About me and my hobby
About me
My name is Chiara-Vibeke Runge; I now live in beautiful North Rhine-Westphalia, I am married, and my hobbies include model-making, cycling, computers, music and tennis.
Born in the 1960s, I grew up in a sheltered environment in Germany and Norway, and my parents always supported me in my wild and whimsical ideas.
After finishing school and university, I lived and worked in Sweden for a few years. For some years now, partly thanks to discovering crawler models, I have once again immersed myself deeply in the subject.
It was during a phone call with Kai-Uwe Nickel from RC-HP that I first had the idea of creating this website, and I hope that what you’ll find here will make it easier for beginners to get started with crawling and provide experts with a useful reference guide.
The addiction to model-making
I’ve been fascinated by model-making ever since I was a very young child. During a Sunday walk with my parents back then, we came across a few people with remote-controlled boats. At the time, they were a sea rescue cruiser and a fireboat. I was so excited that I’ve been nagging my parents non-stop ever since that day. They explained to me that boats aren’t really that great anyway, but aeroplanes – now that would be something.
As I only had two options – aeroplanes or NOTHING – I naturally went for aeroplanes. My first model, however, was a far cry from a remote-controlled one… a rubber-powered aeroplane :-(. My enthusiasm was kept firmly in check, but I suppose I thought it was better than nothing.
Together with Dad, we then built the Graupner Piper out of balsa wood, although I mostly just watched whilst Dad, full of enthusiasm, glued the thing together and I was allowed to do the menial tasks :). At some point, ‘my’ aeroplane was taken out to a meadow for its maiden flight. The anticipation quickly vanished when, on its first flight, the poor thing plunged headfirst into the ground. My tears must have been so heart-wrenching that Mum and Dad bought me my first boat. At least that could only sink.
I then sailed that thing around in the pool at home, and this incurable ‘model-making’ bug took deep root in me.
As its capabilities were rather limited and the 16m x 16m pool didn’t exactly lend itself to grand adventures, my enthusiasm faded quite quickly by the end of the summer.
That is, until… until I saw flat-track racers for the first time in a large car park. They were the ones with combustion engines, smelled absolutely brilliant and made a marvellous racket.
One of the men couldn’t resist the girl with the wide eyes and let me have a go in one of those things.
That was it – I’d fallen in love. My parents were absolutely thrilled by the news and rather nonchalantly ignored my newfound interest.
Luckily, I had a godfather, a piggy bank and the sheer power of persuasion – I bought my first RC car. A Graupner 2WD buggy, with an electric motor of course – the other sort was simply unaffordable and far too fiddly. The thing was yellow and it was… too slow… far too slow, at least in my mind. That’s when it was born: the desire to make everything better, to tune it. I bought my first 8-minute racing motor. That was really cool. After 8 minutes, it was always over; with two batteries, including the time spent swapping them, the fun was over after 15 minutes. But nothing could deter me – I bought two more batteries, which were charged at an absolutely insane speed – what felt like a week – for a few minutes’ worth of joy.
The electric-drive era was then replaced by various combustion-engine models; I got two combustion-engine boats, but at some point the hobby disappeared from my life – partly because of a lack of time, but also because there were no passengers to take along.
A few years ago, I spotted a TRX4 Defender; I was thrilled and my husband was smitten, and this obsession – which had actually seemed to have been cured – flared up again with full intensity, and I really, really am not looking for a cure for it.
Cars and all that
I’ve ended up with quite a few crawlers of late – it’s just so hard to part with these little ones.
At the moment, I’ve got 4 Traxxas® Defenders, 2 Traxxas® Blazers, 3 Traxxas® Sports (2 of which have switchable differentials), a Mercedes G500, a 1979 Bronco, and a TRX4 with an LCG chassis weighing under 2kg ready to run. Plus a Cross RC Demon SG3c and a Gmade Komodo as a guest vehicle.
