GooneyBird

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.

Ever since I got the truck, I wondered why Traxxas didn't also include LEDs in the headlights. I mean, they gave us pretty buckets for it, along with clip-in LED holders.... Probably because the moment I type this, Traxxas will bring out a Pro-Scale LED set and continue down their path of nickel-and-diming you to death. Anyway, I have a soldering iron, and a bunch of pre-wired LEDs I got from the far east recently, sooo.... As you can see, TRX helpful even gives you wiring holders in the grill to stuff the wiring from the LEDs into. I wanted to run the wiring under the front body mount, but there's no room. However, going over is an option, and after a nice date with Mr. Dremel, there's a good spot to tie-wrap the whole thing. So how does that all look when finished? Well, bright, annoying, in-your-face, and therefor quite realistic for the average F150 Raptor-driver. I purposefully went with bright white LEDs, hoping to simulate the real truck's HID lights. I think it looks pretty much spot on! If nothing else, it lights up the hobby room door REALLY well.

So, after adjusing a couple of things (see above) I couldn't wait for a break in the non-stop rain to take the truck (which I've by now named Bluey) out for a run. There's a new neighborhood under construction nearby, and it was a perfect wide open space, with cobbled streets but not much else in the way of obstacles. IE: perfect shakedown terrain. I'm pleased to say the truck drives well. It's quick, quiet, and despite the dusty, sandy streets, the tires had an okay amount of traction. There's a lot of body roll, but that's just part of the charm. I have my telemetry in it, and when I had a good, open bit of terrain I went for a top-speed run. (I love how Traxxas' telemetry app allows you to save and replay a run.) So, that's 85kph according to the telemetry. Now, I'm not entirely sure it's 100% accurate (it gets its data from the speed of the spur gear, and extrapolates using the size of the tires so it doesn't account for things like wheel slip), but it feels correct enough and certainly fast enough....Even if this is just a ballpark figure. I plan on eventually taking Bluey to an offroad track, and speed is completely irrelevant there. Still, it's nice to know that it at least matches (and slightly exceeds) the factory specs in terms of speed. So, after getting it home and cleaing it, I tried to find a spot for the transponder. If you're going to a track, you ideally want to see some lap times so you know if you're heading in the right direction with training. On the Rustler there were a couple of holes perfectly spaced for a MyLaps transponder holder, and I found these holes on the Raptor as well.... ... except now the holder sits backwards in the truck. I don't think it matters much, but it looks a little goofy. Ah well, beats having the thing taped to the side of the servo like I've seen some touring cars do. Anyway, as I was looking at the truck, I noticed it's big. LIke, really big. Like, not 1/10th scale-big. I know Traxxas plays fast and loose when it comes to scaling cars, but with most of them based around not-real cars like truggys and disproportionat monster trucks, it's not really noticable. However, Bluey is supposed to be a scale replica of a 2023 Ford Raptor R, so we have some real-world data to compare against. I pulled up the dimensions for the full-size one, and compared it to the scale truck. (Excuse me converting the size of the real truck to metric. Anything but base-10 just breaks my brain) Wheelbase: 369 cm vs 384mm, about 9.6th scale Width: 243 cm vs 289 mm, about 8.4th scale Overal length: 589 cm vs 637mm, about 9.2th scale. Height: 203 cm vs 226mm, about 8.9th scale So ignoring the width (which can be explained away with the scale model having very wide fender flares), I'd say it's about 1/9th scale. Which, funny enough, puts it right in scale with a TRX4.

