So, What Have You Done Today?

[Yoshimitsu 3475]

9 hours ago, Joe Bo said:

 - as soon as it's done I stick it on eBay.

I get no pleasure from using them either. I derive all the enjoyment from creating something to the very highest standard I can achieve.

I don't know about you but the return is pocket change given the time and money that goes into shells and builds. If I was in it to make money Id be a pretty poor businessman!

Your 037 looks fantastic by the way.👌

Got a link to your eBay stuff?

 

 

 

 

 

[Willy iine 18805]

Each of the cars I built are fully functional and an element of my pretend RC shop.  

I don’t have to drive them to enjoy them, but I can if I feel like it.   I take each of the cars out for a casual drive from time to time to stretch their legs.   

I enjoy building them as much as admiring them on the shelves or while in motion.  But the more exclusive or original (one off) the more value it has to me.  Am I weird?  Probably.  Am I wasting my money?  I don’t think so.

Same for my 1:1 cars.  I have 3 cars sleeping half of the year while off season.  I don’t have to drive them to enjoy them. I just sit in the garage I call car lounge and just enjoy the company while I sip on a drink or watch car vids.  But I am looking forward to starting oil changes for the season real soon. 

[BuggyDad 4465]

Last few days I have been mostly gradually realising just how many opportunities 3d printing brings even to the novice. The principle is obvious, but the ideas come in dribs and drabs. As such, I have placed an order for a wide array of largely funny little parts. XV-01, TT-02, DT-03, dust covers, body mounts, slop eliminating spacers, braces, uprights, you name it. Some off thingiverse or mates' designs and a few of my own. I'm still rubbish at Fusion360 but many of these things are very simple structures and so even I can model them, sometimes in just a few minutes.

I also note you can print in a carbon fibre reinforced plastic for not that much more money, although I haven't tried it. I don't understand how fibres can be brought into printing but still it sounds most promising, eg:

https://3dprintdirect.co.uk/materials/

[Willy iine 18805]

I really need to build a regular Optima.. says the voice inside my head..

 

[Willy iine 18805]

1 hour ago, BuggyDad said:

Last few days I have been mostly gradually realising just how many opportunities 3d printing brings even to the novice. The principle is obvious, but the ideas come in dribs and drabs. As such, I have placed an order for a wide array of largely funny little parts. XV-01, TT-02, DT-03, dust covers, body mounts, slop eliminating spacers, braces, uprights, you name it. Some off thingiverse or mates' designs and a few of my own. I'm still rubbish at Fusion360 but many of these things are very simple structures and so even I can model them, sometimes in just a few minutes.

I also note you can print in a carbon fibre reinforced plastic for not that much more money, although I haven't tried it. I don't understand how fibres can be brought into printing but still it sounds most promising, eg:

https://3dprintdirect.co.uk/materials/

Must be nice to be with the smart crowd..  So to illustrate where I am as far as smarts hierarchy ..

 

========   <= dead guy 

 

Willy iine   <= I'm down here.   

 

Source:  "Hitman's Bodyguard" 

 

I kind of rely on what simensays and nicherotors post up on Shapeways for any 3D parts.  

[BuggyDad 4465]

52 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

Must be nice to be with the smart crowd..  So to illustrate where I am as far as smarts hierarchy ..

 

========   <= dead guy 

 

Willy iine   <= I'm down here.   

 

Source:  "Hitman's Bodyguard" 

 

I kind of rely on what simensays and nicherotors post up on Shapeways for any 3D parts.  

Don't believe a word of it! You, sir, are a master of your craft.

No smart crowd here. I watched the beginner video, which confused me so I watched the even-more-beginner video, on slow. Then I drew a circle and found the button to turn it into a cylinder. Then I repeated essentially that a few times (eclipses and rectangles are also available, as are holes, except when inexplicably they aren't). All this took me more than an evening, including swearing. 

When I say a novice like me can sometimes make something in a few minutes, that's something as simple as a cylindrical spacer! It's hardly revolutionary but for something like TT-02 steering, a plastic spacer that is a tight fit to a M3 bolt inside and a bearing outside could really help with slop, so I made a length of that I can cut up. I think nylon beats aluminium in this application, for a little give and a tight fit. 

This is where I think a lot of opportunity lies. Simple stuff that can make a real functional difference, simply by fitting just right or bracing between 2 points. And these smaller parts add from only about £1 each to the order, or just trickle you up to a minimum order value. 

Anyway, this could all be academic - it's quite possible what comes back doesn't work! 

[Nikko85 3443]

Today I took a couple of new vehicles to the park.

First up was the QD Thunder Dragon. A nice little car but WAY too fast for on-road with these tires. It's fitted with a small brushes motor with 9.6 volts - which gives it around 55,000  rpm

On the large dirt/gravel car park this is great, but it's too fast and twitchy for tarmac. I also need to dial down the steering EPA, although that's nice for in the house. Looks great however, I am not really a fan of buggies but this just 80s awesomeness.

Next up was the Pumpkin. I think it's my best looking vehicle.

