Kyosho 30615 - Tomahawk

[silvertriple]

I have this kit under my desk for a while. I was my Xmas gift of 2021, and it is awaiting there I have the envy to build it. And it seem it was time. I have a bug envy to build a kit without thinking today...


I took a picture of the box layout before breaking the blisters... I have two bodyshell inside. I like the red simple livery and I want to do another different one...


The build starts like the one from the Scorpion or the Turbo scorpion :
Shock towers, chasssi rail and a pilar to do the link


Then you prepare the servo saver, the main difficulty is to put the e-ring in place, here...


Next, you place the servo saver on its shaft, which is also the front body mount, and you place this on the bottom front plate...


And this joins the chassis with the rear plates, and the front suspension main shaft. This one has to be properly placed (there is indications on it), and you progress step by step with each screws in sequence otherwise you may fail a screw head (beside this, not much difficulty)...


Next is about the gearbox. Blisters are no longer . The differential come assembled, as well as the slipper clutch and the spur gear with a ratio corresponding to the Brushless 13.5T I'm going to mount on this car. There is another possible ratio, in the spare parts bag. Once the differential and ball bearings are in place, you close the side of the gearbox.


Before moving to the top where you put the fake radiator (in the original, that was excatly where the resistors were) and add the rear shock tower at the front of the gearbox... and the motor and pinion...


Next is the rear cage.


And since I can't stand a car with leds at the front side without leds at the rear side, I printed my rear leds holder for Scorpion series (PETG - and that was printed long ago, on my E5P when I got the car)...


And then you add the rear part to the chassis...


And that's when I decided that was enough for now... I may get back to it in the evening or tomorrow...

[silvertriple]

I did built multiple Kyosho legendary series, and making the shocks has a small but important step which is always difficult. Positionning the shock gasket. It even happened that I broke one whhen building my Turbo Scorpion, back in 2021. At that time, I had no 3D printer, and thanks, there was some spare in the spare bag.

Yesterday, I took some measurements and designed something to ease this. I did two version, one for the Scorpion series (except Turbo Scorpion), and one for Turbo Scorpion, Ultima and Optima Series...


I published the parts here, in the case you need it...
https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/kyosho-legendary-series-shocks-gasket-helper

The principle is simple : you position the gasket in the helper part, and you push the shock cap in. As it is designed to be a tight fit with the shock cap, I just pushed the shock cap in multiple times before I did it with the gasket.




And the most difficult part of the build is solved

[silvertriple]

Yesterday, I decided to stop because of a little issue. One of the hole of the rear suspension plate (SC210) is drilled but not finished with the chamfer.


I stopped there, sent a mail to Kyosho Europe to ask about it, and since it was almost time to diner, I stopped there. I do not expect any answer from Kyosho before at least within the week, as I guess they are not working during the week-end.

This morning, I thought about continuing the build with a temporary fix : I just need a bullet head hex screw in M3x10 in black... I searched in my stuff : I probably spend an hour searching. I have a lot longer ones, a few shorter ones, and I finally found just one. The color is not perfect match with the Kyosho screws, but for the time being, that is fine...


The roll bar is now in place!


Then you assemble the nice front arms and the knuckles axle... And that's going to be time to open Bag D...


Next is the front knuckles, the parts setting the front train in lateral and angle position, and the rods, for which Kyosho is supplying a very practical part to put the rod ends in place.


Once that is done, the next step is to put everything in place on the front beam, snap the shocks and use a grub screw to set the front train position... (it is clear and easy when you do the second chassis following this principle, actually, because for the first one I had multiple tries to set it correctly...)


Then comes the small bumper...


At next step it is time to add the servo plate, and the pillars for the upper deck.


I also put the servo in place. I would have prefered a red one, but I don't have one in stock currently the one initially targeted is probably in one of my son's cars)...


Next is the upper deck preparation... Nothing complex here.


I'm stopping the build here for today... The upper deck will seat properly next time, with a servo and the ESC.


And since the roll bar is on, we can also have a look at what it looks like with the bodyshell...


I've been a very nice kid, and I did not finish the build by end of the year (a joke here is that builds don't last long enough - my last Kyosho build before this one was the Fantom, and it only took a few hours - so I guess my wife is a bit surprised it is taking more than a day)...

[silvertriple]

And I just noticed I forgot to post about my second session of yesterday...

The rear arms...


Then you place the supports for the rear arms shafts on the rear suspension plate... It's a bit tricky, as the hole to support the arms is not is angled...


Then addition of the dog bones and arms on the chassis...


And the shocks are snapped in place.


And that's at the next step I noticed the rear susp plate issue...

[silvertriple]

Welcome in 2024
I have decided to work out the rx/esc placement on this chassis...

So I opened the last bag, put the upper deck in place and the steering rod as well...


And the wheels (tires are not glued yet, they are just out of their box). the parts remaining in the box are for the bodyshell (search lights and protection, exhaust, mirrors).


That's how it looks with the bodyshell and the wheels on.


Now is the real struggle... Both ESC and RX are supposed to go under the driver figure.


I have no doubt the RX will fit. But it wont be the case of the ESC, unless I open room for the cable at the rear of the driver figure (much more than initially planned). I have a look at where the battery is going to be, and the room available, and I think i have room for the ESC just in front of the gearbox, but this will required a printed part (who said I can't build anything without using my 3D printer? ). I will have to take some measurements and get back in Fusion 360 to invent another part... So that's probably all for today (I'm not likely to mount that part tonight: I'll wait to have a proper solution for the rear suspension plate)...

