Hirobo 44Bs and Zerda :)

[silvertriple]

The work I did yesterday for the 44B Racing Baja bodyshell made me think a lot last night: the LWB chassis has a lot of options in terms of bodyshells... For the SWB, there is not much... We could eventually rely on a a M chassis body for 210MM wheelbase, but the winch would not work with it... Had to find one bodyshell that works with... And I started to love this Hilux bodyshell. Unfortunately, no reproduction available

Over the last months I spend so much time trying to get a bodyshell mould done for the Midships of Bormac... Still trying, but I have thought about a lot of things. The Hilux bodyshell have some complex stuff, but I should be able to do something for it...

I took a copy of my work to make the virtual bodyshell, got it back before the shell application. If I do a mould, there is no need for the shell. I first applied some fillets and the details on the bonnet...


Then started to apply details (all before the mirror is applied)...


And some details again until I was happy with it...


Here is what it should look like with the accessories



Now, only thing left to do is to find one being able to print and vacuform this bodyshell...

[silvertriple]

Woke up this morning and noticed I missed 2 details on the bodyshell

Opened Fusion 360, and added them



The wheelbase is about 210 mm, so it would work as well for a M chassis. Do you think it makes sense to start discussion with bodyshell makers?

[silvertriple]

And on the chassis (it's not shelled, but at least it represents the end result)...

[silvertriple]

This morning, I got new updates on the ongoing tests that I delegated...

The front belt cover has been printed and the tests are also concluding...






My tester reported that everything is lining up perfectly, and he is totally enthousiast about the next steps...

That being said, later on, he reported issues with the servo saver... He sent me a picture.


I checked my model, and revert back quickly to him about the outcome, and suggested he take the servo saver component from the Bearcat SS on Thingiverse . He was already considering two other solutions, but the Hirobo one should work here...


Next I did some work to estimate the costs of my venture in Bodyshell making... The mould would need to be printed in a material allowing for high temperature: highly expensive (far too much, out of reach).
did considered next an opposite mould : that makes the things slightly less costly, as the material can be basic, and would allow to pour in some high temp capable resin... Less expensive but unfortunately still out of reach...

It's a bit disapointing. I may print a counter mould at home, bit would need someone to be able to work it out for the next step... Dead idea?

Well, I toyed a bit with the idea of printing a bodyshell, and adapted it for this (another fork in my project tree). After some work : here is what I have.


And it may look acceptable.


I'll make it in 2 or 3 parts as even fro my Ender 5 plus, it is too big, and while doing this, I may want some people being able to print it on smaller printers...

Let's see where this goes in the next days...

[Dadio]

As a kid we had a vacuum former at school so we tried copying a Ford RS200 body I had , we poorer plaster or paris into the upturned body to make a forming buck , it worked ok ish , the main issue was the only plastic to make the body's was orange flocked stuff , not polycarbonate , you might use for packaging cheap jewelry , it just shattered on impact but the buck worked .
One thing to remember with whatever you use to cast the buck is it will contract/shrink , most suppliers will give specks on shrinkage and you need to factor this into the size of the mold .

[Dadio]

Oops double post

[silvertriple]

As a kid we had a vacuum former at school so we tried copying a Ford RS200 body I had , we poorer plaster or paris into the upturned body to make a forming buck , it worked ok ish , the main issue was the only plastic to make the body's was orange flocked stuff , not polycarbonate , you might use for packaging cheap jewelry , it just shattered on impact but the buck worked .
One thing to remember with whatever you use to cast the buck is it will contract/shrink , most suppliers will give specks on shrinkage and you need to factor this into the size of the mold .

In this present case, this is quite easy : I can just remove the holes as they are the only elements key for the dims of the mould. Mould shrinkage should not be much of a problem for the rest, actually... That being said, cost make a mould out of reach, and the counter mould is huge printing time. I may try to review it to save some cost and printing time (I have some idea to do so).

[silvertriple]

Oops me too double post

[silvertriple]

I have solution without printing requirements for the MXL pulleys thanks to some indications on search terms found on ebay:
I found on ebay using "mxl14T timing belt pulley" search terms. One have 14T-60T, with different bores that makes the job and that should cover all the possible requirements.

[silvertriple]

For the belts, after some search, the easiest way to find them was to use the search term "xxxMXL025" with xxx corresponding to the number of tooth. And I found a provider in France having all of the needed ones in France.

Final Belts
44B : 91MXL025
Zerda : 92MWL025
For the central belt :
44B-SWB : 280MXL025
44B-LWB/Zerda : 336MXL025

[Dadio]

Some of the eBay pulleys are very soft aluminium , I replaced the 18t pinion pulley on the long belt for my Zerda and it wore out quite quickly and I don't drive it that much .

[silvertriple]

Since the bodyshell is big and not even small enough for my big ender 5 plus printer, I had to make the bodysehll in two parts...

I did cut the body at the interface between the rear side and the cabin.


I created additional elements for the interface between the front and rear side...



There is two centering plots that could be printed as well, and the fixation is done by 5 M3 screws and M3 nuts... Front part is longer and it is making about 214mm long. But the intention is really to get it printed with the interface area between front and rear on the print bed...

I finally got a scan of the rollbar, which should allow me to make it slightly more like the original one.

[1911Colt]

Look at the points where the halves meet. It appears that you have male pins on both parts at the top and female on the bottom of both.

[silvertriple]

Look at the points where the halves meet. It appears that you have male pins on both parts at the top and female on the bottom of both.

It's on purpose : it's different bodies... Those are the centering plots, I've used end as cutting tools to remove the opposite in the bodies, each halves is independant of the two centering plots which will be taken in sandwiches between the halves...

[silvertriple]

I spend a few minutes playing with the rendering to see what it would look like...




And in red, but I think my choice is set...



I also played with blue and green for a friend, but the blue doesn't make it for me, and the green maybe very well suitable as a decoration on a christmas tree

The Hirobo manual has some shemas with the 44B City bodyshell... They look to be in the right proportions...


Thie 44B City bodyshell has something special to me: when I got my Hunter, none of my Kyosho's favorite (Scorpion and Tomahawk) were available and among the cars available my first choice was actually a Hirobo Rock'n City. It did not happened as the seller told my father it would be brocken too quickly. As a result, I got the Hunter instead the City. But I remember having read track test of this car back in time. The bodyshell was different from other cars, it has some personality, and I really liked it... The friend who gave me the chassis has actually multiple 44B cars, and one of them is a City. I collected pics last time I went to see him, and the other day, seeing what I was doing with the Hilux bodyshell, he proposed to provide me the Coty body for a few weeks to make a City bodyshell model... I'll try to start from the manual scan first, but may complete it from the actual measurements later on...