nicherotors

Think we are nearly there with the wing mirrors for you @Willy iine - only need to adjust a few things around the edges - what do you think? My preference is for the smaller one but we can make both available.

Great idea - how about this @Willy iine? I quite like the set @Jamesssb has fitted to his original Wheeler but we cant remember where he found them!

These two parts for my Wild Willy project also just arrived: 1) footwell - which requires no glue to be held in place; produced in smoothest fine detail plastic and dusted in white primer to show up in the pictures, and 2) an experimental roof design in versatile white plastic - I understand it's called a bikini roof - unfortunately its fitment will require the spot lights to be permanently cut off (just folded over in the picture) which I'm not sure about.

A few parts arrived from Shapeways this week. Not sure if this is an original idea or not - but couldn't find anything similar with a cursory search of the internet but here are two enhancements to the re-released Willy's Wheeler that are work-in-progress: 1) a new front wheel hub, and 2) turbofan wheel covers - produced in the smoothest fine detail plastic - shown here with a light dusting of white primer so they could show up in the pictures. When the Wheeler was re-released there were some grumbles about the minimal clearance between the front tires and wheel arches. This new hub, printed in black versatile plastic and doesn't photograph well (hence the CGI), reduces the track by 1mm each side and is just enough to ease the problem.

Maybe the picture is deceptive - we used a micro servo; a SG90 9g micro servo which is approx 22x11.5x27mm - the same as in the first post in the link you shared (which I hadn’t seen before - thanks for sharing). Thankfully the hole in the seat back is completely concealed when Willy is in place. Although, given the transparency of these little servos it is easy to see how much empty space is inside so we have started to think about redesigning the servo case so that such animation could be possible in models that do not allow for these traditional micro servos - but we’ll see.

While waiting for a number of new prototype parts to arrive from Shapeways we turned our attention to connecting Willy’s helmet to a small servo. A square cut in the seat is a price worth paying to bring some animation to the model. The original 3mm hole in the body used to screw the head on was expanded to 6mm to accommodate a flanged bearing. A second bearing is seated within a 3d printed L shaped bracket that was permanently epoxied into the chest cavity. A caphead screw goes through shims and the two bearings to hold the helmet in place. The cap head, serated in this case, is connected to the spline of the servo with some tight fitting silicon fuel tubing (shown in pink). A Y lead connects the two servos to the same steering channel. Given the helmet is very visible on this model it is a lot of fun to see it animated. Am now working on a computer programme to sit on a microchip that will receive both the throttle and steering signals to subtly change the output signal to the servo connected to the helmet. For example - reverse the signal when reversing plus a few random moves when he pops a wheelie or gets bored after a period of inactivity. Will continue to update as progress is made.

Not much space for the driver to move around inside the Hotshot. Here are two pics from my showroom which might provide some inspiration.

I forgot to mention that our inspiration for these wheels came from studying the full-size. Referencing parts diagrams provided much guidance - for example here: https://www.kaiserwillys.com/front-axle-wheel-connecting-parts-7397 We didn’t know how the hex heads would be replicated so we used brass hex head screws - we will experiment with 3d printing them on the next batch to reduce some of the complexity. Despite the different offsets front and back on the model we have managed to provide the illusion that the wheels are the same front and back - as per the full-size. Appreciate the use of magnets to hold the hubs in place may seem complicated but they do a great job of covering the traditional M4 flange nuts that hold the wheels on. The magnets are so strong that to facilitate their removal we needed to provide access holes in the back of the wheel to allow an Allen key to be inserted to push the hub off.

The parts to make a complete set of wheels recently arrived from Shapeways and everything seems to fit as planned. There were a couple of objections with our original design due to some walls being too thin for Premium Versatile but we got them fixed and the parts are now in my hands. The front axle hub takes 14 BA x 1/4” brass hex head screws (snipped to length). The 12 BA x 1/4” steel hex heads simulating the 5 wheel nuts were glued into the hub (retained by magnets) that covers the M4 wheel nut. I don’t feel this level of detail is out of keeping with the rest of the model given the brass hex heads on the axle hubs are the same size as some of those moulded elsewhere on the body.

