Revolver's Kraton 6s V5 build

[Revolver]

Hey guys,

I'm new to the hobby. Had plans as a teenager to build a car that never materialized, but recently purchased a Kraton to work on and bash with my son. I purchased it on sale before the new EXB was announced and wish I had known the EXB was coming because I probably would have gone that route, but I've already purchased a pile of parts for the BLX and I'm looking forward to building it up.

It will probably take some time to get everything on as it's all new to me, but I'm optimistic the results will be good once it's complete. I'm starting by reinforcing the body with cement board tape and Gorilla Clear Grip Contact Adhesive to make it more durable. The Clear Grip is comparable to E6000 adhesive, but I'm in Canada (as you might have noticed by the links) and the Clear Grip is quite a bit cheaper here.

Here's the body with a first layer of tape:

I underestimated how much adhesive would be required. So far I've used one 88ml tube and ordered 2 more. I don't think 2 more full tubes will be needed, but probably more than 1. I plan to do a little extra reinforcement around all the holes before it's done.

More to come.

 

[SrC]

I have to say, very nice neat job there with the Tape and Gor. glue. Just the Kraton body is so thin anyway , it will still break apart unfortunately . Been there.
I found it less $$ to merely replace the body when the time comes. Ultimately, I just use the PL Bash Armor k6s body. Plug and Play. White only. Cannot paint it either. The hard PET plastic is unpaintable. Not the prettiest body, but truly unbreakable for hard bashing and carnage we all go through.
The only thing I do now is Gorilla tape my other RTR body areas that always break first, then place more tape as needed. I was spending too much on E6000 and way too much time doing it, (tried all other adhesives as well, to no avail) that flimsy K6s body would still break anyway. Mostly the A pillars/ windshield and the front shock towers would come through. No tape and glue helped me. I have one pristine K6s body for the shelf now. Untouched. K6s is a nice looking body. I only wish it was double the thickness like the OC and Notorious 6s bodies. The red one is faster. Won't run it anymore. I must have eaten like 4 k6s bodies in a year. Regardless of what I did. Still adds up even from JennysRC. Most guys still reinforce them. I stopped. Just me.
Just my spin. Let us know how it goes.
You can always add some of the New "worthy" EXB parts to yours. What I would do, i.e. "4mm shock standoffs" being one of them. Older 3mm EXB standoffs plain suck. Snap so easily, if you just sneeze at them.
Enjoy your build.
Keep us updated.

 

[Revolver]

Thanks for the kind words. I'm still hoping I can get more life out of the body, so I'll take it as a challenge. I put one more layer of tape on and a couple more tubes of the Gorilla Clear grip, with a little bit extra in strategic places. The body seems pretty solid now. I have a few other things in mind as well to prolong the body as well, but that will come in time and we'll see how it goes.

I did quite a bit of research on batteries before purchasing anything. I found an RC aircraft website where someone tests many different brands of LiPo batteries and posts tons of objective data about the results. It's pretty interesting information since most of what I see in this hobby is anecdotal. I tried to post the link here so people could benefit from it for themselves, but the post disappeared right quick so I guess the powers that be don't like references to useful information posted elsewhere. That's fair.
The long and the short of it was that SMC came out on top in terms of absolute performance, Liperior/Liperiair were close and probably the best for price/performance and Gen's Ace also did pretty well. I bought this Liperior battery from the states but got a hefty Fedex bill for customs, so I probably won't do that again. I have a place in Ogdensburg, NY where I can pick up packages and drive them across the border myself, I just usually tend to wait until I have 3 or 4 things to get to make it worthwhile. This battery isn't near the top-end in performance, but it does well in terms of price/performance since it's obviously quite cheap. There are many better batteries, but none that were tested performed better for less money. The claimed weight is 695 grams, so nice and light as 6S LiPo's go. On my scale it actually came in at 688, so I managed to save 7 grams without even doing anything.