Kenny and his ORB Racing FF210

Over the summer, community manager Ruud van den Muijzenberg and I traveled across Europe visiting RC car events. One of the best things about these trips was the incredibly cool people we met along the way. To our delight, many of them were already using Shapeways 3D printed parts on their RC cars.

In this second of our Driver Profiles, we talk to Kenny Mok, whom we met at the IconicRC Revival meeting in Grantham, England in July. Kenny has been a Shapeways customer for a while and runs 3D printed parts on multiple cars in his fleet.

Kenny prepares to race at the IconicRC Revival

Name: Kenny Mok
Age: 39
From: London, UK
Profession: IT Consultant
Hobbies: 1:1 cars, Fishkeeping, Football, Karaoke and Eating
Years in RC: 2
First RC Car: Tamiya TA01 Alfa-Romeo 155 DTM

IconicRC 4WD car line-up

A couple of weeks before we went to England for IconicRC Revival, we announced that we were going to join the event on IconicRC’s Facebook group. We were welcomed with lots of replies of people showing off their 3D printed RC car parts.

One of those people was Kenny, who showed us his ORB Racing FF210, a very unique and almost fully 3D printed front wheel drive buggy that we actually featured in the magazine earlier this year. He was clearly very excited to show off the cars he had built, and even challenged our community manager Ruud van den Muijzenberg to a race!

When we finally met at IconicRC, Kenny told us he has only been in the RC car racing hobby for about 2 years. After looking up information on drones and quadcopters, he stumbled across a group of RC-car-loving enthusiasts, IconicRC. Kenny initially thought that racing RC cars was a dead hobby, but soon realized it is very much alive and active. He found a group of great people in IconicRC, who race from club level to pro.

Kenny added, “When I was a kid, I was never able to afford hobby RC cars. But being older, like the most of us, I am now able to relive my childhood once again and buy the cars I dreamed of as a kid.”

Kenny racing in one of the Revival heats

When we asked Kenny about his experience at the event, he told us,

“Revival 2017 was my first ever Revival. It was simply awesome! From the smell of fried bacon and grilled onions emanating from the campsite to the enthusiastic chattering of conversation with fellow racers, I soon forgot that there was actually racing involved. I met people from all over the world. Some had travelled quite far (Holland, Germany) and it was great to share views and experiences with everyone. The show of beautiful vintage cars was just simply sublime. Oh, and the racing was fun! This will surely be a regular event for me and a lot of other fellow enthusiasts. I thoroughly recommend this to all RC vintage enthusiasts, I would even go so far to class this as the vintage racing event of the year!”

A special commemorative edition FF210, Kenny’s second FF210

Kenny races a very special 3D printed buggy. The ORB Racing FF210 is an almost fully custom-made front -wheel-drive buggy that features many parts 3D printed at Shapeways. In the picture above you can see the special commemorative edition FF210 that was built by Paul Dijkstra, ORB Racing’s designer and Shapeways community member. Paul created this model to celebrate the FF210’s racing success in 2017.

Kenny likes the FF210 so much this is actually his second one. The FF210 is special because it is the only modern front-wheel-drive buggy in existence. And being front-wheel-drive makes it very competitive on low-grip and wet surfaces compared to regular buggies. With England being a very rainy and wet country, Kenny’s FF210 should feel right at home.

Kenny’s Tamiya Top Force

As cool as it is, the FF210 is of no use at the vintage-focused Revival as it’s too modern. Luckily Kenny brought a whole fleet of cars (painted his signature white) to race at the Revival in multiple classes. Just like the car we raced on sunday at the same event, Kenny also races a vintage Tamiya Top Force featuring 3D printed parts designed by ORB Racing. Besides developing their own FF car, ORB Racing also offer a lot of 3D printed replacement parts that are otherwise very hard to find and often expensive if available at all.

“The fact that I can now have 3D printed replacement parts which feel just as strong as the originals is a real lifesaver for collectors and racers of now obsolete cars,” Kenny told us, reflecting the driving force behind many RC car drivers’ use of 3D printed parts.

