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silvertriple

Marui Hunter(s) and a Galaxy RS too

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very nice! I'm keen to see how you deal with that wear in the idler gear.

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23 minutes ago, yogi-bear said:

very nice! I'm keen to see how you deal with that wear in the idler gear.

I may take inspiration from a thread I saw on vintage-rc.net french forum.

The biggest gear is in perfect state. The smaller one is slightly weared but not on its full width. There is an area which is in perfect state. On the french forum, the guy shorten the smaller gear, and also included ball bearings on both side of the iddle gear. He added a spacer, and he is using a new pinion (shorter as you can find in any of the modern Tamiyas). That would also allow reduction of the chassis wear at at the end of the iddle shaft (another well known weak point of the chassis).

That being said, I'm still searching to see if I can find a new one (and if I can find one, I will modify it to include ball bearings in it). Other way would be to find the corresponding gear set under another reference. Will have to search if I can find an equivalent...

Having lot of ideas. Have to explore what is possible/feasible.

 

Also thinking about the broken chassis: would there be a way to build a shock tower fixed to the chassis differently?

 

Anycase, Ideas are welcome :-D

 

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And the solution might come from other areas than just R/C

While searching for equivalences, I already identified a 20T-50T gearing in Ricoh laser printer (and with the price of the parts, it may worth trying)... It's close to the 20T-48T from the Hunter, and the motor position is not fixed. It may be a solution, if there is enough space for it to work. There is also a Canon 20T-48T, but the 48T side is to thin fro what we want to do...

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21 hours ago, KEV THE REV said:

Just found a new #70 triangle rear damper part in my spares if you need one

Thanks.

I have spares already for this one, as the 2 triangles were present with the broken chassis.

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Today, I received a Mabuchi 540 RS motor which one day was in Samurai Marui's box.

sLEkDUp.jpg

Ok, this one may need a bit of work, new wiring and so on, but it's nice to see how internet and forums can help (that was not on this forum but another one)...

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Continuing my search for a proper idle gear. The kit Marui 024 - Pinion gear set seems to be depleted everywhere. I should have ordered the one which was on my wish list on ebay the day I found the Hunter. 

As said earlier, i found mentions of a Ricoh part for copiers that may be of use for us. 20T-50T gear. Here is the reference: Ricoh AB01-0174

The part is inexpensive, so I will order one to check if feasible. It may require some modification to reinforce it and add ball bearings, and may not be as solid as the original part. But I believe it worth trying. Will update on this as well later on.

While I may have proper solution for some of the parts, I still have some difficult points:

  • driver
  • radio box
  • gear covers (the one I got have holes, unfortunately)
  • and the idle gear, but as mentioned earlier, i'm still trying to find an alternative option

For the rest, I'm awaiting the parts to arrive... Let see what happens in the next days...

Adding some elements as I unbuilt the broken chassis earlier this afternoon
CaVxmWy.jpg

Some parts are in better state than expected, some in worst state than expected. The other one needs cleaning, but for what is mounted on it, it seems in much better shape (I did not unbuilt yet, and do not think I'll do it right now).

At least, I have now a better view of my main issue: the idle gear 20T-48T is apparently in mod 0.6 (to be confirmed, but I checked already it is already smaller than the mod I have on a DT03 pinion which is 0.8)
Here is the measurements for the idle gear
K63iB8b.jpg
dB75PLH.jpg
m6YIJub.jpg
fFLutrS.jpg
ruUGQGS.jpg

This parts is now very rare. There was one remaining the day I found the chassis on ebay, and I didn't buy it unfortunately (Marui 024 - Pinion gear set, generally includes the 3 pinions size, the idle gear, idle shaft and spacer. The bad news is also that with the closet inspection, the gear is much more worn than I initially expected (there is even a broken tooth on the biggest side).

To complement the data, I also measured the differential:
iaOXRo0.jpg
4zEpaAE.jpg

With those elements in mind that should allow to consider different option

  • Idle gear with 20T-"something close to 48"T being the easiest option, as it doesn't require to change everything. Any other manufacture option could do it
  • changing the couple of Idle gear and differential with some other parts that use the same axle distance.

On the first option, since this morning, I ordered some to experiment. I believe this could be an easy option as the motor mount was thought with different pinion size, and therefore the motor can be set on different postions (and continuous ones rather than discrete ones)...

