Grastens

Thank you! I am happy you are inspired, and of course anticipate seeing how yours builds up I will be posting an abridged summary of the second build here, but even before I start I noticed that one of my proposed paint schemes (that I used on several previous cars) resembled the Lancia Montecarlo Group 5 racer at the 1980 Le Mans 24 Hours: This one was entered by Jolly Club Lancia, and finished 19th - it looks like the only Group 5 Beta Montecarlo to finish that event. While I am a bit less interested in using it now, I can at least see that it looks good! I guess there actually is a Beta Montecarlo shell that is better-suited for that kind of project: For equivalency, the Jolly Club Lancia 037s were the Totip-sponsored cars in green and orange stripes. I will begin working on the new car this week

That is a fabulous idea, and well-executed, too! Your workmanship with the styrene is quite clean, so it is for others' enjoyment, too, that you find styrene so much fun to work with That tool crate is an idea worth borrowing for any sort of heavy-duty off-roader or extreme off-road racer. Remembering your marvellous Porsche 935 restoration had me anticipating great things for your Avante build, and these pictures (among the others) confirm that suspicion! I hope you are enjoying the chassis build, too! Meanwhile, I took a punt on an aftermarket McLaren M23 body set: Representation: I noticed a number of privateers ran the M23, and so I think I would like to experiment with an alternative paint scheme. Specifically, I wondered where the impetus for developing the Tamiya Striker came from, and figured that perhaps "Shakey" Roop had some previous experience early on with a Formula One car... The body set in question depicts the 1976 car, but I am interested in exploring whether or not I can scratch-build some sort of overhead air-box to mimic the earlier versions of the M23, as well as cut down the side-pods at the rear for the same purpose. While I was at it, I also found a spare Lancia Rally shell - and I do mean Lancia Rally: I will source re-release parts to complete it, but the chassis selection remains open. I seem to remember experimenting with a WR-02C back in the day... Paint will likely be a standard/augmented Martini Racing scheme, though tire choice might see me try something different if I opt to run original-size wheels and tires, which would be the turbine-style wheels and Advan HF tires from the Honda City Turbo.

@speedy_w_beans it's better than perfect! Thank you so much! I will be looking to make more progress on the driver figure in the coming week

Yes - thank you very much! Holes can be kept on the mounting tab, but the "wells" for the screws can be deleted. Single-post is perfect, though looking at the chassis again, I think 5 mm of extra height should be sufficient as opposed to 10. Thanks again for all your work!

I really like the Michelin TRX-style tires that featured on the original Tamiya rally models: the Audi Quattro, Opel Ascona 400, and Lancia Rally. They were decent road and wet-weather tires, with an authentic tread. Like the cars they appeared on, they were incorrect in proportion, but correct in other details, and they really contributed to the personality of the models. Alas, they are quite rare, and presently have no prospects for reproduction. Being an odd size, there is virtually no off-the-shelf alternative... ... other than the slightly-smaller and also-cool Advan HF tires that were on the Willy's Wheeler, and have happily made a comeback with the Honda City Turbo! The Advan HF-style tires are my second-favourite right after the Michelin TRX-type tires, but that stylish asymmetrical tread on the HFs blur that particular line between the two... Edit: The Advan HFs are also slightly larger - and much wider - than regular touring car tires, and so I am convinced they will make a fantastic impression on a cartoonishly-proportioned road racer (besides the Honda City Turbo) - like an outrageous Group 5-type parody. Its interesting specifications and little use elsewhere makes it, to me, a tire with plenty of untapped potential.

Excellent! It is a build I am confident you will enjoy All right, boys, you know where the cheques go In all seriousness, though, I am flattered that the theme has inspired these wonderful paint schemes. As I build up some more kits, I suppose I will be making a return to the tri-colour once painting season starts! Thanks for sharing these lovely shells

Not World War II specifically, but similar to some of the German schemes - this one is Yellow 13 from the video game Ace Combat 04: Monochromatic grey splinter camouflage with broad yellow bands could be quite striking.

It is looking great! The FGX EVO is such an interesting chassis, and while it is not perfect, it looks to build up well. Your build thread highlights the points of interest quite well.

