Grastens
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Posts posted by Grastens
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Finishes up the chassis, starting with hardware to build the side nerf bars:
They lend a distinctive visual character to the Comical Buggy series, and allow the Comical Hornet and Grasshopper to retain that part of their aesthetic. To me, it does not look out of place with the Comical Avante, at least from the box-art pictures. Six pieces assembled in the foreground replace the two chassis rails on the sprue in the background, which are a unique feature of the WR-02 chassis.
The hardware gets a little complicated for Parts Bag E:
With several different types of screws now, many of them anodized in the same finish, things get confusing. Much of the hardware here is not even used in the kit, leading me to believe that the parts bag was the same one as from another kit. Checking the instructions for the body set gives no clarity on the use for the extra hardware...
The new chassis rails/nerf bars add some useful protection for the motor, if only some:
They also provide a useful place for an on/off switch, obscured by the motor cables in this photo. They are symmetrical to each other, meaning a switch can be mounted on either side.
Body posts are up next, using the same type of post for all four corners:
They may yet get trimmed down substantially…
The antenna tubes are the result of a single one-foot antenna tube getting cut in half, and then put on aerial mounts as part of the three-piece side rails. My receiver had enough antenna to make use of the left-hand (on the right in this photo) aerial tube:
I can hardly wait to try out the concept in a rollover!
Oh, the memories of scratching up the roof of my Avante...
And now, that unique front bumper:
It looks good on this chassis:
It would be a nice modification for other WR-02 projects, I think. It evokes the Avante, but the shape would not look too out of place on another car.
The chassis is now mostly complete.
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The piece that mounts the receiver and ESC to the chassis does not screw or click in, but relies on double-sided tape and two pegs with matching holes in the chassis. The pegs allow proper location of the part, while the tape holds it in place:
Tamiya provides some excellent double-sided tape in their kits, being quite adhesive yet thin. The piece sticks on near the back of the chassis, ideal for its wheelie-centric performance:
The receiver and ESC then mount on either side of the piece using double-sided tape. Tamiya’s tape was good, but not nearly abundant enough for me (I like to maximize surface area), so I used a small piece of my ancient and not nearly as good tape to finish the job. Everything appears secure:
The instructions depict the Tamiya TEU-105BK ESC, which is slightly smaller than the TBLE-02S that was supplied in the kit. As such, I needed to ensure that proper clearances were maintained between the cables, chassis parts, and heat sink.
Setting up the TBLE-02S was easier than I thought it would be, given that I had been taking the recent generation of “plug-and-play” ESCs for granted. It sure is nice having a button on it that can be pressed by a human finger!
I eventually figured out the wiring, too, as suggested by the manual:
Why does everything mount like this? I believe that with the limited clearance under the Avante shell, or rather in the interest of allowing the Comical Avante to appear more Avante-like, the electronics are concentrated where the narrow canopy section of the body would be. This would be immediately behind the driver figure, in a space not much wider than that. This would allow for the low side-pods that are a characteristic of the Avante, to be retained for the Comical Avante.
And with the proportions of the shell, that canopy section would be tall enough to house an ESC mounted sideways!
The wheelie bar was next. Tamiya specifies two options for mounting this: one uses four 10 mm screws, while the other uses a special reinforcing plate, four 8 mm spacers, and four 20 mm screws.
I went with the latter, reasoning that I neither wanted nor could control really outrageous wheelies:
Two special moulded plastic plates and a third assembly – the new “exhaust pipes” are added to the rear. The plates are put on first, followed by the pipes, depicted below:
I have mixed feelings about these on the Comical Avante. To me, the Avante was never an internal-combustion vehicle, unlike the Grasshopper or Frog which were representations of single-seater off-road buggies that raced with automotive engines. Even if it was to be, the carbon-fibre-pattern decals that cover the pipes makes little to no sense for me.
That being said, the pipes and plumbing are crisply-moulded, which added to the temptation of detailing them with some type of silver paint. However, I would rather not draw too much attention to them… Interestingly, if you look inside the pipes, the shape of the moulded plastic in there could suggest afterburners – maybe that would be more befitting the styling!
The plastic plates are primarily used for mounting the rear body posts, but are rather flimsy on their own. The exhaust pipe piece braces them, attaching to them with a machine screw and a nut on the other end:
Down below, two 10 mm self-tapping screws fasten it to the chassis.
