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Hobgoblin

Harry's builds (Blitzer/Manta Ray/Bearhawk/Custom)

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Juust did the same for porsche gt2 ta02sw. The tamiya ta02 alloy motor mount on its own was about £25 but you can now get the manta ray ta02 kit with solid prop shaft, drive cups and the alloy motor mount for £18. The pricing structure for spares / hop ups seems to be completely random.

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Cheers guys, hop up prop shaft is definitely on the list now!

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Had some Modelsport goodies brighten up my Tuesday morning. New rear tires for the Blitzer, foams and a parts tree for the Manta Ray. I found that all the parts I needed to replace were on the same sprue - when does that ever happen! Unfortuatly it means I couldn't quite justify an alu upgrade for now. But that's me back up and running. I think I'm going to need to replace the dogbones next as they are looking a bit sorry for themselves - almost worth buying another cheap ebay chassis to pilfer from!

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First Schumacher product for me and I am very impressed. Tires are light, grippy but feel pretty tough. Can't wait to try them out! Thanks to ThunderDragonCy the suggestion. Top stuff! 

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Bit of a bump but I'm in the home stretch of my latest build so I thought I'd share with the class. 

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I was lucky enough to pick up a Bearhawk with box, radio charger. BH, for me at least, were a big of a pain to track down without spending £100 and up on ex shelf queen's or already restored cars. Plus I wanted the box to frame the art for my expanding blitzer chassis collection.  The car itself was a a bit rough but that was good for two reasons: It gave me a challenge to rebuild and it meant that the car was actually played with! It makes me happy to think some kid or adult enjoyed playing with this car enough to drive it into the ground. Going on the tires and the wear on the bushings it had a hard working life!

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Everything was stripped down and cleaned, the only things that weren't salvageable were the pinion, the first plastic gear and the steering rods. The electronics were all replaced with an 8.5t brushless and a hardcase lipo. 

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I also sanded back the shell and repainted it, got some cheap decals off eBay. The colour is off but the effect is still there. I won't notice when it's blasting about the park! 

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Still a ways to go but it should be in running condition with a longer sensor cable and a few tweaks.

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I had a quiet Saturday. A few chores to do, a poorly rat to babysit and some telly to catch up on, perfect framing for some day drinking and a kit build! 

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On the slab today was something quite interesting. Basically a normal modern touring chassis but with a  210mm wheelbase. Plan is to use some spares and odds to outfit it. 

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Steering setup is pretty neat. Runs on 4 bushings. Bearings would be an upgrade, although not with any great urgency. 

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Getting a few more bits on there. The servo saver was a bit of a lump. Might change that out soon. 

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The rather nice ball diffs fitted alongside it's equally nice more mount. Bit disappointed at the plastic but it seems strong enough. The shaft is very thick.

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Fitted this rather eye catching motor. I got it as an extra with some parts I fit on eBay. 

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My little assistant at this point felt a bit better so woke up and started lending a hand. 

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Wheels and shocks on, shoved some guts in for a brief drive about. Happy days it goes well enough. There's a ways still to go but good enough for day one.

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The body shell I'm planning to use. It's a 1/12  scale Lada basher from kamtec. The wheelbase is 206mn which shouldn't be too hard to modify to take a 210. Hopefully!

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Here is the paint. The paint job I have in mind will be a bit strange and hard to describe but should be a laugh either way! Unique if nothing else.

Cheers, H

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Love the bodyshell, the colours and most of all the rat! What’s his / her name? I had a pet one when i was about 10 and would have another in a heartbeat! 

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Thanks! 

She's called Ivy, she's well over 3 years old (105 in human years) and is the old girl of the group (5 rats, two guineas) unfortunately she's suffering with tumors and way too old to have them removed. She has a warm soft bed she sits out with me during the day so the young ones don't pick on her too much. Luckily she doesn't chew any wires, she has had her way with the grip of my screwdriver though. 

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She’s gorgeous! Our’s was Albino and honestly the smartest and most intuative pet we’ve ever had. She had the run of the house and would come and sit by your feet when she wanted to go back to her own space. She lived to three as well and it was a tumor that got her in the end. I’d love another one day. 

Funnily enough, we had a guinea pig as well but he came later than the rat. 

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Started chopping up the Lada today, in between sanding my second Bear Hawk shell. 

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The wheel base is super close! A little cutting, gluing filing and sanding and it's going to be perfect. 

