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5/9/2013By Mike Garrison
LiveRC.com
Whether it's wheel nuts, wings, tools, tracks, trinkets and/or anything in between, the LiveRC staff gives their testimonial and mini-review of each every Thursday morning!
Top Notch Paints - Custom body painting
Contact
ealbano@comcast.netStarting at $40.00 (Most 1:10 bodies), $45.00 (Most 1:8 and SC bodies)
In R/C racing one of the most time consuming and tedious things to do is paint bodies. Painting elaborate paint schemes takes hours upon hours, and unbelievable amounts of patience and skill. In an effort to eliminate our spray bombed one color paint jobs in upcoming product tests we decided to go out and find us a true professional painter. Each painter has their own style, and one that has always caught my eye is Team Associated driver and owner of Top Notch Paints, Eric Albano.
(Fresh body for our upcoming LiveRC Product Test.)
We decided to send our upcoming product test vehicle body to Mr. Albano with the instructions of "work your magic". We gave him free reign to do whatever he wanted, and when we received the body back, we were all smiles with how it turned out! We were thoroughly impressed with the design scheme, crisp and clean cut lines, shading effects, and marble design.
(Onroad or offroad, Top Notch does it all.)
Top Notch Paints is very easy to work with, reasonably priced, and produces great work. As with almost any professional painter, Top Notch Paints turnaround time all depends on the amount of bodies on order at the time, however, they do a great job of keeping you up to date along the way!
(Top Notch Paints has painted bodies for top drivers including Jason Ruona, Brent Thielke, and even for JConcepts product press releases.)
Pros:
- No matter how fast you are, you can have paint that looks like the pros.
- Smooth and clean cut lines (no wavy lines and paint bleed marks).
- Special effects such as shading, fades, marbling, and pinstriping.
- Very easy to work with and communicate with.
- Whether you have a specific design in mind or not, Top Notch Paints will have you looking good.
Cons:
- Makes us feel TERRIBLE about our personal painting skills.
Conclusion:
Our conclusion is that we highly recommend Top Notch Paints whether you are an onroad racer, offroad racer, 1:10, 1:8, 1:12, or short course racing! TNP is not Eric Albano's full-time career, as he is a hard working student as well, therefore turnaround times on bodies may vary...but whether it is two weeks or two years, the paint jobs are worth the wait!
EDS Custom 25-piece tool set with carrying bag
$299.99
When you buy an R/C car, most include tiny "L" wrenches to build and maintain your vehicles. Within each manual it is most often recommended that you find yourself a set of quality tools. When you start shopping for tools there are tool sets of all different sorts, sizes, and prices. We decided to give EDS Racing Products a shot by trying out their 25-piece custom tool set.
First and foremost, EDS offers a package which allows you to custom engrave your name on each tool, therefore eliminating the "Those are MY tools!" argument for only $35. We went all out and had our tools custom engraved and shipped our way to start wrenching in style! After receiving our tools, we were impressed with the embroidered carrying bag, shiny red appearance of the tools, and clearly labeled markings. All of the allen wrenches and nut drivers fit excellent, the reamer cuts like a hot knife through butter, and the wheel wrench is by far the coolest looking one in pit lane.
Unfortunately, it didn't take long and those hard to get out chassis screws began "rounding" the allen wrench heads on the tools themselves, making them unusable. Granted by the tool rounding off, instead of the screw head, we did not have to cut into or drill the screw out of chassis, BUT we were left without a wrench and were forced to find another. Fortunately, replacement EDS allen wrench tips are available for only $3.95 each online.
Pros:
- Fully customizable with option to engrave your name in each tool.
- Your pick of 25 from nearly any of the EDS tools available.
- Zip-up carrying case with organizer bands keep your tools neat and in place.
- Each tool features fully replaceable tips and other parts.
Cons:
- Similar tool sets, although not custom, can be found for considerably less money.
- While the allen wrench tips themselves rounding off do save screw heads from rounding out and getting stuck, we wish they had a little more strength behind them for those extra tight screws.
Conclusion:
The EDS Racing Products custom tool set is definitely some of the finest looking tools on the market, and a life saver when it comes to figuring out who's tools are who's. For the entire set, and engraving, we spent approximately $335 on the 25-piece set. While the EDS tools are good tools, for $335 they aren't noticeably better than some of the cheaper tool kits we've used in the past as we had hoped.
Beacon Rating: 3/5
THURSDAY TESTIMONIALS - RANDOM ITEM OF THE WEEK:
Each week outside of the R/C world we test out and use a variety of items in our daily routines that have absolutely nothing to do with R/C, and THIS is what we think of them!
Sonic Drive-In - Asiago Caesar Grilled Chicken Bacon Club Sandwich
$3.99
As I have discussed in previous editions of "Moment with Mike", some race tracks around the country do not have ramp access to the drivers stand at this time. Thus in order for me to drive, my wheelchair and I must be carried up and down the stairs on and off the drivers stand. To show my appreciation for those who are brave enough to carry me up and and down flights of stairs to drive my R/C car, I decided I would go on a diet. Only the healthiest of food and water from now on out. Day 1 of the diet I found myself starving for something good to eat and conveniently I was parked at a Sonic Drive-In. The healthiest of food from a fast food restaurant HAS to be chicken, right? They even advertise it on TV with super in-shape men and women smiling while eating it. So naturally, in an effort to lose weight, I order the best looking chicken sandwich they have...the Asiago Caesar Grilled Chicken Bacon Club Sandwich.
The sandwich is a little pricey, but the extra money is worth the loss of weight it will cause was my thinking. Upon receiving the sandwich I unwrap it and dive in with a giant bite. Instantly I realized that this was in fact a weight loss food.
How do I know this, you ask? I know this because after taking one bite of a slimy piece of "chicken" topped with what tastes like old salad dressing and plastic bacon, I COULD NOT eat for the remainder of the day. Going further, ANYTIME, I feel the slightest bit hungry for a fast food chicken sandwich, I simply think of the gooey, chewy, chicken of an Asiago Chicken Club Sandwich and my appetite instantly disappears.
Pros:
- Looks delicious on the menu.
- Very in-shape and attractive people model for it.
- Has the word "bacon" in it's name.
- Eliminates all thoughts of eating for the remainder of the day and then some.
Cons:
- Tastes somewhere between a rotten salad and an old shoe.
- The slimy chicken booger strings get caught in your teeth.
Conclusion:
For ANYONE looking to curve their appetite and eat less on your diet, I HIGHLY recommend taking one bite of this sandwich as it will cure any form of hunger issues you may have. For the average person looking for a tasty fast food meal, I would only recommend this sandwich to my worst enemy (who I would even feel a little bad for afterwards).
Beacon Rating: 1/5*
*Only receives a 1 (instead of 0) because if stranded on a desert island, the mass of this sandwich (IF you could swallow it all) would in fact fill your stomach for a short period of time...extending your lifespan expectancy by POSSIBLY a day or two.
JOIN US NEXT THURSDAY FOR ANOTHER EDITION OF "THURSDAY TESTIMONIALS" FEATURING MORE LIVERC MINI-REVIEWS!
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