416 - Almost Ready For Holidays: gathering some stuff

August is on its way and our summer holidays too, This year I haven't a kit to bring with us and to build during the fresh alpine evenign so I'm planning to bring my Kyosho Ultima Dirtmaster built during last year summer holidays.

My equipment have been lightened already thanks to some useful usb-C powered items: my new soldering iron and the G-Force charger neverthless the stuff to pack remain a lot.

As spare motor, if the Team Orion will prove to be undersized,  I decided to use my LRP Super Series Team Tested that claims 27.000 rpm. I've also purchased a good backup of steel pinons from Ruddog to find the proper gear ratio to keep performance without overheats.

415 - Flashback Friday: My Wild One First Life (early days)

 

I've bought my Wild One back in 2013, it have been my first build using the Tamiya Tools and I really enjoyed it.

After the build I've painted it in a simple and clean two colors livery

414 - The Delta Ray Buggy: Second Chance Or Honored Retirement?

The build of my Delta Ray Buggy has been the longest in my career in this hobby: born as my TA01 restomod project it has been finished as a buggy that Tamiya never made.

This car is on a shelf, fully equipped but it needs some electronics updates to be back to the runner status or only a livery revamp with fluo yellow lining to be definetely retired.

It has been driven for only a few times, just to prove that it moves. It gave good feelings but I'm in doubt if it is the case to give her a second chance.

413 - Flashback Friday: Madcap Refurbished!

 

During these years I’ve been constantly aware that the refurb of my Madcap has been only a mesh between two cars. Now it's the time do deep refresh it to give it the best shape I can do.

I will not bring it back to the runner status but it carries some of my best memories of the good ole days (including the day of its purchase at the local hobby shop with my father) so I will place it on a shelf as relic of that golden era.

412 - A Song For Billy Ray: Body Position Found!

Some experiments and some mistakes have been made so some holes to fill remains but finally I've found the desidered body position.

411 - Flashback Friday: Guess Who’s Back?

 

Almost ten years ago I’ve bought a second Madcap as donor car to refubish mine. The Madcap has been my first proper RC car and it carries the memories of its purchase day when I went to the local hobby shop with my father. In these days I’m thinking about to rescue it, to revamp it and to place it on a shelf as relic of the good old days.

410 - A Song For Billy Ray: electronics completed (Sorry For Being Late)

Finally the Carson Reflex Start radio set have been arrived with its own receiver in the box so I've been able to install it in to the Blitzer chassis. 

I have to admit that the receiver is very small, smaller than my expensive Futaba 3PV ones.

409 - A Song For Billy Ray: Something Went Wrong With Body Positioning

After the rescue of the unused Beetle body I've placed it on the Blitzer chassis but in a different position to try to give the car a more aggressive appeal.

Unfortunately this time something went wrong and it came out in a much higher, backwarded and disappointing position than expected. To save the day I will swich the front body post with a shorter one to lower the body and I will make some cuts to move it ahead.

408 - Carson, A Prompt Recovery After A Bad Performance!

From the early beginning, the radio set chosen for the Billy Ray project has been the Carson Reflex Start that seems to be a good option for the hands of a 11yo young gun.

Some days ago I've received the stuff ordered from Amazon but, after opening the box, I've discovered that the receiver have been missed. In two days thanks to Carson and Amanzon I've returned the the failed set and I've received a new one with its receveir so I'm ready to complete the car.

407 – A Song For Billy Ray: Motor and Esc Cabled, A Body Have Been Rescued

Well, the revamp of my Stadium Blitzer (Beetle) is confirming itself as the claimed chaotic build.

I’ve rescued the body previously used in my CR01 removing all the stickers and washing it in the wait of some custom sticker that should make it more appealing for a young gun.

I’ve also installed the LRP motor and soldered the Quicrun cables to it tabs and the ESC's switch have been sticked to the chassis wall in a easy to reach position.

The goofy antenna holder, made by a FF03 body spacer, have been moved in the middle of the chassis to match the body’s hole for the antenna pipe.

406 – Kyosho Ultima Dirtmaster Motor Swap – Cooling Down The Situation

Last year, after its build, I couldn’t enjoy my Ultima because of the high temperatures reached by the ESC using the 15x2 peak motor.

Of course I should gear down using a different pinion but I’ve decided to swap the motor to the 19T Team Orion Element bought at first for my BBX.

I hope the car keep its aggressive attitude but with lower running temperatures, finger crossed because this summer do seems to be one of the hottest.

405 - LRP Buggy Special 4. My Choice For The Blitzer, Again!

The build/revamp of the Stadium Blitzer I’ve decide to gift the young Billy Ray is going a bit chaotic but the recent fail with the body paint destabilized my a bit maybe because of it’s started from a quick inspiration.

As motor for the Blitzer I’ve rescued from my Madcap this LRP Buggy Special 4, already installed in the Blitzer but ran some months after in the Madcap… a kind of return to home and, more strange, without any memories about its performance, we will see.

