TRF (Terry’s Reduced Funds) Super Mega Dragon

[nel33 870]

LOL now i got a mostly red build coming up ie Super Sabre NIB. gonna try and limit the blue on it also. not so hopped up but red where i can put/match it with mostly stock parts.

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Red Sabre would be sweet!

[nel33 870]

3 hours ago, Frog Jumper said:

Red Sabre would be sweet!

the only red goodies i plan to add are the aluminum triangles, white wheels going red. though a repainted blue tamuya driveshaft hop up is an option im still not sure of yet. not going for red paint on the body,, planning PS52 champagne gold instead of silver. i do have an unhealthy obsession with PS 89919 metallic wine red, its on my GTR R33 and Slash. so i cant rule that out yet..  its cost a fair amount to purchase the kit and parts is a 3hr span $970 CAD so i might as well make it look like the body is made of gold... i did order blue boomerang blue goodies as spares but red paint can fix that when/if the time comes...

[Frog Jumper 3658]

8 minutes ago, nel33 said:

the only red goodies i plan to add are the aluminum triangles, white wheels going red. though a repainted blue tamuya driveshaft hop up is an option im still not sure of yet. not going for red paint on the body,, planning PS52 champagne gold instead of silve. its cost a fair amount to purchase the kit and parts is a 3hr span $970 CAD so i might as well make it look like the body is made of gold... i did order blue boomerang blue goodies as spares but red paint can fix that when/if the time comes...

I’m sure it will be a sweet ride.  We don’t get much Sabre Dance around here…

https://relisten.net/jazz-mandolin-project/1996/06/27/sabre-dance?source=30499

[nel33 870]

10 minutes ago, Frog Jumper said:

I’m sure it will be a sweet ride.  We don’t get much Sabre Dance around here…

yup, its a unique body style that unfortunately hasnt had a rere... a rere might have cost me less $ but thats not the case. im set on PS52 but must resist PS89919 as i dont want all my kits that same red, gotta have some color variety...

maybe a TBG sabre repro +stickers can fill the PS89919 red but i have a habit of buying too many bodies for 1 chassis as it is. all my lexan bodies are reinforced so its not like i will go through them after 2-3 mild/moderate crashes.

[Frog Jumper 3658]

In my Wing Quest I bought some random wings on eBay. Started painting them to see how they would look…

These are too small:

These seem to be better size wise but I don’t like modern wings…

 

This one I like.  I need to adjust height and angle, but I like the look…

But I also bought some Egress wings.  Actually two sets since I didn’t trust myself to not mess up the first…

After 3 good coats of PS-2…

Cut out and assembled.  I used some leftover SS screws and nylock nuts…

Mounted.  Oh that looks really nice!  I love the extra wide sides.  And I love the BigT designed the lexan to be painted and assembled in such a way that all the surfaces you’d see are the “good” sides.

I also love these buttons.  They are made by Raceway MFG, likely for okdskool pan cars, but the work well and look great.  I ordered some more…

Last bit will be to try some custom decals from MCI.  Likely typical FD decals wo the dragon cartoon logo.  We will see.

I also have a Penguin brand repro Winger body that will need paint and decals…

And one day soon, I’ll try to see how my various Truck 2.2s fit…

Thanks!

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Lol. I took The Dragon on a test spin and my neighbor said it reminds him of the Star Wars Imperial Guards…

 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

I’ve been searching for red shock springs. I bought some #53946 springs but they were too big.  Tried some various Trashxas and others at the LHS.  Hopefully this is it.  #53702…

They seemed almost perfect. Comparison with the VQS HiC springs.  Both the front and rear DF02 springs are a little long and a little stiffer than their HiC counterpart. 

So while these were the perfect diameter, they were a little long and a little stiff.  So I decided to experiment:  PS paint is flexible.  Why not???

After several coats of PS2…

I think they look fantastic. We will see how well the paint holds up but I suspect it may start to come off first drive but I might be surprised!  Lol!