Just kidding! Yes, it's a RTR, and so technically it comes Ready-To-Run out of the box, and technically that would be correct. However! When I got the TRX4 the first thing I noticed was how thinly the body was painted, and unfortunately the same holds true for the Raptor. (The Rustler was probably silk-screened due to the graphics on it, and didn't have that issue). So, out comes the cling film and a can of black... Not my best work ever, but it was cold as heck outside. This is two coats of black on the inside.... And I added in a faux bedliner. From the factory this is body-colored, aside from the two strips for the body-holding system. Now at least everything is the same color. (yeah, it's in Dutch... The app follows the language of your phone) Another thing that Traxxas consistently gets wrong is their end points. A common complaint is that their steering servos burn up quickly, especially on TRX4s. The issue is not so much that their servos suck (which they kinda do, but y'know, different discussion), but rather that the end points are set too far out, causing the thing to bind and heat up quickly at full lock. And which cars spend a lot of time at full lock? Exactly, TRX4s. Out of the box the TQi radios are a bear to program, but when you've got a Bluetooth module and the app.... ... setting end points couldn't be easier. Note how far back I had to set them before the servo wouldn't strain and buzz at full travel anymore. Traxxas, you've got such a slick ecosystem. Get this right from the factory! This needlessly kills servos. In the Rustler I had an RPM sensor, a temperature sensor, and a voltage sensor; all linked to the radio and my phone through Bluetooth. Quite useful, especially with how overheat-prone the VXL3s can be (more on that later). I removed the telemetry from the Rustler when I sold it, because the radio that came with the Rustler didn't have the Bluetooth module installed. So obviously, I transferred the sensors. Now, Traxxas is actually kinda clever in that their cars 'break up' into chunks fairly easily. 4 screws and the entire rear section comes apart. Meanwhile, the motor comes out with literally two screws (One that holds the gear cover on, and the second holding the motor plate to the chassis) In order to get the RPM sensor in there, you need a couple of things. First and foremost, there's a blanking plate on the chassis motor mount that needs to come off... ...and gets replaced with a hall-effect sensor... ...while the cable has a neat little coridor to pass through between the motor mount and the plate. Of course, the sensor needs to pick something up. This is a separate plate holding a permanent magnet, and gets mounted to the spur using three lugs and three screws. At this point you can put the slipper clutch/spur gear back in the chassis, and join the chassis back together again. Oh, OCD pet peeve: the wire for the sensor comes out at the left side, while the electronics are on the right side of the vehicle. Fortunately there's more than enough length in the cable to do a U-turn and route back between the ESC and receiver. (pictured here without the motor in it for clarity) Next up, the motor. The temperature sensor normally gets mounted to the can directly, but I've got a whopping great heat sink on it, along with a fan, so it's in-between the ribs of the heat sink, as it doesn't really fit anywhere else. Combine this with the yet-to-be-installed voltage sensor, and the rat's nest is growing.... The voltage sensor is nothing but a small wire that taps into the positive side of the battery. Traxxas sells an adapter (of course they do) but I made my own by simply running a wire from the postive side of the plug to the appropriate plug, and pinning it in. (I did the same on the TRX4, and the Rustler) No pictures because at this point I was soldering, and making a mess of it, but you get the idea. And with that, we have data coming off of the vehicle! Next up, making room for my batteries. The tray in this car is ample, to say the least, and so with a bit of foam... ...my old racing packs fit just fine. But, I've also got a 3S-battery, which is too high for the clamp! 3D-printer to the rescue! (Yes, I have a second clamp. It's the same part as on the TRX4, where I replaced it with straps). I made a quick-and dirty extension, which means that now... ... higher packs fit! And now, we have a running chassis. So, just exactly how ready to run is a Ready-To-Run vehicle? Well, not really, if I'm honest. Taking apart the rear end of the chassis I found.. I found one or two screws that were a little too loose. Might have happened in transport, but you never know. The gear mesh was set too tight with the included spacer. Remove the spacer and you get 'normal' adjustability back The end points of the steering servo were set too far out. (This is fixable in software, come on Traxxas!) The stock ride height is off. It squats in the rear quite a bit. You get shock spacers in the box, but still... The body was painted very thinly. If you held it up to the light you could see straight through. Not all bad though, I found a couple of good things too! The pinion had an appropriate amout of lock-tite applied No shock leaks The tires appear to be properly glued Other than the endpoints, the steering tracks straight, and has the same amount of range (too much) on either end

Update: So it has a name now. It's Bluey! Because it's blue. And a raptor. Get it? Also, maybe I was sick for a couple of days and stayed on the couch while binge-watching anything the internet threw at me. Maybe. -------------------- With the Rustler gone and sold I was on the search for an offroad, outdoors-y, fast vehicle. I already own a slow offroad vehicle, which I use as my walkabout car, and so this one needed to fullfill a couple of roles: - Be able to survive a day at the beach - Look somewhat scale (I was SO DONE with the truggy with a technocolor-vomit paintjob look of the Rustler) - Hold its own on an offroad track, as one opened about an hour away and I'd like to see if that is my 'thing' after indoor onroad basically ceased to exist over the last couple of years. - Have good parts support. I break things. - Be a kit I'd been low-key looking for something over the last 6 months or so, when suddenly Traxxas decided to release the Ford Raptor R 4X4, which is a long-wheelbase Slash 4X4 in anything but name. I've owned a Rustler, and while it had its share of weird issues, it was generally reliable and good to drive, so something based on the same platform was just fine by me. But, I was on the fence about it. I mean, I already had the Rustler.... right? And then the Rustler got moved on to a new owner. And then my job gave me a nice end-of-year bonus. Sa-weet. I have no impulse control. Anyway, since I fancy a bit of a tinker project over the winter months (alongside refurbishing the TRX4 for new adventures this spring), I figured I'd post a build log here. Step 1! Okay, done.

Quick update on this thing: A friend contacted me the other day, said his son wanted to get into RC cars after being very disappointed with toy-grade stuff, and if I had a bit of advice. Well, y'know, as much as I'd like to recommend a basket-case Clod or SRB to anyone just starting out (ha!), I pointed him towards something RTR. So quickly the word "Traxxas"was dropped. He liked them, liked the fact that they're built well, and ready to go out of the box. But; expensive. And then I looked at the Rustler on my shelf, just sitting there, being dramatically underused for the last 12 months. So I sold him the Rusty for a very good price, and ordered 2 brand-new Traxxas NiMH-packs and a compatible charger from the local hobby store, to be delivered to his doorstep. I figured that while a 3S, fire breathing beast is too much for an 8-year-old, that same car on NiMH packs and the smallest pinion is actually quite manageable. Plus, if the kid gets serious about it and wants it to go faster, LiPo is always an option. With that said, I'm now in the market for something new, as things go. Maybe a Slash? Maybe that new Raptor R TRX put out recently? Who knows?

