So, What Have You Done Today?

[cosworthwesty 645]

Finished my LC Racing 12B1, first race this Friday coming, my first buggy race in 35 years 😱

[BuggyDad 4476]

19 hours ago, El Gecko said:

FINALLY got around to taking a few "glamour" shots of this old thing earlier. It started life as a basic Grasshopper chassis from @Bash and is now fully Hornet spec plus. I partially restickered my old Parma body which has been getting (appropriately) bashed on for a few years, but I think I might have to take it a bit easier now.

It has been parked for the last 6 months or so while I painted the wheels/tires and V8 engine, freshened up the nerf bars, and made a few adjustments to the suspension. Looking forward to driving it again!

 

This thing's got some proper attitude about it, like the bad kid in some dark teen movie. I think it looks awesome. 

[Busdriver 6209]

36 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

This thing's got some proper attitude about it, like the bad kid in some dark teen movie. I think it looks awesome. 

Love the V8!!!!

[mtbkym01 4008]

On 1/9/2023 at 8:47 PM, Re-Bugged said:

Just couldn’t leave it alone while I was on a roll….

Absolutely stoked with this one, time for an Asahi 😃.

What a stunner the Turbo really is, great job mate, so tempted

[El Gecko 1344]

2 hours ago, Busdriver said:

Love the V8!!!!

Stolen out of a Tootsietoy "Night Hopper" push toy (the same car that sacrificed its body for one of my Hawks)

[Re-Bugged 10153]

2 hours ago, mtbkym01 said:

What a stunner the Turbo really is, great job mate, so tempted

Cheers bud 👍🏻
Photos don’t do them justice, much better in reality. Very happy I picked one up as it’s been on the radar for a while, looking forward to giving it a spin 😁. I can certainly recommend one if your thinking about it 👍🏻

[Sogogi 3217]

Put a le man 240 motor in my hornet! I think it goes well (both retro) even though tamiya purists may not be happy.
 

Acceleration is smooth and more thanenough power for the hornet! (19.5t motor).

Paired with hobbywing justock esc and it is so much easier to setup with a programmer compared to tble02 esc!(i hate setting up tble esc). @Willy iine, glad you shared your purchase. I am happy about my purchase! 
 

[Willy iine 18806]

50 minutes ago, Sogogi said:

Put a le man 240 motor in my hornet! I think it goes well (both retro) even though tamiya purists may not be happy.
 

Acceleration is smooth and more thanenough power for the hornet! (19.5t motor).

Paired with hobbywing justock esc and it is so much easier to setup with a programmer compared to tble02 esc!(i hate setting up tble esc). @Willy iine, glad you shared your purchase. I am happy about my purchase! 
 

Yeah, XR10 is a great setup.  Glad to hear you like it too.

[wun1jee 343]

M05 project is starting to come together, piece by piece.

 

The body shipped from Australia. I figured it'd take a while to get here but it got here in less than a week in the best packaging I've ever received. I've never seen anyone go to the effort of making a coroplast box... I may keep it to store the car in...

 

[GeeWings 2830]

Had a few minutes to strip down the broken Mario Kart RC I got recently and played around with how I might pair it with the grasshopper chassis:

 

 

I think I’m actually going to cut about an inch out of the chassis to shorten it and just have Mario onboard. Donkey Kong is truly a beast and weighs a ton!

If I add back the plastic engine and exhausts and then add an oversized rear wing I reckon it could be great. 

Any advice on the best way to then put the two halves back together with some actual structural strength? 

[Aerobert 2148]

29 minutes ago, GeeWings said:

Had a few minutes to strip down the broken Mario Kart RC I got recently and played around with how I might pair it with the grasshopper chassis:

 

 

I think I’m actually going to cut about an inch out of the chassis to shorten it and just have Mario onboard. Donkey along is truly a beast and weighs a ton! If I add back the plastic engine and exhausts and then add an oversized rear wing I reckon it could be great. 

Any advice on the best way to then put the two halves back together with some actual structural strength? 

Make clean cut and glue it back together with plastic glue. For some extra strength glue some styrene stripes inside of the chassis. I've done that with a DT-02 and it's takes hard bashing without any problems including some hard rollover.

