles and pieces. I have to dive in deeper, because some of them do not turn properly: More bits and pieces: I hope I can save the body parts. The right with the craquelure doesn't look very promising. The wrong lacquer used in the past.: And the mechanism box is "toast" in my eyes. Too much cut off stuporously: Well, we will see ...

I found it difficult to chose the right emoji as reaction: The trophy? The heart? Or the laughing emoji? I took the last. You brought up so many aspects (also much of them in a funny way) where I could only nod with agreement. For me the process of buying has an additional side note: I love to open new kits (RC or static models) and "browsing" through all the sprues and look at all the details (mostly with static models) and the build manuals are a very important lecture for me (some of you remember: I am a technical drawer from my original profession!). Beside my collection of models I've hot a quite nice collection of manuals and parts breakdowns, unfortunately most of my stuff is stored quite far flung actually. It seems you took it a bit farther than I did. Before my last move I decided to put a list on every moving box and filled all that information in a XLS file. The downside I discovered is, that I am half way through all models with the prices I could recall and would assume, if I could recall all the other prices it could make enough money to buy a quite comfortable real size car. Something that is really shocking me in some way.

Thank you, but I believe that there are people here on the board with more skills than me. 😄 I just did what I have learned in the past. Anyone who likes the Willys Jeep should know the SAS-Jeeps with the cut out grilles and the condenser. And anything is possible in 3D CAD, it's just the question how to print. But all that shouldn't be too hard. Be my guest! What kind of Jeep-project are you working at? Chassis type, scale?

Looking better each time. Do you have alternative tires or only the "full wets"? 🤪 BTW they're missing the blue ring. 😄

Hello All, I tried to get some measures and do some prints on my 3D printer. Well there's a quote about printers in general being "sons of (you know what I mean!)", and 3D printers are no exception. When you think you got it figured out and you gained some trust in the process ... you will get stabbed in the back like Caesar in the ides of March! Nothing else happened to me. A spool with filament, which is not too old, made some trouble. Two times the extruder was not able to get it through. So I switched to a brand new spool and finally I got some testprints. We all know the front of the Wild Willy 2: To be honest I was never happy with the grille that looked a bit like the Ford M151 MUTT. First attempt after some measuring is the general way back to the old Wild Willy grille: This looks much better for me, but why don't go a step further?: Now it looks like a CJ-2A, the number of slots is correct and the shape of the hood matches it quite well. But my personal favourite is still the wartime Willys MB / Ford GPW. There will have to be several modifications to be made, to get that grille on the body, but I like it the most. Even though it's a bit of cheating, since the bonnet is higher than on a Willys MB. BTW I skipped the strange hinges that are molded to the original grille. A real Jeep doesn't have them and it gives me more freedom for the print bed orientation when I am adding the mounting tabs at the back of the grille. The actual prints were only tests and to get the measurements and proportions right. There is a lot that can be done here. I also skipped the mounting holes for the winch momentarily, since it often was a reason for broken grilles.

Darn! Unfortunately you will always find folks with that kind of mindset.

Been there, done that too ... 😄 ... but some years ago. But in my case, it was somekind of sentimentality. I had one in my hands when it's been released in the late eighties at a LHS. And I did not buy it, for whatever reason. So when it got re-released I could not resist. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Don't get me wrong ... I guess there are enough 2s-LiPo-batteries available, that will fit into the regular sponge-insert. And they would have more capacity than the batteries that were available at the dawn of the Sand Scorcher. 😄

Very nice, and now I may got some hints what to do with my CC02 chassis, which is laying around without any use. "Monsterizing" is a fine idea!

For me it's quite the opposite. Being always an "A" in technical drawing and learned it as profession even CAD was no mystery. For me it has always been the "unnecessary" amount of time to keep my Ender on track, what had bothered me the most. As it has already been mentioned in this thread: the choice for "your right 3D printer" is also depending on how much time you can or want to spend with it. If you like tinkering around with it, a cheaper printer may be a good solution. I was just tired of replacing 50% of my printer every now and then to keep it operational.

What a cool project! And I really like your "chassis-protection-coating" with the yellow and black. 😄👍🏼

Or you get lucky and buy a Leopard 2A6 when it's on occasion. Got mine for 630€ from Seidel. But I fear that I am going to spend nearly 200€ for the King Kong die-cast chassis-tub. 🤦🏼‍♂️

I've never ordered from "Horrorzone Hobbies", but got plenty of stories of a close modelling buddy. They really don't know what they got on the shelves, they don't know about the customers orders. Sometimes it seems to be pure luck if you get what you have ordered. It's like the tower of Babel: "Yahweh confounds their speech so that they can no longer understand each other and scatters them around the world, leaving the city unfinished." The bigger the company, the less effective it gets internally. Believe me, I've worked for a global player with 100,000 employees worldwide. I was always astonished that they still make a lot of money.

