TBG bodies?

[crazy nick]

Are these bodies any good? Not worried about stuctural ( for shelf queen) Just wondering how the fit and finish is and how symmetrical the bodies are.

[GoMachV]

If you mean TBG (team Bluegroove) they are actually very structural- usually stronger than the originals, but tend to lack the fine details and sharp lines. They are also slightly undersized which is a problem on bodies that have accessories that need to fit properly. Examples of those would be the traxxas bullet, where the cage doesn't line up perfectly. Also my coyote body mount holes are about 1/4" shy of original. So they are great basher bodies but not perfect copies. That said, I use a lot of them and will continue to

[crazy nick]

If you mean TBG (team Bluegroove) they are actually very structural- usually stronger than the originals, but tend to lack the fine details and sharp lines. They are also slightly undersized which is a problem on bodies that have accessories that need to fit properly. Examples of those would be the traxxas bullet, where the cage doesn't line up perfectly. Also my coyote body mount holes are about 1/4" shy of original. So they are great basher bodies but not perfect copies. That said, I use a lot of them and will continue to

Urs meant tbg for sn a gt shelf.queen

[kfeldt]

I've bought a couple of their JrxPro bodies and a slipper gear cover. I think both bodies were slightly undersized, but it didn't cause any problems. I just had to be careful about where I cut the mounting holes (not exactly at the molded locations). I just finished trimming out my second one; I noticed that the body seemed a little lopsided before I trimmed it, but now that it's trimmed, it's barely noticeable.

I was a little worried about the gear cover, since the bodies seemed a little small, but it fits perfectly.

I would also agree with gomachv's comment that the molded lines aren't as sharp as the originals, but, at least on the JrxPro bodies, it's not a big deal to me.

Keith

[marlo]

I cant get the TBG gear cover to fit over an 87t spur, the gear binds up on the inside cover. The TBG cover is smaller for sure!

[GoMachV]

Yeah I have also seen that on my maxxum ff gear cover and a losi gear cover, they are too undersized to fit correctly. If you have one that fits properly you got lucky with the body's and wings its bit a huge deal if the size is slightly off but with the gear covers its a pain

[marlo]

Its like the TBG gear cover mold was taken from the inside of the original, when it might have been better to take it from the outside, not sure if a little bigger would work either though!

[works92]

If you mean TBG (team Bluegroove) they are actually very structural- usually stronger than the originals, but tend to lack the fine details and sharp lines. They are also slightly undersized which is a problem on bodies that have accessories that need to fit properly. Examples of those would be the traxxas bullet, where the cage doesn't line up perfectly. Also my coyote body mount holes are about 1/4" shy of original. So they are great basher bodies but not perfect copies. That said, I use a lot of them and will continue to

+1

i got a Losi XXcr and a Yokomo superdogfighter (bodie + undertray) from TBG , they are like described by "gomachv", i'll just add that the communication is very good with them, they are really professionnal.
i will not hesitate for my next vintage project to order TBG replicas.

[GoMachV]

Agreed, very good people there (I know there are hard feelings from the past with many longstanding members here- I can only speak from my one year history with them and its been flawless). I never hesitate to look there first.

[slapshot1979]

I for the life of me, understand how these bodys and parts are smaller.
Im not 100% sure of the process but I can assume. from original body take pourable cast to make mold, its the exact same size.
Or use original body to draw over to make new would be larger?

Anyone explain?

I too have used several TBG bodys and am always happy.

[GoMachV]

It's due to shrinkage I'm told. The mold should be made oversize to account for it but its a major step up in time needed to do it.

[terry.sc]

I for the life of me, understand how these bodys and parts are smaller.
Im not 100% sure of the process but I can assume. from original body take pourable cast to make mold, its the exact same size.
Or use original body to draw over to make new would be larger?

Anyone explain?

It's a combination of shrinkages due to the materials used. As a professional modelmaker I would regularly have to make patterns scaled up to compensate for resin castings made from them, usually 0.4%-0.8% bigger depending in what resin is being used. TBG will be using the standard way of making vacforming moulds by using metal filled polyurethane resins, so expect 0.5-0.6% shrinkage from back pouring.

Then there's the lexan. When you vacform lexan it shrinks around 0.7% so you have to compensate for that when making a mould. It shrinks so much that if you let it cool on the mould and you don't have enough draft angle on the sides of the mould you end up having to cut it off.

So you have a body that has shrunk from the original pattern, then resin which has shrunk when it hardened, then the new body that has shrunk when cooling again.

As for using the outside of the body, that is a much longer process. First you would have to take a mould off the outside of the body, then fill that with resin to get your mould. You will then notice all the detail is missing as the details have all been smoothed off by the body. It's a lot of extra work and TBG doesn't even go around cleaning up the cut lines into the moulds.

To be done absolutely correctly to ensure the body ends up at the right size would mean carving out a new mould using a body to take measurements from and scaling the measurements up to compensate for the shrinkage.

[GoMachV]

When they did my first TOJ they had problems and the weight of the material caused the thin lexan to get out of shape. The second time they tried another method, didn't say what it was but the body kept its shape and turned out perfect. I wonder if that may be what they did, as filling the inside of the body would be too much pressure. Hmm

[slapshot1979]

[youtube]BEnKLhi83J8[/youtube]

Thanks never considered the shrinkage factor.

[kfeldt]

Yeah I have also seen that on my maxxum ff gear cover and a losi gear cover, they are too undersized to fit correctly. If you have one that fits properly you got lucky with the body's and wings its bit a huge deal if the size is slightly off but with the gear covers its a pain

I was really worried that it wouldn't fit right, but, like I said, no problems at all. I'm running an 84T spur, so that probably helps.

Keith