B.RAD

Just get it bought 😁

Having said that there does seem to be a lot of spares on eBay at the moment for the Dirt Hog, so might not be all that bad. Any thoughts on this buggy?

Thanks Terry. Very useful to know. I must admit part of the fun so far has been modifying, upgrading and improving the Tamiya kits I've done. Parts haven't been all that easy to source given the current circumstances, but generally I've been able to get what I need. Something like the Dirt Hog would be especially hard to service and maintain though I guess?

Thanks @Wooders28, this is good advice. I'd be very happy with a 2nd hand race buggy for a reasonable price. Any thoughts on the Kyosho Dirt Hog?

These are truly awesome looking buggies and probably what I should get, but I don't think I can justify the cost. At north of £300, but without any electrics, wheels or tyres, I'll be looking at well over £400, or £500 in some circumstances, before they get moving. They do look amazing though! I might have to give it more thought, I do have the motor and ESC combo already, so it would just be a transmitter/receiver and the wheels and tyres really. Same goes for this magnificent looking beast sadly! Although at £40 more than the Javelin/Optima, I guess I'd get a fair bit more buggy for a small increase in spend? I do really, really like the look of the Javelin though! A very cool looking buggy!

So Javelin and Optima are both available at £319 - is there any difference between them other than the body? Which is considered the better car?

Oh my word, the Top Force Evo is a seriously cool looking piece of kit! Looks absolutely stunning. The price is slightly off-putting though, for the abuse my RC cars get, I think I would feel a bit precious about something with that price tag. Seriously gorgeous though!!!

Awesome! I'm liking the Turbo Scorpion very much 👍

@SuperJoeUK I must admit the Javelin does look very, very good! Tempting!

Would it cope with the 4000kv ezrun motor? I should add - I'm open to second hand options too, doesn't have to be new.

Some better photos in the daylight:

Terra Scorcher looks viable, what's it like to run?

Hi folks My latest build is complete and I find myself without a project in front of me. Development of current fleet has them in a good place too, so I'm now at a loose end for RC related procrastination!! 😄 I love my DT03 and now that has become a stadium truck, I'm keen to get another buggy in the fleet. Must be 4wd (unless you can convince me otherwise). I'm not precious about brand, I don't mind if it's kit or RTR (although kit is preferable, I really don't mind either way). I don't have spare radio gear though so that needs to be factored in. I do have a spare 4000kv ezrun combo and a decent metal gear servo. Budget isn't an issue, I'm open to all suggestions, but £300 is probably the top end of what I'd be comfortable spending. Less is better! I don't mind a pre-order either but in stock would be ideal. 1/10 is strongly preferable. Brushed or brushless, I don't mind. It'll go on deans plug 2s lipo. If brushed, I will upgrade to a low turn motor. Handling is a priority. It MUST be a good buggy to drive on grass and without grip roll! So, what do you recommend?? I've seen some buggies on Modelsport like the Absima AB3.4 or the Maverick Strada AB, but I'm slightly worried about their budget nature. Any thoughts on these? Thanks all!

Finally got round to putting some stickers on the shell. I'm really happy with how this has come out! I used the sticker set that came with the Stampede shell for the windows and lights, but de-Traxxas-ified them by cutting out the lights individually and removing the top sunstrip part of the front window. I then used the leftovers from the original Neo Fighter sticker sheet to give it some Tamiya kudos, and given its heritage, a little nod to the original version with the sticker on the roof 😊 I'm chuffed to bits with how it looks now, just need this rain to clear off so I can get running it again!

