Cuiken

Just did a test on a piece of spare clear plastic. Frankly scared myself. The result was really cloudy. The space sprayed in was perhaps a bit too cold (~10 degrees) but I think the issue is that I needed to apply more paint. Certainly more than I would when spraying colour onto the inside of a shell? Basically, I didn't get enough coverage to 'join' all the droplets of paint together. When spraying colour I will build up very slowly not worrying too much about full coverage (I'll get it in the next coat). For tint, I guess I need to apply enough to get a full flooded coverage for each coat (without runs). Does that sound about right? Cheers.

Test fitted the grill. Really pleased with choice to paint it black.

Thanks! I did start with the paint. It's the bit I always mess up on previous builds so figured I'd get it out othe way first this time, incur the inevitable heartbreak and then move on to the fun of building the actual mechanicals Only difference is that I've really taken my time with it on this build and (posibly not by coincidence) not messed it up yet. I do still have to tint the windows and add the decals though, so plenty of time for mistakes later on.... I've also never done any detailed painting (like the interior) and am very surprised how much I've enjoyed it. Possibly just a symptom of not havng left the house in weeks......

Much to my surprise the blutack mask over the headlights worked really well. I'd figured some tidying up would be needed but they came out pretty much bang on. Spraying the part worked really nicely too because you still get a little darkened silver showing through from the back of the grill where less paint settles. Adds just a bit more depth. Bit of clear coat and on to the next job (window tiniting).

Oh yeah and a couple of mjnor edits to the interior before overspraying with PS -55 one last time. FYI, PS-55 (clear flat) seems to adhere perfectly well to the acrylics. One last tip, it's work 'tapping' the threads in the helmets before mounting them (just use the provided screw). I gave the driver a potentially fatal neck injury by jabbing the screwdriver right though the plastic while screwing the helmet on.

Goo'd and then oversprayed in black: As usual, Goo-ing was a horrible messy task and I failed to get a uniform application. Once dried though it has really improved the rigidity of the shell and should help prevent cracking over the weelarches and around the bumpers. 'Masked' the headlights on the grill with bluetack. I have no idea if this will work. I'll spray this and the spoiler black with TS-29 later today.

Taped up the bumpers, wheel arches and sides. I'll maybe do the goo tonight. I don't enjoy this part but do thinnk it makes for a stronger shell.

Okay, so that's the interior done. I'm really pleased with it. I'd assumed I'd make a bit of a mess of the details but I think this has worked out fine. Might add a coat of lacquer but not sure if I should use a PS Lacquer or TS Lacquer. I'm doing some experiments with off cuts and paint to see what works best. Next job is to shoo-goo the bumpers and wheel arches of the shell. Always messy but probably a good idea given the 3800kv motor I'll be running

That's a fair point. I'll test fit the cockpit without tint first. Thanks to all for the great advice (esp @TurnipJF). It does seem like a bit of a high risk task. The rest of the body is looking pretty good too so it would be a shame to mess it up. That said, nothing ventured and all that.....

I'll shortly be applying some window tint to my XV01 Lancia shell but I've also prepped a rally interior. So, I want a bit of a tint but don't want to totally hide all my careful work on the rally cockpit. When using the PS-31 spray, how many coats would you expect to need for a light tint? Also, I'll take any tips on how best to apply the stuff generally. Thanks.

Minimal update today. Just a bit more paint on the interior: It's looking a bit 'primary colours' right now, hopefully it will look better once I've attempted to tidy up the seatbelts and added other details.

Not the Mamaba Max, the Mamba X (I think they are different?). Yeah, It'll be a tight fit but, on paper, it will just about work. The ESC is 35mm wide and the electric box is 37.5mm wide at its narrowest points. I'm not sure how to deal with the height of the cooling fan quite yet The XR10 was another choice I looked at but, as I say, wanted something waterproof. For similar reasons (Scottish climate) I don't think I should have any issues with motor temps... I'll be the first to concede, the Castle is too much motor for this car. like I said, I was drunk. I was watching some vids of an MF01X beetle last night and thinking 'wow, that's rapid, I wonder what motor they are running'. Turns out it was a brushed 21T. This XV is going to be way overpowered (at least for my skills ). Cheers.

