A new project - Nichimo Spirit FF - The first of a kind

[coxbros1]

Received today a set of Stickers for the Nichimo... Maybe this time I may do a box art (usually, I don't do that, but since the internal are not originals, it may be worth to do it this way ).

Beside this, I unlocked an achievement this week-end : I received my first tip as designer on Thingiverse... And that was a good amount (probably more than what it takes in coffee to feed me while working on a project like the Spirit FF). . I was shocked when I saw the paypal notification

Wow, I bet your gonna be rich!....also, how do u and Dadio know how to do this stuff? Were you born with skills kinda like a boxer is born with the natural talent, I could never do that kind of design work, ever!...nice work by the way

[silvertriple]

Received today a set of Stickers for the Nichimo... Maybe this time I may do a box art (usually, I don't do that, but since the internal are not originals, it may be worth to do it this way ).

Beside this, I unlocked an achievement this week-end : I received my first tip as designer on Thingiverse... And that was a good amount (probably more than what it takes in coffee to feed me while working on a project like the Spirit FF). . I was shocked when I saw the paypal notification

Wow, I bet your gonna be rich!....also, how do u and Dadio know how to do this stuff? Were you born with skills kinda like a boxer is born with the natural talent, I could never do that kind of design work, ever!...nice work by the way

I can't say for @Dadio, but for me, I maybe slightly gifted somehow: back in my engineering studies, I was able to spot missing lines on plans at first sight, and was able to rotate parts in my head to observe them while reading plans and that amazed my teachers. But I did not used this past my engineering studies, and until now, almost never used it. I basically got my 3D printer in may last year, and then opened Tinkercad, and tried Fusion360 (which looked too complex at first for what I was doing). I decided to switch to Fusion360 when started to work on the Samurai wheels early this year...
And when discussing with @optimaforever about my approach of the modeling of the Samurai, he told me clearly I saw things he did not (we may have all a very different approach for doing it). Ultimately, doing a CAD model of something translate both the way you observe it and the skills using the tool, and there is multiple ways to achieve things in CAD (depending of the approach, they may be simple or complex, elegant or dirty, but at the end all the paths leads to Rome ).
Last element : most of the time skills is just matter of trying, trying and trying hard enough. At some point, looking enough time at something, it would flow in naturally...

Rich, maybe not (at least money wise), but enriched by the experience, for sure

[Dadio]

Received today a set of Stickers for the Nichimo... Maybe this time I may do a box art (usually, I don't do that, but since the internal are not originals, it may be worth to do it this way ).

Beside this, I unlocked an achievement this week-end : I received my first tip as designer on Thingiverse... And that was a good amount (probably more than what it takes in coffee to feed me while working on a project like the Spirit FF). . I was shocked when I saw the paypal notification

Wow, I bet your gonna be rich!....also, how do u and Dadio know how to do this stuff? Were you born with skills kinda like a boxer is born with the natural talent, I could never do that kind of design work, ever!...nice work by the way

My feeling is that many/most people have a skill that is as natural to them as breathing but baffles others , I cannot spell for toffee , I can't read faster than I speak , my wife searches the TV listing on screen and it's a blur to me , in short I'm both alphabetically and numerically dyslexic , the maths is most annoying as I hear a number 123 and write it down 132 and I can't see I've done it , I understand math but simply can't express it . The trick in life is to find that thing you do so well and make money from it , I've always had a talent for design and engineering but mostly due to my poor math I could never be able to pursue it as a career so I became a mechanic , it's only now later in life that the CAD software has evolved to a point that it's a sea that my mind can swim in , it's like a mind bomb going off , I can't begin to think how different my life could have been if I was a child now .

[silvertriple]

Yesterday before going to bed, I designed a last part for this car (ok, maybe it won't be the last one, I don't know )


And I printed it this morning, just before going to the office...


Next steps:
- stickers (not my favorite stuff)
- spot lights, led holder and leds installation

[silvertriple]

I solved the Samurai shocks o-ring issue with some the 3mm red o-rings I raided in my son's Super(hot)Shot quicker than I thought, so there was plenty of time left to do something else...

Had a driver body and head sitting on my desk for a while. it was initially intended as a potential backup plan for the Hunter, and it was already painted. He was looking at me hopeful I would find him a car since months ... I think I painted it in May or June last year. I thought it was time to give him a wheel

Took my dremel to adapt his body to the upper chassis, and he now found a seat




I procrastinated for the stickers and leds... I may need some time to enter the mood to deal with those...

[Dadio]

Looks awesome and you got the wheels dirty too ! Driving them's a big part of it for me

[silvertriple]

At this stage, it was only used on asphalt at my parents place... And there was no compressor to do the quick cleaning there, so the dust is still on the wheels
But soon I will do some runs on offroad track. I still have doubt on Nylon being the right material for the suspension cups and the servo saver... And for me as well, running them is part of it. I can't conceive a car being a shelf queen only, which is the reason there is electronics in all my cars...

[silvertriple]

After my workday, I put the stickers on the wing, the roof and the body shell....





I still need to take care of the leds and maybe I should change the battery connector (all my batteries are with XT60 connectors)...

[Dadio]

The longer I'm on this forum the more I lean towards a period battery connector , I used to use Dean's for my motors and battery's but I'm moving back to bullet connectors for motors and rethinking Dean's for battery's as well , a few years ago I would have just wanted the most efficient .

[silvertriple]

The longer I'm on this forum the more I lean towards a period battery connector , I used to use Dean's for my motors and battery's but I'm moving back to bullet connectors for motors and rethinking Dean's for battery's as well , a few years ago I would have just wanted the most efficient .

Well, I choose XT60 purposely. It is easy to deal with, easy to solder, easy to unplug, and I also have other elements using those. I'm doing R/C for leisure and not for racing, and bullet connector is risky business with polarity... And the only thing I know from the past is that the Tamiya connector is just prone to fail .
But I understand people willing to go full eighties period correct... But when seing some of the cars on Vintage event with MSC and old good radio, I can't help thinking to one of my neighbour setting his brand new car with a new radio and using the batteries he found home to finish its run after 3 minutes in the lake near the run area... The receiver did not survive, neither any of the servos... At the end, it's a valid choice, I could do it as well, but I prefer to rely on modern stuff (except some servos which I tested and are working I'll reuse in some cars).

[silvertriple]

As usual, LEDs connection takes time... But it's done. I did plan to change the battery connector, but the parcel with additional XT60 connector did not arrived as per plan. That will be for later.






Beside this, I may need to print some suspension cups in PLA: I have doubts on the Nylon printed SLS ones (Nylon maybe too flexible for this)...

[Dadio]

PLA will work for the cups , this is looking really good , never realised how steeply angled the rear wing was

[silvertriple]

PLA will work for the cups , this is looking really good , never realised how steeply angled the rear wing was

Yeah, it's really angled... And it's a funky and totally useless wing. But I could see a reason they thought it could be usefull. The weight balance is clearly on the front side... I need to check but exact balance, but the front is really plunging when you take the car at the center... Maybe they thought it would help to push the rear down when jumping , but weight balance is what it is, and i'm still 100% sure the wing is useless

[Dadio]

Hmmm yes jumping is going to be very odd compared to a rear of 4wd car and you can't really take any weight off the front as it needs it over the driven wheels

[silvertriple]

Yeah, exactly... We'll try not to jump too far

Suspension cups are going to be a nightmare. With Nylon, the pillow ball are poping out too easily to my taste. They use the same principle as the Samurai (2 symmetric parts around the pillow ball locked by a third one), the only thing is that they are no way as big to get them kept together by the material adhesion as there might not be enough material for this...

I found an interim plan until I find a better solution : Suspension arms allow to put a plastic collar to join both arms without interfering with the dogbone. It is like the suspension arms were designed with this in mind