WOW! I would have never thought to ask an AI about my hobby. Very interesting approach and it makes one think about all the possibilities. Admittedly I was a bit deterred ever using AI, since the first "happenings" I read about were less than promising. I am very curious how your car will turn out at the end!

Before I will continue the further rebuild, I would like to share somekind of a story or development with you. Since I am strongly interested in scale RCs, the installation of lighting has always been quite important to me. Unfortunately my profession is more engineering than electronics, so I have to see how to get the electronics done. When the Jeep Wrangler was first released it had some taillights made from black plastic. It was not until the re-release when Tamiya decided to change that to transparent taillights, which could be painted with transparent colors. But putting just one bulb/LED into the housing could not be the solution for me. So I started thinking how I could build the internals to fit three LEDs (taillight/brake, Directional indicator and back-up light) into the taillight-body. First there was some measuring and CAD: Then I glued together some plastic bar stock, which I believed could do me the trick. And which would later would be cut into strips for each taillight: You can see the different steps of "manufacturing". Then I had to prepare everything to get into the taillight body and lightblocking with silver: With the LEDs pre-installed: And as a "nasty" surprise the LED for the back-up light is protruding too far down: I made some modifications to the inserts: The taillight lenses got painted: And since the LEDs are too "pointy" I had to insert some clear plastic which I filed a bit opaque: I had spent so many time with it, that someday the dawn of 3D printers was there. And what took me hours and hours tinkering could be done in minutes with an Elegoo Mars Pro: That's where the story came to a sudden stop and I have to get back into it. Tamiya has given its Jeep Wrangler taillights which are suitable for the European market (for example, I don't know if its the same in Japan). If one wants to build a Jeep of the American market, the taillights look completey different. In the meantime (I guess) RC4WD came up with some US style taillights, which I acquired too: Clear casted lenses, one before trimming, the rest is already trimmed: The body got painted with Molotow Liquid Chrome on the inside, and the lenses got painted too: I think, they are looking real nice: Still loads of work to be done here!

That is one of the options which I came up with in my head too. Admittedly, I have never worked with epoxy until this day. But I will keep it in mind as a possible solution. And will have to make some experiments before ruining the chassis completely (I've heard about some heat development when a larger amount of epoxy is setting). The body shell has not yet been written off. I will do my very best before switching to plan "b". It surely has its limits due to its size, the size of the wheels/tires and the weight of the body, but if you're running in a "scale" environment, it runs very nice. I will try to give you some good insights here. And when I am repairing the body, I will try to avoid too many visible scars. Maybe the body is getting some "artificial patina" (weathering). Yes, at least the future bumper will be directly mounted to the chassis and more durable than the body-integrated one. And I guess I have some small winches in my stash to put on the bumper. Thank you all for your input and participation! 👍🏽

This ist just a general statement. "It depends" is the answer. In many cases Seidel has unbeatable prices. But it is always worth comparing with TAMICO, because sometimes they're cheaper and you get a wider range of nice option parts from aftermarket manufacturers.

Good Evening! In 2018 I "fragged" the second of my Jeep Wrangler bodies, which led to somekind of a hibernation of my XC/CCs. I have decided to work on that. I want my Jeep Wrangler to be back in running condition. First things first, let me show you the outcome of my last crash at the "Felsenmeer Lautertal" (Felsenmeer = boulder field). As you can see, the front of the chassis and the body/bumper have been completely knocked off: At this point I am not sure, if I can save this body. To be honest, it has already been fixed at that location by the pre-owner. To get the chassis back together I cut off the mounts for front body attachment piece. Any body either new or repaired will not get mounted to them again: Then the piece was glued back onto the front: The large gap will be filled with an acrylic block, that I yet have to build (severe sawing and filing, glueing and drilling). But I also want to point out to an alteration, I did to the chassis front, initially long before crashing the body. I cut off the "brick" in a slope and glued some ABS sheet onto it, with some sheet straps to imitate the ribbing. First I never liked the part E5 (the large bumper which is prortuding out off the front). It may give the model somekind of protection but also makes it look more like a toy. And second I wanted a sloped front for better offroad capabilities. All that will have to be cleaned up and smoothed out at the end of the rebuild. Now I would like to show all the things I initially changed to make a better offroader out of the Jeep Wrangler. Top view showing some few additions. At the left a front cross brace (or strut brace) provided by "Modellanhänger" (a nice modelbuilder, from whom I don't know if he is in business anymore) and on the right a DIY cross brace at the rear (which is preventing the sagging of the rear fenders/body mounts). Next is the bottom view. And here is much more going on: "RC Channel" front and rear axle kit (Dear Lord, why had this to be discontinued?!). "Gmade" underguard (black). DIY four-link-suspension at the rear. Tamiya Hi-Caps front and rear (with "GPM" aluminum mounts in the fenders). "GPM" aluminum steering and steering knuckles. "Traxxas" hardened steel joints and kardan to the rear axle: All that running on 1.55" RC4WD Mud Thrashers on 1.55" RC4WD steel rims: It's still a lot of work to do and all has to be cleaned up. The body will get a completely different mounting concept than stock, at least in the front. Stay tuned.