[Busdriver 6209]

1 hour ago, Aerobert said:

Make clean cut and glue it back together with plastic glue. For some extra strength glue some styrene stripes inside of the chassis. I've done that with a DT-02 and it's takes hard bashing without any problems including some hard rollover.

Ditto to the above. I to have a DT02 that I shortened in the same way. An additional idea is to bolt a plate along the bottom of the chassis with m2 nuts and bolts?

[Nikko85 3454]

Given a few posts around how we only talk or show the better aspects of our builds I thought I’d share with you a night of failures.

Firstly failure was servo related, I had one of those 25 kg amazon servos that was quite noisy on my CW01 so I thought I would oil it up a little and check nothing was stuck.

The servo has a metal jacket around the middle part. On the lower side of this jacket on one side there is a small gap for the servo wire to come out.

I didn’t realise this.

When I put the servo back together I inadvertently rotated the jacket 180 degrees, so the gap for the servo wire to exit was now at the top. When I tried to put servo back together there was no space for the wire to exit. I thought, ah – ha, perhaps I just need to tighten it right up. So I did, but as I did I deformed the base of the servo and pulled the screws through the plastic. I will now have to 3D print a replacement base for the servo.

I replaced the servo with a nice Etronix waterproof servo which actually worked. Whilst doing this I made mistake number two – snapping my 3D printed body mount, which was caused by mistake number 3.

As you may remember I made the body mounts by attaching extension posts onto a small 5.5 diameter nub.

As this nub was short I didn’t worry to much about making it strong, and printed it in the weakest but best looking orientation with the layers running horizontally. I didn’t account for the fact that the extension arms worked as a lever and snapped the nub straight off, just delaminating the layers completely.

When I reprint I’d do it in the much stronger orientation by turning the print 90 degrees. This will make it much much stronger (and the expense of much more scaffolding needed printing and an uglier print).

So, with the CW01 with broken mounts and a broken servo I turned my attention to the MF01x I’ve been working on to convert to a FJ45 trail truck.

I gave it a run and found it was much better at turning in one direction than the other. The steering arms were the same length, the servo horn was rotated in the middle, what gives?

I realised that my servo wasn’t centred: mistake number 5.

In the MF01x there are (very annoying to install) spacers to shift the servo left and right so it’s right in the middle When I put in the servo I obviously used the wrong spacer which meant the servo was around 2 mm out of the centre so I’ll have to open up the whole front gearbox and start again. When I’ve done that I’ll have a hope of getting the steering centred and even.

Then I looked at the rear. It looked a little funny to me but I couldn’t put my finger on it. The right rear wheel wasn’t dropping as much as the left. First I thought it was internal spacer limiting shock travel so removed those. When I looked again the rear upright was hitting the bevel gear cover. I looked at my MF01x Jeep, no issues at all there, so what was going on?

Then I looked at my MF01x Jeep again. I compared. Scratched head. And then it hit me..

I had put the wrong rear arms on the FJ45.

I had used TL01 fronts, not MF01x rears. No wonder there was a all sorts going on. In my defence they are very close in sizes, but the TL01 are a few mm narrower. 

So, what I have to do is:

Reprint the servo base for the servo I’ve broken. Not sure if this will work and it probably won’t be waterproof (although I could glue it in)

Reprint the body mounts properly this time

Reinstall the servo in the middle of the MF01x using the correct spacer. Then play with the steering again!

Put on the proper arms on the MF01x. I will probably all have to put back the internal spacer in the rear shock to limit travel as without them the arms drop too much and the dogbone pops out. I will also have to put back the o-rings as I removed these. I did find on the MF01x front that you can’t have o rings on both cups as this binds up the suspension.

So an entire night of mistake after mistake!

 

[Willy iine 18806]

For me, did the rest of the STI’s painting this morning.  I will work on the decals later.  

Final update for today..   still got like 50 more decals to go, but starting to look the part.   

Edited January 12, 2023 by Willy iine

[Ray_ve 1043]

Today is all about resisting temptation as I saw a Marui Ninja for sale.

Also, found out that the increased wheelbase of the juggernaut has a fitting problem with regard to the position in which I want to mount the body (much lower on the chassis). So I need to do some adjustments.

