Well - I picked up the Reflex Yesterday. I will post some photos of the build process in the upcoming days. Taking my time, since I wont be getting the engine header and pipe for another 2 weeks.
So far I have assembled the front and rear diffs, as well as the optional front one way diff. I have also completed all four hub carries, pillow ball setups, and CVD's.
Only time will tell if this is a better kit than the NTC3 for racing, but so far I have noticed several things that impress me.
-The gear diffs vice ball diffs are much more fluid and well built
-The CVD's are titanium
-so are all the tierods
-4mm chassis compared to 2.5mm on the tc3
-carbon fibre shock towers, and upper chassis brace
there are other things too, and like i said, not sure if any of these features will show an improvment over the ntc3, but they do seem to be a lil better quality.
Another thing i have noticed is that Trinity's favour for style has crossed over into this kit. silly things like crome pulleys, two tone cvds pillow balls and the like, they spend alot of time on eye candy as well as performance. AE abides by the form follows function theory. The eye candy doesnt had any performance aspect to the vehicle, but it is nice to look at.
well, thats about it - as i said, i will post some pics in the next few days of the build process. still havnt decided between the 3 engines i listed in the forum Earlier. any ideas would be helpful
Day 3
the photo below shows the completed pillow balls and knuckles as well as the titanium CVD's. also, in the background, u can see the servo saver with attached titanium turnbuckles.
below is the completed front suspension. u can begin to see the quality and structural integrity of the suspension. one of my beefs with the ntc3 was that the front shock tower was attached to the front diff. during races, this would become damaged and make the car undrivable due to the top shock tower stripping out of the top diff. After racing the NTC3's for a year, i have more lower front diff cases than i know what to do with, since they come in pairs. the suspension setup of the reflex eliminates this.
the picture below shows the now completed rear suspension, and brake assembly. as u can see, trinty has chosen to use aluminium and carbon fiber extensivly throughout the car. If anyone else choses to build this car make sure that you not only file down some of the edges, where the carbon meets belts, ect... but use CA all around the outside to prevent pealing in the event of a crash.
Day 5
here is a photo of the hardest thing i had to work on during the entire build process. My cat.
everytime i would walk away for a minute, she would try to get up on the table and either bat the pieces around, or eat them. needless to say, im glad i had some spare bolts. I caught her sneaking up to the table when i took this pic.
The next photo shows just how committed trinity is to detail. this is a pic of the shock shafts and plunger assemblies. as u can see, even they are aluminium. amazing.
here are two more photos with the shocks installed and the carbon fibre top plate on. still have a ways to go. have decided to use the new Sirio .12TRP to power rthe vehicle. Installing a hitec 311 servo for throttle and a 635 for steering.
Well - thats it for now. I still need to install the electronics, batts engine and pipe, as well as some other minor accessories.
I have picked up the trinity 1100ma cell for the rcvr, and am going with another novak synth rcvr to use with my Hitec Lynx 3D TX. The engine and pipe are on order, but wont be here for another week or so. Please post any questions or replys.
I will post more photos of the final completion stages, as well as break in and how it does at its first race.