Ferruz

Saw it, it reminds me a lot of this ... but not in the most comfortable way. I love both the Hornet and the Stratos, but I have a hard time seeing them together. I know it's been done already (look at the brilliantly executed Super Dragon by @Mechanic AH, dressed in a Lancia Stratos Alitalia livery) but I just can't really wrap my head around the concept of a Strathornet

Nice choice bud, I think Modelo is a mighty good beer! Glad you like the car, it was definitely worth all the effort in the end. Cheers! 🍻

Thank you. I am over the moon with the final result but yes, bringing all that gold to match proved to be a challenge. The decals from MCI -hit or miss in my experience, this time luckily close to impeccable- needed the extra boost of the mirror finishing. The original gold I previously used on my RC10JPS, while nice and vintage looking, was a bit on the beige side for the bling thing I envisioned, and the mirror option was the right solution to that. The wheels represented the biggest issue and delayed my build by over six months, but am I glad I put in the time to solve the problem. While still not a perfect match to the elusive Kyosho gold, they blend magically with the rest of the parts, also thanks to the many shades in the mirror decals, and look absolutely stunning overall. Had I kept them in the hideous color they came in, no way I would have gotten even close to this result in the end. I remember you mentioning the same issue with the aluminum rims being way off shade @Tamiyastef so, if you want, I'd be happy to send you the contact of the anodizing company that redid mine. I can' t recommend them enough. Clear communication, flexibility in terms of doing small batches, patience and overall best costumer service ever. They treated me as if my wheels were from a 1:1 Lamborghini instead of a model car, while charging a fraction of the price compared to every other company i got estimates from, and were beside me from the start of the process to the end. They are based in Italy and I dealt with them in Italian, but I'm pretty sure they do business internationally (they didn't mind shipping and receiving from Canada, and even paid some custom duties in advance for me). This may solve your issue with the wheels and allow you to get excited about the build again. Thank you. Oh for sure, you will see them side by side very soon! I am definitely planning a photoshoot of the two buggies together, possibly at a scenic location

Thank you Sir, means a lot! And thanks @GToddC5, @Nick-W for the kind words. Yes I couldn't be happier with the end result, there were a few challenges along the way for sure especially with the wheels, but it all worked out for the best. I could just stare at it for a lifetime

I finally have some good photos of the finished buggy, though I will strive to take even better ones in the future. This has been an ambitious project, especially due to my own high expectations, but in the end I got what I wanted. Ladies and gents, I present you the Turbo Optima Eldorado 🤠

A beautifully done example, love the color scheme! Glad you enjoyed the build.

I tend to set up and use makeshift-everything, but I know I should get a nice mat eventually. That tinker thing looks cool!

Not today but last Sunday. I went to a nice spot with the Big Boss and enjoyed the first springtime run (and maybe last, lol as snow came back with a vengeance today). Worth mentioning, I met a fellow Tamiya enthusiast for a change. He was there with wife, kids and a little fleet of monster trucks, amongst which was a Monster Beetle so I got to see one in the flesh for the first time. We had a nice chat and exchanged contacts for future bashing sessions. I was glad it happened as, thus far, TC is the only social aspect of the hobby for me, and I wouldn't mind some companionship during runs from time to time. Here the new acquaintance can be seen in the background

Most favorite Tamiya car to drive: the Hornet. Least favorite Tamiya car to drive: the Hornet.

Nice @Andreas W, glad you chose to revisit Imola! I miss the postal racing very much. Some shifts in work and life (plus most of all my less-than-optima time management) have kept me away, but I shall be back soon, hopefully with the good season... and with the same cars 😁 For now, happy racing y'all ✌

Not too much RC lately due to annoying rain, but at least I cleaned up my rc/studio space. It had become a mess after the last few projects, including the Kyosho TO. Since I finished the car, between extra work and crappy weather I didn't get a single chance to take pictures, but I can't wait for a sunny weekend for a proper photoshoot.

Sure! I'll search for the link and PM it to you (I never understood if posting links to sellers is ok or not), anyway the brand is Flylinktech, way less good sounding than how good the product actually is

I want the rust edition. Yes, I mean the creepy, ALL RUST Peterbilt truck from the movie Duel. Now that would get my attention and probably also my money.

