R/C Modz Ful Throttle - Project 2010 Chevrolet Camaro

Tease? Movie Trailer? R/C Modz Garage update??? Yeah. Soon... Very soon.

Introducing the new addition to the R/C Modz Full Throttle fleet. The Project 2010 Camaro has been the highest anticipated project of Spring 2011. Back when HPI Racing finally got licensing for the 2010 Camaro they knew it would be a hit and all Chevy fans would want one. Guess what?? They were right. I wanted this body the second I knew HPI had applied for licensing on this brand of vehicle through General Motors.
Finally shipped to the local hobby store, bought, painted and ready to go. Everyone close to R/C Modz Full Throttle wanted to know what color this project would be. Even what chassis would I use. Everyone had a guess under the sun, along with obvious ones.....
"Paint it like the transformers Camaro.... Yellow with black strips."
or "Paint it like your 69 Camaro and have a new/old kinda thing"
and even "Go jet black with stealth black wheels and tires"

No.

Why?

By trade I am a General Motors technician for Chevrolet. I see/drive a fare amount of the 2010 Camaro. Being at the Chevrolet store I had a good idea what I wanted to paint this project. Being that almost every real life Camaro is the common colors, I knew of one style of Camaro that was out there and not as popular. The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro Synergy Green Special Edition. So, R/C Modz Full Throttle fans... I give you my Synergy Green 2010 Camaro.

Gallery and chassis info coming soon!
(keep watch on http://www.freewebs.com/rcmodz)

_______________________
-(Admin)
R/C Modz Full Throttle
Christopher Oswald

Hook it up, and haul it away! - Axial Racing scx10 scale hitch and trailer

- So i was digging around and doing some research on new products for the summer. I Have to say, I kinda hit a dry spell. UNTIL! I got an email from a friend of mine telling me about a new product for the Axial scale trucks that I have to see. So I checked these guys out, and you have to check this stuff out. A scale trailer and hitch for your scx10 series Axial trucks. How cool is that??
Sure it's kinda weird to some, but the scale guys are soaking this stuff up and paying good money for upgrades and ad on's to there rigs. Face it, if your Axial truck has a scale winch..... You need a scale trailer hitch and trailer.

Check out http://www.ajsmachine.com/ for this and other cool R/C goodies.

_______________________
-(Admin)
R/C Modz Full Throttle
Christopher Oswald

USVTA Vintage R/C Racing - Getting more popular

What can I say, The Vintage Trans Am Class. What a interesting racing class. If you are new, or like myself and just returning to the track after a little while and kinda rusty on the carpet, this is the class for you. It's a little slower than touring sedan and has a few variations on the rules for car specifications. Such as body type, and what motor and battery combination's your allowed to run. It also is required you run a vintage type style rim and tire by such like HPI Racing. This past weekend at my local track was the 2011 Mid-Canada R/C Auto Racing Cabin Fever Event. It was a 3 days event full of all class's including the Vintage Trans Am Class. The turn out was great, and after seeing the class a couple weeks back, I knew I had to run in the Trans Am class for this event. I finished mid-field in the main and I was very humble to the fact that this was my first "Trans Am" race. Trust me, if you don't have this class at your local track you should sign up for it. I met fellow driver's in the class experienced and new. We all had a blast because the lap times and space between us was so close, it really boiled down to driving skill. It's an all around perfect scale appeal for on-road racing. You have to give it a try.

_______________________
-(Admin)
R/C Modz Full Throttle
Christopher Oswald

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! What better way to bring in the new year than with a NEW RELEASE from Traxxas!!!

Traxxas, the Official Hobby Class Radio Control Truck of Monster Jam, is proud to announce the release of two exciting Monster Jam models: the legendary Grave Digger, and the Advance Auto Parts Grinder! Fully assembled and Ready-to-Race, the 1/10 scale Grave Digger and Grinder models feature pre-applied decals with officially licensed graphics to precisely duplicate the full-size monster machines. Grave Digger even includes custom molded green ladder bars and bumpers to capture the menacing look of Monster Jam's fiercest competitor. New tires developed specifically for the Monster Jam models emulate the "hand carved" look of the full-size treads, and new deep-dish wheels with bead-lock detailing complete the aggressive, authentic look.
Traxxas, you have out done yourself again. This is a great RTR for new people in the hobby, and if you have kids they are gonna LOVE these trucks. I've had my Traxxas Stampede for 10 years and it's still going! Who else do you know in the indusrty that supports there product like Traxxas, NO ONE! Thats why they ARE the "Fastest Name in Radio Control!"

Want more on these trucks? CLICK HERE

Peeling the paint off....... (Part 2)

-After letting the body sit over night, about 24 hours. I am ready to remove the cloth around the body.


- Seen here as I pull off the cloth film the paint literally comes off it like a skin. this reduces a fare amount of work getting rid of the paint off the surface, instead of sanding everything.


-Using a course sponge I "wash" the body and help peel more of the paint off by using a little effort and making sure I can scrub everything I can before I neutralize the brake fluid on the surface.


- Once i'm happy with all the scrubbing I can do and remove all the paint I can, it's time to rinse off the body. I used Hot water and gave the body and nice hot rinse.


- I have added a step here, to make sure the paint and primer stick to the body, you have to neutralize the brake fluid and the chemical reaction that has been occurring. By using a mild degrease soap with hot water this will remove all the residue from the brake fluid and get the body clean enough for paint preparation. I would take your time here because the more you clean, the better outcome your going to get.


- As you can see, this method of paint removal is fairly easy and less "effort" than just dry sanding an entire body and re-priming and painting. However, even in this stage I have used some sand paper to grab the areas the brake fluid didn't. This isn't a big deal, because it really didn't take long to scuff up the un-treated areas.


- Once this is done, I'm ready to prep the body for primer and paint.


- I wasn't sure at first if this was going to work, but like I said I did a lot of research and asked the right people (even the people that make the brake fluid I used) and asked the right questions and was happy with the answers.
It's honestly worth trying with your next hard body. Always do this with a test area first and see for yourself. Now instead of spending all my nights this week sanding, filling pits and scratches here and there.... I have the body down to the bare bone and I can already take primer to it.

I will be posting pictures later on of the body completed in the "primer" stage. BUT remember R/C Modz Fans, I still need your help! I need paint scheme ideas. So, submit me your thoughts and paint ideas. If I use it and feature it on my blog you get a FREE R/C Modz Full Throttle fridge magnet! Why not right???

_______________________
-(Admin)
R/C Modz Full Throttle
Christopher Oswald

Peeling the paint off.......

Back in around March of just last year (2009) I was able to finally purchase my own Tamiya Toyota Highlift Hilux. All up until now I have had the original paint job. Treated the truck pretty good, had some good fun runs with it. While the truck itself has proven to be tough and a great project to work on, the body has been neglected. It was my goal for over the winter to re do the body.

Here is what it looked like when I first painted it.



Ok, so I did a brown copper late 80's type of color attempt. I think I did it pretty good, but as time has shown even with great automotive paint techniques and finish, the body has seen better days. So the "Project Hilux Re-Born" has started.


Here is a step by step progress report on how I went about re-painting this body.

READ EVERYTHING CAREFULLY!!!
Don't just look at the pictures ;)

I have done a large amount of research and asked around on this topic. What I'm about to show you I will admit I was skeptical of this method.
So I thought I would try it after carefully investigating the results of fellow colleges and read all the information necessary for positive results.

I have re-painted countless hard bodies, My clod buster body on my TLT is a good example. I have sanded and primed that thing to death. I have even stripped it down using spray oven cleaner. This was fairly harsh and caused a risk of high odor and needed to be outside and in well ventilated area. Plus I had to soak the body down in cleaner a few times for good saturation. I really wanted to find another way of removing the paint. I have spent hundreds of hours sanding these bodies as well, and this is effective it takes forever and still doesn't always go "smoothly".

