GooneyBird

Well, finally had a bit of spare time to mess with it again, and experimented on what would take the paint off. Before doing that, though, the body needed to come apart. The screwed-on bits were easy enough (even if they got stuck in place by paint), and the glued pieces came off with a little persuasion also. The mounting plate for the driver unfortunately snapped, but I think there's enough material to glue him back in once everything is painted up. Otherwise, it's not too hard to scratchbuild something. There's a bit of paint on the chromed pieces, and on the window. I'm sure the chrome pieces are salvageable, but I hope I can get the windows somewhat clear again. They've yellowed with age. Anyone know a good trick? Next step, figuring out what kind of paint it is, and (more importantly) how to take it off. First I tried the least invasive 'stripper', water. I figured that with the paint on there that badly it wouldn't surprise me if it actually was water paint. It wasn't. However, the next step up.... ...96% alcohol worked really well. Good! I put a bit of alcohol on a rag, and wiped the inside of the body. With a bit of elbow grease the paint absolutely comes off. I've done a bit of research on how to get the rest off without having to dunk the body into a GIANT tub of alcohol. Wiping it off with a rag kinda works, but is messy and very time-consuming (above patch took me 10 minutes of vigorous buffing). I'll try to find a decently-sized container, suspend the body in it, and fill the bottom half with more 99% isopropyl to see if the fumes alone are strong enough to loosen the paint. Again, I am open for advice.

A couple of weeks ago. I'm returning from a (1:1) car meet, when I get a text from my neighbour. "Hey man. You're into those RC car things, right? My stepbrother found this remote control Beetle in a house he's remodelling. You want it? Else it goes into a skip." along with a blurry picture of something red. I immediately fire back a text message, saying to hang on to it, don't do anything with it, and that I certainly want it. Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I exchange a bottle of (cheap) liquor for this: Yep, that's a Sand Scorcher. And an early one, at that! It's about 95% complete, missing little things like 3 out of 4 radio box hold-downs, and most of the detail on the body (wipers, door handles, etc...). The chassis has period-correct (early '80s?) electronics, including a resettable fuse on the speed controller, Something I've never seen before. Most surprisingly, the battery was still in it (and hooked up. Probably had been for the last 30 years). The case of it seems undamaged, and should clean up nicely. So, plans with this? Take it apart completely, see what's missing/broken, and start restoring it. I have no doubts about being able to make it a functional RC model again (though with different electronics in case I should ever want to run it), and I hope that the horrible red paint can still come off the body without doing too much damage. Ideally I'd like to repaint it in blue/white, though I have to say I'm partial to the Baja 500-look as well in case the red proves too stubborn and any attempts at painting it white results in pink. No idea if I posses the skill to accurately paint the factory blue-white either, and this is not a body I'd want to learn on. xD First things first, I hooked up the battery to my (rather modern) charger, and found that it still had about 5V in it! (Goodness me my charger is dusty!) So I've been carefully cycling the battery over the last 24 hours, see if I can coax a BIT of life back into. I have no intentions of running it with the MSC and this battery, but it'd be nice to have it sit at storage voltage on the shelf, knowing that at least it won't deteriorate any further. EDIT: Something went horribly wrong with the title. Sorry!

Upon reading Master Modeller, I couldn't help but get the impression that Mr. Tamiya is very much interested in WW2-era military models. Ergo; I think that his favourite RC might not even be a car, but rather one of the tanks.

And it’s sold!

Okay, so this one has a bit of a backstory... Last year me and Mrs. GooneyBird went to America. We had a lovely holiday there, looking at all manner of interesting things. From pretty rocks to goofy people, and anything in-between. One of the things we always like to today whenever we travel abroad is go to a thrift store. You'll never know what you'll find in a thrift store in the Middle of Absolutely Nowhere, Nevada. Sometimes it's cool shirts, fun books, and we always try to pick up a record with traditional music by local artists. One of the things I always say to my wife whenever we enter such a store is "Hey, let me know when you've found the section of New-In-Box Clodbusters and Vintage Sand Scorchers, 'kay?" And she always replies with "Sure, and you shout out when you find the pre-war Remington typewriter department". And this time was no different, except 20 minutes of us browsing this dusty store, looking at whatever the local fashion was 15 years ago she speaks up with "Hey, I found a Tamiya-thing!" and holds up this brown box she found in-between the piles of discarded moccasins and clearly-not-creepy-at-all dolls. So of course I couldn't let anything Tamiya linger out there in the desert, so home it went! Exchanged two whole dollars for it at the cash registers with the sweet old Native-American lady wishing me a wonderful day, in my bag, in the RV, back to the campground, across the US, to the airport, in another bag, in and out of an X-ray device, flew halfway across the world, in my car.... and eventually ending up in my pile of unbuilt scale models, where it sat until today. I don't think I'll be doing much with it, so if any of you wan it, you can have it for what I paid for it, but in Euros this time. The box is a little dinged up around the edges (it was like that when I got it), and there's a Deseret Industries price tag on it proving above-mentioned provenance. All the contents are there, and everything is unopened. I'm pretty sure I was the first person there when I opened it at home to check its contents. So, 2 euros plus shipping (I'm in the Netherlands). If you want to buy my stash of Spektrum radios and receivers I'll throw it in the box for free.

