Jump to content

Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'racing fighter'.



More search options

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.
  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Tamiyaclub.com Forums
    • General discussions
    • Vintage Tamiya Discussion
    • Re-Release Discussions
    • Tamiyaclub News
    • Tamiyaclub Rules and Site Usage
    • Build Tips and Techniques
    • Monster Trucks, 4x4, Wheelie Rigs and Crawlers
    • Big Rigs and Scale Armour
    • All things RC Nitro
    • The Builds
    • TC Designs...
    • All things electric...
    • RC Racing Talk
    • Meetings & Events
    • Sales, trades & wanted
    • Off-Site sales plugs, tips & gossip - Including eBay, Gumtree etc.
    • Related sites
    • Suspicious Traders
  • Tamiyaclub Sponsors Forum
    • FusionHobbies.com
    • Stellamodels
    • Time Tunnel Models
    • Tamico.de
  • Other makes of RC model...
    • Kyosho
    • Marui
    • Nikko
    • Other makes
  • tcPhotos.com
    • About tcPhotos.com
  • The Outside World
    • Anything not RC related goes here

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End


Last Updated

  • Start

    End


Filter by number of...

Joined

  • Start

    End


Group


AIM


MSN


Website URL


ICQ


Yahoo


Jabber


Skype


Location


Interests


TC Subscriber

Found 13 results

  1. Shifted this thread over here as I posted in General Discussions as my first post before I knew about how things worked. Also, work on the car escalated and I wanted to keep a note of ongoing upgrades/changes. Hopefully of interest to DT03 runners/buyer. I have an original Thunder Dragon from 1988 which has had a bit of a restomod, but getting that sorted recently led to the purchase of a cheap Racing Fighter from Germany as I've never had a 2WD buggy before. First buggy full build in about 30 years, although the Thunder Dragon has been torn down and rebuilt several times. Really enjoyed it. I had an old Grasshopper2 shell in my bit box from back in the day, and I'd never painted a shell before. I don't like the modern look of buggies, being a child of the 80's I love the older buggies so I decided to have a go and some light body mods to fit it to my DT03. It was already slightly modified around the front shocks to fit on my Thunder Dragon. Here's a couple of trial fits with the primer on, trying to figure out the mountings and proportion. Couldn't resist getting the wheels on to see what it might look like: Figured out the body mods, enlarging the front hole to use the central front mount on the chassis, and adding holes in the haunches for the large l-shaped body mount towers that came with the kit. I ended up going narrower than I could have got away with on the front cuts. I chopped the DT-03 suspension mount in the centre to get the front of the shell on and off. Not bothered about the nth degree of wheel control and can always get the fancy TRF carbon one if I feel the need in future. After a couple of aborted attempts at orange from Tamiya and Halfords, and neither before strong enough for my liking and went for it with neon orange. Stickers are from MCI Racing, with red replaced with black, and yellow replaced with dark grey. Pretty pleased with how it came out. Another modern look I'm not keen on is the super short front overhang. I like the big 80s bull bars, so inspired by AMPRO Engineering on Youtube I knocked up a bull bar bumper in 3D CAD and got it 3D printed from Shapeways. Only cost a tenner! Sets the stance off nicely, I think. I do love the kit black star dish wheels though. As for the car, I loved building it and it seems solid. I've never had brushless before either, so I went for a 13.5R Speed Passion MMM motor from Modelsport who also did my some leads with tamiya plugs, and a steel 17t pinion and a bearing set to start with. The kit came with the CVA dampers with the fixed solid plates on top of the shafts. Initially I was a bit disappointed. I'm certainly no expert and have no plans to race, but it was very understeery and bottomed out a lot. Due to older equipment I have already, I still use ACOMS 27MHz radio and NiMH batteries to keep costs down which I've since learnt are on the heavy side, but they work fine in my Thunder Dragon! So, after going down the rabbit hole of what mods to do where, trying not to spend a fortune on hop ups and learning as I go, this I think is my basics for getting the DT-03 to somewhere near it's potential and also hopefully help some newbies looking at getting their DT-03 running nice in my opinion: 1) Junk the stock tyres. The deep rib fronts that come with the Racing Fighter in particular are useless on hard surfaces and I generally muck about in the street or at the yard at work. With the fiesty motor I started tearing through the rears too, and have ended up with Schumacher Mini Pin Yellows on the stock rims. Works great, and the yellows last longer than the blue counter-intuitively, because the blue is harder it span up too easily on hard surfaces and wore out. On things like the pump track in the pictures, the mini pins are immense. 