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What do you do when there's only 2 Workshop Sundays left until Revival, your Revival cars aren't finished, you've already got a scaler chassis project on the workbench, and you're out of money for the month? That's right - you start another scaler project! To be fair, I have my reasons for doing this right now. First, I had to get all my Element Enduro parts out of storage to get started on the Ford Raptor race truck (see other thread), so everything is easily accessible right now; second, if I get this to somewhere near finished it can go on a display shelf somewhere instead of going back in the box as a pile of parts to maybe come out again someday in the distant future; and finally, because I actually have no need for this truck at all, but my daughter likes the colour, so she's going to have it. If she's going to start driving a full-size crawler rig in the woods and maybe join me on some proper events later in the year, I'd rather she has a proper capable crawler and not some cheap RTR that I'll have to tow over all the hardest obstacles. And my reasons for that reason are also manifold: 1) when I was a kid I often had to settle for second best, and I often struggled to compete with inferior hardware, so I want my daughter to not be held back by stuff that isn't up to the job, and 2) having inferior hardware became a go-to excuse for not achieving stuff, and I want my daughter to know that the truck isn't letting her down, and if she keeps trying and keeps learning, she'll be able to do anything I can do with my trucks. All of this assumes she ever actually drives it. Sometimes I think she says she wants these things just to please me Anyway - what is this build all about? Well, it's a nuts-and-bolts build of all the Enduro parts I've got left over after making a 6x6 and a Raptor race truck out of 2 Scale Builder's Kits and a Trailrunner RTR. Let's get started with the chassis. I believe this was the SBK2 chassis, because it has the SBK2-style shock towers. It's been sitting in a box like this since the middle of last year. This was supposed to be a nuts-and-bolts build, but already it's throwing curve-balls. First ball is the servo mount. The SBK2 servo mount was used in the 6x6, this is an SBK1-style mount. Note the ribs next to the screw holes. The SBK2 shock hoops don't have the panhard rod mount moulded into them, instead the panhard rod goes onto an adjustable part that mounts in the chassis rail. Nuts are supposed to sit where those ribs are. So, I had to cut and file them off. SBK2 panhard rod mounting bracket. Now fitted alongside the SBK1 servo mount. This will come back to haunt us later. I used custom links for the 6x6, so I had a full set of SBK2 cranked links left over. The wheelbase is the same as the Trailrunner, which is convenient because I want to use the Trailrunner body. Front axle now fitted.

Thread title renamed - was: Project Top Secret - Element Enduro Scale Builder's Kit OK - the project name and outline for this one is still top secret, until next week, and in fact I've been calling it Top Secret for so long that I might actually officially name it Project Top Secret anyway. But for now, I want to get some of the highs and lows of the build out of the way, as there have been a few. This isn't a full build thread - I get bored doing those and I'm sure somebody has already done one. Instead this is a highlight reel of the past few months. Let's start with a little bit of backstory. I bought my first Element Enduro Scale Builder's Kit from the Racecraft RC pit shop at Revival 2021. I'd just finished building a GMade BOM, and loved almost every minute of it; before that I'd built an MST CFX-W J45C, and enjoyed that too. Both cars had been bought with a bigger project in mind, but upon building them, I realised they were more suited to plain trail duty - not because they weren't capable enough in their own way, but because the cost of buying the extra parts I'd need was prohibitive, and because the way the chassis were designed made it hard to work out how I was going to get everything to fit. Luck came my way towards the end of 4WD Sunday (to be fair I didn't have much luck during the race, finishing some way down the order with a Manta Ray that shredded parts in every race, preventing me from getting a good setup). My number came up in the raffle, landing me with a Black Edition Lunchbox that someone had bought from Racecraft RC that very morning, and donated into the prize pot. As please as I was with my win, I already have a lunchbox (well, my daughter does), and I already have a WR-02 that (IMO) is a better solution to the wheelie vehicle problem. So I took it straight back to Racecraft RC and traded it in for the Element Enduro. This seemed to be the perfect donor for the project I had in mind, as all the parts are available in neat modular sets, and Adie can get them in stock at the local shop - it's convenient that Racecraft RC is not only the official pit shop at all Iconic events, but also only 30 minutes drive from home. Now, onto the key features of the Element Enduro, and the highlights (and lowlights) of the build...