It is getting harder and harder to stand out in the world of "Scale R/C", as the bar has been raised so high by so many awesome builders. We at RPP Hobby want to showcase some of the outstanding builds that our customers from across the globe send to us on Facebook. Here we will feature a cool project and the person who built it. This will be the new home for these builds. Be sure to stop in regularly and check out the latest and greatest. Please join the conversation on our Facebook page where we will let you decide which builds we feature and builders we interview. The official hashtag for this going forward will be #rpphobbyspotlight, so tag your builds for your chance to be featured and win a $50 RPP Hobby Gift Certificate!



Max Hawney

We are super excited to bring you our next RPP Hobby Spotlight, built by Max Hawney!



RPP Hobby: Max Hawney, please tell us a little about yourself.
Max: I am 28, I Live in the beautiful coastal City of Carlsbad in San Diego California. I am an automotive sales associate and specialize in the performance division of the "3 Pointed Star" Brand. To the RC community on Instagram I go by Maxsdrc. I express an interest in all types of vehicles in every scale! Motorcycles are another another large part of my everyday life. My wife and I have a 1 and a half year old son named Lincoln who I can't wait to share the R/C experience with! He already shows an interest and thinks they are the funniest thing when driven around him.

RPP Hobby: How long have you been in the RC hobby?
Max: As a child, my very first few R/C cars were made by Tyco, I had a SLAMMER and a Jack-Knife back in the day. I drove the slammer into a storm drain and it was never recovered, and the Jack-Knife I got to careless and drove it through a ton of water because it looked awesome. It stopped working shortly after 🤣 So to answer the question, I got into the hobby grade side of it in 2009!

RPP Hobby: What was your first R/C?
Max: My first Hobby grade R/C was actually a Nitro powered AquaCraft U-18 Miss Vegas. That thing was wicked! From there I purchased an HPI Savage XL and eventually got into HPI/Losi 5th scale 2 stroke powered cars that I would take to the Lake Irvine R/C track when I had the time! Got rid of all that stuff regrettably and bought an RTR Axial SCX10 12' Jeep Rubicon a few years later which launched what I have now.

RPP Hobby: What is your favorite R/C?
Max: I have 3 favorites right now, which is probably not uncommon. The Ford F-250 chase truck, my MST RMX 2.0 drift car and my Traxxas Mercedes-Benz G63 6X6.

RPP Hobby: How many hours do you have invested in the current build?
Max: Man, I don't really know. If I had to guess I'd say maybe 28 hours of actually researching, chopping, building. Lots of long nights and afternoons in the garage trying to come up with a way to make it all work. Still lots to be done and changes to be made!

RPP Hobby: What inspired this current build?
Max: I bought this Pro-Line F-250 Cab over a year ago. Painted it like my favorite color combo for the F-250 King Ranch. I knew I needed a cage and liked the Pro-Line one that was pictured on the cab in the stock photos. It sat like that with the cage for months. Finally bought some parts for it and started to piece it together. With every part I added, my ideas and plans changed along with help from the IG community and their builds.

RPP Hobby: What is next for you?
Max: I'd like to build a LCG performance crawler. My issue is I like it to look like something you would see on the road or trail in real life. Which in R/C can be hard to mesh the two with available parts.

RPP Hobby: Do you run any other types of R/C?
Max: Mainly just Crawler type vehicles, I am getting into the Drift car world and I also have a ProBoat Miss Geico Twin 36" Catamaran I haven't used yet 😬

RPP Hobby: What is your favorite IG page to follow for inspiration?
Max: I take bits and pieces of inspiration from everyone on IG. I hit the save button on a lot of photos on IG so I can go back and look at them later if its project time.

RPP Hobby: What is your favorite FB page to follow for inspiration?
Max: I'm on Facebook, but I get 99% of my inspiration from IG.

RPP Hobby: Where is your favorite place to run your scalers?
Max: I'm a big fan of the mountain what locals here call the "P" mountain behind Palomar College. Loads of different trails and terrain. Recently, I took a trip to a place in Fontana that was amazing. I've only just scratched the surface of what that place has to offer. Picked up a few scratches on my rig too 🤣

RPP Hobby: Please list complete specs for your build
Max:
a. Body: Pro-Line Racing F-250 SuperDuty Half-Cab with Back-Half Cage, Bed sides are from a JConcepts F250 short course body.
b. Chassis: Axial SCX10 II Raw Kit with Element RC IFS Kit
c. Motor: Stock, Upgrade in Progress!
d. ESC: Stock, Upgrade in Progress!
e. Servo: NSDRC RS800
F. Suspension: RC4WD King Shocks 110mm Gold Limited Edition and 4 Axial SCX10 II Kit shocks
G. Axles: Element IFS Kit (Front) and Vanquish Products Currie F9 (Grey) (Rear)
h. Interior: None
I. Scale Engine: None
j. Engine Bay: None
k. Hub Cabs: None
l. Wheels: Vanquish Products Method 310 1.9 (Grey)
m. Tires: Pro-Line BFGoodrich Krawler T/A KM3 Mud-Terrain Class 1 1.9" Crawler Tires (Predator)
n. Winch: None yet!

