BlackSeaRC

This makes some of the recent Tamiya offerings (such as the CC-02 bodies) look rather amateurish.

Those are some large wheel arch cut-outs! The front and rear end must flap around wildly as this thing drives.

I know what you mean about cost. Sometimes I think people who buy kits overlook the cost of paint, masking, sand paper, etc. Polycarbonate bodies are not so bad but on a recent hard body paint job, I used 2 colours and multiple cans of each, plus primer and clearcoat. The overall cost was close to 100 GBP just for painting the body and accessory parts!

Does anyone know of any BROWN spray or brush-on paint (not airbrush) suitable for polycarbonate material? I can't seem to find anything in UK. Thanks.

Took the AT4V for a crawl by my favourite river.

I like the fact that there is no propeller hanging down from the back to bump on rocks or snag on debris in the water. It even has a 'visibility spout' of water that you can sometimes see shooting upwards from the rear. For scale realism purposes I think a seamless body figure with real clothes is worth the effort rather than a standard plastic action figure with visible joints and painted hair/clothes.

I have been driving RC vehicles of the wheeled kind for 40 years but I have never owned an RC boat. Recently, I was attracted by the new ProBoat Jetstream Jet Boat but it is a lot of money and never seems to be in stock anywhere, so I never took the plunge. Then, along came the UDIRC UDI023PRO Inkfish, a so-called 'jet boat' in the style of a personal watercraft and at a much more reasonable price. I liked the scale-realistic look of the product and it is quite an unusual subject matter so I thought I'd give it a try. There are two versions available, the standard brushed motor variant with a 2-in-1 ESC/receiver (UDI023) and the upgraded 'PRO' variant with 3500KV brushless motor, 80A marine-grade water-cooled ESC and separate waterproof receiver unit. I went for the 'PRO' version as I thought the 30% premium was worth it to get extra performance. Although the manufacturer describes it as a 'jet-drive' boat, it doesn't use a jet pump but has a shaft-driven impeller. It has a 14" hull that works out very close to 1:10 scale. Power comes from a 7.4V 2000mAh Li-ion battery pack. It took a while to arrive from China but I have now had the opportunity to unbox it and look at it in detail. I also found a suitable realistic rider figure and a few days ago, the weather was nice enough to take it out on its maiden run in proper water conditions. For this I chose a fairly shallow river so I would have the chance to recover it if anything went wrong. It was rocky though and quite fast flowing in places after heavy rain so I didn't quite know what to expect. From the off, I was impressed by how the craft handled. It was responsive and had plenty of power. Now I am sure that those of you who are familiar with proper jet boats or high-speed propeller driven boats will find this rather tame but I had a huge amount of fun. It has a top speed of around 20kph and felt reasonably fast for its size. Despite some tight turns, the rider didn't fall off and the craft never capsized. As it can operate in quite shallow water, I am sure it will get a lot of use this summer and all this is at a cost close to 1/10th of a ProBoat Jet Boat! Please check out the video below to see the Inkfish in close-up detail, learn about all its key features, see what real PWC's could have inspired it and then watch it in action on the river. I have also given a summary of good and bad points for anyone considering buying one. https://youtu.be/oyywM79VgNM BlackSeaRC Plus a few images...

Well it looks rather silly to use it without a rider.

Got it wet... Best fun I've had with an RC vehicle for ages!

Unless it is a NIB Tamiya Blazing Blazer of course...

Did the postman cut his finger? 😉

Something a little bit different for my RC collection:

Not forgetting the Unimog models by Tamiya and Carson (but these are 1:10 and 1:12). Another image of the QX-4 on my favourite crawling route...

This is a rebranded RGT Pro Runner, right? The latest RGT products are highly regarded, judging by the reviews.

Maybe change the name from Absima to Abysmal?

A selection of 1:18 and 1:24 scale crawlers from my collection...

I appreciate that someone has tried to produce a new body that isn't a Chevy, Bronco or Wrangler but at the same time, there are some rather strange details on this one. What is with the side mirrors for example?

I even wondered about filling the entire hull cavity with spray foam. Taking the rear cover off made it sit slightly lower at the front but these vehicles always sat low in the water in real life as well.

The way the two halves of the hull go together is not ideal for sealing. Where the axles for the front drive sprocket and rear gear wheel go through the hull there is a bit of a notch where the plastic just overlaps. There is space to fit alternative motors so something more appropriate could be fitted.

I have seen people waterproof these circuit boards by covering them with epoxy resin or something similar but I'm not sure how you would deal with the actual connectors that plug into it. Could even go with the old style Tamiya rubber balloon with a zip tie.

Thought it was about time I got the WPL E-1 properly wet and muddy! Well the real one is supposed to operate in these conditions so I thought it only fair to test this in a scale-realistic manner... BlackSeaRC

"unparalleled performance" 🤣

HSP 94111?

Not sure about the RTR models but the kits that come with pre-assembled axles and gearboxes are not greased (maybe something to do with greases and liquids being banned during shipping). You should take off all the covers and check for grease. My AT4V has performed well so far. Other than having to tighten the slipper clutch it all works to my satisfaction, including the diff-locks and gear change.

That's a tricky one. I assume that you can't find a donor car on ebay with parts that might work? I don't know of any vintage RC car repair specialists but there are people who will restore vintage electronics in general. This one for example that has been on TV and has restored electronics on vintage toys: https://robert-howard.squarespace.com/