TOPIC:

I wasn't looking forward to trying to make new lenses from scratch, but luckily I didn't have to - I found some lenses (made by Fastrax), the large pair are 18mm...

Tamiya "smoke" turned out to be too dark, I put some clear yellow on after, but I really should have mixed it to start with...

Nice find on the lenses. have to get a pair of those for my wheeler.

those gears look like new, nothing compared to the surrounding gearbox.

Love your work Mr Retro, entertaining and informative as usual


Good luck getting the e-clip back on the clutch, I did the same thing 'out of curiosity' and had to lever the gear back on using a metal rod while clamping the shaft in the chuck of a lathe.
Working alone it is not the easiest task, makes you wonder what it would take to get the thing slipping when driving ?

Terragni

They don't, they're just another great Tamiya idea that doesn't work!
I stuffed mine with grease thinking that might help, which it did for 2 turns of the clutch then the comedy strength sprig squeezed it all out & it went back to being non-functional.

Can't say I had any problems putting it back together though (re the circlip)

Thanks for the heads up, terragni ... but TBH I don't anticipate a problem - to undo it I squeezed the spring between thumb & 2 fingers in ohe hand & used a pair of radio pliers in the other... I'm thinking a small vice & an open ended spanner as a spacer would help it go back together

Use yer teef

Had a go at the bumper & holder ...


Drilled 3mm holes each side of the breaks:





... to hold some M2.5 machine screws with the heads cut off:





... after some curing time & a lot of sanding, it's ready for primer:





Holder block is two bits of 3mm styrene, glued together ...






I had planned to buy some styrene rod & machine down for the tubular bits, but the only online supplier I could find wanted 15 GBP postage, regardless of order size ... so the "tubes" started out as squares of styrene sheet glued & (temporarily) screwed together:





Squares were rounded off in my toy lathe ...





... and the insides drilled, dremelled & sanded to size...





... before being glued on:

Wow, very impressed, paint it alloy grey and its an exact replica of mine.
can you make a sketch with dimensions of the bumper, would love to make me a rere of that.

For future, if you want short bits of styrene rod, chop up some sprue, put it in a piece of oversize Tx aerial tube & lob it in the oven to melt. Once it's cool, you can just pop the "slug" of styrene out of the tube. Handy for bunging body holes up with the same colour material if you have any scrap bits to melt.

Some plastic coathangers also make a handy source for ABS rod too

Joining the bumper with studding made me grin - it's exactly what the former owner of my old (1:1) truck did with the windscreen pillars!

Nice job of the bumper holder by the way!