RC cars

I've just got a TT-02 Chassis Tamiya. The instructions look easy enough however the screws just seem to be bundled together in a few bags & aren't labelled, i can't make sense of which screws to use.

Trying to put the Diff's together & I need 8 screws, can't find them anywhere in the box.

Half inclined to box it back up & return it lol
 
I've just got a TT-02 Chassis Tamiya. The instructions look easy enough however the screws just seem to be bundled together in a few bags & aren't labelled, i can't make sense of which screws to use.

Trying to put the Diff's together & I need 8 screws, can't find them anywhere in the box.

Half inclined to box it back up & return it lol
Is there any videos on youtube that could help

Also the online tamiya manuals can be downloaded from here https://www.tamiya.com/english/rc/manuals.htm
 
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Gah, finally managed to get it done, & due to the crappy labelling when I got to installing the wheels it turned out i've used the wrong bushes on the prop so got to rip it apart again.
 
Finally got it done & have been able to run it :D

Something I discovered whilst messing with the polycarbonate offcuts that I haven't seen anywhere, a wood drill bit run in reverse leaves a nice clean hole & sinks through it in about 2 seconds flat.

Paintwork not the best but i think it's ok for a 1st attempt.

20221229-155658.jpg
 
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Well this got a bit more expensive than anticipated.

Since I last posted i've ordered a sealed ballbearing kit, aluminium steering components, oil filled shocks, a gyro, a second set of "Rally Block Tyres", a new set of Volk TE37 style wheels, a set of extendable body posts & a postless mount kit that I intend to change to velcro fitting, Mitsubish Lancer Evo X shell & a light kit with working brake & reverse lights etc.

I'm now eyeing up additional shells, seen some Sierra RS500 shells, a Ford RS200, Escort MK2, Toyota GT86 & an E30 BMW, fancy buying the lot, wife may actually kill me though.
 
RC is definitely a slippery slope of a hobby! After getting my Maverick Quantum XT December 2021, I quickly added a Tamiya DT03 a few weeks later. Rest of 2022 was filled in with semi frequent purchases of replacement parts for repair.
For the last few months I've been watching a whole load of small scale RC Crawler channels and after Xmas I finally caved and bought an FMS FCX24, which has been a load of fun just driving around the house over random stuff. In the past week I've started planning out various mods and bought a few DIY bits to experiment with, then ordered another small scale crawler (Hobby Plus CR18P T-Hunter) which will be here in a few weeks and currently have approaching £100 of various upgrade parts and different wheel/tyre combos in a shopping basket that I could pull the trigger on... Then I'm also 3d modelling and printing some obstacles and a new rear bed for the FCX24.

Needless to say I'm a bit hooked right now...
 
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RC is definitely a slippery slope of a hobby! After getting my Maverick Quantum XT December 2021, I quickly added a Tamiya DT03 a few weeks later. Rest of 2022 was filled in with semi frequent purchases of replacement parts for repair.
For the last few months I've been watching a whole load of small scale RC Crawler channels and after Xmas I finally caved and bought an FMS FCX24, which has been a load of fun just driving around the house over random stuff. In the past week I've started planning out various mods and bought a few DIY bits to experiment with, then ordered another small scale crawler (Hobby Plus CR18P T-Hunter) which will be here in a few weeks and currently have approaching £100 of various upgrade parts and different wheel/tyre combos in a shopping basket that I could pull the trigger on... Then I'm also 3d modelling and printing some obstacles and a new rear bed for the FCX24.

Needless to say I'm a bit hooked right now...
Definitely a slippery slope. You can spend as much as you want and still want/need something else.

I'm on 2 8th buggies (e and nitro), 2 2wd 10ths, 2 crawlers and 1 re re mid optima and thinking of a 4wd 10th.

Like Christmas every day round here.
 
I got a toy grade 1:12 crawler from the other half on my birthday last year. Mostly to share with my 4 year old but the digital on/off nature of it isn't any good for either of us. Currently on Ali Express pricing up a cheap ESC, receiver and servo etc to convert it. It also needs some softer shocks, they are ridiculously hard given how light it is. Can't figure out what servo would suit the steering though (currently it's a motor & gear affair).

I have a feeling this will deteriorate into buying bigger more expensive things. I have cherished memories of building a 1/10 M-01 Tamiya Monte Carlo Mini with my dad when I was a kid. I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have despite having it for years and eventually sold it. A rare expensive model now! My sons currently mad into monster trucks so this project will be fun with him.
 
