Phobos: stock clod with F150 body

[Mad Ax]

I thought I'd throw out some pics of this project while I'm in the mood for doing thread updates.  This is a stock Clod that I bought back in February of this year.

Believe it or not, I have never owned - or even driven - standard Clod.  Clods were kinda out of fashion when I was getting into RC in the mid-00s, a couple of people had heavily modified examples but they looked nothing like the original 80s wobbler.  Since I've been on such a monster truck kick since the start of 2020, I figured it was time to get a standard Clod and see what all the fuss is about.

I started building back in March of this year and pretty soon had a finished truck to stare at.  I don't usually do full build threads, but at the time I had a camping table in the old front bedroom because it was way warmer than the studio in the workshop and it has a nice view over the outside world.  It's now my daughter's bedroom, and this few is play kitchen rocking horse and star curtains.  Before she was born this was my studio - I spent many a late evening sitting at my desk next to that window, then spinning my chair around to get a look at the outside world.  (All I can see from my workshop studio window is the back of the climbing frame).  I think we would have been in lockdown back when this photo was taken, so I think I set myself up here so I could see a bit of the world.  The roads are noticeably empty.

Clod was mostly built stock but I did add these metal anti-rotation brackets for reliability.

amazing how quickly a build space gets crowded

starting to look like a Clod now.  Actually, not it isn't, the standard chassis tub still looks like an android's underpants.

[Mad Ax]

It was all the way into September before I actually got around to painting the body.  The period between April and September was kinda crazy with racing and other events, most of my workshop time was spent getting one vehicle or another ready for race meets, and the poor old new clod got moved around from place to place until I eventually felt sorry for it and gave it some paint.

[KEV THE REV]

Body looks great - nice colour choice .

The stock Clod is a hoot , I too have a stock Clod with only the alu. A.R. brackets fitted

[Mad Ax]

If you've followed my other threads, the paint scheme might look familiar.  That's because this is the sister truck to Deimos, my racing clod wannabe.  Full build thread and backstory is over there -> there

Anyhoo, I was never entirely happy with the standard blue parts under the orange body.  Orange and blue might work in some cases (my race suit from my old carting days with orange and blue) but it doesn't fit well with the livery I had in mind.  During part of my work holiday last week, my wife and I agreed a "procraftination day" - that's where we line up a selection of films, sit on the sofa and make stuff all day long.  She had some stuff to do for her business, and I had a clod with blue parts.  If there's two things I have in common with Mick Jagger, it's a fat bottom lip, and some things I want painted black.

As it happened, my wife stayed in bed until midday (as she tends to do when there's nothing else to do) and then went out for something or other, so our procraftination day was delayed, and we only had time for one film.  (It was The Good Liar, with Sir Ian McKellen and Dame Helen Mirren)*

It took most of the film to get all the blue parts detached from the truck and separated out.  Actually that's a slight lie (I was learning from acting royalty, see above) because I didn't separate the shock parts.  They didn't seem to want to come apart without a lot of forcing, and I didn't want to break them as I can't afford to buy new proper shocks just yet, so I left them with both parts attached and the pistons still installed.

Then I went out to the kitchen and, much to my wife's surprise and interest, started cooking them.

Clod Stew.  mmmm!

I used Rit dye to turn my blue parts black.  They looked good enough after 20 minutes but it's so hard to tell under artificial lighting when there's a lot of steam about, so I left them in for 45 minutes, then gave them a good rinse.

Those who have been following my threads will recognise this as the sieve that I modified with my Schumacher body post reamer to make a dedicated Fruit And Fibre Flaky Bits Strainer.  It also works well as a Stewed Clod Buster Gravy Removal Tool.

There was more light in this photo when I took it but I started singing Rolling Stones songs and it turned black.

 

*British people don't always watch British films with British actors with British honours, but when we do, they are good

[Mad Ax]

The next day, I took the dyed-and-dried shock parts up to the workshop to spray all the leftover dye that was still inside the not-as-dried-as-I-thought-they-were shock parts all over the workbench, all up the walls and all over my T-shirt.  Fortunately I also managed to polish the shock pistons while I was doing it.  Nothing like doing two important jobs at once.

For this complex multi-task, I put some nuts in the drill chuck and screwed the shock piston in.

Then I found some of this on the shelf.  My wife used to make silver jewellery, which hopefully explains why we have this.

