magnumcyclonex

From the post below, I made a super short fun little video with the Peeps Bunnies riding the Tamiya M-06L Volkswagen Type 2 Van. Enjoy!

FINALLY!!! The body is 100% done! I wanted to give this VW Van a similar vibe to that now discontinued special edition M-05 Groovy VW Van (you know, the blue one with the hippie flowers decals all over it). Since I'm also a big fan of Peeps, I had my girlfriend and I put stickers all over the body. It was a fun exercise to do together. The last thing I did was for the photo op, installed some basic LED lights to give the van some good rays! Also took some video, but have not posted them online yet (Are we allowed to post links to our Youtube channel here?)

Today, made a small iterative update: Painted all the hard plastic parts (bumpers, lights, mirror) in silver. Used masking tape and/or screws to secure the inner pieces such as the light buckets and bumper fasteners to the body. The option to use LED lights is there with these light buckets, which were also painted in silver.

Managed to get the final colors on to the M-06 L Volkswagon Type 2 Van. In order of paint colors, I used: PS-32 Corsa Gray PS-1 White PS-48 Semi Gloss Silver Anodized Aluminum PS-41 Bright Silver PS-31 Smoke (top 8 roof windows - only a hint so it's hard to see from the photos) I kept the two front headlights and two rear taillights clear. Since I'm not going to do the wheels like box art, and simply keep them silver as provided, my next step is to do the entirety of the front and rear bumpers in silver, or metallic silver. Overall, as of now, I'm quite pleased with the result. All that masking for the silver lines paid off, and the VW logo is very distinctive.

Since my previous post a few months back and going on holiday to Japan (visited the Tamiya Plamodel Store), I finally managed to complete 99% of the masking I needed for the M-06L VW T2 Van. Just doing all the lines and contours took so long to do, but bit by bit I got it done. All that is left is to mask the top off where the white paint goes, and then I can paint the bottom half in my color of choice.

(Not quite today...a few days out from the past weekend, but hopefully close enough. The video DID get posted today so there's that). I hope posting a link to a video I made is allowed here. If not, I can just revise the post to include pictures instead. Took my Super Clod Buster out after a friend helped me with fixing it so I thanked him for it. Apparently I had not screwed in all the screws to the chassis. One was missing that connected the chassis to one of the 4 colored steering braces on the bottom. Once that was sorted out, the 4 Wheel Steering (4WS) worked exactly as Tamiya intended! No more issues and it could take tight turns with ease. Running on just the stock motors and ball bearings as the only hop up, I (or rather my animals who were strapped to the truck bed) took the monster truck out for a spin in search for some food. How was the ride from their perspective, what (dangers) did they encounter, and did they make it to their destination??? https://youtu.be/iidcZxUkSPg

It's been a while since I worked on the VW Type 2 Van body. I am pleased to say that it is all cut up, drilled out and passed the test fit. This thing is so wobbly, I'm going to have to use the XL urethane bumper and carve it to fit the inside body contours. Is there any aftermarket or 3D printed item to connect the front and back body posts for further stability? Preferably in an X shape? Anyways, next step will be to mask off the windows, lights etc., and then apply some fun goofy cartoony stickers after painting.

Added Fighter Buggy RX reproduction stickers to my TT-02 Raikiri body (even though it's not a buggy, just going for Tamiya colors), and more recently over the weekend, finished painting the M-05 Mazda MX-5 Roadster body with Lame Flake, Black and Metallic Blue, with Translucent Yellow for the front lights and Translucent Red for the rear lights. With the flash lighting from the camera, the sparkles really shine. Both will be runner bodies.

My hopped up TT02 for 21.5 TC spec with a new (previous body was gun metal) Raikiri body and the 2 different wings from the Racing Wing Set (53604). Type A, the flatter wing is painted in white, with some yellow backing (originally it was supposed to be the other way around, but I messed up. You can still see some yellow tint peeking through though). Type B is the high downforce wing, painted in red with white backing. For this body, I mounted the wing posts on the rear most slots, so the wing protrudes behind the body. I went with the Fighter Buggy RX (58184) colors and sourced some replica stickers from MCI Racing that I plan to use on the body. Not the whole lot, but perhaps some of the stars and stripes.