Quite strange, indeed, especially that it happened to all of them at same time. I don't think that fully charging before storage was a mistake, as far as I know it's the right thing to do. I would rule out cold weather as well: where I live temperatures get to the extremes in both winter and summer, I often run my cars at -20 / -25°C and if anything the NiMHs seem to "like" it and last quite a bit longer in the cold. So, not sure what the culprit could be. Are those batteries all the same brand, and did you get them together in the same bundle? I did experience similar issues from time to time with some batteries, where they would just lose their punch even when fully charged. When running, they would only last a few minutes with lower performance, then cool off, back to the charger and it would show them as charged within minutes. I thought the cause would be some defective cells in them, as fair enough this happened after a few years of intense use. Then again, I have some Nicads from the Ice Age that still perform well. Anyway, I kept the defective ones (one of which somehow got back to life) with the idea of frankensteining up some home brew packs out of them in the future, but moved on to new batteries for the time being. Last year towards the fall I purchased a couple NiMHs packs, I believe it was on scamazon, and was pleasantly surprised by their performance. High discharge rate makes a big difference for people that are still on NiMH... that, plus they haven't skipped a beat so far and behaved well throughout the winter months. It you want I can find out what they are later and send you a link.

I finally got around to figuring out the TC photos site and most of all how to properly embed photos in my forum posts. It seems to work fine now, so hopefully no more posts with disappearing pictures from now on. Also, I think I can call my black and gold Turbo Optima build done just about now. Still unsure about one or two minor details, but that's it. Weather sucks today though (plus is my wife's birthday which means I am not in RC mode lol) and this one is all about the looks, so I will have to wait for better conditions in order to get a few presentable pictures of the finished buggy.

I see this can all over the country, I think it's a standard one along with a few other variants. Producers fill them in and add their own label on the side.

Opened up yet another can of 100% pure maple syrup and hey, it totally looks and feels just like damper oil. I should give it a try on some of my buggies. There's gradations, too: golden for soft, amber for medium and dark for hard! So very Canadian

I took the Delta Integrale for a test drive and, while not as noticeable since on ice, there was definitely some improvement to be felt. I could even spot the suspensions actually working under those mud flaps! It's going to be more noticeable on firmer ground. The playground of choice was a lone hockey rink, undergoing maintenance and therefore deserted. Made for a good platform for some drifting, and within minutes of running I had that grin on my face... can't get enough of seeing this car in action! Pretty sure it did! Although it's a brand new Lancia Delta Integrale kit that my co-driver is hangin on to Driver and co-pilot seemed to be having a great time indeed This was a great outing. Can't wait to see how these shocks perform on rougher ground.

@Superluminal nice to see a driver in there. Looks great 👍 I found some blingy dampers for TT02 and similar a while ago and decided to give them a try, intrigued by their low price and good reviews. I have never been happy with my Mini CVAs because, besides having very little stroke to begin with, they came with no springs. They are supposed to work with the ones supplied in the kit, which are waaaay too stiff, almost to the point that it defeats the purpose of having dampers altogether. Unless, of course, you buy the spring set, which I wasn't able to find at the time. The dampers, besides the odd branding (there were two or three different names on the packaging alone, plus another different one on the shock bodies 🤣) seemed to be legit and ok quality, at least at first impression. Right out of the box there's a dramatic improvement on the looks -I couldn't even notice the Mini CVAs in all that chassis blackness, if it wasn't for the springs; they have double the stroke within the same lenght, are a perfect drop in, they are correctly filled with oil, and came with two sets of springs of different hardness and an extra set of metric hardware. So, where's the catch? After all this goodness on the surface, I expected them to start leaking like a pasta strainer within minutes of use. But I was pleasantly surprised: I ran a whole battery pack in anger and no leaks at all so far, plus a huge improvement on the handling. Gotta finish sorting out the pictures of the outing and I'll post some action, but I can already say so far so good! I am really impressed with these nice little dampers 😀