Here is the Imperial Guard aka the Super Mega Dragon as she sits now…

 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

A few years ago, I bought a big plastic tub full of random wheels and tires for $5 off Craigslist. Lots of junk, but a few treasures.  One of those treasures was a complete set of HS wheels in great condition. I actually tried to give these away to a local HS driver, but he never got up with me.  A recent trip to the LHS scored some new HS tires.  And some quick work with some upholstery foam and I had inserts.  To finish it off, I bought HS hubs…

Isn’t she lovely???

Am I the only one that thinks the tread is pointing the wrong way???  I installed using the arrow on the tire.  But it doesn’t look right to me.  Anyone drive with these tires pointed backwards???

And if you look close enough, you’ll see I painted and added the lexan chassis cover. I did this after a romp in the backyard. The dog has destroyed our backyard and now it’s a dusty dirty leafy pit.  The uncovered tub chassis collecting about a pound of debris in the 10min I was out there!  Totally scratched up my prop shaft!  Yikes!

The only problem is that the lexan is warped and doesn’t sit straight.  I really hate that this part seems like an after-thought on the part of BigT.  They could have designed an easily removable plastic cover.  Where is our 3D printed version?!?  *cough cough hint hint*

Back to the subject of tires.  I bought some NIB and open bag NOS Duratrax #5145 street paw tires to go with the Dragon wheels.  But being as I don’t really want black wheels, I picked up these vintage Proline #2521 wheels (designed for HS hubs).  I’ll try dying them red, and if they don’t look right, I’ll paint them.  I also need to cut some inserts…

These things look sweet.  They’ll look even better in red…

Here’s a few shots of the pamphlets included in the packaging.  The Duratrax (1992!) pamphlet may be helpful to all you vintage tire and wheel collectors out there (like me)…

And it’s been raining a lot around here these last few days.  The HS tires did very well in the wet grass! Lol!

I think I’m going to paint the HS wheels red (of course).  Or should I leave them and/or soak them in peroxide???  Maybe paint them white???  Thoughts???  Opinions???  Snide remarks???

This thing drives like a dream…

Terry

 

 

[TurnipJF 9192]

I'd vote for peroxide white wheels. They contrast nicely with the red wheel nuts and triangles I think. 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

So recently I got a chance to rip around the backyard. The Sport Tuned got very hot. You can about it here:

As a result, I swapped the ESC and motor out for a HobbyWing Max10 3300kv setup. Run awesome so far. Further testing required…

 

ETA:

 

Here is the Dragon with its lid. I have to use rubber bands to keep it tight since it was warped when it came from the box.

 

Here is the lid turned to the side to view the guts.  ESC fits without its fan. If heat gets to be a problem, I will cut a hole in the lid, but I’d rather avoid that.

Wiring needs to tidied up a little more. Need to shorten the battery cables and redo the fan cable. Fan was an afterthought so it’s rough - notice the cockeyed angle.

I used cotton balls to fill the gaps left open by the lid.  Works well and doesn’t interfere with the drive shaft. And best of all, it keeps out most of the dirt and dust.  At least all the big stuff.

 

Here is shot of the motor, with its two mini heat sinks and the fan.  The heat sinks are only 10mm wide and I have two of them installed.  The fan with mount, and the two sinks are from Hot Racing #MH550TE02.

I’m not a fan of the motor’s temperature cable. I understand it’s use and need, but it’s just waiting to get ripped off.  Shrink-wrapped for protection.  In the next day or so, I’ll swab some Vaseline on the plug to keep it water resistant.

This motor is very beefy and very fast. Too fast probably.  But I’m willing to live with it. I have a 15t pinion. I can go down to 13t if I need to.

Thanks for reading.  I’ll keep adding to this as needed.

