Just Between You, Me, and the Bingo Card: Life Lessons from the Assisted Living Facility

Handled it as carefully as possible, washed hands, but had things in and out so many times, the paint is starting to wear.
Needed to see it move under it's own power and was tired of thinking of the "best possible way" to have a clean install. There ain't much room and I was unwilling to start cutting wires that I might want later.
Ended up removing the on/off switch, it was just too much trouble to deal with, and the case, the extra space was worth it.
Foams were included for the tires, left them out. It's simply not heavy enough to need them. Tires are very soft and supple, they squish nice over bumps.



"soft white" is way too bright, will change those to a colored light for effect only. Should have gone with purple.

and the legit college look of moving into a dorm is how the batteries sit for now.
I think they will fit inside with a little rearranging and cursing.

 

Ended up losing the balance wires, that was a huge help. It didn't need them for it's first charge in a decade, so should be ok.
Left the RX floating inside the cage. That also was a huge help being able to slide it around as batteries were placed and made it easier to plug stuff in by sliding it to a window.
With all the cabling in there, it sits fine and doesn't rattle or really move at all.
I'll redo the LED's tomorrow.


It wheels great!
300 rpm seemed a little slow at first, but now it seems perfect for it's size and may keep it alive longer. I ran it up the same course that the Mini Z runs and it did it with ease, going thru areas that the Z struggled with.
I'll get a video after the lights are in.
That being said, 500 rpm might be what it needs for both crawling and a booster for getting over the harder stuff.
Screw the paint. No longer worried about it. Maybe I'll get another cage and try again, but not until they go on sale in another year. Prolly go with black next time.

 

Went with purple UV LED's. They have a very weird effect on the camera. More than bright enough to see and reflect but doesn't blind the eye when seen head on.
It does have a tail light provision, but they are the tiny square units. So these are mainly for effect.


Will prolly disassemble the body and try again with the paint. It's not that bad now that I've done it a few times. Smaller 100-150mah batteries would make a big difference on the look as well since they would lay down along the side.
Weighs in at 85 grams.

 

That red coming off wasn't working out.


New model time, after all it's Christmas, almost.
Started with the X01, now for the X02.
2 wheel drive trophy truck. This will have the 3000rpm motor in it.

This will stay unpainted!

The bags are labeled much more clearly and are zip locked, so that's cool. I'll be moving the leftover screws from the previous build to these bags.

And tiny stickers. LEGO stickers are bad enough to place square on a brick, these are gonna take about a half hour each.

Kit also requires CA glue, those parts are clearly labeled, and another type of glue, wasn't specific, just said glue, for other parts. I'll try PVA to start and see how that holds up.

 

slow progress on this one. A little fine sanding, and tiny metal parts.
Radiator 7 pieces and blades move.

Tiny stickers. They actually went on quite easy.
I deduced that "glue" simply means apply CA with a toothpick.

and the body panels.
This one requires drilling of all the holes. They left a divot for a starting point.

Appointment this morning to get new glasses....

 

What a way to kill an afternoon.
That little black washer/shim, there are 8 of them, they go between the upper and lower control arms and are captured by a tiny rod. 4 of them are easy, the others are not.

Managed to drop one, but found it after the install. You get 2 extra's.

Anti roll bars front and rear.


This kit is way more involved than the buggy was.

 

Front suspension is complete. 4 hours of assembly. Managed to yeet a half finished ball link assembly across the room. That took a minute to find.

Motor and transmission are installed.
The lectronics are supposed to sit in the seats.

Much more acreage to work with, will still decase the RX. The battery looks like it might be at home there in the rear. I think that space gets closed off with spare tires and stuff, so either it lives there permanently or it gets stuffed in the front seat, and lives there permanently. I'll have to play with that and see where the best balance is for it. I do believe the spares are bungied in place, so that may be the spot.

 

I changed my mind as I often do and placed the RX in the rear. The entire case fit like it was made for it, but no room to plug in. I removed the bottom half of the case, taped it up and it fit perfect.


Horrible light, taken from the rear, the servo plug under the framework

And the motor plug under the radiator.\
This also centered the power lead at the back of the cab.

First time on it's wheels with the weight on it.
The front was sadly almost bottomed out, while the rear was well sprung.

It came with four spacers and took all of them to bring the front up.
I actually checked to make sure I didn't get the front and rear springs mixed up it was so soft. I got them right. It got better after a couple more things were added to the rear.

Split the batteries again, this time the 380mah fit perfectly, one cell per side directly on the floor. And I retained the balance wire this time.

 

First time with all farkles applied. I think it sits about right.

Front sits at just above half way on the travel.

Rear had a slight sag with lots of down travel.
Legit bungie cords, gas can snaps in.

Extinguishers and a sled for winter fun.


With a bit of wire management, I might be able to print up a pair of helmets and give it a driver and navigator.

 

More pics in better light. Painted the helmets, reamed the body holes a bit and added the rubber grommets. First time I tried, I swear I was gonna tear up the body trying to remove it. Little bigger diameter and some light grease and it pops on and off ok.

After building this one, I can see the what Orlandoo Hunter RC kits are all about. They are a cross between a scale plastic glue and paint model, and a RC kit. Functional, but not really intended for rough use, and some of the other kits have hard body's, so the realism is up to you. They have options for lights and sound.

Between the rock bouncer and the trophy truck, the bouncer can actually be ran and played with on any table surface, or in my case the floor course of stacked DVD's. It crawls like an ant.
The trophy truck has been great as a drift truck on the kitchen floor, some minor jumps on the carpet. I would never think of running it in the rough outside or catching mad air.
It has ZERO shock damping, no after market stuff except bling shocks, that can't be seen anyway. So no mods for this except maybe wheel and tire bling.

I have the Tundra up next, that has a lot of parts trees that need sanded, painted, glued.
It has even smaller diameter wheels, so I wouldn't expect this one to be a competitive rock crawler, more of a shelf queen that runs. There is a tandem axle RV trailer kit that Orlandoo offers that hitches to the Tundra, so you can practice backing up and parking.
I think I'll be getting the OH32M01 after the Tundra build.

 

Wouldn't it be easier to just flip it over and change the tire?

 

no seatbelts, the little people would fall out

 

No heavy lifting for a few months, so no.

 

You still laid up?
When will you be able to tour the nice assisted living facilities in your area?

 

A little bit. The swelling is just about gone, still have a weird lump that shouldn't be there.
My generation is going to rock the assisted living facilities, make no mistake about that. Prolly have weekly keggers.

 

It was about time for a title update anyways.