So, What Have You Done Today?

[technics 3161]

Small progress. Skipped the kit decals and opt for nearly 100% mirror reflecting decal solution. Find and buy a roll of automotive wrap / vinyl to last you a lifetime.
 

Here I simply cut the traced shape I needed for my Subaru Legacy RS Acropolis 555. All the small touches add up. 

 

 

[Jason1145 4683]

Had fun running TD4 and Lunchbox, home safe with just a broken lower shock mount on the Lunchbox, not bad considering the pounding it took from my daughter.

That upside shot of the TD4 defies gravity, thought the landing broke the rear hub but the wobbly wheel was just from a loosened wheel nut! 

[Sogogi 3333]

This is so Tamiya. Even has a bushing too!

 

[Kpowell911 2163]

Gonna make a start on masking this shell which Im dreading

Then Ill decide what chassis to put it on. If it turns out well, a posh XM-01. If not a cheap MF-01X haha

[Alex97 450]

30 minutes ago, Kpowell911 said:

XM-01

This is the way 🤣

[technics 3161]

@Kpowell911 One option belongs in the bin while the other on the podium, make the epic bodyset for the epic chassis! 

[Kpowell911 2163]

1 hour ago, technics said:

@Kpowell911 One option belongs in the bin while the other on the podium, make the epic bodyset for the epic chassis! 

Itll only stay on the shelf tbh?

[Wystan Withers 321]

6 hours ago, Kpowell911 said:

Gonna make a start on masking this shell which Im dreading

Then Ill decide what chassis to put it on. If it turns out well, a posh XM-01. If not a cheap MF-01X haha

Is there a preference between the TBG bodies vs the L&L bodies or vice versa? Or do guys tend to go with the supplier on their continent to save on shipping/VAT/import duties? 

[Kpowell911 2163]

5 minutes ago, Wystan Withers said:

Is there a preference between the TBG bodies vs the L&L bodies or vice versa? Or do guys tend to go with the supplier on their continent to save on shipping/VAT/import duties? 

This one was just easier and cheaper to get. Credit to L&L I received it within 24 hours, maybe theres better out there. I also wonder what the difference is between the Kamtec and the L&L

[nowinaminute 3319]

Yet again working on my Nikko project.

Yet again, focused on trying to track down any kind of binding in the drive train, because I'm getting hot 27t silver cans on 2s while some have claimed barely warm faster motors on 3s!?!

Quickly coming to the conclusion that many people tend to not do anything more than a few straight line passes before assessing the thermal robustness of their setups. I just know I like to drive stuff enthusiastically on various terrain with a lot of on and off the throttle going on, so no doubt my personal scenario is one that requires a setup that can handle regular current bursts etc.

I guess it's like when you see someone say they have run a Tamiya on x motor or x type battery and not had temp issues and you think "that wouldn't last 5 minutes with me" everyone drives differently, and on different terrain

Also possible a little fibbing going on, because good motor temps is always a kind of low key brag in the RC world.

The lengths I've gone to today to rule out binding, bad bearings, and good mesh etc is ridiculous.

This was the only true way I could make sure there was a little backlash between pinion and spur gear with the gearbox case shut. Remove diff and "finger the diff hole" 

So, if I come to the conclusion that I've done nothing wrong, and it's simply a gearing/lardy car issue, I have 3 options as far as I can see:

1. Use slower motors.

2. Try and adjust gearing.

3. Go brushless.

I know which one I'd like  but maybe better to try the other two, first.

I'll add more about the subject in my post in the Nikko section later on.

[technics 3161]

@Wystan Withers @Kpowell911

L&L takes Team C bodies and staples on a L&L header card or does not include one.. I have bought both “brands” You can get all the same bodies for half or a third of the price from asiatees. Have not tried TBG. I imagine ultimately many use the same base mold made from a lexan from one of the large manufacturer that got discontinued at some point.

[technics 3161]

Might become the standard for all future rally builds ( that aren’t pure tarmac ) if it feels right. 

1/16th scale WPL tires, very generous meaty rubber look and feel. More realistic proportions to actual cars. Below I am comparing them to Tamiya rally blocks. The idea is to run m scale wheels on normal or full-size 1:10 rc with these tires. Here I tested 3 m scale wheels I had on hand. I got the idea from watching a great videographer of Tamiya called Katu Rou. The best there is with none of the cringe that comes with YouTube channels.

https://m.youtube.com/@KatuRou

Where most rc wheel tire combinations look too low profile this starts to look too cartoony like it’s a monster truck depending on the wheel. Had to try. 

