matisse 1581 Posted June 16, 2020 10 minutes ago, TurnipJF said: Do both! Get the cheapest DT-03 buggy available now and truggify it as suggested by @ThunderDragonCy, but instead of selling the buggy bits, keep them for when the Aqroshot arrives from Fusion. Then you can build it as a buggy, and have two quite different ways of enjoying the DT-03 chassis! if only i could....I actually have a 14th scale on the way, if its not delayed again. so i'll have something to tide me over. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted June 19, 2020 On 6/16/2020 at 12:14 PM, ThunderDragonCy said: Cancel aqroshot. Buy cheapest DT03 buggy you can find. Shell shell, wheels, tyres and front knuckles. Buy mad bull steering parts bag, blitzer wheels, proper schumacher tyres, cooler truck body than vajra thing. Fin. due date is now the end of July.... but Tamico have a Rising Fighter Black edition in stock.... gonna get that and build a truck from that base. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted June 20, 2020 Okay, so this is now a build an Aqroshot from another DT03 thread.... Rising Fighter black, 17t steel pinion, Aqroshot body, mounts and Blitzer wheels on the way. the big question is how should I paint it? The stock decals are obviously awful, but do we go retro Tamiya homage? Or is that too obvious? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted June 27, 2020 2 pages in and we might finally get some actual building going on..... 5 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted June 27, 2020 Aaaaaaand were off! I’ll be tapping the holes for steel hex head screws, Standard practice for my builds, can’t stand the self tappers. That done it seemed a sensible time to see about adding some weight to the front end, squeezed 25g of sticky weights into the space forward of the servo, it might need more but we’ll see. Had to be carful to get the positions right to make sure it went together okay. But once the lower shock mounts went on the front closed up nicely. Servo next, Alturn Low Profile Metal Gear with a Kimbrough Servo Saver, no messing around. Black Ed comes with the adjustable turnbuckles, so a dab of grease in each ball cup to aid adjustment and were down for the night. Set them to 49.5mm. Which will hopefully give me a tad of toe out. Front arms next, I have the Stainless Steel hinge pin Hop-Up, use them at the front to stock with the U-Shaped rod? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 4, 2020 Much work has been done, many pictures taken but no updates here, let’s change that. turns out that you can’t use the TL01 stainless hinge pins to replace the U shaped rod, the diameter is too large, but you can still use 3mm sims. Needed 0.4mm to remove most of the slop. Even then there was a little catch in the motion. Turns out it was the mould lines in the arms and arm carrier interacting! A quick sand eliminated that. Shims in-situ Waiting on the 22.2mm low friction pins to arrive from Plaza (along with carbon towers) so the screw pins and temporary, but the front end is pretty much done, with the addition of Madbull uprights for the longer front axles needed for the truck wheels. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 4, 2020 Gearbox time!!! Gear diffs need a little tuning, usually with oil but as this unit isn’t sealed that’s not an option. So I’m giving some thicker gear diff grease a go. Picked up 5000/3000 cst greases by Kyosho and giving the 5000 a try first. Takes surprisingly little to cover the gears. after that the rest of the gearbox is pretty straight forward. Hollow shafts are included in the kit as are bearings. Grease wise it’s a few drops of Boesheild T9 as per usual. Steel 17t pinion which should be fine with the large wheels. Metal diff out drives, I’ll pick up the hardened ones at some point (and some CVDs) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 4, 2020 Hingepins to mount the rear arms as well, just a single 0.1mm shim on the inner, but needed 3mm of spacers on the outer pins. Picked up some black ball stud spacers from Avid. Alloy gearbox mounts, which is nice. rear end is done, did not need to do any dremeling or fettling to fit with the hingepins, which i'm sure i'd read about somewhere. Havent shimmed the axle, got some CVDs on the way. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jontea 334 Posted July 4, 2020 If memory serves, the dremeling was on the DT02 chassis for the hinge pins. Looking good, and as usual, attention to detail is something else. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 5, 2020 10 hours ago, Jontea said: If memory serves, the dremeling was on the DT02 chassis for the hinge pins. Looking good, and as usual, attention to detail is something else. Yeah, I Think you’re right on that. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 6, 2020 On 6/5/2020 at 8:28 PM, matisse said: The rear shock shafts were very different to the fronts. Fronts the usual shiny chrome, the rears much darker, almost anodised, and def not as smooth. so grabbed various grades of wet/dry and a drill to give them a quick polish. need a final polish but much smoother feeling Found some 2500 grade wet and dry, so a quick sand with that and a polish with Autosol and the rear shafts are looking great! fairly standard CVA shock build, the DF03 parts bag has the advantage of including harder springs and red O-Rings as well as the shafts, this pic clears shows the diff between the DT03 and DF03 stock springs. ( DF03 on the left) 3 Hole pistons front and rear, Green Slime on the Orings, obvs. I think the grey looks pretty sharp tbh! Gone for the harder springs to start with, Tamiya Yellow oil upfront and AE 30wt at the rear, that’s 400/350 cst for those who like numbers. chassis work is halted now as I wait for shock towers to arrive from Plaza. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 7, 2020 god I need to stop buying hop ups, CVD's, Sway bars and the DT02 lower shock screws on the way. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 7, 2020 Paint job time, couldn't be ******* to get lots more cans, so have just added white to the mix. Masked, although how i used the plastic sheet will come back to bite me in the *** later. Made the mistake of White first, 5/6 coats down and the red/gunmetal shows through as a bleed in a lot of places, lesson learned for next time. wanted to accenbtuate the feeling of the frame work at the rear, so masked the truck bed and left it clear. I'm pretty happy with the result. If you look closely enough you'll see a weird pink patch on the right hand wheel arch, a little of the white paint got through and stuck to finger prints etc, went pink after the application of the red. Stickers!! overall i'm happy, but annoyed at a few rookies mistakes. on the home straight now, a few packages to arrive and its done. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Grumpy pants 4485 Posted July 7, 2020 Quality stuff. I really like the clear deck at the rear as well 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 7, 2020 15 minutes ago, Grumpy pants said: Quality stuff. I really like the clear deck at the rear as well I think it’s going to look really good when it’s mounted and all of the electrics are visible 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badcrumble 4204 Posted July 7, 2020 I think that looks great, despite the bleed. What colours did you use? Translucent red, gunmetal and white? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 7, 2020 11 minutes ago, Badcrumble said: I think that looks great, despite the bleed. What colours did you use? Translucent red, gunmetal and white? Cheers! Correct on the colours. I had the Red and Gunmetal from previous builds so only needed a can of white 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badcrumble 4204 Posted July 7, 2020 I like it! But then I would - I have the red and bright gunmetal for a future build... now thinking of adding white. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 9, 2020 I swear that if it wasn't for covid i would have stuck to my goal of keeping it stock.... just got some second hand durango big bore shocks to see if they fit..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 10, 2020 Because shipping is weird, the second Plaza Japan order arrived before the first... sigh anywho, first up is CVDs building is pretty straightforward, little of the red threadlock on the grub screw, then is all slots together nicely. The AW grease is a little thick for my liking, tends to attract too much dirt and dust. Dry lube is perfect as it gets into all the joints. Fill the cup, move it around to make sure it gets everywhere and then soak up the excess. The dogbones didn’t move smoothly, which is think was the rubber o-ring. Found an old foam compensator from a set of a shocks, cut a a pair of a similar thickness to the o-ring, much better and much freer. Tune in tomorrow for the exciting Anti-Roll bar fitting! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 12, 2020 You spend all that time buildng and painting, making sure everything looks just so, and then you get some anti-roll bars...... why those awful colours, why!!!!! So I had an Idea, what if you strip the paint, but leave a small part as an indicator to which thickness it is? that could work, and it would look pretty cool. an old can of paint stripper and some washi tape later et voila! even found a thickness of tape that is pretty much ideal for fitting, put the ball end up to the end of the paint and we get 1mm of gap, as per the manual. 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 13, 2020 Anti-Roll bars, Having stripped the paint for purely aesthetic reasons, time to fit them. A usual they specify an annoying to measure gap between the two ball ends, why do all rc manufacturers do this, it’s so stupid when all the have to do is include a spacer ... luckily I have some 1mm spacers that resolve this issue. As usual a dab of grease in the hole to make getting the grub screw in easy. goes in between the lower shock mount and the gearbox just fine, and a spare grub screw will hold it in place and stop it rattling. fin. Glad I made the choice to strip the paint, looks pretty good. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
matisse 1581 Posted July 19, 2020 Guess what! More hop ups!! picked up some alloy shocks on anther forum, well used but in okay condition, some Big Bore ones from Team Durango. Nicely made units, they’re gonna need a few new seals in the future and the shafts are quite scratched, but that’s easy to solve with some 2500 wet and dry, some autosol and a drill. Pre polishing After, polished is on the left. Shock bodies are coated, as is standard these days and the seal has plenty of support to keep the shaft straight. And done. 400cst/2 hope upfront, 350cst/3hole rear. Still not sure how I feel about aeration shocks, they just sound weird compared to bladder systems. Anyway, I’ll see how they go once they’re fitted. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites