So, What Have You Done Today?

[Hypoxic]

On 11/11/2024 at 5:56 PM, Ferruz said:

My original plans for yesterday were to get reacquainted with some good old Racing by Post, but during the setup process I realized my mind wasn't really there (too many thoughts going on), so decided to switch to some relaxed free running instead.

Another foliage run with the Optima Mid followed, the buggy performed flawlessly as usual.

Love the leaf thrashing. Been doing that myself. Change of photographer or camera? Maybe open the aperture a click or two if DSLR.

[magnumcyclonex]

(Not quite today...a few days out from the past weekend, but hopefully close enough. The video DID get posted today so there's that).

I hope posting a link to a video I made is allowed here. If not, I can just revise the post to include pictures instead.

Took my Super Clod Buster out after a friend helped me with fixing it so I thanked him for it. Apparently I had not screwed in all the screws to the chassis. One was missing that connected the chassis to one of the 4 colored steering braces on the bottom. Once that was sorted out, the 4 Wheel Steering (4WS) worked exactly as Tamiya intended! No more issues and it could take tight turns with ease. Running on just the stock motors and ball bearings as the only hop up, I (or rather my animals who were strapped to the truck bed) took the monster truck out for a spin in search for some food. How was the ride from their perspective, what (dangers) did they encounter, and did they make it to their destination???

https://youtu.be/iidcZxUkSPg

[Ferruz]

1 hour ago, Hypoxic said:

Love the leaf thrashing. Been doing that myself. Change of photographer or camera? Maybe open the aperture a click or two if DSLR.

Thanks! You may have overestimated my technology though... it's just me driving and at the same time taking photos with my 9 y-old phone so the quality is what it is😅

[Hypoxic]

Just now, Ferruz said:

Thanks! You may have overestimated my technology though... it's just me driving and at the same time taking photos with my 9 y-old phone so the quality is what it is😅

I can relate. If you didn’t use AI to process those images, then I’d say you totally nailed those shots! 

[CoolHands]

On 11/11/2024 at 12:02 AM, Re-Bugged said:

As expected using up some of the last tins of Dupli-Colour in Australia that I found on clearance at an auto store. The Silver was fine but the light blue didn’t want to play nice from half way through the tin, looks like it could have been Hammerite from close up. Not a great concern as it’s going to be a runner. Still wanting to add a bit of fun to it I’ve always wanted to try some kind of chequered effect, and with some ‘53’s’ left over from the Giulia body, well, they where hardly going to get used on anything else where they…

 

 

Just a bit of cleaning up to do here and there. Pretty happy with it for a cheap & cheerful with being to Herbied. 

Wonderful. Would you mind sharing how do you cut and remove the squares you want gone, eg on the roof, without marking the underlying paint / body? Or had you cut them first then laid them in the roof. But I think I’m missing something 

[El Gecko]

Another day, another rollover... this time the rollbar did its job, but sacrificed itself in the process. Luckily this was just the basher rollbar made out of plastic coat hangers (the vintage rollbar is safe in storage), so all I had to do was make a new center section. It'll get repainted eventually, once the weather warms up a bit. The rollbar is also connected to some extra scaffolding inside the body which braces it against the top of the chassis, otherwise the whole center of the body would have crumpled in when it hit the ground.

[donfilippo]

What have I done today? I have ordered another Tamiya kit! I cannot explain why, but over the last months I got the nagging feeling that I do miss a bigger wheeled rc in my life. A RTR? No way. I want to build my cars. Then the Squash Van came to my mind. Yeah... 4WD and a recent release. Probably a great car, okay, but for me it just lacks some soul. So, after a lot of thinking in various directions, I did the right thing and ordered a Monster Beetle!    You cannot go wrong with such a classic.

It will be a runner and see a bit of mods, no doubt! I am looking forward to this iconic kit. 

