New to Hobby, just bought an AXIAL SCX10 Unlimited Rubicon KIT

Some of you may have seen me a year back before @ "23 Sep 2012 - 0900hrs - Rock Crawling at Little Guilin" site with my sort of pathetic custom Red LEGO crawler.
Finally got enough money to make the first step !  Towerhobbies has a massive discount right now. I saved a total of 100sgd using the current NOV discount coupon + the KIT's discount period.  Ends on 10 Nov.

I'm not totally new to RC, this is just my first full fledged RC car. I have planes, and helis, quadcopters.etc.  This would most likely be my only car, and I want it to be a universal machine, mild Bashing, Trail and Crawling.  Currently I bought a 27T Axial motor, and i'm fitting it with a Futaba MC230CR Esc and Futaba Standard Servo I have laying around at home.
Also bought a Axial 14T Pinion in case I find the 27T too fast for crawling.

I have plenty of Lipos around that I will be using, they are softpacks without the hardcase and can go up to about 40Amps safely. I don't use them for my planes anymore, as they have lost their punch.

Questions

I need to find Grease to waterproof my Axles. What kind of grease do you guys use and where to get it, and how much do you pack them with ?
Waterproofing my Servo with dielectric grease, where to get it.
I plan to run it on 2sLipo but can my 27T Axial Run on 12.6 Volts, 3s Lipo?
All other stuff that you guys stock up on for maintanence of the SCX10.

Thanks !

Congrats on your purchase!

The "Marine grease" sold at RCS (http://radiocontrol-sports.com/) is quite decent for protecting axles and other parts. A tube lasts for a long time.
Two hints: do use the included grease for the bevel gears. It is thicker than the marine grease and will ensure they don't wear excessively. Furthermore, the axles will have four open screw holes after assembly. Use a short 3mm screw to seal them, otherwise all the greasing is useless.

Re servo: A standard Futaba servo may not be strong enough and may fail with broken plastic gears when you trail. Most people run metal gear servos, like Blue Bird 621MG or stronger.
If the servo gears get wet, that is not much of an issue. The electronics are usually quite well sealed through the plastic alone (good enough to drive through puddles, but not submarine-sealed of course). The potentiometer that goes from the gearbox to the electronics side may be a weak spot, as rusting of the motor. But not much can be done about it. Personally I would just take the servo apart, put a bit of marine grease at all joints, and use it until it fails.
Side note: in my junk box there is a "waterproof" Hitec servo that died after a while due to moisture from trail usage. So much for "waterproof".

The MC230CR will work, but is far from ideal for an SCX10 with 27T. It only has 1.5kHz switching frequency, which means the motor will not deliver a lot of low-end torque for crawling. If you have some money left I recommend the HobbyKing X-Car 45A Brushed Car ESC for USD 11. It uses 8 kHz, similar to the 7 kHz that the Axial AE-2 in the RTR uses. Makes for a butter-smooth low-speed driving experience! Note: it is not waterproof though! (but neither is the MC230CR!)
The HobbyKing also has a 2A BEC, which will be able to deal with high torque metal gear servos, the MC230CR may not.

Most low-end brushed ESC can only handle up to 2S, they will fail on 3S as the components are not rated for the high voltage.

Maintenance: lots of old clothes, old toothbrushes, and large bottles of dish washing detergent for cleaning. Thats it.
Not sure if the Rubicon uses 3-link or 4-link suspension at the rear. 4-link is much better, 3-link will fail at some point due to its weak design.
Don't fall into the trap of "upgrades". Enjoy your truck and fix if something breaks -- which is unlikely as they are awesome, strong vehicles.

Enjoy and post build photos; and join us soon on the trails!

Hey, were you there on 23rd Sept 2012 at Guilin ? I think you were.

This Marine grease ?
http://radiocontrol-sports.com/marine-grease-5-oz.html

Well I got the 27T Axial motor just to get a rough motor baseline and to obtain the rpm per volt rating for my Brushless Kv rating.  I plan on going brushless sensored in the future.  All along I thought brushed systems were just + & - points to make it run, didn't expect it to have Frequency ratings too, this is interesting.

