Tamiya and other R/C vehicles (not just for Christmas)

So after weeks of waiting (stupid eBay not stating seller was in the USA) this finally arrived for the lunchbox!  My lad is literally pissing himself with excitement….as is his dad

This is on ebay currently. Current bid £2k.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volkswagen-Tamiya-Sand-Scorcher-Replica/202460435604

so subject to no delivery issues I’m joining the club.  I did want to build it but ended up with a rtr as my boy loves monster trucks….axial smt10….main complaint seems to be it’s slow which I’m thinking is a good thing.  I’ll upgrade it as it gets trashed!

ok dumb noob question.

I’ve bought a lipo charger…

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B07C5YC38H?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_yo_pop_mb_pd_t2

and it hasn’t come with a mains lead to use it.  Have I bought the wrong charger (for a venom 3s 5000ma battery)

do chargers normally not come with a plug?

Quite often they just come with 12V croc clips- mine didn’t come with a mains charger

oh.  so do I need to just buy a mains lead?  it doesn’t mention it in the (not great) manual.  what lead do I need?

got the truck just can’t charge the battery!

That looks to me like it’s DC only so would need to be powered by a 12v battery or power supply. I would personally send it back and buy something else if you want to run it from mains as it will be easier (unless you already have a suitable power supply).

I’d probably go for one of these two myself …

https://www.pegasusmodels.co.uk/product.asp?type=submenu&maingp=Chargers+%2D+Power+Supplies&prodid=1012701#.W8js-aTTWaM

https://www.pegasusmodels.co.uk/product.asp?type=submenu&maingp=Chargers+%2D+Power+Supplies&prodid=1012711#.W8jshKTTWaM

thanks for the advice.  yep want to charge from the mains.  first noob mistake!  all sorts of different connectors to work out as well.

truck itself seems good.  controller feels cheap and unlikely to last a throw on the floor by a toddler.  quick test and it seems plenty quick enough for me despite reviews saying it’s slow.

unfortunately I can’t properly play with it till Xmas 🙂 boy is going to get a 1 64 model max d and then when he is looking a bit bored I’m going to drive the big one in covered by a wrapped box.  should be priceless watching his face.

We’ve had some down time with the Mad Bull waiting for hex drive nuts to arrive after blowing teh splines running with a loose wheel..
Got it back together with a set of oil shocks but there’s something amiss.

It squeels under take off much more than I remember and seems to have a significant amount of lag before it gets upto speed. Took the diff apart again and all seems fine however if I press down on the rear end to keep the car still and pull the throttle, the drive train slips from somewhere rather than just bogging down the motor.
Gentle take offs and its appears to have less slippage.

Any suggestions as to where its all going wrong?

Did you check the axles as well as the nuts on the Madbull?

Ive done a set of nuts on one as well.  It’s my 7yo basher now

I treated myself to a S/H ECX Torment 1/10 4×4 Short Course truck.

I love it, everything I ever wanted in a truck.

It takes all the knocks and can clear all the jumps at the local pump track with effortless ease.

It’s currently on a 15T brushed motor with 3400 Nimh batteries, I am tempted with a Lipo upgrade and a brushless motor as the ESC is switchable.

New body first though.

Brushless is ace, but Lipos are a whole different world of power and run times.

I’ve got my Dark Impact to be too fast so am going to get a digital controller to turn down the power but keep the run times and acceleration.

Hi guys.

I have a traxxas mini e revo, loads of spares, batterys and transmitter to sell if anyone is intrested.

Hi Dave, do you mean the 1/16 E-Revo? If so please mail me some photos and how much you’re looking for.

Can someone recommend an online shop for Traxxas, considering the 1/16 E-Revo for my sons xmas present? Found a good price at RC Geeks but still looking at options, and they’d need to ship to me in Sweden preferablý.

TIA.

Time to re build my old Terra scorcher .

it has an engine and a servo for steering . they are old , not sure if still working .

what else do i need ?

radio

speed controller

batteries and charger ?

what else do i need ?

Yeah, radio (transmitter & receiver)

Electronic Speed Controller (ESC) if you don’t have one – can’t remember if the Terra Scorcher came with one of those resistive mechanical speed controllers, but if so then get rid.

Batteries & charger

You should be good to go.

Thanks, yes came with mechanical speed thing.

Yesssss!

BROOOOOM

Woop! I looked at getting one of the TT-02 cars, but decided I wanted something with more ground clearance. Don’t really make use of it though, so it probably would have been fine!

Not the most straightforward body build:(

Never cut a lexan shell before, proving a challenge. Also never painted a shell. Is it painted from the inside?

You can score the body with a craft knife and then snap at the cut if you find this easier than using scissors, curved scissors especially for the job make things a little easier.

The body should be throughly cleaned with soap and water before paining on the inside using a paint suitable for Lexan, I would recommend Tamiya PS spray paint (make sure you get the PS not TS).

