heavenzfury
Newbie
Ok, might as well be a noob. I haven’t worked on RC in 15 years, and the RC’s I had were RTR. I am now trying to get into the hobby and have just purchased a Tamiya F350 to build as a 1:10 of my 1:1 F250 diesel. I am fairly competent, and used to make scale furniture for the marketing dept of a local furniture manufacturer, but never did anything with plastic/styrene. I have gone through most of the posts about the f350 builds and have some questions.
Styrene: learn me everything. I have never used it to my knowledge. What kind of cement do I need to bond it? Tips for using it? Can it be formed? Or just cut to shape? Is it sturdy enough to consider to use for the bumpers?
Brass/metal: looking at it for the bumpers. What would be best? I have plenty of experience with soldering (currently a designer for a large electronic connector manufacturer) but no experience welding, so I would think steel and aluminum are out. So that leaves brass or something I haven’t thought of… As for Brass, are there tools for clean mandrel style bends? The only thing I could think of was to use a swedge kit tool for a hydraulics repair pack. Anything out there that is better, and that won’t break the bank? My wife and 4 kids need to eat.
Body filler: since I am doing the Crew Cab I will need to make some obvious body mods. I picked up some automotive putty and planned on using it (fixed some stuff on my previous car [1:1] with this) I think I can make it work, but is there something that would be easier to use?
Headlights: my truck has smoked lenses, but I have not seen anyone using smoked lenses. Are they not available? If not, anyone have any ideas on how best to make some?
Badges: I saw in another post (f350 5th wheel with big camper - [3spdwrkr I think]) that the diesel badges were out there but I cannot find them, anyone know more about this? What about matching f250 badges?
Motor: is the stock 540 motor worthwhile? I will be building a large yacht later to pull behind it and was kind of tempted to sync 2 motors together but I am not sure how much extra that will cost both in time and money
MFU: I have purchased the MFU to install rather than building my own circuit due to time constraints, but I am
trying to figure out if I can still do a drop bed with all of that packed in there and still maintain the scale 4” lift appearance… This I will probably be able to answer once the kit arrives (should be here tomorrow)
And finally: I am building the truck for me but I am tagging it together with my final project for my bachelor’s degree and am going to couple the truck with a few proximity or sonar sensors and an Arduino to allow the truck to go into “autonomous mode” which will allow the truck to drive itself based on sensing what is in front of it and how it can maneuver around it. Not talking about crawling on its own, but should be able to navigate the hallways of campus or the living room furniture on its own.
sorry for the long windedness... but I need answers and the local hobby support is severely lacking.


Styrene: learn me everything. I have never used it to my knowledge. What kind of cement do I need to bond it? Tips for using it? Can it be formed? Or just cut to shape? Is it sturdy enough to consider to use for the bumpers?
Brass/metal: looking at it for the bumpers. What would be best? I have plenty of experience with soldering (currently a designer for a large electronic connector manufacturer) but no experience welding, so I would think steel and aluminum are out. So that leaves brass or something I haven’t thought of… As for Brass, are there tools for clean mandrel style bends? The only thing I could think of was to use a swedge kit tool for a hydraulics repair pack. Anything out there that is better, and that won’t break the bank? My wife and 4 kids need to eat.
Body filler: since I am doing the Crew Cab I will need to make some obvious body mods. I picked up some automotive putty and planned on using it (fixed some stuff on my previous car [1:1] with this) I think I can make it work, but is there something that would be easier to use?
Headlights: my truck has smoked lenses, but I have not seen anyone using smoked lenses. Are they not available? If not, anyone have any ideas on how best to make some?
Badges: I saw in another post (f350 5th wheel with big camper - [3spdwrkr I think]) that the diesel badges were out there but I cannot find them, anyone know more about this? What about matching f250 badges?
Motor: is the stock 540 motor worthwhile? I will be building a large yacht later to pull behind it and was kind of tempted to sync 2 motors together but I am not sure how much extra that will cost both in time and money
MFU: I have purchased the MFU to install rather than building my own circuit due to time constraints, but I am
trying to figure out if I can still do a drop bed with all of that packed in there and still maintain the scale 4” lift appearance… This I will probably be able to answer once the kit arrives (should be here tomorrow)
And finally: I am building the truck for me but I am tagging it together with my final project for my bachelor’s degree and am going to couple the truck with a few proximity or sonar sensors and an Arduino to allow the truck to go into “autonomous mode” which will allow the truck to drive itself based on sensing what is in front of it and how it can maneuver around it. Not talking about crawling on its own, but should be able to navigate the hallways of campus or the living room furniture on its own.
sorry for the long windedness... but I need answers and the local hobby support is severely lacking.
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