jonboy1

And like I said above - I'm the most expert professional on here, so you should all just shut up and listen to me

At the end of the day - we all have free will, and if one person chooses to do something we don't agree with, as long as it is still legal and doesn't hurt anyone else - let them - that is their right. We could use any number of examples - smoking, vaping, drinking, extreme sports, watching daytime tv - there are known risks associated with them, but it is up to the individual to make that choice for themselves. If people here don't want to use Lipo batteries because of the potential risks - that's ok! If someone only wants to use Lipos because they offer more performance despite the same highlighted risks - that's ok too! It's not worth having an argument about, all it will achieve is ruining the day for yourselves and potentially others too. Nothing constructive is likely to occur from pressing your opinion. I know I can get annoyed by comments people make that I don't agree with, but all it really does is put my blood pressure up and make me unpleasant to be around. Not nice for anyone. The other thing to say - and it's already be said very eloquently - is that typing really isn't the best medium to explain things, especially when the chosen language isn't the native tongue for all involved. Also, we covey a huge amount from our body language when we talk, so something that might be a throw away comment can be interpreted quite differently in text because you can't see the expression the person is using. I've lost count of the amount of times I've had to apologise to people because I meant something in a joking manner but they took it seriously! So, can I suggest we all just take a step away from the keyboards, have a deep breath, take a minute to think of something nice, such as penguins sliding in their tummies down a slope, and ask ourselves - how important is it that I win this argument? We are all here because we love RC cars - let's just focus on that, enjoy the fact we are all different as otherwise we would all have a black Hornet, and enjoy the comradery of having a place like this to share our hobby with others?

I'm the most expert of all professionals on this site, and I'll throw a tantrum if anyone says otherwise.

thank you very much for the great comments guys - very much appreciate them @ThunderDragonCy - material was PA12 MJF - I find that if you keep the bend radii nice and generous you can get quite aggressive with how much you can get it to bend. These clamps are 2mm thick and I'm sure they could take more abuse than I've given them so far. I got the other 2 Astutes out for a comparison group shot and noticed something odd: Somehow I've got the wheelbase about 7mm longer than stock. Looking at the gap between the rear damper and the body it becomes clear where it has come from: I can only assume it's down to my dodgy measurements, as it wouldn't have any effect on how the gearbox fits or the dampers mount to that. Now I can see it I can't stop seeing it, and it's really annoying me now, so I might have to make a new chassis. Anyway, that aside, here's a nice group shot:

So, first things first, I have to give all available credit to @Thommo and his brilliant Mid Astute project, as that was the inspiration for this. I'd seen a few Astutes with M06 gearboxes, and I think they are brilliant and might still build one of them. But, I really love the idea of making something completely alien fit somewhere it really shouldn't and creating something amazing, and @Thommo really achieved that, making a TA02 gearbox fit an Astute. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery, so I hope you feel well and truly flatter Tom! After going and have a dig around in my spares box something became instantly apparent - I had a right mix of bits, and that was because most of what I had was left overs from when I made my OG Astute into a Jamie Booth replica https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=134978&id=33463 as that ended up being taken apart and rebuilt as a standard Astute. So then the little grey cells started grinding..... Tamiya has successfully fiddled with the position of motors on many of their chassis. One that stands out to me is the TRF201, which started out as a very capable rear motor configuration, only to evolve into a mid motor chassis as the 201XM. I got to wondering, what if Tamiya had tried the same idea back with the Astute, and specifically for me, what if Jamie Booth and his team had one? So, thinking about what was around at the time, the Top Force had not long been around, so a TA-02 gearbox would be a viable option. Let's assume that Tamiya sent Jamie a chassis plate and a few bespoke parts for the conversion and everything else would be straight off his existing Astute. So we'd have Madcap lower arms and outer hubs, Astute steering slightly modified, Astute driveshafts, Hi Caps with square section springs - basically everything listed in the RRC article back in '91https://www.tamiyaclub.com/article.asp?id=71 Where to start then: One key thing I really wanted to retain was the iconic Astute look, so I was determined to try and keep the rear dampers in front of the arms, which proved to be a major cause of headaches. First things first, I needed a chassis, so I bought a 3mm thick sheet of carbon fibre, grabbed my Super Astute, my TA-02 and a ruler, a cup of coffee and off I went... ....to my desk and started modelling things: This turned out to be the easy bit. As @Thommo quite rightly pointed out, 2 of the holes are identical, and everything ahead of that is pure Astute, so the back end just needs 2 holes and the shape from the TA-02 carbon chassis traced out. I'd debated making the front damper mount more Dynastorm -eque, but I've never loved the look of it with the taller front end, so I imparted my preference on Jamie and his team and they decided to stick with the standard height. So this was just traced out onto the 3mm carbon along with the chassis. With the rear damper mount, as mentioned, I really wanted it to look like an Astute, so I copied the top half of the standard damper mount and cut it out of card, then after fitting the gearbox housing to the chassis, tried to work out where it needed to go and how to mount it. I'll cut a long(er) story short and tell you now it took a lot of head scratching, but eventually I came up with something that looked like it should work, so I printed everything out onto paper, cut them out and stuck them to the carbon sheet and got cutting. Top Tip: wear a mask when cutting carbon fibre - the dust gets everywhere..... With those 3 parts cut out it was time to start mocking things up: So far, so good. The next prerequisite I enforced upon the team was that I wanted to use standard batteries. Because the gearbox comes into the mid-dle of the chassis there is no longer the length available for a longitudinal battery arrangement as on the Super Astute, because the steering servo gets in the way. This left two options: move the servo to the side, or keep the horizontal battery arrangement from the Astute. I spent many a happy hour looking at ways to relocate the servo, basically ending up with something very similar to the Avante arrangement, but then I found myself wondering, is it worth it? When you consider the motor and the majority of the gearbox is now infront of the rear wheels, the weight balance should be a lot better than the standard Astute. By moving the battery slightly further forward as well (although there isn't a whole lot you can move it) we can get a little bit more weight forward that way too. I still need to fit a servo and compare the 3 versions, but just balancing it by hand, the centre of gravity is much further forward than in the Astute,so I think it will be a good enough option. With that decided, the next issue would be mounting the battery and body posts. I really wanted to keep the weight down, and the standard battery clamps are huge and heavy, so they had to go. They also are so wide they prevent moving the battery any further forward. So I decide to design some nice light ones that can lift and swivel out of the way. As the Astute bulkhead had gone, there were no rear body posts, so I came up with a way of combining the battery mount with the body post, the only negative being that they had to come forward about 20mm, so I now have 2 spare holes in the body. Reasonably happy with the design, I sent the parts off to the printers, ordered the last few bits and bobs and waited..... I've not got any mid build pictures sorry, as I did it in little 5 min spare windows here and there, but the long and the short of it is the design changed a bit from where I expected it to be. My original plan had been for the upper turnbuckles for the rear to be mounted infront of the axle and pick up off the back of the damper mount. The problem I found was that the angle they sat at was too big, so the wheels tilted down and in as the dampers were compressed. I couldn't move the mount because the gearbox got in the way. I fixed it by putting the turnbuckle mount behind the gearbox where the rear damper mount would be on the TA-02/Top Force and fitting it with a little carbon fibre bracket. This was actually a very positive move, as it looks so much better balanced now and it also allowed the lower arms to move forward a couple of mm too. Finally, with a very minimal amount of trimming to the body, it was complete: light weight flexi battery clamps in action period correct dynatech motor (colour coordinated too) although I do still have the Team LRP motor from the replica I could use. There's a ball diff in the gearbox and all fittings and hardware are period correct (possibly excluding the turnbuckles, but I think threaded rod is just ugly) I 3Dprinted a replica Super Astute front brace as I couldn't find one anywhere. Oh, and I gave it a name: AstuDF. Taken from Astute and DF - the Top Force chassis. Body just needed a slight trim to clear the mount. I decided on Super Astute wheels over the standard Astute rear and Wild One rear purely for aesthetics. Rear turnbuckle mount needs a trim to remove extra holes I didn't need. Ta-da! I'll get a servo in and some radio gear and battery and give it all a weigh and find out how it compares with the other 2, and then you never know, I might just give it a run. Maybe. Indoors of course. On a nice soft carpet.

finally finished off my Durga. Chassis wise I got it finished a while back, but I've been stuck on the body. I really wanted a TRF Satoshi Maezumi style paint job, but I know the limit of my skill set, and what I had pictured in my head exceeded what my hands could produce. Eventually I found someone who looked like they could do what I was after, and so the body was posted and a few months later I got sent some pictures tagged with "what do you think?" I think you can guess my reaction.... So I'm going to do a shameless plug here - the guy is on facebook as AttackRC and instagram as Attack_RC and he is a genius with an airbrush. I have heard it myself so many times that "photographs don't do it justice" but it really is true in this case. The amount of detail is incredible and the quality is exceptional. I really couldn't recommend his work enough. Anyway, once they came back I raced to get everything cut out and mounted. I was like a 100kg 5 year old with a box full of Haribo and Lego. I'd managed to get a set of TRF stickers ready in waiting and supplemented these with a few other manufacturer stickers from the components I've fitted. I might change a couple of those as the quality of them isn't up to Tamiya standard, but otherwise I am as happy as a happy thing in happy land on a special holiday. I'll do a new showroom entry for this as the spec has changed so much with things being swapped out and replaced, but all in all I reckon this is just about my perfect Durga

PM sent

I think I have this - I'll check when I get home

thanks for the offer @Tamiyastef but I found one the day I posted this, so no longer needed.

Got a pair that are brand new and a used pair. Very nice retro alternatives to the originals - don't seem to crack when you look at them like the Su[per Grippers do! New pair: £20 Used pair: £10

2 pairs of the wide 5 spoke wheels from the Porsche I think. None of them have ever been used, but 2 have got a very slight bit of marking on the inside of the rim. Pair with slight marking £8 Pair with no marking £10