Custom bodies possibilities
 

Here are some test fits from my collection of Epoch bodies and bodies I already adapted to Epoch chassis.

Some will fit the Dnano Murcielago setup perfectly (Epoch spec1 bodies) some other would require narrower tracks and longer/shorter H plate.

Epoch spec 1:

http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanosky01.jpg
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/DnanoSupra03.jpg

Epoch spec 2:

http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt06.jpg
The old school skyline would require a shorter front body mount
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt07.jpg

Plastic kits (1/43 scale)

http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt01.jpg
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt02.jpg
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt03.jpg
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt04.jpg
Too bad the Vette is so narrow. I doubt it can be made to fit:
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt08.jpg

And!
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt09.jpg
Joking ;)

The rest of my collection (all 1/43 or 1/32 plastic bodies)

http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt10.jpg
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt11.jpg
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt12.jpg
http://alain.galluser.free.fr/Z/Dnanoadapt13.jpg

Some 1/32 slotcar bodies of compact cars would fit. The green Simca with black hood on the last picture is a 1/32 scalextric that was adapted to the Epoch chassis. It would fit the Dnano chassis with a longer H plate.

Very cool A, and great pics! :)

WOW! I like that RSX the best with those AVM rims, very cool! I'd stick with that body! How does the Dnano chassis handle with the added weight of the Epoch body? And can you show us pictures of how you mounted the body onto the chassis? I've got a Slot car Mini Cooper S that fit's RM conversion but is too narrow for some of the Dnano's. The Mini Cooper S fit's over the chassis perfectly, but the wheels stick out to wide so I'd need to find the shortest track possible. Track being the wheelbase from left side to right side. :D

Well the white RSX will stay untouched for some reason, David aka tinyrc knows why ;) I will keep it in the Epoch form, just posted the pic for info.

The handling is really good with the added weight, feels steady, but most of all, indestructible. I ran it in a mini-z heat last friday. Was intending a comparison but the Dnano finished 3rd out ouf 8 Mini-z, how about that? ;)

For the mounts check the "Supra adaptation" thread, it has pictures.

I am sure with future bodies like the Lancia Delta we will have the conversion parts to very narrow tracks.

I was also wondering about the Delta and I hope it will be narrow enough to accomidate the Mini Cooper. I think it would be pretty cute to have such a tiny little RC Mini Cooper haul butt! You didn't video tape that Dnano being in 3rd did you? that would've been sweet. I wanted to do same test with my Lit but it had the tendancy to flip over alot, so it was really slow around turns, so it would've NOT been a good comparison test.
I'm surprised the Dnano handled the abuse from the bigger cars? Still trying to find out why my Murcielago's stalling. But right now I'm waiting for the DnanoShop to have the white 911 as that'll be my next Dnano car. I'll check out the Supra after dinner, thank's!

No we just taped the Dnano race. The race with the Supra body was later. Well of course I told the guys to be easy on the Dnano, and I cleared the leader when he came back but I mastered to pass several Z's being very careful not to stay to close.

Just wanted to add a few other custom body possibilities to this thread. Some of the japanese hobbyist have been using Bandai 1/43 finished plastic model kits which i feel have a better finish then the epochs IMO.
http://shop.as-web.jp/shop/S11138/im...96/pic_big.jpg


Also Arch2b was curious about this but the Honda NSX posted recently on the japanese kyosho store website is a model kit from Rosso. So yes, it is indeed a custom.
http://akihabara.kyoshoshop.com/DSC_9921.jpg

oh my, some of those kits can be bought for $18!

we seriously need to start a chassis/kit db as it will be far cheaper to purchase and mount these than buying dnano autoscales.

anyone glean how they are mounting these over in jpn?

This car seems to have the exact same wheelbase as my Lambo - 63mm. Width could be close but not sure. By looking at the old Calsonic Nissan car at the top of the thread, the width might be a match also... Someone needs to start selling the mounting pieces for a reasonable price.

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/8599/impulz.jpg

do any of the japanese sites show how they mount the bandai bodies? those are seriously cheap thus very interesting to work with.

