JennyMo

I've only just seen this. Best wishes in the next life my friend. Jx

Quick update: Following on from my 'almost finished' photos, I decided that adding spoiler was probably not as authentic or 'scale' as this buggy has ended up being, so have elected to fit a spare wheel on the rear instead - which also has the benefit of adding a little extra weight to the rear as I noticed it can skip a bit over bumps and jumps, being appreciably nose-heavy once the battery is installed under the hood. photo. spare front tyre (more narrow that the rears, and a similar overall diameter) - on a spare six-stud (to match) white 8-spoke wheel I had kicking around. The mount itself was easy to fab up with a strip of 2mm styrene (together with a return lip at the front to add some more rigidity) and an M4 bolt, nut and a short spacer - again, all parts from my spares stash: photo. Initially tacked in place with superglue, then the joint to the cage beefed up with Araldite 2-part epoxy - don't worry, I've since painted over the glue with flat black paint too. photo. the wheel is an RC4WD white 8-spoke, with scale hub nuts (to match those on the main wheels), and the spinner is a random plastic part from some plastic cage set (as I recall) I'd bought some time in the past... not it is possible to make a similar spinner by using the appropriate sized wing-nut, and grinding the wings down - then gluing/soldering on a short length of tube to each stub to create the handles - see my SRB Cage Racer for an example. photo. installed in a dedicated 'garage' in my display unit, I'm calling this one done for now! Overall I'm really pleased with how this build has turned out - initially I was just going to build a 'basher' as it's not a style vehicle I have in my collection, but inevitably as the project evolved, I couldn't help but start to add more and more scale detailing - the driver and interior particularly - although at the same time, I still consider this build (using an Axial Capra Cage and aluminium front suspension/rear axle combo) robust enough for some track and general rough and tumble running... Toot toot for now! Jenny x

Yes, although having run it again recently, with the weight of the battery pack up front (under the windscreen area) it is rather nose heavy, and can cause the rear end to hop a bit - so I feel adding a spare wheel and tyre on the rear is probably a better option to help readdress the current weight imbalance... I shall experiment with both. Jx

Hee hee - they kind of did with the BBX of course ;o) Jx

Right then, I think we're 99% finished with this one! It's amazing what a few sponsor stickers can do to lift the overall appearance don't you think? photo. A mix of Tamiya Super Champ (Fighting Buggy) decals and some additional sponsor logos... the overall effect being very similar to the newly released Tamiya BBX buggy I thought? photo. RC4WD Mickey Thompson tyres (slightly more narrow on the front) with 1.9 size alloy wheels - using Locked-Up RC freewheeling SLW hubs on the front stub axles (this being a 2WD buggy). photo. custom chassis [hand] cut from 2.5mm aluminium, with aluminium mesh insert for the grille panel. photo. aluminium IFS suspension (aftermarket for the Tamiya DT-02/03 buggy chassis) with Tamiya Frog shocks front and rear - using RC4WD springs. photo. Marty McFly was the perfect fit inside the Capra cage - the offset 550 motor and low-profile gearbox (to the right) allows for a full depth interior on the driver's side. photo. solid rear axle is SCX10 II width, with wider rear hexes to match the track width of the IFS buggy suspension up front. photo. aluminium body panels (From Luxury RC on Ebay) partially painted with Tamiya TS15 blue... The rear quarter panels behind the cabin are custom cut from 0.5mm aluminium, curved to fit the tapered cage profile, and glued in place - they really tie the whole body together I think? photo. custom styrene dash covered in self-adhesive carbon-fibre, seat is from Gmade (shortened to fit cabin) and 'real' seatbelt holds Marty in place. photo. hood vents (for a Land Rover) glued on, and a mix of decals - Axial, Tamiya and RC4WD for the RC elements, together with various Super Champ stripes and Tamiya based sponsor logos, paying homage to the Tamiya buggies of old (and the new BBX). photo. I'm still debating whether to add some kind of rear spoiler... we'll see eh? Right time to get it proper dusty and almost inevitably scuff up a few of those stickers! Toot toot for now! Jenny x