RPP Hobby: Any special features not covered in the list that you would like to mention?
Max: Nope! Thanks for checking out my build!









Darren Hamaoki

Hi guys and gals! We are super stoked to bring you this month’s RPP Hobby Spotlight. This is one of the most incredible builds we have come across. Please meet our RPP Spotlight Builder, Darren Hamaoki.



RPP Hobby: Darren, please tell us a little about yourself.
Darren: I am 46, live in British Columbia Canada. Marine Electronics Service Manager/Technician is my day job and practically every other minute I am doing something to do with Scale R/C crawlers. In the scale R/C world, I go by the handle MTRANGER. I help operate our local R/C Club “Lower Mainland Radio Control Crawlers”. Design and 3D print all kinds of custom parts for my builds. Other hobbies include Fly Fishing in the Spring and Fall and waterskiing in the Summer. My wife is great and “lets” me absorb myself into R/Cs and my son joins me from time to time.

RPP Hobby: How long have you been in the RC hobby?
Darren: I have been active in R/Cs as a Kid with Cars, Boats and Planes as my Dad is an R/C nut. However, not until 2013 did I get really hooked into R/C Crawlers. Purchased My first Wraith and built it with massive flex until I learned better. From there it was an SCX10 G6, then a TF2, another Wraith, Comp crawler AX10 and XR10, then into more and more scale builds, getting more detailed every time.

RPP Hobby: What was your first R/C?
Darren: First solely owned R/C was probably a foamy plane called the "Ranger” which made a hole in the ground far too soon. First R/C Car was the Tamiya Hot Shot when it first was released. I drove it everywhere and off anything, until my Dad stole the CRYSTALS out of the Radio for something of his, then the Hotshot crumbled on the shelf from all the acetone from my Dads airplane builds eating away the plastic.

RPP Hobby: What is your favorite R/C?
Darren: To drive probably my farm truck build I call Soup-Can. Custom build off a Trailfinder 2 chassis. However, for looks it is my project F-Bomb, based off the Moss Brother’s Racing ‘79 Bronco Baja1000 truck which my R/C recently won best metal-work at USTE2020 in Florida. A friend was meant to take both the F-Bomb and this Blue Bronco down to 2020 Bronco Super Celebration a huge 1:1 Bronco show. I guess that’s delayed now ☹

RPP Hobby: How many hours do you have invested in the current build?
Darren: The Blue Bronco I call “Classy B”, I have invested countless hours. Let just say it took 8 months in the making.

RPP Hobby: What inspired this current build?
Darren: This build was inspired by my love of Ford products and the fact that cool Hard body Fords were hard to come by. So, when I started to see them pop up in the 3D print community I had to build it! When I rummaged through Google Images, I saw the sky blue and white with the red pinstripe and knew that was the color scheme.

RPP Hobby: What is next for you?
Darren: Build-wise, I am not sure. I have a stockpile of projects from a Tamiya YJ to CJ7 conversion on a SWB TF2. However, I guess my highest goal is to mash up two F150 Raptor bodies and fleet-side it to make a 1:1 replica build of my own 2015 F150 Crew-cab. As far as other plans, I will just work on growing our local club and get community awareness, recognition and support. Maybe hit up a few more Scale R/C Events in the US next year.

RPP Hobby: Do you run any other types of R/C?
Darren: Now it’s all R/C Trucks and Crawlers, from super realistic scale trucks to pro MOA Comp crawlers.

RPP Hobby: What is your favorite IG page to follow for inspiration?
Darren: Scale Builders Guild, and my friend Wrencher25. He inspired me to up my “scale” game!

RPP Hobby: What is your favorite FB page to follow for inspiration?
Darren: Again, Scale Builders Guild is huge.

RPP Hobby: Where is your favorite place to run your scalers?
Darren: We used to have a little piece of paradise called “Loco” with rock crawling and wooded trails galore until no fun bureaucrats prevented us from being able to access it. Now I would say at my Cabin along our rocky beach. Of course, me and the crew hit our local watershed park every Wednesday night.

