mongoose1983

Oh! Did the Chipmunk got a free ride on the BIG BOSS in the end?

Interior is coming up nicely. I used Patifix, a black self adhesive velour that I believe it's made in Belgium. Works great for interiors. I still have to work on this one a lil bit. No way to get a decal for the panel but I'll think of something to make it look nice. The steering wheel is from a Wild Willy 2 kit. It's almost the exact same dia. of the original one. It was given to me by @Nobbi1977 about a year ago. Thank you! And here's a piece of the Patifix thing. Great stuff, highly recommended for anybody working on RC interiors. I suppose they made different colors, not sure. I am a bit upset I can not buy spray cans in here nowadays, not even a bottle of thinner to make the airbrush go. That's why I haven't been able to paint the body You all stay safe and have a good Friday!

Oh, I also had a go with the tire lettering. I used the old small + screwdriver method with good results. Y'all stay safe and have a good Thursday!

Oh, and the looks of the thing by now... Chassis sideview: With tub and bodyshell on: Y'all stay safe and have a good Thursday!

Almost two years took me to resume my work on this fantastic buggy. First of all I finally took the time to paint the bars. I also painted the Scorcher's bar as you can see. Results are very nice, fortunately. I also grabbed some nerve to try my way with the tires' white lettering. I now love how they look. Then I proceeded to straighten the slight bent both rails came with. It was nothing serious, but I just wanted the car to be as perfect as possible. So I took the chance and now they're good. When time came for the complete rebuild is when something NOT nice came to happen. The smaller bit of the right swing arm holder broke, the screw rolls inside of it, no way to fix it! It was already a bit screwed when I received it, now it's broken for good. I'm gutted I believe I'm going to open some Ad to locate a used replacement for this one. I presume chances to find one are way too thin. without it I'll never be able to try this buggy, dang.

Had a nice time working on this old goat. I ruined one small metal bit though. Now gutted

You can find thicker tires for the Frog on eBay. The old CRPs are great. They make nice front tires to match (in smaller dia. though) the Subaru Brat rear tires. Also, if you want to stick with Tamiya stuff the tires of the Tamiya XR311 look great on Frog buggies. Rear Brat (Rough Rider, Buggy Champ) tires work great on pavement. Check MCI Canada for decals. They have everything you need.

Rear Hornet shocks, original or re-re will work. They're the same.

The Tamiya company won't let the Club do so, unfortunately. They basically want us to buy their new stuff instead.

Oh, they did, and they were the best repro decals I've seen to this day. Here's how they look. Must've been over fifteen years ago: They were thin and the colors were spot on. I now see they were vectorized. Here's some old thread: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/14221-wild-willy-one-repro-decals-are-here/

The King Blackfoot is probably the best vehicle in the "Foot" family. It would be nice if you'd let us see your custom work with that one. The original Blackfoot truck is actually a mixture of earlier Tamiya RC models, the Ford Ranger XLT (body), the Subaru Brat (chassis), Frog (differential), and the Toyota Bruiser (tires). I think Tamiya just wanted to cash in the monster truck craze from 1985. Well, you could say they did that BEAUTIFULLY with a truck that's in the very heart of millions of RC enthusiasts around the world! We love the Blackfoot!

Looks great!

Thanks, Ben. Well, the Ford Ranger grill is now finished and ready to go. It has some lil scrapes and, as you can see, the chrome shows some typical age problems. I'm sure the paintjob would have looked better on a newer piece, but I believe once I get the body ready and painted it is going to look better than just reasonable, trust me The wheel you see here is a Wild Willy 2 wheel that I also painted, but that will go on my other project truck, the Marui BIG BEAR. In case you'd like to have a look it's here: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/90548-rc-project-for-2019-big-bear-body-chassis/ Small steps, but I see this one's going ahead alright, plus I've had a great time and relief these days working on it. You all have a good Thursday!

Seemingly there isn't much option to find decals you could use for a Toyota Bruiser. Years ago when I was in the same dilemma you're in now, I ordered a set of the re-release to use the stripes and some other bits that they did not change from the ones from 1985. I was extremely disappointed not because of the color but with how much thicker the Re-Re decals were compared to the original ones. If the original Bruiser sheet could hardly stand stuck in the shapes of the Toyota body, then the new one would be near impossible to stick properly in place, which is what you see in almost every Bruiser nowadays. I just kept the hogs and logos for my truck, and I traded the sheet with a fellow TCer. It's terrible they even changed the windscreen and the radio dash decals! There was a time when TamiyaClub offered decals. I wish I knew who made those in the UK, because at times they were better than the originals. I remember getting a set for the Toyota 4x4 pick-up and the stripes and small sponsors were all sharp and in perfect color. If anybody knows who or what company made those in the UK please let me know. Also, I believe bruiserbuilder offered some decals in the States. They had truly top notch stuff for the truck, so I doubt their decals were poor. Might worth a look.

Wait. No love for the Wild Willy 2?

Comparison shots are interesting in the fact that what you see there is exactly the turning point in the history of electric RC cars: with the infamous ORV chassis the "toy" coming over the "suitable for RC scale kit model". Thanks again!

This one is from a local buddy. And the decals are MCI.

That's a nice find. I particularly like the Futaba radio. I have the European Robbe version of it, but you know how it is, you just want to have them all, haha. Anyway, regarding your car, you can get a Grasshopper body for that, but to get the GH over it you'll need to modify a little the body, as the rear shock towers touch the inner sides of the GH body. You can do it easily, though. One nice little piece you might want to consider if you're going to run the buggy is getting the AMPro Hornet axle bracket. It's a tiny piece that will make your car run better than good! Cheers

I've stripped many bodies by now, and I can tell you one thing: not everything works the same with that because of the type of enamel used, and also because not all Tamiya hardbodies are made of the same plastic i.e. a blackfoot black body isn't made of the same ABS as a Subaru Brat body. So you can expect to find what's good for the body you need to strip only by trying to do so and going ahead with the task. I've done it easily with brake fluid in some cases. I've seen TCers here using fullbuckets of brake fluid to submerge the body, while I just used less than one cup of the thing to take it all off by getting wet a piece of old t-shirt and then covering the body to keep it wet until the paint start lifting itself. But that did not work on other cases. The graffiti remover has not been very useful to me, as I've noticed it degrades plastic sometimes. I've stripped cars with more than one enamel layer (blackfoot and scorchers) with caustic soda. I had to do it twice in certain bodies, actually. I have a super nice Sand Scorcher here that had SEVEN layers of different types of enamel over it, it was a disaster! And what worked with some enamel did not worked with the other. So this is pretty much try and try until it comes off. Oh, and yeah, the old elbow grease, plastic (or wooden) sticks, and some old toothbrush!

Found it: Thing is as wide as a reg. spray can!

Sideview is just fantastic. FAR better than over the ORV chassis. Rear end doesn't look better, though. THANK you for sharing these pictures. It's great to have the chance to see this small bit of Tamiya RC history!

Looks FANTASTIC, and much better than the ORV chassis. Also what's better than a black Subaru Brat? That's how I painted my first one. By the way, any chance that you can get a side picture for us to see?

Hahahahahahah GENIUS, mate! Ooooh, that's seriously cool! FANTASTIC body job there. Absolutely gorgeous!

It's incredible. A double wide buggy. Bet you've never seen such a thing. C`mon Nellson. Share some pictures of the wide Super Champ with us when you can

Good!