Slow going on this one I'm afraid, although picked up the mantle again last weekend and have made some inroads... First of all, being happy with the overall stance and layout of the running gear, I felt this project deserved a new chassis plate, rather than the existing one which was now riddled with holes due to relocating the steering servo and the the transmission during development: photo. old (left) and new (right) - essentially the same, and cut from 2.5mm thick aluminium - by hand! (well, a Jig-saw and then a file). photo. servo mounts moved forward 5mm so I no longer needed to use spacers - 3-gear low-profile transmission bolts using the original Axial 3-gear layout. photo. using 2.5mm thickness aluminium not only gives plenty of strength (for a buggy which is likely to be jumped and bumped from time to time), but also allows the front suspension subframe and servo mounts to use counter-sunk bolts - keeping the skid-plate smooth. With the chassis back together, it was now time to try and work out how much of an interior could be fitted in the compact cabin, and fundamentally perhaps how much of a driver figure would actually fit in there without some pretty drastic amputation! photo. cardboard template used to mark out an interior rear bulkhead and floor panel, made from 1.5mm styrene sheet. photo. fortunately the offset motor and low profile transmission means there was some semblance of space to the left, enough for a seat and driver figure? photo. plenty of depth on the left hand side, and only a slight trimming of the seat bolster ought to be required to clear the top of the transmission... A quick measure of the resultant space, and it turns out one of these G-made bucket seats would also just fit inside the cabin - although I ultimately chopped about a quarter of an inch (6mm) from the bottom, and glued the side bolsters directly the floorpan - factoring the drivers legs would hide the lack of a seat cushion anyway... Back to the... drawing board. And speaking of the driver - while I had initially considered Igino Montoya* for this particular installation (see the previous post regarding painting the body panels), once the alternative arrived in the post, it turned out his slightly shorter stature was perfect for the interior of the Capra! *don't worry, I'm sure Inigo will find his way into something in future! photo. not only is Marty the right scale, but he's also the right size (including his legs) to actuallt fit inside the cabin - result! photo. as mentioned above, the G-made seat was trimmed around the base, and then glued directly to the interior panel (now flashed over in flat black). photo. Marty gets a proper harness seat-belt (plus as a couple of strips of double sided foam tape holding him snugly into the seat recess), and you may notice I also painted his see-through right hand in flesh tone - this version of Marty McFly being the one where he is playing guitar at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance, and he starts fading away when his parents don't appear to be getting together after all... photo. initially I considered fitting rubber window nets (as I had done with the Baja Blazer build), and spent a painstakingly long time gluing each individual ribbon to the inside of the cage frame with superglue... photo. ...however, I ultimately felt this build would work better with open side windows, and Marty hanging onto the cage with his left hand while steering with his right. I then fabricated a simple dash-board panel which follows the cage profile, and utilised the G-made steering wheel which came with the seats, together with a custom column cover... I may ultimately also fabricate a small instrument binnacle (quite possibly using a spot-light housing, again as I had with the Baja Blazer build), but for now elected to simply cover the assembly with self-adhesive carbon fibre, factoring that would be a suitably racy material to use in a real buggy like this. photo. hanging on in there...Marty's left hand was perfect for gripping the roll cage frame. photo. Corbeau decals attached to cheap Ebay self-assembly seat-belts - laborious, but ultimately worth it for added authenticity. With regard to 'hiding' all the electronics - you can just see the ESC mounted to the seat bulkhead in what might otherwise be the passenger space (once of the reasons I painted the interior panel black on this build was to try and hide the ESC and motor/gearbox assembly for being quite so obvious), while the Receiver is fitted inside the fuel cell on the rear of the cage, and with all the other wiring routed under the floor/driver's seat. Indeed the only real concession was to leave the two battery cables loose inside the cabin, as that is really required when installing the shorty 2S pack in the dedicated slot under the scuttle panel/hood. The result is as close as I can get to an 'open' buggy, with what is essentially a full-depth interior, while still incorporating a decent size battery, motor/transmission and the associated other electronics. photo. "Are you telling me you built a full-depth interior, into a Capra?!" I'm delighted to say the buggy handles just as well (or badly) as it did before, now that the driver and interior has been fitted - and all there really is left to do now is to decide one where all the various sponsor decals I've ammased will go... More soon, then I'll catalogue this one for posterity too - before the inevitable roll-overs and crashes mean it will never look quite so pristine again! Jenny x

