Hi
I was in a similiar boat, had a couple of Tamiya's 25 years ago and recently built a lunchbox & hornet with the kids but wanted something with a bit more oomph! Actually wanted an Optima but they were out of stock.
It took me about 4-5 weeks to build over lockdown - wasn't in a rush so tinkered when I had a spare hour or two.
With regards to the battery clamp - I drilled a couple of holes in the underside polyshell to be able to access the screws - this seems to work well. I initially bought a 5300mAh NiMh battery but that was two wide for the shell so had to go down to a 3300mAh NiMh battery.
I found the build challanging but not impossible. I found the painting to be the hardest and have made a right mess of trying to get the Masami red/yellow/black colours nice and crisp. Spent ages with the masking tape but the paint leaked under the tape in a number of places. Have ordered another shell and will just paint it black all over! Also - my son smashed his car into my Cat on the second outing and so the paint work looks even worse!
The ball joints were tricky but I found a technique for that.
The suspension was also time consuming - I had to order some pincers to apply the rings. Also some of the metal washers need to be placed a certain way up - with my eyes and a magnifying glass I still couldn't tell which side up they should go! The suspension is still a bit funny - the car seems lower than it should be.
The diff was also an eye opener. When I first fired it up, only the rear wheels rotated so I needed to tighten the diff up considerably.
I put a Core 15T motor in and now it's up and running it is an absolute joy to drive - much faster than the tamiya cars we already had and handles superbly.
After a couple of outings it's started to make a bit of noise that don't sound right so I think a few bits are loosening so I need to give it a once over again.
Enjoy your build!