RPP Hobby: Please list complete specs for your build
Darren:
a. Body: MFAB 3D printed
b. Chassis: GCM CMAX and Scale Driveline
c. Motor: Holmes Hobbies Crawlmaster Pro 16T
d. ESC: Tekin FXR inside the scale battery
e. Suspension: Custom designed front Radius Arm suspension leaves in rear
f. Axles: RC4WD K44 Front Axle and RC4WD Yota II Rear Axle
g. Interior: Custom designed and printed by me Seats/Shifters/window cranks
h. Scale Engine: MrCommaD 3d printed 302 Engine
i. Engine bay: Custom designed and printed components rad servo cover/ battery/washer fluid bag
j. Hubcabs: Custom designed by me printed by Shapeways
k. Wheels and Tires: RC4WD 1.9 Hawkeyes wrapped around RC4WD 1.9 Landies
l. Winch: Powershift Roadrunnner Servo Winch hidden Between the rear frame rails.

RPP Hobby: Thank you very much for sharing this build with us, Incredible work Darren. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with next!
Darren: Thanks guys, love this new spotlight. I appreciate you selecting my Bronco!






















Paul Valdez


Ok, meet Paul Valdez. Some of you might already know him as the artist who created the epic Axialfest songs of the past (YouTube video below) and for his insane build style. Talk about a guy who thinks outside of the box!

His latest creation is too cool not to share. Check out this Element RC Enduro Senduro!



We caught up with Paul and asked him a few questions about his new Element project and R/C in general. This is what he had to say...

RPP Hobby: How long have you been in the RC hobby?
Paul: Ever since R/C cars were ever released I've been interested. I have been at least 7 to 8 years fully committed though. I have such a passion for it, and I love the creation aspect of it all.

RPP Hobby: What was your first R/C?
Paul: I had a Tyco Heads Up buggy when I was 12. 4 hours charging a battery for 15 minutes of fun!

RPP Hobby: What is your favorite R/C?
Paul: My SCX10 '64 impala with full lowrider capability like hydraulics with an all chrome chassis. It is my pride and joy for sure!

RPP Hobby: How many hours do you have invested in the current build?
Paul: Around 15 to 20 hours on the truck itself with lights, interior setup and dry time but around a week for the painter on the lowrider style paint job. He did an amazing job and it was his first attempt with that kind of style. I was super pleased with it.

RPP Hobby: What inspired this current build?
Paul: I had built the '64 Impala lowrider car, so I wanted a lowrider style crawler to possibly tow the car on a custom trailer.

RPP Hobby: What is next for you?
Paul: Looking to expand the hobby to people who are interested, but don’t know how to get involved and may not even own a rig yet. I'm looking to start more demo programs and introduce educational programs for people to try out rigs and see if it sparks an interest. If so, we'll have the ability to help expand their passion for the hobby. We've had amazing results with testing this idea last year and this year looks to be even bigger than we could have imagined. We've been welcomed by the community with open arms when they see how much kids are drawn to this hobby and parents first questions are, "How do we get involved?". That's why I created the RC (remote control) League. A non-profit organization that grows the hobby within the community. Kids are in and parents see it as a way to experience a passion they both can be a part of together.

RPP Hobby: Do you run any other types of R/C?
Paul: Quite a few. On-road, off-road, U4, drag racing, carpet off-road, scale, comp rigs (MOA, sporty, trail), mud trucks, and boats.

RPP Hobby: What is your favorite IG page to follow for inspiration?
Paul: Tough question for sure. I like to see other builders' passions and ideas for innovation. That really isn't a favorite IG page because I do have a few I like to watch on a regular basis. Element RC and its members, Rivas Concepts and the Pro-Line groups. Lots of ideas with a variety of rigs, for sure.

RPP Hobby: What is your favorite FB page to follow for inspiration?
Paul: Another tough question. The market here, from what I watch, is huge. I can’t even begin to pick a favorite. It's my main place for inspiration. Something new is always coming out. I almost have a hard time keeping up with who's doing what!

RPP Hobby: Where is your favorite place to run your scalers?
Paul: Farmington, New Mexico. The largest terrain that's basically naturally developed for some all-around crawling. Sandstone for miles and miles. You can pick a spot and be there for hours during the day or into night! You can come with a stock or fully built rig and have the same type of fun! It allows adventure for anybody, really. Plus, it makes for some really amazing shots! Nothing but beautiful terrain for sure.

RPP Hobby: Please list complete specs for your build
Paul: Sure, here ya go!
Truck - Element RC Enduro Senduro
Body - Enduro Senduro
Inner Fender - Element RC
Bumpers Front and Rear - Scaler Fab
Paint job - SKG RC Painting
Motor - Reedy 12T Brushed Radon Motor
Wheels - Hercules Hobby Wire Wheels
Tires - Element RC General Grabber 1.9 Tire
Lights - Manny Buttler- Lit Led
Interior - Pro-Line 4Runner Interior
Interior paint - Spaz Stix Black
Interior material - Red Bandanna Material
Interior Skeletons - Dollar General Halloween find
Speakers - Mike Raph- Mob Audio
Chain steering wheel - 3D Pen

RPP Hobby: Thanks for your time Paul. Keep the awesome builds coming!
Paul: Thank you guys. See you on the trail!













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