TOPIC:

I'll be using this space to document two 58124 Super Hornets. It started with one that I stumbled across on the Bay. It basically looks mint and unused, but has the wrong wheels and the body has decal livery of the original Hornet. Luckily it has the right tires, and as much as it will pain me, I'll likely remove the Hornet decals and paint and decal it using Super Hornet repro MCI decals.

As it arrived:

 

 

 

I was happy to notice it came with a period correct RS-540 SPORT TUNED Black motor:

 

Then came the issue of wheels - IYKYK. Front orange wheels seem to be somewhat obtainable at ~$50, but very short supply. Rear orange wheels are unobtainium presently, and I can't imagine what a set would go for. So I set out to find a close match. With some helpful direction here, I went ahead and ordered some orange wheels from JC Racing Products (Wild one / Fox 2wd style, but 2.2" front and rear). Then I found and ordered what I thought would be suitable tires. None of these items have shown up yet, so pics will come later.

So as I was performing my now daily scouring for anything Super Hornet, I came across a more used one for sale . . . and it had the correct wheels! I believe it was a bargain, and in the end I'll have a second model project that I may decide to offer up for sale when completed. We'll see, because I seem to be really great at buying things but not so much at selling things. My immediate plan is to swap the correct orange wheels over to Super Hornet 1, and mount the correct mint tires on them. 

Here's Super Hornet 2 as it arrived:

 

Super Hornet 2 - Complete teardown using the manual as a guide to see if there was missing parts/hardware as I move backwards through it. There were quite a few hardware items the incorrect length installed, and just a few things missing but nothing major. The most interesting thing I found was a misaligned pinion and barely any grease present on the gears! In fact, most look completely dry. The teeth look great though, with very little if any wear.

 

 

 

 

The most amusing thing was what I discovered while adding batteries to test the electronics. No wonder this was sold as untested, because someone really screwed up on the connections! The throttle servo was connected to steering, the steering servo connected to throttle and the BEC bi-passed the switch and was plugged directly to the battery! Thankfully I had the wheels off for testing, because everything defaulted to an always on position with the MSC on full forward, LOL. I sorted it all out and the test went well, then snapped this pic of the running gear that was included:

 

A blue sanwa rc from late saber  and saber x

stingray-63 wrote:

A blue sanwa rc from late saber  and saber x

I didn't know what you were referring to, then researched a bit. So, is the Airtronics and the Sanwa made by the same company? They certainly look the same, even the remote. Is there anything particularly good or bad about them? Thanks for letting me pick your brain!

The sanwa aristocraft dash saber , had 2 versions. The first one black receiver  has the sanwa pinout and the second version has the common pinout like futaba for servos.  Early sanwa pinout is + on the outside of the connector

stingray-63 wrote:

The sanwa aristocraft dash saber , had 2 versions. The first one black receiver  has the sanwa pinout and the second version has the common pinout like futaba for servos.  Early sanwa pinout is + on the outside of the connector

 OK, so now it makes sense with Airtronics: en.wikipedia.or...Electronic