Ta for that. Yes, I have a the 3800KV 1410 in my Redcat Wendigo and it is simply tremendous so I do have high hopes. On the Wendigo I use the Aux channel to switch between crawler and Racer modes. In the XV-01 I'm immediately thinking of using it as a means to easily set max speed while I'm getting my eye in. The Absima was senslorless so it's not really a fair comparison but, yeah, it was completely undriveable. Terrible cogging, couldn't even take off in long grass without the ESC going into saftey cut out. And, incredible fragile. I'm very easy on my RC cars but I don't think I ever took the Absima out withou breaking it. Anyway, another story.... Just waiting for the ESC/Motor to turn up from the US now... Well, and the rest of the build. Cheers.

Oh yeah, and, as per Big Jon's recomendation, bought a Tamiya 51000 hi-torque servo saver. Not gone for the aluminium horn yet. Thought I'd try the standard 51000 parts first. And, lastly, ordered a 2S Turnigy 4000mah nanotech hard pack battery. Looks like it will just fit. Plan is to cut a hole in the battery tray so I can pull the whole battery connector up and through (for charging without having to unscrew the battery tray every time). Sort of a semi permanent battery install. Bit uncomfortable with this, since I normally store all my batteries in a metal box, but the battery tray on the XV-01 looks to be too much of a pain to be dealing with every time I want to charge the battery (how long do those screw threads actually last anyway?). That's about it for today.

Surprised and frankly embarrased by how much I enjoyed doing some of the details on the interior last night. Weirdly calming. Thought I'd be terrible at the hand painting but I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Working up attempting the drivers themselves. Process was to mask off the spare wheel, fuel can and drivers, PS-5 black paint (because I had some) and then PS-55 on top. The PS paints seem to have adhered well, the plastics have not deformed and the acrylics have bonded well on top where needed. I believe I should have used Acrylic spray paint (TS-29) since the plastic appears to be thin ABS but I had the PS-5 to hand. Additionally, the flexible nature of the plastic might mean PS paints fair better (speculation). Either way, if you have some PS-5 to hand, it seems you don't need to bother buying TS-29. The other paints are all just Tamiya Acrylic pots. As a note, I thought this would be a terrible task based purely on childhood experiences of attempting to paint airfix models. I think a more patience and a decent paint brush have made all the difference. That said, let's see how I fair when I get to doing the faces.

Okay, so this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-51000-Hi-torque-Servo-Saver-Black/254804384468?epid=2255281787&hash=item3b53865ad4:g:OYcAAOSwoJBf0p2W Plus this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Tamiya-54121-Aluminum-Horn-For-Hi-Torque-Servo-Saver-For-50473-or-51000-M07/383920495154?hash=item596371da32:g:iAUAAOSwjVVVrNgh ? Thanks.

Probably a good idea on the spare body. This one is proving to be a real labour of love. The Killerbody one from banggood looks pretty goood for the money (especially given it is fully decal'd). Sorry for the noob question (still learning about the chassis and Tamiya parts in general TBH) but can you point out a specific servo saver you'd recomend? Thanks,

On servo choice I hoped to be able to use an old faithful amazon special (DS3218) but unfortunately it doesn't quite fit. It's only too large by 2-3mm so I don't think the car actually needs a low profile servo but I went with one anyway just to be sure. Bit budget but I went for an Etronix ET2035. It's metal gear at least so hopefully it will get me going. Curious what servo other people are having success with in this chassis? Cheers.

Going back and forth on how to power this wee car. Discussion thread here: As noted in the thread, I went nuts and bought a Castle Mamba X, 1406, 3800KV combo while drunk. I am still not sure it is really the best choice but it's waterproof and very programmable so hopefully will work out.

Reminded myself how to use image hosting sites. So, for anyone interested, build thread:

