Getting back into RC, gone a bit mad this month...
Discussion
Hello everyone,
It's been quite a long time Since my last RC fad, but both my boys are coming of RC age so it would be rude not to.
My first ever RC car was a Hornet back in '85 I think. Then I went for a Kyosho Optima Turbo which kept breaking so I swapped it with a friend for a Hotshot complete with the technigold motor. I relapsed a few years later buying a used clod buster and a new Manta Ray. Then sold them to buy a motorbike. Since then I had a tamiya Castrol Supra, Tamiya Impreza, fighter buggy, mad bull then a tamiya nitro impreza, a Kyosho nitro impreza and a nitro tamiya terra crusher. Nitro's are a PITA so I bought a Dual Hunter about 2 years ago with NIMH batteries which are so much better. The Tamiya dual hunter is great so for my sons birthday we went to buy him a mad bull which should be an ideal first car.
Unfortunately I sold my and my wifes mad bulls on ebay some years back got a lame £30 for them! What's left of my fleet are the 4wd rally Impreza and Castrol Supra that was converted into a repsol cosworth for my wife, 2 nitro terra crushers, and 2 fighter buggys (wish I'd kept the mad bulls!). The nitro terra crushers I'm going to sell, they're awesome but not used regularly enough to warrant the messing about comissioning them etc. The fighter buggys are proper bashers now, well after the last couple of weeks anyway, and the 4wd rally cars are no good on my terrain so they'll need to go.
So the latest spree started when I bought the sons mad bull. I was fed up of a house full of crap and old chargers, so I got easily talked into a Lipro 6 quad charger which does everything and can charge four batteries at once.
So now armed with a supercharger, it seemed a waste not to have a fleet to justify it. Id bought 4 nimh batteries when I bought the dual hunter, 2 for the hunter and one for each fighter buggy. So i decided to check out ebay earlier this month and managed to win uncontested another dual hunter for a stupid price. I started watching ebay and got sucked in a bit, another dual hunter and a tamiya bullhead later and things are getting a bit silly!
So today I decided I fancied tuning a Tamiya model to put out a bit more speed. the Dual Hunter and Bullhead are all twin motors which makes upgrading ESCs tricky and motors expensive. I decided I wanted RWD, it had to be strong and able to handle abuse, jumps etc. It came down to Mad Bull, Lunchbox or Mud Blaster/Blackfoot, which is an identical chassis to the dual hunter but rwd, so no extra weight of motor and gearbox up front.
The Mad Bull is cracking fun, but in the end I've decided to go with the Mud Blaster (same chassis as new blackfoot, bush devil, dual hunter, wild dagger, twin detonator)which has a Subaru Brat bodyshell. So, today I've gone and bought another truck. This one I plan to upgrade with an HPI brushless flux shot 4300kv motor, HPI Esc and an HPI 7.2v Li-po battery. Has anyone who has converted a Tamiya car to brushless on here care to share any experience of what its like converted.
I decided on the Mud Blaster as its the latest chassis and better gearbox to the more basic Mad Bull so ought to handle the power, steering and the gearbox should be tougher.
I'm afraid to say I think the shell will end up in sonic blue as I have an unused 555 sticker sheet somewhere so I'll be going the rally race livery!!
I've upgraded the dampers on my fighter buggy along with the black 540 sports motor and fully ball raced, and my boys car was modded when I built it with oil filled dampers to better handle jumping. Unfortunately the body shell that I spent the best part of a week prepping has also been 'modified' this weekend! I went to town spraying it ford ultimate green as per the RS focus, laquered it the lot. He crashed it yesterday and took out both A pillars so I've since made a roll cage that now comprises the A pillars and runs inside the roof which I'm quite proud of!
As you can see, I've gone a bit RC mad this month!! It's so easy to indulge as an adult when a new kit costs nearly the same as a tank of diesel!!
Shame my boys aren't as enthusiastic just yet...although one of them is getting there!
It's been quite a long time Since my last RC fad, but both my boys are coming of RC age so it would be rude not to.
My first ever RC car was a Hornet back in '85 I think. Then I went for a Kyosho Optima Turbo which kept breaking so I swapped it with a friend for a Hotshot complete with the technigold motor. I relapsed a few years later buying a used clod buster and a new Manta Ray. Then sold them to buy a motorbike. Since then I had a tamiya Castrol Supra, Tamiya Impreza, fighter buggy, mad bull then a tamiya nitro impreza, a Kyosho nitro impreza and a nitro tamiya terra crusher. Nitro's are a PITA so I bought a Dual Hunter about 2 years ago with NIMH batteries which are so much better. The Tamiya dual hunter is great so for my sons birthday we went to buy him a mad bull which should be an ideal first car.
