Jump to content
silvertriple

My Turbo Scorpion

Recommended Posts

Hello, 

I dreamt about the Turbo Scorpion for quite a long time back in the eighties while I was a teeenager... I could never afford neither find one available when I had the money for it... I discovered recently Kyosho made re-release of it while I was reigniting my RC passion while searching parts to repair an old MiniZ sitting on a shelve for my son...

It took a few months to decide myself to order one, and about one month to build and paint it...

QK0gmJv.jpg

fc4FnqD.jpg

8xoYYyS.jpg

Ug0nqor.jpg

tZwqrsr.jpg

I did enjoy each and every second while building and painting it, and I really like the final result... (and if there is demand for it, I may post pics of the paint process)

A+

Marc

 

  • Like 16

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the feedbacks...

On my side, I still have few things I'd like to have done differently... And to be honest, as what I was doing was quite the first time for me,  I ordered another body, just in case I mess it out. Still a few things that disatisfied me, and that I would have done differently with more experience.

Good thing is that I still have a clear body so I could do something else or try to do even better next time (not sure when I'll do, as I have a few builds on the plan before doing this)...

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Congrats on the great build and thanks for sharing it. I particularly like the custom color scheme. Where did you source the orange graphics?

After two years I finally finished my Turbo Scorpion last weekend (that's actually fairly quick for me). It was my first Kyosho and I very much enjoy the retro builds so it's time to open the Sand Scorcher next!

IMG_0405.jpeg

  • Like 7

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 hours ago, StephenPM said:

Congrats on the great build and thanks for sharing it. I particularly like the custom color scheme. Where did you source the orange graphics?

After two years I finally finished my Turbo Scorpion last weekend (that's actually fairly quick for me). It was my first Kyosho and I very much enjoy the retro builds so it's time to open the Sand Scorcher next!

IMG_0405.jpeg

Nice one!

For the orange graphics, I made  it using fluorescent paint an masking work. I did the masks based on a scan from the original decal sheet, vectorised them in Silhouette Studio, and cut the masks with my Silhouette Cameo 4. Then used spray paint to paint them (it's done under the shell rather than on top of it)... You could cut also an vinyl sheet of the proper color to apply directly on the finished body (only difference is that when you do masking you have to apply a vertical mirror before cutting them)... 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I find myself suddenly attracted to one of these. Never had a Kyosho before - always Tamiya. (something at the back of my head says parts can be used on more than one model - but that is not always true). 

 

I like the look more than anything - was looking at the Ultima because of the A arm suspension - but this has a better battery location (tidied away imo).

What is the parts availability (pandemic aside) usually in the UK also does the kit come with the lights etc.?

cheers

 

G.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
13 hours ago, gizard said:

I find myself suddenly attracted to one of these. Never had a Kyosho before - always Tamiya. (something at the back of my head says parts can be used on more than one model - but that is not always true). 

 

I like the look more than anything - was looking at the Ultima because of the A arm suspension - but this has a better battery location (tidied away imo).

What is the parts availability (pandemic aside) usually in the UK also does the kit come with the lights etc.?

cheers

 

G.

 

Hello!

I've been a long term Kyosho fan. Parts availability is something I can't tell for UK. It all depends what you are looking for : Options are difficult to find, as Kyosho is apparently produce batchs of Legendary cars and associated options twice a year apparently. Spare parts seems easier to find, however. On the Turbo scorpion, wheels are standard 2.2 inches, with rear driven by hex. I saw some running with Tamiya wheels... 

Regarding the light buckets, they are included in the kit and ready to receive 5mm leds, but the leds are not included in the kit. On the bright side, the led buckets are really thought like projectors, and include a reflector inside: it's really realist. On my side, I added rear led lights as I wanted some (the led bucket used are the square ones from a Tamiya hop up).

Another important comment : pay attention to the requirements in terms of size for the ESC and steering servo: there is not much place in terms of height in the tub.

Beside this, Kyosho tried to make easy to reproduce box art if you want by providing all the stickers to reproduce the box art schema on a body fully painted white, as long as you apply the decals with a wet approach. The only thing you will have to take care beside this is the driver helmet (driver figure is eventually hidden by a black visor provided in sticker). If you want to do something in paint, like I did, I used a combination of masking build with a plotter and liquid masking. The inside of the body is a bit complex, making liquid masking almost mandatory IMHO, especially if you want to do something complex (nb: under the stickers of the pilot and the cockpit, the color was applied in my case. useless but so rewarding to know it is there :-D)... Another cpmmengt I would make : Kyosho kits are in another league than any of the Tamiya kits I built until now: you will spend quite a time to do it, and it's highly pleasurable build (and you may become a Kyosho addict after that :-) ).

