BeetleLover

Nice Truck How come you spend the time masking off the bumpers etc? It's a lot of work for no reward as the finish of the laquer shouldn't affect further layers painted on by brush... James

Well I've been away from home for 5 months and we've just gotten back from a quick trip over there to visit friends and family. Awaiting there were all the cars I've been buying up whilst abroad... It was like all my christmas's had come at once! I wish I'd taken a photo of all the boxes stacked up at a relatives house, it was truly mental and highlighting my obsession! Waiting for me was: 1 x Falcon project 1 x Kyosho Cosmo project 2 x grasshopper 2 projects 1 x Vanquish project 1 x Topforce NIB 3 x NIB Sand Scorcher rere 1 x TA RC10L project 1 x Thunder dragon project 1 x Thundershot project 1 x boomerang project 1 x Super Sabre project 1 x new Boomerang shell 1 x new hornet shell 1 x pair of new hotshot resistors 3 x vintage remotes 1 x Brat bodyset And the worst part of it is I only had 1 day to unwrap them, have a little tinker and then box them up again What has the Postman brought you?

I'm in Melbourne but plan to go to Brisbane early in the new year, love to meet up with a bunch up there for a run. Just went back to NZ for a catch up with some of Tamiyaclub members and had a great time. Where is GC Singapore? James

Yip. wanted to use the dishwasher too but that was off limits... I wouldn't suggest putting any metal in there except perhaps stainless steel (what cutlery is made from I'm guessing) Dishwasher powder/biscuit is generally caustic based so is corrosive and will damage the parts/screws. If you have some metal parts treated in this way when they are in a container with other parts the corrosion can propagate and lead to rust. The breakdown on Aluminium can be particularly disheartening, it's a backwards step for sure. You are better off to spend some time with metal polish and buy new screws. I have also seen several different metals (brass, bronze, steel) react in a caustic solution, I suspect I had actually created a battery creating pops and sparks. Needless to say I didn't end up using these components on my model in the end, they were pitted, matte and had crazy oxidizing going on James

OK, so you strip your car down, throw all the plastic parts into a tub, add caustic soda and warm water, a dash of dishwasher crystals/biscuit... walk away for half an hour / hour. Come back and rinse the parts and you will have found, dirt and grease has just fallen off, even hard to reach bits and with no scrubbing!!! I lashed my tub to the top of our washing machine when it was going through the spin cycle, the vibrations aided shifting the dirt from the corners etc... watch cva damper components come up a treat even all the ribs on the tops of the dampers, they'll come up new! I can't recommend this cleaning process enough and do away with the elbow grease and the hours to scrape and brush out every corner... James

Hmmm, looks like a carbon copy of my Team Associated B44 from some time ago, think I'll pass... Looks like they've attemped to cover some of the center gear, why not do the whole thing?! I much prefer the shaft driven cars over the belt ones, think this one will have an edge on the previous 501 etc... James

I would use some Milliputt on either sides of the hole and fit it to the chassis to squish the blobs to the appropriate height, then sculpt the Milliput to have clean lines and nice shape to them (Refitting from time to time to ensure the height doesn't change). You would also create more surface touch down on the bar for a nice rattle free fitment of the shell... Easy! James

I was aware of a primer we used to use for painting crazy rubbers and plastics similar to the Holiday Buggy... I don't know of the brand or product name but the paint was Polypropylene based and was capable of sticking to pretty much anything. I have been using a really awesome primer for a couple of years which is a Colorpak product, Etch Primer Grey. Had great success with resins and using for priming styrene shells etc. I had prep'd my original Holiday Buggy but never got around to painting it but was confident having sanded the shell that the colorpak product was going to adhere to it... as it's name suggests it really digs into the surface. Something else worth experimenting with is spraying the shell with a PS paint and then spraying clear gloss over the top to get the shine... I reckon this would work well, polycarbonate isn't the best surface for regular paint to adhere to either... Be keen to see your results if you try one of these 2 options James

Aha! Cheers for that! I think I am happy to proceed with those 2 slight modifications. James

Hiya, I'm without my cars around me so I can't work this one out for myself I have some Super Champ parts and I'd like to assemble a tidy one with the help of some rere Scorcher parts yet to be gotten hold of. Can I interchange a complete SS gearbox onto the Superchamp's chassis plate etc and expect the original SC Suspension Arms and single damper suspension to all fit etc? Thanks for you help in advance, kind regards James BeetleLover

I've just added a pair of New Blackfoot / Bruiser tires to my traderoom. Found in the back corners of an old model store. These are incredibly hard to find nowadays... Excess to my needs and saving for my wedding $50 US plus postage, paypal gift if you can. Will throw in one of my Evan heads for free too cheers James BeetleLover

I doubt the Lola would beat the Daytona Thunder! Dynatech O1R would have heaps more over the Black motor! James

I got it, could it be the 58153 Daytona Thunder? Group C chassis but came with a Dynatech O1R... that'd have to smoke the Sport Tuned ones!!! James