Kenny’s Yokomo YZ2 with JConcepts front wing mount

He continued,

“I also use Shapeways printed parts from JConcepts on my modern Yokomo YZ2 buggies. Shapeways really opens the world up to designers where beforehand, production costs would have meant it was impossible for their designs to become a reality. Now it’s just a matter of uploading your file and having the design 3D printed at a very reasonable price. The public’s trust in 3D parts is growing as the materials used have become stronger. At the moment, only replacement parts are made for certain cars. I would love to see a whole car built from 3D printing, i.e. a Shapeways-branded car package!”

IconicRC Wheelie race line-up

2017 was a great year of racing for Kenny, who even organized, for the first time, his own event: Super Off Roader at Surrey and Hants Radio Controlled Car Club. Kenny has big plans for next year too, with the IconicRC Revival being the main event. But there are plenty more races on the calendar, like the IconicRC Cup and the highly anticipated Schumacher Challenge.

Kenny told us that even though he will try to better his race performance at upcoming events, meeting fellow RC enthusiasts means more than the results. So if you happen to go out to a race next year, look out for Kenny and his fleet of white RC cars and go have a chat!

The post Meet Kenny Mok’s Winning RC Car Fleet appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

At Recon G6 Belgium, a RC scaler and crawler event in the Belgian Ardennes, we were lucky enough to meet Christian Lorenz. He has been using Shapeways to develop his own design of a rock crawler chassis.

Christian and his crawler

Name: Christian Lorenz
Age: 35
From: Karlsruhe, Germany
Profession: Process Operator
Hobbies: Mountain biking, BMX, Running, Swimming
Years in RC: 8
First RC Car: Tamiya Manta Ray

One of the steep, rocky trails at ReconG6 Belgium

Christian made his way from his home in Karlsruhe, Germany to the Belgian forest for Recon G6. He brought multiple cars to the event, but the one we were most interested in is his Prototype Rock Crawler, designed by Christian himself from scratch.

After being out of the RC car hobby for some years, Christian caught the bug again and started with an Axial SCX10 scale truck. While working at a mold-making company, his access to CAD software and milling machines meant that it didn’t take long for him to start making custom parts for his trucks.

Christian’s unnamed Prototype Rock Crawler

The Prototype Rock Crawler is Christian’s second custom build truck. His first project, the Spilux, was a scale rock crawler truck with Pure Spider axles, a custom carbon chassis and a bunch of handmade milled metal parts, all covered by a bobbed Toyota Hilux body. The new crawler was designed to compete in the prototype class in the German Yeti Trial Challenge. Almost every single part on the car was designed by Christian himself and is either 3D printed at Shapeways or milled from carbon fiber plates or brass. It took about three months of development and designing in Cimatron to complete the crawler. It’s an amazing feat of engineering from just one man, one that looks like it’s from a big manufacturer.

The main chassis is a skeleton construction featuring many extra supports to make sure the chassis is strong and stiff enough to handle the abuse the car will go through. Christian told us he guessed how much support was really needed, and then doubled it just to be safe.

Inside the chassis is a completely custom-made drivetrain. The transmission housing is 3D printed and has steel gears handmade by Christian himself. It also contains a full interior complete with 3D printed racing seat, dashboard, fire extinguisher, and NOS bottle. Even the hood scoop on the front is functional — it has an electric fan inside forcing air onto the motor to keep it cool! Most competition crawlers don’t have any scale details like an interior, but 3D printing makes it possible to fit these components inside the compact chassis and still keep it lightweight.

The car features a fully 3D printed interior

This hood scoop is actually functional and cools the motor

Both front and rear axles are also completely custom-made. They are portal axles, again with steel gears handmade by Christian. He also machined some brass weights for each corner of the car to keep the tires planted on any obstacle. Both front and rear axles have 3D printed housings, but the rear axle is beefed up with a carbon fibre tube inside. This car really is designed to be bulletproof!