Thanks! Large American sedans are sort of my soft spot. When I was shopping for the Vic, I was chasing a '95 (I think?) LT1 Caprice as well, but that car, while awesome, was too much of an 'old' car to survive as a daily. I'm very happy with the Vic. I've found a group of Vic owners who use their cars in charity runs and such, and even though mine has no emergency equipment whatsoever, I occasionally join them and we have a blast.

So, I'm planning something neat for over the winter, and I need an Axial SCX10 I or II to get it all kickstarted. All I can find for sale are complete RTR cars with all the bells and whistles, which is nice, but I'll end up throwing half of it away so might as well start with a bare chassis. So, does anyone have an SCX10 I or II kicking around? Shocks and wheels/tires are a nice bonus, but not required.

Woo boy, this is an interesting one for me. I own a '07 Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor. "Well, so what?" I hear all the American members here ask. "That's a common car." Yeah, look at my location. I own one of 38 Crown Vics in the entirety of The Netherlands. xD (and yes, that is the Vic on the Nurburgring. It's slow. Vid here: Interestingly, most of my kilometers are actually on my bike. I commute on it, do the grocery run on it, and last year, took it on a 1500+km ride through the beautiful German Eifel. '12 (I think?) BMW F650GS Twin (the white one. The red one's my wife, with said wife standing next to it)

I'm so sorry to hear that. I wish you all the best, and hope your days are filled with laughter and love. You showed us a bunch of stuff we never even thought possible, and our lives are the better for it. Thank you.

For sale due to me thinning out the collection of unbuilt stuff: This body set is NIB, unbuilt, uncut, unpainted, untouched, un-you-name-it'd. From what I can see through the bag the thing is in good condition. The header card is torn, but that obviously has no effect on the body set. Bag is slightly yellowed, but everything inside seems to be fine. I couldn't find pictures of it online anywhere to save my life! It's NOT the BTCC Ford Mondeo, this body set is different. Ideal for your vintage TC / BTCC collection! Or if you're from the US and really REALLY into Contours this could be your thing too. (Hey, I'm not judging!) I am located in the Netherlands. Shipping is a bit dependent on where you are from, obviously.I'll do my best to find sturdy boxes. I have another body set for sale, and shipping costs will be the same if you buy one or both. Price: 80 euro / 70 GBP / 90 USD

For sale due to me thinning out the collection of unbuilt stuff: This body set is NIB, unbuilt, uncut, unpainted, untouched, un-you-name-it'd. From what I can see through the bag the thing is in good condition. The pic below is purely for illustration. Ideal for your older TRF to capture that mid 2000s Reinhardt-look! I am located in the Netherlands. Shipping is a bit dependent on where you are from, obviously.I'll do my best to find sturdy boxes. I have another body set for sale, and shipping costs will be the same if you buy one or both. Price: 40 euro / 35 GBP / 44 USD

Long looong loooooong overdue update: I believe the Basher has died. The last time out it suddenly swerved out of control, had a nasty crash, and ended up at the back of the closet. I took it out today, seeing what's up with my little guy, and found the chassis plate has cracked from the servo hole all the way to the side of the chassis, not only making it impossible to mount a servo, but also leaving the chassis very floppy. And of course, 6 years after the fact, spares are all but unavailable. Not sure what to do now....

Hi. No, I looked all over last night, and actually went for a second dive this morning when I had daylight on my side (yay, working from home!) I found the box it was supposed to be in, but it wasn't in there anymore so I'm guessing I must have moved it on and forgot about it. Sorry to get your hopes up.

I think I've got one of those... Let me check tonight. Functionality unknown though, as it came in a box with other bits when I bought my Clod, and looks suitably mad-scientist-y that I'm not touching it. Will update when I've found it.

... there's one from the Far East that fits almost too well. I got mine from Aliexpress, but I'm sure there are plenty other webshops that carry it. Anyway, the thing is almost as wide as the rear of the chassis, with the rest taken up by a couple of washers.... I had to take off a bit of the arms to prevent the body from snagging. But other than that it fits really well! (Please excuse the dust on the Clod. It's been too hot to run, and thus, has been sitting for a good while) And it should prevent the bumper from destrying itself when the fronts pop up.

Quick update: I still have the thing, and took it to a track last year. It did poorly. xD I mean, this could potentially be due to the fact that: a) I am VERY out of practice when it comes to tracking RC cars b) I'm not experienced in doing off-roady stuff on track. c) the track itself was a bit shoddy and covered in dampness d) Traxxas never meant for this thing to be a track car. Still, I had fun and didn't break anything, despite my best attempts.

Nice build! I can highly recommend the JConcepts servo mounts if you want decent steering without ruining the retro look. That's exactly what I did, as I wanted my Clod to appear stock but steer a little better. You can mount this AND retain the stock bumpers. https://jconcepts.net/regulator-servo-mount-kit-bas-1-set