I ordered the blue Impul Z pictured above... $20.15 shipped. I am planning to mount it using foam and lego. :D
I am going to cut out a piece of foam from one of my old Tamiya 1/10 car foam bumpers. Put it in the front and mount like how Mini Z bodies mount. And for the sides, I will try to use the round lego pieces. I will have to trim it to fit in the holes on the chassis.
I searched japanese sites using Online translators to search for phrases like "mount bandai dnano" but I could not find any instructions. :(

For the front, I stuffted some hard foam in the empty space for the front part of the chassis to push against. And I glued on a flat piece of plastic from the parts tree on the bottom to hold the chassis. For the sides, I used parts tree pieces as well. I sanded down the parts tree pieces so that I could have some flat surface to glue on. The rear tires are touching the body in the back so I drummelled out some. I used Gorilla "Impact-Tough" formula because I could not find Loctite Epoxy at my local Target store... I hope it holds. :)
I took the part off on the front end of the chassis where the stock body hooks on. Impul Z body is a near perfect fit for the Murcielago chassis. I had to grind out the bottom part of the front chrome piece and trim down the four support poles inside the body. Because the side of the Impul Z body near the rear wheels is not parallel to the chassis the parts tree piece won't have enough surface area to be glued on. Cut the part long on one end so that long arm can be glued toward the front fender well. I had to replace the ones in the picture with longer ones.

One of the mirrors is already bent after bumping into the wall few times. :(

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/489...5medium.th.jpg
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/812...6medium.th.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/635...7medium.th.jpg
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/764...8medium.th.jpg
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/897...9medium.th.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/817...0medium.th.jpg
http://img2.imageshack.us/img2/4617/...1medium.th.jpg
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/924...3medium.th.jpg

I guess it will hold. My entire track is made of foam and I am running by myself so I have not had any real collisions with other cars. The body is not as flexable as my Kyosho Lamboghini so it took a little bit of getting used to but it works fine and I like it. If you make the side nipples too long, you could have harder time putting the body on/off.

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/7...07274small.jpg

http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/7...7275smallc.jpg

I have been wondering about some model kit's in 1/43 scale.
I have a 1/43 scale slot car of the new Mini Cooper S, but it is too narrow for the Dnano's wheel base. The chassis its self fit's the body, and converting it to RM seems to help, but the wheel base needs to be narrower to fit the Mini properly.
I've just seen on ebay some Heller model kit's in 1/43 including one of my favorite WRC cars, the Peugeot 206. I wonder if that will fit the Dnano and I wonder how to make it snap onto the chassis.
What is the narrowest of all Dnano cars? The Delta?

I think I have found the most challenging body to fit on a Dnano chassis.
An AC Cobra :)
At first glance it won't fit, due to the very short wheelbase, but if I remove the H bar it fits with the rear tires almost touching the chassis block.

http://www.nanospeeders.com/photos/D...ra/cobra03.jpg
More pics here

Also found an old Heller 1/43 kit. This one fits the Murcielago chassis perfectly. Funny the Sauber Mercedes is also the first body to be released with the new Mini-z chassis MR03...

http://www.nanospeeders.com/photos/D...cedesc9/c9.jpg

The 206 is about the size of the Delta in real life, so it should fit at dNano scale, provided the dNano Delta is exact 1/43.

I think I posted this already but can't remember where.

Two more projects "for when I have some spare time" :rolleyes:

They are 1/32 slotcar bodies. But they are really tiny cars in 1/1 and so they fit the dnano chassis with long WB and wide tracks (murcielago).
I had to shave everything under the body but could manage to keep the drivers heads and a small section of the arms and steering wheel :)

http://www.nanospeeders.com/photos/D...renaults11.jpg
http://www.nanospeeders.com/photos/D...renaults12.jpg
[IMG]

More pics here

NICE! Thank you for posting those pics! I'm even more intrigued by the Pug 206 now. I even saw a plastic body of the first gen RX7 in racing form! Might get that if indeed it's plastic. His description on his listing was confusing.
It look's like some custom wheels will need to be made to make it look right for each of those bodies. But I do like what I see and I think it's pretty cool you were able to keep the drivers! Makes it more fun that way!
I find it odd how very similar the Saab car look's a lot like the Le Man's cars we already have. Then again, I suppose a lot of those cars looked similar back then.
I have yet to see what's so special about the MR3 chassis? But am interested in seeing new Le Man's type bodies! Still hope they do one of the classic Ferrari's!

