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It's been a bodywork kinda day, and in the spirit of sharing your defeats as well as victories...

A few weeks back I made good progress with paint on this AMG GT3 shell for my TA04-TRF. Then I decided I wanted the headlamps to be tinted yellow, and my last post said I was going to hit it with some PS-42 Translucent Yellow.

Big mistake!

It just would not go down in a consistent even coat, I think partly because I was concentrating it in such a small targeted area. The first attempt was grim but it cleaned off OK using PC cleaner, so I tried a second attempt

Which was even grimmer.

And even worse, this time it didn't clean off well and the PC cleaner ended up clouding and marking the shell :(

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Noooooooooo!

A bit more research led me to this stuff, a tinted self adhesive film for just this sort of application

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There are a couple of awkward contours on the headlamps on this shell (the masking stickers come in two overlapping parts) but with some constant hairdryer support, the yellow film went down really well

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The film does the job I set out to achieve, but the marks from the painting error will always be there. Short of binning the whole thing and starting again, this is as good as it's going to get, so I'll just have to live with them as a memory of the mistake 

Once upon a time, I posted in the 'Pro Tips' thread that you should always try that extra little finishing touch of paint, as it definitely won't completely ruin everything. Will I ever learn?? :lol:

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Nice job and recovery, @Juhunio!

The film is a great idea.  I too was thinking about lightly tinting my 58044 Pajero's front glass since I made my own windshield.. next time I'm at my 1:1 tint guy's place to have my real car done, I will ask if he can give me scrap pieces of 50 - 70%..

Willy looks like has no glass.. so.  :ph34r:

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I finally started on my GF-01 journey. First baby step this afternoon was instruction manual step 2, the 2 diff gears.That grease makes it tricky to hold on to things :)

 

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9 minutes ago, Gebbly said:

I finally started on my GF-01 journey. First baby step this afternoon was instruction manual step 2, the 2 diff gears.That grease makes it tricky to hold on to things :)

 

GLon the build!   GF01 rocks!

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2 hours ago, nowinaminute said:

Is that back with the 380 again?

They do get super hot even with the low gearing. Grasshopper is the same with the 380 and small pinion, motor gets thermonuclear if you give it good thrashing on high drag surfaces.

Yes it is indeed. 380ST. Of course driving on a football field will not help either. Thanks for the heads up!

I am considering getting a Dirt Tuned for it. Tried putting in a 540ST but the motor shaft is too short. 🤷 My RZ's shaft is long enough but don't think it will be a good idea. Don't really want to risk my GT Tuned too. 

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14 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

GF01 rocks!

I did notice your fondness for them in the Tower of Power thread :)

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34 minutes ago, Gebbly said:

I did notice your fondness for them in the Tower of Power thread :)

Yeah, I run them with my various one-off bodies.  :D 

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Finished one of my Kyosho Big Boss restos today. Still need to complete my German one.

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Need to complete some odds-n-ends like the tail lights and making lenses for the roll bar lights but it came out ok.

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Looks good, @Saito2!  

 

So I was shopping for some enamel paint to replenish and noticed TowerHobbies prices went up $15 - 70 on some Tamiya kits.. what the heck.  You're suppose to discount prices on holidays, not raise them up so that it looks like customers are getting a bargain with their $20 Off or whatever (which is still higher than their regular price).  :wacko:

This is why I keep buying larger things from overseas.. especially with the weak yen right now. 

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For me, had to redo the orange-yellow helmet as there was an injection bump near the right side of Billy’s face that I failed to notice until after paint.  

Actually on the previous Billy I did for my Monte Carlo Mini Cooper, I noticed the same bump and I thought maybe I over did the paint and had a minor run, but no, it was an actual bump in the plastic.  :blink:

So sanded that down and resprayed.  Also painted the NOS bottle straps and steering wheels today.  I will work on the body next and paint their faces tomorrow.   :D 

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Update.. I finished painting the torso’s.. so I am still on track to finish tomorrow.  Gray alcantara / suede gloves on off-white suit.  :D 

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Edited by Willy iine
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I did run my Fantom and the Spider Touring Force TF-3 this week-end in Macon on a nice on road track with nice curves and a long straight line...
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There was a lot of fun on this week-end with a lot of vintage rc passionate people. Stands of the site were full. Exposition for some, running for some, and both for some...
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The track is allowing for some serious running with bigger scales, so the running session was organized based on the registered participation : during each hour, there was two fifteen minutes sessions for electric powered cars (1/10 and 1/12 mixed), one for gas powered (1/8 and 1/10 mixed - including one EP converted 1/8), and one for big scales (1/4 and 1/5 mixed).

