Grastens

It turned out nicely! Great idea on the battery protector, too.

Personally, I like their inclusion - it drives home the point of just how small this thing is. The tire tread will probably be more useful for the running these kits will likely experience, unless I am totally incorrect and an off-road series forms around it! I understand the gripes about non-bespoke wheels, though.

MCI Racing has actually played a few parts in the ongoing saga of my bicycle. After the first rebuild, a few kit decals ended up on the aftermarket components I used. I even commissioned them to print original decals for a set of blank carbon-alloy wheels I had. Today, said wheels received an update in some proper white-fill wheel stickers: And with that, I think my bike ended up looking even tackier (in a good way?): But flashy stickers had captured my imagination when it came to high-end wheels, and so I took the opportunity to get some printed out, to dress up what were otherwise rather ordinary rims. The design is certainly busier than most proper wheel rim schemes, even like that on the Fulcrum Racing Quattro that inspired me: The end result has me thinking more like some of the no-name offerings from overseas: But once up to speed, they look the part! Nonetheless, a lesson learned in graphic design... I have resumed shift work at my local bike shop, as they are quite busy this season. I am now training to be a dedicated mechanic, so I get to spend a lot of time around some neat bikes these days The subsequently-healthy pay has allowed me to invest in good cycling clothes, which I hope will make a positive difference, especially in the cold and the rain. It is looking like a nice summer for cycling, as I have already booked a half-dozen events from June to September! The Schwinn is my training bike; I have the carbon-frame ride for the actual events. The carbon-alloy wheels on the Schwinn are actually there on shakedown - once properly stressed and adjusted, I intend to put them on the event bike for the flat-road rides.

So, Senna really was the best, then: Although the story over on rctoymemories.com is that he broke this Hotshot, too!

Does this mean we will see a Lotus 72 in a few years? I can hardly wait for that!

@Jason1145 we regret to inform you that there is one less Striker you will be getting

Way better than cutting down an existing Tamiya March 782 shell - nice work on this one! It is great to see more options for 1970s F1 shells, especially where custom paint schemes are concerned. A period-inspired livery would evoke memories of the numerous privateers who competed in that era, and March certainly had a lot of customer teams! Again, great work Perhaps @speedy_w_beans may agree

This is going to be so great! I am humbled that one of my builds should inspire yours - I will be following this one closely! And while I did struggle somewhat with reworking the step-side bed, I have no doubt your expertise with plastic will come through when you modify yours. The prospect of that has me further excited for this build

I do like these, though never had the opportunity to pick one up when I was most interested. You may recall TC member IBIFTKH's version on a stretched WR-02: Looking back, I guess by the time I could get the re-release, I was no longer keen on the chassis specs. I still think they are neat little cars, though - as such, I look forward to following along with your rebuild/restoration!

Agreed! And now, I seem to be wanting one... It seems that it could be a great "impulse buy" item for a Tamiya hobbyist, like the chewing gum, candy bars, and batteries at the grocery checkout line ... At the price I imagine, anyway!

A passionate enthusiast who has found "the model" - hard to be anything but happy seeing that Your enthusiasm for the Hilux Monster Racer/King Cab is great, and seeing a nice and well-run example in your collection only makes it better!

I see. You may be able to try something with the 3.5 mm offset uprights, though that offset may not be desirable. I do believe the axles are separate on those, however.

Lunchbox uprights have a longer axle than the F103, so I do not think the carbon-reinforced ones will work as standard. If a modification can be made to accommodate the axles, then it would work.

Are you sure it just doesn't seem that way because everybody pulls over and stops when you get the lights going? Ex-police bikes in good condition are often quite comfortable, I heard - a relative of mine was a bike cop for several years. I guess they have to be, if an officer will be spending lots of time on one... Nice find!

Awwww, it's so cute! Thanks for sharing the rendering. But can that be a standard-size servo I see in there?

An interesting chassis announced recently by Tamiya: the Lunch Box Mini on the SW-01 chassis. The link is Tamiyablog's; the chassis was also mentioned earlier on this site by TC's Mokei Kagaku, and on his Facebook page. From Tamiyablog: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Suggested retail price in Japan: approx. ¥ 10600 Expected release date in Japan: July 2019 ★ Condensed various mechanisms in a compact new design chassis that fits in both hands of adults ★ Uses an upper arm that works in conjunction with the steering wheel. Reduce the roll of the body at the time of cornering, reduce the fall. ★ The chassis is a gear drive 4WD that transmits the power of the motor located in the center to the front and rear wheels with a gear. ★ The body reproduces the popular Lunch Box in polycarbonate. Adoption of magnet type one-touch body mount makes it easy to attach and remove the body. ★ It can run with four AA batteries. ★ Upgrade to the 4WS (four-wheel steering) specification is possible simply by installing the “Upper Connect Bar (provisional name)” scheduled to be released as an optional part. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As part of the "Star Unit" line, it is likely going to be quite a basic chassis, yet the technical details and the involvement of some sort of Lunch Box might make it intriguing...

