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Tamiya fine polish

How DO they do that??
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wixwacing
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Posts: 1871
Joined: Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:22 am

Tamiya fine polish

Post by wixwacing »

One of those things you just literally stumble across. Two dilemmas of late caused me to make an amazing yet very real discovery.

Firstly, because of my slack approach to my comp cars exteriors I consequently have a lot of cars with scuffed and daggie bodies. Now my scratchbuilts always have a sheen to them! That's because I give them a light 'touching up' with Tamiya FINE polishing compound.

I have been having a little anxiety getting the superb Cartrix crown wheels to match up with Ninco and SCX pinions. Remember, a noisy drive is using energy to make that noise when it could be spent driving the wheels.

Whilst sitting at my workbench the other morning I thought, What to do? toothpaste grind in? Something else? Then there it was. A little bit of Tamiya FINE polish applied to the crownwheel and pinion and run at slow speed. Voila! Within seconds the motor revs picked up and the noise got sweeter and sweeter. A second application confirmed what was happening. After running for two or three minute at low revs, the gears were washed of firstly with a stencil brush and water, then a drop of Shellite and the whole lot lubed with Wynn’s motor additive. The car was placed on the track and it purred like a kitten !!

So, all those with noisy SCX cars take note, splash on a bit of Tamiya FINE polish and sit back and enjoy the sweet sound of gears meshing! Then you can give the bodies the once over and restore their rightful lustre!

One word of caution. I liberally lubed the armature shaft bearing with light grease. This is to stop the polish being thrown into the end of the motor and harming the end bearing!

Tamiya fine polish is sold in medium sized tubes at your local hobby store. The instructions are in Japanese so when using it to polish a paint job, apply it with a clean, soft, damp cloth.
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When I'm not racing slotcars,
I'm out in the back yard, burning food!!

When I win, it's because of my talent, not my car or my controller!
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