TOPIC:

that is really cool, will you do a version? You have enough parts
It's a shame Marui dropped out of making RC cars, as they had some interesting designs back in the day. I wonder if they kept any of the tooling.
 

yogi-bear wrote:

that is really cool, will you do a version? You have enough parts

It's a shame Marui dropped out of making RC cars, as they had some interesting designs back in the day. I wonder if they kept any of the tooling.

 

Well, almost. On that cluster, there is a number 63, and the parts are not present. I believe this should have been the equivalent of the part 43 for the front...

Don't ask me why, but I woke up way too early this morning for a Sunday... Time to work on the Galaxies

First I put an ESC in the red one. It's fixed with 3M velcro, and there is a velcro band at the same place on the blue. I checked the motor everything is ok on both cars (I do not plan to run both at the same time, I will just have to unplug the ESC and put it in the other car (I have not enough ESC at home to get everything in order, I may put one definitively later on). I then closed the structure.


Time to prepare the shocks. The red were working fine, I decided not to strip them, as I did not have enough toric joints. On the blue ones, I change the toric joints, and start to evaluate the amount of oil needed in them for a smooth work: the proper amount seems to be almost none   


Next was to put the shocks on the cars, first on the red...



Then on the blue...



That is where I noticed that the red rear tower extensions were not mounted properly, so I went back on the red rear shocks to mount them properly.


At that stage, the remaining step were to put the wheels and fix the roll cage, which did not take much time...



After that, it remains the driver figure, and the wings. For both, I have a supply issue. For the driver I know now that I can 3D scan one to reproduce it, so it should be fairly simple. I just need some time to get to a place where I can do the 3D scan (I may wait that I have dismantle the Nichimo to do that, as for sure, I'll need to scan some parts). And for the wing, I'll order them on TBG at some point...

I could not resist to make some family pictures at this stage (which will be redone once there is progress on driver figures and wings side.










That's all for today

As said, almost none oil seems to fit the best the Galaxy shocks.
I had a set of additional Galaxy RS rear shocks, so I made a further try: I did add a hole in the piston. It actually doesn't change much to the situation.
The conclusion is quite clear : they don't work properly. Once on the car, they almost work like friction shocks.

Taking into consideration the look, I may have an easy option to replace those in terms of size, and I'm almost sure they would work better (even though their design seems quite comparable) : Kyosho Scorpion 2014 front shocks seems to have the proper length and are close in terms of diameter. I'll keep this in mind to check further once I have a chance to build a Tomahawk, Scorpion or Beetle re-release, as I think it may be a very good fit, which would definitely improve the Galaxys.

I long searched for data on the Galaxy vs the Galaxy RS. I would like to be able to see the component list in its integrality, and to see if there was other differences than those I identified already:

• Chrome wheels
• Red roll cage, shock stays and roll cage stays
• Marui 360RS motor
• Number plate to glue on the roll cage (as per my understanding this was only available with the Galaxy
• Assumption : there was a diode to remove the radio battery pack

I spend a bit of time reviewing all articles found on rc-paper and retromodelisme to see if there was elements I could find to confirm the last point. I do not have the manual of the Galaxy, and I believe it was different from the RS, as the motor is displayed on the front page on Marui's manual, it had to be different!

Here is the press reviews I found:
-  Rétro Modélisme • Galaxy (Essai voiture) Denis Sallé TT 1/10 Thermique Marui (Auto RCM n°52 Jan/1986) (retromodelisme.com)  : bingo it confirms the diode point
-  Rétro Modélisme • essai Galaxy Marui (Essai voiture) Georges Bohdanowicz TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto 8 n°6 Nov/1985) (retromodelisme.com)
-  RC Paper - Page 47 (rc-paper.com)
While at it, and I'm also listing the Hunter reviews
-  Rétro Modélisme • Hunter (Essai voiture) Marc Maurus TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°40 Jan/1985) (retromodelisme.com)
-  Rétro Modélisme • Essai Hunter Marui (Essai voiture) Georges Bohdanowicz TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto 8 n°2 Jun/1985) (retromodelisme.com)
-  Rétro Modélisme • Hunter modifs et préparation (Technique) François Moret TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°49 Oct/1985) (retromodelisme.com)
-  RC Paper - Page 24 (rc-paper.com)

And some commercials in France for the 3 models
-  Rétro Modélisme • Hunter (Pub constructeur) TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°40 Jan/1985) (retromodelisme.com)
-  Rétro Modélisme • Galaxy (Pub constructeur) TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°49 Oct/1985) (retromodelisme.com)
-  Rétro Modélisme • Galaxy RS (Pub constructeur) TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°76 Jan/1988) (retromodelisme.com)
-  Rétro Modélisme • Hunter (Pub constructeur) TT 1/10 Electrique Marui (Auto RCM n°39 Dec/1984) (retromodelisme.com)
-  RC Paper - Page 21 (rc-paper.com)

There is something notable on the commercial for the Galaxy (red): the drawing is the same as the one on the Marui Galaxy boxart. The silver wheels are not present on the boxart, neither are the indications of the number plates... I believe they make just one drawing of the car with red and blue, and that's 
So if you have a Galaxy (red) at home with silver wheels and would like absolutely to comply with the box art, you should find white wheels and consider sending me you silver wheels 

Another comment : if you have press articles on those models from your countries, please feel free to share them

Beside the retromodelisme and rc-paper, I found a site with a lot of scan of press articles in english this time (there is lot more than those two ones for the likes from Tamiya, Kyosho and others).
Marui Hunter :  Marui Hunter.pdf (overrc.com)
Marui Galaxy :  Marui Galaxy.pdf (overrc.com)

What I like of those site is that you can really identify things (sometimes hop ups) or explanation for some modifications made on vintage cars back in the time... If I find more press article, i'll complete with further posts...
 

Another press review: Models Car Monthly, December 1984 - Hunter on test

I just found this that may be of interest. It is priori to the Galaxy introduction, but it really gives a view of what was the state of the art ep off road racers in 1985...



NB : extract of Model Cars Monthly , June 1985
 

Something arrived today...


And yes, there is a Galaxy manual. Which fully confirms my assumptions on what was included in the Galaxy box...
And within the same mail, I also received a Marui-Amerang flyer dated from December 1985 (Amerang was the  british importer for Marui at that time). Quite interesting, actually, with a funny mistake on the Hunter page, as it is described as a "four wheel drive system" 

Marui Galaxy - Instruction manual