Price drop. No takers?

For sale due to finally upgrading to something a bit newer, my collection of Spektrum radios and receivers. This is a great set if you have a bunch of RTR cars that you all want to have on a single radio, or if you need a cheap-but-good radio set for your kids where they can mix-and-match cars. So, what's in it: 1 Spektrum DX3R in good condition 1 Spektrum DX3S in okay (but fully functional) condition with wrap 1 Spektrum DX2S in parts, incomplete (I used this one for parts. I got it INOP and have been stripping it over the years to keep the other two going) 6 OrangeRX 3-channel receivers, all in working order 1 Spektrum SR3520 3-channel receiver, in working order A couple of bind-plugs. I always had one duct taped to the inside of the battery compartment for track-side shenanigans. The other two I found kicking around in my RC bag. The DX3R is in good condition and works well. The DX3S works really well too (it was my main radio up until about two weeks ago), but is wrapped and sticker-bomb'ed due to the original casing looking a bit sorry for itself. You could take the wrap off, but it's not going to look great. (Doesn't impact functionality one bit, though!). The partially parted-out DX2S is..well... a parts machine. Do with it as you see fit. Price: €SOLD for the whole lot. I'm in The Netherlands, so I'll have to look into shipping for your specific location.

Thanks! And hey, I'm not stopping you from getting a real Monkey/Dax. As long as I get to ride it at least once. The seat comes molded like that. The only thing I did was apply a tiny TINY amount of black plastic trim restorer to get more depth in the texture, which is probably why it looks real in pictures (and in real life too, it really helped) It's a great model, and it goes together easily and well, like any Tamiya should. Stick to the manual, and you end up with a great model. And cats were not included, unfortunately. Though the box did hold a strong appeal to Pixel, not gonna lie. You bought a 1:1 Grom? Nice! How are you liking it?

I know this is mostly an RC-build forum, but I thought I'd take you along in building 14142, the 1/12th scale static motorcycle announced last year. As you might know, a couple of years ago I built the Honda Monkey, and it turned out really nicely. So when the Dax was released I immediately ordered one to make a matching pair. As always with Tamiya, sprue quality is truly outstanding. It's beautifully moulded, with the little sprue nubs in clever places where they won't be seen afterwards, requiring very little cleanup. The instructions are clear, with thought gone into painting order, and when to apply which decal, making sure you're never stuck in a moment where you needed to apply a decal 3 steps sooner because now you can't realistically reach it anymore. (Looking at you, Revell...) The first couple of steps have you build the engine. It's small, and intricately moulded. The cilinder and the head are separate parts, and inside the engine block Tamiya saw fit to mould a tiny little crankshaft, con rod, and piston, so if you want you could build this engine partially disassembled on a work bench or something. Next up is the frame, some decals, and sticking the engine in the frame: The rear swingarm is next, along with the rear brake and wheel. Half the chain will be hidden later on, but that didn't stop me from painting it anyway. (And thus, my application for the Society of Hidden Paint) Rear brake pedal, master cilinder, and brake hose going on. Now I just need to find a TINY wrench to bleed the thing: Now let's direct our attention to the front of the bike. The front fork went together well, even if balancing it as you build it can be a bit of a challenge: At this point in the build you start to get a sense of scale. How large is it going to be? Mini-Z-sized? No... About the same scale as a 1/16th Sherman tank? Not really... iPhone 13 sized, apparently... The next couple of steps are all about making loose parts that'll go on in later steps. Things like the headlight, air box, seat... ... and of course the handlebars. Oh man the handlebars. What you're looking at above is about 12 parts, each requiring painting and/or attaching to the previous part. Ergo, you can only build this thing one bit at a time. I think I spent 4 or 5 evenings to get the handlebars to that point. Worth it though. They look great. We're on the home stretch now! Tamiya includes two sets of decals for this bike. One to replicate a Japanese-market 'normal' Dax, to be painted red or whatever color you desire; and the blue Tamiya-branded bike from Thailand. That means that all the warning labels for the Tamiya-version are in Taiwanese. Now, call me weird, but I personally like the Japanese script on them a lot better, so I built the bike as a JDM-bike, but with the Tamiya livery. A hybrid, if you will. That means the white stripe on the front fender (apparently required in Japan?), and all the warning labels in Japanese. The decals were a bit fiddly due to their size, and I especially struggled to get the wheel stripes on correctly, but after another evening of making a mess on my desk: (Model-making magic. The ignition is on, but there's no key in it!) So are there mistakes on the bike? Oh yes, plenty. I'm still not 100% satisfied with the handlebars, one of the Tamiya bands across the tank has a small tear in it, one of the turn indicators is a bit...off... after the bike tipped over on final assembly, small things like that. Overall though, I'm quite pleased with it. And just as Link (as a wee little fuzzball) posed with the Monkey... ...I got hime to pose with the Dax, some four years later! (Oh my he's grown. Time moves too fast....) They make a great pair, don't they?