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I left part of the windscreen uncut so I can paint some driver ID on there. Which brings me to the next conundrum, do I add a driver? I'm generally anti driver figure but this has the potential to be very silly and borderline artistic. I might have to give it a go! 

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17 hours ago, Hobgoblin said:

Which brings me to the next conundrum, do I add a driver? I'm generally anti driver figure but this has the potential to be very silly and borderline artistic. I might have to give it a go! 

I think cars with open or transparent windows look very odd with no driver, unless on shelf display. Or unless the model is meant to represent a self driving car. So yes, a driver sounds like a great idea!

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23 hours ago, Hobgoblin said:

I left part of the windscreen uncut so I can paint some driver ID on there. Which brings me to the next conundrum, do I add a driver? I'm generally anti driver figure but this has the potential to be very silly and borderline artistic. I might have to give it a go! 

Seconded on the driver - especially with such a unique car. I could personally see either a racing driver in wild matching coveralls, or a young hooligan behind the wheel :P

Everything looks great!

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Cheers for the comments guys, the body shell is from Kamtec and was something like 6 pounds. The wheelbase is 206mm for 1/12 scale banger racing. 

I think public opinion is leading me down the driver path. Let's get weird with it!

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Hey all,

Driver/ interior still being planned but I've added some grease, grime and horror to the Lada paintjob. Looks like its been sitting in Crazy Vaclav's Lot for a while waiting for someone to Put It In H and take it home.

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It's knocked the sheen off the paint rather nicely and looks rather happy and battered and oily. Great learning experience doing this even if its a very personal taste on the paint job.

Still waiting on some decals and a suitable driver figure! 

 

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"Put it in H!" :lol:

I guess it is just like the reader as we await the driver figure: "Put it in, H!" :P

Everything looks great from here!

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More RC drivel from me: 

My better half had a bit of a disagreement with a tree root and a dogbone and C hub were the casualty. Luckily a very kind gent on FB was able to replace them.

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I also took the opportunity to trick out the manta ray with some aluminium parts. Now instead of breaking plastic I can bend aluminium and transfer all the shock to the gearboxes. Amazing!

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Fits like it was made for it! I've also put a sensored motor into the manta ray to hopefully make the the throttle a bit smoother and easier to control. 

Onto my long suffering Stadium Blitzer! I've been inspired to lighten it by a build on this site. I also experimented with some new C hubs and knuckles from a ECX monster truck my boss bought and crashed a year ago. Stiffening rods were also added and I worked on my battery tray.

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Totally butchered the front steering geometry but it's unique at least. It might be dreadful but it's mine! 

Later on I got this lovely selection of motors for 25 quid: 

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There's quite a gem in there I think

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Let's see what's under the grime :)

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Brushes are misshapen and almost crumbly -hmmm hopefully I can replace or fix this. The spring still has well, springiness and when it's seated properly holds with good tension.

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Cleaned and oiled the bearings. This coupled with giving the magnets a scrape down lead to much smoother running. 

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Cleaning the pitting and dirt from the can has made it a 'technisilver'

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Awaiting some love and care (and decal) to fully complete. I aim to install this into a falcon whenever I finally acquire one. Failing that, it will go into my Bearhawk.

Speaking of those brawling bearhawks, I've ordered some correct blue paint and some MCI repro to finally get it perfect for me. I've also finally given up fighting against driver figures. 

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Mostly stripped and seams filled. Couldn't be ******* spending the money on flesh tone so I elected to waste a lot of orange and white paint instead. That's using your head right there. 

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Actually had a lot of fun doing it.  Videos of old F1 drama in the background and happily splashing away making a jolly old mess. I feel 12 again. 

Till next time!

H

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ESC? No mate, don't know what you mean. There's only a mechanical 3 speed here. 

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Jammed under the MSC mount is the X car 45a ESC and a Rx. The servo is still functional and is split on the throttle so it moves in time. 

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Soon it will be painted the correct colour, and have some better decals :)

I'm also fairly set on putting black can - whilst they still last :( sport tuned motor in it as that's what the box recommend hop up is. 

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Just a bit of a backlog on Falcon stuff, still very much a work in progress. I'm a bit of a sucker for all things blitzer and when a couple of opportunities for restorations projects popped up I jumped at the chance to get my hands on a Falcon.

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This is where I started. It's a fixer upper! 

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Someone had gone to town with black paint which was a bit of a pain but far from unsalvageable. There was a lot of play on most of the bushings and one side was almost completely locked up. 

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Quite a bit of grime on the chassis! It all got a bath in the ultrasonic cleaner and a wipe down with some cleaning rags.