Fully custom axles, hubs and even the wheels

The chassis is unnamed at the moment, but at ReconG6 we joked about how it should be called “Skeleton Screamer” because of the way it looks and sounds. Christian powered the crawler with quite an unusual setup combining a regular car’s electronic speed controller with an outrunner brushless motor that’s normally only used in RC airplanes. The result is a small motor with a ton of torque on low RPM and a loud, high-pitched whine, making it sound almost like a turbine engine. The noise is unique to Christian’s car, and really gives it character.

The crawler after conquering the muddy Belgian trails

Now, with the Prototype Crawler (AKA Skeleton Screamer) finished — and even taking a podium spot at the Yeti Trial Challenge — we asked Christian what’s next. His current project is even crazier than the crawler: Christian is designing a fully custom-built racing machine on track plates, like a tank, but FAST.

Christian’s new project; A race vehicle on tracks

To follow Christian’s progress, get the first look at his new developments, and keep track of race results, check out his Yoyoyotapilot RC page on Facebook and @Yoyoyotapilot on Instagram.

What’s the craziest car you’ve ever designed?

The post Lighter, Faster, Stronger: Christian Lorenz’s Incredible RC Crawler With No Name appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Hetmanski Hobbies is an incredible place to discover parts and mods for your RC monster trucks and scale vehicles. Kevin Hetmanski, the shop owner and designer, is no stranger to the RC hobby, having spent 31 years in the RC world — and working at Horizon Hobby as a product developer. You might also recognize the name Hetmanski from his work for RC Car Action magazine, where he’s the Sr. Editor. Needless to say, the man knows his stuff.

Over the past year, Kevin has been adding a lot of new designs to his Shapeways shop, and as amazing as they are on their own, the best way to discover them is to see them in action. So we asked Kevin to show us a few of his personal trucks that use many of the shop’s goodies.

KOC 2.0

Kevin has been passionate about solid-axle monster trucks since the release of the Tamiya Clod Buster in 1987. It’s the truck considered by most to be the original RC monster truck, and it was the beginning of a journey that would start with project trucks. After building and modding several existing trucks, he decided that he needed to take things to the next level. Hetmanski then decided to design and build his own truck to get the performance he was looking for. In 2007, he created the King Of Crushers — using several poorly handmade parts. Still, despite its hand-hewn roughness, the truck’s performance was fantastic when compared to what was available at the time.

In November of 2015, Kevin was invited to the Monster Jam World Finals in Las Vegas to be a part of their very first RC monster truck race. For years, he had wanted to build a new and improved version of the KOC. This was the perfect time to make the KOC 2.0 monster truck a reality.

After 40 hours of computer time, the result was a truck that performed above and beyond the original KOC. This time, Kevin used a 3D CAD program to make the design come to life, enabling Kevin to cycle things like the suspension and steering to make sure they worked — before actually making a single part.

Unfortunately, the truck wasn’t finished in time for the Vegas event. Issues around getting the more complex aluminum parts made for the drivetrain meant that the build could not be completed. That’s when Kevin discovered Shapeways. After tweaking the design of some of parts, he had them printed through Shapeways. Finally, the truck came together.

3D printed pieces on the KOC 2.0 include axle caps, bearing blocks, and the transmission housing in the chassis, as well as exhaust headers and a rollcage for scale looks. With less than a month before another big race, the 4-link Nationals in Ohio, Kevin was a bit worried about the printed parts holding up. But, after some test runs, he was happy to find that everything was sound. The KOC 2.0 was ready to race!

The 4-link Nationals race weekend arrived, and with barely any time behind the wheel, Kevin got ready for the qualifying round. Thankfully, the truck performed well, qualifying at 11th place out of a total of 56 trucks in the class. With 3D printing still new to Kevin, his confidence in the printed parts only grew during race day.

Round after round, the KOC 2.0 proved its mettle. At the end of the day, Kevin had placed fourth overall. The performance and potential of the KOC 2.0 were now battle-tested — and proven.

Now, Kevin will work out the rest of the kinks, make a few tweaks, print more parts, and make sure that the monster truck can handle whatever his backyard (at least) can throw its way.