With the double wishbone front the handling was surprisingly good. With the EPA set up high it pulls the inner wheel in a little more at full lock after the outer wheel has reached its limit, but this seems to really help making tight turns and the turning circle was pretty decent. It seemed to go where I wanted it. The only issue I had is that it didn't really wheelie.

Following @Saito2's thread I don't want something that wheelies all the time, but popping a wheelie when I hold down full throttle would be nice - however this one didn't. It's got an NiMH battery, HW 1060 and what I thought was a 21T Core motor. Am I missing something - I thought it would be able to wheelie? The top speed was ok but could be a little faster. 

Backing up I could pop a very small wheelie, but almost died as soon as it went on the wheelie bar.

Any thoughts? Should I get a wheelie with a Torque Tuned? I may also try recalibrating the ESC.

With the EPA set up high it pulls the inner wheel in a little more at full lock after the outer wheel has reached its limit, but this seems to really help making tight turns. 

 

 

 

 

[Tamiyastef 1966]

37 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

I may also try recalibrating the ESC.

I think that should be done first. These are made to wheelie on a silver can. Have you changed anything on the rear suspension? Put significantly more weight in the front?

[Nikko85 3443]

Just now, Tamiyastef said:

I think that should be done first. These are made to wheelie on a silver can. Have you changed anything on the rear suspension? Put significantly more weight in the front?

Yes, that's what I was thinking too. I've got the Ampro style axle brace on rear, but that shouldn't effect it much. The front has 3D printed ABS arms which will add a few grams, but nothing too extreme and a none too heavy servo either.

Calibrated now. I was using a HW1060 with auto calibration and EPA turned right up, so I'm not sure it was that, but I double checked that the light went solid on maximum throttle.

I wonder if it was perhaps the battery? It was a brand new NiMH fully charged - perhaps it was a) a little rubbish or b) needs a few cycles to get going? I may try again with another battery and see.

 

 

[Tamiyastef 1966]

7 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

battery

I remember Nicd needed some cycles to get to their max performance, I honestly don't know if it's the same for Nimh.

[Twinfan 1252]

Today I fitted my first Super Stock motor with bearings which all went perfectly thanks to the video below.  Having never taken a motor apart before I was super careful, but even so the process only took 30 minutes including taking photos for reference and making notes.  Job's a good 'un  

Bearings:  https://www.rcbearings.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=368&search=1%2F8x3%2F8x5%2F32+Metal+Shielded+Bearing+(x1)+R2zz

 

[Ray_ve 1043]

More baby steps on the Jugger. Cut the rear wheel arches to the desired shape. Drew a new version of the pickup bed hinge. Drew and printed a base shape for the new rear bumper to check fitment of the 3D model.

If I can just squeeze in some time during weekday evenings, it may actually be paint-ready sometime May or June...

 

[OnTheTrail 1152]

2 hours ago, Nikko85 said:

I wonder if it was perhaps the battery? It was a brand new NiMH fully charged - perhaps it was a) a little rubbish or b) needs a few cycles to get going? I may try again with another battery and see.

 

FWIW......    The guy that runs the LHS told me a few years ago that the industry had to change the make up in NiMH batteries due to a regulatory change (environmental he thought).   He said, he was told by Horizon that the new formula had some challenges.   Many times a peak charger would get a false peak on a new battery and never fully charge it.   I had this happen with an included NiMH pack on an RTR RC boat I got from the LHS.  He said you may have to manually change your charger and force a charge at a higher amp or voltage rating for the first charge.  Once this was done, the battery would then charge fine.   I didn't want to bother so I just started to run Lipo packs in the RC boat as I had tons of them from RC planes.   

[cosworthwesty 645]

Trial body fit of the Bittydesign shell to the TT-02R

[Nikko85 3443]

2 hours ago, OnTheTrail said:

FWIW......    The guy that runs the LHS told me a few years ago that the industry had to change the make up in NiMH batteries due to a regulatory change (environmental he thought).   He said, he was told by Horizon that the new formula had some challenges.   Many times a peak charger would get a false peak on a new battery and never fully charge it.   I had this happen with an included NiMH pack on an RTR RC boat I got from the LHS.  He said you may have to manually change your charger and force a charge at a higher amp or voltage rating for the first charge.  Once this was done, the battery would then charge fine.   I didn't want to bother so I just started to run Lipo packs in the RC boat as I had tons of them from RC planes.   

Yes I will swap the battery to ascertain if it is a battery problem. If so I will try charge few cycles and failing that will try forcing a higher voltage on it. I have had dead 1.2 v batteries that wouldn't charge come to life with a quick 9V battery across the terminals. 