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Bearings were fitted in place of the bushings, not hugely exiting but the difference in play compared to bushings is always pleasing. 

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Turns out those wheels WERE yellow after all ;)

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It was at this point I started taking measurements, drawing and developing my own parts to replace some of the more hard to find/commonly broken parts

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Working on front suspension and rear. With the intent of making aluminium versions. Got to be careful with a harder material as you just move the failure point somewhere else! 

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The rear shock towers were a much simpler part to reproduce and with some black anodising (left) you basically cannot tell it's not stock!

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I quite like the bare aluminium to be honest :)

Kamtec and MCI to the rescue with a really rather lovely body shell and decals. I really do like the shape now I've seen it in the flesh and it feels really solid. For £14 I cannot complain. 

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Not the best paintjob but it will be good enough to run with!

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A happy afternoon was spent decaling and finishing up these two bodies. I even did the drivers!

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Quite happy so far! Runner wheels and tires courtesy of Tony's Tamiya parts. The power system for this car will be either a Technigold or Technituned motor, 1060 ESC and most likely a 2s rounded hardcase lipo. I will be keeping the MSC and service in visual capacity. 

Lots still to do :D hope to be able to drive the car soon, although I might have to put RC projects to one side while things happen with my job. 

Thanks for reading!

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Hey man I love the effort and creativity you put in those it is just amazing. I saw the modification you did to the Blitzer and was wondering how much different it feels with the battery length way. it's something that I thought about as well as it would reduce the weight transfer side to side to help with quick turns transition and also bring more weight at the front to reduce the snap steering inherent with the RWD rear engine configuration. 

Another thing that got me thinking, where di you find the rod braces ? And what about crossing those braces ? This way it may increase front to back rigidity but also torsional rigidity which is poor on this chassis.

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Sorry pal I missed your reply!

Having more weight on the centre line actually feels really good for my driving at least. I think the extra weight on the nose that it gives improves the response of the steering. Keeps accidental wheelies to a minimum!

Those rods are homebrew, some M3 threaded rod with some 3mm bore steel tube slipped over the top. The ends are from some cheap Chinese car that I was donated. 

 

Fast forward a year of being on TC and having built my first Tamiya and I'm back where I started on the Blitzer Beetle!

Finally time to do a box art shell. I still like my MFP pursuit shell and I think, although it's not very well done I have some kind of duty to keep it for prosperity. It might get redone in the same style someday - but not today!

Monster beetle bodies being way cheaper than blitzer or sand scorcher sets, I began seeing red... Then primer grey... Then many colours

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Starting off strong looking like a disaster, It's all up from here! (Also note the classy painting spot by the bins)

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I love Tamiya masking sheets. I'm never attempting anything without them ever again. The disaster continued with some funky approximations of the Blitzer scheme. My wife was giving me funny looks at this stage. "Well it's very... I like the green bits?" Ye of little faith!

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I see a line of cars and they're all painted black...

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At this point I started to relax a little as it looked like I had managed to not make a total hash of it all

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Well now, that's bit half bad even if I do say so myself. I'm impressed with the masking sheets and how well the paint went down. Happy Harry!

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My 3rd ever driver! Still looking like he's stuck in a K hole or he's been sniffing the glue but from ten feet away and full throttle it will look passable! 

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This is where the buggy currently lies. I've managed to lose the blasted steering wheel of all things but it can't have gone far - he says knowing full well it's been lost to the aether. 

 

Ta for reading!

H

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Some Falcon stuff going on in camp H.

Some CNC milled aluminium front shock towers to replace the stock ones which are a universal weak point. 

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If you didn't know you couldn't tell... Well not really but it's close enough to not look out of place given a quick glance. 

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I also managed to get some cable so I could get it wired up and I can finally give it a drive. Still needs a bit of tidying up but the £7 1060 clone is happily hidden under the now defunct MSC.

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It runs now so maiden voyage imminent!

Ta, H

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I would like an on road chassis. You know what is totally suitable for this? A Stadium Blitzer. 

Except it is very much not so. After taking inspiration from the "90's touring car" thread with all the wonderful buggy conversions I thought I'd make myself a unique mess in the form of my favourite chassis, the Blitzer. Because I have a few of these cars I have a lot of odd spares and I figured I had enough to put together a junker car. However I've kind of reached critical mass with how many blitzer runners I have and another wasn't a particularly engaging concept.  In an attempt at being frugal and combining two projects I will be challenging myself to see if I can put a buggy chassis'd touring/rally car together out of complete scrap and spares. 