Terry

[Grumpy pants 4474]

It’s good reading this ongoing development and running thread 👍

[Frog Jumper 3658]

I finally got the Winger body paint finished. I had a false start with some PS lame and translucent and silver that looked terrible. Many hours with some lacquer thinner and then plain old PS red later, I got it back to pretty dang good…

I wanted to be able to swap out the Winger body and fit the Dragon body as my mood changed. So to that end, I modified the TS rear body mount with machine screws all the way through into some Frog transmission spacers and front body mounts from the Brat.  I added neodymium magnets instead of Velcro.

 

For the front, I had already purchased the Shapeways tall Dragon mount.  After I bit of work with a drill, I mounted the TS front mount to the back.  I can now remove one screw and flip this around depending on the body I use.

The kit standard TS front mount is a little short so I ordered a tall mount from Shapeways. Should be a simple swap.

So here it is with the Dragon body.

Then after a quick switcharoo on the front mount, here is the Winger.

 

For the curious, the wheels are WR01 wheels with proline 2.2 tires.

I think I’ll do a wheel/tire fashion show next…

Terry

 

 

 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

And yeah, I had to remove the fan to fit the Winger.  I found that I didn’t need it anyways…

[DeadMeat666 1675]

On 11/21/2021 at 1:11 AM, Frog Jumper said:

 

 

For the curious, the wheels are WR01 wheels with proline 2.2 tires.

What specific model of Proline 2.2 tires, if I may ask? They're pretty neat-looking.

[Frog Jumper 3658]

2 hours ago, DeadMeat666 said:

What specific model of Proline 2.2 tires, if I may ask? They're pretty neat-looking.

Road Rage

[Frog Jumper 3658]

So in the last installment I mentioned the TS front mount was too short. And so I ordered a 4mm taller one from Shapeways.

Here it is with the TS mount, and all the other hardware.

Here it is all put together in Winger mode.

And here it is with the Winger body. It’s a little tall, maybe 1mm???

And here it is in Dragon mode.

And here it is with the Dragon body.  Yeah, it’s definitely too tall. About 1mm.  I can’t get the body pin to insert at this angle.  And the 4mm taller mount rubs the inside of the lexan.  Houston we have a problem!

I’ll have to see if the Shapeways seller will make me a 3mm taller mount…

It’s really unfortunate since my LHS had something that I picked up as an early Christmas present.

It’s an ongoing saga…

Terry

 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Took delivery to some custom MCI stickers.  I got two sets.  One white and black, and one white and silver.  My daughter and I both agreed on black…

I don’t have a wing mount for the winger wing yet, so I’m just holding it in position…

 

 

 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Next batch of MCI stickers…

Color is good. A couple were a little long and a couple were a little short. A few needed a little extra trimming.  I’m happy.

 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Last bit of MCI stickers on the wing…

 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this thread…

Since last post, I did the @ThunderDragonCy 10deg caster mod with his parts from Shapeways.  It took a little work as there was an error involving the kingpins, but he and I figured it out.  Thanks Cy!

I also found that the Dragon was so vicious that she would rip right out of her unglued tires.  I didn’t want to glue so I found these GMade GT2.2 bead licks for clearance at Amain. I bought a few sets and mounted some Proline Dirt Paws, or rather “Dragon Claws”.

 

I realized that the bigger wheels rubbed the wide wing front bumper, so I asked Thundershot Pit Stop (Shapeways) to fashion a new front bumper.  So perfect.

I still need to work on adding some more stickers. I need something on the sides of the wing and body. Usually a number would go here, but I’m trying to think outside the box…

 

Maybe???

 

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Oh, and I managed to find a vintage NIB Parma #13215 for cheap. I wanted Kydex instead of 3D print, and its vintage (oooo!!!  aaah!).

And of course I messed up the paint job so no pix.  Once I fix it tomorrow, I’ll mount it and post pix…

Terry

[Andreas W 1555]

Nice that this thread got a bump. It's been a while since I read it and there is a lot of useful information for my coming TD build .

[Frog Jumper 3658]

Here’s the rear bumper.  I painted it red at first, but I didn’t like the way it looked. So I cleaned it off and went with matte black.