Last thing to say about those: I  believe I got one of the last ones from the previous batch in Europe. Next Kyosho production batch is apparently planned for June/July. Pay attention to the fact those kits (specially the Turbo Scorpion) demand is high. You may have interest to ask your resseller to order one for you right away, even if it is not in Kyosho's inventory yet, to reserve it (the exemple of 4WD Turbo Optima and Javelin is quite highlighting on this as they were back in inventory during last week in many shops in France, and most of them have no inventory anymore less than a week after the availability in inventory)... UK situation may be even slightly different.

Good luck!

Marc

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

cool thanks for the response very useful.

Sorry one more question if i may - What is the Turbo Scorpion like compared to the Ultima - keeping in mind the trailing arm suspension?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, silvertriple said:

Regarding the light buckets, they are included in the kit and ready to receive 5mm leds, but the leds are not included in the kit. On the bright side, the led buckets are really thought like projectors, and include a reflector inside: it's really realist. On my side, I added rear led lights as I wanted some (the led bucket used are the square ones from a Tamiya hop up).

Does the lenses have to be glued onto the buckets/housings? Haven't come this far with mine yet, but I can't see any reference to glue in the manual. 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 minute ago, TurboRSR said:

Does the lenses have to be glued onto the buckets/housings? Haven't come this far with mine yet, but I can't see any reference to glue in the manual. 

No need for glue. There is one part which is to be cut to let room for the led, and it acts like a clip when you put it in place over the led.

1 hour ago, gizard said:

cool thanks for the response very useful.

Sorry one more question if i may - What is the Turbo Scorpion like compared to the Ultima - keeping in mind the trailing arm suspension?

Well. I don't have an Ultima, so difficult to compare. What I can tell you:

- A stock Turbo Scorpion is much better handling than a stock DT03. I believe the shocks are playing an important part on this side.

- As far as I understand, the Turbo Scorpion and Tomahawk were the 2WD king of the tracks until the RC10 appeared, and Ultima has been released after them. Ultima may compare to the RC10. But on those, as I never got my hand on any of the RC10 or Ultima, I can't say for the handling.

Now, what I can tell other than handling is look. The Turbo Scorpion is for that in another league. But this is highly subjective. I dreamt about the Scorpion and Turbo Scorpion while I was a teenager. The Ultima did not make it for me. Even the Tomahawk (which is essentially the same basis as the Scorpion (SWB)/Turbo Scorpion (LWB)) is not as attractive for me as the two Scorpion beasts. And for the Kyosho 2WD legendary series, I would tend to put them is the following sequence from my highly prefered to low (again, highly subjective): Turbo Scorpion, Scorpion & Tomahawk (more on the specs side than look, as the last of the two comes with few improvement compared to the Scorpion), Ultima, Beetle...

At the end, this is matter of choice. The architecture is slightly different : chassis is made of two profiled aluminium parts on the Scorpion family, with very nice parts, while the Ultima chassis is one plate cut and folded: The Ultima is likely to be lighter while slightly more rigid in normal use (but may be bend with a high speed crash as per what I saw mentioned in a forum). That being said, the Ultima is essentially a 2WD Optima (I believe it was released around the same time as the Optima family), and it doesn't seem to attract much the folks as the Optima and Scorpion families: it is the easiest one to find as it never went out of stock anywhere apparently.

On my side, clearly, I primed the image of the buggy, and my teenager dreams: when the Ultima was there, there were the Optimas, I dreamt about them as much as I dreamt about the Turbo Scorpion. I never dreamt about Ultimas :-D

  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks for the really helpful info - I have one and it's on the way! from a model shop in the UK!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, gizard said:

Thanks for the really helpful info - I have one and it's on the way! from a model shop in the UK!

You are lucky, then :)

Hope you will enjoy the build as much as I did!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
11 hours ago, silvertriple said:

No need for glue. There is one part which is to be cut to let room for the led, and it acts like a clip when you put it in place over the led.

You are talking about the bulb right? But what about the clear lens in front of the bucket/housing, part #2 in the picture below? 

unnamed.jpg

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
10 minutes ago, TurboRSR said:

You are talking about the bulb right? But what about the clear lens in front of the bucket/housing, part #2 in the picture below? 

unnamed.jpg

The clear lenses snap into the buckets. I have not driven my buggy hard yet, but they feel firmly in place.

  • Like 1
  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
5 minutes ago, TurboRSR said:

You are talking about the bulb right? But what about the clear lens in front of the bucket/housing, part #2 in the picture below? 

unnamed.jpg

no need for glue as well for the clear lens. You juts have to push it inside, it is like clipped inside, as the housing as a form to maintain it. Not sure you can remove it afterwards. If it doesn't enter properly, it is likely because you have the led wrongly positioned inside..

  • Thanks 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 4/28/2021 at 1:56 AM, silvertriple said:

Nice one!

For the orange graphics, I made  it using fluorescent paint an masking work. I did the masks based on a scan from the original decal sheet, vectorised them in Silhouette Studio, and cut the masks with my Silhouette Cameo 4. Then used spray paint to paint them (it's done under the shell rather than on top of it)... You could cut also an vinyl sheet of the proper color to apply directly on the finished body (only difference is that when you do masking you have to apply a vertical mirror before cutting them)... 

