Tamiya 58519 - Super Hotshot - detailed build

[silvertriple]

Hi everyone,

I got some indication that my builds are highly detailed, and mentioned to someone I could eventually post about some other cars I build, and I'll start with the Super Hotshot. I build this in April-May this year.
I will do one specific post for each parts bag, and then one with the body paintjob.

Parts Bag A
It started with a box...

Obviously, I did not wait long to open it and check what is inside

The box then spent some time under my desk until I decided to start the build. Although it is not indicated as first step in the manual, I started to assemble the wheels to gain a little bit of space in the box (always useful when you need to free up space on the table). Those are gold... It clearly generated some deco ideas...

Then you start to build the rear gearbox. The out diff are maintained by e-clip, and ball bearings are supplied in the kit (and it is really nice to have full ball bearing within a kit. I'm not sure it is the case for it's sibling the Hotshot).

I had some difficulties to find the way to close the gearbox. I had to do multiple tris before finding the proper way. and the axe going thru the out diffs was maintained by two pieces of urethan bushings... which was difficult to maintain in place if you don't keep the gearbox leveled. Long story short, I had finally a gearbox, on which I added a motor (the GT Tuned 25T supplied in the box).


Later on I did exactly the same for the front gearbox. With 2 differences : no urethan bushings in the out diff, and no motor .

That was the end of parts bag A.

I had then a look at the manual and understood that if I want to do bag B smoothly, I had to do the driver paint before. So it was time to stop for the day. I planed to do paint of the driver within the following days, as it implies multiple days of small activities (even with an hair dryer to reduce the time between layers of paint)...

Next will be parts bag B.

[silvertriple]

Parts Bag B
Did some activities between meetings or at the end of the days, when I had 5 to 10 minutes to do some paint job. Really small paint activities, actually, but that is what takes the more time. At the end of the week, I had a decent driver figure, I tried to assort with the gold wheels (let's be clear, I'm not that good at this, but I do progress each time).



Having this done, it was then time to open parts bag B. I started to sort the components on the side of my plate (yes, I always work in a plate: my wife bought a lot of these for when the kids play lego. I just stole one of them , as it makes easier to free the table and avoid loosing parts).
Assembly here is starting by the front uprights

(when doing this you notice there is unused uprights on the cluster and the copyright dates are different (1985 vs 1987 -


asking myself what the hotshot is using).
Then the assembly continues with the front suspension arms...

... and they find themselves joining the front gearbox at the next step


For the rear it is slightly different as you start by assembling the upper wishbones...

... before the lower ones separately...

...and to join them together


Then comes the pilot on the main part of the chassis, as well as the battery retainers. On the left side, only one screw is put in place (by the way a funny inconsistency on each and every single left representation of the assembly : there is always 2 screws presented on the drawing but this step).

At the next step the rear gearbox meet the chassis. The sway bar is also mounted, but it seems useless at that step...


Then comes the front gearbox and the shaft, for which you are adding urethane bushing only at the front gear box side..

It is to be noted that starting here, this build really differentiate from a hotshot, as you mount front shock stays while mounting the front gear box in the chassis



At this stage, it start to shape. And parts bag B is finished. It will be time to open bag C soon...

[silvertriple]

Parts bag C

Few days later, I finally opened parts bag C and started to mount the dampers


I found a very practical use case for the Tamiya toolkit case while mounting the dampers


The rear shocks have an aeration hole...


A wrench is supplied and seems only be used at this stage


And you finally have 4 dampers ready to be attached to the chassis...


Front are mounted quickly. You may note the loctite I used a lot for this build on the top of the picture...


Within next steps I mounted the servo saver, installed it in place, as well as the RX and the ESC (I change the switch of this one by one exactly the same size of the switch of the Tamiya TBLE-02S)

Once this is done, box joins the chassis and the steering adjustments are made


And this is the end of parts bag C.

[silvertriple]

Parts bag D
I opened the parts bag D. It will be definitely difficult to get this built until June
First cumbersome step is to cut the grid that will go on the side to protect the driver...

Adn then install those while mounting the roll cage

Once you got the roof installed, it goes on the chassis. The rear shock stay is added as well

Then you add the battery under door (yes it is a door, with clips) under the chassis

And go back on top of the chassis to add the rear dampers

And the wheels joins the chassis

Next is the skid plate and the front bumper, both fixed with tapping screws (making the clips mounted on the battery door totally useless)


The chassis is almost finished.


I then trimmed the body and the wing to get ready for the paint



And next will be my final steps...