I also have this left over from when the guy in the row of houses behind decided to do a Wurzels-do-Rolling-Stones song and painted my van with brown fence paint.  Fortunately he was a friendly soul who also worked in a vehicle bodyshop, so the pair of us went outside on a lovely sunny afternoon and cleaned it all off with paint prep wipes before he gave it a good polish with a machine polisher and some of this stuff, which I think is tyrannosaur toothpaste.  He let me keep the leftovers.  I tried brushing my teeth with it once but I guess tyrannosaurs have different tastebuds.

Apologies, Mick Jagger seems to have been in this photo, too.  In the background there is supposed to be an old holey sock which makes a good polishing rag, but it kinda looks like a king snake hiding in the shadows.

A couple of minutes of spinny-spinny, polishy-polishy and all the dye is transferred from the shock piston and onto my T-shirt.

More to follow on this story - the shell is fully decaled but I haven't had time to get any good photos in the daylight yet, mostly because there is a pandemic on and Her Majesty's Government are rationing daylight until 27th March.

[87lc2]

Great paint job!  This is going to look great with the black parts and that body.

[Badcrumble]

I have several points to make as I can't manage multiple quotes.

1. Really like the direction this Clod is taking.

2. Regardless of its sibling, I will now think of this build as Kryten.

3. Great film, some choice language!

4. As I was heading to my 19th nervous breakdown, this has really cheered me up  Thank you!

 

[Kol__]

Looks awesome mate, the body shell colour combo is spot on. Look forward to seeing some wider shots of the finished shell

I'm soon to dye some wheels with Rit dye. Let me know any tips bud!

[Crazy L]

Loving my clod right now too.  Your build looks good.  black bits look good too.  

[GeeWings]

@Mad Ax your efforts have really paid off, it looks lovely.

coincidentally, I bought a pre-built Clod recently (too good a price to turn down) and got it the same week my Proline F100 bodies arrived. I had purchased on a whim with no real sense of what to do with them but realised it might fit on the clod quite well (albeit a bit narrow).

Your project has got me excited to make my mark on the clod and I’ve previously purchased some parts so I can dye the blue parts. I’m off on holiday tomorrow but will tale some time to decide which upgrades to make and look forward to jumping in to this project when I get back.

[Mad Ax]

Finally getting around to posting the photos I took a few weeks back.  They're not that great, the sun was nice but I couldn't get a good angle without either a messy garden in the background or getting my own shadow across the trucks.  Such is the folly of shooting in a long, narrow garden with high fences.

Shot alongside the sister truck, Deimos, for full effect.

[Mad Ax]

 

[Mad Ax]

Finally, for size comparison, and because the MTX-1 was sitting on the workbench when I took the photos, here are some comparison shots.  All three trucks are wearing JConcepts Ford bodies, so you should be able to get an idea of scale (admittedly the MST isn't painted yet).

 

[Kol__]

Ha! Looking badass and beastly there @Mad Ax! Great colour combo mate

[87lc2]

Oh wow, the MTX is smaller than I thought.  The Clods looks awesome, you have the start to your own race team there.  The second shot in the first post is my favorite.  

[InsaneJim69]

As above that MTX looks tiny. What size wheels and tyres are they? 2.2'.s ? 

James.

[Mad Ax]

10 hours ago, InsaneJim69 said:

As above that MTX looks tiny. What size wheels and tyres are they? 2.2'.s ? 

I'd classify it as a 2.2-size monster truck, but they're not actually 2.2 wheels.  In diameter they're closer to WW2 / GF01 wheels, but the tyres are taller and wider than Tamiya's typical 2.2 tyre, so it sits nicely next to another 2.2 truck.

I'll do a photo of the MTX-1 alongside my TLT-based 2.2 truck later in the year, once the body is painted.

I don't have a standard SMT-10 for comparison - mine has clod-size wheels and different links - but I expect the SMT-10 will dwarf the MTX-1.

Bizarrely, the TH-1 body included in the MTXT-1 kit is actually a lot wider than the JConcepts Ford bodies or any Tamiya monster truck body.  Some companies might even go as far as to call it 1:8, but the chassis could be described as 1:12.

I really like the MTX-1, although I haven't had a chance to drive it properly yet.  I'm waiting for warmer weather before I start painting.