I have a list of ideas of things I want to try but I'll start at the start with the arms. 

The dogbones, I have no idea what they are from. They came with my manta ray chassis job lot so they could be TA02? Either way I used this as a starting point and designed up some stubby little blitzer arms. 

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Fitted out some red Bearhawk parts with bearings and new drive cups.

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Test printed out in black ABS. The upper link is too long I think. I made mistake somewhere but it is one dimension change and a 15 minute part to change.

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I may change the shock mount position, but that will come around when I have started working on the shock towers etc.


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Difference between buggy and on road! much shorter

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What a hotch potch! I think the project is possible, not particularly sensible but it might come to work :) 

Once I fix the links & try the suspension I will begin the headache that is going to be the front arms and steering assembly (not going stock)

Thanks for reading

H

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WARNING: HORRIBLE SUSPENSION GEOMETRY AHEAD.

Turn back now Engineers of TC, abandon all hope. 

Printer chucked out some new parts for me to try out. New A arms and shock towers. 

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The rear shock towers are lowered by about 15mm and some features simplified or removed. This is so I can use short shocks and it will keep the rear profile low as I would be wanting maybe a pick up body with a flat bed .
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Fits rather well I think!  It's fairly easy to modify if i need to later on. 

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The top links still need length changing by a few mm I think, Yes I know the shock is upside down. There is some fouling issues but I will not be using these shocks in the final article so I'll wait for the intended ones to drop then start chopping/ I have found a set of really cheap 1:16 scale shocks in the right length which should be lovely and soft but also smaller diameter which will help with clearance. 

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Same goes for the front. I may also be lowering the tower but not by much. I like the travel even with a really shortened stroke tamiya cva. The front arms and links came out curiously perfect first time. Here's hoping it's not a secret disaster. I am keeping the dead shafts for the front due to ease. I tried mocking up something using manta ray hubs and bearings to use a hex up front but ultimately I felt a bit too constrained for space. I currently am mounting wheels with GPM bearing hex's which aren't great but they will do in a pinch. The front and rear track is pretty spot on. I may end up printing front wheels which take bearings once I've settled on an offset and style. 

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Not too shabby so far. Servo is mocking up where I think i'll end up mounting it to do the steering assembly. 

I have found an F100 body I really like so perhaps I will be going off road with this after all...

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It's hard to say no to that :lol:

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A few pound worth of shocks dropped and are fitted. The bodies are actually pretty nice but the springs are very stiff. I might have to change those out before I go much further

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This is roughly how the front goes together. Custom shock tower, links and A arms

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The rear mount needs a spacer, no big deal I can easily adjust and reprint but for now a nylon nut works fine.

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Steering and wheels/tires will be next on the list. So far this project has been pretty smooth :) 

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Well I figured I'd dredge this topic up to talk about my Stadium Blitzer as a guy on a FB group requested some chassis pictures and some details, could be of passing interest to people here at the hub of all things Tamiya :)

I'll start off with the basic spec:
"Revenge of the Monster" stock motor with 15t pinion
LRP runner ESC
3000mah turnigy 7.2v NIMH (awful discharge rate 😢)
Turnigy GT5 RX
Towerpro MG996R servo
Stock white wheels with yellow Schumacher mini spike tires and medium foam inserts, stock front tires with no foam. 
Full ball bearings.

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Chassis tub is chopped down and shaped for aesthetics with the internal ribbing removed so I can fit a battery lengthways for better weight distribution (less wheelies too) there is a strip of ABS plastic solvent welded to the inside of the chassis for the battery to sit on. Stick packs are held in place with a 3d printed mount with body pins. The underside of the chassis has a titanium skid plate. There are two rods which stiffen the chassis and reduce the flex of the front bulkhead. These are M3 threaded rod with stainless tube slotted over.

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Electronics sit up in the old battery compartment on printed mounts which are screwed to the tub. Rx is zip tied and the ESC is held on with foam pads. The servo is stock for now although I would like to change this to bell crank steering in time.

Wishbones and shock towers are printed, they won't be stronger than stock but they're super easy to replace if they do break. I figure if I'm driving it hard something's going to give anyway I'll bring as many spares as I like. I have made.my own turnbuckles out of M3 threaded rod.

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Also printed is the body mount braces. These stop cracking around the mount holes as they give the body some support and a flat surface to impact against instead of the single point of a body pin. Bar one all the bodies I have are older than I am by a couple of years so there's lots of wear & splitting.

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And that just about covers it :D 

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