Losi LMT F150 Raptor

[Mad Ax 6653]

I hadn't really planned on getting an LMT.  I don't usually buy big-ticket trucks, and I've built more than enough monster trucks over the last two years - more than I can realistically drive, given the size of my garden and the complete lack of monster truck fans in my part of the world.  However, some rave reviews from others here on TC (you know who you are  ) and an unexpected good deal from Horizon Hobby, convinced me to place a last-minute order with AMain for the roller truck.

If you followed the Losi LMT discount thread to its bitter end then you'll know all about the fun and games getting it here, but for now, here's a quick recap:

I ordered from AMain on 18th Mar, for $399, minus $150 discount, plus $66.99 shipping.  That's a grand total of $316.98 for a top-level monster truck chassis.  At the exchange rate of the time, that worked out £252.33 - that's not far off what I paid for my SMT-10 Builder's Kit back in March 2020, and that comes with a 2.2 wheel that nobody in the world knows what to do with and it doesn't come with any tyres or foams.

The day after placing the order I got an out-of-stock notification, which was updated with a Shipped notification a week later.  It then got stuck in the US postal service for over a month, and after a few conversations with various parties I thought it was probably lost for good, and was about to ask AMain for a refund.  AMain were really helpful, but confident it would get through eventually, so I sat back and waited patiently, and one fateful morning the shipping status changed - it was moving at last!

It then took a few more days to reach Customs in London, and was despatched to the local delivery office in Bristol the following day.  At the same time, a customs demand letter was sent to me, possibly via stagecoach, or maybe some old Greek guy in fashion-statement sandals, because that letter didn't get to me until nearly a week later, landing just in time for the early spring Bank Holiday weekend.  So although I paid the customs charge on a Saturday, the earliest I could book delivery was the following Wednesday.

I was supposed to be at the office that day, but I figured my LMT was more important, so I cancelled and stayed home.  All day.  Until late-PM, when the delivery status on the tracker changed to say it was back at the depot, having never got as far as my doorstep.  There it would remain for almost a full week, until one fateful Monday when (after tracking it all the live-long day on the live tracker app) it finally arrived on my doorstep.

Normally the arrival of a new kit in the post is a bit anti-climactic - unless it's a nice Tamiya re-release with the blister pack internals and everything, there's nothing much to show but an unpainted body and some plastic bags.  So there's one advantage to buying a roller or RTR - you actually have something to behold when it arrives.

And what a thing to behold!

Bananas not to scale.

[Mad Ax 6653]

I had been holding some money back to buy the electrics and body for this truck, but I didn't jump on the Checkout button until the box had landed, as I was constantly waiting for something to go wrong.  Orders were placed with Appliance Electronics for a Proline F150 Raptor body and a Hobbywing EZRun Max10 SCT / 3660 4000Kv brushless combo.  I already had a spare FlySky receiver and DS3218 Pro servo lying around.

The brushless combo was based on a recommendation from @87lc2, and will hopefully give plenty of power and a happy enough balance between 2S and 3S running.  It's a nicely-packaged setup too.  I like Hobbywing packaging anyway, and this special combo box has got a premium feel despite the competitive price.

The Raptor body was an unusual choice for me.  OK, it's still a Ford, but it's my first Proline body in a while, it's modern and it's got a wagon back.  I went this route for a variety of reasons:

1) I happened to see the body while browsing a few weeks ago and fell in love with it.  I really like this body, if I was in the market for a new scale rig then I'd definitely consider one of these.

2) the LMT has that big roll cage, but a lot of bodies sit too high on it.  I saw a few pics of other LMTs wearing this body and it seems to sit quite nicely.

3) I watched a "what body fits?" youtube video by HemiStorm RC (linky) and it was one of the few bodies that will fit without having to chop the front off the body.

wood grain not to scale

[Mad Ax 6653]

I had some spare time on Sunday morning, so I got busy with the craft knife and trimmed out the body.  It's typical chunky Proline plastic, very thick and sturdy, great for a scale rig.  It might be brittle on a higher-speed truck, but I'll have to see how it goes.  It's a real great looker though, with plenty of neat details.  In typical Proline style it doesn't come with window trim decals, so I've either got to paint that on, work out a paint job that doesn't need it, or pretend I don't care.  In fairness, my JConcepts bodied-trucks don't have window decals either, it's supposed to be a monster truck, which would typically have a wobbly composite shell bolted on over a roll cage anyway, so details like window trims aren't really necessary.