The instructions called for taillights, but I omitted these as I do not currently have plans to run lights on my Comical Avante. The housings for the LEDs did not appear essential to the chassis, fortunately.
And so, the chassis looks like this:
Before proceeding to:
All kinds of interesting details and steps were covered in the previous parts bag – what awaits this one?
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Has the servo saver as its first step:
I do not believe I have ever seen this serrated metal washer in any other servo saver I have built. Either that, or I do not remember my other builds particularly well. It would be far from the only surprise in this build, though…
This direction, identifying the screw and servo saver piece to use for Tamiya servos, was also news to me. The typical description for other brands of servo was below this step in the manual, but I do not recall being directed to use this particular screw for this particular servo. As mine fitted the Tamiya servo part, I used the 2.6 x 12 mm screw – not a particularly good instinct, but this off-brand servo accepted it.
I would learn later that I had oriented the servo saver incorrectly by 180 degrees…
But this is what surprised me:
The use of a steering linkage system is unusual, though warranted by the packaging constraints of this particular chassis. But ball bearings, too? I was not expecting that!
Tie rods were assembled – 33 mm between adjusters for the steering rods, and 24 mm for the rod connecting the linkage to the servo saver:
All together now:
Ingenious was Tamiya’s incorporation of the steering linkage’s axle into the chassis:
The hole you see is where the axle slides in, to sit inside a recess on the other end. We are looking at the underside of the chassis. A 3 x 20 mm screw then prevents the shaft from falling out the bottom, entering through one side of the hole before threading into the plastic on the other side. Reading the manual, it was suggested that this screw acted more as a pinch/grub screw, but this solution is superior for retention. In the absence of the same space in the front of the chassis as in the WR-02, the GF-01 makes use of some interesting ideas.
The servo sits on the side of the chassis. How does it get secured? It gets screwed in from the inner side of the chassis half, with holes and recesses large enough for a screwdriver to pass through:
I came to appreciate details like these, that both made a functioning chassis possible, and assembly that much easier. For example, this notch in the chassis to provide clearance for the steering linkage rod:
For the headaches that arise from seemingly-bad decision-making or design, touches like the ones mentioned are surely signs that at least a few people at Tamiya are thinking!
We then get into some of the new parts made for the Comical Buggy series. In the foreground is the GF-01 battery door, which is here out of curiosity:
That front bumper must be unique to the Comical Avante – its styling is pleasingly reminiscent of the original Avante bumper.
Among the unique parts is this curious piece, which is used to mount the receiver and ESC:
Sponge tape is provided, to cushion/secure the battery in its compartment. Most of one strip supplies the battery door:
But with a strip of tape sticking to the reinforcement ribs of the battery door instead of a flat surface, I have doubts about how well the tape will hold. If the tape works in compression, though, pressing against the battery, perhaps adhesion is not an issue.
Small pieces are used for the forward corners of the tray. The manual advises 10 mm pieces, but I found that by cutting a single corner off each, the fit could be further enhanced:
These snap pins securing the battery door seem recent:
Electronics are coming up! We shall soon see how the mounting piece works.
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As before,
Contains the dampers. These are oil-filled, a welcome change from the friction dampers that appear on other WR-02 kits. The Comical Buggy series appears to include these as standard equipment.
The spares from Parts Bag B:
The inclusion of extra step screws, ball connectors, and O-rings was quite welcome. However, there should only be two spare ball connectors in this picture, because I somehow omitted them from the rear damper tower! Still, as spare parts go, these were thoughtful.
For the dampers, I skipped with even brushing the dust off my pit stand, pressing it into action as my damper assembly station. The holes in the stand are made for this purpose:
The stand had previously been holding up my Lancia 037 4WD-H project. The dimensions of the platform work for that car, as well as many other 1:10 scale models, but it is too long in either direction to comfortably hold the GF-01CB without some form of suspension compression. In any case, it just had to hold dampers while their oil settled.
I ended up with low rebound on both rear dampers, and slightly-asymmetrical rebound on the fronts after some iterative building. Springs made the differences less of an issue.
While they are oil dampers, they are not particularly high-quality types, with the piston and shaft as one piece and using black O-rings. It is more of an observation than a complaint, since the inclusion of oil dampers is most welcome for these dynamic short-wheelbase chassis.