2) Connected to 1 - Be honest about where you drive. Having burnt through cool looking buggy tyres I now have a second set of wheels (Schumacher Flexlite read, Tamiya Dish Front both in black) with Schumacher RT1s and medium inserts for tarmac. 3) Suspension - I'm using the DF03 (not a typo, the 4WD car) setting springs, hard rear, softest front. Both are firmer than the kit springs. The DT-03 settings springs were right out because the colours would have looked rubbish if I'd needed the red ones. Yes, I am enough of a tart for that. Plus, couldn't see the point of a softer set of springs if the kit springs were in the middle. I saw the DF03 springs suggested on a thread on here I think. Great call. I got the TRF 54043 piston rods for the rear shock and standard CVA mini shock shafts 50601 for the front and used the kit sprues and some e-clips to convert the dampers to proper pistons. After some experimentation I'm running single hole pistons with the kit Soft Tamiya 400 CST oil 4) I got the anti roll bars, but have ended up not using them. Now I have the suspension firm enough to hold the car up it handles fine without the anti roll bars. IMHO. 5) I used the leftover ball studs from the unused roll bars to replace as many of the step screws in the damper mounts as possible. Much nicer and less rattly I got a bag of ball connectors (50591) to finish the job off, although the fronts need a bit of filing to get them to fit the wishbones. 6) Turnbuckles - Don't be a cheapskate like me and pick up a cheap DT02 set, as the steering arms don't fit! These do seen good for getting the grip up though. 2-3 neg both ends. 7) Driveshafts - I had no issues with the toughness of the plastic driveshafts, but I couldn't believe how much they restrict suspension movement. I didn't want to spend out on Universals as I'm not racing. I ended up taking a leaf out of the Sand Viper book and went to the metal driveshaft and cups. Only cost about a tenner for the parts, and the car stands up at the rear about another 10mm! They look better too, IMHO. Parts are: Shafts - Tamiya 9805551 Outdrives - Tamiya 9804237 Hub end cups - Tamiya 50823 8) Geared diff with the kit seems fine. I stuffed it with grease as advised somewhere on the internet and does fine for me. 9) Kimborough servo saver was a fiver well spent. Much more crisp steering. 10) Not sure if the Hop Up servo mount was £18 well spent, but it looks pretty and does look into the chassis and servo much more firmly. I'm open on this one as it's pretty expensive. Hope you like it, and hope that helps anyone looking at getting a DT-03. Cheers!
  2. Hi Everyone! A sporting injury has given me some time off so I decided to dig out my 10 year old Keen Hawk DF03 and see if it still runs. Which to my surprise it still did, although the old NIMH batteries weren’t up to much. I also found my old TA02 which I had forgotten about. But that’s in bits. Brushless was becoming the norm when I last drove my RC cars, and I’m amazed by how much its progressed as I stumbled upon Lipo batteries as well. So the post man delivered a couple of lipos, a charger and a hobbywing 1060 and I was away, much to the delight of my 8 year old boy! so after looking through the forums, I have on route a Racing fighter DT03 so we both get to have turns I’m lucky as I live on a farm, with concrete, gavel and dirt yards plus plenty of grass. We even have a MX track so no doubt the cars will get a bashing!
  3. Getting back into the hobby again after a 10 or so year absence. I recently got my old Keen Hawk DF03 up and running, and my son loved it so much I don’t get a go anymore! Ive always fancied a two wheel drive buggy so ordered myself a Racing fighter to go with my Hawk. It all arrived today so the build begins!
  4. Hi all, I'm looking for damper suggestions for my DT-03 Racing Fighter build. The Racing Fighter kit I have came with the CVA dampers and I also have the Tamiya Spring Set Hop-Up option #53832. However, I'd like to upgrade the plastic CVAs with alloy dampers instead. I tend to prefer using genuine Tamiya hop-up options (or TRF if budget allows) however I haven't found any direct replacements for the CVAs that came with this kit. As such, I've been looking at either going with a set of GPM dampers or a set from Yeah Racing. But before I pull the trigger on either of those, I wanted to ask here if anyone here has any suggestions for dampers. Thanks in advance for any help. Cheers!