Yeti MT 3.0

Kevin embarked on his second big project after seeing the Axial Yeti rock racer for the first time. The rear end of the Yeti, with its tubular chassis, reminded him of a monster truck. And just like that, the Yeti MT idea was born. First, he put two rear sections of a Yeti together to create a solid-axle monster truck that performed very well when bashing, but needed some upgrades for racing. Version 2.0 featured a much stiffer carbon fiber chassis and a few other aftermarket parts to improve performance. That version worked much better, but after racing it at the RC Monster Jam World Finals, more updates were made to create version 3.0.

Kevin took the Yeti MT 3.0 to the 4-Link Nationals in Ohio to compete in the new 2.2-inch tire class. The truck obviously needed 2.2-inch wheels and tires to run this class. Kevin wanted to take the truck’s looks to the next level with a new set of wheels, so he turned to Shapeways again, this time designing a full set of 3D printed wheels and caps. These new wheels have a lot of detail and look exactly like those on full-sized monster trucks. Kevin added a little paint to bring out the detail and bolted them on after gluing up some Pro-Line Destroyer tires. The Yeti MT 3.0 also sports a 3D printed roll bar (painted to match the body paint), as well as a set of 3D printed exhaust headers.

At the 4-Link Nationals, the scale accessories did their job, and Kevin managed to win Show-N-Shine in the 2.2-inch class. Score!

What’s next?

Kevin is always designing parts for projects that are featured in RC Car Action magazine. Designs for his personal vehicles also find their way onto Hetmanski’s Shapeways shop. He’s always working on something, and he tells us that his next big project will most likely be a 1/10-scale Grave Digger monster truck using 3D printed parts to make it look as close to the real truck as possible. The chassis will be handmade, the axles will look just like the ones on real Monster Jam trucks, it will have larger versions of his 2.2-inch wheels, and much more. And of course, after the truck is done, all 3D printed parts will be available on Shapeways.

Make sure you also follow the Hetmanski Hobbies Facebook page to keep up with future parts, projects and race results!

Kevin Hetmanski and his KOC 2.0 truck

The post Monsters of Scale — Hetmanski Hobbies RC Monster Trucks appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Michael Vollmer is a freelance designer from Hamburg, Germany, who specializes in RC cars. In between his assignments for well-known RC car manufacturers, Vollmer works on his own innovative ideas and cool projects, and he sells them at the 3DRC Shapeways shop.

3DRC makes high performance parts — on-road parts, off-road parts, tools, and even vintage car upgrades — for top-level RC car racing. There’s a lot of buzz lately about 3DRC in the professional RC racing community, with publications, big RC news websites, factory-backed drivers getting on the 3DRC team, and new product releases. So we thought it was a good time to sit down with Michael and see what 3DRC is all about.

3D Printing and Industry 4.0

So we asked Vollmer: Why Shapeways? He said:

“As a RC car designer, I have often used 3D printing to check the function and feeling of new parts.

Ten years ago, they came in very brittle, sometimes breaking quickly while I trying to assemble the parts. Today the material precision and quality is much better.

I had my first contact with Shapeways a few years ago, when I had to check some parts that would later become plastic parts for traditional injection-molding machines. I was really surprised by the quality and the material. The precision was excellent! So it really helped me to make prototypes for pre-production RC Cars.

Apart from the great quality, the fast manufacturing and the fantastic service, I learned to understand the Shapeways shop system, which is absolutely amazing! After Amazon, eBay, PayPal, it might be the most important platform for Industry 4.0.”

Shapeways allows Vollmer to create, upload, and sell new products within a very short timeframe: only a few days from prototype to the 3DRC shop. With traditional manufacturing methods, this process can take months.

3DRC’s most popular product: Fan Boosters

The electric motor on a RC car can get very hot, especially when being pushed to its absolute limit in the professional racing series, so most racers use a cooling fan to prevent overheating and permanently damaging the motor.

3DRC Fan Booster on Michael’s Awesomatix

3RDC Fan Boosters are designed to channel air from the fan to the motor covering more surface area and with less loss of airflow, therefore cooling more efficiently.

Maximized airflow around the motor with a Fan Booster

They are very easy to install, and come in different shapes and sizes to match any cooling fan to any chassis type. Fan boosters are especially popular for stock-class touring car racing, but 3DRC is developing models for other racing classes as well.

