New Car: Kyosho Mini Z

Here it is...my new MR-02 Mini Z!

Today I went to FPR to get a Mini Z module and ASF board and basically get set up to race at FPR and I spent most of the day driving on the track. This car is a lot of fun to drive.

It started as a NIB Woodone Supra MR-02 and the previous owner told me that the Supra body is a rare one and the guys at FPR confirmed it. It's good and bad. Good because I like to own rare things but bad because it's a real nice body that I want to run but I don't want to risk trashing it.



As you can see in this picture, it's not stock anymore. I wasn't expecting Eric to lend me some spare option parts from his car to use on mine. So now my car is set up with a 70T stock motor and has a set up to run in the stock class.

That picture was during the rebuild process. Here is a picture of the finished car.



I'm hoping to race on Friday but I have an errand to run at the time the race starts... I'll have to wait and see if I can make it on time.

On Board Video at FPR

Scotty Ducati and his vintage RC10 camera car got some nice footage. Scotty has the blue and silver ISF and that's my basher S15 with Eric behind the wheel of the camera car.

New Products from Tamiya!

http://tamiyablog.com/2010/09/future-tamiya-releases-to-be-presented-at-50th-all-japan-model-hobby-show/

Some of the highlights:

TRF 417
TRF 502X
M06 Pro

Still no TA06 though...

New Radio: KO Propo EX10 Helios

Yup, that's right. I got a new radio. My old Airtronics was working fine, but I got bitten by the Mini Z bug and I needed a radio that uses modules. KO Propo seems to be the radio to have at FPR so I went searching on eBay and found this one. It came with a Spektrum module with 2 receivers and a lipo battery. Not bad for 160.

There are some cool features on this radio. I think the best one is the fact you can program music. The menu has A-Z and each letter plays a different sound followed by how long it plays.



There has been some issues with this radio. I wasn't surprised seeing how it was bought used. The minor problem was the steering wheel foam. It was too slippery. So I tossed it and covered it in old worn out Mini Z tires. FPR has a whole box of them and they work pretty well.



The module worked well until I realized the antenna went somewhere into the radio. With some help, the antenna is out but the range went down to 5 ft. The wire on the circuit board was bent and after it's fix, the range was back to normal. I really like this radio plain and simple.

New Mini Z drift track at FPR

Fast Pace Racing now has it's own Mini Z drift track! The surface is a low profile carpet that has some interesting performance when you drive on it with those little cars. I have to get my own Mini Z drifter now...

Removing paint from bodies: an easier method

URC founder the JANG got a tip from a youtube user on how to easily remove paint from lexan bodies. I wish this video was put up before I started the basher body rebuild...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=085nJyj4TBM

Basher Body Rebirth

This is the body that came with the Yokomo I just got. As usual, a body that comes with a used chassis isn't in the best condition. This one was no exception. But it was okay. Why? I was feeling creative today. Actually, it was yesterday...but today is when I put my creativity into action.

This body started out as a Yokomo S15 Silvia (the red and yellow one) but my plan was to give it a fresh new look with a method of painting I've never used before.

When I got the DP, team member Rob suggested I paint the outside of the body since it was already painted. After thinking about it, I decided to try it out. So I masked off the windows, lights, and hood and picked up a can of metallic blue that I had left over.

I started laying down the coats of blue and it turned purple! I know that's what happens when red and blue are mixed but the red wasn't even touching the blue. I put too many coats down and the purple was gone. Oh well. This is only an experiment.

The hood was something I hadn't thought of too well. I forgot that this isn't the inside of the body being painted. But after some creative mask use, I covered up most of the front end and painted the hood without any problems. Some window tint was the last coat I added. (on the inside)

I still have some things to do. I have some Tamiya X paint for models that I'll use to cover up the red spots, and I'll try to find a way to remove the paint from the lights. Maybe I can use light buckets in the future?