El Gecko

Not Tamiya, but possible inspiration for a future build? https://www.revell.com/ford-bronco-half-cab-with-dune-buggy-trailer.html

I don't get it. I have those Frog UJs on my Blaster (the ones on the bottom in the pic), and they don't seem to have this strange oscillation problem? Yes, they were rough at first, until I put 2mm bumpstops on the trailing arms because the driveshaft angle was just too severe. I don't have a BF set to compare, but it has been smooth as can be ever since. I'm evangelizing again, but the bumpstops seem to work for the old hex shafts, too. It won't make them entirely bulletproof, but it will considerably slow down their wear. FWIW Both the Blaster and my Frog are on stock gearbox internals with no braces. 21t motor w/16t pinion in the Blaster, 17t motor w/18t pinion in the Frog. Also have to agree, that's a fantastic color combo with the Blitzer decals

No guts, no glory! (Bolt Thrower/Tamiya Frog reference)

I would second the GT5 suggestion if you want a wheel and trigger style. For sticks I like the FS-i6X since you can get a package with the 10ch Rx and the firmware already upgraded to use all 10 channels.

I look at it like fuel for a 1:1 car: NiCd = leaded gasoline, old tech, only used in the most ancient vehicles or high performance short runtime situations NiMH = standard unleaded gasoline, of various octanes (the car runs better on 91 premium, but cheapo 87 will work just as well for most cases) Lipo = methanol, true race gas, dangerous and only really necessary for the highest performance vehicles I still have some old NiCds that will hold useful charges, but the runtime is very short (low mpg, high power). The NiMHs don't peak out at quite as high of a voltage, but the runtime is way longer (high mpg, slightly lower power). Based on my experience with my cousin's Lipo, you get high mpg and high power, but the danger factor is much higher, and my house is more important than having fast toys. If I had a full on racing program and was actually trying to be competitive, possibly possibly maybe I would think about looking at Lipo. But for a daily driver that races on the weekends (Racing by Post style), standard unleaded gas is perfectly usable and fun. If I need a boost, I just add more NiMH cells.

I was thinking the same thing... I'm gonna need a whole bunch more corner markers for this track! (hopefully I manage to participate this round) I found the slotcar version I made but it was too limited and @MontyMole's drawing is better. I'd vote for that one.

Cool, maybe I'll finally be able to find a good deal on a set of those gorgeous gold Fox wheels (and tires)!

Late xmas delivery, I rarely have the opportunity to post on this thread but my tire and wheel situation has been totally leveled up for the new year, thanks Santa! (aka @Frog Jumper)

Stolen out of a Tootsietoy "Night Hopper" push toy (the same car that sacrificed its body for one of my Hawks)

I think I made a simplified version years ago as a slot car track. Let me see if I can dig it up and rescale it.

FINALLY got around to taking a few "glamour" shots of this old thing earlier. It started life as a basic Grasshopper chassis from @Bash and is now fully Hornet spec plus. I partially restickered my old Parma body which has been getting (appropriately) bashed on for a few years, but I think I might have to take it a bit easier now. It has been parked for the last 6 months or so while I painted the wheels/tires and V8 engine, freshened up the nerf bars, and made a few adjustments to the suspension. Looking forward to driving it again!

Haven't tried it on a Tamiya motor, but I have swapped bearings into many others including Trinity, and it's a good upgrade for any of them. Every time, it feels like it sets the motor free... simply better in every way. With bearings available so cheap and easy these days, it has become a standard part of my restoration process (if the motor doesn't already have them).

Yep. I feel like it started in the early 90s when ESCs really started becoming popular. Novak had a bunch of adapters for different radios, but they also introduced their "universal" plug which fit a number of different brands. Ever since then it's been a slow march toward standardization. I remember looking through Tower catalogs and trying to find stuff with "Futaba-J" plugs because that's what my Rx had.

That "skew armature" is the secret to the Conrad. One slot car company tried a "twisted stack" armature back in the day, and it remains legendary for its performance and smoothness. The electromagnetic vortex of resonant acceleration allows it to reach speeds, power levels, and efficiencies that no other motor can match.

Yes! Blitzer rear tires will fit Blackfoot front and rear rims, as well as other 2.2 stadium truck wheels. About 95mm O.D. mounted on the wheel, so yes they are shorter than usual. Typical stadium truck tires are 100-110mm depending on the tread. (Pro-Line Electrons, JC Carvers, JC Dirt Webs, Pro-Line Trenchers, etc.)

Good idea doing it from the start, it really strengthens up those lower shock mounts. I've had to through-bolt mine recently as well, due to a small breakage.

That was my thought watching it too, it doesn't seem all that much different than a normal factory setup, and it's not being pushed very hard on that easy surface. Converting a Grasshopper to the Hornet style rear end makes a bigger difference than front oilshocks in my experience. I doubt any 1/24 shocks would be strong enough to support the front of the car. Maybe some touring car shocks would work with the GH2 arms as suggested above.

Here's how the rear shocks are set up at the moment. Had some extra Hornet front spring spacers which just happen to fit nicely. The springs rest on the smaller upper part, and the larger lower part works as a bumpstop. All up, with the bumpstop and springs, it's about 17mm. The springs themselves are 10-12mm tall. The chassis stops about 1/4" from the ground at full compression, and I'd like it just a bit closer, so I still have to tweak some things, but it's on the right track (I might also leave it this way due to variances in tire heights, if I decide to revert to buggy wheels for some reason, etc.). There's two sets of secondary springs to provide enough force, but only temporarily. I have some different springs saved on Amazon, just need to pull the trigger and get them here so I can try them out.