Found the HobbyKing X-Car 45A Brushed Car ESC you mentioned.  I am a platinium member of hobbyking and I can get it @ USD 7.35 with buddy code. Hmm, the 230cr's BEC is okay i think, judging from the previous run on the Lego Crawler with 2 Standard Servos, got a 5A BEC lying around ready to use though.

The KIT does come with 4Links for Rear, Alu Shocks & Links.  

The other thing I wanted to ask was, what spare parts do you get ? Specifically the gears, and how in/frequently to replace them. I bought an extra 87t spur in my first purchase already.
I will not fall into buying upgrades, I have fiberglass, carbon fiber and epoxy I can use to bullet proof everything except for the drive train. Plenty of RC Plane Scratchbuilding experience under my belt.

Heck, if all else fails I can attach a Quadcopter to make my SCX10 FLY !! Confirm can climb mt Everest.

Yep, the link is the right marine grease.

You may want to reconsider going brushless in the SCX10. From what I've seen brushed performs much better for trailing, as it has better low-speed performance. I'd rather get a good rebuildable brushed motor with stand-up brushes.

No need for any spare parts. Our Dingo is now about 1.5 years old, has seen plenty of trails and so far we had to fix the 3-link rear, deal with a bent drive shaft (user error), replace the shocks as the plastic ones started to leak, and change the cheap closed-can motor recently as it was used up and messy inside from all the mud. The bearings at the wheel side will have to be replaced soon.
Other than that it just needed cleaning.

Looks like whatever you've upgraded on the dingo are already done on my rubicon kit, good to know ! Since that's the case then I just need to concentrate on decorating it.

Would be a week or so more before the kit arrives. Until then, I'm looking for a paint scheme and paint.

Join in the fun when your jeep is ready!

Ezekiel Freshmen wrote:Until then, I'm looking for a paint scheme and paint.

I assume you are aware that you need paint suitable for "polycarbonate" for the Lexan shell. Tamiya PS series is great.
Murmeisha (available at JetHobby) is cheaper and comes in a larger bottle; but someone on this forum had this paint peel off after a short while. I myself had no trouble with it though.

I actually plan on using waterbased paint I bought from Daiso, have been using it on my planes with success. It does't eat any foam so polycarbonate plastic would be no issue too. It comes in 150ml tins I think, @ $2 each. I've flown my planes through light rain and washed them with a hose before, no paint runoffs. When dried, it has a rubbery elastic consistency and is resistant to cracks.

I just have to use a brush instead of spraying, not the best of paints but if it turns out well we may have a new alternative, plenty of colours to mix around too.

Ezekiel Freshmen wrote:I actually plan on using waterbased paint I bought from Daiso, have been using it on my planes with success.  It does't eat any foam so polycarbonate plastic would be no issue too.  It comes in 150ml tins I think, @ $2 each. I've flown my planes through light rain and washed them with a hose before, no paint runoffs.  When dried, it has a rubbery elastic consistency and is resistant to cracks.

I just have to use a brush instead of spraying, not the best of paints but if it turns out well we may have a new alternative, plenty of colours to mix around too.

Unless the planes you've painted are made of lexan, you should use PS paint for your truck. You need paint that is specially formulated to stick/bond to the smooth lexan surface and more importantly able to flex with the lexan. Spraying is best too. If you use a brush, it's going to be messy and full of streaks. If you want that even tone, spray.

What do you think of this paint scheme ?

...

I want my end product to be similar to its 1:1 counterpart on the right.
Currently the left side is photoshop-ed, not the real deal yet.

My plan is to paint the inside and sand the outside with high grit sandpaper to give the matte/flat look.

If you want a flat finish on a Lexan body, Tamiya offers PS55 "Flat Clear" that you can apply on the outside. Looks great, see my Tamiya Datsun 240Z Rally (https://sgcrawlers.forumotion.com/t1741-paint-work-in-progress)

UltimateRC also has a video with various techniques:

Running on a tight budget here actually, I want to do as much DIY without spending extra money.

Has anyone tried using kiwi for your car, the same kiwi used for your boots ?
Black, Brown, White.. could give the matte finish too on a budget.

Very innovative thread....
Do update us on the results!

boolean21 wrote:Very innovative thread....
Do update us on the results!

The Kit has arrived but I can only start assembling it from 22nd December onwards.
Serving NSF in Brunei currently. Till then, i'm going to run through as many ideas as possible as I only have 1 attempt at it. Give it a thorough thought process and rehearse the steps taken before I start assembling.

My priority is to be as cheap ans resourceful as possible

Here's my current lists of Ideas and Mods i'm installing.

Primary mods:
A Turnigy 3 Channel Servo Speed/Direction Regulator to help with throttle control, to give it more scale engine control.
In theory the car will never "instant top speed" or "instant brake" which helps prevent throttle mishaps. I can even allow it to coast a little if I set the "return to neutral" dial all the way up.  http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=8863

-Likely be using my 7ch JR Tx for this car.
-Controllable headlights, perhaps a HORN too.
-Signal themed car, with antennas on 4 corners of the JEEP.
-More Droop than Sprung on the shocks, helps with keeping wheels grounded.
-Kiwi on the side of the tires to give it more non shiny scale tire look.

Secondary mods:
-A retractable/detactable towbar at the rear to pull my planes on the runway

Ezekiel Freshmen wrote:Running on a tight budget here actually, I want to do as much DIY without spending extra money.

Has anyone tried using kiwi for your car, the same kiwi used for your boots ?
Black, Brown, White.. could give the matte finish too on a budget.

So you are buying a multi-100-$ car and then try to save SGD 8.80 on a spray can (apologies for the sarcasm, European blood... I am actually concerned that you may ruin your nice car by being cheap in the wrong places)

Regarding "servo slow down": I can't imagine that this will work well on the trail. There are sometimes situations were you *do need* full throttle instantly, e.g. to prevent the car flipping over. For normal "scale" driving your hands are doing a good enough job of keeping it smooth. And that thing will also not help you if you are using an ESC with low frequency PWM as discussed earlier.
And: doesn't your JR transmitter have a function to slow down movement anyway?

Antennas: certainly nice, but think about transport as well; i.e make them detachable, yet secure enough they don't get lost in the first bush. (Spoken by the man who lost the antenna on his XR311 during the first outing )

General though about electronic: If you want to do serious trailing with the truck, with mud and water and all that fun, do not put too many electronics components in the truck. The simpler it is, the more robust it will be. And with all that dirt and humidity electro-mechanical components do degrade quickly.

laneboysrc wrote:So you are buying a multi-100-$ car and then try to save SGD 8.80 on a spray can

Touché, touché. haha, how much do the Mumeisha spray paint from Jethobby cost ? it isn't stated on the product page. Is it 8.80 sgd ?
http://www.jethobby.com.sg/cgi-bin/ezsite/prod/manager.cgi?action=show&pid=2418&cid=197&idx=1&gid=39

You're right, paint isn't really the place I should skimp on. Last thing I want is to be frustrated from a bad paint job. Plenty of other "under the hood" places I can work my magic on, but I'm still kiwi-ing my tires though.

Sadly my JR is the old model, doesn't have many fancy functions as the recent models. With this car I plan on mainly Bashing at my woodlands flying site followed by, Crawling, Dry Trailing, Beach driving, and only when I am completely confident I go Mudding.

The Mumeisha paints at JetHobby are SGD 6.50. The cans are larger than Tamiya too.

But as stated earlier we had one member where the Mumeisha paint did not work (fell off in large junks during the first run). I used the Gun Metal and Black with no issue on some of our cars.
So to be safe Tamiya is the way to go. Around Christmas Stargek has usually 20% discount too.

By any chance he didn't prepare the surface well enough ? washing the insides with soap and light sanding a bit ?

Where's Stargek ? The only place I know that sells Tamiya paints is KiddyPalace.

The Tamiya-Temple in Singapore, named Stargek, is at 178 Paya Lebar Rd, Singapore 409030

How about this colour scheme ?
Murmeisha's colour palette, Copper and White.


It has that antique 70's car feel to it. Add a bit of dirt and rust and it might turn out fine !