[Tamiyastef 1966]

1 hour ago, Twinfan said:

Today I fitted my first Super Stock motor with bearings which all went perfectly thanks to the video below.  Having never taken a motor apart before I was super careful, but even so the process only took 30 minutes including taking photos for reference and making notes.  Job's a good 'un  

Bearings:  https://www.rcbearings.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=368&search=1%2F8x3%2F8x5%2F32+Metal+Shielded+Bearing+(x1)+R2zz

 

WOW! Even these don't come with bearings, never before realised that. There are cheaper brushless motors that come with bearings and no wear on brushes as there arn't any 

[Ministrone 1455]

I tried a set of drag wheels and tyres on my Gen 1 Mad Van. I’m not sure whether I like them or not yet 🤔

 

[Yoshimitsu 3475]

More progress this evening...

[Superluminal 3750]

Been having a bit more of a go of working on some more 3D printed parts recently to finish off some missing details on a few kits im due to build. I started these in Sketchup but the guy i found to print them couldnt get them to work so used Autocad to model them in 3D which i have at work.

The first are some parts for the F104W Ferrari T3 kit. The very original 70s kit came with a metal wing mount which has since changed to a new twin bladed black plastic thing. The real car had the wing supported off of some scaffold arrangement with a single metal fin closer to the old kit so - its not 100% realistic by any means but ive tried to create a bit of a montage of this and the old style vintage F1 kit rear like the below (thanks to tamiyabase for pic).

I also modelled some wheel covers - the kit F104 five spokes are nothing like the real cars wheels at all.

Fresh from the printer guy a couple of weeks ago.

Styrene tube for the exhausts.

Wheels painted this weekend tamiya ts gold and an ancient tin of humbrol silver tthat had gone a bit lumpy. Managed to smooth out by brushing lightly with a white spirit soaked brush.

Test fitted, will fix with shoegoo when i eventually build it. Hole in middle big enough for the tamiya nut spinner tool.

Rear mount painted and fitted with a 5mm red led where the real one has a light too.

I also designed another one to go on my F103 chassis without the wing mount.

Fitted looks like this

And to go on a completely different kit I modelled some mirrors

And finished clear coating them tonight. The shape of these is totally unique to this car. I tried for ages searching for other kit mirrors that are roughly the same shape but the closest I found were on the kyosho lotus Gt1 kit but the body parts sprue for these never show up so had a go at modelling them, again they are not 100% perfect replicas but close enough. Any one want to guess what they will go on? Colour might give it away.

[svenb 3775]

3 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

Been having a bit more of a go of working on some more 3D printed parts recently to finish off some missing details on a few kits im due to build. I started these in Sketchup but the guy i found to print them couldnt get them to work so used Autocad to model them in 3D which i have at work.

The first are some parts for the F104W Ferrari T3 kit. The very original 70s kit came with a metal wing mount which has since changed to a new twin bladed black plastic thing. The real car had the wing supported off of some scaffold arrangement with a single metal fin closer to the old kit so - its not 100% realistic by any means but ive tried to create a bit of a montage of this and the old style vintage F1 kit rear like the below (thanks to tamiyabase for pic).

I also modelled some wheel covers - the kit F104 five spokes are nothing like the real cars wheels at all.

Fresh from the printer guy a couple of weeks ago.

Styrene tube for the exhausts.

Wheels painted this weekend tamiya ts gold and an ancient tin of humbrol silver tthat had gone a bit lumpy. Managed to smooth out by brushing lightly with a white spirit soaked brush.

Test fitted, will fix with shoegoo when i eventually build it. Hole in middle big enough for the tamiya nut spinner tool.

Rear mount painted and fitted with a 5mm red led where the real one has a light too.

I also designed another one to go on my F103 chassis without the wing mount.

Fitted looks like this

And to go on a completely different kit I modelled some mirrors

And finished clear coating them tonight. The shape of these is totally unique to this car. I tried for ages searching for other kit mirrors that are roughly the same shape but the closest I found were on the kyosho lotus Gt1 kit but the body parts sprue for these never show up so had a go at modelling them, again they are not 100% perfect replicas but close enough. Any one want to guess what they will go on? Colour might give it away.

Very impressive mate👍🏻 a lot of work has gone into that .

I spy a Dyna-tech 🧐

[Superluminal 3750]

Indeed it is! I think it needs the brush refurb kit though but the last person i could find selling any was you know who.

Will also probably be totally overkill in an F1 chassis if i get it up and running.

[Frog Jumper 3658]

New brass on the CC02…

 

Terry

 

[Pizza Frog 498]

Painted the nosecone of my Blitzer Beetle

TS36 is a very nice paint to work with, it goes on so smooth and consistent.  I was almost going to scrap painting the box-art 'splash' graphics on the beetle and just use the stickers but TS36 saved the project.  

[Sogogi 3217]

Holy moly. Just installed castle 4600kv motor…. Even with nimh battery, this is insane. Can’t wait to go out and run this bad boy soon.

[Sogogi 3217]

21 hours ago, OnTheTrail said:

Got the Alfa almost all done.   What I thought was going be one of the more simple paint jobs ended up giving me more headaches than anticipated. 

Had to get a picture of both of these latest projects together.   Don't know which one I like more...???   

Probably start to work on interiors for both of these next.  

Looks great! What cars do you plan on ordering…?Haha