Hi Jim - have a look in my showroom here: Showroom There are the various entries of the build stages of my Stumpkin and StumpScorcher (and the StumpKamper) there, plus in the Builds section here on the forum - you'll have to scroll/search back a bit since they were built a while ago now... Jenny x edit. Here you go, links to the original build threads: STUMPkin STUMPscorcher STUMPkamper and a bonus: Short Willy (MF-01x chassis)

You can - I've fitted 1.9 Tamiya [CC-01] tyres on Vanquish wheels for example - however, you may well find you can't actually use the bead-lock inner ring, as the Tamiya tyres tend to have much fatter bead sections than crawler tyres (which are designed to be pinched between the wheel rim and the bead-lock ring, to secure them). It's not usually an issue on more of a road based vehicle, or even a buggy style build (like mine, below), but you might consider gluing the tyres if you're running a powerful motor. photo for attention: Jx

I agree - with a 'basher' style buggy like this, it makes sense to have a separate/dedicated transmitter - that way you can always run it alongside another vehicle with a friend. Jx

Ah, the good old days when there were only ever six cars on track due to the number of crystals available! Jx

Thank Bus'! - I'm still deciding on which sponsor stickers to include, and will update the thread again once I've sorted the interior and driver figure too! As for how it drives - I would say 'well' - it's certainly very fun to drive, albeit in an older 911 way - ie. it takes some control to stop it stepping out of line under power... I've really only buzzed it around in the street and over a couple of kerbs and a wooden ramp so far, and it seems nice and stable and lands jumps with good composure (thanks to the quality damping in those shocks - which work surprisingly well in this orientation, with the softer springs fitted), so I'm looking forward to getting it on an actual track to see how it handles that sort of terrain... One thing is for sure though, everyone else better stay out of my way - as this thing weighs as much as a sledgehammer compared to a dedicated 'racing' buggy! Jx

Thanks Rusty! - when you say 'trouble' what do you mean? are they known for problems - breaking or something? I'm pretty confident these are nice and strong - but equally, the Tamiya plastic parts would also appear to be pretty robust - and which would have been an option originally if I hadn't needed to buy quite so many individual sprues to get all the parts I needed (and end up with a lot of left over ones!) Jx

It's starting to get there... Jx

cont. So while I was in the midst of this Ebay frenzy, I also decided to invest in an alternative set of aluminium front suspension arms - this time with matching upper wishbones, rather than the single (albeit adjustable camber) rods and eyes I'd installed previously... photo. if you plan to do anything similar, choose these - the are much more nicely machined and come with a full set of pivot pins and e-clips etc. photo. the moment I unpacked these I could appreciate the higher quality of this design/kit - yes they cost a bit more, but they are worth it! Indeed, previously the one thing I wasn't overly happy about was the amount of slack in the original front suspension set-up - it wasn't terrible, but sufficient that it didn't really appear to have the same 'high quality' precision action as the rear end, and the overall build of the buggy. Fortunately not only do these replacement lower wishbones fit with even more precision (and are very smooth on their own pivot pins, especially with a dab of grease on each one), but installing the upper wishbones immediately makes everything feel much more solid - and am confident will immediately improve the steering in future. photo. I swapped out the softer rate springs I had fitted for these medium versions - the damping action is still plush as you like, but the rebound a touch faster, and static ride-height increased - although they still offer a degree of sag which is what I wanted for cornering grip. photo. this is proper! The upgraded front end ought to be even stronger and more stable than before, just without the potential camber adjustment of course. photo. New front end re-installed, and the camber remains essentially neutral/the same as it was before anyway! Right, time to finish that hood paint, and apply a few sponsor stickers... then work out exactly how to create a suitable scale interior that hides the majority of the wiring, oh and ultimately get a driver figure installed too! More soon!

