Ray_ve

Did 2 more rounds of parts cleaning for the Marui Shogun, so everything I need to get started is now available. Time to get this lot looking like a car again!

If it was a kit I would buy just to run it without a special custom paint job, I would be very happy to buy a pre-painted shell! The one thing I truly dislike to do is painting, whether it is on my house or a bodyshell. All the tedious cutting and cleaning and masking. Painting and getting paint all over the place and having painted hands for days as it won't come off my skin.... Waiting to dry as it is the last thing I'll do but I really want to run the car..... No thanks!

For the casual driving that i do, the wheel is my preference. The first electric RC's I had used stick, as they were the cheapest radio sets at that time ('80s). But when it evolved into nitro cars, the wheel radios were affordable and from an ergonomics point of view, I stuck with wheel ever since except for an RC tank (2 vertical sticks works better for those). Wheel can be driven using a single hand, thump on the wheel. That makes it even more practical.

That's the funny thing. I also did the battery cover, bumper, suspension arms... They were all fine, paint stripped right off and no ill effects or fog. Being confident that all was well, I did the chassis last and that was the only part that went south and showed fog. Could be a slightly different material as the chassis is not on a sprue. Oh well, stuff happens.

More work on the Marui Shogun. The plastic chassis had turned foggy white after a round of Tamiya paint stripper. I believed the paint had simply smeared, but it turned out there is a reaction between the stripper and the old Marui plastics. The outer layer will dissolve a bit! So gave it another round with the stripper to dissolve the white fog, followed by a washdown with water. Let the chassis sit for a few days to evaporate and the plastics to turn hard again, and a round of commandant cleaner to finish. Looks Ok now thankfully.... Got some JB Weld and glued a crack in the front bumper and an eyelet from one rear shock. Sorted all the screws and nuts for easier assembly. Next up, assemble the gearboxes. And strip the blazing Star for an ESC, servo and receiver.

Working on the Marui Shogun. The shocks are cleaned, shafts are polished. Re-assembled the front shocks but need to glue one of the lower 'eyes' that has a small crack in it. Then the rears can be assembled as well. Gave the chassis a rub-down with Tamiya paint cleaner to get rid of the unwanted paint spray this car collected while sitting in someone's shed. The paint came off ok I thought, but when I washed the chassis it looked horrible! At first, I believed the plastics were damaged by the paint cleaner, but it's starting to look like the paint itself was not entirely removed but smeared all over the chassis. So this needs a few more rounds of paint cleaner......

Ball bearings for the Marui Shogun gearboxes have arrived.

More cleaning of the Marui Shogun parts. Last weekend, I cleaned most of them all off using terpintine and a brush, to get rid of 99% of the grease and zand/dust on the various parts. Today, a lot of rounds with the ultrasonic cleaner to get the last grime off. The shocks are in now. They were filled with regular oil and have some scoring on the shafts, so need a good cleanup and polishing...

Got the itch again to do RC car-stuff, so stripped down the 2 marui Shogun chassis. Why are old RCs always so greasy and funky smelling! Shed-find united colors of Benneton Shogun. But all plastics are in good shape. The donor for wheels and parts. Good news, all gears on both cars were in near-mint shape, so very happy with that. Ordered bearings, next up, a quick brush with some terpentine to get the old grease off and then into the ultrasonic cleaner.

Haven't had much time for the cars the past few months, but came across some Marui Shogun bits that were just dropped off. I already have a complete shogun that I need to get started on but it requires a lot of work and the wheels were smashed. Now I have a new wheel set! And the gears feel decent too so happy with that.

I bought all the car's I geva 2nd hand, so prices are low. The used Chinese HSP 4x4 truck chassis seemed a good deal at 40 something euro's, but when it came in I knew I spend too much on that... That was a bummer at the time. However, with the standard improvements and upgrades, it has become my favourite runner due to its durability so that ended well...

My weapon of choice for smoke smell is warm water with ammonia. But given all the little areas you have to reach in a chassis it will be a challenge.

On my bullhead chassis, the standard silvercans run fine on 3S. But the gear ratio is offcourse in their favour. I also once smoked a 17t 540 on an 8.4v stickpack, so gear ratio vs tire diameter and car weight is the deciding factor, I do not know how to determine that.

My only fail over the past months is not taking any time for RC due to work and house DIY . Hopefully this weekend, as my street is being re-done and full of sand, and basher-Bear only requires a full lipo.

Had some time to give this lunchbox wheeled grasshopper a quick clean, and rebuild with bearings and modern electronics. Took it for a test-drive but my 6 year old daughter quickly claimed the transmitter to drive 'her car'.

Been looking for a certain pinion everywhere in the closets and boxes for days.... Only to now realise that it's mounted in the gearbox of Frankenstein-Big Bear. Doooh!

The Clod body sits very high indeed, I changed it to a more reasonable height. Here is a picture of my chassis with lower mounts. I linked it better this way. Front 25mm high, rear 5mm high (chassis to body, excluding the stud parts that goes through the body). Edit: I believe the body sits high because of the battery that sits sideways in the chassis. In my configuration, the battery does not fit anymore (or is harder to swap because you need to remove the body first) so I made a new battery place inside the chassis, lengthwise, suitable for 3S lipo.

Saw that one too and it is nice, but that mount plus shipping is about 20 euro's, to get a car running that I paid 50 euro's for... So was hoping to find a more 'balanced' (cheaper) item.

I'm looking for the motor mount that is on the lunchbox gearbox, to mount a 540 motor with the small brass pinion. Preferably not in the price range of the adjustable ones on eBay, something cheaper. Or an STL file for 3D printing is ok too. I'm located in the Netherlands.

Two complete brand new in bag old stock Marui Big Bear gearsets.

Being a Marui nuthead, I do agree that the Ninja is a very good looking buggy. It has smoother and better flowing lines compared to the Shogun. I believe Marui made models back then that were great in design. The Ninja chassis is basically similar to a DF-01 chassis. Or the coolness factor of the chain-drive Samurai, that was almost sience-fiction for 12 year old me. When I put my Ninja together after its cleanup and upgrades, I did have a hard time deciding if that spoiler should go on or not. It does look very sleek and stealthy without the spoiler, and stealth is Ninja. But keeping the looks box-art, the spoiler did go on eventually. Maybe I'll do a runner without the spoiler at some point. So many plans, so little time..... Still need to finish my Samurai and start on my Shogun as we are on the topic of cool buggies. And maybe then continue on two Big Bears that also sit here collecting dust.. Man this midlife crisis is starting to kick in.

Wanted to do some clean-up so I thought about selling a lunchbox-wheeled Grasshopper II that has been sitting here as a project for a rainy day. Took foto's to sell it on a local website. Ended up ordering bearings and a ESC/motor instead...

Stripped the recently aquired Marui Galaxy RS down, to see what's what. Gears are about 2/3rd way gone. The grease is so old and sticky, it now resembles chewing gum.... Some little plastic bits of one shocktower are broken off but complete. It uses 5x11x4mm bearings in the gearbox, but our chinese friends can supply those. Tires need a cleanup and re-fit, but are in reasonable shape for their age. So overall... little repair, replace, bearings and electronics and we have a shelf-queen.

Ah yes, here in the Netherlands we have the option to transfer packages to a pickup point instead of home. That saved me many times.

If budget is an issue... I user a cheap 2.4ghz TG3 pistolgrip set from aliexpress. The set is about 20 euro's, extra receivers 4.50 euro's. So alle my running models are ready to go, just pop in a battery.