  5. Hi all, I've recently started my DT-03 Racing Fighter build, and I'm incorporating a number a Tamiya and after-market Hop-Up options (as one does). One such upgrade is the Tamiya DT-02 Ball Differential Set (#53863); despite being designated for a DT-02, this is listed as a upgrade for the DT-03 chassis. After assembling the diff itself and installing it into the gearbox assembly, I noticed the drive cups that came with the ball diff set were considerably smaller than the kit supplied drive cups. I've attached a photo below to illustrate this. The trouble is, this make it impossible to use the kit supplied dog bones (they simply won't fit in the small drive cups), and I can't swap the larger kit supplied drive cups as the interface to the differential itself is completely different. Now, I do have on order a set if steel alloy CVD drive shafts from GPM (part number DT3264SC), which I purchased prior to starting this build. The reason is because I will be running a 10.5T brushless motor with a 2S LiPo in this car and it's my understanding the stock plastic drive cups and dog bones become a weak point when power goes up. However, in light of this recent discovery, my question is will the GPM CVD drive shaft set work with the smaller drive cups of this ball differential? If not, what CVDs do I need to source that will fit these smaller drive cups? Should I be looking to replace the small drive cups with something larger instead? Any help at all would be greatly appreciated. Cheers! Michael
  6. Been lurking here for a few months and thought it was time to share my build. Firstly, this is my first build so be kind and also a lot has been done but I'll try and run through it in order. I used to lust after Tamiya kits as a kid, but was never allowed one. The furthest I got was one of the lovely catalogues. Can't remember the year now, but it featured the 959 and Boomerang. I want to say '88 but not sure. There has been an ongoing RC thread on the Singletrack bike website and I've almost bought in the past but never got around to it. Even though I've been working through lockdown, I decided now was the time to treat myself to a kit. Stock has obviously been an issue but I also didn't want to spend too much incase I got bored quickly. Loved the look of the Sand Scorcher but was a bit put off by the price. A bit of reading suggested it didn't make a great basher anyway. In the end I plumped for a Racing Fighter, as it came with Torque Tuned motor and CVA's as standard and only really needed bearings added to make it a decent runner. Kit arrived and I was a bit taken aback by just how many bits there were. Some assembly required by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Build manual was fantastic and logical and with the help of many little pots and a magnetic bowl, the bags were all neatly sorted and the build progressed over a few nights worth of work. Not going to bore you with the build process, there's been tons of DT03's before. Didn't fancy the kit art orange, so went for blue instead, which after a while on here seems like a common colour. Went with Tamiya Metallic Blue for the body and Black for the wing. Was nervous about the paint process but initially pretty pleased with the result. A few months worth of crashes have wrecked the wing though, with a lot of flaking. Think I might have gone too think with the initial coats. Paint and body by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Kit stickers were a bit fussy and a complete PITA to cut, so kept it simple. Finished by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Ran it for a bit and discovered just how crap the kit tyres are, so bought a set of blue wheels to try other front tyres. Went for a Schumacher Cut Stagger in yellow compound and it transformed the car. On the spare rears went a set of Proline Sand Slingers for use on the beach. These are great fun and make tremendous rooster tails. Car was bottoming out all the time and running really low, so I took the advice from other build threads and bought a set of DF03 springs. Swapped about a bit and settled on the medium set all round. Also tried out a stiffer damper oil, but didn't like it and went back to the kit oil. Rear diff is very loose and very wayward, so tried a thick grease in the diff. This didn't do much and when I stripped it back down it had all been pushed to the very outside of the casing by the spinning forces. Bought a bottle of 500000cst diff "oil" and half filled the diff. Although the diff isn't sealed this stuff is more like glue than oil and has stayed put with no issues. It has also made a big difference on loose surfaces where both wheels now spin. Made getting out of patches of weeds much easier. Also went to a 19t steel pinion at the same time. Many of the tweets are pretty cheap, but shipping adds up, so Ive tended to things in batches to keeps costs down. Tried the wheel weight trick as well and managed to add 40g secreted around the front of the car. In all honesty I can't tell if it made a difference or not, but it can't hurt. I run a lot on a BMX track and it's a pretty tricky surface. Thought I'd try out truck tyres on the rear but didn't quite realise how much bigger they were! Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr by Steven Clubb, on Flickr I'd fitted the truck tyres on a buggy wheel which wasn't ideal and the car grip rolled really easily. Only one solution, truck wheels front and back! Bought a set of Blitzer wheels and uprights on eBay and fitted the used plastic bushings front the build to space for the buggy wheels. Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr It was also my birthday, so my wife bought me a Absima Thrust Eco brushless combo and I ditched the kit rear tyres for a set of Proline blockade. With both kit tyres now in the box, I also had a spare set of wheels and wanted a set of street tyres that would also handle light dirt use. Was really taken with Prolines Chain Link and Angle but had to get them from Germany. By this time I had mismatched wheels and tyres of all combinations, so into the oven they went (while the wife was out all day) and I re-glued them in matching sets. Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr The increase in power with the brushless was immediately obvious but hard to control. I had to switch to the softest punch setting or the car would just flip. I thought at 3400kv the motor would be ok in the DT03, but on any dirt surface the car was really wayward. Lots of barrel rolls followed and the wing got worse and worse. One of my reasons for going BL was to clear the double jumps at the BMX track. Now I had all the speed I needed, but couldn't keep the car in a straight line. Cleared the jump a few times, but the car was now actually less fun. Final straw came last week when it lost control on grass and hit a tree, breaking the front axle. Was probably a bit vulnerable anyway as I had spaced the wheel out, but I put the motor and eco back to standard. When doing this I also noticed I had cracked the nose at some point, but at least the chassis is still in one solid piece (for now). Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Like I said at the beginning, I love the look of the Sand Scorcher. During my buying phase I also took a punt on a lexan Kamtec Baja shell. For less than 20 quid delivered, it was worth a try. Have been trimming bits while I have had a few spare minutes here and there and now have it rough trimmed. Still needs evened up, but I intend to do that once it's mounted securely. Rear needed a lot of cutting to clear the gearbox housing but fairly happy with the result. Will sand and smooth the edges once the final cuts are done. Need to re-fit the truck tyres and check clearances before deciding on mounting holes. Front mounts are easy, the kit has spare posts for use with an Aqroshot body and these line up great. The rear I still have to work out. Might be able to remove the kit wing, but use the mounting bracket somehow. Also thought about using velcro on the gearbox, but not sure how secure this would be? Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Untitled by Steven Clubb, on Flickr Still a way to go, but with a full time job and a one year old, things tend to tick along at a slow pace. Also, now have a spare fast motor looking for a new home but nowhere with kits in stock.
  7. Hello all, I recently took delivery of a Tamiya Racing Fighter (DT-03) kit. Been waiting on this one for quite a while (I ordered back when this pandemic started and only arrive a few days ago). I'm really looking forward to this build as this will be my first Tamiya buggy since the original Hornet release back in the mid-to-late 80s! I'm pretty sure a lot has changed in that time. During my wait for the kit to be delivered, I spent a fair bit of time reading the boards and watching YouTube videos and I've begun to amass various Hop-Up options several folks have suggested. Some have arrived with several still on their way. However the one that is proving to be difficult to find at any sort of reasonable price - either online or in stores - is the Tamiya Hop-Up Option #54629 steel 19T 0.8 Module pinion. The lowest I've found is around $30 shipped, coming from overseas. This is a part with a $5 retail price! I happened to wander into a local hobby store earlier today looking to get some PS paint and asked if they had anything equivalent to the Tamiya Hop-Up Option part. They handed me a hardened steel 19T 32pitch absolute pinion (part number 1719) from Robinson Racing. The sales person said that the 32pitch is the same as 0.8 Module and that I shouldn't have any issues. For the price ($5) I figured I had nothing to lose, but before I install it I wanted to ask if anyone here can verify that this Is indeed true? Thanks very much in advance. Cheers! Michael
