So, What Have You Done Today?

[Busdriver 5996]

1 hour ago, Yoshimitsu said:

Roof air scoop fitting today. Not nerve-racking at all...

Nice!!!

[Ray_ve 847]

Painted all aluminium parts from the chassis in red, which works better for me compared to the aluminium grey.

Reassembled the chassis with new stainless steel screws/nuts.

Need to replace the motors with black can types, but that is somewere on the to-do list.

[Pizza Frog 228]

11 hours ago, Willy iine said:

For me, I use micro mesh sticks and wet sand orange peel in tight spots as it is a lot more controlled than using cloth.  Cloth is great for broader areas and the very final work down with polish (diminishing abrasives like Meguiars ScratchX). 

Do you polish in the tight spots after you have wet sanded them or is the sanding with mesh sticks enough to induce shine?

I've been using q-tips in the hard to reach areas but they are not ideal.   

This is the lunchbox - it's been a testbed for improving my painting.  (black seems to be a very unforgiving color when it comes to imperfections)  I'm very happy with the roof, the front, the back and most of the sides but I would love to do more polishing around the door handles and there are ridges around the side windows;
 

[naturbo2000 933]

I opened a brand new M08 chassis and started filing chunks out of it. Rear arms are now 31.8mm outside-to-outside, reduced from 33.8mm. I'll be updating my M08 build thread with the details why.

[BJoe76 567]

This happened tonight 😁

 

[Re-Bugged 9011]

With all the main body colours done today, I decided to peel back the windscreen mask a bit and apply a some Anodised Silver before the dreaded Smoke.

I had a bit of a light bulb moment thinking of the Smoke and wondered if maybe the window mask leaves residue? So a quick wipe with isopropyl alcohol (thanks to @toyolien for the introduction of IA it’s been a game changer 👍🏻) and all went well 😃

Considering this is a body left over from using the chassis for my Street Scorcher and painted with half spent rattle cans, I’m super happy with result and fills the void of a mainly green car in the fleet.

 

 

I’ll probably just ‘borrow’ the TT02R that my GT MK2 sits on for the time being. 

[GeeWings 2738]

@BJoe76that looks very cool.

Amazing paintwork as always @Re-Bugged. My efforts today are very dull in comparison!

But I did manage to prep all the parts for my Wild Willy GF-01 build. But it rained, rained and rained some more. So, this is the only paint I managed to get down!

 

[Nikko85 2865]

Having decided on no more toy grade RCs I just bought two.

Unlike most Radioshacks which are rebranded (and a much cheaper way to buy) Taiyo and Nikkos, these are made by Digitcon, who may have been responsible for making the Tamiya QD monster trucks. I've never got my hands on any of these trucks, so interested to see how it runs.

Hopefully I can do a hobby grade conversion on one of them - I may then use the second body for something else (for example on a GF01) so  I've got another second set of spares - but we'll see when they get here.

@nowinaminute or @GeeWings are these chassis that you are familiar with? Hopefully a hobbygrade conversion is possible. I've also now idea of the scale or wheelbase - I am guessing around 180 mm or so.

[GeeWings 2738]

@Nikko85yes, I think I have one of those but I’m sure mine has different decals and shell colour. It’s in my loft at the moment!

I did make some plans for my Wild Runner shell today (with shiny Konghead parts). I’m planning a kind of Bullhead homage:

 

[Nikko85 2865]

59 minutes ago, GeeWings said:

@Nikko85yes, I think I have one of those but I’m sure mine has different decals and shell colour. It’s in my loft at the moment!

I did make some plans for my Wild Runner shell today (with shiny Konghead parts). I’m planning a kind of Bullhead homage:

 

Nice, I've never seen the Wild Runner chassis before - is it really 4 wheel steering?

I stopped with some of the toy grade cars I was frustrated about lack of spare parts, but I realised know I can print quite a few of them.

My plan for the Digitcon is to try and put a micro servo in the rear so I can switch between high and low gear easily. It's easy to make these trucks go too fast, so I will try to put a 370 motor in and see what happens! 

[GeeWings 2738]

7 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

Nice, I've never seen the Wild Runner chassis before - is it really 4 wheel steering?

I stopped with some of the toy grade cars I was frustrated about lack of spare parts, but I realised know I can print quite a few of them.

My plan for the Digitcon is to try and put a micro servo in the rear so I can switch between high and low gear easily. It's easy to make these trucks go too fast, so I will try to put a 370 motor in and see what happens! 

Yes, though no idea how well it works. I picked this up for $5! I got it as I knew it would pair with the GF01 well.

Great that you can bring these cars back to life with 3ad printing! We’ve just got a 3D printer at work so think I need to get my head back in to 3D software. It’s been a long time though. 

[Ziddan 866]

More t0nk progress.

I should be getting a couple of escs in the mail tomorrow so i will hopefully be test driving tomorrow night.

Decided to skip messing with cast tracks for now and keep building.

Beyond head/convoy lights i think that is the hull done 

Visible on the left inside the turret ring is half of the mount for the servo that will do turret rotation.

[Willy iine 16955]

12 hours ago, Pizza Frog said:

Do you polish in the tight spots after you have wet sanded them or is the sanding with mesh sticks enough to induce shine?

I've been using q-tips in the hard to reach areas but they are not ideal.   

This is the lunchbox - it's been a testbed for improving my painting.  (black seems to be a very unforgiving color when it comes to imperfections)  I'm very happy with the roof, the front, the back and most of the sides but I would love to do more polishing around the door handles and there are ridges around the side windows;
 

The trick for me to paint glossy finish is to apply a very wet coat at the end.. like borderline running.   This alone will rid all orange peel to start.  

Now some areas can end up with orange peel as I am trying not to run the paint and easier to wet sand that small area with micro mesh vs wet sanding a run.  

Hope this make sense.. 

[Willy iine 16955]

For me yesterday, worked on installing clearbra on my GR Supra's rocker panels  from scratch.  The install went fine, but the adhesive strength is a bit weak on this cheap roll I used this time so will need to redo it down the road. But the most important part, making the template, is done so I can redo it anytime.

Also started Beetle #3, will work on it some more this afternoon. 

This morning after my Golf-R's weekend drive, took my Scorpion out for a quick drive in front of my house.   

 

[BuggyDad 2480]

On 5/4/2023 at 4:29 PM, BuggyDad said:

This looks very much like the plasterboard tape and shoe goo method. Have you tried that? I have had good success with it, both to reinforce a good shell and repair some fairly hefty cracks/breaks. It'd sort your Jimny. 

It's straightforward. Just tape the areas you want to reinforce then smear glue all over the tape. Don't wipe fingers on trousers. It doesn't seem to come off in the wash. 

Shoe Goo also good for tyres. And shoes. 

@ChrisRx718 having done a bit more of this today I thought worth posting up that I prefer the method of spreading the glue on first and applying the tape to the glued surface. Just seems cleaner and more even. Less likely to distort or pull away the tape trying to get it into nooks and crannies too. 

Also, this paint is I think 4 days old and in the odd spot it has not held my gluing over it perfectly. It needs a bit longer to fully cure than this. 

[Willy iine 16955]

Okay passed bench test.  Now moving onto sidewall lettering.   

 

Finished and passed test drive.  This car is so cool.  

Edited May 7 by Willy iine

[Saito2 5650]

Today I tore into the planetary transmission of my latest project, a used CR-01. For anybody that says stock aluminum pinions are ok to use, next time I'm going to have them clean out the smeary, greasy aluminum particle infused grey sludge embedded in every gear tooth and internal nook and cranny of the gearbox because I sure don't find it fun. 

[Sgt.Speirs 1090]

I had time today to test the new carbon damper stay and the „new“ universal shafts of my Dyna Blaster by making a „one battery pack“ run in my backyard.

