Newbie greetings

[kayaken 3]

Hi everyone,

Just joined and also put in an order in for a Tamiya Hornet to build with my 14 yr old daughter.  Looking forward to learning from each of you on the forum and excited to start.  One quick question, what else do I need to buy?  I heard a radio and battery.  Do I also need a charger for the battery?  Any recommendations on each of these so I don't go wasting my money and then having to re-buy?  I've done that one too many times already in my history so any help would b greatly appreciated.

Kayaken

[topforcein 1764]

a very warm welcome to you 

and what a great rc to start with witch happend to be my first rc also.

for what it is i would not spend much on the radio for a hornet it all depends on how much you want to spend tbh again with the batt and charger it comes down to how much you want to spend . ill give you a link to ebay for the batts and it has some chargers on their 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC1.A0.H0.Xrc+battery.TRS0&_nkw=rc+battery&_sacat=0

plus one for the radio

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_odkw=rc+battery&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313.TR11.TRC1.A0.H0.Xrc+radio.TRS0&_nkw=rc+radio&_sacat=0

[Doc Hollywood 160]

Welcome to the club

The batteries I use are Tornado 3300mA/Floureon 3500mA or Carson 2300mA. I think all can be viewed on @topforcein's link for batteries they are all 7.2v 6 cell and all seem good quality. I haven't used the Floureon brand for very long but it depends how much you want to pay. The number on each battery defines how long it lasts so the bigger the number the longer it lasts the smaller number it lasts for a shorter time I hope that makes sense.

The chargers I use are Ansmann powerjack pro which I have used for I think about 7 years and was so good I got another but it is a slow charger so takes a while to charge the battery there are two on eBay for £15 under the search of ansmann powerjack charger and a few variants.

I hope I haven't bamboozled you to much with all of the technical stuff lol

 

 

[cliffw0970 49]

Welcome, 

I just built my first RC a couple of months ago, that was also a Hornet, really good fun to get started.

You will need:

Radio, Receiver, Battery (and charger), electronic speed control (my hornet came with one so yours may have also) and a steering servo.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, 

[kayaken 3]

Thanks to all for the direction.  I'll dive right in and start reading/researching the suggestions.  I need to be a little cost conscious as the wifey is already thinking the toy is for me and not my 14 year old.  She might be on to something

[TurnipJF 9192]

Paint is something else you'll need, ideally Tamiya PS paint as this is designed specifically to adhere to the polycarbonate bodyshell. The usual colour scheme can be achieved with one can of PS-5 black for the bodyshell and a small amount of X1 gloss black to paint the headlights, as well as the colours of your choice to decorate the driver figure. However you don't have to follow the box art - the Hornet looks good in many different colours.

[waterbok 1282]

If you are UK based and you want to go shopping on a budget. 

Hobbyking should be a good address for your remote, servo and maybe charger.

For remote I can recommend the GT2E

Batteries, the 3300 mAh NiMh from.vapextech are good value for money.

[Mad Ax 9313]

Welcome to the club.  Lots of good advice already, and I'll add to that:

If you're buying from a UK seller and they aren't doing a "no ESC deal" then you should have an ESC included in the box.  This Tamiya ESC will handle the stock motor just fine but it won't be compatible with LiPo batteries.  As you're just starting out, NiMH batteries should be fine.  They are very similar to what the Hornet was originally designed for, NiCd batteries, which are no longer available.   There's a huge range of brands out there, the advice above is worth reading.  No point in shelling out for expensive race batteries for a Hornet with a standard motor.

You will need a charger, again these are many and varied, I would advise getting a programmable charger (one with an LCD screen) that lets you set the battery type and charge rate.  A) because you will extend the service life of your NiMH batteries by charging them at a slower rate, and 2) because it saves you having to spend again if you decide to switch to LiPo batteries in the future.

Radio-wise, any 2.4GHz radio will be fine.  Some people prefer sticks and some prefer wheel controllers.  You only need 2 channels for a Hornet and it's not worth buying anything with more channels unless you're going to get deep into the hobby and start playing with light kits, sound systems or multi-function models.  A lot of controllers come with a multi-model memory (the same controller can be bound to multiple receivers) but if you later want to buy a second car so you can race with your daughter (and let's be honest, you do, even if you don't know it yet ) you will want a second controller anyway, otherwise you can only run one at a time.  So keep it basic for now.  A controller with adjustable endpoints means you can turn down the throttle while you both learn how to drive it.  Turning down the steering endpoints can also make the car easier to drive (and is useful to stop the steering binding).

If the radio doesn't come with a steering servo then you will need one of those as well.  A basic standard-size servo is absolutely fine in a Hornet, a fast race servo will make it harder to drive.  A servo will metal gears will be tougher in a crash but I've run standard Tamiyas for years on basic servos with very few failures.

I would suggest buying a bearing kit and fitting it during assembly.  It greatly improves the smoothness and performance and reduces wear in the drive train.

As stated, use Tamiya PS paints on the inside of the body.  The manual has instructions on how to cut, paint and apply decals but it's amazing how many people make the mistake of using the wrong type of paint, or of putting on the decals before they remove the protective masking film.

Above all - have fun, the Hornet is a great introduction to kit building, but if you have any difficulties pop back on here and ask and somebody will help you out

[DK308 219]

Greetings and welcome.

 

You will have a great time building that.

 

Before giving you all sorts of advice on what to buy, it will help if you tell us in which country you are located.

If you are located in Northern Europe, I would get the following.

A Tactic TTX300 radio. Cheap, but works well and reliable. Not much can touch it for the price.

Get two of these batteries. https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-stick-pack-sub-c-4200mah-7-2v-nimh-high-power-series.html. Nice amount of runtime for each of you.

Charger. https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-accucel-6-80w-10a-balancer-charger-lihv-capable.html.   Safe and easy to use. And it will charge any type of battery, so you're set if you want to run lipo or lihv.

Servo. https://hobbyking.com/en_us/towerpro-mg996r-10kg-servo-10kg-0-20sec-55g.html

 

Those are the things I'd choose if you're on mainland Europe.

 

Let us know what happens.

[kayaken 3]

Hi,  I guess I didn't expect all these answers from abroad.  I'm United States based.  I should be getting the kit today and also ordered bearings as well.