Welcome! And what a way to introduce yourself, with a nice-looking build like this I believe many recommend an alloy motor mount for this chassis - Tamiya makes one for the Manta Ray, which shares many similar components. Issued in conjunction with a propeller shaft, it is part number 47373: As for the damper build: I built a Lancia 037 some time ago, and I believe what I did was omit the longer of the two internal spacers that are supposed to go in each damper. Doing this extends the effective travel of each damper, and has the side benefit of tucking the chassis higher into the body, reducing the amount of chassis exposed under the sides of the shell. The side benefit comes if the body is lowered relative to the chassis as well, but that is besides the point - more damper travel can be easily found by omitting one of the internal spacers in each damper, and it does not compromise driving performance. It is also possible to use the longer bottom eyelet and get even better ground clearance, though the chassis does not bottom out in this configuration. I am told that bottoming out helps the car in large-jump situations, saving the damper towers and suspension components from excessive force. In the meantime, I look forward to seeing your build progress

Watch for leaking dampers and rollovers (especially if no differential is used). The bodywork is predictably not very good at handling the latter - if you run a Rough Rider/Buggy Champ, be prepared to part with a few roof-mounted lights, or even lights in general if the use is "energetic." For the all-weather use that the mechanism boxes enable, be sure to check and treat the metal cap screws for rust, or else replace them with stainless-steel types. As you can imagine, the SRBs make for categorically-poor on-road runners, which is fine because the particular builds of these cars are open invitations to off-roading. On pavement, rear tires will wear oddly due to the inherent positive camber in the stock setup; that setup poses no problems for softer surfaces like sand (which is the intention; the full-size racers used a similar setup for traction in that environment). Otherwise, in my experience of running the SRB, these cars tolerate spirited running quite well. I only ever replaced parts due to fairly-extreme crash damage (I made the mistake of letting some neighbourhood kid try it out, and he and the car lost an argument with a brick wall). The verdict here is that these cars make lovely long-term runners - I regret moving mine on, especially since it got parked not long afterwards by the new owner.

Nice find! As I am quite uninformed on the world of trucks: is the K1500 larger than the North American Ford Ranger/Mazda B-Series? I remember being disappointed when I saw the 2019 Ford Ranger; for a "small truck," it looked like the only thing small about it was its pickup bed... I look forward to seeing this project progress!

Fantastic attention to detail on a build that is full of them. That is a good point about the FGX being much like the F201, but with proper 2WD. I will enjoy reading this one!

A useful post indeed - thanks for sharing!

I have enjoyed every update in this build, and it has been a treat to watch it develop into this fabulous rig

Great work on this! This could become quite a popular upgrade for Hotshot drivers, especially with the incorporation of bell-crank steering.

Best of luck! Both shells were painted using PS-1 White, PS-2 Red, and PS-22 Racing Green, so you have the right colours for the job

Is this possibly it? Or was it this one? Those are the only two I saw with polycarbonate bodies; there is a Grasshopper II with those colours, but that shell is in ABS plastic. I look forward to seeing what you are painting! Edit: here is the Grasshopper II, courtesy of TC member Pintopower:

I see this builder over on TamiyaBase does wrap it around the rollbar - it looks like tape, double-sided or otherwise, keeps it on: Tape seems likely, as there are no visible holes. I always figured a flag like that would be on an antenna aerial/mast, like the metal ones that were issued in classic kits. It would serve a purpose, then, even in this antenna-less age.

Slick-looking dampers there! A pair of Tamiya 4 x 4 Vehicle Driver Figures arrived, along with some spare bearings: I had one, but it was chopped up well and good for my Ferrari 312T3 build. I will fit either one or both into my Bruiser - I keep referring to these as "Bruiser figures" even though "Bruiser" is not in the name. The bearings - advertised as a complete spare set for the Bruiser - were an ill-informed purchase, as I had failed to realize the Bruiser kit had full ball bearings (even at that price!). A good off-road truck should have spares, though!

As I had envisioned in my earliest designs for this: I ended up using the 1:10 Bruiser driver, and taking a whole lot of plastic out of it! The result would not leave a lot of driver, but done properly, could give some depth to the cockpit. The primary objectives were: reduce the width of the shoulders; extend the arms out in front; cut the legs to reduce their splay (F1 cockpits are claustrophobic) and to the length of the cockpit; and make sure it all fit at a reasonable height. To that end, I removed substantial sections of the shoulders, and also took off the legs above the knee. To accompany the additional cuts to the underside of the figure, I also cut down the torso by 10 mm, to ensure the driver did not sit too high. The result is what you see here – the remaining driver on the left, and the discarded cuts on the right: I glued and added putty to the driver in a rudimentary assembly process. The right arm was cut and a wedge of plastic taken out of the elbow. The intention is to straighten out the arm and change the angle of the wrist to allow the figure to grip a steering wheel. The Bruiser figure has a larger bend in its right arm than its left; the cut I made changes that, though consequently leaves the left arm longer. I will rectify that as the project progresses, either at the elbow or shoulder. In a slightly-macabre twist, the Bruiser figure’s non-helmeted head fit perfectly in the torso, and so provided bracing for the upper torso while the glue and putty dried: … It might even stay there! I could build up the torso around it using putty, but at the moment the head is only an interim measure. What I am more certain of is that the cut-down driver is a better-looking fit in the cockpit: I will need to chop the legs further, however, if I am to retain the ability to change bodyshells without removing the cockpit; in the picture, the figure is just a bit too long, and the helmet would foul the headrest on either shell. Speaking of which, I sat the helmet on the figure to get a better feel for its fit and presence: The reduced size of the figure brings the helmet more into scale with the rest of the driver – again, that was a lot of plastic lopped off… There is still more carving to do, for there is still no room for the figure’s shoulders. I did shave off some material at the arm’s shoulders, but will need to remove more from there and the torso to get the desired position. In the meantime, only pre-determined gestures and poses can be obtained from what is there of the driver figure: What is the signal here: As I write, the putty has cured and the glue has set. The figure is probably strong enough for me to continue work on it, and in a rare instance of a plan working, I know how to proceed. Post-script: the 1:12 driver will live - hopefully to drive another car!

