My RC Mini Cooper M-03R Project :)

[C.A.R.]

Copy and pasted from another forum, hopefully it all still makes sense!

I won an auction for a nice M03R kit which had been built but never run; the builder I think took on too much for a beginner (not that this was hard to build) and had given up a few stages from the end of the manual.

The M03R has some pretty cool unique parts like the chrome played chassis/monocoque, blue alloy front steering knuckles, rear uprights, motor heat sink/mount and servo posts.





You'll notice that the funky transparent-blue CVA dampers are missing, replaced with black ones. I can't really remember why I did that now! I think they ended up on a TA05...

I tried 3Racing alloy shocks but they seemed way too hard for the little chassis which isn't really all that heavy; so kit springs and standard mini CVAs is what it's now got.

I've also added Tamiya Quick-release battery retainer and Front and Rear Stabiliser kit. The motor fan was really just a bit of bling I got cheap from 3Racing, but the power wire has snapped off the board can you just replace this little fan unit?



Anyway, once cleaned up and with a motor slotted in I found there was a horrible binding in the gearbox, and only once the motor was installed did the diff not work correctly; both wheels were locked. I dismantled it and was surprised that the M03R didn't have a ball differential (should it?!!) and the gear diff was incorrectly assembled, so that was an easy fix.

The body absolutely had to be a Mini Cooper - what else?!



Masking this was an absolute pig, all of the chrome is painted on because I wasn't happy with just having a silver finish. It took forever!



I really couldn't decide on a colour, I had lots of cans kicking around too; it was going to be metallic red, then PS16 metallic blue, then PS2 red. In the end I had to just take a gamble and pick a colour - I'm rubbish at making these kind of decisions.





I had deliberately masked off the headlights and tail-lights; I hate getting the kit stickers to match the dome shape of the headlights and the rear light decals always seem to flake off over time.

Stickers on; starting to look the part now:



I then used this stuff; it's a textured transparent decal made by Wrap-Up Next, for extra detail on drift cars.



This was hard to get to stick to the curvature of the lights too!

[img]=http://i430.photobucket.com/albums/qq25/chris_rx71/Mobile%20Uploads/FB9CA23A-3F61-45A5-9613-7D7E0AFBA72D.jpg[/img]

And on the rear lights, with transparent orange and red painted over to get the right effect -

[img]=http://i430.photobucket.com/albums/qq25/chris_rx71/Mobile%20Uploads/9A4B61F0-ACE4-4CB1-997D-C8B11E4F0EC0.jpg[/img]

What I then did was get some Tamiya Aluninium tape, face a piece shiny-side pointing outward through the transparent lights and then secure it down with a larger piece facing the other way. This gives the lights a 3D look and the light reflects off them very realistically



A proper Cooper needs an exhaust pipe, but no massive Jap Cannon here! And a bit of Meccano came in handy to secure it to the chassis





Inside the bodyshell I have applied black duct tape - this helps protect the paint finish but also helps back the paint with a good base colour of grey. I then added some light buckets which I modified from a Z-tune Skyline gtr, the rear light bezel to be precise. This was secured with more aluminium tape and the proper halogen light bulbs were added, for a vintage yellow hue





FINISHED!!



Hope you enjoyed that; sorry it wasn't much of a 'build'!