 

Brilliant! I used vinyl for the green graphics, but never considered it for making paint masks. Thank you for the tip!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Just now, silvertriple said:

no need for glue as well for the clear lens. You juts have to push it inside, it is like clipped inside, as the housing as a form to maintain it. Not sure you can remove it afterwards. If it doesn't enter properly, it is likely because you have the led wrongly positioned inside..

Thanks, then I understand! The diameter looked a bit to big to get into the bucket, but then I just need to push harder (after I have assembled the leds). 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
7 minutes ago, StephenPM said:

Brilliant! I used vinyl for the green graphics, but never considered it for making paint masks. Thank you for the tip!

You're welcome!

I'm trying to avoid as much as possible the stickers, unless for the shelves... The plotter gave me a whole new world of possibilities...

My current In progress build is also going to rely on this (when I want to change the color, ordering decals is a way, paint is another way ;-) ):

qUJwqNc.jpg

 

Additional tip : I use Oramask 810 vinyl film for masking. At this stage, it's the only one I found which does not let any traces of glue when you remove it, making it easier to work with. That being said, small details are super difficult to do (on small characters, inside of letters is hard to keep while you remove it after the layer of paint, but I'm fine with it).

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
On 5/14/2021 at 3:45 PM, silvertriple said:

You are lucky, then :)

Hope you will enjoy the build as much as I did!

It has arrived !

The instructions don't appear to be very clear on the paint front - I guess it is a case of painting it completely white and then adding the stickers to the outside if you are doing box art?

I do have an airbrush but find it a bit of a hassle these days - so I might just get a rattle can of white as it's is only one colour....

Also wondering what motor esc combo to use - again the instructions state a fairly slow motor both in brushed or brushless guise - I think I will go brushed 17-23t as I have a Quickrun 1060 which is nice and compact without a fan.  

edified to add: just looked at the price of the Kyosho Brushless motor and ESC - wow - they are quite pricey! 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
4 minutes ago, gizard said:

It has arrived !

The instructions don't appear to be very clear on the paint front - I guess it is a case of painting it completely white and then adding the stickers to the outside if you are doing box art?

I do have an airbrush but find it a bit of a hassle these days - so I might just get a rattle can of white as it's is only one colour....

Also wondering what motor esc combo to use - again the instructions state a fairly slow motor both in brushed or brushless guise - I think I will go brushed 17-23t as I have a Quickrun 1060 which is nice and compact without a fan.  

edified to add: just looked at the price of the Kyosho Burshless motor and ESC - wow - they are quite pricey! 

Hello!

If you want to go box art, using stickers (but you may look at others post on this, it is a bit touchy with the decals, and needs to go for wet application), you may go one color only.

Motor/Esc side: I know many people running Sensored 540 as low as 8.5T with it. I'm using a SkyRC TS120A ESC and and SkyRC Ares 13.5T motor and it is perfectly fine. As mentioned it can go for stronger motor than a 13.5T.

ESC wise, only one downside of the TS120A ESC is that the switch is directly on the ESC itself: it's not really practical. The Kyosho ESC has a small footprint, an deported switch and is a good option too. That being said, it is expensive. Specially considering that beside the color it is exactly the same as the Performa Racing P1 Blinky 60A ESC (ref PA9345) which is definitely less expensive (I'm considering this one to replace the oversized (Amp wise) SkyRC TS120A for practicality on the Turbo Scorpion).

Hope it helps.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

hello,

Decided to spend some time and post the pictures of the build as well (including details of the paintjob)

The box 

rfHFabf.jpg

First the chassis

k9XJMQI.jpg

oAml9mM.jpg

YH8xrCC.jpg

0LH9Zdu.jpg

6oEOdbu.jpg

Blank mounting of the body shell

qYCusQb.jpg

N9I9C5R.jpg

3JzEYYF.jpg?1

uVCmvX1.jpg?1

Electronics installed (space is not as big as you may think initially - check indications of manual for your ESC and servo choice - Motor is a 540 sensored 13.5T)

fGiJcv4.jpg

Paintjob (not all the steps)

1CJdxca.jpg

x9JLaox.jpg?1

ElPYcGE.jpg

lKx0l03.jpg

jyWuPGx.jpg

A3pAItb.jpg

JaA5W4l.jpg

9Ax2ocG.jpg

SBym9as.jpg

85GpQrV.jpg

1aMdwsI.jpg

 

ZpfLveJ.jpg

About to finalize

OsEod9U.jpg

IRqgO5N.jpg

LNES21u.jpg?1

Final state

QK0gmJv.jpg

bcrTB3g.jpg

tZwqrsr.jpg

EPopDvJ.jpg

Ug0nqor.jpg

fc4FnqD.jpg

8xoYYyS.jpg

  • Like 7

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×
×
  • Create New...