[Kowalski86 1607]

1 hour ago, Saito2 said:

Today I tore into the planetary transmission of my latest project, a used CR-01. For anybody that says stock aluminum pinions are ok to use, next time I'm going to have them clean out the smeary, greasy aluminum particle infused grey sludge embedded in every gear tooth and internal nook and cranny of the gearbox because I sure don't find it fun. 

Been there done that, I've seen enough wear from light use, and picked up a used TT-01E once that had gone completely shark toothed.

In other news, I grabbed some new wheels/tires for my TT02 Type S. It's nice that wheels/tires for touring cars are so much cheaper than off roaders ($15 vs $50). It's also nice not having to fuss about weird offsets (thank you Traxxas!).

[naturbo2000 933]

I went racing again. Polished wooden floor this time. Evo hasn't been happy since racing on carpet last weekend. I suspect I've stripped the front diff outdrives. I think I'd like a geared diff up front, but with industrial outdrives like on a TT02. I also discovered the damage done last weekend from a head on collision - the front bulkhead exploded from a minor impact. An easy change, but I'll look out for an alloy one.

The Super Madtute stepped in as a replacement for one race only as it summarily exploded a rear arm carrier block. I'm beginning to remember all the pain points of running a Madcap/Astute.

They were both running in the Vintage class and were completely overwhelmed. Evo running well would have been fine.

But in the Tamiya class, my Avante had a field day. Loads of grip from Cactus and Cactus Fusion tyres and it bludgeoned the track into submission. I'm waiting to see the final results, but I think it put in a lap count above the Vintage Cats/Cougar. It had the advantage of effectively time-trialling as it was way ahead of the other cars in its category. I can believe I'll have to run it in the Vintage class there going forward (!).

[Ferruz 10059]

We went for a little day trip today, so I ran the Terra Scorcher on a new turf by the Ottawa River. A good hour of running, no damage and a lot of fun 

[Sogogi 2052]

New shoes

[lsear2905 1272]

Well yesterday (Sunday) was eventful.

I finally got to go boating (as @geewings mentioned the weather in our neck of the woods has been miserable) but ran into a few problems:

• The second pair of 3S batteries I run in the Sonicwake hit LVD after 10 seconds - not sure why, but I'll rebalance them and try again next time,
• The ESC in the M41 unsoldered itself - hard to be mad, the boat still has all its stock electrics after 2+ years of regular running (on 4S),
• The Recoil 2 hit a buoy, which left a tiny chip in the hull - entirely my fault, and
• It was so blustery and cold I packed up the sailboat and went home!

Once I got home I checked on the MX5, which I'd parked outside to test how waterproof it currently was - and I've found (possibly) another point of entry for the water. So that's now drying out in the garage, and I'll look at that in the next few days.

Then, later in the day when it wasn't raining, I decided I'd run the TRX4M. 15 minutes later the replacement servo Traxxas sent me died - exactly the same issue as last time. I went home, pulled the servo out and it's a stripped plastic gear, so I've emailed the hobby shop to see what they can do.

At this point I decided I'd had enough RC'ing for the day.

This morning I ordered a replacement (metal geared) servo for the TRX4M, because even if Traxxas do replace the servo again, the odds of it lasting seem extraordinarily low.

[BJoe76 567]

Cosmetically, it’s done!

still need to program the Rx and ESC to make us driveable😁

[Pizza Frog 228]

18 hours ago, Willy iine said:

The trick for me to paint glossy finish is to apply a very wet coat at the end.. like borderline running.   This alone will rid all orange peel to start.  

Now some areas can end up with orange peel as I am trying not to run the paint and easier to wet sand that small area with micro mesh vs wet sanding a run.  

Hope this make sense.. 

It makes sense, I still need to work on perfecting my painting technique.  I'm usually reasonably good with colors that aren't black or dark blue etc

Your kyosho beetle looks splendid.