ASK Cubby – More Letters, Less Answers

“First Kit Build Question

Hey Cubby, first of all, I love the website and your column. Good, informative stuff, and really has helped me as I’ve gotten into the hobby.

My question, though. I’ve been pretty heavily into RC cars for about two years now, but I am only minimally comfortable with wrenching. I think building a kit will be a good way to better understand how a car goes together and get more comfortable turning tools. My question, what’s a good first kit? The two I’ve been really looking at are the Tamiya Sand Scorcher and the ECX Barrage. The Barrage kit seems a good choice as it’s not a huge investment either financially or time wise, and I can still get the benefits of building my first car with minimal risk.

I’m into pretty much every type of RC cars, crawlers, bashers, road cars, rally, and buggies. Are there other kits I should be considering? Any tips for a semi-noob looking to start fixing his own rigs?

Thanks for any advice!

Jim M.”

Cubby- Yo to the yo Jimmy, thanks for writing in. Oh ya, don’t forget about the whole “snail mail for a sticker pack” dealio.

First up, some “rc snob” people try to make it out that building an rc kit is hard. Digging a ditch is hard. Dealing with a death in the family is hard. Figuring out where the asteroid Oumuamua came from is hard. Building a toy rc car, I don’t care how esoteric, is easy. Yes, seriously. So when you go into your first build, go into it from the mental aspect of “how easy it is”, instead of “how hard it is”. Simply put, grow a set and don’t psych yourself out.

So, it sounds like you’ve already got some experience with rc, so you’ve read the forums and such, thus you already know tools are important. Yes, you’ll need a few tools, but you don’t need the Snap-On truck to drop by your house. The kit you buy will tell you exactly which tools you need, then hit up your LHS and grab them. However, the real key to building your first rc car kit is….

READ THE MANUAL. CLOSELY. NO, EVEN CLOSER. That is the very best advice that anyone can give you. If you study the manual CLOSELY, and pay very close attention to which direction parts should go, exactly which bolts to use where, etc, you’ll have an easy and great build. I can not come close to expressing the amount of personal satisfaction that you will have after you are done, it truly is awesome, and is a great confidence builder.

About exactly which kit, both that you mention are super easy to build. One, the Tamiya, will give you a true “old school” building experience, while the other, the ECX Barrage, will give you an easy scale truck build as some of the harder parts come pre-assembled. Both are fun routes to go, so I would absolutely recommend both. 🙂

Peace and love, and I wanna see pics when your first build is done!

“Music Stuff

Cubby,

The lead singer of smashing pumpkins says that paint color can affect the sound of a guitar. If so, can the paint color affect the speed of an rc car? Red always seems faster to me.

Trevor H.”

Cubby- Hey what’s up Trevor ya nut case? Good to hear from you again and hope you’ve been well.

Ya, Billy Corgan is something else, they (Smashing Pumpkins) are making a big media push at the moment, and a quote like that is sure to go viral. And viral means TONS of FREE advertising.

The guys from Weezer also did some unique marketing with the whole Africa/Toto thing. Genius really, and got both bands millions upon millions of dollars of advertising for free. Rc needs more unique marketing ideas like those.

So, is red truly the fastest color you can have on your car? The answer is actually no, as it has been scientifically proven the fastest color you can run is plaid. Who would have known? I expect pics of your B6.1 in plaid to hit my email box any day now… 🙂

Have a question? Even an rc one? Need an answer? Why won’t that girl date you? Why did she put a restraining order on you????? Email me- thecubreportrc at gmail dot com.