Building up with all-grey plastics, lighter than those used in the front arms or other assemblies, they were pleasant to assemble:
I would have thought at least black lower eyelets and/or spacers would have made more of a visual impact, but the finished units do not give away much in appearance. It would have been fun, though, to evoke the visuals of a Hi-Cap damper with these plastic types!
And so they went on the front end:
And the rear end:
Bringing us to:
Electronics, coming up! This is where I left off for the session:
The thick rear arms made securing the dampers to their ball connectors a tricky business for regular pliers. Wide-jaw types will have an easier go of it. Even the rear damper tower, with the battery holder integrated into the rear of the chassis, provided little consistent purchase for a pair of pliers.
So far, the GF-01 has been much like the WR-02, save for that interesting gearbox. However, the similarities may very well end beyond this step, especially where electronics are concerned – we shall see how everything manages to fit under the Avante-style shell…
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With the front arms in on the:
Front uprights are next:
The knuckles are horizontally symmetrical, but the hub carriers are not. I found myself triple-checking to ensure I had the right orientation. There have been several occasions on other builds when I have either assembled the hub carriers the wrong way, or put the ball connectors on the wrong side of the knuckles. My last two (for now) rubber-shielded bearings went in here.
Of interest to me was the selection of two different output shafts between the front and rear wheels:
The ones closest to the camera are used in the front, with the all-silver ones going in the rear. Assuming the torque to be equal going to the front and rear wheels (on account of the vertically-symmetrical gearbox internals), could the front ones confer an advantage to running a steering pair of wheels? Perhaps this could be akin to running dog-bone shafts on one end and CV joints on the other.
The front end also gets a small plate to contain the U-bar, resulting in the following:
This assembly shows surprisingly little slop, but the nature of the design will probably see it develop plenty more before long. There is a caution in the manual to avoid over-tightening the step screws in the suspension arms to avoid binding, though I never encountered this as a problem.
(While at odds with the car's objective as a fun and reliable runner, it would be interesting to see just how far one can take a GF-01CB in the context of performance and build quality, using - what else - the Avante as inspiration. There is a thread on that somewhere...)
Rear lower suspension arms followed, built up much like the front units:
There do seem to be more mounting options for the rear dampers, with three positions for the ball connector on each arm. It makes sense, if the fine-tuning of the rear suspension affects the total character of the car more than the front (for wheelies just as much, if not more, than actual traction).
Repeating the front end’s assembly, but without separate hub carriers and knuckles, we get to here:
And now we can get started on:
Consisting largely of damper parts, next!
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We continued on the:
Tamiya had the chassis halves on the D-parts tree, but then asks you to dig into the F-parts sprue for the bumper mount to help hold the chassis together. This goes on with four screws at the front, while seven secure the halves to each other, resulting in this:
… Do I need to remind you how out-of-practice I was? I even forgot to lubricate the gears! That will be eleven screws to rectify that, but at least they are all pre-threaded now… On the other hand, everything turned smoothly with no binding and appreciably low friction, so perhaps that may be why I overlooked this particular step.
I was motor-minded first, though:
(make that 13 screws now!)
Accompanying this motor was a slightly-battered but still-meshing 20-tooth pinion, to replace the stock 18-tooth one. I like having a little more top-end in my models, particularly on this wheelie chassis that would not appear to have much speed potential, if my WR-02 experience is to be believed. I mean, this thing will not be racing touring cars, but with long straights still foreseen for this model, I would like a bit of excitement at the prospect of winding it out.
The pinion is to be set so that the distance between its outer face and the cardboard plate is 14 mm. This proved easy to do with the manual’s illustrations, and so everything bolted in nicely:
Thus concludes:
And now on to:
We now see things like this combined L-parts and N-parts sprues, as well as some slightly-flexible dark-grey plastics that somehow feel different from anything else before the Comical Buggy series:
There are two of these sprues, which I remember from my WR-02 days.
I also gave up on reaching for and squeezing a tube for each and every screw on this kit, breaking out the value tub of clear grease for this purpose:
Typically used on my bicycles, this tub has already lasted me three years, with about 80 percent of its contents left. Surely a few models’ worth of screws will not be any trouble? In any case, my building sped up appreciably following this substitution.
