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alvinlwh

LRP Twister Buggy kit build

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After the comical hopper (no build thread as I don't think there will be any interest on that one), a non-Tamiya this time. Grabbed this kit for £89.90 from JK, that is DT-03 cost for all these! 

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No electrics though, not that I need it. I planned this to be a brushless build from the get go. 

 

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UNBOXING

I don't normally do this but I cannot find any information on this kit at all so I though I will document the unboxing experience. The only few YouTube videos I found are for the RTR version, and in German. 

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First thing I noticed is this is a heavy box, heavier than my DT-02 HB IIRC. 

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Forget shrink wrapping, I almost felt guilty cutting that shiny sticker! Still duty calls, or at least what is in the box.

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Box is packed solid. 

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At first I thought the body is precut but nope. 

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All the parts laid out. There is this strange bag of black tar like grease that I have no idea what it is for. A quick look through the instruction don't seem to mention it. 

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Right at the bottom, the reason for the weight. A 64 page instruction manual in glossy paper and a 150 page catalog. A Tamiya catalog will cost at least £10!

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ELECTRICS 

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As I said, this will be a BL build right from the start so I will be using the Toro TS50 with a 13.5T bluebottle. 

Radio will be the Absima CR3P with a Flysky RX. 

I feel that I should use something better than my usual Amazon "special 4 pack" servo in this. So I found a HobbyKing HK15268A, 4kg 0.13S servo. 

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Before getting into the build, one thing that I want to point out is there are 20 odd pages of various tips in that thick instruction manual. 

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PAGE 1 - FRONT SUSPENSION 

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Straight away, there is an option to choose from, the kick up angle. Never had this option on any of my previous cars before, luckily, there is a section in the manual explaining what this setting is about. I will stick with the default 30 degrees for now. 

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Just like Tamiya, full size screw drawings. I have to say, the drawings matches the real thing better than Tamiya's. 

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Replaced the kit's awful plastic spacers with metal. Later I changed the silver ones for blue ones. 

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Page 1 done. The arms are secured similarly to my 3R cars, with a stop screw on the arms. No messing with e-clips here. 

PAGE 2

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That is Bag 1 done. Point of note is the metal bridge piece, I just finished a WR-02CB and it's front pins is a bent u piece. To get a bridge like this will require the purchase of a hop up set. 

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PAGE 3 - STEERING

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This is the most complicated servo saver I had seen! 

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The saver post (can't think of a better name for it) has a flat face that should be matched to the flat in the plastic. On my first try, I did not and could not secure the saver screw. 

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The spring saver is quite like the MST one. 

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The servo saver done and the steering post are metal. Shown half way in. 

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Assembled. 

PAGE 4 - ATTACHING FRONT SUSPENSION 

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The servo saver, steering linkage forms part of the structure. Point of note here is to get the nuts in and done up first before anything else. It will be impossible to insert with the servo saver in place. 

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The main bathtub chassis. 

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That's Bag 2 done. 

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A nicely specced kit to DT-03 prize. With these specs you can easyly live with that it comes without motor and ESC. 

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Nice! What's amazing about the LRP kits are the plastic they use compared to the non-carbon plastic of Tamiya. The LRP is much, much sturdier.

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44 minutes ago, Nicadraus said:

Nice! What's amazing about the LRP kits are the plastic they use compared to the non-carbon plastic of Tamiya. The LRP is much, much sturdier.

I don't know about that. The servo saver/steering bridge seems rather stiff compared to Tamiya, even though they have metal posts and ball raced. They do not flop around when not connected to unlike Tamiya ones, if that make sense. I am considering putting in a 9kg servo instead of the 4kg planned. Also, maybe their plastic are sturdier, but seem to be softer, more like Tamiya's "rubber" plastic, things don't just drop in or line up properly. They may all "snap together" when the screws are tighten down, but at this early stage, I can't say.

What I can say is the moulding is poorer than Tamiya's, lots of flashing requiring much clean up. The suspension arms I had done so far will bind OOB and require much filing to get them to move smoothly, and rubbery plastic is not easy to file!

At this early stage, it is too early to pass judgement on this, but I have to say, it is definitely not a beginner's kit like Tamiya's "shake 'n' bake".

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Looking forward to seeing this one come together. I reckon it'll be a great runner!:)

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Moving on to Bag 3...

PAGE 5 - FRONT SUSPENSION 

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As before, I will be swapping out the rubbish plastic spacers for metal ones. 

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Left front hub done up, fully ball raced. Luckily the fit is better with this and there is little binding. 

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Now this is the way to hold shafts, with a stop screw. No messing around with e-clips! 

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Hubs attached to suspension arms. 

PAGE 6

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Fixed links although on ball joints so upgrade to turnbuckles possible. 

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Front shocks tower. 

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Next Bag 4.

PAGE 7 - DIFFERENTIAL GEAR

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This is the hardest e-clip I had ever done. 

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I finally discovered what this strange bag of grease is for, the diff. 

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Diff done up. Very unusual out drives, done up out of box. 

GEARBOX 

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Fully ball raced gearbox. 

PAGE 8 - SLIPPER UNIT (CLUTCH) 

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This is my first slipper clutch build. 

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Spur gear and metal motor plate on. I think there is a mistake with the instructions as it showed a mirrored gearbox which makes following impossible until I looked at the next step. 

And that is Bag 4 done. One comment at this point is the gearbox felt stiff, I believe this needs running in unlike most Tamiya. 

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Bag 5 next and it is a big one. 

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PAGE 9 - REAR SHOCK TOWER

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Nothing exciting here. 

REAR UPPER DECK

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Again, nothing exciting here except I changed the plastic spacers for metal ones again. 