Ha! Well, I cannot claim to be a proud man while climbing

Yes; long-cage rear derailleurs are also equipped on my bikes. I am not using a compact crank, though - the Schwinn has a semi-compact 52/36, while my carbon bike has a standard 53/39. If I remember correctly, I specified the largest available cassettes for my builds because compact cranks were unavailable when I was gathering parts. The green Trek from earlier did open my eyes to the benefits of compact cranks, though I am not due for new chainrings on either bike for some time. They may be considered when replacements come up. While having the 34T gear has saved me during the very worst of my climbs, I think I would go no higher than 32T after this, and as my fitness improves, maybe I can look to go lower! I could certainly use the smaller transitions between gears on the top end. It may be a future topic for the carbon wheels, since those will be used primarily for flat stages anyway. Technology has come a surprisingly-long way since the days when the 27T cassette was for mountain-goat climbing - I heard that cyclists were smaller and lighter back then, too Incidentally, my Schwinn was originally issued with a classic 52/42 three-piece crank and a 13 - 28T freewheel. I rode it that way long enough to appreciate the setup I have now, especially while going uphill!

The putty has cured on the driver. Reassessing my work, it seems I will need to cut more plastic off the tops of the shoulders and build up the arms. However, I have indeed reached a usable width for the driver to fit in the cockpit. I then figured out how the scale seat harness would work with the driver: At this point, I am not committing to anchor locations for the belts; I am finding out if the size of the belts is appropriate for the driver figure. I will be studying the actual 312T3 to figure out the best places to anchor the harness. For reference: It seems the belts I have selected are too large, but any misgivings I had about the appearance were displaced somewhat by the sight of the driver figure sitting in the car, wearing the seat harness, with some sort of wheel in hand: The height is just about where I want it: I really do think a "Clear-Cowl" Ferrari 312T3 in this scale would be a cool project... The head was affixed to the body temporarily using tape. In its ideal position, it seems I have the clearance I need to swap body shells. The steering wheel will sit higher in the finished cockpit; the top of the wheel is supposed to be closer to the top of the cockpit glass. The stand-in wheel is a plastic loop from the wheels sprue of a Lancia 037, which is the same diameter as the steering wheel piece issued with the stock driver figure. The car is progressing: Day 1 of the hard plastic shell's paint curing is done. I will be working on the cockpit and driver while I wait for another good painting day, and hope to have the polycarbonate shell ready by that time. It is nice to see the car at this stage, though!

As the cycling season continues its steady roll, I have just taken delivery of several new cassettes and chains: A wider variety of cassette configurations would be nice, but I am heavy enough to continue wanting a 32T sprocket as the smallest low gear The CS-HG700-11 on the right even has the big 34T low gear, which would rule out my "Schwinn" (which can only take 32T at the largest) but allow my Tideace carbon bike to use wheels so equipped. I briefly considered making the 11-34T cassette an Ultegra one, but could not justify an extra $25 for a piddly few grams lost! I have already installed one of the 11-32T cassettes on my "Twin Star Racing" wheels: For anybody who has not seen these wheels on here previously: the influence should be quite obvious Since this picture was taken, the white-striped tires have departed. I also intend to order more decals for the rims - I had wanted the ones installed here to be white, but I made a mistake while designing the order The trend is for less-conspicuous wheels on road bikes, but I have always wanted obnoxious decals on mine, and so I will be getting them soon! I guess it was because I always remembered flashy decals on high-end wheels while growing up on bikes... All this would mean little if I had no riding to do, so I have signed up for three different cycling events so far this season. I will be riding with my partner for all of them, so each event will be between 75 - 100 km (though one will be 150 km, split into two days - 75 km/day). Once she improves, I look forward to tackling some proper granfondos!

Thank you! Having read up on my styrene tube-bending techniques, I feel sufficiently inspired to attempt a roll bar! I have some nice thick-section tubing I can use for a properly-burly one. That will take some time, though. For the moment, I have applied several coats of grey surface primer in hopes of reducing the colour disparity between the white truck cab and the black truck bed. I am not sure why I did this now, when I know I still need to make cuts for the tail lights (and possibly the roll bar), but the shell has enough coats for paint to stick. It is still obvious that the shell has two different plastics in it, though the contrast is less stark than previously. I found several cans of TS-7 Racing White. I was planning to use TS-26 Pure White, but feel the off-white tone works better for a truck. I have decided on the main colour, but am unsure how much of the truck will be white if I apply that colour first. There will be quite a bit of time to deliberate while everything cures...