[silvertriple]

It took me about 3 half days of work to get thru the paint. It started by masks and decals preparation within Silhouette studio. There was things I was not sure I'll be able to do, and things which I can't do easily of with too much risk, so I decided for plain white vinyls.

Anycase, as usual, I cleaned the body, and dried it, then I applied the masks


At this stage I was still hesitant on the color. I did some tries, and it resulted into translucent red, gold and black.
I applied the red first and unmask what was targeted to be gold


Then applied the gold, and removed the remaining masks


On the next day, I applied black


And removed the film


And this is the final result after application of white vinyls:

[silvertriple]

And as I do like to run my cars sometimes in the evening on my Garden track, I like my cars to have lights. I did not want to fix the light buckets on the body shell for the front, so I designed a part for this. And I did the same for the rear, in two version (the second one get a license plate (30*15) holder as well)






You may find the parts here : https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4924453

[XLR8]

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Especially the paint work - that just looks awesome. Well done sir!!

I've never actually held or even seen a Hotshot before so it was interesting to watch you put this one together.
With so many different RC models added to their catalog over past 40 plus years, Tamiya always finds new and interesting ways to connect four wheels to a motor. Is any wonder that fans of their products love to assemble them? They're little mechanical marvels.
Anyway, thank you for posting the build here. I'm going back for another look.

[silvertriple]

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Especially the paint work - that just looks awesome. Well done sir!!

I've never actually held or even seen a Hotshot before so it was interesting to watch you put this one together.
With so many different RC models added to their catalog over past 40 plus years, Tamiya always finds new and interesting ways to connect four wheels to a motor. Is any wonder that fans of their products love to assemble them? They're little mechanical marvels.
Anyway, thank you for posting the build here. I'm going back for another look.

Thanks for the compliment. It was worth putting this built here...
One thing I do like with Tamiya is the diversity of what they re-released. One thing that I don't like with Tamiya is that when I see those re-release, they did not took benefit of the re-release to improved and remove at least some of the weak points. Front knuckles are still in brittle plastic, and it is the same for the rear (although prerhaps more acceptable here as it is less exposed, maybe). Sames gores with the wishbones. I like running my car, but when I mount those Tamiyas (and the Super Hotshot is not an exception), I have my doubts about the durability of the chassis. My son want a Hotshot, and he successfully broke a Traxxas Slash during the first run. I'm not really sure he would be happily run a Hotshot... That being said, I'm impressed by your work on some parts for your Optima Mid and may have to go similar route for the Hotshot at some point

[XLR8]

Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Especially the paint work - that just looks awesome. Well done sir!!

I've never actually held or even seen a Hotshot before so it was interesting to watch you put this one together.
With so many different RC models added to their catalog over past 40 plus years, Tamiya always finds new and interesting ways to connect four wheels to a motor. Is any wonder that fans of their products love to assemble them? They're little mechanical marvels.
Anyway, thank you for posting the build here. I'm going back for another look.

Thanks for the compliment. It was worth putting this built here...
One thing I do like with Tamiya is the diversity of what they re-released. One thing that I don't like with Tamiya is that when I see those re-release, they did not took benefit of the re-release to improved and remove at least some of the weak points. Front knuckles are still in brittle plastic, and it is the same for the rear (although prerhaps more acceptable here as it is less exposed, maybe). Sames gores with the wishbones. I like running my car, but when I mount those Tamiyas (and the Super Hotshot is not an exception), I have my doubts about the durability of the chassis. My son want a Hotshot, and he successfully broke a Traxxas Slash during the first run. I'm not really sure he would be happily run a Hotshot... That being said, I'm impressed by your work on some parts for your Optima Mid and may have to go similar route for the Hotshot at some point

Yeah unfortunately, unlike Kyosho who updates and improves their re-releases, the same can't be said for Tamiya. There are a few exceptions but very few.

Your son broke a Slash on the first run!! Wow, that's impressive. I think Traxxas would like to hear about that.

By the way, reading this post has given me the itch to build a Super Hotshot for the collection however they are out of stock everywhere so I order a Neo Scorcher instead. It's a modern TT-02B 4wd buggy that shares a lot of parts with the TT-01 on road vehicles (I already have a few of them) so maybe it will be relatively durable. Anyway, I like the styling and I think it could easily be morphed into a Stadium Truck after I've grown tired of the buggy look. It's scheduled for delivery tomorrow.
I'll keep watching for when the Super Hotshot is back in stock. I think the RC manufacturers are fighting to stay ahead of demand these days.