  8. Hi everyone! Newbie to the site, but a fair veteran of RC Car building! Having not built a car for the last 20 years, the whole bordom of lockdown saw me buying my first Tamiya car in a longgg time! I couldnt wait! So i wont bother showing the build of the Chassis, as at this moment its completly standard as it arrives out the box, and i'm sure most people have seen many pics of standard DT03 chassis's! However... i do have a whole plethra of Hop-Up parts on order and so i will show there fitment as and when each arrives in the post. But for now i thought i'd share my body shell paint up, as i never tend to paint the factory colours, i prefer to make mine abit more unique! So my plan for this car was to do a fade. Something which is pretty tricky with spray cans and not an airbrush system, and can go very wrong. But, i have plenty of time on my hands, so i could take my time. I'm going to do a Candy Blue fading to Black. Now i could have made my own life easier and just picked a Blue from the exsisting Tamiya Paint Pallet, but they dont do Candy's, and...well....i want a candy colour. So to do this, you need to use a Transparent Paint in this case PS-38 Trasparent Blue, and then use a Chrome/Silver as the backing colour... in my case PS-48 Semi Gloss Silver Anodised Aluminium. So now i have to fade THREE colours into each other DOH! First i start with the Blue, building up with lots of very light coats, and being very careful with fading towards the back of the car. I actually initially masking an area at the back of the car i wanted to make sure would definitly become BLACK. But because you dont want a obviously masked line in the paint, you have to take this off halfway through and still allow some over spray into the area. I also made a little carboard blocking board to again help with the overspray. I think in the end, i must have done around 10 thin coats of the Blue, untill it was a level in the of the areas of the car i was happy with. EG more heavy layers towards the front, and getting thinner towards the back. Next came adding the Chrome Silver backer. Now, this i ONLY want ontop of the Blue, and no where near the area i want Black. Now as Silver/Chrome is an opaque colour, and i want the candy blue to darken into Black, you actually have to leave some exposed thin blue towards the back, so that when you spray Black, it darkens the Blue down. But Black won't really have an effect on the silver chrome. So its tricky, and you just have to be so patient, and take your time building lots of the thin coats up, as if you whack a big heavy coat on and its in the wrong place, its game over. So i think in total i must have done around 6 or 7 coats of the Chrome. Pay attention to the fact the Chrome fade is further up than the blue actually is! Now comes the Black, in this case PS-5 Black. At this point, again taking your time to build up lots of even thin layers rather than being tempted to ruin all your hard work with a couple of thick laters of paint. I started to build the black up from the back, making sure to cover all the way past the fade point. As the back of the car was intended to be black, i decided to paint the spoiler just plain black, so i didnt bother showing that getting sprayed up. Then once you've checked your work by holding it up to a light, checking for weak patches. Time to leave to cure overnight. This is the result. Still with all the masking and overspray film on! But you can see its looking good! In total, i think it must have been around 22/23 coats of paint. THEN is the moment of truth....removing the masking and film!..... see next post!
  9. Hi Guys, Have just finished building a Racing Fighter with my son. It’s run for about 1.5 hours but has now developed an annoying clicking noise from the gearbox. It does it when driving forwards and backward but its worse when going backwards. It has no effect on the speed that the car moves at though. Also, the rear wheels only spin in opposite directions intermittently when being turned manually. The rest of the time only one wheel spins and the other doesn’t move at all. To be honest I didn’t check the diff was working properly when I first built it so don’t know if it’s always been like this or has developed this problem at the same time as the clicking noise. Ive stripped and rebuilt the diff and box 3 times now and can’t cure either problem. Any ideas or tips would be appreciated as my son is rapidly losing interest! Thank you.