I got a toy grade 1:12 crawler from the other half on my birthday last year. Mostly to share with my 4 year old but the digital on/off nature of it isn't any good for either of us. Currently on Ali Express pricing up a cheap ESC, receiver and servo etc to convert it. It also needs some softer shocks, they are ridiculously hard given how light it is. Can't figure out what servo would suit the steering though (currently it's a motor & gear affair).

I have a feeling this will deteriorate into buying bigger more expensive things. I have cherished memories of building a 1/10 M-01 Tamiya Monte Carlo Mini with my dad when I was a kid. I didn't appreciate it as much as I should have despite having it for years and eventually sold it. A rare expensive model now! My sons currently mad into monster trucks so this project will be fun with him.
I'm trying to get my 10 year old in to it.

The hobby has brought me lots of fun.
Making friends;
Learning about car dynamics and handling by tweaking shock oil/spring/angle, diffs, steering, camber, toe, roll centers;
Tuning engines;
General maintenance ;
A little bit competition on race weekend;

Incredibly rewarding.
 
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I got a toy grade 1:12 crawler from the other half on my birthday last year. Mostly to share with my 4 year old but the digital on/off nature of it isn't any good for either of us. Currently on Ali Express pricing up a cheap ESC, receiver and servo etc to convert it. It also needs some softer shocks, they are ridiculously hard given how light it is. Can't figure out what servo would suit the steering though (currently it's a motor & gear affair).
I think at that point I'd just be buying a new crawler. It sounds like it's a very toy-grade car if it has on/off throttle and a motor and gear steering combo. You would likely need to do something quite custom to get the steering mechanism to work correctly and spend a fair bit of cash to replace the other electronics even when shopping on Ali Express. I know it's a different scale, but the FCX24 (nearer 18th scale despite the name) is only ~£135 and works great out of the box and would likely be great for a kid to play with.
 
I think at that point I'd just be buying a new crawler. It sounds like it's a very toy-grade car if it has on/off throttle and a motor and gear steering combo. You would likely need to do something quite custom to get the steering mechanism to work correctly and spend a fair bit of cash to replace the other electronics even when shopping on Ali Express. I know it's a different scale, but the FCX24 (nearer 18th scale despite the name) is only ~£135 and works great out of the box and would likely be great for a kid to play with.

Oh I agree, but the parts are about £30 and the steering motor lends itself to servo conversion (It's this one). It's mostly for my 4 year old to bash about but even he's limited by the inability to control speed and steering, plus I can turn down the potency and he can use it inside. It'll only end up in landfill or hidden in a cupboard otherwise and that bothers me. Plus, I like a project, it's a big part of the fun.

I'm looking at buying a HBX 16889 Pro (or one of the other branded variants). I could use the same lipos on the toy crawler too.

I'm trying to get my 10 year old in to it.

The hobby has brought me lots of fun.
Making friends;
Learning about car dynamics and handling by tweaking shock oil/spring/angle, diffs, steering, camber, toe, roll centers;
Tuning engines;
General maintenance ;
A little bit competition on race weekend;

Incredibly rewarding.

Yeah, I missed the social side when I had my Tamya Mini. My dad took me to an indoor race club but it was all buggies. We didn't have money for a different car at the time and while they accommodated us for that night by allowing me to skip some of the bigger jumps (front heavy slow car, not a good combo for jumps) it was clear it wouldn't work out. Shame really. There's an outdoor club near me and It'll be cool to get the lad into it when he's a bit older. Plus, I'll get to play too :D
 
The club racing side of the hobby is a great thing to get into, most of the people are fantastic and racing on an actual track is awesome.

I got back into the racing side in a big way in 2022 and it's been the best thing I've done for years. Currently race 2WD buggies and also participate in regular TT02 stock class for a bit of on road fun as well
 
Hey all, I'm thinking this may be a fun hobby to have a go at.

I'd like to try a build, just not really sure where to start.

I don't have any experience in RC cars/building these kits but am a CNC machinist by day and fairly confident with spitting things together. Also thought it may be a hobby where I can make replacement parts etc myself if need be.

so where do we start? Is there a go to entry level kit?