Not exactly "today" but over the past Sep 28-29 weekend, kind of did a speedrun of building both the M-05 and M-06. The M-05 is the M wheelbase to match the Mazda MX-5 Roadster/Miata. As it was my first time building this (both) chassis, it took roughly a full day to complete everything. Trimmed the body, but realized I trimmed off the back too high. Also, per the body instructions, I made the mounting holes through the back window, which was a massive pain and it obviously didn't come out great. After thinking about it some more, I realized I could have just swapped and flipped the rear posts and drilled holes through the rear trunk/bonnet where it would be flat and much easier. Just a few measurements and markings with a ruler and sharpie helped and it was a perfect fit. I guess this will be the "running body" for track days. I do have a spare body for shelf queen status so that will be done in the future. The M-06 was built with the L wheelbase as it came with the Volkswagon Type 2 Van (which will take a separate weekend to complete). This one I was intrigued because the servo/steering rod slants diagonally downwards from the servo to the steering arms so I didn't think it would work that well, but when I got it to a running status, trimmed it all up, it can actually go straight with no slop at all. However, I'm not a big fan of the battery cover that needs to be oh so carefully removed as to not mess with the steering rod. I feel like that design could have been changed. Also, having the motor ALL the way at the back means that I had to put the esc as far back on the little tray as possible and bend the motor wires JUST to get them to connect. Just barely, but they're secure. One other thing about the M-06 is that while the rear has a lot of toe in, the front has a lot of toe out and positive camber. Is that by design by Tamiya? Good think there's all these adjusters that can be lengthened/shortened to ensure uniform tire wear. EDIT: Nevermind, figured it out. The adjusters were the correct length, but the gold springs needed to be moved to the front and the silver springs to the back. After making that swap, the chassis sits flat (previously the rear was lower than the front) and the camber has been significantly reduced to almost zero. Still drives straight.

N-01 is the first version. It has a rounded concave shape. All the early MS chassis models came with this one. N-02 is the now more commonly seen bumper that is convex in shape with more attachment points for FRP/Carbon plates. N-03 is the bumperless front, and N-04 is the option part that allows for a wider tread. T-01 is included with all models. I don't believe they created a T-02. T-03 is the bumperless rear, and T-04 is the option part that allows for the wider tread. https://mini-4wd.fandom.com/wiki/MS_Chassis?so=search https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/pro-parts/jr-reinforced-n-02t-01-units/ https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/pro-parts/jr-bumperless-n03t03-units/ https://www.tamiyausa.com/shop/pro-parts/jr-reinforced-n-04t-04-units/

Update from my post on 15 Sep 2024. Finally got all the masking and all the painting done (not 100% perfect, but it's good enough for me). Went for the classic Tamiya colors of white, blue, and red, in addition to playing around with some translucent yellow as you can see. The rear fenders were also coated with translucent yellow/red/blue. The idea was to be able to see through the top level to the lower levels of the body or chassis. The top of the cab and the flat section of the main body underneath were intentionally left clear for the transponder signal to read through. Lastly, I used 2mm Tamiya Mini 4WD colored lock nuts all around (slight deviation from the 3mm lock nuts used on the trailer hitch piece) and some thin velcro strips to further secure the back plate of the cab to the main cab body (you can see a small line of black on the bottom right photo, at the top right side of the cab body). I already had the TT01-E chassis built and sourced the white wheels and rear bumper because the normal Fat Fox kit comes with black wheels and bumper. I think the white wheels make it pop out, and it's easier to see on a black carpet track. Hopefully I can take it out racing in the future.

Now that I've watched this video at least once, I want to say that @Saito2 seems to be correct on the actual timeframe of this footage. I was not an RC kid back in the day, but rather a Mini 4WD kid. In 1996, the popular anime Bakusou Kyodai Let's & Go!! was released to go alongside the Fully Cowled Mini 4WD series, which at the time used the Super-1 chassis. That chassis was released in 1993, after the timing of this video. In the video, the Mini 4WD chassis that was being tested under pressure is the red Type 3 chassis, that was released on the Rising Bird Mini 4WD from 1989. The older anime Dash! Yonkuro's protagonist, Dash-1 Emperor Mini 4WD was shown at the packaging stage of this video. Furthermore, various publications and magazines showcased throughout this video have the date of 1990 on them.

[First actual post here on the forum, but been registered since 2018...] Spent a good portion of the afternoon reaming out holes and cutting out a spare TT01E Fat Fox body for future racing. Still needs some fine trimming done but it's 90% complete. Then after that will be masking for a few colors, then painting, then some stickers (NOT the kit stickers thankfully!)