ALEXKYRIAK

Beautiful build, love the body work, and really really loving the photography. Great work overall.

They have slightly different mounting arms and positions if you go by the manuals. Which you can read here - https://www.tamiya.com/english/rc/manuals.htm An awesome source of info if you ever want to see other cars / compare stuff / go off piste, etc neo fighter I think is side faced rear body pin mount, whereas racing fighter is a vertical rear mounting post.

Top man @Finnsllc thanks for the links. Couldn’t find one myself somehow.

Hi all, am trying to track down an unpainted Keen Hawk body shell. Anyone have one of these? Thanks

Hey that’s not apples for apples....! Many F1 cars look beautiful, because of what it is they’re designed to do. The engineering and the form is incredibly interesting from a design perspective (to some people, not all, obviously). Whilst I’m not a fan of the current season F1 car ‘look’ (due to the rules which IMHO need revising), I find both examples of the types of car you picture above to be equally valid as cars and as objects of interest and beauty (love the Cobra!).

So main difference between M07 and M08 is the handling, due to front vs rear mounted motor? In respect of this question about motor mount position, what's the difference that the wheelbase makes on these chassis? Is there a 'best' option for a 210mm wheelbase car for example?

not a noob question at all! It’s likely that the car chassis rolls into the turn, and lifts the inside wheel, depending on if you're still accelerating or not. If the chassis is rolled slightly, the inside wheels will go ‘light’, as it’s not loaded up with the weight of the car. If it’s still slightly in contact over the terrain it can then ‘bounce’ if it’s momentarily deflected as it travels over the ground. If there was weight over the wheel it’d be pushed into the ground more and the shock would hold the wheel down whilst absorbing the impacts of the terrain.

A few years ago bought a hotshot because I realised Tamiya was still a thing, after 25 years of assuming it was just a ‘fad’ from my childhood in the 80s/early 90s. Thought it’d be a novelty to own one. Now I have 40 kits, 18 of which are built, and a mountain of parts and hop ups. I failed to keep the T-number below 1.

Very nicely. Ran it on smoothish sandy gravel mostly. Nice balance need to play with the shocks a bit to see if stiffening it helps a little.

Here’s my quite modified DT03 racing fighter. amongst other additions, this sports dt03 shocks, carbon damper mounts, egress wheels and tyres, and a flagrant disregard for the body cut lines. Feels much more old school than the racing fighter but still basically identical to the original kit

The stripes on the Racing Fighter make it go slightly faster

Dodgy soldering skills but this is how I do it for that esc / motor combo. You can tune the wire lengths if you so wish to minimise the amount of 'loose' cabling.

Wonderful build and thread, Sir! thanks for sharing.

Personally, I shim pretty much everything to get a nice, tight, pure mechanical action. I hate it when things are wobbling all over the shop. I’ll do it maybe less so on a Hornet type or that end of town, but I have shimmed some fairly old school cars for various reasons in certain places. (Sometimes this might be due to a mod that is being applied) But mainly, yes, I shim for mechanical tightness. Steering, shocks, arms, etc. As long as all the components move freely, all is good. Haven’t had any issues with this approach so far, but I don’t get to run that often either. It might also be that I have a veerry slight OCD syndrome going on!

Wow.... a 7 yr old with a D413? Am I reading this correctly? That’s impressive. Jonathon I love the fact you have your son into this hobby. I have a 2.5 yr who can tell me all the main bits on an RC car. Some of it in his own language. Battery: check. ‘Power box’ (Esc). ‘Engine’ (motor). Gearbox: check. Axle: check. Wheel: check. Tyre: check. Front bumper: check. Back bumper: check. A bit undecided on ‘shock’, so far. He can do the same on a 1:1 car (‘daddy-car’) He tries to help me ‘fix’ the car with a ‘blue’ screwdriver (tamiya craft kit, obvs) and generally likes seeing all the bits. I’m sure in due time , hopefully not too far off, I’ll be able to build kits with him. (He’ll be able to help me clear my backlog of unbuilt kits...!) Something tells me he may really like cars and planes in the future. What I like about RC is that I firmly believe it helps develop the mind in many, many ways for ‘real world’ application and skills. (This point could probably have a book written on it). In Answer to your post: I was about 9 building a Hornet with my Dad. Was fairly simple if I recall from what my dad said. Loved it, but didn’t know any other cars. I felt like it was alive; it was so fast, given I only had normal toys up to this point. This was a rabid beast of a machine by comparison. One of my most vivid memories growing up.