3DRC Aero Wing on team driver Max Mächler’s car

3DRC’s Latest: Aero Wings

The Aero Wing series from 3DRC are spoilers for RC touring cars inspired by full-size Formula 1 cars. Compared to the traditional one-piece vacuum-formed polycarbonate spoilers, 3DRC’s Aero Wings create more downforce while having less drag.

The wings weigh only 10 grams, come pre-drilled to fit most current bodyshells, and are compatible with the rules of international organizations including EFRA, IFMAR, and DMC.

3DRC’s Aero Wing weighs only 10 grams

Some of the best RC car drivers on the planet are testing multiple wing profiles for the Aero Wing, and initial feedback has been great. Drivers say that they love the Shapeways Black Strong and Flexible Plastic. We are looking forward to see the results from the 3DRC team drivers and hope they can win some races.

You can find many more 3DRC products on the 3DRC Shapeways shop.

The post Michael Vollmer of 3DRC: From Zero to Selling in Record Time appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

“Back to the Future” RC fandom goes deeper than DeLoreans, however. Mike Lohmann, better known at TamiyaClub as Ihaveabruiser, made a model of Marty McFly’s Toyota SR5.

At the beginning of “Back to the Future,” the off-road-ready 4×4 was just a fantasy for Marty. As his adventures in the past end up affecting the present, however, he changes his family’s fortunes. Marty’s father becomes a famous author; Biff ends up working for the McFlys: and Marty’s dream truck is sitting in the garage, waiting for his “camping trip” with Jennifer.

Turns out that Mike has been collecting and making RC cars since he was 9. Over his 23-year “addiction,” as he calls it, he’s made great friends from around the globe.

Mike also worked as a Toyota technician for many years, so when it came to creating something from “Back to the Future,” he decided on the SR5:

They are great vehicles.The BTTF truck in my opinion is not only iconic for the movie but is iconic in world of Toyota enthusiasts.

Mike posted the SR5 to TamiyaClub on July 4, a day after the anniversary of the premiere of the first “Back to the Future.”

His SR5 would not exist without Shapeways. He used pieces from BowHouse RC, purveyors of all kinds of cool RC car parts. They provided the battery case and chassis-mounted steering system, and RC Nerds made the door panels, windshield wipers, taillight assemblies, and the ridiculously detailed dashboard.

“I’ve had nothing but great results with Shapeways,” he says. “The printing quality is very very good and the print and shipping time is great as well. I will actually be doing another order shortly, as James from Knight Customs just released the interior parts that work with his engine bay on the BTTF truck.”

I’m usually talking about board games in Shapeways Magazine, but the Toyota SR5, accurate down to even the KC lights on the front grille and the cab, was too good not to share.

via TamiyaClub

RC cars and modifications are a huge part of the Shapeways community, and people like Mike, a guy who calls normal-size cars “1:1 vehicles,” are what keeps it vital and relevant. This truck is a great example of just what we can do, not only as a 3D printing community, but as creative people and passionate fans trying to make the world a little cooler.

Emphasis on little… in a big way.

The post Take a Ride in Marty McFly’s Toyota SR5, RC Car Edition appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Our Tamiya F350 upgrades with AmPro Engineering printed parts

When Ruud and I took part in Walk The Trial XV in Belgium, we couldn’t just show up with any old RC car. This would be my fifth time at WTT, an event that’s doubled in size every couple of years. Since it’s become a pretty serious event, I asked a friend if I could borrow one of his higher-performance RC cars. Of course, I could not leave it untouched. Luckily, my friend is pretty used to my adventures in upgrading RC cars with Shapeways parts, so he’s going to love what we did with it (I hope — he hasn’t actually seen it yet).

The Ford F350 at WTT X back in 2014. Picture by Davy de Weirdt

Introducing the car

We began with a 1:10 Tamiya truck with a Ford F350 hardbody and a High Lift chassis. The cool thing about this truck is that it has a working 3-speed gearbox and proper metal leaf springs. Those elements of realism make it far from the best handling RC scaler/crawler truck, but the challenge makes it a lot of fun to drive.

