The Neo Fighter comes in a moderately sized box with a photo rather than
traditional Tamiya artwork. The sticker in the corner shows that
my version seems to be a bit special. Not only does it comes with
the usual ESC, it has a torque tuned motor and even a CVA shock upgrade
already included.
Here are the parts laid out on the table.
There are a relatively small number of plastic sprues compared with some
of the more complex kits, but also quite few metal parts.
The central chassis is fascinating. It is constructed from two
halves forming a long, strong bathtub. The cavernous interior is
used for the battery and servo and still has plenty of room left
over. The right hand image shows my electronics setup with a
Li-Po, the stock ESC and motor, and a cheap metal gear steering servo.
We'll start with the steering and front suspension. The steering
servo installs upside down in the front of the chassis and directly
drives a pair of steering links. The front lower suspension arms
mount to the chassis via a cross bracket and have a significant kick up
angle. They are retained with a u-shaped wire and a lower skid
plate.
The differential uses the standard sintered metal bevel gears inside
with a very large external plastic housing. This assembly then
drops into the rear gearbox along with a center gear that will mate with
the back of the spur.
The completed gearbox now houses the motor, the pinion, and the
spur. The back side of the spur has an integral smaller gear that
grabs the center gear in the gearbox. Note how large the face
width is on most of these gears. This model is clearly designed to
support a motor much larger than stock if desired. I believe I
shall have to rise to the challenge.
Now we'll build the rear suspension. The lower arms pin to the
gearbox housing. The upper arms are solid and therefore neither
the toe nor the camber are adjustable. The uprights contain the
bearings and hubs which are driven by plastic dogbone style axles.
The front and rear suspension were each built as standalone modules
which can now be joined to the main chassis tub. At this point it
is looking buggyish. I like how thin the chassis is which makes it
very easy to grab securely with one hand. You can see that the
ESC and receiver are mounted above the tub, and battery is placed down
low and inside. The wheels and tires can then be installed: narrow
in the front and wide and spiky in the back.
Now we'll build the shocks. These are standard CVAs so nothing
special to comment on except that obviously the front and rear are sized
quite differently so you need to keep careful track of which parts are
which. The diameters are even slightly different which means they
use different spring cups and caps.
With the installation of the shocks, the chassis is complete. This
was a quick, one day build. One more afternoon to apply the
paint and decals. The masking on this one is quite easy since it
is just a straight line. There are no wheel arches to trim, so
cutting out the body is also quite simple.