[donfilippo]

double post

[donfilippo]

triple post

[Ferruz]

6 hours ago, Hypoxic said:

I can relate. If you didn’t use AI to process those images, then I’d say you totally nailed those shots! 

Thanks again! Absolutely no AI around here, I wouldn't even know how to use its help 😆

[Honza]

I did.. something. 😃

MF-01B, to stress-test new low-speed gearing. SWB to fit under 1/14 truggy body I have at hand. 

The gears are can go down to 20:1 FDR, to make my mid-motor conversion usable off-road. I just thought it could be fun way to test it with the biggest wheels I had on hand 😃

[Re-Bugged]

13 hours ago, CoolHands said:

Wonderful. Would you mind sharing how do you cut and remove the squares you want gone, eg on the roof, without marking the underlying paint / body? Or had you cut them first then laid them in the roof. But I think I’m missing something 

Cheers 👍🏻

Hopefully this makes sense to you mate as I’m not much of a teacher 😉

In a nutshell I laid down the outline 5mm curvy tape front to back, then 3mm in the middleish, as I wanted the blue stripe slightly bigger than the red. Next was 5mm tape again across it all on a slight curve tightly next to each other (8 in total), you don’t want to overstretch the tape as later on will shrink back a bit. Next was to pencil in a line along the 2 sections either side of the 3mm tape and make alternate ‘C’ where I want to remove, looking something like this..

Now it’s time to take a razor sharp knife, I’d usually use a Stanley knife but I’ve put it down somewhere I can’t find it at the moment so a scalpel was used instead. 
A cut was made first along the pencil lines, hardly any pressure on the knife, it will mark the paint underneath but if nothing moves you won’t see them at the end. Next I cut along the centre of the 3mm tape, then cut the alternate ends over the 5mm tape (the squares with ‘C’ on them) removing each bit once all the cuts are done. Just keep running a fingernail or the other end of the scalpel to make sure the cross bits are tight to the body & edge of the 3 & 5mm tape going length ways to prevent bleeding.

 

 

[Rinskie]

I have been loosely shopping for a new project but nothing is jingling my bells at the moment so I decided to double down on my favorite runner....my TT02R. When I built it I used the self tappers and JIS drivers and while work well, I can't shake the feeling of it looking cheapish. So I decided I would change the JIS hardware for hex hardware which means I needed to order the tap (only genuine Tamiya thread rollers for me), a new chassis, new A and B parts along with the hardware. The plan is simple, to replace all the plastic parts with new plastic parts properly tapped for machine screws. I also was able to find the spring kit, the 3mm straight reamer and some drift tires for it. The goal is simple, take a sweet running car and make it look as sweet as it drives. So in the end it seems I spent more money on what I already have only to make what I already have slightly easier to work on. No more JIS on that kit, even the diff screws will get replaced. 

[Pylon80]

45 minutes ago, Rinskie said:

I have been loosely shopping for a new project but nothing is jingling my bells at the moment so I decided to double down on my favorite runner....my TT02R. When I built it I used the self tappers and JIS drivers and while work well, I can't shake the feeling of it looking cheapish. So I decided I would change the JIS hardware for hex hardware which means I needed to order the tap (only genuine Tamiya thread rollers for me), a new chassis, new A and B parts along with the hardware. The plan is simple, to replace all the plastic parts with new plastic parts properly tapped for machine screws. I also was able to find the spring kit, the 3mm straight reamer and some drift tires for it. The goal is simple, take a sweet running car and make it look as sweet as it drives. So in the end it seems I spent more money on what I already have only to make what I already have slightly easier to work on. No more JIS on that kit, even the diff screws will get replaced. 

Excellent! 

Note that it is possible to retap all threads, to switch them from self tappers to machine without damaging anything. My entire M-05 has been retapped like that and the threads are all perfect, none of them has stripped nor is feeling looser or anything. Just use plenty of grease when using the thread rolling tap and it'll be fine.