Unfortunately I sold my and my wifes mad bulls on ebay some years back got a lame £30 for them! What's left of my fleet are the 4wd rally Impreza and Castrol Supra that was converted into a repsol cosworth for my wife, 2 nitro terra crushers, and 2 fighter buggys (wish I'd kept the mad bulls!). The nitro terra crushers I'm going to sell, they're awesome but not used regularly enough to warrant the messing about comissioning them etc. The fighter buggys are proper bashers now, well after the last couple of weeks anyway, and the 4wd rally cars are no good on my terrain so they'll need to go.
So the latest spree started when I bought the sons mad bull. I was fed up of a house full of crap and old chargers, so I got easily talked into a Lipro 6 quad charger which does everything and can charge four batteries at once.
So now armed with a supercharger, it seemed a waste not to have a fleet to justify it. Id bought 4 nimh batteries when I bought the dual hunter, 2 for the hunter and one for each fighter buggy. So i decided to check out ebay earlier this month and managed to win uncontested another dual hunter for a stupid price. I started watching ebay and got sucked in a bit, another dual hunter and a tamiya bullhead later and things are getting a bit silly!
So today I decided I fancied tuning a Tamiya model to put out a bit more speed. the Dual Hunter and Bullhead are all twin motors which makes upgrading ESCs tricky and motors expensive. I decided I wanted RWD, it had to be strong and able to handle abuse, jumps etc. It came down to Mad Bull, Lunchbox or Mud Blaster/Blackfoot, which is an identical chassis to the dual hunter but rwd, so no extra weight of motor and gearbox up front.
The Mad Bull is cracking fun, but in the end I've decided to go with the Mud Blaster (same chassis as new blackfoot, bush devil, dual hunter, wild dagger, twin detonator)which has a Subaru Brat bodyshell. So, today I've gone and bought another truck. This one I plan to upgrade with an HPI brushless flux shot 4300kv motor, HPI Esc and an HPI 7.2v Li-po battery. Has anyone who has converted a Tamiya car to brushless on here care to share any experience of what its like converted.
I decided on the Mud Blaster as its the latest chassis and better gearbox to the more basic Mad Bull so ought to handle the power, steering and the gearbox should be tougher.
I'm afraid to say I think the shell will end up in sonic blue as I have an unused 555 sticker sheet somewhere so I'll be going the rally race livery!!
I've upgraded the dampers on my fighter buggy along with the black 540 sports motor and fully ball raced, and my boys car was modded when I built it with oil filled dampers to better handle jumping. Unfortunately the body shell that I spent the best part of a week prepping has also been 'modified' this weekend! I went to town spraying it ford ultimate green as per the RS focus, laquered it the lot. He crashed it yesterday and took out both A pillars so I've since made a roll cage that now comprises the A pillars and runs inside the roof which I'm quite proud of!
As you can see, I've gone a bit RC mad this month!! It's so easy to indulge as an adult when a new kit costs nearly the same as a tank of diesel!!
Shame my boys aren't as enthusiastic just yet...although one of them is getting there!
Excellent Stuff...
I love the Hornet, was my first RC car...have you seen the Jun Watanabe edition being released this month, limited to 240 units? I'm trying to convince the missus that she needs one for her birthday!!
I can highly recommend the Mad Bull, I just built this one for my son, he's 6.It's a bit more robust than the Hornet, particularly the front shocks, ride etc with the larger wheels its perfectly at home in deeper grass.
And here's my fleet...
and my current project... the Brushless Brat (Mud Blaster)!
I love the Hornet, was my first RC car...have you seen the Jun Watanabe edition being released this month, limited to 240 units? I'm trying to convince the missus that she needs one for her birthday!!
I can highly recommend the Mad Bull, I just built this one for my son, he's 6.It's a bit more robust than the Hornet, particularly the front shocks, ride etc with the larger wheels its perfectly at home in deeper grass.
And here's my fleet...
and my current project... the Brushless Brat (Mud Blaster)!
Lol,
"It's a nice clean honest hobby that the whole family can enjoy"', theres the strap line!! I prefer sticks too, it's what I grew up with. I do have a Futaba 3ch pistol remote with lcd etc when I used to have an FG 1:5 Racing scale petrol powered Cat truck.
