@MudSlinger33, yeah...!
I also ordered:
- Castle Creations Neu-Castle 1515 1Y 1/8 Brushless Motor (2200kV) (link)
- Castle Creations Mamba Monster 1/8th Scale Brushless ESC
- Robitronic Machined Aluminum Single Sided Servo Horn (Red) (25T-Futaba/Savox/ACE) (link)
- Lunsford "Punisher" Hot Bodies D8T Titanium Turnbuckle & Hinge Pin Kit (link)
- King Headz Team Losi 8ight Rear Chassis Brace, this is not included in the Tekno kit (link)
I started with the build on Wednesday morning and after a long day I took this snap around 7pm
Couple points for anyone building this for the first time, especially with the Lunsford hingepins - the hingepins are of different length and one should check the details on the product page:
(6) Titanium Turnbuckles:
* (2) 4x101mm Titanium Turnbuckles (Steering)
* (4) 5x85mm Titanium Turnbuckles (Front & Rear Camber)
(8) Titanium Hinge Pins:
* (2) 3x43mm Outer Front
* (2) 3x44mm Outer Rear
* (2) 4x68mm Inner Rear
* (2) 4x71mm Inner Front
Also keep a close eye on the direction when threading the turnbuckles. I also ran into some trouble building the rear diff at around 6 pm, suffice to say I tried to close it up a bit too quickly and the center gear jumped off. Once I'd tightened it down I first found it wouldn't fit inside the diff housing, then I also noticed the diff wouldn't turn at all! I was able to rebuild this and finished for the day by around 9pm.
I would have liked to run 120k, 50k, and 30k but sadly all I've got on hand is 7k and 4k diff oil. For now it's 7k, 7k, 4k (front/centre/rear). I'll also be setting the shocks to 40wt/50wt (front/rear).
---------- Post added at 5:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:37 PM ----------
I pretty much started on Thursday morning with the rear diff/bulkhead at this point.
...about an hour or two later:
Getting the wing-stay on was such a PITA. It's designed for nylon nuts to be inserted into slots and then you thread your screws. The fun part is, if it doesn't thread head on (and this doesn't have to be the case), the nut spins inside the slot. I had to get someone else to come and jam a screwdriver in so I could un-thread and redo it. Easily wasted a good 20+ mins over it.
Hinge Pins
Another
note of caution to anyone else building this, the outer hinge pins on both the front and rear arms are supposedly meant to be held in place by button screws. However, the diameter of the head of the button screws just isn't large enough to properly overlap the hingepins. I took the approach of adding M3-washers to each screw, so 8x M3 washes in total. An alternative would be to use 'flanged' metric screws.
I've in fact noticed that HPI have instructed us to go with screw+washer combos on the rear inner hingepins instead of throwing on a flanged screw. Seems a bit tedious if you ask me.
As for the plastic used on this kit, it definitely feels top-notch. Threading metric screws and those Lunsford turnbuckles into the plastic is no easy task.
I finally got to the point where I installed the King Headz rear-brace. Since this wasn't meant to fit the Tekno kit, I had to use a M3-countersunk screw + M3 nylon nut. I didn't bother trying to thread a screw through the rear hole, although there does seem to be clearance.
I decided to tackle the last part of what I'd consider 'tedious' - building the shocks! I went with 40wt shock oil for the front and 50wt for the rear.
I was able to make a bit of progress on the conversion but since it was late I couldn't take any snaps. I'll do that tomorrow plus a proper walk through.
Ended up cleaning up my workspace so that I can focus on soldering the MMM up tomorrow.
---------- Post added at 5:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:40 PM ----------
Tekno RC V4 Conversion Kit
I thought I'd comment on the conversion kit, as I'm sure many are interested in it as well. During the early stages of building the front and rear diff bulk-heads, the only difference was that I'd use the front centre axle and rear shaft that came with the Tekno kit.
Reason is the Tekno kit has its own machined base-plate and they've moved the centre diff all the way to the back which allows us to have the lipos nicely balance out the motor weight towards the front.
I've seen some gorgeous manuals by Kyosho and Mugen; Hot Bodies gets about a 7/10 for their manuals. Tekno's 'manual' is a 2-page print out with horrible images, and you really have to put some effort into figuring things out. Things started to get 'interesting' after I fit the battery tray, which by the way was an absolutely fantastic fit. I'm loving the three-velcro battery harness, in comparison to
the harness on my Kyosho.
I'm using a Spektrum DSM Pro SM3001 receiver, which is pretty tiny as far as receivers go.
However, the Tekno guys have done a bang up job in conceiving the smallest radio box, ever. It's an extremely tight squeeze, where my receiver has to sit upright on its side due to the odd shape of the radio box. I may re-evaluate if I want to keep this next to the servo at the front or move it behind the battery tray, although this would complicate wiring some.
Update: Right now I've got the radio box screwed in with a single screw only. Why? My machined servo arm is 'too' big to work with the clearance of the radio box, if it is held down by two screws, as recommended by the manual. As for the placement, I'm going to keep it as is for now.
