Today I installed a Tamiya sport tuned motor on my TT01 chassis and Blackfoot Truck.
Its a small upgrade compared to going for a brushless motor but I managed to get two sport tuned motors real cheap on an Amazon store.
I also fitted some Tamiya drift tyres to the TT01 that I brought on eBay.
Here is a test of the TT01 with its first parts. I forgot to put my head on straight this morning. Sorry!
I have had my eye on the Tamiya Silvia Coppermix drift kit before I got back into R/c.
Recently it disappeared from the store I always saw it on and it looks like you can now only import the model from America or Hong Kong.
So I decided to instead go for a standard chassis XB RTR version of the model and upgrade it myself as these are cheaper and more easily available.
It arrived today from Germany and has already had its first upgrades installed.
The initial hop ups I have installed are an aluminum drive shaft and race bearings to replace all standard bearings / bushings.
I found the main gear can be annoying to get back in without taking the rear differential apart. When you take the drive shaft out the bevel pinion gears attaching to the diffs drop making it difficult to re-insert the drive shaft. Good job I had to replace the bearings in the differentials anyway.
All in all its pretty easy to take apart and rebuild.
I have drift tyres and a sport tuned motor on the way as the next step.
Replaced all gearbox/wheel bearings and bushings with ballrace bearings. (Bearings in photo are originals)
Next in line is a more powerful motor and possibly conversion to Lipo.
This is a Proline Hummer H2 body shell for my black foot 3.
It is painted with Tamiya lame flake and a black under coat.
This is the first time I have had a go with flaked paint and I am pleased results.
Next for the blackfoot is some hopups I have to install.
Got round to picking up some polystyrene glue today to fix my spitfire. I am sure I will break it again over the holiday no doubt.
I went into Modelzone today and whilst looking at the RC cars I was told that the Blackfoot III XB Pro 2.4 GHZ was currently going for £84.99.
It was not prices up like this and was still marked at something over £250. I am not sure if this was just a price for my local store or the same deal applies around the country.
I gave it a quick test in the park and although its not as fast as the nitro vehicles i am used to its good fun and handles off road really well.
As much as I love nitro there is something to be said about the ease and hassle free nature of electric cars.
I was a bit adventurous last time I took my MCPx out and started attempting to fly upside down.
Although I did manage a pretty sketchy barrel roll I eventually crashed and snapped the tail boom and landing gear.
I started googling for parts and found their are plenty of upgrades available for this helicopter.
I brought a stronger longer tail boom (still and official part for the heli) and carbon fibre landing skids.
I was tempted by an aluminium tail boom but I figured this would just impart the force from a crash onto the main frame instead.
This is a new record for me regarding aerial photography. I flew my x4 quadcopter up to its highest (camera attached) altitude yet and got some nice footage of Portsmouth.
Look out for the flock of birds!
I thought I would attempt some loops and barrel rolls with the camera pod attached to my x4 quadcopter.
I did not get enough altitude on the first attempt to compensate for the extra weight added from the camera.
Barrel rolls look sweet in first person!
Shane's Shed 