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

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 :)

395 - A Disappointing Purchase

To revamp my Wild One with in mind the improve of its durability, some weeks ago, I’ve bought the GMade crossmember for the front shock towers.

In other occasisons I’ve built this kind of parts from scratch but, this time, I decide to go for an aftermarket item.

This GMade reinforcing brace looks like a nice piece of alluminum and I was convinced that it was minded to be a direct fit but unfortunately I realized that it need some extra millimeters to fit between the Wild One shock towers. It’s disappointing, not scaring for a modeller but, IMO, an advice that it needs some extras to be completed could be included/printed somewhere.

Surfing the Web, as result of a simple Google search I’ve found that someone used the same parts with in addition some spacers so, to complete my Wild One revamping, I will look for something usefull to do the job in my spares boxes.

394 - I Did It Again!

The head banner of this blog have been updated… again!

I really love graphics inspirated by the californian bmx/skate/punk scene they feel so “energetic” in some way but my heart beats hard for something different and it depends by my background of course.

With this new graphic I've made an attempt to be closer to classic racing cars appeal that are my soft spot from when I was a teenager: I love the clean and sharp looking of some old motorsport sponsors plate or banner and the patches on racers suits so, here the result, not definitive... for sure. 

393 - A Step Ahead For The BBX And The Other For The Wild One

Finally the BBX driver figure have been finished with a coat of flat clear Tamiya TS-80 and with its driver's head.

The TS-80 did a god work giving to the figure a matt finishing that is expected by the driver's suit and by the seat belt but, on the other hand, it makes evident the imperfections due the use of water based markers to paint the driver's body... that's fine, my other attempts were far worse and the most important target to well define the white parts from the black ones have been reached. Its head also have been painted, with some smears of course, but it's ok overall.

I wanted to make a try to upgrade the Dirt Tuned motor destinated to my revamped Wild One with a pair of ball bearing in place of the bronze bushings but I've realized that open it is not a quick and clean work as I expected... so I give up to avoid damages to the endbell or to the can.

392 - Wild One: Works Ongoing

To me it's ever a pleasure to work on the Wild One both for its classic allure and for the sense of lightness that it carries.

With all the parts needed ready to be installed I've completed  the electronic set up keeping the KO servo in use from its build and fitting the new Futaba receiver linked with the updated Robitronic ESC.

The motor cables are still free, not soldered to tabs because I'm thinking to make an attempt to improve the Dirt Tuned with a pair of bearigs as done with my Super Stock motor.

After the electronic I've fitted back the transmission, the roll cage and the suspensions (front and rear).

I've also placed back the driver figure and, of course; I couldn't resist to fit the four wheels with their new yellow rims as shown by the first pic.

391 - This Is The Best I Can Do

 

Ok, I guess that it is the time to forget that, at my best as modeller, I have been a talented painter of fantasy miniatures.

A while ago I've decided to give to myself a last chance to complete my BBX with a decent painted driver figure and I though that using some marker would be a good idea so I've purchased on  porpouse some water based Uni Posca.

First coats with markers on the previous coat of black

Here the raw and partial result of the third attempt, of course it will be completed with a closed helmet head that I prefer than  the original one and with a coat of Tamiya TS-80 to secure the water based markers paint. For sure, at over 50yo, e this is the best I can do.