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nicherotors

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  1. nicherotors
    Right there with you @Willy iine; at the beginning of this thread in July I had two of the Toyota and one of the Monster Beetle Trail - they are all migrating across to my new chassis. The front bumper mount is in production and if that works out when it arrives next week I'll get the files up on Shapeways. Most likely that I'll order my third set at the same time as you. I'll be interested in your delivery time given you are in the US - am hoping the turnaround is on par with what we get here in Europe. @Jamesssb and I were working it out the other night, excluding the two Shapeways prints we have done many full FDM prints at home so this has certainly been an interesting journey - but a real labor of love. When we have finished with all the other items currently being prototyped we will get the old FDM prints recycled.
  2. nicherotors
    No - not at all - we’ve enlarged the wing mirrors to meet your dimensions. Once the test fit works I’ll get them posted up on Shapeways (which is something we’ve never done before).
  3. nicherotors
    If you don’t mind I’m going to suggest another week/ ten days. We’ve just made a cosmetic but slightly functional change to the mount for the front bumper. I realised that because the edge to the front bumper springs is sharp that it can scar the plastic should it rotate - so we have inserted a little cheese slice of a shape so that the springs are locked in place and are not allowed to rotate when under a bit of compression. While the wing mirrors look close in the pictures we want to get the angles of the mount around the window ledge right for you so it’s a snug fit. Super easy for us to make the items a bit bigger if you wish - more akin to the comical size of your existing ones - just let us know, otherwise we’ll run with what we have.
  4. nicherotors
    Good spot, on top of a GF-01 chassis and the WW2 body parts here is the short list of items I've used; clearly other items that are of the same size should work fine but these are what we have designed the chassis around: 1 x Hitec HS-77BB: dimensions (metric) 44.0 x 23.0 x 25.0 1 x Tamiya 54541 CC-01 Aluminium Oil Damper: eye-to-eye the front are 61mm, rear 66mm (to replicate the ride height of the 1982 original then plastic shims included on the sprue are required to restrict travel *) Additional hop-ups that aren't mandatory include: 2 x Tamiya Titanium Turnbuckle Shaft 3x35: three are used but they come in packs of two (just as well I'm building three!) 1 x Tamiya 53587 5mm Shim Set: I've not met a GF-01 that didn't need a few shims to run a bit smoother Electronics are a personal choice but I'm happy with the standard Tamiya ESC and the switch fits perfectly; chassis 001 runs fine with the basic silver can, 002 has the Tamiya Motor 35T Brushed 540 - CR-Tuned for a bit of bling, currently undecided on 003. * If you order a set of chassis parts I'll do a step by step guide on assembly but all fairly straight forward for anyone who has built several GF-01's before.
  5. nicherotors
    In the background we have completed our short-wheelbase 4x4 chassis (GF-03) for Wild Willy - but being matt black its hard for me to photograph well. Everything fits very well and the weight is comparable to the standard Tamiya items.
  6. 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.
  7. nicherotors
    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!
  8. nicherotors
    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.
  9. nicherotors
    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.
  10. nicherotors
    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.
  11. nicherotors
    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.
  12. nicherotors
    Not much space for the driver to move around inside the Hotshot. Here are two pics from my showroom which might provide some inspiration.
  13. nicherotors
    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.
  14. nicherotors
    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.
  15. nicherotors
    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.
  16. nicherotors
    @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.
  17. nicherotors
    @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.
  18. nicherotors
    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.
  19. nicherotors
    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!
  20. nicherotors
    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.
  21. nicherotors
    Have always really liked the winter camouflage version.
  22. nicherotors
    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.
  23. nicherotors
    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!
  24. nicherotors
    … 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.
  25. nicherotors
    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.
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