They didnt blow off though- my gluing is that good :mdr: ( no, seriously they didnt ).

Have you guys never seen spaghetti that is like fine straw, about 1-1.5mm in diameter; it bends, or should I say flexes upto about 45 degrees or more, then it snaps.

I like dangling carrots though, keeps people interested... :whistle:

I will post some pics up tomorrow evening of the new shell, or should I say shells; stay tuned for more tales of epic painting fail & salvation....

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/HT...ing-spaghetti/ :lol:

^Indeed :lol:

Okay then, lots of pics now of how I snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and all because Im a bit of a perfectionist, and because window tint spray is evil stuff, evil I say:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan104.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan105.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan106.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan107.jpg

All going well uptill now, achieved a *beautiful* paint effect on the hood, just what I was after. There are somethings you can do with a paint brush that you cant do with an airbrush, and viceversa, hence my love of watercolours. In hind site at this point I should have just painted the hood and left the rest well alone, backing it up with white to get a good finish. But no...

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan108.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan109.jpg

I foolishly thought it would be a good idea to back the hood with dark blue first, to avoid the white showing through the gaps between the brushstrokes. Bad idea, as now you could see a distinct dark area under the front half of the hood, and lighter area where it wasnt backed ( towards the windshield ).

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan110.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan111.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan112.jpg

After 3 attempts to get the flame pattern on the left side to match the right side ( style wise ), I gave up and backed it all in white. Unfortunately where I had scrubbed off the previous attempts in the sink ( exactly... ), it left some fine greyish residue around the windows- this showed through clearly after being backed in white. At the same time the window tint ate through underneath the liquid mask that was actually completely dry; nasty mess around the windows on on the left side and some obvious water stains on the whole left side too. Couldnt fix it, so out with the old jet black:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan113.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan114.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan115.jpg

Little touch of chrome & that'll have to do. Tragedy really as it started really well, but Im not spending another ~$40 to get a new shell.

So, I spent ~$25 instead :lol:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan116.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan117.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan118.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan119.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan120.jpg

Stock T-maxx 3.3 shell ( longer verison for newer model maxx ). Still couldnt quite get the flmaes right on the sides- difficult working with acrylics as the paint dries really fast, not enough time to work it and get the blends perfect. Also had a bit of white backing bleed through somehow on the hood- even though it was dry. Weird, but meh. This will serve on the TXT-1 and the Gmaxx, just need some longer body posts for the G.

So there, I still can paint well, dont think I ever will be able to either- painting on the inside is just too different, Im so used to doing the base, then working towards the details, not the other way round...

http://www.modernmuscleforum.com/ima...umbleweed2.gif

Anyway, got my new steering rods in the mail & installed- pretty much zero flex & very nice looking, with heavyduty rodends rather than the soft mushy stock plastic you often find in use:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan121.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan122.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan123.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan124.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan125.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan126.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan127.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan128.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan129.jpg

Also probably gonna relocate the body posts to the sides of the chassis- way too easily bent and knocked loose in the normal locations.

More asstute viewers may also notice I have a busted stubaxle; long story short- I misjudged my speed when approaching a curb, shot up & over it and into a parked car's wheel ( during testing ). Wasnt until I went to take the wheels off to fit the new rods that the damage became apparent when the stub axle snapped as I undid the wheel nut. No worries, I've finally found a 100% bullet proof and non-shite looking way of widening the track width that requires no bodging. Stay tuned....

Kyosho Mad Force/Twin Force axles? Aluminum axles from RC4WD?

I've never seen so many pictures of rod ends in one place! :lol: That's gona be a solid truck, Neil. Not that it wasn't before...

OTT OCD :lol:

Not going for the alloy madforce axles just yet, I'll wait until I destroy the insides of the stockers first. Nah, I found some rather nice items that will allow me to use proper axle extensions that arent held in place with glue & prone to making the wheels 'waggle' as they rotate- you'll no doubt have noticed that in the bench testing video, looked like one wheel or more was on a bent axle. Final parts needed will be here early next week hopefully.

More boring pictures- the big reveal of my cunning plan:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan130.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan131.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan132.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan133.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan134.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan135.jpg

So, what we just saw were some Integy ( oh, God, no, noooooo.... ) SuperClodbuster stub axles; whats so cool about these is that they use a cross pin like 99% of other axles use to retain the wheel hex, rather than the annoying spline with matching splined 12mm hex ( they also use a M5 wheel nut vs the stock M4 size = beefy ). With the cross pin design I was now able to use pretty much any wheel widener or axle extension on the market designed for maxx or revo type axles; I found some nice ones from BoomRacing on ebay that give 1.5" of extra width per axle- only ~7mm shorter than my existing weak & sloppy setup. These new extensions are 7075 aluminium and fit the stub axle perfectly- zero slop in any direction pretty much.

I've removed the body posts from up top, but I still need to figure out new mounting locations on the tvps- the only points suitable really are either too low or too close together, so a bit more epic custom-fab work may be required :yipi:

Very niiiice...

Great stuff Neil, if you are ever anywhere but the furthest possible distance from the rest of England, lol, let me know, would be good to meet up for a bash.

I meant to tell you that I like the body. Many have seen it but like me they just don't comment. I think it looked great! When have you ever seen flickers of flames in nature ever look any certain way matching one anothe ever? Still the black looks good. And you have the 3.3 body which looks great.

The big solid axle truck looks saweet!

Cheers Kcaz, I appreciate it.

I think if I covered the whole body with the same effect it would look stunning, but its very difficult to fade out handpainted brush strokes- this paint dries way too fast for my liking, and its still very weird painting in the inside; if I could paint the outside and not end up with a textured shell ( think: old oil painting ) it would be killer.

Neil that is coming along nicely. I have always loved the look of the Big Joe tires but was concerned due to their sheer size and weight of putting added strain on drivetrain.

I havent had a lot of time to tinker with the truck lately due to work, but I've got nearly 2 weeks off for easter now so I **will** ( so long as it doesnt start raining again ) take the TXT-1 ( wrong thread brushless wonder LOL ) and shoot some video. I got my steering issue sorted out ( truck pulled to the left even with full trim applied ); turns out I didnt account for some funky changes I made internally. I had to swap the gimbles ( sticks ) over since this tx is setup for mode 2 operation ( left stick = throttle & rudder ), but speky decided to be gits and left out/ removed the spring-return mech that would normally recenter the stick when you left go ( on the vertical axis ). I swapped over the gimbles and reconnected the 2 sets of leads, but the 2 potentiometers ( throttle & rudder ) plug into different spots for either stick.... long story short > throttle trim is now done with the trim button for the rudder, and steering trim is done with the button for elevators ( instead of ailerons, since this is a plane/heli radio ). Got it figured out though, and also modified the sticks for ground use- left stick only moves up and down now, and right stick only moves left to right. Heres a few pictures:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...ulligan136.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...Muligan137.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...Muligan138.jpg



You can see on the left stick I just used a tiny screw with a large flat head and screwed it down into a conveniently placed hole; this stops the smaller inner gimple from moving side to side. On the right stick I had to use 2 more of those random screws ( yay for saving random screws from broken appliances :mdr: ) in holes in the gimble and the gimble frame, then glued them together with JBWeld to prevent the out gimple from movong up or down. Turned out really well and there is pretty much zero movement where I dont want it on the gimbles.

Video will be coming soon I promise, along with action pics- just gotta convince the weather & future brother in law to help me ( or I'll have a word with my little sister and she'll convince him- shes a bit feisty... :lol: ).