It does has one major flaw, however: the low-hanging transfer case in the middle of the chassis. The transfer case easily gets stuck on ridges, rocks, and tree stumps so often that driving becomes frustrating. So we needed to address this before Walk the Trial.

Before and after the transmission lift; Ground clearance!

Once again I turned to my friend Alberto at the AMPro Engineering Shapeways shop. Alberto has released a conversion kit for the Tamiya High-Lift that relocates the motor, shift servo, and battery, so it can lift the transmission and transfer case.

Alberto designed the kit for a High-Lift with a Toyota Hilux body, but I told him I would gamble and try to make it fit on a Ford.

The relocated motor sits under the hood

The AMPro Engineering High-Lift kit comes with a new gear cover, a motor mount, lift brackets for the transmission, a shift servo mount, a couple of spacers, and a new battery door with mounts.

If you want to see more about the AMPro Engineering High-Lift conversion kit, you can watch the four-part build series on Alberto’s YouTube channel. The actual build starts in Episode 2:

Pro tip: The brass bushings you often replace with ball bearings make for great spacers!

Installing the kit

Initially the build went smoothly. The AMPro parts have a great fit and use most of the original Tamiya screws to make the build even easier (and cheaper!). The only difference I found between the Ford chassis and the Toyota is in the rear bumper — a problem easily fixed by adding some spacers around the battery door mount.

The converted chassis up and running

When the time came to fit the body onto the chassis, however, things started to go wrong. First of all, the gear cover was now hitting the body because it had been lifted up so much. Also, the body mount for the cab required a lot of cutting, as it sits lower on the Ford than it does on the Toyota.

I used the spacers that came with the conversion kit to lift up the body mount and the bed as well. This made it fit, but only just.

Next, the shift servo sat too far forward, hitting the tabs that hold the bed against the body. After scratching my head for a while, I figured out that I could use regular Tamiya servo mounts instead of the ones in the AMPro conversion kit. This required drilling two holes in the frame, but it allowed the servo to move further down and to the back, leaving enough room for the battery and the bed to sit on top.

Problems solved, conversion kit installed, and the car was ready for testing!

JSScale Jeep FlatFive wheels & hub covers

Making it look the part

Along with the 3D printed pieces hidden under the body, I also wanted some enhancements that were visible on the outside. I found these cool Jeep FlatFive wheels with matching hub covers in the JSScale Shapeways shop and thought they would look good on the car. After printing, I gave them a coat of silver and black paint and added some SDI Trail Doctor tires.

I ordered some Shapeways stickers from MCI Racing to finish the body and also to hand out at Walk the Trial. I mean, who doesn’t love stickers?

Shapeways stickers finishing off the body

The performance

The Ford F350 conversion did exactly what it was supposed to do. The chassis did not get stuck a single time while out on the trail. It is now so much easier drive over rocks and logs, which there were plenty of at Walk The Tria! If anything, the improvements made it obvious that some other parts of the car could use an upgrade. For instance, the tires had no foam inserts, causing the truck to slide over the sidewall of the tires and even to tip over sometimes.

The 3D printed gear cover and motor mount also held up fine, notwithstanding the strong torque created by the truck puller motor in the car. Likewise, the stock driveshafts had no problem rotating at a steeper angle.

This souped up Ford F350 is such a great truck now! And I hope I can borrow it some other time to try more trails. Maybe Walk The Trial XIV?

Some more glamour shots of our F350

At least 7 WTT editions on this truck, judging by the decals

Hope to see this car back on the trails soon!

The post The Ultimate Tamiya Ford F350 RC Car Upgrade appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

My Shapeways colleague Tijs Lochbaum and I recently met up with more than 300 other RC drivers outside Antwerp, Belgium for Walk the Trial XV. Twice a year, the forest near the Sporthal Kattenbroek in Edegem transforms into an unforgettable outdoor experience for RC crawler enthusiasts.

