So, What Have You Done Today?

[toyolien 4659]

3 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

So wrong, but so right - I imagine they will be a much better performing shock, mainly because they will still have some oil in them after a few runs!

I thought the same, but I'm over it now As this will be a racer, it's all about what works. 

[alvinlwh 5889]

While waiting for paint to arrive, finished another Mini 4WD body. 

[lsear2905 1279]

10 hours ago, Willy iine said:

I have to ask - does the clock work? If not, you should find an old analog wristwatch and work your magic!

In the meantime, my boat was delivered this morning and now I have to wait another 7 hours until I get home, and until Sunday when I can run it!

 

 

[Willy iine 18804]

4 minutes ago, lsear2905 said:

I have to ask - does the clock work? If not, you should find an old analog wristwatch and work your magic!

 

 

Yes the clock works.   

[berman 5315]

Built this chassis this morning. Getting the body ready for cutting and holes.

Question:

I have never painted 3d printed parts before. I have the wheels and whale tail spoilers etc to paint for a Sierra Cosworth from L&L. I have read in the past that 3d parts require a lot of priming and sanding, is this still the case?

The wheels look really good if they are 3d printed, but the spoiler parts have print lines in them. The wheels will be painted with TS paint, but the spoilers will be painted with the same PS as the body and then cleared.

I've done this many times with styrene parts and it's been fine, but I'm a bit out of my depth with 3d parts, and as its for a customer, I don't want to stuff it up. 😵‍💫 Advice would be appreciated. 

 

[GeeWings 2830]

@berman it depends on the material used. Some 3D printed parts I have received from Shapeways need a lot of sanding but others are just about ready to go with a little sanding to 'key' and then ready for primer. You will know once you unpackage them I reckon. The biggest issue I think is getting a good colour match with the body using PS paint, or will they be different colours?

[Willy iine 18804]

@berman I am not certain which material your 3D printed wheels are, but the simensays wheels I've bought multiple times from shapeways required extensive sanding.  But I only use matte finish so it looks fine even though the surface is not perfectly smooth.  For my wheels they recommended primer before paint.. but I've done it both with primer + TS and just TS.  They seem to be fine either way.

I would test some paint on the back side (or inside the barrel) first and see if you can scratch it off with your nails.  If so, definitely apply primer before your TS.   GL!

[berman 5315]

4 hours ago, GeeWings said:

@berman it depends on the material used. Some 3D printed parts I have received from Shapeways need a lot of sanding but others are just about ready to go with a little sanding to 'key' and then ready for primer. You will know once you unpackage them I reckon. The biggest issue I think is getting a good colour match with the body using PS paint, or will they be different colours?

Yeah I have no idea what material they are unfortunately. I have zero experience with 3d stuff. The wheels look very smooth, I think they will require almost no sanding. The spoilers on the otherhand I think may require quite a bit of sanding and more primer, just from my limited inspection. 

Yes the idea with using the the PS is the colour match. I've done this before with polycarbonate bodies and their styrene ancilleries. The bottom spoiler is black, and the top is the same red with a small black lip. 

3 hours ago, Willy iine said:

@berman I am not certain which material your 3D printed wheels are, but the simensays wheels I've bought multiple times from shapeways required extensive sanding.  But I only use matte finish so it looks fine even though the surface is not perfectly smooth.  For my wheels they recommended primer before paint.. but I've done it both with primer + TS and just TS.  They seem to be fine either way.

I would test some paint on the back side (or inside the barrel) first and see if you can scratch it off with your nails.  If so, definitely apply primer before your TS.   GL!

The wheels are very smooth for something that appears 3d printed. I am painting them in TS Gold. Not sure if I am going to flat clear, satin or gloss the top coat, it depends how it takes the gold. But gold normally dulls slightly when cleared so not sure if I will put a clear on them yet.

I will more than likely primer them, will see if I have any white fine primer, as opposed to grey.

This is the car I have to replicate:

 

[Badcrumble 4201]

This morning I soldered up a battery lead for my shorty 2S LiPo so it can go in my JK crawler, only to find that I don't have the relevant balance charge lead!

So we're charging up the big 3S pack we used last year for overkill and extra weight 

[SimTechRC 144]

Today finnaly I complete the rims test)

 The stress test passed very unexpectedly for me!  I thought that the resin was not able to withstand such loads.  

The type of surface is very uneven asphalt with crushed stone, potholes and overflows, low curbs (up to 15 mm), which I ran into when accelerating.  In the end, the rubber completely peeled off and the disk met the asphalt.  The result is several small chips 0_o.  

If you choose a resin with a slightly higher viscosity, then you can do without chips at all.  Impressive.  

Do not pay attention to the painting) I painted it without priming with some children's paints))) because I did not believe that the car would come on its own with whole wheels.  To make it clear the nature of the loads: during another side impact on the discs, the servo saver failed to cope with its task and the center of the servo was off by about 15° - the gears slipped through several teeth.  

Test passed! 

SLA printing usable for 1/10 scale. 

Need new resin, with more viscosity. I think, I try to print arms. SLA detalisation and some resin toughness - more perspective for our hobby, than FDM low quality or expensive SLS printing in near future, I think.

[Frankster 2030]

@SimTechRC love the Turbomac Fifteen52 wheels.  Class is rallye style

[Busdriver 6209]

On 8/4/2022 at 6:27 AM, berman said:

I dunno, I kind of regret the colour now. It's kind of already an ugly car, I feel like I made it worse giving it an ugly colour 😄

I found another pic of an Europa in NZ that was two tone, washed out yellow on top and white on the lower, which looked really cool, but I couldn't get the tape in the crevice of the front bumper that I was happy with. After half an hour of fighting it, I threw the towel and went the one colour 😄

Still more to do, (shut lines etc) but here's a progress pic.

 

I went with the Camel yellow but added a twist. Kinda GT40 
Still got the stickers to do. Wheels are same colour as the blue stripe which is painted on the inside. The white is trimline pin stripe 

[Willy iine 18804]

So for me, besides paying for my aching back for rushing a honey-do I should’ve waited for my son to help me, I placed order for a new Turbo Scorpion and working on getting these casters setup for my next mystery accessory I am putting together for Willy’s shop.

Why it’s a mystery accessory is because I am uncertain if it can be done.. well, if I was talented I am sure it can be done, just wanted an exit plan incase it turns out like crap.  If I didn’t mention I am making a creeper for Willy, then no one would know what I’m making.. oh wait.. 

Update.. casters starting to look the part.. 

Wanted to ensure everyone saw my premium grade super high tech eyeballing with hope alignment system..  

Doesn’t get any more low tech than this.. 

.. now we wait with hope..

Final update for the day.. I’m going to need to let the layered mat pieces dry overnight before I can sand them down.  

Will trim the caster stems and I should be able to finish tomorrow.   

Edited August 10, 2022 by Willy iine

[berman 5315]

2 hours ago, Busdriver said:

I went with the Camel yellow but added a twist. Kinda GT40 
Still got the stickers to do. Wheels are same colour as the blue stripe which is painted on the inside. The white is trimline pin stripe 

That certainly makes a difference, looks a lot like 1:1 posted earlier 😍

I've kind of lost interest in mine, and not sure what to do. There is another body set locally, so am tempted to buy it and start afresh 👍

[Busdriver 6209]

1 hour ago, berman said:

That certainly makes a difference, looks a lot like 1:1 posted earlier 😍

I've kind of lost interest in mine, and not sure what to do. There is another body set locally, so am tempted to buy it and start afresh 👍

I’ve actually already changed the wheels by painting them Aluminium. The blue just didn’t work for me. Might get the stickers done tomorrow. Did you back the camel yellow? I used white.

[Badcrumble 4201]

My trip out with my JK crawler didn't go according to plan. Whilst it worked in my hand, once on the ground at our running spot, the pinion and spur refused to work together. 

Not quite sure what happened but I haven't touched it in 12 months .

It is tight for space under the hood and the long-for-a-540 Holmes Hobbies motor comes into contact with the steering servo, with a buzzing noise then emanating from the PowerHD servo.

I think I am going to have to pull it apart, lose the servo winch and move to the single servo mount to make some space. I could try re-soldering the motor terminals too, bending the tabs down and changing the angle of the leads but it would only give me a couple of mm.

[Saito2 6676]

Another night out with my daughter and the Monster Beetle. Its humid out, but after a long day in the heat, blasting around with the vehicle that got me hooked on Tamiya is a good way to close out the day.

 

[Willy iine 18804]

@Saito2 Great action shots!   Beetles are so cool.   

 

@Badcrumble  Hope you find a solution for your car.. sorry to hear it didn't go according to plan.  I have those days.. often.     

 

In other news, I showed my wife a picture of my work in progress creeper..  she asked if something had happened to Willy cause it looked like a stretcher to her.   ouch..

[naturbo2000 1264]

I cut the shell, wing and undertray for my Avante. I'm desperate to get it painted and stickered before we go on vacation at the weekend. But that way lies rushing it and mistakes.

