jonboy1

thank you @Fuzzy Flynn for your kind comments and the link. I had seen that before, but shipping to the UK is 22Euro, so it will probably be cheaper to make myself!

Thank you! I think it's one of the nicest looking touring car bodies, and in black and silver you are going to be hard pressed to go wrong! It's a TB-Evoiii chassis:

As it's been way too cold to do any painting I've been catching up on stickering this. Still lots to do: make some light buckets, make some body mounts, paint the cockpit, paint and sticker the rear wing and wing mirrors, fit a few detail parts..... but it is nice to finally have a body for the chassis and get a glimpse at how it should look. Edit: Yes, I am going to replace the wheel nuts!

ah ha! Right - so I have these posts: Which are on a TB Evoiii - obviously they have been cut (not by me I hasten to add) but you are welcome to them if you'd like them? Found some new ones on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295661538340?hash=item44d6cd0c24:g:vrMAAOSwmRpkSuF-

Do you have models for the wheel adaptors you want? I'm going to be sending a print job to Lancashire3d.uk in the near future - they don't post to Norway, but I can add your parts in and then post them to you (I promise I will be cheaper than Shapeways!!)

don't suppose you know what models these might have been used on do you? Might make it easier to determine if I need to delve into the "spares storage warehouse"

I can so relate to this!!

2nd'd

Awww, Thanks very much guys - you'll have me in tears at this rate I hope my humble efforts match your (somewhat misguided) expectations

Tony's Tamiya Parts?

Absolutely no worries at all. In my very, very humble opinion, there are 3D printed parts and 3D printed parts. There are also Designers and there are Designers. I'll give you a moment to take all of that in How one part behaves will be dramatically influenced by not only the material, but the orientation of the part while printing, the method of printing and the quality of the printer. That's all before you even look at whether the design is any good or not in the first place. I'm the last person to blow my own trumpet I can assure you, but I have been a Mechanical Designer my entire working life (over 25 years) in highly specialised industries and have designed thousands and thousands of parts, most of which have worked first time and I'm reasonably confident my designs will stand up to most abuse. I can't guarantee it, but pretty sure If you fancy giving them a go, send me a PM and I'll sort something out for you

Thank you - I really appreciate the kind comments Those are my own design arms, which are 3D printed: I made them with the Wild One lower damper mount dimensions so they work with 75mm dampers. I've just painted them with gun metal paint. As I said to @ChrisRx718, if you're interested I can get some printed for you?

I spent an undisclosed amount at AsiaTees on generic bits and bobs, a further larger yet still undisclosed amount at PJ on more generic bits and a smaller amount on printed parts - all of which I figured should or might work, but with no promises. I'm still waiting on the PJ delivery, some of the AsiaTees stuff has already gone into the generic spares box for use at a later date on another yet-to-be-defined project and the printed parts have mostly worked out ok, so I reckon this is good value so far! Thank you - yes, all the 3D printed stuff is of my own design. Are you in the UK? If so, I was going to make a tweak to the exhaust to make it sit slightly more centrally, so if you'd like one I can add one to the order. Or I can design something completely different for you. As I mentioned in a different topic, I've given up on Shapeways because the shipping to the UK is just nuts. Lancashire3d.uk is where I got these bits printed and they have no minimum order and affordable shipping.

Some time ago I built a mildly modified FAV from a box of bits I got reasonably cheap off the bay. I think I customised the side pods, made some new front suspension mounts, new lower front arms, different wheels and tyres and that was about it. It looked like this: I got a bit bored with it, sold it on to a chap on the forum and that was that. Fast forward a few years and I got an itch. It turned out to be fungal and easily treated, but something was still bugging me. The boredom I felt with the FAV was more seeming to be a feeling of frustration - a project not fully realised - so I started looking around for a replacement. Completely by chance, the guy I sold it to contacted me out of the blue, asking where I got the front suspension mounts from as one had broken and he was planning to sell it, so needed a replacement. I immediately struck a deal to buy it back, and before I knew it I had the ol' FAV back in the garage. So - how was I going to get rid of that itch..... Topical fungicide. The issues with the FAV were a completely different ballgame though. Starting at the front, I was never completely happy with how the front mounts I had designed attached to the chassis. It had one self tapper that went up through the chassis into the mount, where it had a very short hole to tap into. At the front there was a metric screw which went up through the chassis, through the mount and into the headlight, which again, was sub-optimal. I also had some new dampers I wanted to use, which were a bit more chunky, so I wanted to make the whole mount a bit more chunky too. The new design hopefully addresses all these issues, as it is longer (as in the rear upright has been pushed back behind the rear screw,) has 2 metric screws that go all the way through the chassis and fix into nuts underneath and have more material overall to prevent flexing. Moving further back I always felt the rear "engine bay" area looked a bit bare. So to remedy this, I could either fit an engine or fit something else. Knight Customs does a great VW style engine on Shapeways, and I very nearly went with this, but I just fancied something other than a VW motor. Looking around there are some V8 motors that were tempting, but a V8 in a sand buggy didn't seem right either (to me.) What is a boy to do?! So I decided to take some inspiration from the BBX and stick a spare tyre in there instead. I found a generic spare wheel holder and designed a mount to connect it to the chassis and also printed a spare wheel rim as I didn't have one in my spares box. I didn't ignore the motor idea completely as I designed an exhaust that kinda fills the back and makes it look (hopefully) a little less RC and more scale. This is where I'm at with the dry build - there are a few more things to add and work out, but the overall idea is there: I've got a few ideas about lights, and I want to add a proper roof rather than the FAV frame and the stance needs fixing to lower the front a bit (probably just the springs need swapping) but the bones are there. Or rather they were, as 20 minutes later: Next up will be paint stripping, sanding and smoothing, tweaking and trying to come up with a new colour scheme.

I've stopped using Shapeways for exactly this reason - the postage is absolutely nuts!! Up until recently I've used 3DPrintUK but they have now become part of another company and have a minimum order of £40 or something. The quality has always been excellent, but this is no good if you are just printing little bits of trim or test prints. The past couple of jobs I've sent to Lancashire3d.uk which have been fantastic. No minimum order, big choice of materials and technologies, good postage (£7 tracked 48) and parts within the week.