Really appreciate the enthusiasm @Willy iine - we have just been playing around with the design of the front end to get the bumper correctly positioned relative to the front axle. The prototype needs a minor adjustment and then I'll get another complete set printed from Shapeways before being confident enough to let anyone else order a set. Will update with progress soon.

@Willy iine, I am currently painting a body which will be a tribute; like my Steve McQueen tribute I am putting a brass plaque on the dash.

@simensays, I have learnt much from your helpful posts about the differences between the SWB and LWB models. However, one thing that remained the same between the two was that the front body post sat directly above the front axle - as did the niche in the front inner fender (circled in red). If we put the debate to one side for a moment about our different preferences to modify either the chassis or the body (or both) to get the correct ride height I’m curious why you want to push the body backwards (albeit by a reduced amount with this new version). Do you have a picture of two sat side by side with the front wheels lined up? The GF-01 chassis has almost the same wheelbase as the LWB version and with no spacers is, according to my ruler, already too far back - which is why on my custom SWB chassis the body has been brought forwards. I appreciate you have been working with this model about 19.75 years longer than us so am genuinely curious what reference point you are using? Also, I would appreciate knowing the ready-to-run weight of one of your originals (with four AA batteries and the original hard plastic running battery etc). All help gratefully received.

Great pictures @Willy iine, the orange Toyota looks a lot of fun. We all owe Yasuo Ōtsuka a debt of gratitude for his original inspiration of the Willy character who has now appeared in a few models. I enjoyed building my TR chassis too but hadn’t thought of doing an olive drab one - matching wheels is a nice touch! Felt seems to be a good choice on our 1:1 cars because it helps suppress some of the road noise that comes from the tires.

For those lucky to have owned an original you will know that the chassis was jam packed just below the body - the rigid hump of the battery pack for example was tightly nestled within the faux racing fuel cell. Ever since the introduction of Wild Willy 2 in 1999 there has been an abundance of daylight between the body and the chassis. So, I designed a rear inner wheel arch to block out this light which can be bolted to the underside of the Wild Willy 2 body using existing holes and no glue. Given it serves no structural purpose it is thick enough but light. On the WR-02 chassis it does a neat job of concealing all the wires. It has been designed so that when used with my custom GF-01 SWB chassis a floor can also be used that seals up the unit nicely. The floor is held in place by strong magnets which means that nothing is permanently glued in place. Given there is space, when used on my custom chassis, we will go ahead and design an item to fill in the drivers footwell as per the original 1983 model. Footnote - the sand colored WR-02 isn't a reflection of my painting skills - its a friends model!

Myself and @Jamesssb have just spent a couple of hours making some changes and talking about places to reduce the weight - the SLS version from Shapeways is approximately 20% heavier than the standard Tamiya items. While the chassis feels incredibly strong that’s probably because we’ve got some aspects thicker than they need to be. So we are going to go on a diet - which means that the current price from Shapeways should be proportionally less than the current price of USD290, EUR250, GBP210.

Have always really liked the winter camouflage version.

The chassis parts from Shapeways arrived today and am very pleased - I went for black natural versatile plastic. It only took a couple of hours to transfer everything from the FDM home printed version to this Shapeways SLS version. All the little adjustments we recently made to the front and rear camber attachment points are now spot on. Still a couple of little jobs to do - like designing a new mount for the front bumper - I’m keen for it to stick out in front of the front axle and be at the same height as the original.

I think these comments perfectly illustrate how wonderful it is that we all enjoy this hobby in diverse ways. Last weekend I took a well used and beaten up Wild Willy 2 to a family gathering - we had four generations under one roof. There were constant squeals of delight from the ten year-olds as they popped wheelies down the road, annoyed grandma by putting tracks in her otherwise pristine front lawn and scared the neighbours cats. Needless to say we’ll probably end up buying a couple of Wild Willy 2 kits for Christmas - how fantastic that it still brings young new entrants to the hobby nearly 40 years after the first release - that has to be a good thing for the hobby and the children given the many screen based distractions. Meanwhile I’ll get back to some CAD enhancements (oh the irony!) and preparing another shelf queen!