And after making a wing and wing mount out of some more trash and reinstalling the "interior", this is how it sits. Drives awesome with this setup and the cheapo 17t motor, but it's having gearbox trouble at the moment which will be the focus of a future post.

Lots going on in this pic, fabrication galore. Servo mounts, sculpted from a piece of an old hose reel. A nice strong piece of wire as a battery hold-down, held on the chassis with a spring-loaded screw. Plastic plate to cover the receiver area, along with the 90 degree plastic bend and the servo arms to provide a front mounting point for the body. An aluminum plate this time to replace the FRP top front bulkhead brace, again patterned after the single original I was sharing between the two cars. The upright posts for the rear of that plate are the cutoff ends of a Grasshopper bumper, shoved into aluminum fuel fittings and drilled for wood screws. This arrangement is fantastically strong! I never worry about the front end anymore (except breaking a c-hub or steering upright). Kimbrough servo saver helps keep everything straight and true.

Similar to the rear of the chassis, the front is actually missing the whole lower bulkhead mount (the thin piece of plastic underneath), so one of the more recent modifications was to cut up a liner from an old PC harddrive enclosure and repurpose it as a skidplate. In fact the ESC plate above was made from a different part of the same enclosure. Luckily there are 3 screws up top that are strong enough to keep the bulkhead in place without it, but it does really stiffen the front end up despite being so thin. And gives me a bit more peace of mind driving it around.

This is one of the first parts I fabricated for the car, to replace the stock FRP plate for the ESC to sit on. Luckily I have one of them, so it was easy to line up where the holes should go. The cutout on the right was for a large capacitor to try to get the old ESC to play nice. This new ESC works much better. Added a strip of aluminum because it now doubles as the rear body mount on either side. Notice the different types of screws, some larger because many of the screw holes on this chassis are stripped out (thankfully none that really matter). Also notice the new shocks, Amazon specials, because I kept breaking shock tops and ball ends on the old white ones. (and new tires, wheels, ball ends, and a bunch more... some things I can't make myself)

That weakness has never stopped me from running it, though! Here's a pic of an early (re)build during round 7 of Racing by Post. This setup was pretty good, but had a lot of deficiencies, as well as some parts that I wanted to eventually use on White Fang instead. So I slowly started reproducing those pieces (out of trash per my usual), and now Black Tooth has a bunch of homemade parts while White Fang has all the actual Traxxas pieces. That's a Tootsietoy "Night Hopper" push toy body strapped to the top of it. More on that later

Been tweaking a bunch on this one lately after ripping it around a little bit this summer. Switched back to Pro Line front tires for now because they actually stay on the rims without glue (JConcepts Carvers seem a bit too soft for my liking). Also added some friction to the shocks, spring spacers to stiffen up the fronts, softer primaries, and additional secondary springs on the rears. I changed to the inner lower shock mounts to increase the ground clearance, and I had to dremel out some divots in the rear suspension arms so the big plastic driveshaft ends don't rub, no matter how high the suspension is set. Another big improvement was switching over to adjustable turnbuckles from the rigid plastic upper suspension arms. Now it actually has negative camber as it should! Drives much more predictably now, and stays cool since I removed all the friction from the drivetrain. Can't wait until the snow melts so I can go drive it some more! These are all the stock parts I've replaced so far. I also zip tied the servo saver recently, which made a big difference.

Ah don't be so hard on yourself mate, just needs a bit of refinement!? Some cutouts and a bit of framework for a cockpit, plus a nosecone of some kind? Did I say some cutting? I meant a LOT of cutting! What you see with my car is tons of mistakes and offcuts and cursing over the last 2+ years... it's been a constant evolution into what you now see, and I got really lucky with a lot of it. Plus I painted it red to blend in with the red chassis--without that, it would be a totally different look and probably more obvious that it's homemade. And the bumper off my Nikko Big Bubba gearbox (R.I.P.) just so happened to fit perfectly as a roll cage. In your case I see a great base that actually fits the chassis pretty well! Maybe just flip the wing so it's concave to provide downforce instead of lift? I like that you've stayed truly eco friendly by not painting, and in fact using all the same single bottle for the whole car... 1 bottle = 1 body. Whereas by comparison there are 4 body pieces on my car, and somehow I managed to take sections of at least 6 different bottles in the quest for the right look! (or the correction of a silly mistake) The one thing I will suggest is to use clear bottles if possible. Cut the pieces out to size, drill holes if necessary, and then just wash and paint them up like Lexan. Some of the pieces are even thicker and stronger than some Lexan bodies. The biggest challenge is finding pieces with suitable bends and curves, but if you've got enough framework underneath, there's always something to zip tie to. I also take a lot of tiny thin cuts at the end before I'm ever really satisfied with the fitment. It's a lot of trial and error. And sometimes like with this nosecone, I'll go through the whole process of finishing something, then sit back and think, well that's not right. So I let it fester, roll it around a bit in my brain, and eventually the idea forms for how to move forward. This one was quick, though. Only a few months between making the last nosecone and this one. It was really grinding on me.