Everybody’s Scalin’ – To Bling or Not to Bling

To bling or not to bling, that is the question I’m asking this week.

I’ve got a project monster truck in the works and I plan on hanging a pair of Vanquish F9’s under it. It’s going to be my first purchase of complete machined housings and as such the question above is on my mind.

You see in most of r/c land, aluminum machined parts are to be displayed with pride. Those polished/anodized pieces help to set off your ride from the next guy. This was especially apparent back in the T-Maxx craze days as you weren’t cool unless you had a truck that weighed 20 lbs and could blind a pilot from cruising altitude with all the shiny aluminum.

It’s a bit trickier when you’re talking about a scale build though, as using a machined part that’s finished in any other color than black can really kill/distort the realistic looks. For a personal example, the metal RC4WD Yota 2 axles on my Trail Finder 2 look great in black (they also look great as they wear-in with scratches). In the 1:1 world you rarely see vehicles with visible axle housings that aren’t black, or at the very least a muted grey.

I asked several friends that are hardcore into the scene where they stood on on the issue and there was nearly a unanimous response: yeah, black looks more scale but everyone would rather use the clear or color finished stuff because it shows off the machine work. If someone spends big $$ on gear, they’d rather show it off. Scale looks be damned!

Of course this decision is a completely personal thing, but I tend to agree with my friends and colleagues on this one. Usually I’m all about scale but in this case I say bling it if you got it!