A recent delivery of an elusive sprue: The similarities between the F1 driver figures and the figures in the early 1:12 scale Tamiya RC cars had me wondering if I actually needed a 1:12 driver. While the partial-legs version from the Ferrari 312B static model would have been ideal, this sprue from a parted-out Lotus 72 kit should suffice. In any case, it would require less modification than the Starting Rider figure I was preparing to carve! The figure was easy to assemble, and the arms were moulded as one solid piece each, instead of the two halves that form one hollow arm per side. I believed this would facilitate alterations to the arms, which I envisioned since the figure does not seem to hold the steering wheel symmetrically. A turning posture would be fine for a static model, but I wanted a more conventional 9 – 3 position for the cockpit. As the driver’s body consisted of a front half and a back half, there would also be the simple option of excluding one half if I was really pressed for space in the cockpit. However, for depth, I wished to assemble the driver’s main body before making cuts to ensure proper seating. Something was definitely off, though: the driver head I intended to use was visibly too large for the 1:12 body. The 1:12 head on the matching body was a combination too small for the car. It does not answer what kind of scale the Bruiser’s hop-up driver figure truly is, but I can confirm Tamiya’s 1:12 driver is a bit diminutive to be putting in any 1:10 F1 kit – I felt absurd writing that, yet I needed to revisit it in person, so write it I did! The result was also a bit absurd, and unintentionally had a bit of a Wild Willy feel to it… Like any post-1970 (some might say post-1960) F1 car, the 312T3’s cockpit is a bit claustrophobic. Though Gilles Villeneuve was small, he still filled it up when he drove it. I designed the cockpit piece with an eye on its proportions relative to the car, and the result seems to favour the roughly-1:10 Bruiser figure, seen here with the cockpit, 1:12 driver, and the stock driver torso (with alternative Bruiser head): The 1:12 figure’s shoulders are ideal for the narrow cockpit, but not the rest of it: Meanwhile, the Bruiser figure fills it up more convincingly, though as before the upper body is too large: Yet a mashup of the 1:12 upper body and 1:10 lower body would be bizarre… Lining up both the 1:10 and 1:12 lower bodies to the kit-supplied driver torso, the torso is smaller than 1:10 and longer than 1:12. It could work with the 1:10 lower body, requiring material cut away from the upper body and arms (of course) and putty to fill in the hollow arms from underneath the figure. It was proposed earlier in this thread, and is a promising solution. In the end, the hot knife came out…

I have always wanted to watch that episode! Thanks, Jenny! This seems like an appropriate time to reveal that I got my hands on another 037: And this one is going to be a Twin Star Racing special: I wonder if I should just build on this build thread...? Either way, that delightful Grand Tour segment is motivation enough!

Crazy stuff indeed...

Agreed! But lately, plastic has been fantastic for me - a 1:12 driver figure from a parted-out Lotus 72 kit arrived today: I had plans to fit it to my 312T3, but as completely expected, it was too small - why do I think of these things? However, it did clarify my eventual driver figure plans, and in the meantime, I have a sharp-looking driver for any 1:12 project I might have!

The future of this project looks nicely-sorted: There are still a few rough edges in the bed, but nothing that cannot be sanded. That mechanism box is looking like a nice fit: The stance is good, and on the whole, it is a nice-looking truck: Even if it does really look like that other Bruiser with the step-side bed: Maybe if I used some reproduction Hilux 4 x 4 decals… But then: Well, I guess I do like it! I will deliberate on a paint scheme in the wait for painting weather…