Update time! Been quietly plugging away at the bodyshell over the last week or two. I experimented with the "score and snap" technique I've read about on here and it really was a game changer for me. Made the body so much easier to cut out. A couple of small mistakes with the knife here and there, but nothing noticeable now, and it was so much better to get around all the fiddly edges of this shell. Another nice learning point along my RC journey! ☺️ I chose PS-22 racing green for the body colour and I'm really glad I did. Not only is it one of my favourite colours, it looks mightily fantastic on this shell, and just so happens to be a similar colour to my son's current (presumably come morning time, previous!) favourite tractor. This was the most time consuming shell for me by far. The masking was really easy though, and with another new technique I've learned (where you peel back and snip off a small part of the backing, line the sticker up then press down on the exposed sticker part), I got the window masks on pretty much perfectly. A good two to three hours this evening cutting and fitting the stickers leaves me with this beauty: I absolutely LOVE it! It looks so, so cool. Ignore the servo wire, the photo was taken before I installed the ESC and receiver. I've gone for the Hobbywing quicrun 1060 brushed ESC based on a search on here for "best brushed ESC". They're such good value it was hard to refuse. Transmitter was just a cheap Etronix trigger type, but is actually really nice to use. It's definitely a wheelie machine! Pops wheelies like no tomorrow. I've only run it around the house so far, but really can't wait for a dry day to get it in the garden. My boy is gonna love it (and I might too, just a bit... 😁). A question for you though if I may - I'd like to be able to run the car at a snails pace, so my boy can watch it drive around the house, as well as outdoors. I can do this now with a very gentle throttle finger, but is there a way to do this as a switchable feature? Like locking the throttle at 5% or something? What a fabulous build this has been. I've loved every minute of it. I've learned a few more techniques and tips with this one, which really is fantastic, but now leaves me asking - what next?! I've got nothing lined up!

Driveshaft pins arrived today so I got the missing one straight in, and also checked all the others. The other side at the rear had worked a little loose too, so something to keep an eye on. Here's the latest of where the car stands now... I had to nip a little out of the ESC mount to get the significantly larger goolRC motor to fit. But it's all in, and pretty neat too. Can't wait to try it, just need this horrendous rain to stop!

Awesome, great advice, thank you!! I know the goolRC stuff isn't going to be anywhere near as good as decent stuff (you get what you pay for!) but in this case it's worth it for the experiment and to see if I like the Stampede with more power or not. It's one of those weird situations where it might be just perfect on its standard brushed set up, and anything more ruins it, but part of the fun is trying stuff and finding out for myself! So easy to revert back to standard and just change the pinion if needs be 😊 If it copes alright with this and I think it can take more power, I will check out the Castle combos 👍

Not possible. 17t is the max, and that is apparently good for well over 60mph so defo overkill for me! I think 13t would be the ideal balance but I'll experiment with the 15t and see how it goes.

@lsear2905 thanks very much! Glad you like it 🙂 Lowering the body is a great idea! I'll add that to the list. I think I might have some shorter screws kicking about somewhere too. I have a set of the black chrome wheels with the Talon tyres waiting to go on. I'll do a back to back test on my next run to see what the difference is here, I'm hoping slightly reduced grip roll and more slide in the corners, but we'll see! These shocks feel really nice in operation, what benefits would the Proline shocks offer? I've already started to crack the rear tub! I'll put some gaffa tape on the back now before it gets any worse 👍

Thanks - I do have a bit of an update here. I fitted the 4000kv motor and ESC combo on the standard 9t pinion and ran the truck on 2s lipo. It was quicker again, but not ballistic. It's like 5-10% quicker each stage (NiMH to lipo, brushed to brushless). Given I've run that same motor and ESC combo in my DT03 buggy and it was absolutely bonkers fast, it was a massive disappointment for it to be only marginally quicker. On the positive side, it was a bit faster, and still very driveable and enjoyable to run. Now I'm on a sort of quest to find the point at which the car is super fast and still driveable. So, I've bought a 15t pinion and installed that. Might be too much of a leap up, so I've bought a cheap goolRC 3800kv motor and ESC combo and put that in so if the motor fries, I won't be too bothered. Will update on my main thread.

Good tip, thanks. I'll do some research later tonight 👍

I'm up for it!

That's a brilliant link, thank you for sharing. Every upgrade I'll ever need when I start breaking stuff! My kit came with a 9t pinion, which explains why I felt it was running out of gear. It will take up to a 17t pinion, I've opted for a 15t to see what that's like. That link recommends an 11t though, so 15t may be overkill. I'll only ever run 2s through this. Because of this, I've taken the Hobbywing ezrun combo out and fitted a 3800kv goolRC combo set instead. Couldn't care less if I fry that motor. Waiting for those replacement pins so I can test it out now!

Could we do a bulk order for the rear hubs? I'd take a set, I'm sure @Bunty would too.

Thanks - that's exactly what went missing, and I've managed to find a source of replacements which should be here imminently. Then the fun continues!