Looks great @rwordenjr , good job and glad it turned out well.

In terms of the rears, it could be that the motor and pinion isn’t set in the correct position and is skipping teeth when it turns. When you install the motor there are instructions showing some short metal shims (part BA16) which position the motor based on the pinion size you have installed. Might be worth double checking that the pinion is in the correct position relative to the gear it’s connected to, to ensure its meshing properly. Just to be clear, did you try turning both front wheels together at the same time, in the same direction? This should turn the shaft assuming there is nothing jamming in the rear to prevent it turning. From memory I think the shaft is supposed to be at a slight angle

So I just tried a test fit prior to cleaning the wheels and tyres. Lovely... much, much better. These wheels feel much more composed and correct, it’s amazing how such a small difference can have such an impact on the composition, character and stance of a car. I was waiting to be able to purchase a spray painting mask to be able to paint and finish the body, but with the good weather I might try to paint it outdoors (assuming I can find a window in childcare duties....!) I fitted the rears with a standard plastic hub, but the axle from the Brat donor car is too long. Currently I’ve used a small bearing as a spacer but this is not a proper solution, so I will have to do a bit more research here to fix this. You might just see the ‘spacer’ in the third photo of you zoom in. But wow! Lancia wheels on my recreation build. Feeling quite happy about this build

Well this has turned out better than I could have ever hoped for. I now have an original set of Lancia front wheels to complete the wheel set, thanks to the truly magnificent @Britaff. Thanks mate, you are very kind and a truly appreciated gesture. I have some Revell paint remover on the way, in case the de-solvit spray I have doesn’t do the trick (I suspect I bought the wrong type of de-solvit) The plastic wheels have the same type of paint applied to them as the tears as far as I can tell. The wheels will generally need a little sanding to soften out the rims a bit. The rubber on the front wheels is in excellent condition. Will need to clean the rear wheels to match. Will try to get these fitted over the weekend and do some comparison pics of the Honda city wheels vs these. These are much more bulky looking even if the diameter is only slightly bigger. Ah, the things that make a grown man happy ...

I also think black wheels would work well with that colour scheme. Will make the body pop out more I think.

@Britaff sorry for late response and many thanks for offer, top man! Will PM you. Those Front wheels look like the long lost brothers of my rear wheels. Thank you Tamiya Brother! @jeninjohnk they turned out beautifully! @junkmunki my desolvit arrived this morning, many thanks for the tip. @KEV THE REV was gonna ask about 3D printing these things are that rare...

ok so haven’t done much on my projects recently for various reasons, one of which is that I can’t do any spray painting without a mask, and those are naturally in short supply right now and much needed elsewhere. So with only the body left to do on this project, it’s been on pause for a little bit. In a mad impulse eBay moment, whilst I missed out on the hen’s teeth and the unicorn tears, I did manage to secure an original set of rear Lancia Rally wheels and tyres......! These things appear to be super rare. After I picked myself up off the floor, this leaves me with several issues to deal with. 1. I didn’t research if/how these could fit to the current parts I am using... an expensive buy, without adequate research, can be dangerous mistake. 2. the tyres look obviously a bit old and used but are in good overall condition. Will need to clean them somehow... but what’s the best method? 3. the wheels seem to have been painted in the past, there’s an old flaky yellow layer on it. What’s the best way to clean an old plastic component such as this? I want to restore it to a nice white finish 4. Without a set of original Lancia front wheels to match, the car may look odd or imbalanced, as the Honda City front wheels and tyres I’m using are a slightly smaller diameter. Will update here as I go, any advice on the cleaning and restoration of these old parts would be much appreciated.

Great stuff! I can’t wait until I can build kits with my son. My dad helped me build my Hornet when I was about 10, still have the memories, it was magical. That ‘toy’ was leagues above anything else I had at the time. Really shaped the way I understood how things worked.

This was my ghetto mod from the Plastic Bushes thread... I’ve also used tamiya nuts, bushes, washers and screws to make various toys and projects with my 2.5yr old son... windmills! I’ve got a lot more handy with stuff round the house since getting into RC.

Hello mate, you might want to try these: Tamiya 50593 4x6mm Flanged Tube I used these on a number of occasions for the same issue. I cant' speak specifically about the Yeah Racing damper so your mileage may vary! You may even have some kicking about in your spare parts box, as these are included in various hop-ups and kits I believe.