I've used the Acoms 2.4ghz stick radio which comes with one servo only (all you need with esc's) and a micro receiver for my sons and my own latest project. the 2.4ghz ones are excellent, fixed stubby aerial on the transmitter (so kids cant break them), really short antenna on the car (no more losing and bending the dumb stems) which you can just about see on my chassis above, no more xtal clash issues as it can scan 76 available frequencies and pick the one it wants, also has various protections for low power. Currently Modelsport are knocking these out at an amazing bargain £45. Plus they only require 4AA batteries.
I took the Mud Blaster out for its maiden voyage yesterday evening without the bodyshell. Wow, brushless is liking having a turbocharger on a car, wow, you'll never go back!! Mine's running a mappable esc and currently timing and launch are both set to midway, even on these settings its mad and does power wheelies to the point the car is flipping over so I've reduced the launch to try again this morning.
Need to prepare the shell now!!
"It's a nice clean honest hobby that the whole family can enjoy"', theres the strap line!! I prefer sticks too, it's what I grew up with. I do have a Futaba 3ch pistol remote with lcd etc when I used to have an FG 1:5 Racing scale petrol powered Cat truck.
I've used the Acoms 2.4ghz stick radio which comes with one servo only (all you need with esc's) and a micro receiver for my sons and my own latest project. the 2.4ghz ones are excellent, fixed stubby aerial on the transmitter (so kids cant break them), really short antenna on the car (no more losing and bending the dumb stems) which you can just about see on my chassis above, no more xtal clash issues as it can scan 76 available frequencies and pick the one it wants, also has various protections for low power. Currently Modelsport are knocking these out at an amazing bargain £45. Plus they only require 4AA batteries.
I took the Mud Blaster out for its maiden voyage yesterday evening without the bodyshell. Wow, brushless is liking having a turbocharger on a car, wow, you'll never go back!! Mine's running a mappable esc and currently timing and launch are both set to midway, even on these settings its mad and does power wheelies to the point the car is flipping over so I've reduced the launch to try again this morning.
Need to prepare the shell now!!
Well,
I haven't gotten around to spraying the Brat shell yet and couldn't wait to play with it today, so I've managed to make some mounts up for my old Impreza WRC shell, seeing as it's Brushless motor power now, the WRC theme is probably more in keeping with the power anyway!!
It's so quick and the power was overwhelming the std rear suspension so I've made up some suspension mounts and fitted 100mm oil filled dampers on the rear which have really helped it deliver the power but it has increased the rear roll centre a touch too much , it could do with lowering to get the cornering back to where it should be.
Some pics
I haven't gotten around to spraying the Brat shell yet and couldn't wait to play with it today, so I've managed to make some mounts up for my old Impreza WRC shell, seeing as it's Brushless motor power now, the WRC theme is probably more in keeping with the power anyway!!
It's so quick and the power was overwhelming the std rear suspension so I've made up some suspension mounts and fitted 100mm oil filled dampers on the rear which have really helped it deliver the power but it has increased the rear roll centre a touch too much , it could do with lowering to get the cornering back to where it should be.
Some pics
Edited by NITO on Saturday 22 September 21:38
Thanks for the heads up and that link, hadn't seen that site before.
I'm quite happy with the tyres on there, the mud blaster tyres aren't as wide as the lunchbox tyres and its got enough power to break traction with these. Its really well balanced, the c of g is a touch too high since fitting the 100mm shocks but its well worth it for the trade off in better damping, jumping, power handling etc.
Thanks again, interesting site.
kind regards
Nito
I'm quite happy with the tyres on there, the mud blaster tyres aren't as wide as the lunchbox tyres and its got enough power to break traction with these. Its really well balanced, the c of g is a touch too high since fitting the 100mm shocks but its well worth it for the trade off in better damping, jumping, power handling etc.
Thanks again, interesting site.
kind regards
Nito
Finally got around to sorting out the Subaru Brat bodyshell that comes with the Mud Blaster. I can't stand the Tamiya colour scheme so went another way...well it would be rude not too...
And I had an unused sticker sheet of the Colin McRae 1997 WRC rally car...
Apologies for the poor quality pics, they don't do it justice!
Cheers
Nito
And I had an unused sticker sheet of the Colin McRae 1997 WRC rally car...
Apologies for the poor quality pics, they don't do it justice!
Cheers
Nito
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