Working with a 3D printer can give a lot of nice options for the avid modeller. But there are always things to consider, especially with functional parts in RC modelling. I believe the parts from AMPro in the starter post are something like nylon powder prints. Which makes the hardware quite expensive for the hobbyist. I don't know which other powder printers are on the market apart from the ~30K€ Formlabs Fuse. I personally have some secpticism against functional parts printed with a regular FDM printer. Don't get me wrong, I own a X1C too. After "skirmishing" around with a Creality Ender 3 Pro, I got tired of always trying to keep up with the constantly decreasing reliability of this "bed-pusher". I had hoped that the X1C will offer me some "fire-and-forget"-capabilities, which actually has not been proven yet, although the prints aren't too bad. And I have not yet dared to try out other materials than PLA (which may be easy to print but is the worst to last). I think the term "hobby time vampire" fits quite well here, because if you want to get good results you have to invest some time. And you will have to invest more time the cheaper your 3D printer gets. My personal struggle with FDM printers comes from my other hobby, which is more in the static modelling area. And comparing what a SLA printer can deliver as details is something completely different. Bow detail of a 1/48th print for the MCRN SCIPIO AFRICANUS from the series "The Expanse", printed in PLA+ with 0.08mm layer height:

Good evening! I am not sure, if this is a one way road in rc model lighting, but I thought I give it a try. Especially since I never saw a TLU-02 myself before. And the package was quite reasonably priced with all the additional LED sets. I have some other options for lighting in my stash too. A "Laneboys" controller and the typical chinese controllers (with permanently flashing direction indicators, flashing even when you don't need them to).

So welcome to "workshop Wednesday!" First started with the "re-alignment" of the shocks for the Lunchbox. That was a very "oily" task. First getting all the damper oil back into the bottles (Let's talk about sustainability!). Then getting the spacer X3 into the cylinder ans everything back together. When I was working on the Lunchbox anyway I decided to get ballbearings and stainless allen-head screws in. And there she is! I think the yellow legs fit the overall look quite nicely. OK, the original chromed shocks look good, but I wanted some better handling. Then it was time to work on the old King Cab again. And when I am already in the process of rebuilding shocks, why not go on with it? But that was more filthy than the Lunchbox shocks. And I discovered some strange "membranes" and ... ... wierd nail and screw pieces closing up the vent holes. A spray can with brake degreaser made some progress in cleaning. The pieces after the first cleaning cycle. But they went in the ultrasonic cleaner too. The shafts were quite scratched. I decided to give them a light polish with 6,000; 8,000 and 12,000 grit micro mesh. Shafts went with a Blackfoot/Monster Beetle Spacer in my cordless drill. I think the result is good enough for a runner. Left the scratched shaft and on the right slightly polished. Not too much, we want to have it still tightly sealed. Then re-assembly with Ruddog O-rings. And at least we got some nicely rebuilt shocks/dampers. So that's all I had time for today.

Wow! I saw some 3D printers from Mimaki at the Formnext fair in November 2021 in Frankfurt. And what they can do. Unfortunately completely out of my league. Star Trek spaceship, below with support structure Some other prints even with clear sections. A dream!

I got back into 3D printing ... one (actually two) small piece for a man, but a big step for my 3D printing, since I didn't dare to print for month now. Had some trouble the last time I tried printing. A small retainer for the LEDs in the grille of my Lunchbox. Since the LED stopper 58390 doesn't fit in any way here. A simple solution that only took some minutes to create and some more to print. The rear of the Lunchbox will be quite more work. And I will need some red transparent filament for it. What I don't understand is, that the wiring is always symetrical. Mostly it doesn't make any sense, if you don't want to run the wiring visible under the windscreen. I am thinking about printing somekind of inlay to imitate a cockpit. But then I will need a female head (Vanessa!). It's a pity that Wild Wendy is out of production.