It was the 15th edition of Walk the Trial, and the obstacles along the three tracks were extremely tricky this time. Tijs advised me to wear hiking boots, and I’m glad I listened. Some of the hills were unexpectedly steep. My boots gave me good traction, but some of the cars were less fortunate, as you can see in the video below:

Tijs and I were driving a Tamiya F350.

Of course, we souped it up with parts from the AMPro Engineering Shapeways shop to avoid getting stuck on obstacles. In the before and after pictures below, you can see that we raised the battery and moved the front engine, allowing the servo mount and transmission to move higher up.

Walk the Trial XVI happens on September 24th. If you’re interested, join the Walk the Trial Facebook group. I hope we’ll see you there!

The post RC Crawlers Scale New Heights at Walk the Trial XV appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Hundreds of RC car enthusiasts will gather near Antwerp this weekend for Walk the Trial XV, guiding their remote-controlled 4WD vehicles over rocks, mud, and other rough terrain in the Belgian countryside. Shapeways will be there, too, sponsoring a Build-Off and showing off RC cars built using Shapeways 3D printed components.

Walk the Trial (yes, that’s trial, not trail) begins on Sunday, May 21, at 8:00 in the morning, and results of the Build-Off competition will be announced at 12:15pm. The three best built cars in the Build-Off will receive credit at Shapeways so they can further customize their prize-winning four-wheelers.

Anyone whose RC car includes parts made at Shapeways can show off their vehicles at the Shapeways booth in the parking lot of the Kattenbroek sports club. We won’t have a tent, since the organizers, who are known as the Demolition Team, are expecting 280 participants and with such a crowd spaces are reserved “only for 1:1 scale vehicles.” But we will be there in force. And be sure to come by for drinks as the day winds down.

Here are some videos from previous Walk the Trials:

Have you Walked the Trial before? Tell us about your experience in the comments.

The post This Weekend, Walk the Trial is the Ultimate Off-Road RC Gathering appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

The NRC32 is a custom-made 1/32 scale RC off-road buggy, basically a micro-scale replica of the classic Team Associated RC10 from the 1980s. Nigel put together an amazing combination of parts from multiple manufacturers and different scales, with a heap of custom-made parts on top of that. The result looks like a factory-finished product.

When asked why he started the NRC32 project, Nigel said:

I have always had a curiosity with micro RC cars. When I raced in the ’90s, I always wanted a scaled-down version of the buggies I raced so I could practice indoors at home when the weather was bad. There was great appeal in the idea of creating a track design in the living room at home, with whatever jumps I wanted to use.

I started this project with the idea of building a couple of cars for myself to run at home, and the RC10 was pushing all the nostalgia buttons, so I chose to use that iconic buggy as a base for the 1/32 tribute. With more and more rereleases currently, I think I’m not the only one who enjoys reminiscing on racing back in the ’80s and ’90s.

The RC10 had some of the most iconic race winners during that time, cars like Masami Hirosaka’s Detroit Stealth car,  Jay Halsey’s ’85 Worlds-winning car, through to Craig Drescher’s European championship-winning buggy. The RC10 was a great car to create a miniature replica from.

The NRC32 has a mixture of printed Strong & Flexible nylon plastic parts, custom parts, and donor parts. The gearbox, shocks, front hubs, and axles are from the Losi Micro T. The wheels are Atomic Mini-Z items. The rear hubs and axles come from the Kyosho Mini-Z buggy and tires from the HPI Baja Q32.

The chassis and shock towers were machined from carbon-fiber plates by Fibre-Lyte, in the U.K. Ratcliffe vacuum-formed the bodies and wings at home himself. He paid careful attention to the proportions of the buggy, giving it as accurate a scaled-down RC10 appearance as possible. The 3D printed parts include front and rear bulkheads, arm mounts, suspension arms, camber links, the body post, and the steering bell crank.

The result? “They perform and handle great!” said Ratcliffe. He added:

I added more toe-in to the rear to give more grip, making it very stable and easy to push when driving hard. It’s not twitchy like some smaller cars can be. It actually feels a lot like driving a real, 1/10 scale RC10. I have tried foam tires and rubber tires, and both work well indoors. Running it outdoors on tarmac or concrete gives good grip.

