silvertriple

Went to my almost local hobby shop this morning, to fetch a kit, and put my Nichimo Spirit FF on display with a few printed parts in a dedicated shelf, with a pdf printed on a side with a QR code to display my Cults3D page... This hobby shop is really dedicated to vintage RC, and the owner is very happy to show some of my 3D printing work, and I believe this will be an opportunity for any of his customers not having the idea of 3D printing to see by themselves and generate some ideas. He requested me if I can let a printed car in the shop as among his discussions with customers he knows quite a few looking for parts and possibilities to repair their old cars...

Final test prints for dimensions... The windshield is exact match... And i'm really surprised by the dashboard print: all the details on the dashboard were printed on supports (see first picture of this post) and it is really not that bad (I really like this 3D printer :-) )

Since a few days, I'm thinking about the Land Cruiser... I have a white one which requires a few repairs, and the only car missing in my Marui collection is a Blue Land Cruiser... And it starts to bother me. I have a new bodyshell, but the dashboard and windshield did not came with it (because that's the way Marui was selling parts : there was no NIP with the dashboard ans the windshield, which were apparently only in kits)... And while I modeled a Land Cruiser bodyshell, it was initially not targeted for printing, and further I did not have the dashboard when I did it, so it was likely way off... I printed one to do some checks, and the bonnet profile was way off, as well few other details. That confirms I will need to redo the bodyshell completely if I want to do something with my files... I spend a good part of my afternoon to work a proper dashboard this time... It's definitely easier to have one in hand to do something, and it is easier to measure the elements of the profile than basing this on the bonnet... At the end the profile matches better the bonnet. I still need to work out the two bonnet hinges, but this is much better already.... Normally the windshield should be right, but I launched a print to complete the checks. I will take some time to redo the Land Cruiser body shell at some point, but this time with the proper bonnet profile...

Someone happy to find files to repair a Nichimo Luminous contacted me recently to ask me for my mail address... And yesterday, I got a nice surprised in my mailbox An sticker sheet, original, from a 44B Rock'n City. I will have to plan for a paintjob at some point (likely during spring, as temperature is too low for this currently). I'm thinking about gun metal or dark gun metal... In anycase, I sent a mail back to the sender to thanks him as this is great. And it is also great to see printed parts on a repair car when people take the time to send you pictures and tell you they are happy with it.

well... Interesting car : it runs surprisingly well. Much better than a Tamiya Wild One, specifically because of the shocks which are very good. And it runs very silently, which is quite suprising. I was surprised there was no belt skips, but I believe it is linked with the fact I had the option TM-028 which allows to perfectly set the right tension on the pulley belt. Besid this, it is quite a sane car. It's only downside is that the chassis may be sligthly too flexible in the rear side, often resulting in motor plate bent...

There was some work on that at some point, but it never materialised (except a teaser on Hirobo website (about 2 years ago, probably 3, at least), but that teaser disappeared later on, and since then no word about it)...

An opportunity for a cheap chassis last week I discuss myself about taking it or not for a few day, and finally decided to get it... It was not really expensive anyway, and althought there is some damage on it, I know that I can find what is required to make this a great car at the end, and further, I already know that I should be able to do all the missing parts (as I still have the Mercury of my friend Pascal in parts until I finish the CAD model). The format of this chassis is even more impressive in hand. It's weird, it has very wide track (I don't think it was the norm when it was out on the market), and the suspension travels are huge... And the bumper is positionned in a way that whatever angle the car would arrive from a jump, wheels would be first on the ground... This is slightly too modern car for my taste, but I will have to get it ran at some point, just for the sake of knowing how it works...

I had the TPU in the printer, ready to roll (and dried as I just printed a sample of 44B rock'n Vega Bumper), so I thought about printing a Bumper to replace the missing one for the Bearcat SS n°2. The overhang makes it is not perfect... But for a runner, that will do the work...

Someone asked me if I can do a Vega Bumper model. He has one brand new in a box, and he has a Vega without Bumper. Challenge accepted... He gave me meausrements and I started to model it. Then asked for a few additional measures, in particular to determine than angle of the fold... A chat and a print later (TPU-95A)... The print quality is surprisingly good (I think I never got such result with a TPU print)...

A second Shogun, complete this time, and with a nice box :-)

I'm not sure I'll publish the Land Cruiser or the CJ-7 bodyshell at any point of time, but I have included all the parts published in this specific collection in cults3D, and if I add the other bodyshell, they'll join this collection https://cults3d.com/en/design-collections/marcweckerfr/marui-super-wheelie-and-big-bear

Alternatively, at least for tires, you may have a look at cults3D : I published a lot of Marui tire models with the details of how to print them yesterday... That includes the Super Wheelie wheels. And by the way, at the rare exception of metal hardware, all the parts for Super Wheelies chassis and my Mitsubishi bodyshell are as well on cults3D...

Well... Around here (France), a Super Wheelie is not something rare. It was sold by pallets and many kids have one in the Eighties... They were cheaper than any Tamiya model with a similar 540 silver can, and the same price than the lowest range Tamiya offers with 380 motor. There were so frequent we had a race category speicifcally designed for it. Many have been modified to add shocks on rear and front to make handling easier... And there is still some people presenting them at super expensive price (being tire or cars), just because they are so called rare. They are generally listed for months or even years at those prices...

This Marui Mistubishi Jeep is quite interesting, somehow... It appeared in Marui RC catalog from 1986, on the same page as the Marui Samurai (MT60-RC10), just behind the kit 7 (CJ-7 Golden Eagle) and 8 (Toyota Land Cruiser), which were both 7,2V re-edition of the 6V version from 1983... But the story don't stop there. I already mentionned that there was parts for the Mitsubishi Jeep on the original Roll cage parts cluster as the roll bar front part width was not the same between the Toyota (short), CJ-7 (long), and medium (design for the Mitsubishi)... I had in my Marui document folders some pictures I gathered when I was searching information on the Hunter, and I found some interesting things on those... The Hunter on those pics were still a prototype, without its definitive bodyshell (presumably a Tamiya Rough Rider bodyshell with some modification at that stage), with some other indication it was still a prototype (there is a motor cover with a air vent, and the final rear monoshock is not in place, but some springs setup (which I found indications there was some provisions in the cluster with an number present and unused on the Hunter cluster). I had this picture only for the Hunter research... It's likely dated from late 1983 or early 1984. And when looking back at this picture I can see some indications the CJ-7 presented on the picture was not final yet : the bumper is different from the one which was released at the end. The Datsun Pick up which is presnt in the picture is also not the Big Bear : the wheelbase is still there, but the wheels are not the final ones : it is still with the Super Wheelie wheels... Big Bear Wheels came later. Another picture I found later on is taken from a Japanase magazine, and is closer to the release of both Big Bear and Hunter as the Hunter is in its final mk1 form, while the Big Bear is now closer to the final version (bodyshell in its final form, monster truck tires but not the final ones, the final ones were even larger). And the Datsun Pick-up is still there, as well as the Mitsubishi Jeep... Ultimately, this is also indicating this car was planned by Marui as soon as they started the Super Wheelie project. It was never released, maybe for licensing reason or because the bodyshell was too close in its form from the Wild WIlly from Tamiya (based on Willys Jeep, most likely)...

Marui SUper Wheelie wheels :-). Their resistance is generally good : I got some sets, and they are rarely cracked or with flat spots... It looks like the spikes of those one are quite worn compared to the ones I'm use to see around here...