Front suspension arms followed:
These appear to be a different plastic than I remembered from my WR-02 – superior, even, in terms of flexibility without impairing performance. They went together without issue, helped by the presence of raised marks on the arms that denote orientation of the pieces.
The tuning guide and my anticipated running patterns would have suggested putting the suspension ball connectors in the outer holes, but I do want to experience the car in a stock form first. The mere presence of ball connectors instead of the more-familiar step screws for this step was something I noticed. It certainly feels like a step up in sophistication from the original WR-02, even if I appreciated the step screws from a serviceability perspective.
Step screws still preside over the upper suspension arms, though, as well as the U-shaped bar for the lower arms. We thus get this for the front:
And that is about where I stopped for the session:
The next step will be front uprights, but I intend to dismantle the gearbox first to add the required lubrication for the gears. I can still hardly believe the omission!
Regardless, to celebrate the new build, I created a new avatar for the occasion:
A tiny little image, yes, but under the 1 kB file limit for user profile pictures! This is one way to comply with the file size restriction. Sized up, it looks like this:
Yes, the excitement is certainly there! The Comical Buggy series seems to be good at inciting that...
Edit: the image has since undergone minute changes to bring it down to 1.023 kB, which seems to be the figure accepted by TamiyaClub - at any higher than that, the image did not upload properly.
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Thank you! I enjoy writing more than is necessary for these things
However, that is also because I feel build threads should at least have the builder's own unique impressions of the model at hand.
So as the build commenced, the first thing I started was the electronics configuration:
It seems I do not have a waterproof ESC, as previously believed, but I do have servos and a new receiver that works with my Spektrum DX3C radio. Poignantly, the channel I used to bind the new receiver was the one I used for my Avante Black Special.
The radio is showing signs of wear and tear, though; the trim switches are responding erratically, and I just managed to set everything to neutral before they stopped responding. The scrolling thumb-wheel is also not particularly quick to respond. I do have an upgraded radio somewhere… maybe with my waterproof ESC?
With the radio equipment settled, I revisited some of my old building tactics. One was the use of kit-box lubricants for threading screws:
However, this is all the ball differential grease I have… Where does my stuff even go? The Tamiya Grease tube, though, is untouched.
After gathering my other tools, including a brand-new set of Tamiya plastic side-cutters purchased especially for this project, I began on:
This entailed building up the gear differentials. And these things are huge!
The scale of these kits (1:10) always surprises me, for some reason. It is as if the car is always bigger than I expect it to be, as if I had been working on 1:14 or even 1:18 kits my whole life. It is always that way with the kit’s tires, but rarely with the internals… The large size of the gears gave me reassurance that they could stand up to quite a bit of running, which is desirable in a kit like this.
I had a single small tub of Tamiya Anti-Wear Grease left, so I set about lubricating the differentials with it, if not quite packing the assemblies:
These are brand-new tweezers I am using. I have never seen anything this sharp! I kept fearing for my eyes whenever I used them, even if the precision they can afford me in future model-building projects can be much greater than whatever I had been using until this time. Safety glasses in the future, then!
Surprisingly (to me), they were held together with three regular button-head self-tapping screws:
Every other geared differential I had seen thus far, when it used screws, had special smaller ones that were typically countersunk. With the amount of room in the GF-01’s gearbox, though, the same ones that would be used for much of the rest of the car could fit here. I found this an interesting and useful concession to ease-of-assembly.
Of course, two of them were assembled:
And then, the rest of the gears followed:
Here were all the properly-functioning ball bearings I had to start the project:
As duplicates of each of the counter gears are present in the gearbox, I completely miscalculated the number of ball bearings required to replace all the bushings and metal bearings in the kit! As such, I had to put rubber-shielded bearings into two of the gears. I chose the larger counter gears, hoping they do not spin up to the same speeds as the smaller ones, thus offsetting whatever drag they might have over the metal-shielded types – but really, who cares besides me?!
My original plan of using metal-shielded units in the gearbox and rubber-shielded types everywhere else was ditched in favour of using whatever I could, wherever I could. I still found it sensible to use rubber-shielded ones for the differential outdrives:
But wait, that’s a metal-shielded one at the rear of the chassis! I am hoping that the rear location is less exposed to dirt by virtue of the rear wheels being non-steering and fronted by, well, the front wheels.
