VileQuenouille

I found the main hop ups for my Tom's Levin FF-01 build. Yes I only need one chassis set but the seller had two, what was I supposed to do ?

I wanted to get back into the hobby after a 2 years hiatus, one thing led to another and, yeah... I probably won't post a lot about the buggies because they're all very well documented here, but for the Tom's Levin I'll probably do a build thread because I don't think I've seen one from NIB here or anywhere really, and I'll try to find as many period correct hop up as possible to make it more interesting (and for my own personal enjoyment of course ).

FYI It is very interesting to buy NIB kits from Japan right now with the Yen being so low. I just got this NIB Buggy Champ for a grand total of 242€ shipping and taxes included, which is hardly beatable anywhere else afaik. There are different ways to do it, personally I use Sendico, it is super easy, just takes a lot of time to find the best deals.

Thank you! It did take a while and it certainly felt like doing a full wrap on a car, the decals are so huge lol.

First drive with the R32 HKS, Sport Tuned motor, stock gearing and CVA shocks, handles good but not that fast so I'll probably go for one of the gears included with the Carson tuning set.

It's mostly done, only thing left is to glue to tires on.

Bit of both, kinda like my boss. I'm taking it slowly with this car, I only have half an hour of free time here and there, I've been working on it for a week lol. I installed a few mods, CVA shocks, bearings and Sport Tuned motor. The Carson Tuning kit included a pinion kit, but I won't be using it yet, I want to see how it goes as it is and I'm not a fan of big speed anyway. The bearing kit didn't include the 4 small ones (850 I think?) for the steering arms so I used spare brass bushings I had in stock instead, the tolerances are quite tight and with a bit of grease they'll work just fine. **** this thing is gorgeous!

The shell of the HKS R32 is finished, I also added some details to the wheels with matte black and a chrome pen, and I started building the chassis, with some help.

I have lights in a few of my cars. I always use leds bought in bulk on Amazon or Ebay and solder my own harnesses instead of using stock kits like the Tamiya ones, this way I can run proper wire lengths and it's a lot less bulky overall. I also use small controllers plugged in the 3rd channel, they allow for 2 light groups to run independently and can be remotely turned on/off. For the leds I either buy them in warm white or I paint them transluscent orange because I find the blueish-white ones not so pretty, I think a warm white light matches a scale car or a vintage buggy much better. For the Lancia I used 3mm leds, this way you only have to drill slightly larger holes in the light buckets, and it all fits nicely behind the high beams.

Could be that they don't allow certain interpretations of their cars anymore, the CC-01 Bronco is quite scale looking and used in a "civilized" way, while the Blackfoot is more of a basher. Same with movies where brands often won't allow their products to be shown in bad ways, like cars getting destroyed or used for committing crimes.

I installed one of my spare Torque Tuned motors in my Blackfoot, first test drive was a bit of a mess, I think it's already too fast for my driving style (mix of dirt/asphalt) and I flipped the car a dozen time at least, now my options are either to revert to the silver can or find a spare body for the shelf (maybe an original one?) and keep bashing it with the upgraded motor. It was also the first test drive for my GF's new lunchbox, as expected this thing is a blast in stock form, and it drives surprisingly well on asphalt.

I started working on the decals for the HKS R32, I used the soapy water technique for the larger ones like the hood, it feels a bit sketchy, I'm always worried about getting proper adhesion, but on the other hand it's so much easier, it's the first time I manage to put such a large decal on without a single air bubble.

Unpainted body so that's good, the problem for me is that the packaging is so pretty it's gonna be a bit painful to tear all of that open, unless I buy two of course, that might soothe the pain a little...

2 x TT-01E Skyline R32 HKS kits, one to build and one for the spare decals and wheels, I might use the extra chassis for something else, I don't know yet. I also ordered a low-profile servo for it, and a bunch of 35mm servos for a future project, a rather large RC place my dad bought and never used, so he's giving it to me, 1.5m wing span. Then a few lipo bags (finally), and last but not least, a new king size bed for the little ones.