[silvertriple]

Today, I received and answer to my mail to Kyosho Europe asking for my address to send a replacement part. This means I should be able to proceed soon.

I took the time to work out my ESC Tray for the Tomahawk. It will be fixed on the rear shock tower, using the same screws that are used for the rear gearbox... It is designed for the ESC I used, reason I'll provide a step rather than a STL when I publish the part on cults3D.


I also included some marking on the bottom of it


I will have to shorten the motor cables and eventually the battery cable. And I'll also have to check for the placement of the switch, but the way it is it works already (I check on the chassis and placement is fine. Final pictures will come once everything is done properly.

[silvertriple]

I did test the printed part with the ESC on the chassis...

Cables will be shorten for the final mount... But that fits, and there is room to put the ESC even lower, which I'm going to do because the rear bodymount is interfering with the blue cable of the ESC...


The collision with the blue cable is not ideal, and result in changing the angle of the bodymount, and therefore the bodyshell position... The modification required is quite simple to do in the design of my ESC Tray


I modified the part, printed it and it's ready for the final mount (which will happen as soon as I receive the replacement part from Kyosho... I'll wait to have the cables shorten and the final mount to publish the part, as here the setup is not really nice...

[silvertriple]

The final version of my ESC Tray is done...



I've moved the position slightly lower, and shorten the cables to avoid the mess of the long cables...


Evrything goes nicely in place without any issues with the body mount or what is around. The capacitor of the ESC is under the driver figure, like the battery cable.


The power switch will probably go under the upper deck, but i'm not yet 100% sure of it.


This maybe the easiest way to see the part in position...


And just for a confirmation, I put the bodyshell on top of the car to verify it goes well, and it goes exactly the same way as without the ESC, which means it is now perfect...


I'll publish the part the latest tomorrow on Cults3D...
Edit : it's here : https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/esc-tray-for-kyosho-tomahawk-legendary-series

[silvertriple]

The replacement part arrived yesterday, and in the parcel, there was a nice attention from Kyosho...

Yeah, it's 60th anniversary collector candies


I could finish the chassis this morning, which is exactly what I did...


RX is now in in place under the driver figure... Everything fits perfectly, and the driver figure will be possible (some actually drops it because of the ESC issue, which I solve with my designed part)


The power switch has found a place behind the steering servo under the upper deck. I will need to add some tape to complete the setup and prevent the cables to bother me when pushing the battery in...


The bodyshell is fitting perfectly... And I just noticed that I don't have a led kit available currently, because I used it for the Super Wheelie few months ago. I will need to get one or assemble one (I may have leds and a switch that I can use with the remote somewhere in one of my boxes under a box under a pile of box behind another pile of box under a desk... Which means I need to find the courage to move everything to access that box and get the required material. In short, it won't be today

[silvertriple]

The replacement part arrived yesterday, and in the parcel, there was a nice attention from Kyosho...

Yeah, it's 60th anniversary collector candies

About this, there is a page on Kyosho website...
https://rc.kyosho.com/en/kyosho-kintaro-ame2023

I really love how serious they are about fun

[silvertriple]

While checking what I needed in parts for my daughter's super wheelie, I found some leds whcih were not in the box under a pile of box behind a pile of box under a desk behind some stuff... This mean I can at least organize the bodyshell setup which will anyway require a connector somewhere between body shell and the chassis...

I put all accessories in place also...


Another view


I could have chosen the other setup for the search lights, but at least with this one, the search lights would not fly away at first roll over... Only remain to wait for next day with sun or at least no rain and I'll do the paintjob of the bodyshell N°1...

[silvertriple]

I've been procrastinating a lot on this. Paintjob requires two things : paint, and good weather. Today was the day

I have two bodyshells. I only took care of one of them today. The second will be more complex in terms of design, and would not rely on most of the stickers...
For the first one, I opted for something very simple. The Tomahawk is amond the car that could live with one single color applied on the bodyshell... Well, here i still used 3. Two tone of translucent blue (lighter on front, darker on rear) and silver to back the blue.


Then, I simply apply the stickers.








I sill need to take care of the driver figure, but this will be for later...

[silvertriple]

After a morning at the club running M-chassis, I got some time to complete some work started yesterday...


I'm not that good at painting driver faces... Looking at my driver figure, I'm asking myself if he is focus or just afraid

[silvertriple]

There was still a few things to do on this car to call it done.

Led connexion was done in the afternoon, after having a small issue with teh ESC and motor : once calibrated the motor would not run. I finally found the cause of the issue being the sensor cable. Once replaced this is now working fine.

For the leds, I installed the rear permanently while the front are set separately with a plug between the main circuit and the bodyshell.





Once this was done, I took care of the driver figure. I took a transparent cover I used years back when doing booked reports, and simply made the same cut as I was doing before on transparent stickers (the Kyosho sticker for the visor is black, it's a pity to hide the face of the afraid driver ) using more force and two passes for the cut.
Then two small holes, and two very small screws, and this is done (I may be tempted to revisit all my Kyosho visors now)




The driver took place quickly on the chassis...


And the work is over, although it's a bit late to give it a run...








I will have to give the car a short run to check everything is set up properly before the next vintage meetings...