Time will tell about the solutions. If you have any ideas or options I did not thought about, please speak :-D

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ok, so I have traced the sticker sheet image I had (it wasn't very good) but I don't think this is too bad. GUMOUT is not as accurate as it should be, so I might hunt around for a better example to copy. My printer gets install on Thursday, so this can be one of the first test prints it does.

decal_hunter_TRACE-v1-01.png

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3 hours ago, yogi-bear said:

ok, so I have traced the sticker sheet image I had (it wasn't very good) but I don't think this is too bad. GUMOUT is not as accurate as it should be, so I might hunt around for a better example to copy. My printer gets install on Thursday, so this can be one of the first test prints it does.

decal_hunter_TRACE-v1-01.png

That looks very good already!

By the way, what type of printer do you use? I've tried to print on some vinyl with my laser printer, and beside the fact it doesn't print white, the print is not really attached to the material...

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1 hour ago, silvertriple said:

That looks very good already!

By the way, what type of printer do you use? I've tried to print on some vinyl with my laser printer, and beside the fact it doesn't print white, the print is not really attached to the material...

The printers I use are specifically designed to print onto sticker vinyl, canvas etc. I'm currently using a HP 365 wide format printer (which my father owns). One like this https://graphics.quadient.com.au/large-format-solutions/sign-display-printers/hp-latex-large-format-printers/hp-latex-365-64-large-format-printer

After not owning a wide format printer, its time for me to get one. The one I am getting installed this week is the HP 700W, and it was only released a couple of months ago. Like this https://www.perfectcolours.com/large-format-printers/outdoor-and-latex-printers/hp-latex-printers/hp-latex-700w-large-format-printer-64in.html

Both these machines allow you to print a sticker and then cut it out to shape. I got the HP 700W as I've wanted a white print capable machine for a long time, but printing white isn't without its challenges and this machine helps overcome some of that. Not cheap, the entire package I am getting (includes a special vinyl cutter and a service agreement for 5yrs) is about $77k AUD.

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2 minutes ago, yogi-bear said:

The printers I use are specifically designed to print onto sticker vinyl, canvas etc. I'm currently using a HP 365 wide format printer (which my father owns). One like this https://graphics.quadient.com.au/large-format-solutions/sign-display-printers/hp-latex-large-format-printers/hp-latex-365-64-large-format-printer

After not owning a wide format printer, its time for me to get one. The one I am getting installed this week is the HP 700W, and it was only released a couple of months ago. Like this https://www.perfectcolours.com/large-format-printers/outdoor-and-latex-printers/hp-latex-printers/hp-latex-700w-large-format-printer-64in.html

Both these machines allow you to print a sticker and then cut it out to shape. I got the HP 700W as I've wanted a white print capable machine for a long time, but printing white isn't without its challenges and this machine helps overcome some of that. Not cheap, the entire package I am getting (includes a special vinyl cutter and a service agreement for 5yrs) is about $77k AUD.

I see this is definitely professional equipment. You definitely don't buy this just for printing stickers for your buggys :-D. I also guess reading your post about MCI Racing decals you have a business in relation to graphics, so it definitely makes sense, I guess.

I recently invested in a Silhouette Cameo 4 because to do some paint details, I needed to do some heavy details masks (see my Turbo Scorpion pics - beside the wing and the pilot details, there is only a single sticker on the body, and that was my first try in this extend). This opened a new world of possibilities for me, but not to the point it allows me to replace completely stickers... Hence my question about this, as I was expecting some more affordable solutions :-). I believe you just killed my hopes :-D

Anycase, I really appreciate the exchanges on this thread :-).

By the way, coming back on my idle gear concerns, I'm currently looking within Tamiya range to see if there is some .6 mod idle gear (I confirmed by the measures and calculation) which could make it. My brother also started to think about this, and proposed to skip idle gear completely and replace it by a a different transmission, using a pulley. This doesn't look like a dumb idea, but I don't like it as it would not be in the spirit of the original build (ant it may also cause new problems within the chassis, while removing the iddle shaft issues totally)...

 

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yeah, I do a lot of signage and odd stuff for film and tv props. Being able to print my own stickers for my cars is just a bonus. In saying that, there are cheaper options, but still probably out of most peoples price range.

You can apparently get a vinyl sticker for inkjet printers (but not have tried myself) and I would recommend sealing that as I doubt it would be waterproof. And if you are careful with the registration, you could probably also cut them out with that cutter you bought.