[Kpowell911 2163]

9 hours ago, technics said:

@Wystan Withers @Kpowell911

L&L takes Team C bodies and staples on a L&L header card or does not include one.. I have bought both “brands” You can get all the same bodies for half or a third of the price from asiatees. Have not tried TBG. I imagine ultimately many use the same base mold made from a lexan from one of the large manufacturer that got discontinued at some point.

Thanks, what about Kamtec?

[technics 3161]

@Kpowell911 I believe they are as TBG, make their own vaccum forms off of self made molds from a vintage master. Not to sound too negative about any of the above names just something I’ve experienced. Have had first hand experiences with both sellers.

[Kpowell911 2163]

10 minutes ago, technics said:

@Kpowell911 I believe they are as TBG, make their own vaccum forms off of self made molds from a vintage master. Not to sound too negative about any of the above names just something I’ve experienced. Have had first hand experiences with both sellers.

Yea Ive realised with this L&L 959, Tamiya shells are absolutely incredible in comparison 

[technics 3161]

@Kpowell911 Yes. However I am very happy long lost shells are being made WITHOUT body post holes. The celica bodyset by Tamiya killed me inside a bit that it comes pre drilled. I have a Team C in queue without holes anyway 😀

[chris.alex 1050]

Today my Datsun 240z / Nissan Fairlady had its premiere as a drifter.

[TurnipJF 9722]

12 hours ago, Kpowell911 said:

Yea Ive realised with this L&L 959, Tamiya shells are absolutely incredible in comparison 

Likewise with the L&L R91CP shells I am using for my workmate's F10-to-Group C conversion. They are affordable, quite robust and therefore make great runners, but aren't a patch on the quality and precision of a genuine Tamiya.

[alvinlwh 6884]

Changed the shocks on my FTX Bugstar to these Boom Racing piggybacks.

Quality is really impressive. They are dual rate shocks with titanium nitride coated shafts that are really smooth. If dual rate is not needed, a single rate soft spring is also included. Otherwise, they have medium (white), soft (blue) and hard (red) main springs.

I built them with #400 yellow oil and blue soft springs.

They look really nice on thr car and works really well.

Great shocks for <£20.

[Nick-W 1770]

I finally got round to putting some paint on the F104 body. This has been in the box for the six months since I built the chassis.

Things have been very quiet lately, a lot of upheaval at work has resulted in very little time for anything RC. I’ve not raced for four months now! It was nice to do something again, I might even be able to fit in a build thread for the DB01 soon. 

[Pizza Frog 682]

I've started work on my 2wd Manta Ray.

I put plugs in some plastic bearings and painted them black to seal the front gearbox and propeller joint holes.

Also waiting for some plastic gears and steel pinion to arrive in the post for the rear gearbox.  

I notice there's a mistake in the manual with part A4, it looks different lol 

[nowinaminute 3319]

Worked on my Nikko project....obviously 

Then a took it drive which was part good fun and part disaster!

Last time I drove it, I noticed it seemed to suffer from intermittent brown outs where it lost power and steering. Sometimes it would come back to life and other times needed a cycle of the power switch.

I guessed it might the Quicrun 880 esc I had in there. It was an unbranded "RTR" version which came from a supplier I have trusted in the past. I've had a few unbranded ESCs from them in the past that have all resembled and functioned the same as the unbranded Hobbywing stuff you get packaged with a lot of RTR cars. But it just seemed like the obvious thing to try, so I swapped it out for a known genuine and fully Hobbywing branded unit I got from Modelpsort originally and it just did the exact same thing, so it's obviously not the ESC. Next step will be to try a different servo, as I know a dodgy servo can cause all sorts of electronic issues.

The brown out issue unfortunately lead to two crashes! Luckily there was no damage, but after the second one, I decided to call it a day, and not push my luck. The buggy is well over 25 years old at this point!