There was a lot of fun, and the big scales are truly spectacular to see running (I took some videos, and will share some later), and also when you have a guy running in 1/8 like a champ, with very nice trajectory and regularity (maybe he was running like a champ because he is a champion)...

My son got his newly built Calibra TA02 and his TT02. He got some escaping front dogbones issues on the TT-02, I may need to find him some universal shafts... This is the only issue he reported, he had a lot of fun but did not attend the second day.

On my side, I ran 5 cars there :
- Kyosho Fantom EP-4WD, in terms of track car (about 15 runs of 10 minutes over the week-end), it quickly became my favorite. The one way requires a bit of adaptation, but once you got the fact you need to keep some trigger in while in curve, that is just super fun, as when the rear lose traction, the front kicks in after a short transition
- Kyosho Spider TF3. Initially, I had a doubt about the Kyosho superstock 34 motor I had in this car. I got it with the chassis, and when I built the car, the first try triggered a decision to order in emergency a new motor, just in case. I did 6 runs yesterday, the chassis is having a very nice behavior, very clear and running straight. It was missing a bit of power, but I decided to keep it this way for the time being. Today during the two first run the car seemed to have more brake than yesterday, so I changed the ESC setup, and during the 3rd run, the car stop in one the lines, with smoke going out from under the shell... The lipo was safe, but the motor was super hot. Basically, the motor is dead. I replaced it later on with the replacement motor (a Tamiya Superstock RZ 23 turns), and it ran like a charm, with the additional power which was good in the long straight line
- Tamiya Lunchbox (I never go without this one, for the time when I'm too depleted to run a car seriously) : it was a lot of fun to run on the track with it, and far from being ridiculous
- Tamiya M06 (1 pack only, it is too much imprecise for this exercise, and I think that since I got the two Kyosho built, I will almost never run anymore)
- Nichimo Spirit FF : I took it to the track, as the ground clearance is too low for being run off road seriously. A on road track is where the car runs very well. Except the silver can make it definitely too slow. about 10 minutes run, printed transmission is still working like a charm. I'm curious to see if this can survive a bigger motor, and the idea start to germ in my mind to put some on-road tires on this car for the fun...

There was some people selling stuff, and my son scored a nice BearHawk, while on my side, I succeed to score a nice Marui 360RS motor in better state than the one I got already...
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Overall, a very nice event, lot of fun, and waiting for the same event next year already :)

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Slowly finishing the striker rebuild. 
OMG it’s so nerve racking cutting into 30 something year old stickers. 

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20 hours ago, RC Perspective said:

Not sure I catch your drift. Though I also haven't had my coffee yet :lol:

-RC Perspective

Sorry, was a bit of left-field comment. This might provide background... Shed of the Week

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23 hours ago, Jonathon Gillham said:

I wish we had chipmunks and squirrels down here, they would be a big drawcard!

But you do have the Haka, Hobbits and Wellington Paranormal 😉

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17 hours ago, Saito2 said:

Finished one of my Kyosho Big Boss restos today. Still need to complete my German one.

20220703_133153 20220703_133121

Need to complete some odds-n-ends like the tail lights and making lenses for the roll bar lights but it came out ok.

I love it. Looks like a late 80s/90s Nikko in a totally awesome way.

 

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52 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

I love it. Looks like a late 80s/90s Nikko in a totally awesome way.

Thanks. I never thought of it that way, but your quite right. The body is less proportionally accurate than Tamiya's usual attention to detail but still looks cool in its own way and the graphics do seem reminiscent of those vintage Nikkos.

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Fixed the front lower suspension arm of my Thunder Dragon. It failed in a way I had not heard about before. A8 breaking, yes. D1? Nope. 

Twice I took the car out for a drive and it felt "strange". First time, I was wondering how can I make a mistake like this. But when it happened a second time, I knew it was broken. 

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The problem is the failure point is not easy to see when on the car. 

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Postman brought me this ebay purchase and I am good to go. 

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All good now. 

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Today I finished off my QD beetle buggy. The shell is from a GF01TR Beetle with some new decals. Playing with a few shells and chassis I realised that the beetle body would fit a QD buggy shell really nicely, making a 1/14 scale sand scorcher type thing. This was good news as the body was spare, and the chassis was missing a body so it all worked out.

The wheelbase of the beetle is much more flexible due to the rear cut aways – so whilst the other sized cars are around 180 mm wheelbase, this one could go on the full 208 mm of the QD. In reality the wheelbase could be a few mm shorter, but it looks ok; a little like the Kyosho beetle.

I softened the front suspension and reduced the huge positive camber by cutting out a few coils at the front (for some reason on these QDs the front suspension seems much much harder than the rear), added a proper servo with 3 mm steel steering rods and  an Ezrun 18T 2030 brushless motor. At the moment it's on 9.6 volts from 8 x AA batteries, but I may go for a 7.2 V AA power pack, just for ease of use. I'm looking to make a 40+ mph beast like @wolfdogstinkus something that can go 25 - 30 km/h would be fine with me.

Kyosho 14x tires on rear, originals on front (worn to slicks, but that's ok, as I'm happy with it no turning too sharply). I think it looks the part and something Tamiya might have released themselves.

As with other QD buggies, it's only good on very short grass, or dirt/gravel as the wheels are just too small to handle anything rougher. I also may try out the MF01x rally block tires on it too, for concrete. The COG is quite low with the battery making up most of the weight right at the bottom of the car, so with smaller on road tires it could be quite a good little runner. 

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The body is attached using the original holes from the GF01TR in the front and two small holes in the rear with horizontal mounts. The rear mounts don't use body clips, as the car can't go anywhere when the front is locked down.

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Basic two speed gearbox. Works pretty nice. Some cogging at very low speeds, but it's ok for what it is. Rear feels nice and bouncy.

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Edgar-mon to drive, although the windows are a little darker, so he might be hard to see. I'll cut his legs off (sorry) and put on a seat first. 

Spray painted black, nose and ears done and clear coated - the Edgar-mon factory revealed.

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Great pics @silvertriple! How did your Fantom do with the custom chain guide? That car is such a blast to drive. 

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Did some more building on my new fire Dragon, I saw some of this cars with hi caps on them so I tought they wil fit nice on the car, the rears where fine and I was happy with them, but the front shocks you have to build them with spacers inside to fit this chassis then they have very little stroke in them and with the suspension arms horizontal they allready where at the end of the shock, I did not like that.

First I wanted to use a set of red alloy tamiya 53155 that I have lying around, this shocks had a lot more travel and fit the car nicely, but then I tought maybe I can use the hi cap at the front without the spacer inside and use it as a mono shock at the front like the Thunder Dragon because all the parts are allready in the kit.

So with a long eyeled and a different spring the shock works fine now at the front, the car bottoms out nicely even without the bumper and with hotshot wheels that are a little bit larger in diameter as the fire dragon, the hotshot wheels are only on this chassis for trying out the suspension.

The only thing I do not like now is that I had allready cut the body so there is more cut off the body then was necessary

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1 hour ago, Room335 said:

Great pics @silvertriple! How did your Fantom do with the custom chain guide? That car is such a blast to drive. 

First the guide chain survived. I will need to review the chain tension as the chain was elongated, but one of my friend having another one told me it's normal during the first runs, and it would stabilisé quickly... 

I really like this car. That being said moar power would have been great with the track straight line, but on a pacman type track it will be fine... 

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@Nikko85  I didn't realize the QD chassis is like a mini GrassHopper!  :D   Nice job on your Beetle.

 

I'm going to work on painting the faces of Billy and Willy later this afternoon.. and if I'm up for it, will start the platforms to place them on..  I'm still deciding which chassis I should give these 2 figures to..  which reminds, me, I need to buy 5 more.  :wacko:

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