I have heard stories of Tamiya warning resellers who import the local (asian kits) into other countries. Asking them to stop and go through the correct channels ie the countries distributor. I attempted to become an online legitimate seller of Tamiya kits (from local distributor) a couple years back but was denied because it was not a Bricks and Mortar business... The local distributor would have looked good had I been able to shift a few kits and I reckon I could have! So what are you going to do, buy your Tamiya product from the over inflated priced low stocked model store or buy online at a cheaper rate from a larger selection and let some other countries Distributor look like an absolute legend! Does Tamiya have any idea how much of their product destined for a couple of countries goes around the world? James

It looks easy enough, and certainly home made equipment seems straight forward and cheap enough to create but from my experience with commercial equipment sometimes even relatively modest bucks can be deceptively tricky. I still standby the need to mold and cast the buck to avoid a deteriorating former/buck especially if you intend to form a few shells. There's a bit of knack to it, getting plastic to correct temperature, speed at which you vacuum (I recommend a valve to adjust the draw as the plastic comes down) Any vertical sections or near vertical sections can cause folds etc on corners so be clever with extra fillets and think about cutting lines. It will also be likely that you'll need to drill holes in your buck in corners and tight spots to ensure the vacuum can still suck once the edges are drawn down. One thing that can catch people too is not having enough run off below the level of you vac piece which can result in sides that flair outwards still within the detail of your cutline/edge of piece. I spent $200 - $250 US for silicon and resin to create accurate Wild One and Driver bucks. Not huge money but you've got to be committed if you want to do it right and take the time to get the buck right otherwise it can be a costly mistake. I also experimented with plaster and another similar casting stone (forgot the name, had less shrinkage qualities) you get good suction due to the porous nature but I wasn't happy with the surface, it had a light texture. I'd made Terra Scorcher wings but wasn't satisfied enough with the quality to offer them up for sale. Don't get me started on shrinkage and size changing a bit here and a bit there as well considering the thickness of your material scaling your piece up slightly, body mount holes can drift! Get started on that project it will be a real learning process! James

It really can be a time consuming and expensive process and quality largely related to your model making experience. If you found a "Toy" car of the correct model at the right scale you could prepare it by backfilling holes, eliminating undercuts and modifying features that might be too complex to get in a vac form. When you vac form you exert tremendous pressure per square inch on your "buck" or mold. A toy car under vacuum would self destruct so you need to mold your original preferably in a silicon rubber and then cast out a solid resin buck to vac form over. You could model build your car buck from scratch preferably from solid wood or laminated sections. You might find yourself having to bog and fill sections to get the perfect surface or shape... Problem here is quite often the heat of vac forming shrinks such things as bog etc and the buck will become damaged after each attempt to get a clean bodyshell off the buck. Ideally you still need to invest in the molding and casting to get a solid buck with nothing extra that can delaminate or become damaged in the process... Done right and with time taken your efforts will be rewarded, rush it and try and take shortcuts you'll be really disappointed. Best of luck if you pursue it, looks like a great car! James

Or maybe Frogleg James

I've just bought a Super Champ project, the previous owner didn't know much about it and had listed it as a sand scorcher. Anyways it comes with a bodyshell which has most of the features of a Super Champ shell but is missing the grills on the side pods, has a different profile I think going out the sides from the driver, different driver and also has a cut out where I suspect a steering tie rod would have been originally along the bottom edge towards the front. Can anyone help me ID this shell and what perhaps cheaper Super Champ clone it was from!? cheers in advance James http://www.tamiyaclub.com/pictureframe.asp...010031426_2.jpg http://www.tamiyaclub.com/pictureframe.asp...010031426_2.jpg

It'd be great if the offending showroom could be turned off from viewing until ammended that way comments, photo's and the majority of the entry could be preserved James

I think the re-release bodyshell doesn't have the cutout for the Resistor... I have a feeling the moldings on the rear gearbox might be ever so slightly different, I could be wrong... As far as re-re's go it's pretty authentic really James

I'm the same as Erich, 2 unread emails but I've never been able to find them despite clicking on every piece of mail. I'd trade them for someone who has negative 2, will see what I can do! lol James

Hey Brett, it's me James ex Wellington! I ran my fox around the Wellington offroad track, went really well but I did break the nose on my chassis before I was done In all honesty the best 2WD old school basher is probably a hornet or a frog just in terms of strength and ability to take some abuse! James

I've run both cars a fair bit and as much as I like the Falcon (it was my first car ever) the fox certainly has superior handling. The Falcon has notorious understeer so it can be harder to get around tight corners. The fox has good steering and the suspension floats better over the rough stuff far better than the Falcon ever did. Best fit the larger wheels onto the Falcon to have a similar top end speed to the Fox... Both cars suffer from a weakpoint relating to the front end. The mount on the front lower chassis where the bumper attaches will break crack/break pretty fast bashing, likewise the Falcon chassis where the Bulkhead of the front end attaches to the chassis will also end up broken in a short space of time. You need the CRP bracket that runs underneath. Parts are probably easier and cheaper on the Falcon and you can always make a bitzer up out of Bear Hawk and the Blitzer parts too to get better axles etc... I think the Fox is more dynamic to watch however! James

So who won?!

Hmmm I guess it all comes down to whether you want to run it or have it as a shelf queen. I don't think anyone could answer the question for you... I think you want to put it on the shelf but you want to give in to people telling you to run it... How about putting some cardboard under the chassis, tape trailing arms etc, put on some different tires and give it a couple minutes run so you can say been there done that. Remove protection measures put it on the shelf and move on James