I have heard of guys using automotive brake fluid to strip hard plastic bodies. I was skeptical so I did some research and perfected a way for this method of paint removal on hard tamiya plastic bodies. I know personally from personal experience in the automotive industry that having brake fluid on your paint job will eat your clear coat and wreck your paint. So this method did sound like it could work.

Here is how it goes.

PART 1:


- I have a clean area to work in, with newspaper down on my work surface (just in case) and I'm using a plastic tub style container to do the body. I didn't have one big enough to do the whole body, so I'm doing it in sections. The hilux body really only comes in two big pieces so this didn't take long.


- The research I did has the "whole" body soaking in a pail of brake fluid. I don't think that this is necessary so I have used this woven pocket type thin cloth. I picked it out of some warehouse box packing at work.


- I placed the rear of the body inside the cloth pocket and tucked in the extra parts under the body. placed it inside the tub container.


- Adding the automotive brake fluid (Dot 3 works best) to the situation only adding enough to help create a small "pool" under the body to sit in.


- Using a clean paint brush I "coated" the outer cloth and saturated the cloth all around the body. Keeping the cloth "wet" will keep the brake fluid on the surface of the body.


- Let this soak over night, and for at least 24 hours. By the next day around the same time you started you will be able to peel off the cloth and the magic happens.


PART 2:

To see what happens next STAY TUNED and see the step-by-step results for yourself.
I'll show you what to do after the soak, and how to treat the body after it's bath and how to clean the body up after. The truck bed is soaking now, so in the day or two I will post what happens after the soaking procedure.



Here is what I had just before writing this article:



*Disclaimer: I have been told that the brake fluid will make the body more brittle and cause it to fracture. I DO NOT see, or feel this anywhere on the body. It feels just as it did the day I took it out of the box, however I could see this on OLDER tamiya bodies, in which case it's probably brittle and fragile anyway and you just have to use caution when treating any old hard Tamiya body. In this case, I inspected the body closely and found no reason not to pass this method along. I wouldn't tell you to do it if I didn't do it myself, and didn't think it would work.




I was skeptical, but I have tried it for myself and results are very pleasing.


R/C Modz Full Throttle Fans!:
I hope you enjoyed this article, and now I need your help R/C Modz Fans!
I want you to submit me YOUR, yes I said YOUR paint ideas. I've searched around the net and just can't decide what to paint it next. So, here is where you can help me out. If I choose YOUR paint idea and feature it here on my Blog you will receive a FREE R/C Modz fridge magnet! So come on, I've been told once advice and thoughts have been worth two cents in the past, so why not get something free for it!


Submit your ideas here!!!

_______________________
-(Admin)
R/C Modz Full Throttle
Christopher Oswald

Tamiya TT-01 makes a come back.

In the middle of waiting on HPI Racing to come out with the clear 2010 Camaro body, I figured I'd get back into the swing of things (as far as body painting goes) and do up a nice original corvette body. I chose the GM Performance racing theme. Decals courtesy of GM Canada. I also had some nice Parma racing decals around. This is my first attempt at a racing checker flag design. I don't think I did to bad for masking off each checker. (lol) The chassis is my Tamiya TT-01. I've done some chassis and suspension upgrades, along with a metal center drive shaft upgrade. Making this my TT-01 Race Spec. Shown here and on the website with the new Dynamite Racing slicks and radial rubber, I did however build the car to spec for carpet racing. Foam tires (not shown) will be used for this years carpet season. I'm running a 75mhz Futaba radio and receiver for now. I will be upgrading to 2.4 shortly. The motor is a Stock Epic armature with modified brushes and springs. Powering it will be my Novak Duster II ESC. I know, a little old but still works great and doesn't have reverse. We all now reverse is illegal in racing, and well... My finger has slipped a time or two before the track marshal has been able to grab me. :)