nicherotors

Great job @Yoshisaur. You should be very proud. To prevent the body clips scratching the paint when being fitted or removed you might want to consider cutting a little bit of thin card. Or, as in this case, two bits of Tamiya masking tape stuck to each other. When cut to this type of shape it can be put around the post before the body clip is fitted to avoid scuffing the paint. And don’t forget to slide the template under the pin before removal. Mine has been used for years and might be a bit tatty but as long as it’s clean it will work fine. Driving (or lifting by the roll bar) can leave a witness mark but the pin often hides this when still in place. It’s the scratching I try to avoid when the pins are being fitted or removed. A lesson I’ve learnt the hard way from experience!

Hi @Dan1891, same concept for both - but because the shape of the Willy chest cavities is slightly different we designed a different servo mount for each so that the bearings sit flush and are in line for the serrated cap head to pass through.

I use the HiTec HS-55 and just checked the dimensions: 23 x 12 x 24mm They work really well. To mount the head I use two 3x6x2.5 flanged bearings. The silicon fuel tube acts like a universal joint which is forgiving if alignment is a bit out. Hopefully this pic of the Wheeler driver also helps. Obviously a number of different ways of doing it - all a lot of fun given the driver is so prominent on this model.

Thanks for sharing @Yoshisaur - I’ve found it a lot of fun for folks young and old to see Willys head animated. Looks like I used the same servo as you - only difference was that I decided to mount the servo inside the chest cavity using a 3d printed bracket (@Willy iine has a great memory) - as illustrated here: I liked the concept so much that on subsequent projects, namely the Wheeler and the Bullhead, we designed a cutout to accommodate the space for the servo to avoid and cutting. After fitting bearings and dampers it’s always the next thing I upgrade on a Willy based project.

Have now completed the WR-03 project and loaded pics into a showroom here. Has been a lot of fun and have learnt a lot about the different 3d printed materials. The Shapeways shop has been updated - with no premium added: - the lowered chassis parts can be found here - the optional engine accessories can be found here - and the body accessories (inc. the blank dashboard, blank tailgate, front spotlights etc) can be found here.

The design and development of the faux V8 for Wild Willy is now complete. The 3d printed radiator has a pocket that allows a cut down version of the plastic spare radiator grill from the kit to be dropped in from above (once the fan has been slid onto its axle). Its obviously a compromise that the body posts come out of the rocker covers on this model but on the next project the body posts will be relocated and the majority of this design work will be leveraged and reused. Just having another chassis printed with some final tweaks before moving onto the next adventure.

Appreciate the encouragement @Chewie75, you got it and I look forward to you sharing the progress you make. Here is another picture of some paint caps!

Thanks @Chewie75, yes, as per the instructions on the TS-83 cap I used TS-14 as a base - the same for all the diamond plated parts too. From experience it’s helpful for the base to be dark but more important that it is smooth. So after a coat of TS-14 I apply a light coat of TS-83 straight away and don’t touch/ key the black in between. Your mileage may vary but it works for me and worth every penny of the extra expense. Bizarrely it becomes less reflective with more coats - bit of a knack required - but a single warm light coat that just covers the parts is best. Have fun - TS-83 is a great product.

Thanks and good spot @Willy iine, I used TS-82. In a slightly unorthodox way I paint the fire extinguisher first - this way I get a sharper edge around the two straps. Because the widths of the narrow areas I want to mask differ I find it convenient to cut a thin strip of masking tape and then mask each edge and then the two overlap. There is a small moulding seam that needs to be sanded and this is easily sanded smooth once the masking has been done thus protecting the natural gloss black plastic. TS-82 responds well to the white snow being added for shading - I typically use the same recipe on the windscreen rubber surround and the rear wheel arches.

Have now completed the design of the blank firewall which like the blank dashboard and blank tailgate needs to be skinned with patterned styrene. These three parts have proven best when printed in PA12 with glass beads to maintain their flat structure. This firewall includes the drivers footwell which has been painted the same colour as the body and is held in place by the locking nuts to the front roll bar and the two screws that hold the dashboard in place (just 2mm longer than standard).

Many of the fibreglass Bobcat based Jeeps seem to have homemade dashboards and simple tailgates fashioned from plates of metal - often diamond plate. I wanted to emulate these items and thought it best to start with 3d printed blank dashboard and tailgate items that can be covered with some nice diamond patterned styrene - despite the pattern being described as 1/48th scale from Plastruct I’m quite happy with it on a 1/10th model. The dashboard comes with a little instrument binnacle for the sticker and a handle bar. Pictures of the full-size can be found here: http://www.ewillys.com/tag/bobcat/page/3/

You are far too sensible @Willy iine. I am a gluten for punishment and mask the indicators and use TS spray paint.