[Rinskie]

@Pylon80Well paint me silly. I just assumed you couldn't tap something that has been self tapped. Oh well, when I get done it will be a new car. I told my wife what I probably will do is replace the chassis once a year and while I am at it, add a new body and wheels just to keep it fresh. Seems like a reasonable appropriation of a small bit of money. 

[Pylon80]

54 minutes ago, Rinskie said:

@Pylon80Well paint me silly. I just assumed you couldn't tap something that has been self tapped. Oh well, when I get done it will be a new car. I told my wife what I probably will do is replace the chassis once a year and while I am at it, add a new body and wheels just to keep it fresh. Seems like a reasonable appropriation of a small bit of money. 

Agree, the 5$ lower deck is one of the best features of that car! Build it, scratch it horribly, replace the lower deck, repeat 😬

[TurnipJF]

Today I took my restomodded Thunder Shot for a test run with its new alloy propshaft, and found that it rubbed on the bulkhead that forms the front of the battery box. Fortunately I realised this before it damaged the anodising, and a few strokes with a small round file created a nice neat little half-moon indentation for the propshaft to sit in. All is now well again. 👍

[skom25]

TRF shocks for XV-01. Whole set is not available for a long time, so I built them from "scratch".

[Kowalski86]

With AEs "LT10SW" being on sale at Hobby Recreation Products, I decided to pick one up. It's related to the RB10 (which is related to  RC10B5), but with "all terrain" tires and a truck bodyshell. Hopefully I can take it off-road this weekend.

[OnTheTrail]

Came up with a way to easily put the SS mirrors on and off easily so I can have them on while on display but take them off when I want to run the body.   Anyone who's every tried to put them on with the body clip knows it's not easy.  If I ever get them on with the clips, I don't want to take them off but also don't want to risk breaking one (again.....).

Simply just drilled out the end and put in a very small screw (has to small enough to fish through the hole in the A-pillar) with a bend in the end.  Add a rubber band to cinch them together and all good!

[CMshooter]

Got some testing/tuning done on the new Bt01 chassis.  Trimmed and got some paint on the shell.  Color looks different in pictures and in the lights.  Need to get it outside for a better look.

 

 

[Pylon80]

Things have been pretty difficult lately but 5-year-old Pylon80 Junior has been asking every single day to "work on his car" which we pretend it's a secret nobody else knows about. These 20 or so minutes of tinkering together every night before bed have been the sunshine of my days.

The car is a heavily modified TT-02 rally car that we're slowly building from bits, old and new.

The main oddity about this build is the bumper-mounted ESC; it's not making the wiring easy! We're still brainstorming on how to make it look tidy. Also, I normally remove the switches from my ESC's but for some reason the young man insisted on leaving it on. I guess even he thinks I complicate things too much 🤔😐🤣

Next up will be: more soldering, installing the Lexan chassis cover (best hop-up Tamiya ever released for the venerable TT-02!) and then some ballast weight trickery to get the lateral CG centered. We've pretty much done everything he could do himself but these last steps will be more of a show and tell for him as they're not so toddler friendly.

[svenb]

Finished this this evening 

Big body!

[CMshooter]

That bumper mounted esc causes so many red flags.  The tt02 stock class at our track seems half demolition derby at times.  Wouldn't want critical components it impact zones.  I got taken out of the first race because my switch was facing outside the chassis tub.  Lesson learned...

Have fun, see how it works out.

[Pylon80]

9 minutes ago, CMshooter said:

That bumper mounted esc causes so many red flags.  The tt02 stock class at our track seems half demolition derby at times.  Wouldn't want critical components it impact zones.  I got taken out of the first race because my switch was facing outside the chassis tub.  Lesson learned...

Have fun, see how it works out.

Thank you for your comment and hints. Generally speaking rally cars are run one at a time on a narrow trail with the driver running behind 🙂 Unlike on-road racing, there isn't much to hit head-on. As a matter of fact the XV-01 (a superb rally chassis if they ever was one) has the motor where the bumper would normally be on a touring car.