Still with that Silhouette, maybe not all still, but I think you will be able to do a lot with a lot without printing. Before I had a wide format printer, we would vinyl cut a lot of signage and just layer the colours to create affects. Plus there are lots of colours including metallics, chromes etc available. There should be a blade available for fine cutting (it might be listed as a 60 degree blade)  which means you could cut small text around the 4 mm in height (you might need to play around with the settings).

This is all vinyl cut and I would imagine you machine is just as capable.

58014_Martini-Mk22-Renault-Car-2-18.jpg

on this Audi, I cut most of these, except the car number stickers and ones like the red BOSCH and Votex as they just had a bit too much detail. But you could do a version with a little less detail. The Audi Sport on the fender was cut and overlaid on the grey. I probably could have cut the side door number sticker, but it would be a bit fiddly.

audi_paint_removal1.png

 

Back to the Hunter, you have some interesting ideas to try! The pulley idea actually sounds like the easiest to do, but as for autheniticity, I think it comes down to what you want do with the car once its restored. If it's a part time runner, then I think the mods might be a good idea as the original design does have some failings that will eventually show up again.

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19 minutes ago, yogi-bear said:

Still with that Silhouette, maybe not all still, but I think you will be able to do a lot with a lot without printing. Before I had a wide format printer, we would vinyl cut a lot of signage and just layer the colours to create affects. Plus there are lots of colours including metallics, chromes etc available. There should be a blade available for fine cutting (it might be listed as a 60 degree blade)  which means you could cut small text around the 4 mm in height (you might need to play around with the settings).

 

Some of the realisation we made already my son and myself with the Silhouette Cameo 4 :

Plain tinted vinyl cut:

- The Barbapapa's Lunchbox for my daughter

hZ72hDx.jpg

- The Super Storm Dragon of my son

8dQ0MPP.jpg

And with masks and paint job :

- my Turbo Scorpion (only the white "California Motor Sport Club" and pilot sticker were used on the body, rest is paint only)

QK0gmJv.jpg

- My Hornet (only sticker is on the wing)

xc4JA2w.jpg

Yes clearly, a cutter open a lot of possibilities :-)


Regarding the details on the vinyl cut, we found a trick with my son : we remove the unused part of the vinyl directly on the body, it works best this way, as you may see on the Super Storm Dragon, you may have a lot of details produced...

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Some parts arrived in the mailbox today...

qGEyJFH.jpg

A full Nylon reinforced cluster for the Marui Hunter. That is the only place where you can find the under gearbox cover which was not detailed by Marui. I was surprised to see this available on a website in France, and ordered it, as it was including the part that could have saved my original Hunter: the oilless bearing ate this part, and next it was differential, idle gear and the chassis (did try to fix it in some way, but it did not work)...

In any case, I have now a servo mount, a servo saver, and some additional new parts for the restoration.... And this cluster costed me less than just a single servo saver NIP on ebay. 

More parts for this project expected to show up in the next days/weeks. I may have what is needed to build one nice Hunter, and one with a broken chassis. And as for the broken chassis, I believe I have some ideas on how to repair it. My project just transformed itself in a double project :-D (shelf + runner HunterS)!

Now, that being said, this Marui cluster got me thinking. There is parts I never used on this cluster while building my original Hunter. I checked the manual and their is actually parts remaining unused. I'm not sure if they were planned for usage on the Galaxy, but it may not be the case. I don't even think it is the case, as the Galaxy did have a different Bumper... Maybe there was initially a plan for a lower range model or something different based on the same chassis...

And this got me thinking about this for the last 2 hours :-D

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that is a very lucky find!

The excess part things, I remember went I built Galaxy wondering what they were for, so they must have been intended for something else.

And I have about 3 or 4 Broken chassis, so looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

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Well, this will be the type of things where you know when it starts, but you don't know when and where it ends :-)

Expect this to be a long running thread :-)

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Few other parts arrived today!
YPXY6lr.jpg?1
Fog Lights, servo mount and servo saver (did not know before I would find a full cluster), and a broken and unbuilt MSC

Will need to understand how to make it look like a functional ESC again, but at least I have a good basis for working my "wireless" MSC to hide an ESC :-D

That being said, two servo saver is what I needed anyway to build two Hunters.