There is a good guide here …

https://tamiyabase.com/articles/54-painting/135-part-14-polycarbonate-bodies

Cheers demonracer will check that out.

Its taken me a day to get this far.

I really enjoyed painting the body of my Neo Fighter. Cutting it out was a bit of a ball ache to be honest and I didn’t want to buy the curved scissors for a one off.

Regarding painting…from memory, I:
– cleaned with soapy water, rinsed and dried thoroughly.
– Masked using frog tape (you can get proper stuff, but I had frog tape and it works well for DIY.
– used the Tamiya PS spray cans and stuck them in warm water for 10 mins or So prior to using (dunno if it helped but a tip I saw on a few sites)
– made a ‘spray booth’ from a large box to try and minimise the overspray.
– multiple thin layers, starting with the darker colour and then the light colour (only did two colours)…

I might have a pic or two on Flickr… probably already posted on an earlier page.

Timely spot of a thread. If i glimpse through the thread is there any info about buying an r/c? I have been itching to get one from a few weeks ago. Preferably off road and electric, decent scale size and performance. What sort of budget should i be looking at , and what is out there?

thanks.

@stumpy01

Some sage advice there, much appreciated.

Built this sand scorcher a couple of years ago when we were between house moves and i had no shed to keep me occupied.
Don’t use it much at all but really enjoyed the build and surprised myself as i had never built any models before.

I have no idea why the images are different sizes 🙁

I didn’t do the driver – he was bought just to finish it off

Nice!

rmacattack

Member

Timely spot of a thread. If i glimpse through the thread is there any info about buying an r/c? I have been itching to get one from a few weeks ago. Preferably off road and electric, decent scale size and performance. What sort of budget should i be looking at , and what is out there?

The big question is, how fast do you want to go offroad? I built my Madbull to go very fast, and tbh I didn’t enjoy it much and it needed a lot of space. So I went the other way and built a rock crawler, which can pretty much go at a slow jog but is tons of fun for driving over stuff. The appeal’s really pretty different.

(my axial can do both… But it falls over every time it goes round a corner too fast)

https://www.rcgeeks.co.uk/electric-cars/off-road/maverick-strada-xt-1-10-rtr-brushless-electric-truggy

Say something like this as a benchmark? I don’t want a kit first off. Could come down the scale size on this. Is 4wd necessary , It won’t be real harcore off roading. Speed wise I want something beyond the cars i got as a kid at christmas and as you say something that can still be controlled. Reading through here i guess lipo batteries are the way to go?

That;ll be rapid 🙂 Not my field though so I’ll butt out!

Any ideas why my smt10 is silly fast in reverse but a bit slow forward? A bit of googling suggests I need to rebind the controller? It came all linked up. Fiddling with the throttle trim on the controller means when the throttle is neutral it moves forward

Reverse the polarity of the motor. Brushless; swap any two of the three wires around. Brushed; just swap the wires around. Bob’s you mother’s brother.

Managed to get a 6s brushless lipo beast of gumtree. Paid a fair enough price I assume. They seem to dabble a lot in r/c. Car is a year or more old but in pics looks great. Now to learn how to use it.
Arrma outcast with batteries and leads/ charger.

yep swapping wires worked. ty 🙂

Been having a blast on the truck this couple of days. Lipo batteries really make electric r/c less of a faff than days gone by. Been getting over 20 minutes of driving atm with a 30 minute charge time per battery. Charger will only do one at a time.

What I do notice that has been said farther up. You really do need a wide open large space to get full potential, my skill set was only allowing me about half throttle in the area I had, which at times was hairy enough.

I’ve also been understeering a lot , possibly due again to user error, but at times I feel the power lightens and pushes the front to much. Again more usage will help me counter and adapt for this.

All in all im pretty pleased with the package so far. Fingers crossed I get a lot of usage before any upkeep or breakages. Batteries will fade over time also I know this. And will have to learn a little tinkering and maintenance.

Hiya.

Life has been a bit hectic so just finished the Lunchbox build.
No paint yet, but it’s going to be Kawasaki green over gold.
Not completely sure about the Fastrax shocks, they’re a bit overspung and overdamped for the Lunchy, so further mods might yet be in order.
It’s very, very silly and superb fun. Loved the build too, there’s not really a lot to it but it all came together in a few hours.

I had to pop into Modelsport for a few bits and bobs yesterday and walked out with a Maverick Scout. 😶 It’s soooooooo much fun. Built a little crawling course in the back garden and thoroughly enjoying it so far.
Not that pricy compared to a Tamiya kit at £140 ready to go. I’m very happy with it.
Ugly as sin so needs a new shell – the madness continues.

3 cars in just over a year. Not exactly up to Northwind’s level, but plenty to be getting on with…..🙂

Ooh I fancy one of those Mavericks. What shell are you putting on it?