I have experimented with clear orange over silver but for such small items you can’t go wrong with any of the orange TS colours - here they are in sunlight for comparison.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the mention @Willy iine. @simalarion, in terms of getting the Wild Willy 2 body onto a GF-01 chassis there are choices, each with their considerations. One easy route is to stick with only Tamiya items, a ‘how to’ can be found here: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=137457&id=18923 A midway point is what I’ve called the GF-02 whereby a handful of 3d printed parts allow for the body to be repositioned so that it is more faithfully positioned over the wheels albeit sitting a few mm higher than the original; the parts can be found on Shapeways here: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/nicherotors?section=GF-02+M38+Chassis+Parts&sort= The chassis @Willy iine mentions is a ground up redesign of the GF-01 chassis that uses the same gears and suspension arms but does pump up the price of the model 2 to 3 times but can accommodate the original body without having to make cuts to the footwell. The background to the development can be found here: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/99033-wild-willy’s-3d-printing-adventure-by-nicherotors/ Sorry if a bit off original topic. Naturally, a lot depends upon the surface you will be running on, handling vs cosmetics and budget but they are all fun in their own way. My current focus is modifying the WR-02 chassis to get a lower rear wheel drive chassis which has its own charm.

Feel free @wildwillhappy to direct message me with a diagram and I'll see if we can help.

I plan to build one model without the front inner fenders so that the V8 up front can be visible. Here are a couple of pictures of current progress building on the WR-03 chassis above - utilising the same side mufflers but with a different manifold.

Progress continues with the WR-03 chassis; in its basic form it is just two 3D parts, a) a turtle shell that bolts onto a sawn-off WR-02 chassis (cuts painted yellow) and b) a pair of front body mounts. The pictures here show how a pair of 3D printed side exhausts can be fitted with some polished aluminium tips - the same diameter as used on the Wheeler. I like the way they infer a big engine up front. This combination means a modified Wild Willy 2 body can simply slot into place. The 7.2v hump pack sits transversely and nestles in the faux fuel cell as per the vintage model. This allows for the body to sit much lower without cutting the body - in fact there is even space to fill in the drivers footwell with a part previously designed for an earlier project. Still some little tweaks to process before the designs can go up on Shapeways.

Progress with the WR-03 chassis continues; just received the first Shapeways items and they fit like a glove. The main 3d printed item nicely covers up the hacksaw marks and any rough edges I might have left behind on the original Tamiya parts. The first picture shows how @Jamesssb took my original card templates and transposed the design and got a pretty good version printed in grey at home. Effort will now be spent on detailing a replica V8 engine which will incorporate the front body posts.

Yes @Dan1891, I’d say that’s normal. Tamiya offer a shim set that can eliminate it - 53587 5mm Shim Set (3 Types/ 10 Pcs. Each).

Thought it would be a fun little distraction to cut up a WR-02 chassis in an attempt to lower the Wild Willy 2 body on the chassis without just reducing damper throw and eating into valuable ground clearance. This experiment, called WR-03, is a standard rear wheel drive WR-02 chassis with the battery tray cut off. I started with a combination of cardboard templates, sheets of plastic, old 3d printed body mounts, glue and some imagination. The design accommodates a 7.2v hump pack mounted transversely over the rear axle with the hump nestled within the faux fuel cell of the Wild Willy 2 body as per the original 1980’s model. I got the development chassis running quite well on the standard Wild Willy 2 tyres. My collaboration with @Jamesssb continues who has modelled both the chassis and body in Fusion 360. We settled on getting the front grill only 2mm above the front of the hard WR-02 plastic. The rear section of the Wild Willy 2 body is level (parallel to the suspension mounting points). An advantage of this design is that all the aluminium suspension upgrades on the market for the WR-02 will still be compatible. Also, there is lots of space in the engine bay and our imagination is extending to build out a big (comical) Ford V8 with side exhausts that can sit within the bonnet/ hood (without the front fenders) - just like the yellow Bobcat I posted on Jan 18 on the previous page. The first version of the WR-03 chassis add-on has just been sent to Shapeways - the renders are just showing current progress.