All vehicles have been tuned in terms of motor/speed controller (Hobbywing Axe or Fusion) and electronics (steering servos HD Power 25, Xpert 7701, Futaba HPS CB700 or TSP T73W, and all gearshift servos HD Power TR4). Furthermore, modifications have been made to the chassis, etc.
For that adrenaline rush, I use a Traxxas® XMaxx 8s, a Traxxas® UDR, a Traxxas® Sledge, a Traxxas® E-Revo V2 and an Arrma Infraction on 8s.
I’ve now fitted all my crawlers with Hobbywing ESC/motor combos; once you’ve driven one, you simply won’t want anything else.
When it comes to radio control, I now rely on the Flysky Noble nb4 and the Futaba T7PXR. The latter, of course, is also because of the fast vehicles. I switched from the Absima to the Noble because of the brilliant adjustment and routing options.
When it comes to tools, I rely on the quality of Arrowmax. Here, I use the Honeycomb and Black Golden ranges. Screwing things together with these tools is just brilliant fun. Otherwise, there are the micro socket spanners from RC4WD, which come in sizes where other companies really stop. The build quality is functional but neither particularly good nor attractive. When it comes to soldering, I’ve also said goodbye to the Ersa gas soldering iron and opted for the JBC-CD-2BQF soldering station. The extremely fast heat-up time of 2–3 seconds is truly brilliant, as is the ability to change the soldering tips whilst they’re hot without having to touch them. On top of that, there’s a virtually endless selection of different soldering tips.
When it comes to chargers, I’ve switched from the Sky RC D400 and now rely on the ISDT K4. The reason for me was the noise level; the ISDT models are much quieter thanks to their intelligent fan control. I have two ISDT K4s to reduce charging times for four batteries, as there are always two of us out and about. For mobile use, I use an ISDT K2 Air, which can deliver up to 2x300W when connected to the ISDT SP2425 external power supply if necessary. To discharge unused batteries, I use the ISDT FD-200 25A.
The latest crawlers made by my husband and me:
Non-TRX4 vehicles
History of the page
Why does this website exist, and is it a commercial site?
Crawling has become an extremely popular hobby in recent years. Even people who previously had virtually no connection to model-making are discovering this hobby for themselves and their families. Facebook groups dedicated specifically to the TRX4 have also sprung up, with user numbers growing daily.
What was really striking was that the same questions were being asked every three days; after all, Facebook groups aren’t set up in the same way as a forum. These questions often centred on controlling the vehicle’s lighting system. During a phone call with RC-HP, the idea arose simply to provide a sort of overview of the most important questions and answers.
The idea was there, and I started putting it into practice that very same day. I then asked users in the Facebook group if they’d be willing to provide photos of their cars. I discussed ideas and solutions with the owner, Kai from RC-HP, and the development of the site was also discussed within the group. The search for spare parts was also to be made easier, so we needed exploded views with direct links to a German shop. We often got together and discussed ideas and solutions that would help others.
I then decided that, as far as possible, all links should lead to the RC-HP shop, as this site would never have come into being in this form without his information. His knowledge of model car building is simply inexhaustible. As I, too, have been involved in this field for a very long time, it was a perfect match.
I often hear people say, ‘Well, I’m sure you’re getting paid a lot for that.’ I have to say that’s not the case; I do it purely as a hobby and to help beginners or to provide a reference guide. This hobby only costs me money, because domains and a web server aren’t free to run, and the whole thing takes up a great deal of time. What’s more, my husband is also a keen crawler… what more could a woman want?
I would like to thank Kai-Uwe Nickel (RC-HP, visionary and inventor of ALT-Foams), Michael Seiler (Modellbau Berlinski) and Jean Knüppe (Speedshop 24) for their collaboration. I would also like to thank my husband, who often has to do without me whilst I’m sitting at the computer working on this website.
LET’S EXPLORE THE WORLD – THERE’S SO MUCH TO DISCOVER
THANK YOU FOR VISITING MY PAGE!
TRX4-GALLERY
OUR PARTNER
OUR PARTNER
DINGSIGN
ARROWMAX
SCALEMAN