 

Edit:

Ok, looks like this is tight but will work.

Body is lowered by 3cm, shocks were moved 24mm to the front/back but need to be moved back closer to original, 10mm to the front/back.
To get them sitting more or less vertical again, I'll need to shorten the suspension tie-rods. 10mm shorter should be enough, the wheel base will still be larger than stock by 30mm.

There is a height difference, the suspension is 15mm higher front to rear. This gives it a nice race-like slope that I want.

[Badcrumble 4204]

I feel your pain @Nikko85.

My JK crawler build is detailed on another forum. So many mistakes, mis-steps, changes of direction it is a comedy of errors. I still haven't finished it but I haven't given up yet...

[bRIBEGuy 3049]

4 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

Given a few posts around how we only talk or show the better aspects of our builds I thought I’d share with you a night of failures.

You and me both... failure defines my evening and morning as well... though it started with a glimmer of hope...

Project 1: Electronics Install in a DT03.
Ordered a HobbyWing QR10BL60 a while ago, and what showed up was very clearly used:

Hobby store called me and told me it was likely a shipping mix up, and that it was likely returned to them as defective.  They're gonna replace it, but it's a 3-4 week wait...... so....... I ordered another one from the Devil (Amazon).  In the mean time though, I could help to wonder if the first one WAS in fact defective, so I went to work... replaced the missing wires, soldered on connectors, patched the damaged wires, etc...  Low and behold.... seems to work!  Nice!  Cut the wires to size, resoldered the connectors, and got it installed along with my last FASST RX (see "Project 3"...).  Things are looking up in my life at this moment!

Project 2: Driver install.
After a few evening of getting this driver finished up along with a custom mount...


It was time to tuck this guy in place along the ESC and such.  So ya..... got it all mounted, wiring tucked away.... and now the body won't fit as the drivers helmet it too tall.    GAH!!!

Project 3: RX Audit
I've been running a Futaba 4PK radio since [enter a date a long time ago here].  I love it, but have been battling with the issue of depleting Rx supply, as Futaba effectively killed the FASST protocol a while ago.  As I have a "healthy" collection of RC's, it was in my best interest to try and find a solution that would still allow me to run the FASST stuff I have.  For a long time, FrSky & Orange made great cheap Rx's that worked.  But no longer.  I tried the Corona version that is available now, and they don't work.  I know I've been putting this one off for a while, but I was under the impression that a) I hade WAY more extra Rx's than I did, and b) that cheap replacements were still available.  Whoops.  The Futaba 10PX looked (over the top, yet still) good when it was announced, and initially wa supposed to have FASST backwards compatibility.  But NOPE... that never happened.  So the lone backwards compatible option was the 7PXR... a feature raved about by @Willy iine.  So I start figuring out the best place in Canada to source a 7PXR from... at least up until last nights "Project 1", when I realized that the FrSky Rx I used was a "C1" version.  Hmmm....... 7PXR only supports C2.  Guess I should do a Rx audit.... well, a bunch of time later, and I confirm that out of the 20+ FASST Rx's I have, exactly ZERO of them are C2.  So nothing I have currently will be compatible with a 7PXR.  Dang Nab It!!!
So now I'm in that awkward position to figure out what I want to do... and very cognisant of the fact that I have many projects waiting on the decision. 

I feel like this week has had a lot of Mondays so far...

[GeeWings 2830]

Thanks @Aerobert and @Busdriver. I had thought about a plate. If I have enough space I will also fit something inside the tub. 
 

@Nikko85 sorry to read about your run of bad luck. Hope things take a turn for the better now!

[BuggyDad 4476]

I'm most of the way there on my slightly shonky Element Enduro Land Rover with a Teeny Tiny bit of Tamiya in it:

A showcase of model making talent it pointedly is not, but I've been enjoying another silly shell idea and my son and I have been quite blown away by what these things can drive up. 

[Fabia130vRS 2098]

Got an itch for a weeks now, today I scratched it. 

 

A Yokomo BD7 2015 touring car... 

 

I know it's not a tamiya, but I am so excited I need to share. 

https://www.thercracer.com/2014/09/yokomo-bd7-2015-edition-first-look.html

 

As son as I saw this article I knew its something interesting, can't wait to get it.