I’ve also refined, curling the wires, the Quicrun ESC according to the Tamiya servo wires already in place.

404 - Beetle Body Ruined! When It’s The Case To Show Mistakes.

Well I don’t know if it is the same for every modeller but, in my 40 years long experience, I’ve witness that fails are part of this hobby and, in this modern age where every model on the Net seems to be finished by a pro, I want to show my most recent fault.

To give to this Kamtec Blitzer Beetle repro body a dynamic and fresh look I’ve planned to use the dish soap painting technique that I’ve never experienced before but something goes wrong: much soap I suppose. I’ve tryed to save the savable but at some point I have to give up.

The ruined body was destinated (and trimmed on porpouse) to be placed on my revamped Stadium Blitzer so to give to the car the same appeal (a kind of Blitzer Beetle with a lowerd body) I’ve rescued this other Kamtec body in origin used on my CR01.

403 - A Song For Billy Ray: Little Steps To The Goal

Years ago, in revamping my Blitzer, I had reinstalled the electronics I've been used to run before I swapped from the EX-5 to the 3PV so, to prepare it for Billy Ray,  I had to "clean" the chassis before and the old KO receiver and Savox servo have been removed.

Now the Tamiya TSU-1 servo is in place and the Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 awaits its wires to be curl and that a motor is installed  where solder the extended cables (in black).

402 - A Song For Billy Ray: Servo and ESC Ready To Be Installed.

The first step to give my Stadium Blitzer (Beetle) a new life is the choice of the electronics.

In the bunch of servos and ESCs rescued by my spare boxes I've choose the Tamiya TSU-01 servo that came ages ago with my Grasshopper and the Quicrun 1060 bought years ago for an unknow reason.

The ESC has been switched back to Tamiya plug for battery making a joint between OEM and spares cables already equipped with the J plug meanwhile motor cables have been only extended awaiting to be soldered to motor tabs.

In a short time a will order a simple radio easy to handle by a 11/12yo young gun.

401 - A Song For Billy Ray: A New Beginning For My Stadium Blitzer

Billy Ray is the nickname of a young gun, the younger son of my best friend.

The friendship between me and his father, a talented and passionate mechanic, counts more than three decades and it is mainly focused on cars, fourwheeling, having fun and lending each other an hand when needed.

My Stadium Blitzer is laying around from a while since when I’ve repaired, renewed and converted it in to a kind of Blitzer Beetle. I haven’t the intention to put it back in to my runners fleet so I’ve rescued it, I will complete and I will give it to Billy Ray that, for sure, will have so much fun in driving it… of course i twill be a suprise.

Some electronics have been rescued also, I need only a good radio set for a beginner.

 

400 - The Story of The Two Stigs

 

The first time with my Wild One it haven't been intentional: I just wanted to avoid the complex paint of a open helmet driver figure, in watching the freshly built car someone says it recalls the Kyosho's drivers figure style and someone else claimed that loved the Stig style driver.

I'm not a fan of open cockpit buggies but I really love both of mine (The Wild One and the BBX) so, in building the BBX, I've decided to go for a second Stig style driver with the already known difficulties.

399 - Wild One 99% Complete And Ready For Its 4th Life

Well, the revamping of my Wild One is 99% complete.

After the body paint some decals have been applied but I guess some other are needed to finish the work.

I've also installed the reinforcing brace for the front shock towers filling the gap with a pair of plastic spacers (unknown origin) rescued from my spare screws boxes and swapping the original screws with longer ones.

Counterwise to my plans I've been forced to keep the original servo saver because of there isn't room enough for the Hi-Torque (both long and short horns).

Concerning motor I've decided to go for my Dirt Tuned avoiding from every modify (opening it to fit bearings) or sacrifice (mixing it with the Super Stock BZ) in anticipation of the future shortage of Super Stock Tamiya motors (made in Japan) due to the poorly made new serie coming from the crap's factory.

398 - A Little Break, Personal Batteries Cycling

We need a little break from work and Venice living, so this week my wife and me are on holidays in our cottage on the alps. Some gardening and some renewing works are in our plans... for sure I will be involved in some mumbling about future RC works.

397 - BBX Renewed, Driver Start Your Engine!

Finally my BBX has the decent driver figure I've planned from the early beginning. Most of fails are due to the desperate attempt to avoid the use of paint brushes and to achieve this result I got all of my knowledge as modeller plus several sorceries as masking tape, masking fluid,  paint markers, spray cans... in short everything to compensate the loss of sight due to be a Gen X guy.

396 - New Paint For The Wild One

Some minor works have been made on my Wild One: new body posts, new servo horn and new screws for ESC switch but the main is the new paint for its body.

The fresh painted body and placed on the chassis to see how it came out.

Well it could look a bit monotonous because the paint scheme is more or less the same of my Ultima and BBX but I'm pretty satisfied to have find a good colors combination after all this years in the hobby and  like to have a kind of team livery for the running cars in my fleet.

Some mistakes have been made, as usual... but it's the teenager in me :)