BuggyDad

Ooh yes. It's got the full trodden on (just kidding. Sorry! 😉) Hotshot look! Looks great. Hey have you tried the Hotshot wheels for 2.2" tyres from JCR? Were they the gold wheels you scuffed up too easily like I did my silver pepperpots? I think I'm going to get some for my Boomerang but they'll be white. I think they come with the vintage style three point hubs but I guess such things are a direct fit on modern axles anyway.

It's fair to pull apart the accuracy of the experiment but in the absence of a better one I think it's also still fair to take its conclusions as a reasonable result even if the extent of the difference could be exaggerated (or underestimated of course - it goes both ways) and so one should take the result in the context of what went into it. But regardless, I'm inclined to put it another way. It's an upgrade costing about half a cup of coffee and taking not much time to fit, as a bit of the kind of tinkering that's perhaps even, for us oddballs, at the fun end of tinkering. How many (speed/power/efficiency) upgrades have we all fitted that cost many times that and what benefit do we expect from them? Considered alongside those, what benefit in speed increase (or whatever other measure you choose to use) would you want to see to judge this as worthwhile for the time and cost incurred? I suspect the answer to that is about half of ****** all. 😉 Disbenefits in the case of motors that are going to wet/mucky places excepted, on the assumption we're choosing to do this where such things don't really apply. I reserve a particular car for that kind of treatment and I think that's quite a common way of thinking.

Wings that turn up at the sides and back, basically, but I'm sure ghere are other examples. I've just painted two of these. I'm happy enough with them but I wonder whether there are different ideas out there, especially to get a bit more of a glossy finish, a bit more like the usual outside side. There's also leaving them clear of course, or scuffing them to frost as some racers do, but I'm not really after that here, although I might try it someday. On my Avante one I backed metallic blue with silver then put a couple more coats of the blue over, so essentially both sides are backed. Finish is good but not the same and somewhat exposed to damage. On my white one I used Pearl white backed with white*. I didn't recoat with more pearl. Partly I didn't have any left but partly also I wasn't sure there would be much point, since it's like I'd be seeking an impossible match. I haven't mounted it yet, although I think it does look good. However I am also considering backing it with black, partly for a bit of a contrast and a feature. It's possible, but I'm not sure, that PS black might be a bit glossier too, although that's maybe only true when sprayed straight onto bare lexan. So, have you tried different things? Maybe a gloss clear on top for a combination of finish and protection, and if so what paint and how to apply? Or maybe a very fine sand to Polish smooth then a finishing coat? Got any interesting examples of what you've done? *as an aside, with airbrush (first time back on the airbrush since last summer) I got two shells and a wing out of the remains of these two already half used cans. Maybe not so much the Pearl but coverage of PS-1 is pretty amazing.

May be a candidate for those 1mm narrower bearings. I will give them a try when I assemble mine. It could probably do with the extra width anyway 😉

Yesterday and today together, very out of character I painted the bodies for two future projects as well as a current one. Thats a wing for the Mohawk, a Boomerang, Revive RC Avante shell (which will hopefully get 2011 Avante stickers) for the TD4 and a Stadium Blitzer shell to go on a used BB chassis I have and intend to modify. Masking the Stadium Blitzer for full box art was quite a job, inside the truck bed sides, for example (and I realised after finishing that I did a bit the wrong colour too - the strip beneath the windscreen. D'oh! I might do it on the outside, or vinyl/tape/sticker).

Yeah I think you were unlucky too, since folk say the Boomerang is tough. I mean it's probably not that unusual a failure across tamiya models but I'd worry about impacts more. So while Aluminium arms would probably solve this particular issue I'd rather have the plastic arms flex and ultimately break than a hard aluminium arm transfer impact force into the gearbox case.

I'll be on the lookout for one!

Thanks! I have to admit, not my idea. I saw this body for sale done this way, tried to buy it as an immediate runner but the seller didn't reply. I think Revive RC also did similar in his marketing for it. He maybe used the 2001 decals but I don't like those. In fact, I wonder a bit whether that great big "2001" sticker cost tamiya quite a few sales.

This is true. But you don't need that garden table either do you? I don't think it'd take long to have the top off that for your take-off.

I wouldn't use threadlock. It apparently damages plastics but I doubt it'd do much anyway. You should be able to find the parts tree. Look at the back of the manual at the complete parts list to find the product code (in this case 9115022), then search for that. JKRC is usually a good bet if you're in the UK - they seem to break up kits and I tend to find their parts trees cheap. As a little preventative mod, just a little more thread depth would aid strength here significantly, so in blind holes I would be tempted to replace all those studs on arms (and anywhere you think they're at risk of doing this) with longer ones. Check hole depth first. 53969 is a very good little upgrade to have in stock, I find. I add those to my basket when I shop at Plaza Japan. Alternatively, if you have some ball nuts you could thread long grub screws into the holes to make use of max hole depth then use ball nuts on those. Where you don't have a blind hole you have the option to screw from the other side and fit a ball nut - even better. Oops!