Having originally designed this car as a project for myself at home, it’s been really fun knowing that a few people around the world now have one (or two!) also. From the first few, the cars went to the U.S. and Hong Kong. From the more recent few, they are going to the U.S., Sweden, and Australia. It’s really exciting seeing what people do with their cars, painting the bodies and trying out things for themselves.

Ratcliffe made a limited run of custom, hand-built cars in gold and blue editions, and he has no plans to build more NRC32s. This doesn’t mean the end of the project, however. Making the NRC32 took a lot of work, and it is relatively expensive. People have been asking him for a more affordable and accessible car that looks and feels like the NRC32, and he has starting working on this next project.

Nigel said he would also like to replicate other iconic cars, particularly more versions of the Team Associated RC10.

So keep an eye on his Facebook page for news, and let us know in the comments if there’s a cool project you’d like to see featured in Shapeways Magazine.

The post The NRC32 Project: A Micro-Scale Replica of the Team Associated RC10 appeared first on Shapeways Blog.

Now, Paul Dijkstra of ORB Racing, a longtime Shapeways community member, has created the FF210 buggy, a front-motor, front-wheel-drive RC car. Professional RC racing banned this layout in the ’80s for its unfair advantage in low-grip situations, and it’s been forgotten by the world’s biggest RC car manufacturers ever since. But, for the past five years, Paul has been developing his own FF210, relying on Shapeways for many of the components.

After seeing old magazine scans of the late ‘80s and early ‘90s featuring a couple of legendary, custom-build FWD buggies, Paul was intrigued by their unconventional designs. With very few FWD buggies available to buy, it was hard to get an idea of how it would be to race one. Left with no other option than to build a car himself, Dijkstra first tried to mash-up a 4WD buggy suspension and a FWD on-road touring car. It was fun to drive, but did not perform well off-road, so he decided to develop his own 1/10 scale ORB Racing FF210 buggy.

The second prototype chassis, built in 2013

Paul’s first prototypes were based on a Tamiya TRF201, but the finished FF210 conversion kit, the product of five years of research and development, uses Team Durango DEX210 parts for its gearbox and driveline. The rest of the car is made up of 3D printed Strong & Flexible nylon plastic and custom-CNC’d carbon-fiber parts.

Compared with regular FWD buggies, the FF210 is especially competitive on surfaces such as dirt, outdoor clay, grass, and wet astroturf. FWD cars have lower rates of acceleration since they are pulling the car along the track, but the FF210 has a higher cornering speed than a RWD when the racetrack surface grip is low, and it can better handle bumps and changing surface conditions. The result is a consistent, predictable, and quick ride.

Victory at the The MAC Vlijmen Winter Championship is Paul’s most recent race result

So far, Paul and his FWD buggy have won the MAC Vlijmen Winter Championship three years in a row. This race is a local event, but it boasts some well-known, highly-skilled drivers. He also has multiple A-final results at the Belgian-Dutch national championship and is a regular podium candidate at his local club.

For the 2017 season, Paul has made some changes to his FF210 conversion kit, updating a couple of parts to improve handling and durability, and enabling drivers to use parts from the latest version of the Team Durango DEX210.

Metallic plastic chassis side pod option parts

He also added Metallic Plastic side pods, now offered by ORB Racing. Most 3D printed RC car parts are made from Strong & Flexible plastic because of its durability and strength. In certain applications, a more rigid material could improve the handling and accuracy of the chassis. Paul says that the new Metallic Plastic parts noticeably reduced the chassis flex and improved handling.

A body-off view of Paul’s 2017 chassis.

Paul’s FF210, an extraordinary individual feat of engineering, is a perfect example of what 3D printing can achieve.The ORB Racing FF210 conversion kit, as well as many other replacement and option parts for both modern and vintage cars are available by emailing Paul at ORBRacing@gmail.com. Select spare parts can also be found on the ORB Racing Shapeways shop.

Have you experimented with customizing your RC car? Please share your experience in the comments.

The post ORB Racing FF210: The Return of Front-Wheel Drive appeared first on Shapeways Blog.