On a side note, I just ordered a Creality Ender 5 plus. I'm looking at 3D printers since quite a long time, but wanted one which would be able to Print large projects, being quite polyvalent in terms of filament (thinking about TPU and tires), and that I can enclose easily, as some of the projects I have in mind may require it... Maybe overkill for Hunter shock towers, but not necessarily for a full Hunter chassis (could be a fun and interesting project)...

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On 5/3/2021 at 9:38 PM, silvertriple said:

Some parts arrived in the mailbox today...

qGEyJFH.jpg

A full Nylon reinforced cluster for the Marui Hunter. That is the only place where you can find the under gearbox cover which was not detailed by Marui. I was surprised to see this available on a website in France, and ordered it, as it was including the part that could have saved my original Hunter: the oilless bearing ate this part, and next it was differential, idle gear and the chassis (did try to fix it in some way, but it did not work)...

In any case, I have now a servo mount, a servo saver, and some additional new parts for the restoration.... And this cluster costed me less than just a single servo saver NIP on ebay. 

More parts for this project expected to show up in the next days/weeks. I may have what is needed to build one nice Hunter, and one with a broken chassis. And as for the broken chassis, I believe I have some ideas on how to repair it. My project just transformed itself in a double project :-D (shelf + runner HunterS)!

Now, that being said, this Marui cluster got me thinking. There is parts I never used on this cluster while building my original Hunter. I checked the manual and their is actually parts remaining unused. I'm not sure if they were planned for usage on the Galaxy, but it may not be the case. I don't even think it is the case, as the Galaxy did have a different Bumper... Maybe there was initially a plan for a lower range model or something different based on the same chassis...

And this got me thinking about this for the last 2 hours :-D

Funny things how having a full cluster on the table 35+ years after reminds few things.

  • First, there is parts on this cluster I did not used when I mounted the Marui Hunter. That is what I said the other day this got me thinking
  • Second, I know the cluster delivered with the Galaxy/Galaxy RS is slightly different : Front Bumper is different (only front bumper is different).
  • But even on the Galaxy/Galaxy RS, the same parts remain unused. I was not 100% sure so I went to download a Marui Galaxy manual, and checked the manual of both cars and confirmed it
  • Then I also saw that the Galaxy/Galaxy RS was delivered with the same clusters (minus the front bumper difference) and additional ones. And in the unused parts of the Galaxy/Galaxy RS, there would be the radio box cover, the roll bar, the body mount and the fog lights of the Hunter

That doesn't solve anything to the mystery of the additional parts in the Hunter cluster... The thing is the suspension rear links where not in any cluster, as well as the triangles that link those, the damper and the shock towers. and if I count the remaining unused parts and look at them, I believe they initially planned for different suspensions for both Hunter and Galaxy, likely with springs only, probably at a lower price point)...

No parts today... But lot of thinking on how to reinforce the shock towers on a good chassis and other things, as you may see in this post.

@yogi-bear, out of curiosity, among your Galaxys, are you among the lucky ones to have both red and blue?

 

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2 hours ago, silvertriple said:

Funny things how having a full cluster on the table 35+ years after reminds few things.

  • First, there is parts on this cluster I did not used when I mounted the Marui Hunter. That is what I said the other day this got me thinking
  • Second, I know the cluster delivered with the Galaxy/Galaxy RS is slightly different : Front Bumper is different (only front bumper is different).
  • But even on the Galaxy/Galaxy RS, the same parts remain unused. I was not 100% sure so I went to download a Marui Galaxy manual, and checked the manual of both cars and confirmed it
  • Then I also saw that the Galaxy/Galaxy RS was delivered with the same clusters (minus the front bumper difference) and additional ones. And in the unused parts of the Galaxy/Galaxy RS, there would be the radio box cover, the roll bar, the body mount and the fog lights of the Hunter

That doesn't solve anything to the mystery of the additional parts in the Hunter cluster... The thing is the suspension rear links where not in any cluster, as well as the triangles that link those, the damper and the shock towers. and if I count the remaining unused parts and look at them, I believe they initially planned for different suspensions for both Hunter and Galaxy, likely with springs only, probably at a lower price point)...

No parts today... But lot of thinking on how to reinforce the shock towers on a good chassis and other things, as you may see in this post.

@yogi-bear, out of curiosity, among your Galaxys, are you among the lucky ones to have both red and blue?