 

 

[Aerobert 2148]

Just realized that the kit RSR body has an antenna hole in the roof. 

I'm totally fine with body mounting holes, even if it looks better without them, but an antenna hole on a body from 2013?!

[lsear2905 1279]

On 1/10/2023 at 10:39 AM, lsear2905 said:

My order from RCMart turned up last night, with 4 items, for 2 different Mini Z 4x4 4Runners.

Grey 4Runner (a shelf queen that never gets driven, and is really only kept around for emergency spare parts) was due to get a Kyosho light set (went in perfectly) and some Yeah Racing 7mm hub adapters to run larger wheels. Small problem, the inner screws for the larger beadlock wheels interfere with the hub, so the wheels can't rotate! So, moving on to...

Red 4Runner (which has been seen on this page many times), was due to receive a new Yeah Racing aluminium steering link, and Xtra Speed alloy front axle casing. All was going well (the steering link is a lovely bit of kit) until I needed a sub 1.5mm hex key. This means that this is now on hold until I can swing past Bunnings and get a micro hex kit (1.27mm, 0.9mm and 0.7mm). I assume one of these is the size I'll need, but of course nowhere, not even in Kyosho's manual, does it say what size hex you need to remove steering links. I even got so desperate I looked up the genuine (and very pricey) Kyosho Mini Z tool set, and that only goes down to a 1.5mm hex... what the heck??!!?

 All in all a very frustrating evening.

I feel your pain @Nikko85, sometimes after a couple of failures I accept that it's not my day, and find something else to do!!

A quick update on these challenges - I made 'shims' for the front wheels inside the hex, from a 1mm thick yoghurt lid! Works a treat, but then I realised that, having never actually run this car, the nitwit I bought it from had installed a 20T pinion, instead of the stock 10T, making the car really struggle. I didn't have a spare 10T, but I did have a spare 12T and now the car actually drives really well. 

The red one was solved with a trip to Bunnings to buy a Kincrome mini hex key set, which has quite a good selection and is a quality brand. Putting it all back together was fiddly (to put it nicely) but it's all good now. I plan on testing them both in the next few days.

[OnTheTrail 1152]

4 hours ago, Aerobert said:

Just realized that the kit RSR body has an antenna hole in the roof. 

I'm totally fine with body mounting holes, even if it looks better without them, but an antenna hole on a body from 2013?!

I agree.  Wish they'd update the molds and get rid of that.   Any on that still runs a long antenna can easily add this hole.  Closing it up, ...not so easy.   Frankly I wish Tamiya would just pull the plug body mounting holes all together.  They have some of the most scale detailed kits but take away from the overall look with body posts.  

[Nikko85 3454]

20 hours ago, GeeWings said:

Had a few minutes to strip down the broken Mario Kart RC I got recently and played around with how I might pair it with the grasshopper chassis:

 

 

I think I’m actually going to cut about an inch out of the chassis to shorten it and just have Mario onboard. Donkey Kong is truly a beast and weighs a ton!

If I add back the plastic engine and exhausts and then add an oversized rear wing I reckon it could be great. 

Any advice on the best way to then put the two halves back together with some actual structural strength? 

Try and cut it out so you can overlay parts. For my QD I cut off the rear. I removed the underside of the smaller part and the top sides of the larger part and then bolted the two horizontal together. If there is a way you can overlap flat parts and bolt that would be my preference. If a NiMH no longer fits a pair of 18650 will work wonders.

What's the Mario? It looks awesome. I wonder if there was a sonic version, as that would be faster.

[GeeWings 2830]

@Nikko85 the Mario figure is from Jakks:

I’ve also got another old Mario RC toy coming which is much bigger. No idea if I will use it but might be fun on a GF01 or similar.

Anyway, I just went with straight cuts:

But I’ve taken a fair amount off:

And then started to mock-up again:

I’ve not fixed the two halves yet in case I want to make more changes but I think what I’ve got now is just about right. Later (or tomorrow) I will fix the two parts and start to fit Mario etc.  I also want to find a bigger rear wing than the hornet one. Ideally I reckon it would also look better with matching wheels and tyres back and front, just need to see if that’s feasible.