Astute - Put the wreck to the rack. A shelf restauration.

[Collin 1936]

Next thougts about the rubbers. As you can see on the first pic at page 1 the original ones where down. I cutted then off because of glue, now I think that was not very clever because they where good enough for a display model and testrun.

Which available tyres are an option for now? @

[Kol__ 2823]

46 minutes ago, Collin said:

Which available tyres are an option for now?

Grasshopper 2 front tyres fit the smaller diameter Astute and Madcap (and Bear Hawk) front wheels, but they don't look half as good as the original spiked front tyres.

Rear tyres are same as the Egress rears and are readily available on eBay etc. Madcap rear tyres are fitted to some of the DT-02 models and so are also available.

[Collin 1936]

Okay, Grasshopper rubbers look so poor... maybe more luck with 3rd party ones.

[Kol__ 2823]

1 minute ago, Collin said:

Okay, Grasshopper rubbers look so poor... maybe more luck with 3rd party ones.

As far as I'm aware there are none available in the smaller size. Plenty of 2.2"/60mm tyres out there, but none for the smaller Astute/Madcap wheel sizes. If you find any, let us know!👍

[Collin 1936]

Guys I am so disappointed. Since I could not find some Astute parts I thought I simply order them on Shapeways.

Bearing seats have 11.4mm instad of 11.0mm. Uploaded STL files are in very low resolution so all round surfaces looks pixelated. Ballconnectors are so large that you can push/pull the ballend in and out for 2mm. Also the print quality is very rough and grainy.

Now I am designing my own parts and I really like to support other people as well buying their parts but in this case I am so disappointed speding 75€ for plastic garbage. It took me one hour to write a detailed mail to Shapeways including lot of pics etc... but finally I found this line, Shapeways says: Please note that with an exception for quality defects, all sales are final.

Between the lines it says they only refund theit print fails, no? @Tizer Do you read? Are you still at Shapeways? What do you think. PM me if you can help me somehow.

I am really not willing to burn my money for someones bad designe.

[wtcc5 4197]

Sad to hear that. I bet Shapeways will chicken out of that, because it is not their product, but that of a „shop owner“. You will need to communicate with him I guess (and he will say it is SWs fault…on his fdm printer it worked )…

That is an ugly situation. Wishing the best!

[Collin 1936]

8 hours ago, wtcc5 said:

Sad to hear that. I bet Shapeways will chicken out of that, because it is not their product, but that of a „shop owner“. You will need to communicate with him I guess (and he will say it is SWs fault…on his fdm printer it worked )…

That is an ugly situation. Wishing the best!

The Designer sent me STEP files of the parts AND full refund via PayPay f&f.

Meanwhile SWs refund about 40% of the total price.

The Designer got his money back and we both had a wonderfull chat about what honesty and responsibility means.

At the end it was a great experience and I will let the missing parts print ant my favorite printshop.

; )

[wtcc5 4197]

Wow! That is great! But who was at fault now? SW production or the part design?

[Collin 1936]

Both. Designer uploaded low resolution stl files and SWs gave it the rest. They sandblasted the sxxt out of it.

[ruebiracer 950]

Very happy to hear that Tom! 

And as you know, my Astute survivor is only missing one original knuckle, so if you need any originals for measurements maybe, let me know.

Greets,

Matthias

[Collin 1936]

Just out of curiosity, are 2.2" front rims in Astute/Egress style available? The Egress ones are 2.2" but to wide and hex mount.

I can not accept the Grasshopper rubbers on the front wheels, there need to be nasty spikes : )

[Kol__ 2823]

51 minutes ago, Collin said:

Just out of curiosity, are 2.2" front rims in Astute/Egress style available? The Egress ones are 2.2" but to wide and hex mount.

I can not accept the Grasshopper rubbers on the front wheels, there need to be nasty spikes : )

Haha, I know the feeling about the Grasshopper fronts mate. I fitted them to my Madcap at one point, in an attempt to retain the smaller, original front wheels and they just look so very wrong! Like you say the front need spikes, like the rears! I ended up going with 2.2" 19mm wide star dish and Schumacher 2WD mini spikes as they are quite a good match for the original Astute/Madcap front tyres.

As we know, the OG Astute wheels are same size as the Madcap ones, and so our options are massively limited. Yes, the 4WD Egress ones will not work (without some woefully bad adapters), but thankfully JC Racing do them in a 2WD bearing format at 2.2". I have a set and they are very good.

https://www.jcracingproducts.co.uk/tamiya/astute

Another option is that Tamiya also do a black 2WD speed disc wheel in 2.2" with a wider 24mm (same as the Sand Viper grey ones), but that's more of a match for the Madcap style of wheel. However, they do allow for a wider front tyre to be fitted.

[Collin 1936]

Nice Madcap! Unfortunitly all my other buggys have star dish rims. I want to keep the astute designed ones but thought maybe there are larger ones, except the modified ones from Shapeways. Mixing rims does not look that good in my opinion.