… unless you use a low profile servo (like Tamiya did with the Super Astute)!! I’ve installed a Hitec HS 77BB which seems suitably cheep and cheerful. Great pictures - loving the camo helmet and the spikes on the tyres.

You are correct - Willy’s foot does not need to be cut with this custom chassis - the only thing that needs to be removed is the L shaped wall on the underside of the body.

I recently learnt that a new batch of the excellent reproduction Blazing Blazer 58029 & Wild Willy 58035 tyres have been produced. At the time of writing there are still a lot of these reproduction tires in stock. It was fairly straightforward to design a front and rear rim with the correct offset to replicate the track of the 1982 original. The design is based on the plastic hex found in the GF-01 kits. I’m not keen on wheel designs with patterns that involve threes or sixes so we designed a hubcap that emulates the full-size rather than copy the original Tamiya design which has six spokes and three screw heads showing. Having looked at pictures of the real M38 rims (there is a wealth of history online about the various designs used in different conflicts) I was keen to copy the original pressed steel look. I’ve never been pleased with my ability to satisfactorily paint bolt heads that are part of moulded wheels - other than putting a dab of paint on the top surface. So it was fun to develop thoughts about an alternative. As an experiment I ordered 12 BA steel hex bolts that are very close to being 1/10th scale. On each hub cap five will be glued in position purely for cosmetic purposes. This hub will then be firmly held in place by three pairs of small but very strong magnets - which nicely conceal all the M3 bolts that are used to hold the rims together. The front axle has a hub that has been designed to accommodate six 14 BA brass hex bolts and the rear gets a dust cover. The assembly will cover up the M4 nyloc holding the wheel on. I’m happy with the optical illusion as designed on the computer - the files for these wheels have been sent to Shapeways. Will be interesting to see if it all works in real life when the parts arrive.

Hello @Willy iine, appreciate the feedback. I know what you mean about Willy’s boot hitting the battery - you can see here how once the heal of his right boot is cut it can straddle the GF-01 battery post; this approach allows for a similar body height as the WR-02 and is pretty good if you want to stay with just Tamiya parts and don’t mind the height. The body is too far back and needs to be brought forward so that it is correctly positioned over the front axle. At the moment the chassis has been designed for a six cell hump pack; we noticed that sometimes the leads exit from the left and other times from the right (even from the same manufacturer) - the chassis design accommodates either. @Jamesssb is keen to accommodate a Lipo hard plastic battery and it looks like there is a lot of space for a number of combinations. I think it would be fairly easy to accommodate an original body shell on this chassis - will add it to the list and come back with an update soon. My first chassis from Shapeways is due in a few days so will report back then.

Appreciate all the encouragement. Impressions are positive now the latest homemade FDM printed chassis is in my hands. The parts have been printed by @Jamesssb on a BearMera Mk3s with black Eryone PETG filament. The new chassis weighs 216.2g compared to 203.4g for the original Tamiya items (chassis and battery cover); so pretty close. From the outside there is a nice smooth sheen and once assembled, with the electrics in place up front, it is only from the inside of the battery bay that you can see where support material was required. It’s a very easy chassis to build because M3 x 10mm self-tapping screws are used throughout. The ball joints for the dampers are a nice tight fit. Overall, it feels like the chassis could take quite a bit of punishment. I wanted to remove the camber at the rear and introduce a bit more at the front without fouling the drivetrain. With this version I’ve got the camber pretty close - so think we have a stable version for the time being and wanted to share some progress. I've tried to capture the similarities in the side-by-side shots with a restored original SWB from 1983. Temporarily I’ve added a basic set of FDM printed rims to double check both the i) track front and back, and ii) confirm the height of the body front and back. Some minor adjustments are needed but hardly anything noticeable to the naked eye. After more test driving I may raise the height of the wheelie bar to get longer wheelies during more of the battery life. Will now work on a new design for a set of wheels and will report back soon.