You’re very welcome. I only just saw your post this morning, which is ironic since I was at that very store last Wednesday.

Hey man. Still need a hand with this? I know that place, and have raced there with my own Mini-Z. Next time I’m there I can bring one and send it your way, assuming you still need it of course.

Hey man, glad you found this topic of some use. It's been a couple of years since I've sold the car, so I'm doing all of this from memory. I ran the car on an indoor carpet track, and had 55mm 28 degrees Rush tires mounted. As they were a little smaller than the 60mm diameter wheels it came with, I needed to raise the ride height a bit to get to the required 4mm ground clearance. I think I set rear droop to be arms level (so without the shocks connected, the arms would flop down and sit level with each-other) Fronts I had a hair over level (so a slight V-shape in the arms at full extension). I ran with the stock springs in the rear (which are medium), and hard springs in the front. Both ends had the soft sway-bar connected. (Came in a pack of two, I went with the silver one, which is the softer of the two) Oil was 200-weight, and I can't remember what pistons I used. Geometry was 2 degrees of camber on all 4 corners, 2.5 toe in the rear (stock setting), and 1.5 to 2 degrees of toe out in the front. Tires and body are the most important step. With the stock sorta-kinda Suzuki Swift it would traction roll constantly (which, because that body was round at the top, wasn't a big issue as it would usually roll back on its feet), but with the Volvo C30 on there it was hooked.

So, I'm weird and sometimes take very non-track focussed cars to a track and make them handle...somewhat. I got @Fuijo's TB01 to go around an indoor onroad track with some degree of success, and I'm still claiming that for the win. (Oh, and I did laps around another indoor onroad track with an actual RC tank once. But that doesn't count, right?) Anyway, a couple of years ago I took the (somewhat race-y) Rustler to an offroad track, and actually had a lot of fun despite the Rusty being all sorts of not suited to what I was doing. Now I have Bluey, which is slightly lighter and probably a bit better on track. Anyway, as we all know, 50% of your setup is the correct tires, so I emailed the track I plan on going to about what the local hot tire is, and got a set. Let me preface this and say I'm used to glueing touring car tires.... ... yeah, those are the biggest inserts I've ever seen. Two agonising sessions of glueing and stretching and bending and pain later, and I've got a set mounted and glued. Couldn't help myself and pick out the lug nuts with a bit of chrome paint. Notice how much smaller in the arch the track tire looks versus the stock all-terrains.

Well, I caved in and pre-ordered another kit. That's right, my little yellow Monkey is getting a brother! I really want the 1:1 scale baby-Honda, but I have 0 room in my life for a motorcycle of limited functionality, so I'll have to make due with the styrene versions.

So I've ran a couple of packs through it, both at a construction site, and with the recent bout of weather... At an indoor car park, where I had set out a small course with cones. (And after about an hour, got told to leave by the cops.... So much for that driving location). Bluey is performing admirably. I had noticed that sometimes there's a loud, metallic CLUNK coming from the driveline, but I soon found that to be the center shaft moving back and forth on the splines. It's about 5mm on the short side, presumably to allow for some chassis flex when landing a large jump or something. Anyway... ... nothing a couple of o-rings can't fix. There's another ring on the front input shaft going to the front diff, but it's a little more difficult to photograph so imagine this, but on the front. There's still a couple of mm of play on the shaft, but at least it now 'runs' into rubber o-rings instead of making a loud CLACK as it runs into the pot metal driveshaft.