[Kol__ 2823]

4 minutes ago, Collin said:

Nice Madcap! Unfortunitly all my other buggys have star dish rims. I want to keep the astute designed ones but thought maybe there are larger ones, except the modified ones from Shapeways. Mixing rims does not look that good in my opinion.

Oh god no, mixing rims front to back would be a disaster!🤮

Did you not see my note above about the Astute/Egress style rims available in 2.2" sizes from JC Racing? You can get the same original Astute style rims front and rear, so og looking wheels that take modern tyre sizes. Added a link for you👍

[Collin 1936]

2 hours ago, Kol__ said:

Oh god no, mixing rims front to back would be a disaster!🤮

Did you not see my note above about the Astute/Egress style rims available in 2.2" sizes from JC Racing? You can get the same original Astute style rims front and rear, so og looking wheels that take modern tyre sizes. Added a link for you👍

Man I was too quick and overread it. This rims will be the solution with nice 2.2" spike rubbers... Best way for now, maybe 2.0" will pop up some time later.

 

[ruebiracer 950]

5 hours ago, Kol__ said:

Haha, I know the feeling about the Grasshopper fronts mate. I fitted them to my Madcap at one point, in an attempt to retain the smaller, original front wheels and they just look so very wrong! Like you say the front need spikes, like the rears! I ended up going with 2.2" 19mm wide star dish and Schumacher 2WD mini spikes as they are quite a good match for the original Astute/Madcap front tyres.

As we know, the OG Astute wheels are same size as the Madcap ones, and so our options are massively limited. Yes, the 4WD Egress ones will not work (without some woefully bad adapters), but thankfully JC Racing do them in a 2WD bearing format at 2.2". I have a set and they are very good.

https://www.jcracingproducts.co.uk/tamiya/astute

Another option is that Tamiya also do a black 2WD speed disc wheel in 2.2" with a wider 24mm (same as the Sand Viper grey ones), but that's more of a match for the Madcap style of wheel. However, they do allow for a wider front tyre to be fitted.

@Kol__ That´s the best looking Madcap I´ve seen so far, very cool color concept and tweaks!! Hats off!

[Collin 1936]

@wtcc5   Thanks so much for the original parts you sent me. A little bit of sandpaper wet used and it looks pretty okay. No need to be perfect, but still better then any 3D print.

So what next, needed to laugh because I did not expect m4 screws for the bumper, need to get some from my workshop. By next week I will receive rear hubs and soon a set of 2.2" front rims. Thats all I need to complete this built. Body will come with my next order form Penguin UK. Still time to think what colour would match the ESC/RX units, maybe limegeen?!

[Kol__ 2823]

5 hours ago, Collin said:

maybe limegeen?!

[Collin 1936]

PS-28 Neon Green, anyone doing this colour?

[Kol__ 2823]

 

2 hours ago, Collin said:

PS-28 Neon Green, anyone doing this colour?

I've got a can for my TT02B Neo Scorcher, for whenever I get around to actually building it!

[kontemax 1698]

On 3/1/2023 at 1:18 PM, Kol__ said:

This is probably the best Madcap of all Tamiyaclub and related forum.

Max

[Collin 1936]

Its done! Piece after piece its back alive. Nevre thought I will do it but I did not regret. Its a cute litte 2WD buggy and it is really nice to see how the rear suspension works.

Today I got some 3D prints from my favorite printshop. Beside you see Shapeways print. Only the ballend connectors still does not work, simply the tolerances.

How curious but I found some really nice looking no-name rubbers for the front rims. The rims came from John Broadhurst and are really nice made 2.2" size. I would love to keep the small ones but maybe in a time some rubbers comes alonge... beeing patient is the way to go.

Body will come in about a month or two for a reason but already got a can of neon green and ordered some MCI decals with funny colour swap. It will be a really colourful raver buggy

Thats all for now, news will be posted once the body is done, promissed.

 

 

 

[Collin 1936]

Hi guys. I reember that I read ybout this issue already but could not find the posting.

Got the body today. It is from Penguin UK, the undertray is original Tamiya. It does not overlap nicely at the rear section close do the damper. Still no velcor but that will not make things better cause anoter 2mm more inbetween both lexan layers.

Shall I cut a vertical slot into the body to put the rear into the inside of the undertray? I thing that would solve all problems... 

Any suggestions?

 

[Thommo 1180]

 

Suspect the body is the culprit there.  The back of the side pod should be straight down and not balloon out.  That's a tough one.

[Collin 1936]

21 minutes ago, Thommo said:

 

Suspect the body is the culprit there.  The back of the side pod should be straight down and not balloon out.  That's a tough one.

Yess you are right, this is the old body in compare.

So Penguin UK are not that precise replica. Had no problems with their Dyna Storm bodies and others...

Does anyone have a SA rere body left for sale?