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Forgot to add… Tamiya now sells some prepainted bodies for their 1/10 cars. These are “printed” too, although I think they print it before the lexan is molded. Some of these shells are pretty spectacular eg Merc CLK “Original Teile” with the famous ripped-open engine details – won’t see anyone possibly handpainting that work of art.

Some other printed ones are pretty boring… eg entirely “carbonfibre” patterned Altezza TRB001, Toyota MRS, Formula1 shells.

[PandaBear]

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i noticed in alot of the other cars the same thing Panda, the paint must be done with a pro airbrush or something equivalent

Nah, it won’t be done by hand… skills like that don’t come cheap even if you’re manufacturing in China. Then there’s ISO quality control too – every item has to be of the *same* quality.

There are machines now that can print onto 3D objects, so that’s probably what they use. Kyosho makes some superb 1/18 diecast model cars too, so it won’t be hard justifying the setup costs.

[PandaBear]

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He went missing around the time of our hack…

Hmm… interesting.

Was wondering myself & thought it pretty coincidental too,
but thought it was too pointless a question to be worth
posting up anywhere.

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What I can say is there’s not much people can do without appearing in logfiles 😉

Yup, sometimes life is one big doglog. blackeye:

[PandaBear]

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I’m sure we all want to have high post counts, but if it leads to people posting “me too” everytime they see something I will turn off the post counting.

Whoa! Now that’s MORE SCARY than Bush’s threaths of war!!! 😯

Ya, only post something worth reading.
(or at least make it humourous?:clown:)

[PandaBear]

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is it 6 for the wheels and 1 for the motor can?

No, its:

4pcs 620 for the wheels
3pcs 630 for the rear axle (using stock diff)

Dunno what are motor can bearings, not even sure if this is
a ‘standard’ size. Yes I see some ppl have about motor bearing
kits before, but this is pretty hit and miss unless you know
how to put a motor back together properly (not everyone does).

[PandaBear]

Checked out Tamiya’s latest crop of “static” WW2 model planes lately?

They now got spinning propellors… using MicroB motors!!! 🙂

[PandaBear]

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i was thinking if mabuchi makes motors for tamiya and kyosho, i could buy one of those cheap tamiya track runner things just for the motor, and rewire it…
so the question is..does tamiya still use “mabuchi” motors?

Tamiya has been using 130 motors since the year dot, this is a standard industrial size. Yes Tamiya do get Mabuchi motors, especially the Hopup ones sold separately.

Mabuchi is one of the bigger makers, so is Johnston (symbol is a stylised “J”) but then again there’s 100s of chinese factories churning them out too – for 1001 toys, handheld fans, micro ‘pen’ vacumm cleaners etc etc.

But if you just want raw material to play with :), just visit DSE – they sell 130s for about $2.

If you wanna buy them in bulk I can refer you to wholesalers, but be prepared to talk 1000s… :blush:

[PandaBear]

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i think my caris white plastic Panda. becos all the scrapes and things it cops its just always white???:question:

Ya, the MiniZ bodies are all ABS plastic – like your familiar 1/24 static model kits.

The paintwork on these things are pretty darned FANTASTIC but!! I’d kill to be able to go visit the factory and see how they do it so well. The red paint on my Ferrari is so deep and shiny, it’ll be pretty hard to do the same quality by hand from a spraycan even. And all the markings are painted on, not stickers.

[PandaBear]

At least with RC we have something to show for it… beats empty alko bottles and lipstick stains. Bleeding waste of $$$ all that jazz – been there done too much enough of it. 🙂

[PandaBear]

err… that reminds me.

We *still* haven’t discovered why the Zed (with boost ‘on’) can go faster than a std car with same motor.

[PandaBear]

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Oh, I meant modding the pulses so it makes it less noisy and not faster. (Well, faster would be good… but I’m just wondering if Tomy has made the pulses too far apart or something…)

Higher modulation freq is good (better efficiency, less power wasted, easier on motor) in a biggerRC’s ESC, but heck – BCGs aren’t very high tech.

Zed seems to pulse at about 20-30Hz. (Old-style RC ESCs used to do about 60Hz; current racing ones do up to 30,000Hz usually user selectable.)

Dunno what governs the BCG’s pulsing, not even sure if the TX or the car does that for you. The Zed’s booster TX seems to have a lot more electronics inside than would be needed for just +1 channel.

[PandaBear]

Nothing escapes Mr GTR… 🙂

(hmm… who’s next to be GTass? 👿 sorry…)

[PandaBear]

Could also be the 1-channel booster TXes from the 350Z and AutoModellistas… 🙂

[PandaBear]

Ya, can’t take $$ with you… 👿

Thing is, if you don’t spend much on house, 1:1 cars, women, clothes, booze, cigs, drugs… there’s a surprisingly ample amt leftover even on my meagre wage.

There are definitely worst ways to blow your ca$h than gadgets & RC toys. 🙂

[PandaBear]

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man if u added up how much u have spent on RC cars you would have the biggest heart attack, jus like i did when i added up my tally…..

Simple – to *avoid* heart attacks, just *don’t* count. :):):)

I lost count of how many cars we have many years ago.
But that’s ok, I don’t even dare to count anymore.

[PandaBear]

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ive located a mini bb factory in aus, does anyone have the exact sizes of the miniz bearings?

6x2mm and 6x3mm, both 2.5mm wide.

Lemme know what you find, I’m after some too.

[PandaBear]

Best to use a “disposable” camera… guess after all these yrs you can RUN faster than he can, eh? 😯

[PandaBear]

Ya, and when I can have enough space I’ll go search for a 1:1 Ferrari.

[PandaBear]

Actually.. I think the white bits (“KO Propo”) are all made in Japan. Have to check the chassis bit to tell, I think. I’m still searching for an ‘old’ mZ to compare the differences.

[PandaBear]

D’OH!! 😀

[PandaBear]

Check out your local DSE, Tandy etc or find a cheap transistor radio that you can strip. $2 Shops are great for these things.

[PandaBear]

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mmmm interesting on the shocks front as the Frictions are a dead set match in length/travel for the ones currently on my TA03…

ya, you can space them out and use the ‘long’ bottom link… but the excess movement is gonna quickly bust your seals and you’ll soon find oil leaking from top and bottom.

Better to just find the longer (non “mini”) CVAs or some other company’s shockers made for buggy. You want more than 1cm travel anyway… check how much your shocks limit the suspension travel now.

[PandaBear]

I think the chinese ones are a slightly lighter grey.

Whether its made in Japan or China I don’t think really matters. The China factory is probably established & managed by Kyosho anyway; Kyosho also make RC cars in Korea (for some wierd reason, everything from Korea has a wierd “smell” to it… ever buy SKC tapes/discs before?).

Tamiya also has new state-of-art factory in Phillipenes now.

[PandaBear]

Why don’t you just Visit Their Site? (hint hint) 🙂

click THIS LINK for a direct teleport to Trading Direct

Trading Direct ABN 70 524 494 482
Post: 56 Lee Road, Winmalee, NSW, 2777, Australia
Phone: +61 2 4754 2950
Fax: +61 2 4754 2950
Email: sales@tradingdirect.com.au

(I’ll take the commission in the usual brown paper bag, thanks Steve!:blush:)

[PandaBear]

Thoughts are with you All this long weekend.

May it be peaceful up north.

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