It's gonna happen, but I think I'm gonna need a bucket of that hope @Willy iine.

The saving is that the wheels haven't yet arrived. Maybe their absence will stall me. Probably not...

[Willy iine 18804]

1 hour ago, naturbo2000 said:

I cut the shell, wing and undertray for my Avante. I'm desperate to get it painted and stickered before we go on vacation at the weekend. But that way lies rushing it and mistakes.

It's gonna happen, but I think I'm gonna need a bucket of that hope @Willy iine.

The saving is that the wheels haven't yet arrived. Maybe their absence will stall me. Probably not...

That's a dangerous scenario, naturbo2000, but agreed, hope is an excellent strategy!  

[Ziddan 947]

On 8/10/2022 at 4:41 AM, berman said:

I have read in the past that 3d parts require a lot of priming and sanding, is this still the case?

Yes and no.

Parts printed using a FDM printer (which is sort of like a robotized glue gun, squirting out lines of plastic to build up the layers that will eventually be the model) will have noticeable layer lines that need to filler primed and sanded to get a smooth surface finish.

Parts printed on a resin printer (which exposes a thin UV reactive layer of resin between the build plate and a screen, building the model up using voxels, think really small scale Minecraft) most of the time are fine with just priming as the voxels, even on a relatively old home user resin printer, are just shy of 0,05mm cubes.

There are cases where resin prints can show more striations and that is down to gradients of angle due to how the process works.

Here is a simple illustration:

Where the angle is close to vertical or horizontal you get longer striations/steps due to how image processing works, home resin printers mostly use screens to mask off where the resin should be exposed so this kind of stepping will happen unless the part is oriented in a such a way as to minimize it. 

Newer printers have higher resolution screens/smaller voxels so it is less noticeable and there is antialiasing which induces a bit of blur to the step, also helping to smooth it but it is still visible sometimes where the angles are "right".

Layer striations are similar on FDM printers due to how "slicing", as it is called works, the model is sliced into the layers that will be laid down to make the model. Smaller layers heights result in more smaller lines and it is most visible when close to horizontal, on the tops/bottoms where the layers get larger/smaller quickly, like on top of spheres etc.

Services like shapeways have printers that are much higher quality by using a laser sintering process but i have no experience with parts coming off those or their resolution/limits.

[Willy iine 18804]

In RC news I placed order for a new FightingBuggy (2014) as it was a key piece of Tamiya history my pretend RC shop was missing thanks to @tim.senecal's feedback.  And I agree, I had it listed on my candidate to-buy list, but was in the backseat as I was checking out Kyosho's the last few months.  I should have it later in the week.. 

Continuing on with Willy's shop creeper.. sanded most of the parts in prep for paint, I am waiting for the pillow mat cement to dry and then will finish sanding and paint.

I was worried the horizontal braces may not be strong enough, but it is holding the structure well.  

Hope to finish later today.. and maybe start on stanchions for my M38's display next.    Yes, I am putting off the Optima MID build until after I'm done with my display room. 

Update.. got the parts painted.  Will assemble it later this afternoon for completion.    

Edited August 11, 2022 by Willy iine

[Juhunio 6830]

So far, I've cut up an FF03 bumper to try and get a 306 shell to fit 

It doesn't fit 🙄 The rear wheels are just too far back

Other 257mm shells fit the chassis just fine

And the 306 is actually a better fit on a different chassis (TA04-TRF)

But the combination of 306 and FF03 just isn't working for me 🫤 Back to the drawing board....

In other news, it is properly seriously hot here today 🫠 so I just had an orange ice lolly, which was lush 😋

[naturbo2000 1264]

I painted a thing.

No it's not black. No it's not smoke. No it's not Gunmetal.

It's Bling! PS-58 clear followed by PS-5 black. My test shoots overdid the PS-58 and it came out mega glitter, but also a bit too close to gunmetal.

Needs a video to really see the sparkle, but these give you a hint.

Wing is a little heavy due to trying to get the pearl into the side channels, but I have a spare racing wing I might spray up to compare. Custom decals next.

[Willy iine 18804]

Looks like you got a nice injection of hope for a job well done, @naturbo2000.   Now you can relax and take your vacation trip..?  Or are you planning to do the decals today/tomorrow?  

 

So I've been using the new air purifier in my pretend RC shop and it works wonders to rid paint smell while drying.  When I am sanding I run a higher fan speed and it appears to keep the styrene dust contained in my work area.  I've yet to notice any on my RC cars on the shelf adjacent to my desk.