PAGE 10 - ATTACHING REAR UPPER DECK

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Rear upper deck attached to the chassis. 

REAR LOWER DECK 

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It has the same toe setting method as 3Rs.

PAGE 11 - REAR SUSPENSION 

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ATTACHING REAR SUSPENSION 

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Rear suspension attached to chassis. This move more freely than the fronts. 

PAGE 12 - ATTACHING GEARBOX

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Gearbox attached to chassis. Point of note here is to fit the lower screws loosely. 

REAR SHOCK TOWER

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Attaching the rear shock tower is harder than it should as there is almost no space for the screw driver. An angled driver will be handy here. 

PAGE 13 - MOTOR GUARD

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The lower screws need to be removed and reattached again for this step. The dogbone like spacer is almost impossible to fit. 

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Nearly done and time for bed. 

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Liking this kit, very similar design to the Associated B4 and Tamiya TRF201

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Yeah, I kinda want to build one of these too. Reminds me of an Ultima RB5 or Academy GV2.

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PAGE 13 - OUT DRIVES & HUBS 

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Bag 6 next..

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Instead of dogbone or even universals, this has an interesting system that I had never seen before. A X shaft (male) is used between matching holes (female) at the diff out and hubs. I inserted some grease into the holes to allow less friction when sliding. (OK, that sounds really X rated!) 

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The rear drive system installed. As usual, I replaced all the rubbish plastic spacers with metal ones. Given that LRP's slogan is "Better in Blue!", it is surprising that they did not supply blue spacers. 

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Again, the upper suspension arms are snap on fixed links like the front. 

PAGE 14 - CHASSIS

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This step is just battery post and body clip position. 

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PAGE 15 - SHOCKS 

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Bag 7 next, the shocks varies slightly to Tamiya's, key difference being that there are two plastic washers between the o rings. Fit on the shocks are not that good with flashings and rough moulding. I should clean them up before putting them together and I suspect that they may leak  eventually. If they do, I will clean them up before refilling them. 

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Shocks done with lovely blue springs. They are very smooth. 

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Front shocks in place. Again, metal for plastic spacers. One thing I differs from the instruction is that instead of two 2mm spacers at the top mount, I use 2mm and 1mm to give the lock nut more to "bite" on. 

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Rear shocks on. 

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I am not too happy with how close the rear shock comes to the rear upper suspension arm under full compression. 

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So I swapped the 1mm spacer on the lower mount pushing the lower mounting point 1mm forward. I am not sure how big a difference in handling will this make. 

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Lower mounting point, top is after swap, bottom is swapped. 

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Here is how the build looks before I go to bed 

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PAGE 16 - STEERING SERVO

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Bag 8, time to install the electrics. 

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Setting the servo centre and recalibrating the ESC. 

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Servo installed. 

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On full lock, the steering arm will hit the springs, so EPA set to 90%.

PAGE 17 - MOTOR

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A 48dp 21T pinion is included and it already got threadlock pre applied so I will use it. I do not have a long enough sensor cable yet so I test ran it on sersorless mode.

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There is a handy cover for easy adjustment of the slipper clutch. 

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Gears covered up. 

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Also trimmed out the body shell. Trimming to the line does not really fit. Definitely not Tamiya quality. 

That's it for tonight and for the moment. Waiting for sensor cable so that I can secure the electrics and paint. Bed time now. 

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Minor update. Finished cutting out the body and wing. Cutting of the wing is slightly tricky as there is no clear cut lines. Careful examination of the drawings and photos needed to know what it is supposed to look like. Also at some points, the material is very thick.

Mockup of the buggy. 

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A fellow member popped by and he said that the plastic for this is a kind of very good "unbreakable" plastic. I don't know about that but what I do know is that it is almost un-fileable. Took me over 50 pass with a hobby file to free the front suspension up. 

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It’s the kinda arms you need an “arm reamer” for, couldn’t think of the tool earlier but it’d be handy if you build more buggies like that one. 
 It seems like nice stiff plastic with a bit of flex when it’s needed. 

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2 hours ago, ad456 said:

It’s the kinda arms you need an “arm reamer” for, couldn’t think of the tool earlier but it’d be handy if you build more buggies like that one. 
 It seems like nice stiff plastic with a bit of flex when it’s needed. 

No, it is not the shaft holes that are binding but the "fork" of the arms which holds the hubs. It's a straight forward filing job just that this plastic is very hard to file. Next time, I will just grind the flashing down. 

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Ah, forgot you said that indeed! Need more sleep I think.

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Now, I mentioned that I hated "reverse" masking of clear bodies and yeap, things went wrong. 

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I expect that the tape will not hold well against the "force" of a can so I blew 30 odd ml through an airbrush first hoping to seal the masked edge followed by a heavy final coat. 

Well, bleeding still happen, particularly where the tape lapped. 

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I really hate the curvy masking tape, on top of the lapping problem, they shift! 

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I will probably fix this one by brush touch up and changing the shape of the clear portion slightly. Not sure about the bleeding at the lap though. 

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Moment of truth time. 

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The curvy tape shifted and it is a mess at the tighter corner part (left). The weeping where the tape lapped (middle) can mostly be scrapped off. May try some paint remover to clean it up. The mess needs to be touched up with a brush. 

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First task is to touch up the bleeding paint.

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Cotton buds and Mr Paint Remover does shift PS paint. I also sprayed a little of the paint into a jar and touched up the curve part of the bleed. 

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Not perfect but it will do. 

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Then the wing. I decided against smoking the clear part and I think that was a good decision.  

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Window masks also removed. There is quite a bit of adhesive residue that will need cleaning up. 

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