middleagedgrup

Am a bit late to this, but Happy Birthday @Busdriver! Your input on my Lancia 037 build was most helpful indeed, and is a prime example of the sort of support and camaraderie that you're talking about. Will crack open a cold one tonight in your honour.

Here you go my friend. Not even built mine yet, but dug the manual out of the box and scanned the two relevant pages for you. Glad to be able to help!

Yes I do still have my first: an original Mud Blaster. That said, I've retired the original shell and treated the whole thing to a full resto-mod. Takes pride of place on my study shelf where I get to see it every day. ☺️

😉

Hi mate. No, I'm afraid not. Did have a scammer contact me to try and sell me some 🙄, but alas no genuine leads. I guess the answer is to have a contact in Germany who can send some over.

I saw that Lewis Hamilton was out and about in the team garage and pitlane at the Japanese GP this weekend with a Lunchbox: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=139113&id=35400 Might help bring the world of Tamiya to a younger generation??

I too have been approached via PM by this person in the past week...

Thanks for confirming - that's what I had taken from the previous posts, so it's good to know I hadn't gotten the wrong end of the stick! As an aside, this evening I checked the manual for my 47477 45th anniversary 934 (which I haven't built yet) as I realised that that kit comes with 53127 for the rear diff. But the kit doesn't include the collars, and the manual shows 53217 being installed without any collars being fitted. So I guess that means it is in fact ok to use 53217 without the collars. I've got a 47470 ReRe Top Force Evo tucked away at the back of my cupboard and which presumably has 9805419 for the ball diffs, so it'd be interesting to see if the gearbox joints from that fit into the rear diff of the 934. Will have to give that a go when I get round to building it!

Hi all Am looking for 8x brass collars to fit to to 53217. Anyone in the UK have some to sell? There are some in stock at Modellbau-Seidel but they don't ship to the UK unfortunately. Many thanks!

Lovely stuff @Superluminal. Enjoyed this thread from start to finish so far, and am learning loads in the process for my next build, so many thanks! Can I just check my understanding about those (by now infamous) brass collars... If I've understood the previous posts correctly (and it's entirely possible that I haven't) then I can use either (i) 9805419 on their own, or (ii) 53217 and the collars. Is that right? I've got lots of sets of 53217 but I can only find the collars at modellbau-seidel although I don't think they ship to UK. Just wondering if I should sell on my current stash of 53217 and simply buy some 9805419 instead... Sorry for the newbie question! ☺️

Thanks man! How are your and your daughter's Pumpkins coming along? Loved the work you did on the tailgate lettering by the way.

The eagle-eyed amongst you (well, to be honest, if you didn't notice then you're not really paying attention are you, 'cos it's pretty darned obvious from the photos!) will have noticed that I haven't put the repro decals on. "Why ever not?!", I hear you cry. Well, I actually think that the metallic blue looks rather fine on its own without the decals, and I'm happy with the contrast that the shocks and wheels provide, so have decided to hold off from stickering-up the body. I reserve to change my mind in the future, but for the moment she's staying as you see her now. So there you have it: my resto-modded Mud Blaster. My genesis, updated and reloved. Let's hear it for Rusty Rumpot's Resto-modded Ride!

Aahhhh! MSCs and dual servos - remember those?! At this point I was left in two minds: do I clean everything up and reinstall all as was; or do I bring the original up to date with some choice hop-ups? As Shakespeare may have put it: to restore, or to resto-mod...that's the question. It seemed to me that restoring the original body would be borderline sacrilegious: taking off the original paint and decals only to be able to replace them with reproductions...that didn't seem right. So I quickly came to the conclusion that I'd leave the original body as was and put it into retirement, meaning I'd need to get hold of a new body and associated accessories. The decision having being made about the new body, I figured that this was really now a resto-mod rather than a restoration, so a list of needed parts was compiled. With everything still in good working order, including the often-problematic gear case and diff, there wasn't too much mechanically that needed updating, with the list for the chassis being as follows: Full bearings (1150 and 850) throughout Tamiya 53908 Frog Assembly Universal Shafts Tamiya 9808040 Brat Rear Arm Stoppers Tamiya 6255002 Brat Joint Boot @Xeostar gearbox brace JKRC JKRC9947Y CNC Aluminium Shocks Tamiya 51000 Hi-Torque Servo Saver Schumacher U7856 Turnbuckle (71mm) Schumacher U4299 Turnbuckle (52mm) Futaba R202GF Receiver Tamiya 45057 TBLE-02S ESC Etronix ET2048 servo Tamiya 19335032 Monster Beetle Wheels HPI 4456 Yokohama Geolander Tyres and inserts Whole heap of 0.1 and 0.25mm shims for the front wishbones As far as the body went, the list was: Tamiya 9335476 Brat Body Tamiya 9005291 Brat D Parts (Grill/Tailgate/Driver) Tamiya 0115071 Brat L Parts Tamiya 9005292 Brat E Parts (Windows) Tamiya 4305048 Panel Stays (x2) Taiya TS-54 Light Metallic Blue MCI Racing Repro Decals Assorted machine and self-tapping screws, and associated nuts Throw that little lot into a cauldron, give it a good stir and let it simmer for a few months. At the end of it all, this is what you get:

I've previously bored you all to death with the story of my route to Tamiya ownership (for those masochists amongst you: feel free to take a look at my story here - click link) so I thought it would be only good manners to share with you pics of the OG. This post is probably long overdue, but I only just today put the finishing touches to the full refurb that I started a number of months ago, having chosen to take my time on it and do bits here and there in-between building some other new models (see my Lancia 037 and Midnight Pumpkin builds if you're really thirsty for punishment). So, first off: some pics of the old girl in her pre-refurb condition. The chassis is in completely original condition with all parts present and unbroken! And then we turn to the body, which is best described as being in 'honest' condition. Namely: completely original with all parts present, just not necessarily in the best of condition! It definitely saw some use and endured some suffering at the hands of young-me! I even have the original TX in its original box to complete the set! So that's the starting point. Next up: the strip down!

So, many months have passed since my last post on this thread, but that's not to say that nothing has been happening here at Casa Middleaged. No siree there's been plenty of Tamiya-based goings on - see my Pumpkin build thread for example. But not only that, but also the cockpit for the Lancia which I finally plucked up the courage to paint (or got off my backside to do, you choose). This was my first stab at such a thing so please be gentle, but happy to take on board any pointers should you feel in a sharing mood! How's yours coming along, @Busdriver ?