Got the paint on. Its hard to really show the depth of colour. It's PS-16 Metallic Blue. I absolutely love it. So I'm going full Avante. Proper Avante stickers are out of UK stock at the mo but TTP had them just a couple of weeks ago and Tamico have them, so I don't think they're too hard to find, plus there's a rerun of the Avante coming. It needs yellow wheels to match too, obvs, and the right yellow, not those gopping fluoro kit ones. I like the yellow versions of these ones actually, so I'm on the lookout for them. Tamico have those too. I borrowed these white ones off the TD2. Next: wire up the ESC, finalise shorty fitment and get it running. Then: refine the suspension (it's maybe a shade on the hard side at the mo) and get the TD2 running too.

I've messed about with my shocks so much that this probably isn't very helpful, but I went for upgraded pistons and reckon it makes a significant difference. Enough that my Falcon (nee Blitzer Beetle) is in my top three cars to repeatedly drop on the table and marvel at its damping*. *which in turn is among the best RC activities, I'm sure you'd agree.

Yeah it's nice isn't it. The sheet is so very "in character" Tamiya, yet it also helps us with some quite important info especially since the rere kit differs from the original and it's not very clear exactly how.

I intend to do mine but as much as anything it's because if this reduction in friction is achieving an 8-10% speed increase then if one drives it with no speed increase it should achieve a very significant reduction in heat output.

BOOM!* I cut out two bodies today**, both inzy onesies. Stadium Blitzer (Rock Socker) may be the easiest shell to cut out ever. Boomerang not much harder. They barely even need any tidying up, just a quick sand should do. *erang **actually I cut out three, but the other one I did the opposite with, with a thousand tiny pieces gracing my recycling.

That's for my DT-03. If all goes to plan it's a way to get a nice sealed gear diff in there with really not much surgery at all. From here:

Oh, and, IT'S OFFICIAL (sorta). Included hop ups sheet lists 53791 CVDs for this. So we should be straight in with those at least.

It turns out the included ESC is a Carson Dragster 70A. It sounds from here: like it might be inferior to a 1060, which is unfortunate. I'll still fit it with my Super stock BZ though unless anyone tells me that's silly? Plan B is a 10BL60 and 13.5T brushless, but really they're reserved for a future rally build.

Got a chance to fit shocks this evening. It took me a strangely long time, trying to work out which springs to start with, which ball joints to fit, and then putting it together. For now I've gone for the soft red rears (only had hard and soft left after using the mediums on Mohawk) and mediums from the 2wd set on the front. The 4wd fronts all felt too hard but I had a full set of 2wd fronts to try. 2wd hard feel similar to 4wd soft although they're made differently (fewer coils but thinner steel). More Tamiya blue jewellery here than on anything else I've got. Tomorrow I hope I might get a chance to cut and paint a body for this. I'd like to get the paint on ASAP. I have a feeling I'm going to end up playing with the front shock positions. I like the lay down idea but I think when the links rotate far into the travel the leverage ratio decreases quite a bit, and I can't see why you'd want that. Wouldn't you want a bit of progression deep into the travel rater than the opposite? Might this be why racers have gone back from this to a traditional tower? I wonder whether splaying them apart towards the rear would make a difference and since I'd already half an eye on making my own [whatever the laid down version of a shock tower is] I could play around with positioning.

Will PM it to you.

All the way from Japan the postman brought me a used TD2. It came with diff nut, CVDs, carbon shock tower, slipper, dual block C tyres, some useful spares and even X-rings in the shocks. Comparing it with new stuff, and since it'll be a runner it's as new as it'd be after a day of my running anyway, I'm very pleased for just over £150. I'd have spent well over £50 buying those hop ups alone, and I think I'd have wanted to fit all of them. So it can turn my TD4 build thread into a twin tinkering thread. He also brought me some fairly modest Boomerang hop ups And a TD4 shell and some wheels from that very nice chap @toyolien Between all this and the remaining bits to make the enclosure for my 3d printer I don't quite know what to do with myself.

It's definitely significant enough for something! It's flipping ace!

I have a set of the decals here I can scan for you if that helps.

I'm no collector but in the unlikely event it comes out I probably would buy a Falcon just because I had one as a kid and so it's my tamiya history, and it could line up alongside my Super Falcon. I am also tempted to own an Egress (and/or possibly Avante) and if I did I doubt it'd get much running, so I guess that's a collection thing.

Really good simple mod. Very interested to hear how you get on with this. Isn't 3° quite a lot? Love a drill press. Bit jealous of the Dr Evil lazer beam on yours.