TOPIC:

Hello,

Few weeks back, the postman delivered 3 parcels, among which there was two Marui rare cars: a Ninja, and a Shogun (from two different origins). It is quite exceptional get a Shogun, but to get a Shogun and a Ninja the same day is probably even more nowadays... Specially considering that there was also a Samurai in very nice shape in the last parcel of that day...


The Ninja chassis is in good shape, with its bumper and all the elements that comes with it. The body shell will require a replacement. And I have already some multipurpose driver figures from The Optima House to complete it so its good.
The rear transmission seemed to be locked but upon inspection, it seems that there was an mistake made to rebuilt it and a long screws on the shaft cover instead of a short one was the cause of this. This is sorted. I will still need to do a full tear off to clean it up, but beside that, it looks fine.

For the Shogun, the situation is more difficult:
- the rear gearbox will require some work.
- Front gearbox is missing the D-Cut bevel gear  which transmit the power from the rear, the central shaft and the joints
- for the wheels, 3 rims are broken (they are extremely rare, probably even more than Samurai ones)
- Driver is missing (but same as for the Ninja, I will have an easy solution). Bumper is missing (it is the same as the Ninja but the color is different), and the battery door is missing as well (as often on those Marui chassis).

I had already a solution for the central shaft and joints.

I'll probably have to model the d-cut bevel gear to complete this.

I did not tear the Shogun yet, but worst case scenario, I have already some small metal bevel gears ready just in case (I had an opportunity to get those, and since I would like to have a Coors as well at some point, that could be useful). Further, if my understanding is correct, the Samurai rear diff is the same as both front and rear diffs used in Ninja/Shogun (and that means the spare diff set from Aristcraft I have could be used as well, but I will have to specifically confirm this in situ).

Yesterday, I decided to get into the operations. And I decided to focus first on the battery door.


It is a simple part. I took the measures and did it in Fusion 360. 15 minutes later, I had this.


And this morning, I test printed my door... Not bad, a quarter of millimeter to review on the locks and that's it (I believe it could work that way, but as it is already difficult to get the battery door out, it's not what I call perfect so I corrected it).



Then, putting all the pictures together in my files (like I do always with my RC cars projects, for which every pictures you see on a thread is before stored in a folder for the pictures of the project, next to the documentation and so on), I discovered there was two version of the battery door. Here is the picture I received from a friend with a Marui T-Bird Coors. There is some ribs added at the rear end, likely to protect the gearbox.

For the small story, I had some discussions recently with a friend with another T-Bird Coors, and that one don't have the ribs. I did further search on internet, and found some pictures with Shogun with the battery door with the ribs... My assumption is that those ribs were added at the time of the introduction of the Shogun (and there was a few months of T-Bord Coors production without them - T-Bird released in August 1987, and Shogun released in December 1987). 

I decided to rework my Battery door design to add ribs (it definitely makes sense to protect the gearbox): I do not have precises measurements for the ribs, so I made them up from the thickness (I had a picture from my friend with the Coors indicating this), proportion and lining up elements with other elements, and the size of the gearbox part it is supposed to protect...


I did the design with MJF/SLS PA12 printing in mind, so it had to respect some thickness rules to be printed anywhere... I'll share the parts on my thingiverse at some point when I will have the final part printed. And while I did start this project officially, that doesn't mean it will run quickly like the others that are on top of the priority list, so don't expect this one to move fast

Thanks

Another part modeled... The bumper


I may want to print the side that attach to the chassis to check my measurements, but they are normally pretty much straight forward to measure, so little level of risk.

One parcel which I was waiting for some time arrived today from Sweden... It took much longer than usual, and the tracking of the parcel still show it under transportation in France at Sweden side and under preparation at sender on French tracking side... I had some fear each time I opened the tracking. My wife did receive the package today and she did not told me, so I was surprised to find it when back form the office...

It was within a bigger box, but inside there was a nice box


And inside the box, an incomplete car (missing wheels and central shaft, and maybe other details). And there was a lot of goodies, which should allow me to complete 3 cars (at the exception of the wheels).


The plan was for this Coors to be a donor chassis for the Shogun. I'll probably missing wheels set and a rear gearbox for the Coors, but now that I have a box, we can say that I have an incomplete Coors to complete

I've ordered a Nylon grey MJF gearbox from OptimaHouse and some pinion covers. That should allow to complete the Shogun chassis.
For the off road wheels, I believe I have solutions for both Shogun and Coors.
For the on road wheels, I'll need to find some foam tires and adapt wheels (not much issue, in fact, I just need to find proper tires)
Last issue : propeller shaft. I have 2 and 3 chassis. Looking at potential alternatives, the Boomerang re-re propeller shaft may do the trick. If someone can give me the exact length, it would help

Put an eye on the ta01 df01 central shaft. It should be more appropriate for the coors imo. I can't see all my rc are in cardboxes.

Just a quick precision, the propeller shaft characteristics are the following :
- wire 2mm based
- length 177mm
- ends are 8mm wide

It seems the TA01/DF01 shaft is about 175-176mm. I've ordered one, we'll see when it arrives.

They are very similar.

Received the shaft on Wednesday, I took pictures, but I was a bit busy working on the Nichimo CAD work to think about reporting it.

There is about 3mm length difference, and the shaft is not as wide as the Marui (this is a detail).


Had a quick check with one of the chassis (Coors, as the Shogun and Ninja are in a box under other boxes)


I believe it is too short. Two options I can think of from there:
1. I would consider cutting it, work out a D-cut at each end, and create a sleeve which would allow to lock the shaft end at the right length with some set screws..
2. use a 2mm wire and bend it to the right dimensions...

Third is to creat an adapator part😁