 

I do indeed have the parts to build both the red and blue. It took me a while to find everything though. With the parts I managed to collect I can build about 4 blue versions with one being all from NIP and 1 Red one with mostly NIP items. I even managed to find a set of the silver rims that came with the Red one, that was a lucky find! Its all packed up at the moment and one day I intend to restore my original (that's pretty much done), build a shelf queen of Red//Blue and Hunter and a runner for the Galaxy, but modernised a little. The left over parts I'll probably sell off the rest at some point.

I think Mauri did have plans for other cars, and I seem to recall reading somewhere there was a least one prototype that didn't make it to market (A Pajero from memory, a quick google finds this Tamiya club thread -

) and it's a shame they left the RC market, as while their initial offering of cars wasn't perfect, I think it was a pretty good first run in an early market.. The still exist, but seem to focus on air guns.

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I was already aware of the full story of Marui R/C cars released, and about the Pajero. What I find interesting in the cluster story, is that it tends to show evidences that there was potentially different plans for this chassis... And while searching for idle gear options, I read somewhere that there is actually a second iteration also for the Big Bear. I was not able to confirm this (still searching on this, but I do not know the model as precisely as the Hunter / Galaxy, specifically because I never got my hands on one) but will definitely search information on this...

And I agree, it's a shame that Marui left the R/C market prematurely. That being said, there is lot of people saying the "Marui cars where nice and fast, but the GH and Hornet were very likely do round around them as the Marui were unable to reach the five minutes mark"...

I've talked with one guy in Netherlands who is searching for a single part to finish is red Galaxy : he is missing the right rear roll cage stay. One single part. And the guy has searched for months, to the point it'is frustrating, apparently...

I start to believe the last missing part will be the Radio box cover in my case... And it's a shame that there were loads of them unused on the clusters delivered with Galaxy and Galaxy RS...

Ok, I'm kind of joking at the end, it is only a few weeks I started to search for this, and I have good hope to reach some good progress in order to be able to do a rebuild. Have to start focus on the parts cleaning now. I won't start with the proper chassis, I'll start with the broken chassis as I want to test the products first before applying on a chassis in proper state...

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both the Grasshopper and Hornet would have been lighter cars I think. And the Grasshopper only had a 380 motor, so I guess run times would have been longer. The Galaxy would have handled much better though and is probably more comparable to the Frog, but was slightly cheaper and why I got mine. I quite liked the Galaxy, and I did eventually get a secondhand hornet, which I must say took a lot more abuse :D 

I think I remember something about the Big Bear too, and did a quick look through my bookmarks I saved when doing some research. It seems V2 had an updated differential, a different heat sink and apparently a cover for the mechanical speed controller.

You are definitely doing well to get so many parts so quickly! I got my collection over a few years and lots of junk/part buys just to get some usable parts. I've also managed to piece together 2 Big Bears (which I need to finish off and restore one day) and while it would be nice to get some of the other cars, I'm going to stop with what I have.

my printer got installed this afternoon. It too about 3 hours to get it out of the box and being able to be turned on. Tomorrow the techs come back and finish it off, so I should have some sample Hunter decals by the afternoon. I'm keen to see how the white ink prints.

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Well. Some things definitely help in my search.

The Marui diffusion was quite decent in France at some point, while Tamiya was not having an official importer. As a result there is a lot of Marui fans in french Vintage-RC forums. That is a first source of help. Then discussion with other Marui owners thru posts I did on Facebook. When you have detail knowledge about issues on those chassis, it definitely helps to get discussion ongoing and generate ideas and exchanges... And I also tend to discuss things in more than just one forum on internet (and in this extend, i'm not alone being on multiple forums). I have 3 websites I'm now regularly posting and another one which I recently registered. I tend to think those groups and forums are opportunity to help each others and get help in some case (I'm also riding a motorbike with potential identified flows and behave the same ways regarding exchange and helping/getting help others to solve the flows).

Another thing that definitely helps is that many of us (and i'm also in this case) got back into R/C recently due to Covid lockdowns, and re-discovered some treasures in their forgotten stuff : I believe load of parts have been reinjected recently into the "old/used/vintage" market due to this. The rising interest in R/C generates higher demand, but among the newcomers, the proportion of people interested to restore vintage buggies is still low compared to the whole new comer population. That gives some opportunities.

That being said, original radio box cover for the Hunter is still missing among the different options I got (none of the Hunter chassis I got proposed have it. And due to the change of plans, I may need another roll bar for Hunter :). I will try to model the one I have and take benefit of the incoming 3D Printer (I don't mind for the second car to have repro parts on it).

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