scollins

Paul,,, thank you for posting an update,,,soon it will be my turn..lol........... I second what Paul said about getting the benefit of getting to know somebody better when sharing an R/C project. It really was pure luck that Paul was right in my neighborhood on a business trip and it worked out really well for both of us. My new problem is that Paul did such a nice job with the Amarok I am going to have to be very creative on how to improve it!!

R.I.P Rad Fismistr I was just checking Facebook a few minutes ago to catch up with family and I saw a post that said our very own TC member Rad Fismistr has passed away. He was known on TC as rad22rad and was an amazing talent and I had been emailing him back and forth for at least 10 years about R/C stuff and motorcycles. I just met him for the first time two years ago when I was on a business trip over in London. He just called me two months ago to chat while on a business trip over here in the USA. I could not make it to where he was unfortunately. I should have made the effort. I do not have details on what happened but for those that know him you realize what a huge loss this is. He was one of the nicest guys you could ever be with. I cannot believe this. Chris, please leave this up for at least a few hours.............................scollins Prayers for his family............... R.I.P. Rad

Tamiya and Kyosho donate parts to do the Wondertwin Powers, form of a minty GT-40!!! Last time I pulled this stunt was 11 years ago! Chris, if I have misplaced this in the wrong category please forgive me and I will be happy to move it. Since it started out as a TA-02 BMW touring car I thought it could be posted here...... Super happy with the result using a TA-02 Tamiya BMW car sourced from eBay with almost all the period Tamiya chassis hop-ups. As for the body, these GT40 Kyosho Nostalgic series bodies are so incredibly hard to find now. Painfully difficult. Overall I feel like what I have looks better than the stock stance and wheel size from back in 1995. Back when these were brand new pricey Kyosho kits I drooled on at the local shop!!!!! I would leave with my package of foam tire inserts and motor brushes and dream of having enough money to buy even one of these GT40 kits, ha..........For a few more details see my post on the main site. Thanks for looking fellas. s.collins

Wow!!! I am quite impressed Paul......I really like what you have done with this VW........you really should have someone with a snow machine stop by and make you some fresh powder!!!!! I will have to have you help me with some more details on what printer you use to do your decals...mine is getting old,, its an Epson Inkjet style--with the small ink cartridges, I think I bought it in 2008 or early 2009. Well, as you know Paul this week will be pretty busy for me- so I will keep you up to date! s.collins

This just arrived today-purchased thru Facebook- vintage 1996 Kyosho Nostalgic Ferarri 250 GTO bodyset,,thanks for the heads up on this one Jimmy! (TC member Road Burner)

Paul--- thanks for all of the updates, nice to see you sharing all of the progress with everyone. And Happy Father's Day by the way...deciding as I write this what I'd like to do with the family today. For starters---I have a few ideas on this situation you've described with the "tight" track assemblies.......... 1- Possibly run a different motor as its been mentioned already. I agree that the silver can motor is not going to do the job. Maybe a 50T would be a good idea, I am not experienced with them so I cant give a good recommendation. 2- Maybe hook up a battery to the drive train and "run in" the tracks with the car up in the air on a block, using some graphite powder lubricant on the inner track guide assemblies. It may take a long time to see a noticeable differencerunning a couple battery packs thru it but I wonder if this would help loosen them up to a degree. If the graphite powder does not work I wonder if Teflon spray in the rotating pieces of the track assemblies would help. 3-I like the idea of ball bearings for the track assemblies but am not familiar with them and not sure if they accept bearings in areas that friction exists. 4-mount the assemblies to a completely different vehicle with a powerful motor (Slash 4x4 brushless?) and see if this would be a way to loosen these up a bit before re-installing them onto the CC-01 not sure if any of this helps,,,but running them in a bit either under load on another car-truck or free standing with assist from some dry lube or Teflon spray would be a place to start. scollins

Really nice detail work Paul,,,I am truly impressed!!!!!!!!!!!! I think we started something kind of neat here............scollins

Wow Paul, you are really getting this thing whipped into shape, the crisp arctic theme is looking great. Makes me think one of us will have to rent a snow machine this summer to try it out before winter comes again!! Not sure if you or I can wait that long to try this baby out! Again, looking really sweet!! I share your feelings on how it is growing on you,, it is for me as well and in a positive way,,, not a growing on me like a fungus kind of way! scollins

Awesome,,wow you are really going for broke here Paul!!! Looking GREAT!!!! scollins

The VW truck made me think of this guy.................scollins

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow totally surprised me with your wheels...I mean tracks!! Made by Integry??? Cant remember if thats how it is spelled... scollins

I am looking over your list of great cars,,,give me the weekend as I am interested in a couple I will private message you soon,,thanks - s.collins... BTW I live in Wisconsin, USA

I do remember this,,,but failing to remember exactly who was doing it... What does yours need exactly? I may be able to guide you on how to do this,,,if its something like the front nose it can be quite easy to replicate in other materials like body filler, as long as you can make a decent mold from the original part. Stuff like door handles and intricate smaller parts like the VW emblem is a whole different story. scollins

Glad it arrived in one piece,,,just got home from work and saw this post,,,thanks Paul...as I said,,, go nuts or go home!!! Happy to offer this kit for you to mess with, its got full bearings and an aluminum motor mount to start, so it should run smooth. We will work out the details later on how this car-truck gets back to me (or you) not sure on that right now. Let's focus on making something cool first!! By the time you are done with it I will have to be equally savvy as to what touches I may add to what you have done...maybe i will weather it and make it look "used" and "in the body shop" s.collins

a couple more..............