… I can tell I am overthinking this one. My time as a bicycle mechanic, where marginal gains are obsessed over (and usually again not terribly important – not a lot of our customers went racing), might be at play…
Anyway, I felt better to mix up bearings between the front and rear outdrives instead of the front and rear large counter gears, so doing this with the outdrives meant I could fit identical bearing types into the gears, between each pair:
I am still four bearings short of completing the kit. As far as I can tell now, I need four more of the 1150s, and preferably rubber-sealed since they will be residing in the hubs. I would need six more to ensure all are rubber-sealed in these locations, since I now have two rubber-shielded types and two in metal.
With current events as they are, I paid the small fortune required by a local source, which also only stocked rubber-shielded 1150s. Hopefully, going local means they will arrive quickly! In the interim (and honestly, I am not sure I will have it up and running before the new bearings arrive), I would look at fitting ball bearings to the inside of each hub, and plastic bearings on the outsides.
It is clear that I am out of practice building these things, even the most basic kits! Still: fun, isn’t it?
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Another new build - a shorter one as I continue work on my more complicated projects - as I get my hands on the:
Overview
In 1988, Tamiya introduced the Avante. It was an ambitious response to the company’s flagging fortunes in international RC off-road buggy competition, utilizing radical new ideas in a radical new combination of materials. The execution unfortunately made for a racer that was overweight, oversteering, and overly fragile, meaning the Avante was never truly competitive in the international scene.
However, the aesthetics of the Avante – from its swoopy space-age styling to its purposeful mechanicals – have endured. It was a sought-after collector’s item, and the re-releases since 2011 have reaffirmed its appeal. It has become an icon of Tamiya’s radio-controlled vehicle lineup.
As such, when Tamiya introduced the “Comical Buggy” series, reimagining its best-known buggies with cartoonish proportions and performance, the company chose to represent the Avante. It is Tamiya’s first four-wheel-drive “Comical Buggy,” based on a derivative of the GF-01 chassis.
In theory: what the Comical Avante lacks in mechanical sophistication relative to its inspiration, it compensates in reliability and fun, and all in a stylishly-quirky package that approximates the original’s visual impact.
Grastens and the Comical Avante
The theory is part of the reason I got so excited for this particular release. Other reasons include: the buggy’s ability to run on trimmed grass (lots of that around here); the pre-painted body shell (painting weather and time rarely coincide for me these days); and the departures of my dearly-beloved Wheelie Rally chassis and Avante Black Special.
The moving-on of my Wheelie Rally chassis left me without a large-wheeled runner and wheelies, but more painful was the exit of my Avante Black Special, especially as its custom paint (one of my most inspired works) went unappreciated by its new owner, whom I have not heard from since. The Comical Avante might not be either car, but in some way, it captures the spirit of each.
The news of an unpainted Comical Avante body set certainly has me intrigued for later…
So, in the Comical Avante, I have a new-to-me chassis that promises to build up into a fun and reliable runner without the need to paint the shell, as well as a return of futuristic buggy styling and wheelies to my divided fleet of runners. A relatively-quick build and some running time may encourage me to finish my more complicated projects, too.
The Kit
My own example was a pre-ordered item from Tower Hobbies in the United States; new Tamiya releases seem hard to find from Canadian sellers.
The box was nearly as tall as it was wide – a bit like the Comical Avante, I suppose!
I remember when Tamiya used to include photos of their RC models at speed on what was presumably their facility track on the box. This edited picture suffices, though:
And first impressions upon opening the box are fine:
The scent of new tires took me all the way back to the first Tamiya I ever had…
This is the first new kit I will be building that has a pre-painted shell, and all applied evenly. The unpainted sections are where the optional headlight and taillight lenses, as well as a transponder stay, are located. Tamiya obviously sees racing in this Avante’s future, too!
Unpacking a bit, we get this:
Of particular interest to me was this tuning guide, included among all the instructional, legal, and promotional literature in the box:
I do not know if this is a feature of the other Comical Buggy kits, but for a rookie like me, I found it enlightening. TG-10 axles and otherwise-unused wheel hexes are mentioned here as a means to widen the track, and a special gearbox plate plays a part in extending the wheelie bar.
