Model Kit Builder

Disaster struck …

Klaus Weitzel — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:10:49 +0000

… and it struck big time. First the hard disk on my desktop failed, no bother I thought, I have all the data on the server. I created a backup on the server, downloaded it and net thing I know, the hard disk on the server fails. Hey I thought, no sweat, just did a backup of everything. But … disasters second part struck … the backup is corrupt and I have only the DB to work with, no images whatsoever.

Sorry folks, I’ll try to revive as much as possible over the next couple of weeks …

Outdoor Fotoshoot – Part 3

Klaus Weitzel — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:05:31 +0000

OK … I have been caught in the act … of taking a picture. Thanks to my sister over at amithi.de this picture has been published on flickr.

Outdoor Fotoshoot – Part 2

Klaus Weitzel — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:57:10 +0000

And part two shows you the few Mini-Z Images that I have done.

Outdoor Fotoshoot – Part 1

Klaus Weitzel — Mon, 24 May 2010 17:02:55 +0000

Today my wife, my sister and me have been out in Krefeld. We went to the Botanical Garden and the Schönwasser Park. Bsides some doll motives which you will be able to see on their respective bogs I managed to take some pictures as well. I had some XMods (The red Hummer and the white Porsche) and two Mini-Z (the Subaru and the Nissan) with me. Here are some images for you, in part 1 it’s the XMod Trucks:

Lazy?

Klaus Weitzel — Wed, 19 May 2010 07:24:41 +0000

I had to ask myself this question over the last couple of days. Why is that you might ask yourself? It is 1 and a half month ago, that I posted the last time … so what happened in the meantime?

Quite a lot happened in the meantime … on the hobby front, the personal and professional life. Lets start with a little roundup:

1) A couple of new Mini-Z and parts arrived at my place …
2) Same applies for the X-Mods … a couple of them including the hard to find HPI Subaru
3) no news on the modelkit side of things, just didn’t get any
4) I am again boardmember of the Website Baker Org e.V. with lots to do there
5) We have been to holidays in Italy
6) The mini-lifestyle business is picking up again.

At least you know, why there was not much activity here …

The Mini-RC Family …

Klaus Weitzel — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 15:34:19 +0000

I don’t know what it is with those little buggers, they seem to have a biological live and reproduce … here are all my current cars, starting with the Carson (and Radioshack) XMODS:

White Supra Gen1 Chassis with Mini-Z Tires

Yellow Nissan Skyline Gen1

Metallic Gray Mitsubishi Lancer VIII on Evo

Blue Honda Civic Coupe Gen1 with Body Kit

Black Hummer H2 with Off-road-Kit

Orange Ford F150 Truck with slammed wheels

Orange 2009 Dodge Challenger on Evo

Honda Acura RSX Gen1 Switchback with Body Kit

Did I forget anything? No … I didn’t forget anything but I omitted three cars and some bodies.

A dark-gray Gen 1 Skyline
A silver Evo Skyline
A blue Evo Ford Mustang 06
some trucking Bodies (Hummer H2, Nissan Titan, Ford F150)

Why did I omitt them? The Mustang is still “New in Box” while the Gen1 Chassis of the Skyline is used for a 3rd party Subaru Body, which is very much XMOD … and the silver Evo Skyline is being transfered into the project car for this site.

Now, besides the XMods there are also the Mini-Z cars, not as many but a bit better:

Nissan Skyline 2000GT on MA-010 AWD Chassis

BMW M3 Coupe on MR-02MM ASF Chassis

McLaren F1 on MR-02MM i-Series Chassis

Nissan Skyline GT-R on MR-02MM ASF Chassis

There is still some important stuff to do though. For the ASF chassis I do not have a working transmitter. i do have a KT18, but it needs to be fixed, since the steering return Pin broke inside the case. This is a common problem with those transmitters and does not require much to fix.

The AWD Skyline does need a set of new rims, although I like the style of the current ones. The original style I cannot apreciate somehow. The BMW is, from what I can see a Body by i-Waver and was actually lowered a bit by me, I just thought it sits to high to look great. The McLaren currently has a broken H-bar and the mirrors are missing, but replacement for the H-bar is on the way … and the Skyline? Let’s leave it at that and make it a training body … come to bodies, I still have a couple of bodies, but they will be featured a different time.

Then there is only the Mad Bull Monstertruck to talk about … but di I really? No, it’s been covered already on this Blog.

Lately …

Klaus Weitzel — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:36:26 +0000

… I have been a bit lazy with this site. The reason for it is simple, I am creating content for my new site Mini-RC-Tutorials. Besides creating the content there is quite some other things to manage, especially getting the design ready.

The designer did a really good job in listening to my ideas … OK … reading my ideas from the mails I forwarded. Thanks a lot for this to Maikel, the Dutch designer creating this!

First and final Design Suggestion

There are still some minor (and I really mean minor!) changes necessary to then get this design ready for the content management system WebsiteBaker which I am using on that site. Apologies for the small image, but I won’t give you more untill the site is finished.

Getting the Skyline onto the Mini-Z AWD Chassis

Klaus Weitzel — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:18:39 +0000

The Skyline of the previous post was not meant to sit on the AWD chassis, but it can be a nice fit and a nice drifter as well.

There is only very little work involved to make the Body fit the Chassis. This work needs to be don at the front- ans side body-clips. The front body-clip is a bit to wide for the AWD mounting post, so you need to sand down the sides until it slides in without force. You’d rather take off a bit more than required so the the symmetry of the set-up is kept instead of more on one side than the other and the whole set-up is asymmetrical.

the same applies for the side mounts which are glued inside the body. They needs to be sanded down a little bit to make the body slide over the chassis like intended. If you have done this, you should have a nice Body for your drift-car … and it should look like this:

Shakotan-Boogie Jun’s Skyline on MiniZ AWD

Currently I still have the original Wheels of the Subaru on the car, but I do think it does look quite nice. I still have a set of 6 spoke AWD wheels here, but they are intended for the Yellow X-Mods Skyline.

I also have a set of Upgrades for the chassis lying here, the “Graphite Front and Rear Gear Box” by 3racing. The installation will be covered on my new site www.mini-rc-tutorials.com once I get around to do it.

Shakotan-Boogie Jun’s Skyline for Mini-Z

Klaus Weitzel — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:04:17 +0000

Jepp … I had to have it. It’s just the best of the Skylines there is. Also for the Mini-Z Chassis. Just for you, here are some images of the Body still sitting on it’s dummy chassis:

Silver Shakotan-Boogie Jun's Skyline

It will need a little bit of modification to fit on the AWD Chassis which I had in mind for it. Currently there is a Subaru on that chassis. The modifications should be straight forward and will be published on my new site Mini-RC-Tutorials (in German).

Skyline the hardest work done?

Klaus Weitzel — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:55:52 +0000

Over the last couple of days I di fit the body kit for the skyline so that the huge gaps in the body lines may disappear. It took quite some sanding and refitting to get where it is now:

Skyline Body left side

Skyline Body right side

Skyline Body rear

Skyline Body front

Next step is to take out the white primer and prime the body in white, obvious, isn’t it? The yellow colour is ordered and hopefully will arrive next week.