My other issue was fitting some cheap dampers from Aliexpress. In all honesty, I've had plenty of "HSP" style dampers from China and they have been pretty decent. This time I bought a set that's advertised as being specifically for Tamiyas such as TT-02B and DT-02 and even has 2 sets of springs. I naively thought they would be ok for the money but my god, some of the worse dampers I've ever bought! They come ridiculously over damped, the stock oil is like syrup and the holes in the pistons are tiny and I had to go down to 100CST oil to get the damping right! The binding on the o rings is like nothing I've ever witnessed before. They start to seize up after a few seconds. The rear suspension pretty much didn't work for the entire test drive. If you went up to the car and manually pushed the suspension up and down about a dozen times, they would free up and work beautifully, but they would go stiff again in no time. Only good thing I can say for them is that the springs while way to firm for TT-02B or DT-02 were just right for the heavy Nikko. I'm going to try new o rings in them and if they are no better, just toss them but keep the springs and get a tamiya DT-03 CVA set.

So it was a bit of a disaster today.

I still enjoyed the test drive, though! The carpark just down the street from my house was recently used to store materials for resurfacing works on the main road and they have left a total mess behind them but it has meant the carpark has loads of loose dirt and gravel and stones etc for the first time in years! 

Although it's a bit cramped, I'll take any place like this I can get, I just love the loose dirt and kicking up dust etc. I was absolutely loving it. One of my favourite kinds of surfaces. The other two places like this near to me have gone now, so it was great to find this, even though it looks like a total eyesore for everyone else.
 

Next steps are to try a different servo and improve or replace dampers.

Bonus content: All the times it went out of control:
 

God bless that ridiculously huge front bumper, no doubt helped avoid serious damage on that kerb!

[BuggyDad 5320]

Today I got back to my parcel from a bit of rather hot-headed auction buying the other week. First up is my original, immaculate, I think never run, Willy's Wheeler! 

 

 

It came with a pristine looking humpback battery and the same Acoms transmitter I've seen in many sales of old Tamiyas. 

To me at least, this feels like Tamiya royalty. Even the tyres are in great nick, no cracks, no shine to the surface, still feel rubbery. 

It gives me a conundrum. I'm not a collector, I'm not really a shelf queen guy. I can't think of anything I could do to this (except maybe buying and painting up a genuine box art body, but that's not happening - they are rare as hen's teeth and probably cost more on their own than I paid for this whole car), even having it sit on a shelf, that wouldn't be to its detriment. Feels almost a museum piece. The intelligent thing to do is perhaps to sell it on after only a short period of marvelling at its marvelousness, to someone who would value it more than me and look after it better than me. What would you do? 

Edit: and I found a promo video:

https://www.tamiyabase.com/video/27-58039

It looks so much fun, but equally if they can't keep it on the track for a promo video, then I don't think I should put any electrons through mine! 😉

[dannymulder 933]

Finished building of the mf-01x chassis.

And then what had to be an easy motor swap with the M-05 and the mf-01x, was not that easy, because the first time I build the m-05 a lot of little stones entered the gearbox, so because of that and the shape of the motor I put silicon sealant between the motor and motor mount, yes it did a great job  sealing there was no debriss  inside of the gearbox, but  I had to dismantle the car because I could not get the motor out of it, it was stuck,  and the motor is tucked away in the chassis so I could not do anything else.

[Jason1145 4683]

5 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

Today I got back to my parcel from a bit of rather hot-headed auction buying the other week. First up is my original, immaculate, I think never run, Willy's Wheeler! 

 

 

It came with a pristine looking humpback battery and the same Acoms transmitter I've seen in many sales of old Tamiyas. 

To me at least, this feels like Tamiya royalty. Even the tyres are in great nick, no cracks, no shine to the surface, still feel rubbery. 

It gives me a conundrum. I'm not a collector, I'm not really a shelf queen guy. I can't think of anything I could do to this (except maybe buying and painting up a genuine box art body, but that's not happening - they are rare as hen's teeth and probably cost more on their own than I paid for this whole car), even having it sit on a shelf, that wouldn't be to its detriment. Feels almost a museum piece. The intelligent thing to do is perhaps to sell it on after only a short period of marvelling at its marvelousness, to someone who would value it more than me and look after it better than me. What would you do? 

Edit: and I found a promo video:

https://www.tamiyabase.com/video/27-58039

It looks so much fun, but equally if they can't keep it on the track for a promo video, then I don't think I should put any electrons through mine! 😉

Keep it, you’ll never find another for the price, plus it’s cute!