My next repair went successful too,,,Porsche 906 Kyosho Nostalgic Series! Lots of work!!! scollins

Here are my rides--- 2003 Focus SVT 5-door I bought in February 2015 (currently at 83,000 miles the pics are from the time I bought it) This is my second SVT Focus, my first one I bought brand new and I had it from 2003-20015. 1964 Mercury Comet Cyclone (restored from 2009 thru 2013) and the car has been completely gone thru top to bottom. I've owned this car 23 years now! 2009 Harley-Davidson XR1200 as my daily runner for most of the spring and summer commutes to work, although lately the Comet has been quite popular to drive to work. s.collins

Well, if you ever needed VW beetle reference for weathering a body shell, here you go. Recently I was in Austin Texas for work at the Hand-Built motorcycle show documenting the trends going on there. It is a great show put on by Revival Cycles and this was its 4th year. I was fortunate to hang out for a couple days with TC member Crash Cramer (Chris Booth) who drove in from the Houston area which was nice of him to do. It was the first time we met up in person and we both attended the show Friday night. On a cloudy Saturday after some great Texas BBQ and plans to go to a hobby store we stumbled across Austin VeeDub. Probably one of the largest collections of VW wrecks in the USA. I have dozens of more pics that would not fit here so I will post a few more on the forums. I was wanting to attend MotoGP but after our experiences Saturday I can honestly say I was satisfied. Great photos were taken and Chris and I got our fill of VW action, enjoy! scollins

Thanks guys---I must say that I feel very fortunate( and lucky) to have found this Cobra kit and to be able to collect it. In fact, I feel quite lucky to have all of this RC stuff and great people I know thru the years in the hobby and TamiyaClub as well. I know it sounds really cheesy but its a 100 percent true statement. All I have to do is turn on the news, either TV or online and watch a little of what is going on in the world and it puts everything into perspective. Me not being able to find a NIB R/C kit I wanted for a long time seems like a pretty lame concept when I see the crazy stuff going on. Our hobbies keep us sane I suppose. scollins

Yep,,the eagle has landed,, found this on eBay for an excellent price (way below market value) and actually won a bid for a change with a great seller that answered all questions and was extremely polite... It showed up today...I've built three of these so far in the last 10 years, but always from parts and wrecks using either TA02 chassis or AE TC3 chassis......never ever before had one NIB. Had a chance to buy one NIB in 1997 and passed on it... Well, good things come to those who wait I guess! Really excited to actually own this kit. My Dad used to own a full size Factory Five Shelby Cobra kit but sold it in 2006 unfinished. So if I build this one it will be for him, not me. Not sure if I will build this yet as I have lots of other projects to finish first including a Porsche 906 Nostalgic resto using a modified Mantis 2WD Kyosho chassis and a 1967 HPi Corvette on top of a hopped up Associated Dual Sport. scollins

Hi there,,, I strongly feel that this will hold up exceptionally well,, as long as I do not hit something head on at 35mph I should be fine.

And last but not least three more hi-res images...

thanks buddy,,,for the kind words - here are some more pics of the process,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Really juiced up about how this turned out for what started as a broken bodyset left for dead on eBay. I bought it and a rare Kyosho Porsche 906 both with damage for 70USD, an absolute steal to someone who likes to do bodywork like me. The Cobra is now all finished, and repaired with fiberglass and body filler and then primed and painted on the outside. A lot of work!!! But these shells are so rare now I thought it was worth the effort. Luckily the previous owner did not destroy the back of the body just the front where I had to do all of the major repair work. See my previous posts for how I fixed that lexan back up to almost new condition... I've really worked hard to make this a gem and it turned out really nice. Sometimes you get a little luck on your side. See my previous posts for the details on how I did this-- (chronologically from the newest post to the ones from a few days earlier). https://tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=130681&id=5414 https://tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=130673 https://tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=130655 https://tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=130514

Hi there Vagabond...as for your comment regarding the Community Scorcher, I suppose this is kind of like that so I cant take full credit for the concept at all, the difference here is that this is not really for an end destination like the TamiyaClub Community Scorcher was (delivered to Tamiya in Japan) - In this version I was just thinking of something a little less formal, and with a few people that had the time to help build as well as post what they did along the way as well as the "return trip" so that each person who worked on the car or truck has a chance to drive it and take cool pictures and/or video of it in action. As for living outside of the USA- Well I don't think it would or should be limited to any country. I would basically put the list together of who the car would get sent to and try to use just a handful of people, preferably those that I have worked with and traded with before. But I am open to new folks as well that I have never communicated with via email or the forum. I suppose one of the concerns of mine was funding this, so that is why I preferred to work with a group of people I know so that if money is spent up front on a kit and radio gear that it is shared between trusted sources as it travels thru different hands. Let me see how this goes on my end , but since you spoke up I will consider your interest. One of my hopes was that this would start a similar pattern in other regions of the globe where people that have traded or dealt with specific TC members that they have come to trust over time would do a similar activity with smaller groups of their buddies, etc. s.collins