Ok then, time for a little update to this build... If you've been following from the beginning, then you'll know this was initially a bit of an experiment - to try and create a suitably fast rear-wheel-drive 'buggy' style vehicle that would be robust enough for more rough and tumble style driving (at RC tracks and skate parks etc.), but which still offered an element of scale detail and interesting features. Having successfully mated a 2WD Tamiya IFS with an Axail Capra, I consider the concept 'proven' now (once I'd replaced that original planetary gearbox with a high ratio 3-gear type transmission) - sure enough this little tyke will spin it's wheels, and step out of line at will using the throttle due to the relatively narrow rear tyres - and overall it bops along at a typical Tamiya buddy/SRB rate, which is more than fast enough for my high-speed driving skill level anyway! So in that regard I thought it would be worthwhile to invest a bit more money and spec this vehicle with some higher quality and more [scale] detailed components, to try and do the build justice other than simply as a basher... First up, I swapped out the Hooli aluminium panels with those currently on my 4x4 Capra in an effort to make things look a bit more sporty: photo. the nice thing about the Capra body panels is they are easy to swap around, potentially offering a whole range of different styles as desired. You'll also notice that I've changed the tyres from the 100mm diameter BF Goodrich MT style all-round, to a set of RC4WD Mickey Thompson 4.19s (so around 6mm taller) - the Baja MTZ version on the front (which are nice an narrow at 30mm, and more befitting a 2WD buggy), and the slightly wider (40mm) Baja Claw version on the rear (note. I'd have really liked to use their Baja Belted pattern on the rear, those being a really wide 47mm - however, I fear the nominal 113mm diameter would be a little too big in comparison to the fronts, and meant it might look like a tractor!). The other thing I realised in a moment of clarity is that I could also fit the same super-plush damping Tamiya Frog shocks I had up front on the rear end too, by simply inserting a 5mm diameter ball end (spare from the steering and camber link set) into the top mount of each shock - allowing both the top and bottom to pivot as required due to the sight side to side path of the solid rear axle - result! photo. Tamiya 5mm diameter M3 threaded ball end presses perfectly into these plastic top-caps, and I used a countersunk bolt to secure to offer more room for the shock top to pivot on the ball as required. So with both ends of the buggy super plush, it was time for a little more testing, and ultimately I settled on slightly stiffer springs on the front compared to the rear - keeping the front end nice and high to prevent the IFS bottoming out when landing jumps etc. and overall offering a pretty level stance now. Done! Increasingly confident that this build was now worth some further investment, I splurged on another set of bare aluminium body panels, with a dedicated paint-job in mind: photo. racy and retro - let's see what we can make with this little lot eh? I factored that since this was essentially a mash-up of a Tamiya 2WD buggy and an Axial Capra with it's inherent 'quirky' handling from having a solid/locked rear axle, that an SRB inspired paint-job would be just the ticket - and bought a set of Tamiya re-re Super Champ decals (known as the Fighting Buggy of course), which as it turned out, would be a neigh on perfect fit for the two-tone colour scheme I had planned... photo. "My name is Inigo Montoya - you killed my Capra - prepare to paint!" note. it turns out Inigo may or may not end up as the driver of this buggy, since I have an alternative which fits my proposed seat and interior even better! Having carefully masked the aluminium panels using the tri-colore stripes as a template, I blew over them with Tamiya TS-15 'blue' (aha, see what I did there?), before applying the stripes as a neat way to partition the bare alloy and blue paint: photo. very much the Tamiya Super Champ colourway. photo. I also felt this colour scheme is reminiscent of the recently introduced BBX buggy - which again harks back to the SRB buggies of old... and indeed, the lack of tail wing and relatively narrow tyres on silver wheels means this build is very much inspired by that new Tamiya BBX kit. photo. It's getting there - a few sponsor stickers and some window nets, and I reckon this will really look the part! Fortunately I already had a few left-over Super Champ decals in my sticker-stash, so was able to test-fit them against the panels prior to investing in a whole new set (even the re-re decals are rarely available, and not cheap these days) - and found that by mixing and matching lengths and angles, they offered three curved stripes which would all have the yellow against the blue (for contrast), and at the same time also allow each panel to have a portion left in bare aluminium, which I wanted to highlight. (note the hood is not finished in these photos - it's still in the paint booth at the time of writing - but follows a similar format with the centre portion left bare metal, while the blue paint and stripes taper along either side and meet in the centre). cont.