Xray M18 is here

[justo316]

Picked up my M18 today. Tiny little box with tiny little parts inside. I must say, this has possibly been the best kit I have ever put together. Everything went together easily and flawlessly. The included Hudy screwdriver was a great bonus.

My Motek Panther Pro chassis had already arrived so I installed it straight away. I need to get some tiny electronics, cos even my Quantum Competition esc seems too big for the chassis.

Gonna do the paint job tomorrow. Hopefully my battery and motor arrive soon from overseas so I can see this thing go. I'm a bit tempted to put the mamba in here for a taste ;)


e107_files/public/36_m18_1.jpg

[justo316]

Best instructions ever...
The one complaint I'd have would be that the wheels are a very tight fit, and I can't see myself getting them off in a hurry.

e107_files/public/36_m18_2.jpg

[justo316]

Kinda reminds me of a micro Pro4....makes the pain of selling it easier to handle :D

e107_files/public/36_m18_3.jpg

[BALISTC]

That thing is beautiful!!!

I bet it'll fly with the Mamba on board!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !lmao

[justo316]

Ok, so I couldn't help myself....I've got bugger all paint left of any colour besides Smoke and I've lost my paint masks so I used some crappy masking tape I found lying around.

e107_files/public/36_m18_body_1.jpg

[justo316]

I think I've learnt I really don't like doing bodies....

e107_files/public/36_m18_body_2.jpg

[justo316]

The car took about 3 hours to build. The body took about the same and it's a crap job. I wish I had an airbrush for these things. Spray cans are useless for anything but one-colour jobs.

e107_files/public/36_m18_body_3.jpg

[justo316]

Nah, I reckon the paint job would have been 100 times better with a fine airbrush. You can definately tell it's done with a spraycan. I did the orange before the white, which was a mistake and resulted in a faint orange tinge in the white part. Can't really see it in the pics.

I would have liked to have used proper paint masks instead of masking tape, but I firgure I'll use this as practice for when I get my next body....probably a supra.

The only thing I did like was the blue with the black bordering around the bottom. Again, can't really see in the pics, but looks nice in real life.

[justo316]

Just wait til I get my all black Hornet ;)

[justo316]

WOW! Just went for its first test run down at City West. I chucked my Big Block in with my crappy 7.2V Losi and Venom NiMH packs. I can't believe how good it is for a micro! Spun out too much from a standstill and full lock but I haven't even looked at setting it up yet.

Already handles much better than the HPI micro I had.

I can't wait to see this baby with the Beast Raptor and 8.4V GPs....and after that......brushless!

[James]

looks nice, even the paint job. you couldn't hold back could you? assembled it and painted it in one arvo. haha funny.

chassis looks hot, I take it this will be a race car? (not a bash car)

I wouldnt wanna bash that anywhere.

Cant wait to see Ryper's new 1/18th on-road and off-road tracks.

This winter is going to rock!!

[Bowling Ball]

That looks real cool. I dig the the short CVD's lol

Good build there Justo - I'd like to see it run sometime

Looks too good for anything less than racing!

BB

[justo316]

Pfft....racing. I'm all about bashing. As long as it's smooth road :P

Gonna try sort ou a micro receiver for it asap, cos the regular one I have is waaaay too big. Such a nice chassis, they could have given me a bit more room to fit everything.

[justo316]

:D haha....yeah, but seriously, I can fit a quantum esc and thats it. Doesn't matter, found a compatible micro receiver.

[James]

Justin, change ya sig dude. Xray M18 (on roids) haha

[justo316]

I just tried a little trick from the one18th guys.

The M18 stock diffs are complete shite. They use gears, but just aren't smooth AT ALL.

The problem is, for 2 Xray ball diffs you could pretty much buy a whole M18. So, I got two Associated RC18T diffs and used them instead. They are a direct fit, except for a few shims that are needed. I haven't shimmed mine and it works fine. The best part....RC18T ball diffs cost US$9.

Car handles noticably better, but will have to test it properly during the daytime.

On a sad note, some of the M18 screws are rusting already! I have barely driven it at all, and not when it was wet either.

[justo316]

Bloody spewin!!!

Got my 7 cell battery for my M18 today. It bloody wont fit into my Motek chassis. I scraped some of the black covering off and forced it in there, but it's SUPER tight. Plus, I can't get the battery strap on. I think if you use the Motek chassis, you HAVE to run a 6cell side by side pack.

Right now, I've got double sided tape holding the battery down.

[justo316]

NEW PHOTOS

Got my Beast Raptor today as well as my blindbatts 7cell battery pack. Fit it all in snugly and as clean as possible.

e107_files/public/36_m18_electronics1.jpg

[justo316]

2/3

Notice the battery isn't held down by anything. I had to use double sided tape cos it's too big. Might have to suck it in and buy some 6 cell side by side packs.

e107_files/public/36_m18_electronics2.jpg

[justo316]

3/3

Can't wait to try it out. Will hopefully sneak out to omni tonight and give it a bash.

e107_files/public/36_m18_electronics3.jpg

[justo316]

WOW.

Went to Omni for a quick go. This thing is too damn fast. I've got it geared way too high. Motor was getting pretty hot after a couple minutes, but damn, so much torque. Only bad point is it spins out way too easy. You really got to feather the throttle when you takeoff, which im kinda used to now from using the mamba.

I'll be doing a test run with a smaller pinion soon and hopefully, I'll chuck my 7,2v packs in so I can do a comparison to the bigblock I was running before. But, all signs are pointing towards the Beast Raptor as being an AWESOME motor for micros.

[BALISTC]

How do you think the Beast Raptor is compared to the Mamba 8k??

[justo316]

I think the mamba is more exciting because of the way it just keeps accelerating all the way up to however many 1000 revs...

BUT, the I think the Beast is the better way to go. You dont need to go THAT fast. Plus, the Beast has NO cogging problems, it's got bucketloads of torque, plenty of speed, no need for new batteries, nice shaft for attaching pinions, and only costs US$30.

I'd say, from a standstill, a beast powered car would takeoff much quicker than a mamba powered car, just because of the instant torque (no cogging).