I thank you for your comments @simensays - you raise valid points that I have struggled with. I very much admire the models both you and @Willy iine have made. I wanted the challenge of going down a different path - in the same way I respect @s2-g2 who is taking a different path again by redesigning and printing the body (https://www.instagram.com/p/CM3FGw8sYvt/?utm_medium=copy_link). With access to several NIB kits it would be too easy to build another one - but it still wouldn’t be a custom 4x4. I wanted to replicate the stance of the original SWB wheelbase model and initially investigated redesigning the rear suspension arms - we didn’t want to disturb the steering geometry at the front. In the end I felt that the body would still sit too high - especially at the back unless we lowered it by reducing damper travel but that seemed less than ideal. Admittedly the Tamiya GF-01 chassis has the same wheelbase as the LWB version* (within a millimetre) but using the front axle as a reference point we calculated that the body would still be approximately 4.5 mm too far back when reversing the body posts around as @Willy iine has suggested. This might sound small (and can easily be disguised with a clever camera shot from the front) but compounded with my preference for a SWB wheelbase these little differences became a noticeable annoyance. In contrast, with a custom chassis we have complete control over several aspects, including, but not limited to: i) the wheelbase, ii) the position of the body over the axles, iii) the height of the body at the front as well as at the back, and iv) where the camber links are mounted. Little adjustments can bring nice benefits and the placement of the receiver switch to where it belongs next to Willy just made perfect sense while we were at it. Irrespective of the financial outlay, by the time I have invested effort in painting and weathering the body it becomes the most valuable part of my models. I didn’t want to cut holes to reduce the body height if I could help it - if anything I’d like to fill in the drivers footwell just like the original but we’ll see. I recognise that the SLS printing Shapeways offers is expensive today - it may become cheaper in the future - we all hope so. In the meantime if anyone did want to follow us then we could consider offering a FDM printed chassis for about the same price as a nice set of new tyres. Like so many things we do in this hobby - there isn’t always a good answer to ‘why?’ - but because we can is often enough. ____ Subsequent edit: * Not sure this is true based on measurements of actual models.

Having recently converted a GF-01 chassis to accommodate the Wild Willy 2 body (here) there was a lasting impression. That to replicate the look and feel of the 1982 original SWB then some custom design work would be required, namely: - a modified chassis with a shorter wheelbase and the body lowered and correctly positioned over both axles, and - custom wheels with an offset to get the correct track front and rear. Initial focus is on the chassis and getting the wheelbase right - once successful then attention will shift to the wheels. My initial GF-01 conversation (here) had been done with the spirit of: - maximising the use of Tamiya parts, and - minimising the impact on the body. After countless hours on a computer with a friend, @Jamesssb, and multiple working prototypes a new chassis design started to emerge. This chassis, we’ve called it GF-01 SWB*, has the following characteristics: - 165mm** wheelbase (as per the first 1983 SWB Wild Willy), - compatible with GF-01 four wheel drive gears, suspension parts and wheelie bar, - compatible with the Wild Willy 2 chassis rails and body posts albeit with the height reduced by two holes, - requires only the the L-shaped wall on the underside of the WW2 body to be removed, and - correct ride height when used in conjunction with original or reproduction tyres and Tamiya hop up dampers. The hump pack has been inverted to save space and allow the height of the body to be reduced. The front camber link has been relocated in an attempt to try and replicate the characteristics of camber of the original. The rear camber link has been repositioned to reduce the camber during normal use - in an attempt to reflect that the original had a live axle and zero camber. For fun the receiver on/ off switch is located in the original position next to the driver and can accommodate the traditional protective rubber cover. Will put up on Shapeways when complete but suspect it won’t be cheap - but happy to take advice on alternatives. However, this approach will allow me to bash about with a model where consumable/ spare parts are readily available (and many metal aftermarket items) combined with a currently produced (cheap) body that requires minimal cutting (just the L-shaped wall on the underside). I’m keen to hear suggestions that could be factored into the design; for example, maybe a LWB version with the rear axle pushed back by 10mm. Will post more pictures as the project develops. ____ Subsequent edit: * Subsequently named GF-03. ** Subsequently not sure it is 165mm based upon measuring an actual example.