  10. Brand new in box with Tamiya ESC (company cancelled my order due to no stock then fulfilled it anyway - grrrr - so have 2 kits now) The DT-03 Racing Fighter special black Edition is as per a new Tamiya Racing Fighter with some extras and hop ups:- Hi-Torque Servo Saver (Black) (51000) - £10 DT-03 Lightweight Gear Shaft (5x45mm/2pcs.) (54560) - £2.50 DT-03 Full Turnbuckle Set (54572) - £15 4mm Flange Lock Nut (Black, 8pcs.) (54642) - £3 RS-540 Torque-Tuned Motor (54358) - £13 DT-03 CVA Damper Set (54567) - £20 Im in the U.K. Happy for local delivery or collection (free) or postage to EU (£12) £150 JJ
  11. So if you want to jump straight to the changes from buggy to truggy/truck and an explanation of sorts as to why jump straight to it here... ——— So as the title tells you I’m a total beginner at this so be gentle! I was unsure whether to do a build as I imagine it’ll be of little interest to the veterans, but maybe someone in my shoes at some point will come across it and find it of use. Here goes then. I’ve wanted an R/C on and off for years but never got round to it until now (is that a recurring adult theme?) It was a definite heart over head moment as I did virtually no research(!) and pretty much jumped straight in. I looked at a few RTR’s but beyond the ease of getting up and running and the possible initial reduced cost I wanted the build part. If I’m honest that’s the part that’s most appealing to me, at the minute at least. So from that I started looking at Tamiya kits and was initially looking at 4wd kits but then I came across @ThunderDragonCy build and was totally drawn in by the build and tweaks he had done and bit the bullet on a 2wd DT03 Racing Fighter. Thinking about it afterwards I feel that was the right choice. Although the 4wd kits are by the look of it more involved to build I feel they would be less fun in use, possibly too easy whereas the 2wd kits once built and running should be more fun/challenging to drive. Time will tell...plus I can buy a 4wd later! So to start I just bought the kit with the CVA shocks, ESC and Torque Tuned Motor, but nothing else beyond buying some bearings, although I did buy a couple more bits a few days later but I’ll detail those as they come up in the build. The plan is to research the rest, (servo/batteries/transmitter and receiver) as I go. I’m in no rush and at the moment have very limited time to build the car anyway (first clue for you all that this won’t be a quick build thread!) Nothing exciting at first but I’ll be sure to document any issues etc I come across as a novice builder and then later with use I’ll share any tweaks etc. And if you’ve made it this far, well done 😂 So then, to begin...
  12. Hello all. Total newbie here who after years of wanting an RC and never getting around to it I have finally pulled the trigger on one. After reading @ThunderDragonCy build I decided to go with the DT-03 Racing fighter (preferred the body over the Neo). I had been looking at all sorts and a lot or RTR’s where coming up which would no doubt have been cheaper to start, but for me, I really wanted the build process from the start not just the strip/repair later on so started looking more at the Tamiya cars. Toyed with 4x4 because they looked more involved on the build, but decided 2WD would be a more sense initially just in case I don’t take to it all (plus I can get another 4x4 later 😂) So far I’ve only ordered the kit and some bearings so still need a fair bit before I can build it and run. I have a few of no doubt many questions for you all of you will. 1. Can you recommend a good ‘starter’ tool set? 2. What spares would be advisable to have handy? 3. Only glanced at the pdf manual so far but do you ‘have’ to paint the inside of the body shell? I haven’t decided on finish yet but had something in mind that would no doubt be tricky on the inside for someone like myself who has never done it before, but much easier on the outside. Looking forward to getting started, missus thinks I’m crackers (not much different to normal however!) Sorry for the long post and cheers for any help.
  13. Hi Guys, I am looking at getting a buggy to build once I have completed the CC01 that is currently on its way to me. I need help with making the right choice. So I am asking for advice from all the awesome guys on these forums. I'm looking at the three chassis below, 1. Grasshopper 2. Holiday buggy or any of the other DT02 Chassis 3. Racing Fighter or any of the other DT03 Chassis Any advice would be greatly appreciated. If you guys have other options for buggies, I would like to know that too. Thanks guys.
×
×
  • Create New...