While Tekno recommends for direct pinion-Spur drive the motor should be mounted towards the rear of the truggy, I've moved it forwards and tightented the pinion at the end of the motor shaft. This is to allow fitting the MMM to the ESC tray and also leaving some room to easily swap out pinions as needed.
Overall, the Tekno conversion is quite good but not as awesome as the conversion kit by Kyosho made for my MP777. I'm really liking how they've moved the centre diff to the rear and balancing the heaviest components. That said, do remember that the centre shafts can wear out and with this kit, one
has to buy Tekno replacements. Comparatively, RC Monsters conversion kit uses the HB stuff and it might be cheaper for some.
I've also succumbed to ordering the following from A Main Hobbies:
1 x HBS67215 Hot Bodies Aluminum Front Spindle Carrier Set (10°) $56.99
1 x HBS67216 Hot Bodies Aluminum Front Spindle Set (2) $53.99
1 x HBS68185 Hot Bodies Aluminum Rear Hub Set $45.99
1 x HBS67449 Hot Bodies 60mm Big Bore Shock Spring (Orange - 98Gf) (2) $7.29
1 x KHZ-HBD8-060 King Headz Hot Bodies D8 Front Chassis Brace $21.49
2 x MUGE0814 Mugen Ball Link 7mm: X5T $10.18
1 x PRO1178-11 Pro-Line 3.8" Badlands Tire w/Desperado 17mm 1/2" Offset MT Wheel (Black) (2) $38.99
Plus a couple extra pinions:
1 x NOV5121 Novak 5mm Bore Steel Mod 1 Pinion 3-Pack (12,13,14) $22.49
1 x TKR4172 Tekno RC "M5" Hardened Steel 5mm Bore Mod 1 Pinion Gear (12T) $10.99
1 x TKR4175 Tekno RC "M5" Hardened Steel 5mm Bore Mod 1 Pinion Gear (15T) $10.99
---------- Post added at 5:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:41 PM ----------
I work up early on Friday and got working on soldering up a Deans connector onto the MMM little after 5 am. It wasn't long before I ran a 'live' test:
Noticed that I moved the motor back to the rear-position and mounted the MMM farther back to allow changing pinion gears as needed. There
isn't one fitted as I'm waiting for these to arrive next week!
I also wanted to solve the cramped nature of the radio tray and the 'far-too-long' servo arm. Interestingly, the lead from the MMM was a bit too short and I ended up trying this with my receiver out of the radio box.
...and it made me try something else, "What if..." ~ ended up finding a better spot for the radio tray.
---------- Post added at 5:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:42 PM ----------
I've never painted an RC shell before and this was my first time. I was looking up Parma RC bodies and came across a YouTube video where I was shown the neat trick of removing lexan by using an exacto blade to 'score' the lexan and simple 'crack' sections off. Yes, it's that easy... until the blade slips that is!
Oh well, I knew it wasn't going to be perfect the first time around. I'm aiming for 'half-decent' at this point. I start off with a very light coat, almost a misting
...and gradually adding layers on top.
Once the black section had fully dried, I masked it off to paint the hood in red.
At first It thought it looked rather dull, considering I had no access to any metalic paints. Then I pulled off the over-spray film...!
Using Gundam Paints
I simply could not find any local sources for Polycarbonate paints and
since I've painted Gunpla in the past I decided to resort to using the only spray paint I had on hand. I began by using some scrap lexan from the body trimming process and was quite happy with the results.
There was no evidence of 'flaking off' or any of the issues people seem to be reporting when using Tamiya TS paints. Therefore, I made it a point to steer clear of my TS paints. Here's an example of what a 'Gundam' paint can looks like:
I used that same No. 60 Gundam red and No. 80 Gundam Blue. Once I had finished spraying black, red, then blue and it had fully dried, I threw on 2-3 coats of top-coat. Do note, that all these paints are in matt finish including the top-coat. Here's a snap under the shell post drying of the several layers of top-coat, notice how flat-matt it is.
I finished an entire can of black just on the sides and that was my last one, so for now, this body will remain with a multicoloured "bottom". I'm debating if I should 'ruin' it with decals or not at this point.
Will continue with updates once the upgrades and much needed pinion gears arrive next week
---------- Post added at 5:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:44 PM ----------
I decided to install the 12T pinion that I have on my Kyosho, it's simple to fit a new pinion on it without adjusting the motor positioning (they are module 1 after all). Ended up doing some cable management and used the hole in the center diff mount that's meant for the mechanical brakes to run a zip-tie through. Also strapped on a 4S 4,500 mAh Turnigy nano-tech lipo
...and I had to see what the body looked like fitted
Keen eyed folks will notice I haven't fitted the hex hubs for the wheels - I'm waiting on an adapter set from Ofna allowing me to mount older 14mm wheels with 1/2" offset so I can run my Bad Joes.
. The front-universal joint's pin-shaft had been cut to half their size, probably from the 'Monster Air Time' jumps. With no spares, I took to my Savage's part box and found a pin that looked like it would work...
