StrokerBoy

Ooh, I was so looking forward to this. I think that shell deserves a better chassis/wheels though - either a more-realistic lower one, or a proper cartoon monster one like the original Lancia Rally or Nitomor's ace Aqroshot-based Subaru (below). This halfway-house looks a bit 'cheap toy' to me. No offence intended. Lovely job on the LED's though.

You could always make your own...

Yeah it is, thanks. There's a few glitches if you look closely, photos always flatter them. The green is a bit thin, you can see the decals through the doors, but it kinda makes it glow a bit which I like.

So, my first proper RC was a Midnight Pumpkin back in 1989, a couple of others followed but then I drifted away for years like a lot of people do. What sucked me back in ? The CW-01 Unimog release 4 years ago, which I spotted online while looking for something totally unrelated. I snapped one up straight away, joined this place, got distracted by other kits (as you do) and although I soon built up the chassis with a pile of hop-ups, I ended up putting a different shell on it to create the Fuzzbox. When I saw someone selling a new Lunchbox kit (minus shell and wheels) earlier this year, I grabbed it and this week I now - finally - have a finished Unimog. Well, it still needs the various lights wiring up and the driver painting, but it's almost there.

I recommend applying the paint carefully using an aerosol or airbrush, throwing it on rarely gives top-notch results...

New releases like this Rally Beetle and the Konghead make me very happy. It's nice to see Tamiya bringing out some new ideas instead of just re-releasing old kits. But also, I only buy stuff I REALLY love, and they keep missing the mark for me, which means my wallet doesn't suffer and I don't clog up the garage with yet another silly toy. Sooner or later they're gonna get it bang-on and I'll be melting the credit card with the rest of you.

The magic roundabout would make a fun late night race track, just sayin'...

It is. Ta. Noticed some other changes too - now it prompts me for confirmation if I click 'Mark this forum read', previously I only got that if I did it for the whole site. Also looks a bit different today somehow, text spacing or something else I can't quite put my finger on.

Stopped working for me after the site upgrade.

I put the stickers on my Unimog 406 today. The first 14 are very annoying. I guess they're supposed to give a clean border to the two painted areas. But if you've followed the paint instructions and made a decent job of it, then they add nothing at all. And if you made a poor job of it and have paint bleed, they won't help. Now it's done, I think I maybe preferred it before they were on.

Tamiya's Racing Mini Cooper has the grille moulded as part of the shell. The Monte Carlo one has a separate chrome grille part.

Tidied the garage today, so did a bit of stocktaking.

6 LED's for my Unimog.

As someone who pays for and is sole admin of a (non-RC) forum that is free to use for all of its members, I find that comment offensive. Just my opinion.

I had a couple of toy-grade ones as Christmas presents. The first 'proper' one (and the first I bought myself) was a Midnight Pumpkin back in 1989. It had an awful lot of abuse for a few years, but I've still got it, it still has its MSC and headlight bulbs (not LEDs) and it still runs fine.

Unless they're on here... ;-)

Finally tracked down a copy yesterday. Really good article, I was an admirer of your skills before but even more so now. Rest of the magazine was even more boring than I remember though, and that's from someone who still makes the occasional static model. And what's with the paper quality ? Glossy cover, then the rest of it is just recycled bogroll.

Fitted the various bits of trim to my Unimog shell. I've got proper Tamiya screwdrivers but the screws that hold the sides on seem made of soft cheese, so I swapped those. Still need to paint the grille and driver, fit the lights and roofbar, and fit the decals. I'll stick a photo up when it's finished, but I might stand a fair distance away to take it...

Nah, I look at it on my laptop during the day (during my lunchbreak only boss, honest) and on my phone on an evening. Only started having login issues since the weekend, although it's OK again now.

Happened a couple of times to me on this forum over the last 3 days, seems OK today.

I've sprayed the second colour now and peeled all the masking off. I think that once all the decals and trim are on and it's fitted to the chassis, then it'll look alright, from 10 feet away, in the dark, if you squint a bit. Could be worse, but I still hate lexan shells and there's no way I'm ever going to build my VW Wheelie Bus.

Finally got chance to have a go with this. Corrected a couple of bad overspray areas on the shell, not perfect but it'll have to do. Also discovered the plastic bottle it came in is slightly porous, so there's a pool of solvent on our kitchen table now. Good job the wife's in a different country this weekend...

I used to buy this mag years ago, but I got bored of what appeared (to my disinterested eyes) to be the same detailed tank build every issue. Zimmerit anyone ? I'll pick this copy up tomorrow. Maybe if they see a spike in sales, they might cover more of our stuff.

Got an HPI Plazma 4300 NiMh in my Lunchbox. Didn't know the sizes varied, so maybe I was lucky.

I enjoy doing 'em, though I'm not great at it and tend to put a bit too much paint on. I don't think I'm up to doing someone else's to be honest. I agree with Shodog, it'll be much more satisfying if you've painted your own. Take your time, you can correct any mistakes as you go until it's just right. Proper modelmaking innit. Having said that, I'd be very keen to find someone else to do all my polycarbonate shells for me.