Kyosho Plazma Mk.III - update

[lowspot 299]

That's my latest addition to the collection. Plazma Mk.III in pretty good shape. I have to change the electrics and want to add a period correct MSC at some point and different motor and servo.

I do like the paint job and with a few more decals and touch ups, pretty sure it comes up nice but I want to strip it. Have ordered a set of decals for it - not sure about the color - not going box art - way to complicated for me. The chassis needs rebuilding and ultrasonic bath but everything is there and I will start very soon. 

Pretty rare to find a decent example with an almost perfect body. No cracks or scratches and only minor signs of use and a little dent at the right rear corner. Even the wheels are great - not new but I want to keep everything as vintage and original as possible.

On top of the condition it also comes with a Ko Propo EX-5UR radio, Ko Propo Servo and ESC - not really old-school but a full set and quite nice. Motor is a Kyosho Mega Outlaw 22x1 and it has to leave the engine bay and will be replaced by the left over LeMans 480T 

First task is to strip the paint very carefully and make sure that the body stays in good condition without cracks.

End of first night of heavy cleaning - I do have a small crack but it will be covered by decals later, so no drama. It's quite a job to strip the paint.

 

 

 

 

[RichieRich 685]

Another classic! Do you have a source for the tires? Though, these ones looks to be in great condition. I've noticed that old foams start to break off in chunks if they are driven.

[lowspot 299]

4 hours ago, RichieRich said:

Another classic! Do you have a source for the tires? Though, these ones looks to be in great condition. I've noticed that old foams start to break off in chunks if they are driven.

They are identical to the Fantom wheels and I will get a spare set for this project - the chassis dives very well but the tires don't have any grip anymore :-)

[lowspot 299]

Some more progress on the body. I didn't want to remove the whole paint and leave a bit of the original color. I have found out that the body was replaced at some point and this one is slightly different to the normal Mk.3 - manly the part behind drivers helmet - it's not quite a MK3 limited body but neither a normal Mk3 - - have to investigate from what model it is - the sides and the stance seems to be right - don't know whether Kyosho has updated the body within the production period. 

The chassis is in  good nick but there are a few things wrong - bearings in the rear axle are missing and it has different offsets on both sides - I assume it simply is the position of the axle. Servo horn is not quite right and I definitely swap the radio. I'm repairing the chassis first and then disassemble it for ultrasonic cleaning, 

But back to my body kit. Still have to paint the driver and there are a few imperfections but it will be  invisible once the stickers are applied. The rear fenders were not lining up with the body anymore and I have stiffened the sites with left over polycarbonate from the Fantom - proper Pan Car recycling :-)

 

I have found a A4 sheet of Matt silver foil and added it to the side wall. Also painted the window in mate black and have used Ultima decals for the top part as well as some from the Fantom. The Plazma Mk.3 decals are coming in a few weeks and I might change some things again but so far so good

 

 

[rwordenjr 1890]

Is the Fantom just an updated version of this or are they different?

[lowspot 299]

On 10/11/2021 at 10:19 PM, rwordenjr said:

Is the Fantom just an updated version of this or are they different?

there are a few similarities, like front bumper and I think the motor box and body posts are the same but everything else is different.

[lowspot 299]

A bit of an update form my Plazma Mk.3. I have installed a new carbon fibre rear axle from Kyosho's Fantom series and a new (old) Trinity Monster Horsepower motor. Major improvement as all of a sudden,  everything is spinning free and it drives super smooth (....the old axle was slightly bend.) 

The majority of the chassis is still untouched. I haven't even changed the electronics. Only moved the on/off switch to a different position and I'm using a Flysky GT5 radio with build in gyro instead of the KoPropo one - the handling is much better now - ESC and servo are from KoPropo as well. I might also get a new set of wheels in the near future, there is not much grip left on the old ones. 

And then the weird body.........still not sure from which model that is but definitely not the right one for a Mk.3. I'm temporary using a Fantom body kit and blue MCI decals. Looks ok for now and way better than the old one. The Fantom body has a slightly different wheelbase, mainly at the rear and I have used the old body as a template for the wheel arches. Other than that, it fits perfect. My first idea was to get one from Teambluegroove but I don't like the quality.

 

 

 

[Champ85 609]

5 hours ago, lowspot said:

the old axle was slightly bend

With some small, soft wood blocks, a hammer, a vice (or some other solid way to span the axle in the air and support it on both ends with adjustable distances) and some eyeballing, you could probably execute some careful percussive persuasion to straighten the axle.

I have straightened many bent dogbones and suspension shafts this way.  It isn't always possible to completely remove all bends depending on how many and where the bends are, however.  For example, when there are compound bends (multiple bends at different angles of rotation on different locations on the shaft) it can get difficult to remove them without causing new bends or undoing previous fixes.  But if the axle/dogbone was no good as it is, then there is no harm in trying.  Even a dogbone with a slight bend can be used in a runner in most cases.  It is better than throwing it away.

The wood is used to support the axle to prevent metal-on-metal contact and also between the axle and hammer to prevent marring from impact.  A thin piece of wood is best for use with the hammer because it concentrates the impact force on a smaller area of the axle.  Ideally, this impact force will be at the middle of the bend in the axle. This is where eyeballing the bend in the axle gets very important.  You need to determine exactly where to apply the hammer impact force on the axle.  I spin the dogbones in my fingers to determine where the bend is and at what angle and then hold the dogbone across the vice with the middle of the bend facing up.  The wood will deform and reduce the impact force on the axle which isn't ideal, but it is important to not ruin the smooth surface of the axle.  How much force to use on the hammer is important and it will take some experimentation to figure this out.  A thick axle will obviously take a lot more force to undo a bend than a thin dogbone.  A minor bend will take less force to correct than a larger one.  Start small, check results, and keep increasing impact force until it starts making a difference.  If you go too far, rotate axle 180 degrees and hit again.  It is exciting to make an unusable part into a usable one again.

[Room335 738]

On 12/10/2021 at 6:32 PM, lowspot said:

 

 

 

I love seeing alternate color schemes. Nice job @lowspot