At last, the rumours of paint weather were substantiated! I got my setup outside and got to work on several bodies; along with my Bruiser and Lancia projects was the Ferrari 312T3: (The Bruiser is outside the frame, awaiting another coat of primer somewhere else) The instructions call for the entire shell to be painted in TS-26 Pure White, before masking off the top of the shell behind the driver and painting the rest in TS-8 Italian Red. The white is most needed behind the driver, as there is no decal to replicate the car’s two-tone scheme on the top of the shell. A decal would be difficult to design and apply for such a complex surface, so paint is specified. Covering the entire shell would allow the red paint over top to appear more uniform, and it has the added benefit of brightening the overall colour. The effect of omitting white paint is not something I particularly want: The paint itself went on well, with the first very thin coats laying down without issue. Orange peel appeared later on, though, as temperatures dropped and winds picked up at inopportune times during the painting. I guess the rumours were not quite true, after all! I was disappointed with the result, but reassured by the fact that the white does not represent the final coat for much of the shell. I will need to work on the top of the shell, nonetheless. The successful metric for this session was that an entire can of TS-26 Pure White made it onto the shell. Again, as this is not the final coat, I am not too bothered by missed spots, which are mainly the radiator details that will be covered again with metallic paint. The top of the shell also looks passable. I will allow the paint to cure for several days (ideally a week) before treatment and the top coat of TS-8 Italian Red. After my paint session had finished, I got to work on the polycarbonate shell. The plan was to cut anything I needed to cut before washing and preparing the shell for paint. I intend to use the cockpit and driver figure I designed for both, swapping just the shells over top, so I needed to remove the driver figure moulded into it. It was not an easy task, and despite great care, the brand-new X-Acto knife did slip several times. Errors eventually led me to cut away the entire cockpit interior of the shell, leaving just the outer surface of what would be the cockpit glass. In the end, I did manage to do just that: Differences in the mouldings of the hard plastic and polycarbonate shells meant I had to remove more material behind the driver figure. Careful trimming got it to a point where the shell would clear the scratch-built interior part without issues: I may require some creativity to paint the shell around the cockpit area accurately, but at the moment I am happy it fits: The new opening proved an opportune time to fit the driver figure, so my next task became chopping up the driver at the shoulders and arms to fit the cockpit. This also involved shaving off plastic from the sides of the torso, to fit the arms more closely to the driver’s sides. The legs were cut by another 5 mm to move the driver forward, ensuring his helmet will clear the shell during changes. I made great use of the carving and chisel blades on my X-Acto knife, and consequently was able to achieve a better-fitting driver: This was the same work I would have done with a hot knife. While the carving and chiselling is far more time-consuming and produces a larger mess, it does allow for a more precise approach thanks to sharper blades and the ability to remove small shavings of material at a time. Most importantly, it also eliminates toxic fumes and fire hazards, so it was a good method. There were still fumes when the putty came out, though… At present, the driver figure is curing along with the bodywork. The arms were ill-fitting to the torso, but I managed to tack them on with putty. Plenty of filing will be required to get the driver into proper shape, but that will require plenty of time for the putty to solidify, too. In the meantime, I will look to build up the cockpit piece and perhaps paint it, along with the rear-view mirrors. The painting weather will not stay for the week, though, so it is possible I will be doing that in another few days. At least there is progress to report!

Plenty of waiting was done for painting weather, but at the first warm day I could not wait. I gathered some unpainted shells and got to work - alongside my Bruiser receiving primer and my Ferrari 312T3 taking a base coat of TS-26 Pure White, the Lancia shell got several layers of the same paint as the Ferrari: I started out with many, many thin coats, but the weather took a downturn. Unfortunately, this somewhat rushed my work, and orange peel began showing up on the shell. Fortunately, after one full can of TS-26 Pure White, coverage looks adequate, and the finish looks manageable. The white is intended to be mostly a base coat, as it is not presently going to be the primary colour for the finished shell. As such, I am fairly pleased with the result. I will pay more attention to the other colour coats, though! That will be in a week's time, at least, once the white cures thoroughly.

"Put it in H!" I guess it is just like the reader as we await the driver figure: "Put it in, H!" Everything looks great from here!