I think I'd go electric to start with, don't want to cause a ruckus in the garden :D
 
@kinger8938 Welcome to the (expensive) fold lol

I think that a great entry point is something Tamiya as it has a great instruction manual and part structure and will be a robust kit to cut your teeth on. (and you could probably fab some nice upgrade parts yourself in time if you wanted :))

Something like a DT03 chassis car like the NEO fighter Buggy (starter bundle £175) or the re-release of the classic Hornet (starter bundle £177) would be a great kit for 2wd or the Neo Scorcher or Plasma Edge II for 4wd (starter bundles both £190) - all these prices taken from the modelsport website :). Good guys there and a trust worthy company

Hope that all helps
 
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Hey all, I'm thinking this may be a fun hobby to have a go at.

I'd like to try a build, just not really sure where to start.

I don't have any experience in RC cars/building these kits but am a CNC machinist by day and fairly confident with spitting things together. Also thought it may be a hobby where I can make replacement parts etc myself if need be.

so where do we start? Is there a go to entry level kit?

I think I'd go electric to start with, don't want to cause a ruckus in the garden :D
Build kits are a lot of fun. The trouble is, they are either tamiya kits, some of which are a bit average, (though i havent seen the nicer stuff) or they are race cars, which are PRICEY!

My advice, is one of these:


Its 14th scale truggy (half way between a buggy and monster truck) the wheels are about the size as a 10th scale buggy rears, so goes over some reasonable terrain.

They are are a really nice kit to build. nice oil shocks, proper diffs, and the kit comes with a servo, motor and a speed controller. The motors are good too. ESC should be more than reasonable, and is probably a hobby wing variant of some kind (which is fine).

you'll need transmitter and receiver, spend as little or as much as you like really, a battery (2S lipo is perfect, but make sure it fits) and some paint for the bodyshell.

Most kits dont come with motor, speed controller (ESC) or servo, or battery, so it has more than most build kits do.

They do a few variants of this, a truggy kit without the ESC and motor
A buggy (EMB-1), with a smaller wheelbase, but smaller wheels, you'll need a small surface.
A buggy with a longer wheelbase (LC12B1) same wheelbase as the truggy,
And a new kit which is a 2wd buggy.

The truggy is probably the most fun. The parts are largely the same between this kits (except the 2WD) so you can easily convert the truggy to a buggy with different wheels and a different shell, i built the LC12B1 as a truggy:

This is one of mine (its the same car, just a wheel and bodyshell swap):

cTXW8Lh.jpg
t73OZG3.jpg

They are pretty tough. Parts are pretty cheap from DMS racing or China (there is another UK Supplier, but ive forgotten)

I Also have some Team Associated RC8B3 buggies and an RC8T3 truggy. much bigger, bit faster, but MUCH more expensive to fix!

I havent found anywhere to race them, but i havent really looked.

Great Cars.


Have a wade through here:
 
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I'd vote for a Tamiya DT03 or similar here, based on my own experiences, just with the Racing Fighter body not the Neo - better looking! :D It's what I started with as my first build and I had a decent bit of fun with the stock motor setup on it before upgrading to a 4000kV Hobbywing brushless setup which is more than fast enough on 2S and frankly silly on 3S.
It's had a fair bit of abuse over the past year and I've not had much in the way of breakages. Think I've had to replace a dogbone due to a crash, rear tyres due to wear and the diff due to shredding the bevel gears due to the power of the brushless setup. Original rearwing is also trashed. Whilst it's never going to survive a skatepark, I don't think they're half as fragile as some people would have you believe.

Those LC racing sets look pretty tidy from a quick glance though, I'll have to look into them a little more.
 
Ignoring the building side, if you want a ready to run to bash about with the HBX 16889 pro from AliExpress is a fair bargain. 1:16 truggy that'll take a bashing, metal drivetrain, oil filled shocks, brishless motor that's plenty fast for its size and whilst pre-built they are still "hobby grade". You're not gonna be racing one at a club though.


My local club is just starting 1:10 outdoor electric buggy racing, really fancy building one as they only do nitro otherwise which I would never bother with. I expect it'll not be a cheap build even at the noob end (like I am) so might keep an eye on whether the series is successful first
 
Thanks for the info guys!

This could be fun :) I'll have a look at the models suggested. A bundle sounds like a good idea, what's everyone's preference regarding handsets? Stick type or wheel thingy? (Very technical here<)

So I'm looking at roughly £200 for a good starter bundle by the looks of things
 
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