By popular demand (well, one person mentioned it in passing). A build thread of my Tamiya XV-01 Lancia Delta. First thing's first. the biggest challenge was probably finding a kit in stock. In the end payed slightly over the odds for one off of eBay when the latest delivery slippage hit all the other UK suppliers. Next, This is not going to be an attempt to recreate the classic white car. I wanted something a bit different and couldn't face all the decals anyway. So, went with Fluo Red (PS-20) which, I hope will end up with more of an orange kind of vibe (as per other builds I've seen). Full disclosure. I'm basically planning to copy this: I've read through all the comments and apparently this is PS-20 backed with White and then Black. Okay, so progress so far: God bless Tamiya for pre-trimming the wheel arches. Fully trimmed shell: Surprising Zen task of cutting out the window masks: Masks applied: Okay, so, this took maybe ten coats (two cans) to achieve but I finally got to the colour I was looking for. Initially it was looking very pink but gradually it built up to this red/orange kind of colour that I'm pretty happy with. And then backed in white and black Looking messy but I think it has done the trick. I'll leave this to cure for a few days now and then do a little shoe-gooery on the wheel arches and bumpers. After that I'll do the window tiniting (bit nervous about that). I'll want to keep the tint very light though as I also have this interior (masked and first coat applied): And that is about it so far. Appreciate there is a lot of detail there (probably more than most people need) but it took me a bit of searching to figure out the process I wanted to follow so maybe this will help someone else out (assuming it works out). I'll update as I go along. I expect to get relatively little done during the week but, hopefully, wee bursts of activity at the weekends. Plan is to finish all the body/paint/decals etc before starting the chassis. Basically, I'm trying to tease this out for as long as possible to help with lockdown fatigue. Cheers. p.s. Couple of other pre-build activities: Choice of wheels. Didn't want to use the stock white ones with this colour choice so bought set of Tamiya Cporrado rims for the rally block tyres and some HPI (or similar) five spokes to run with pirelli style tyres: And then, lastly (actually lastly), I bought a couple of 'hop ups' to get me started. These were the most regularly recomended options I found by scouring the usual forums:

Morning and thakns for the advice. So, I went a bit nuts and have the following: 1. Spare 1080 (from a previous crawler project that ow runs brushless) and a 17 Etronix motor. Sounds like it should be a sound enough choice from what people are saying. Certainly, best of the brushed. 2. I got a bit drunk on Friday though and also ordered a Mamba X with 1406 3800KV motor. Sounds like this should be about right in terms of top speed but may make too much torque. So, either rely on my cat like reflexes (not a great plan) or mess with the programmable torque setting in the castle link software. Basically, it's way overkill but I guess I can reign it in via software to get something managble. Two, possibly completely non representative things lead me to make that second choice. I had a terrible absima truck which had so much cogging that it was basically undriveable. Made me overly cautious about sensoreless. I acknowledge this is daft since this car weighs half what the truck did and will have far less traction. I have amate who just wrecked his second non-waterproof ESC in a TT02. Again though, a daft comparison since the TT02 runs all the electronics exposed while the XV01 has the neater enclosed chassis. Anyway, it's ordered and shipped now. So, we'll see how it does....... Hi, Seanster43, I'm in Midlothian near the Borders. In simpler times would be great to meet up. East Lothian is forbidden territory these days though . Hoping that we come out of the lockdown some time this spring, can you recommend any decent bashing spots? I've heard East Lothinan is pretty good. A build thread....? I'll give that some thought. Cheers.

Ohh yeah, and pre-cut wheel arches! Thanks Tamiya. Aside from paint, that is my least favourite part of the build.

Hi, I had Tamiya's as a kid but just bought my first one in 25 years, an XV-01 Lancia Delta kit. Opened it up and the quality and nostalgia hit me like a truck. Really excited ot get started on it. So, the kit obviously comes with a silver can motor and I have a HW Quickrun 1080 ESC so I will start with those while I get my eye in. I suspect I may want a bit more power though and so am already lookingat options. As far as I can tell they'd look something like this (all would use lipo): 1. Tamiya Super Stock motor and the 1080 ESC - Dead simple and, critically, waterproof. I'm in Scotland and this car will be run in the wet. Just not sure how much faster this would be. Plus, there's the maintencace of the motor. 2. Generic ~15T brushed motor (etonix/surpass....) and 1080 ESC - Pretty much as option 1 but rather than maintain the motor you'd probably just accept replacing them regularly. They are very cheap. As above though, not sure how much faster this woul be than the silver can motor or how it would compare to ta Super Stock. 3. Sensorless Brushless - Loads of options but maybe a HW MAX10 and 3652 motor (~3300kv). Fast, low maintenance and waterproof. Only concern would be cogging. Is that even an issue on a light car like this? 3. Sensored Brushless - The RollsRoyce option. It would need to be waterproof though so I think that limits me pretty much to a castle setup. Would a Mamba Micro and a 2850kV 1406 motor work? Would a Mamba X fit? Are there any other choices I should consider? Any thoughts on this? I appreciate there are tons of posts on this subject scattered around the usual forums but many are years old and reference parts no longer on the market. Cheers.