I say keep an eye on 1/32 slotcar models of tiny cars. They will fit the Dnano chassis with the Murcielago/Enzo etc setup.
Slotcar bodies are tough, they are made to survives crashes so they are perfect for RC racing as well.
The choice is endless

I would have thought of 1/32 as being too big for the Dnano as it's 1/43. I'd be interested in the new Mini Cooper S, but at 1/32 it is too big. I had wanted to use it on a 1/32 CRT chassis I had a while back which was bigger than the Dnano.
I'll have a look at these other models. Would be cool to have some classic Ferrari's and what not that are not yet available in Dnano format. Did I see a Lotus Elise in that group there? That would be sweet as there are none for 1/24 size.

Okay, I have just searched through ebay for 1/32 scale slot cars and have found numerous cars that would be awesome on a Dnano. Example, a Lotus Exige racing car, a Renault R5 Turbo, and the classic Le Man's Ferrari 512 I think it is? Look's similar to the 917?
Anyway, I'm just curious if I purchased these slot cars, how to make theme fit the Dnano and would the wheels be suitable? Seems to me the 1/43 scale wheels would be too small on these bodies? Then I'm thinking of the aluminum wheels sold by Real Track's and wonder how those will fit these bodies.
A Renault R5 Turbo is one of my favorite compact sports cars and that would make for a sweet little Dnano car! Then again, so would the Exige! WOW!

Most of them ARE too big. I would never order a 1/32 slotcar for Dnano conversion without checking the actual dimensions. Only tiny cars would fit, like the Smart car, Fiat 500, Mini-Cooper (the old one). Or the 2 cars that I bought.
Its all about checking the wheelbase of the 1/1 car on Wikipedia, divide it by 32 and compare to the Dnano chassis.

Ferrari 512 wheelbase = 2500 mm in 1/1 = 78 mm in 1/32.
Your slotcar body would have a 78mm WB while the Dnano chassis WB is 63 mm (Murcie). Missing 15mm.
Renault 5 Turbo wheelbase = 2430 mm in 1/1 = 76 mm in 1/32.
Your slotcar body would have a 76mm WB while the Dnano chassis WB is 63 mm (Murcie). Missing 13mm.
Etc.

BUT

Fiat 500 wheelbase = 1840 mm in 1/1 = 58 mm in 1/32.
Your slotcar body would have a 58 mm WB while the Dnano chassis WB is 63 mm (Murcie). Would be OK with shorter setting (Porsche 917, 911 etc).

Anyway soon we will have the HPI racing 1/32 chassis to fit all the 1/32 slotcar bodies we can imagine.
Its great to think that from the 1/43 Dnano to the Mini-z we now have 3 hobby grade chassis to choose from to adapt any plastic model car from 1/43 to 1/24.

Smart 4-2 you mean? I'd love to have an RC of that! Is there a 1/32 slot car Smart 4-2, can you show me? I tried to make a 1/25th scale body fit the Lit but it didn't work to well.
I don't think it's just a wheel base issue, I'm seeing Dnano wheels being too small for 1/32. But, "micro-cars" like the Smart 4-2 should be right! I'd presume you would want the HM Dnano for the Smart, and/or classic Mini Cooper.

I thought the R/C version and the regular Smart 4/2 were the same size

...on a more serious note ...I did see a Carerra 1/43 slot car track kit with Mario Kart and another Nintendo character, Wario I think. The dealer said the cars were not available without the track though. The entire set was $99 Canadian ...I almost bought it just to see if I could retrofit the Nintendo characters. An extra servo to toss bananas on the track also crossed my mind.

Don't know of any Smart 4-2 slotcar sorry.

About the wheel issue there is none. In fact the Dnano wheels seem to be oversized and they happen to be exactly the size of the stock wheels on the two slotcars that I have. Only the tires are thicker on the slotcars. This is because on classic cars the wheels were smaller (13'' or so) with thicker tires. Think of Mini-z classic wheels, Dnano wheels look like classic wheels at 1/32. I will need to make custom tires though, out of foam probably.

Choosing between HM and MM really depends on the wheelbase needed. but I prefer MM for stability. My two slotcar bodies will use the MM setup.

I'm wondering about the Renault R5 Turbo. One car I really wish Kyosho would make for the MR15 HM chassis. That would be a sweet car.

i have been following this post
and found something intresting too
what do you people think of this
its scx compact slot cars 1:43 and you got a lot of them
http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/a...43nascar02.jpg
http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/a...43nascar05.jpg
http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/a...43nascar13.jpg
http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/a.../SCX37020A.jpg
http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/a...6/crimages.jpg
http://i983.photobucket.com/albums/a.../crimages1.jpg

I bought a 2-Pack of the blue Red Bull Audi and the red Benz DTM cars on clearance at Target for $15.00. I messed with them for just a minute, but they seem to be just a tiny bit narrow for my Porsche 962 based dNaNo. Also the wheelbase is off by just about 2mm. If we could purchase the inner body mounts found in the autoscale chassis seperately - these would be an easy fit I think???

Justin

I have one of their Mini Cooper S bodies and it's too narrow. The chassis fit's inside the body nicely, with an RM set up, but the track is too wide. Would need the narrowest of narrow Dnano track-width's, probably their Lancia Delta model might work. When I rest the Mini Cooper on the chassis, it look's like a Low-Rider with the wheels sticking two feet out. Not the look I'm after guy's! LOL!
If I get around to it, I'll post a picture of it here. The Mini Cooper S in 1/43 scale is pretty small!

Marc. The Dnano Delta is 44 mm wide. Just check your Mini Cooper.
Maybe you just need to buy the rear hubs and front plates.
Thanks Patrick, nice find! The 2-Pack is perfect. I hope SCX will expand the 1/43 range.

I just picked up from ebay for 120 dollars the white Subaru WRX WRC 2006 Dnano car! I've been wanting one for the longest time and had to snatch it up at that price! :D

Just saw posted on ebay today from my favorite source, the Audi R8 "Unpainted-unassembled" body, AND! For you Gallardo fan's, an Unassembled Lamborghini Gallardo body as well! The listing says the Gallardo is unpainted, but it look's yellow. Perhaps it's molded in yellow but not painted? Their priced at $20 plus shipping from Hobby Japan.
I'm not a fan of the Gallardo my self, but is nice to see more and more bodies available for these micro wonders.
The Audi R8 is definitely a blank white body, no doubt about that.

marc, please take the time to rear around here a bit ;). the white bodies are old news at this point.

Yes, they maybe old news, but they are now available on ebay from Hobby Japan, that was my point, point was their available now! :D

Yeah, I'm late to this party, but very excited. I'm just starting in dNano and love these plastic model kit bodies. Now all we need is a definitive list of chassis widths (the wheelbases are already provided by Kyosho). Does one already exist? If not, I can probably go down to the shop here in HK and measure them all with calipers. They have almost every model on display.

i've painstakingly assembled a lineup of the offically released bodies and all the info that appears from the specific model webpage. this gets updated with every new body that appears in english on the kyosho jpn website.

Nice. I'd looked at this page earlier and didn't notice there were technical specs. I'll compile these into a quick reference page and add wheelbase data. That should help when determining the best chassis for various custom bodies. If you can use any other assistance from me with your list, let me know.

As far as I can tell (only been looking at these for three days) -- the chassis and fitting parts are all almost identical? The only differences in the fitting parts are width. Then the battery/electronics case has a chassis-specific spacer on it -- the same part that connects to the body shell. And then each nose clip has a chassis-specific number too. When I get a chance I'll measure them to be sure, but it's a pain that these are fixed parts. I bought an HM mount to try and convert my 404 chassis to fit some Heller plastic models, but now the wheelbase is actually ever so slightly too short for some of them. So I'm looking at crafting some replacement rear suspension plates of different lengths, to try and make a one-size-fits-most chassis. In the future I'lll still need a 911 GT3 chassis to accommodate the narrowness of some vintage bodies without permanent alterations. I hope an aftermarket manufacturer thinks of making some custom-length plates out of carbon fiber for us. Seems the easiest way to do this.