The plan is to build the car stock, with ball bearings. The GF-01 chassis is one I have never built before, so I intend to go into some detail during this build thread to give my impressions on the mechanicals. My inexperience with it also means I should be satisfied with a relatively-unmodified build, to start.
Later on, I may upgrade the motor and gearing (if possible), and add a custom-painted shell to recall my Avante Black Special.
For now, let us begin, on our way to experiencing all that the Comical Avante was probably meant to be!
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My Comical Avante is here:
A build thread is in order!
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Nice to see one built up! Mine is en route; the excitement mounts...
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... What year is it?
Well, this project sort of fell off the face of the Earth in the tumult of new work and personal crises, but having seen speedy_w_beans' latest work and reminding myself that he already put so much into this particular project, the only decent thing to do is to start it back up.
This is where we had left off:
I can tell these seem to be the actionable items:
- sand down the driver to smooth out the putty joins, wherein I clearly put in too much and have now created extra work for myself - but not the Dremel
- build up the interior to incorporate details like the steering column, gauge cluster, and roll hoop attachments
- paint said driver and interior
- detail painting (and/or a respray) of the hard plastic shell
- decals for the hard plastic shell
- spray and decal the polycarbonate shell
- assemble everything, including the seat harness
When I think about it, it is amazing that I left the project when it was in a pretty good state for completion. I do remember being discouraged by the orange peel effect on the paint (particularly as the rest of the white stripes will be glossy decals), as well as trying to decide if I wanted to include the roll hoop on the back of the cockpit instead of just using the little chrome piece from the hard plastic body kit.
TinyPic, previously my image provider of choice, choosing to go to a subscription model also killed much of the usefulness and appeal of this thread unfortunately. I will be using Imgur in the interim, with an eye on finally mastering TamiyaClub's own photo-hosting service.
I think I will proceed with the paint as-is, and create proper roll hoops to attach to the cockpit. For anybody wondering about the latter, this picture of the static model might clarify things:
It would be a small matter of bending some plastic rods, perhaps even excess parts sprue, and attaching it to the cockpit. I seem to recall the one behind the driver would be in a less-accurate position than in reality, but the effect would be authentic. I would just need to ensure it is sufficiently strong - at the very least, to stay intact while the shell rattles around on the body, and at the most to serve as a roll hoop!
The funny thing is that it has been more or less out in plain sight right now. It is sitting in plain view on a table; however, it is routinely obscured by the Lancia 037 4WD-H project I did earlier, sitting alongside it:
(a picture of the 037, not the storage arrangement)
All this being written, this project is long overdue to resume. Sorry, Bruiser
I hope to make some progress in the coming week.
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And it has continued to be fun watching this come together - I, for one, am happy to see this fantastic project as the subject of a build thread
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The astronauts drove "Moon buggies," not "Moon trucks"
That aerodynamic shape would be perfect for cutting through the, uh... *checks notes* ... never mind
More seriously, though, this is a great contest and relevant to the current status of space exploration, so I am intrigued. Having seen some similar work from my alma mater's Aerospace Engineering department, however, I am less optimistic it will look anything like a Tamiya!
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Another incredible build! Really liking this one - top work, Jenny
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23 hours ago, Hobgoblin said:
... On the upside I imagine it had better sales figures than the Striker - at least seven people bought them and four quite liked them.
HAAAA!
The FXT, to me, is the archetypal RC stadium truck. I look forward to seeing your work with this example!
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... Would you believe The Rutles?
I have come around to appreciating just how brilliantly they spoofed the Beatles, having already taken the time to appreciate how they are actually decent musicians, too. "All You Need is Cash" was a good laugh
Someday, I should be getting their second album "Archaeology" in the mail...
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Love the paint on this one! I too look forward to reading your findings.
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Wow, I am really interested in this one! My first Tamiya (and first hobby-grade RC car, I guess) was the smaller 1:10 GT-One for the F103RS, and well before that I had heard of the GT-One from video games. Tamiya making one was actually the very reason I chose them... where I have stayed ever since
The 1:8 TGR is therefore very intriguing to me! And of course, your restoration threads and knowledge of these nitro cars will make following this GT-One's saga quite compelling indeed
I find the GT-One to be an attractive car, although I found it more striking on first impression - like an alien ship, that front end... The GT1 class at Le Mans might have thought the same thing in 1998!