Reputation matters to everyone but because @simensays has chosen to open a new thread I feel compelled to provide a robust rebuttal. We have to agree to disagree and I take offence that you suggest your ideas and designs have been copied. I’ve just looked in your Shapeways store - and there are only three areas of overlap. a) jerrycan insert b) GF-01 spacers c) wheels a) Jerrycan insert - who knows who thought of the idea first? Who didn’t look at that void back in the 80’s and want it filled - back in the day I saw lots of things used from card to Plaster of Paris. Who owns that idea? What I do know is that today there are three such items on Shapeways. Each with slightly different characteristics. As conveyed to you some time ago, the fact remains that on the @simensays version I bought two years ago the X motif was not the same as the Tamiya pattern (different depth, different gradient with different width of the legs). I elected to design my own given I wanted a closer fit with extra material to prevent it from being pushed in too far with the bracket wrapped around the bottom so that it locked firmly in place to stop it rotating. Even in the 80’s catalogue picture the jerrycan was nudged off vertical which so often happens after a wheelie. If you correct your X motif are you now copying me or Tamiya? Either way I suspect most folks buying such a thing would probably (as I did) automatically assume the pattern would be the same. I can’t be guilty of copying your design, I wanted an accurate rendition that doesn’t rotate despite half of it being hidden behind the tailgate. Unless you think you were the first person in 1983 who came up with the idea. b) Because the 1940s Jeep was four wheel drive I too wanted to find a way to employ the GF-01 (similar gears to WW2) - this has been done many times with no 3d printed parts (to be helpful I posted a How To guide on TC two years ago using only Tamiya parts). However, given the different wheelbases of the platforms there is a compromise to be made. I bought your GF-01 10mm+ spacers (before you shortened them to 10mm) as a cheap experiment. It was operational but the fact is that the new location of the body was neither correctly over the front nor the rear axle when compared to my SWB. I decided to take a different approach - that of moving the body back only ~3 mm to sit correctly over the front axle and then design a new rear upright to shorten the wheelbase by ~2mm (by measuring an actual SWB* and comparing to actual and official GF-01 dimensions there is only a couple of mm difference). This is a more convoluted route with new body posts (front and rear), new battery tray, new receiver switch and new rear upright. Again, I can’t be guilty of copying your single file design given my desire for improved accuracy. Unless you thought you were the first person to want to match a 4x4 platform with a Wild Willy body. * I don’t think Tamiya ever published an official wheelbase for their SWB - I’ve found internet sources vary and differ from my own collection. Tamiya have published dimensions on newer models including the GF-01. c) I’ve never bought your wheels but with confidence I would say that they share a couple of identical characteristics. Firstly, they are round. Secondly, the bead lock will be the same given we both like the reproduction Blazer/ WW tyres and want to use them on our models. But apart from those two facts the designs diverge. A complete set of my rims use no less than 16 x 3d printed parts, 24 x magnets and 25 x scale screws that when built conceal the M4 nut. I’ve still not got the design quite right but they will be up on Shapeways later this year. They have been inspired by the prototype steel items with an eye on full size blueprints used on the full-size military vehicles. Mine also faithfully replicate the track front and rear of the 1980’s model (which may still require a new front upright with the ball joint brought in). Not sure if or how you solved this problem at the front. So, I really can’t be guilty of copying your design on this one either. Unless you believe no one else is entitled to design scale wheels for the reproduction tires. I reiterate, the only thing I’m guilty of, for which I’ve apologised, is putting two colons “::” in my original thread title. I’m sure you’ll let me know if I’ve missed something but suggest it helpful if you uphold your accusations with facts rather than frustration and/ or apologise and redact your comments. Otherwise, I remain disappointed and confused.

Awe - this is really sad and disappointing to read. But having just found this thread and being named I feel a duty to reply. Firstly, I’ve always admired @simensays talent (‘designer and an art director’ with 20 years+ WW experience) and his wonderful Tamiya collection and the pinnacle, for me, being the winter camo SWB Wild Willy he had professionally painted - a great illustration of a team effort. Secondly, I felt coming to this subsection of the forum, focussed on 3d design, I would be amongst kindred spirits to made the community stronger - just as @simensays has provided much inspiration and encouragement. But, the only mistake I made, for which I wholeheartedly take responsibility for, is that I used double colons “::” in the title of my thread for which I am sorry. By the way @simensays - I don’t mind you leaving sarcastic comments on my thread (knowing I’m the OP who gets an instant email copy) but do find it curious that within minutes you go back and edit or delete your posts so that no one else can see what you were thinking - last week on my thread was not the first time! So, despite having already apologised on my own thread, and knowing that it continues to cause offence (which I obviously never set out to cause) I have changed my title to “Wild Willy’s 3d printing adventure - by NicheRotors” in an attempt to disassociate myself as far as possible and draw a line under the matter.

Maybe this is a better way of illustrating how the battery bay and switch are sandwiched between the two chassis halves (lots better than my pictures!).