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I mean, I still think a NIB Blazing Blazer or a 959 is expensive, but this is proper CEO money right here
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2 hours ago, ALEXKYRIAK said:
So whilst rushing through the front end I managed to do this... epic fail:
Tarmac-spec! Just like how they ran them at Corsica
The whole project is coming along quite attractively! I have been enjoying following this build so far
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5 hours ago, junkmunki said:
So would it be called a SuperuChamp, or a Super Brat?
j
Put on a re-release, it could even be the Fighting Brat (2014) or the Subaru Buggy... But wait, the latter was the TL-01RA:
I would be interested to see what a Subaru Brat shell on such a chassis would look like.
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Having tried their website on a mobile device, it is easier to navigate from one, but yikes that search function is horrendous
An ability to search by brand would have been nice to include, but as said before that would pull up all kinds of unrelated products...
I hope they are working on improving the Search feature; in other respects, it is not a bad website to use.
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I get the feeling a chop won't be necessary if you are able to fabricate a custom chassis plate; I remember the Sand Scorcher chassis being quite modular. Here is a photo showing a custom Sand Scorcher chassis plate, for reference:
The front and rear ends are quite distinct from each other; the chassis plate (as opposed to a shaped tub or multiple decks) is really the only thing linking them. Even the radio box is separate, and the Super Champ/Fighting Buggy did not even use one while using a very similar front end and a modified rear.
Thus, if you can make up a chassis plate that the front and rear suspensions can bolt onto, you can get the wheelbase you want for a Sand Rover shell without having to modify the kit-standard chassis plate. That may even be preferable if FRP repairs on such a sectioned chassis are not that strong.
Of course, you would no longer be using the standard radio box, but I think that would interfere with the Sand Rover shell, anyway. The torsion bars on the rear suspension may also interfere, though that is only a possibility. In any case, they do not really provide much function
If you get that chassis plate sorted (and you can cut and drill carbon fibre or even metal to make a new one), you could have your Sand Rover and the parts to convert it back into a Sand Scorcher if you ever feel so inclined. And with that, I hope you are encouraged to go ahead with a Sand Rover-bodied Sand Scorcher
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Looking forward to following this project!
Grastens Builds the Comical Avante (GF-01CB)
in The Builds
Posted
Thank you! It feels great to be building again. And as predicted, I am set to make progress on the Ferrari 312T3, too
On with the:
Wheels are typically assembled and mounted as the final steps of the chassis are undertaken, but for this build I elected to leave the wheels for last in the chassis build. I wanted to examine them in more detail, as they are completely new to me.
For some reason, I get fixated on the wheels of the cars I am building. The ones on the Comical Avante certainly got my attention early on, with the combination of yellow outer rims and dark inner parts recalling the original Avante’s Cam-Loc wheels, and shod with those large “bubble-block” tires. Only a modestly-spiked tire would have been more suitable, though less practical than this tread pattern, which should wear well over all kinds of running.
And with that, I began on the wheels:
Much to my surprise, the wheel centres are not black, but dark grey – more like the dampers than the chassis. I think black would have been better, but it shocked me to think that the real colour had never occurred to me in all this time.
The wheels also appear to be the same width at all four corners, meaning tires are the only difference.
Each wheel inner fastens to an outer with five 2.6 x 8 mm screws. I finished two wheels with a regular screwdriver before my brain kicked in and I switched to a ratcheting driver to finish the other pair.
The wheels are quite attractive once finished:
Wearing the new bubble-block tires, the fronts are now markedly narrower than the rears:
I wondered if this changed the diameter of the front and rear wheels, respective to each other. In the end, there was scarcely an appreciable difference between the fronts and rears.
With four 1150 plastic bushings to fill the outside of each hub, the wheels could be mounted and the chassis completed:
This, with word that my ball bearings will be arriving tomorrow. The bushings will be quite temporary.
The front track is still narrower than the rear, which is not always the case with off-road chassis:
And with plenty of leftover goods, too:
Not much of this is used for the body, so I have to wonder what is up…
With the chassis complete, the body is next. I can see that the holes are pre-drilled, so it should be just a matter of cutting the shell and wing, cutting decals, applying them, and completing the driver.
This GF-01 chassis has certainly surprised me with some of its design details. I am glad to have built one, and hope to say the same about running one soon – the driver figure has been washed and left to dry, awaiting paint and finishing…