I'm pretty pleased with how it sits.  High enough to be imposing, plenty of presence, without being so high as to be daft.  The driver sits kinda low in the cage, maybe I can lift him up a little.  The body is too high at the hood to use the front mounting points, but it's rigid enough that it doesn't need them.  A bit of flex might be helpful in a crash.

I had to trim out part of the detail around the tailgate to clear the wheelie bar, thankfully the body already has some relief here so it doesn't look out of place.  I have considered / am still considering cutting out the tailgate entirely, just like the Gravedigger body that comes on the RTR truck, as I feel a full-size wagon monster truck might well do that, but it's not a change I can reverse, so I'm not sure yet.

The front wheels catch the arches a little on full lock and compression, so I need to do some trimming there.  For the full monster truck look I could probably cut the arch extensions off entirely, but it seems a shame as this body looks so good, I might just cut a notch off the trailing edge and take off the front bumper.  I don't know, maybe I'll paint it first before I decide.

lathe tools not to scale

[87lc2 2048]

That body does fit nicely!  The bottom edge sits right about where my bodies sit without the cage, well done.  I agree it would be hard to trim anymore, such nice detail there.  As far as the windows just cut them out - monster trucks don't have windows   

[Mad Ax 6653]

Speaking of paint - I need to decide on a colour scheme.  I actually thought I had one, and I even came up with a rough outline of the graphics and bought all the paint to make it work, then I realised that to have any kind of sponsor logos on the body I'd have to get them custom printed (it would be mostly a dark colour), or keep some white panels so I can print the logos in black on clear.  It seemed like a good idea at first, but now I can't help think it'll just look like the Blues Brothers' Dodge.  So now I'm just thinking about it.

There's also a few other things I need to look at.  I haven't fitted the electrics yet because I won't want to be tempted to run the truck until I've had time to strip it down and check it over.  I already noticed the rear wheels don't spin entirely true, it might just be the moulding but could be they need assembling better.  Also the springs don't move smoothly over the shocks - as per this photo, they're all slightly bent, so they touch the shock body.  It is the spring that's bent, not the shock rod.

Also I think the body is under a bit of tension when it's fitted, I need to slacken it off and maybe trim the holes out a bit, as it sits crooked at the back when it's fully tightened down.

But otherwise - this is a very impressive truck, especially for what it cost me to get here, and considering it comes with a driver figure, wheels, tyres and foams.  I know I was fairly hard on the LMT when it was announced - I didn't like the angled shocks or the staggered wheels, both seemed to suggest Losi had put scale realism to the bottom in order to make a truck that worked better on track, that happened with buggies in the 80s and touring cars in the 90s and now all race cars look the same and nothing like their full-size counterparts.  And yet this rig has been well-received, it's shaken up the solid axle monster scene, it's even opening eyes here in the UK where "monster truck" means "X-Maxx" or "Monster Beetle", it looks and feels every bit the car-crushing monster that it's supposed to replicate, and I'm really pleased to have one in my hands at last.

Further updates to follow when I've had a chance to settle on a paint scheme and get busy with the rattle cans!

[Mad Ax 6653]

9 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

As far as the windows just cut them out - monster trucks don't have windows   

Good point - the body is solid enough to lose the side windows and probably not flex that much.

[87lc2 2048]

3 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

Good point - the body is solid enough to lose the side windows and probably not flex that much.

Being a Proline body I would think so, they use nice think lexan.  I mostly run JConcepts bodies and they are so thin is laughable.  I still cut out all of the windows though...A lot easier than painting trim.  

[Busdriver 4960]

22 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

The brushless combo was based on a recommendation from @87lc2, and will hopefully give plenty of power and a happy enough balance between 2S and 3S running.  It's a nicely-packaged setup too.  I like Hobbywing packaging anyway, and this special combo box has got a premium feel despite the competitive price.

 

I’ve just got this combo for my next build. Bit lighter weight than your truck so should be interesting. I agree their packaging is great. I have one other hobbywing combo and I can’t bring myself to throw the boxes away they are such good quality. I also find using a program card is so much easier than coloured lights, flashes and beeps

[Grumpy pants 3434]

Subscribed @Mad Ax 👍

1/10 scale?

@Busdriver is the same as your one?

Again 1/10?

If I didn’t have soo many teenagers to fund I’d have one of these too 💥

[Busdriver 4960]

2 minutes ago, Grumpy pants said:

Subscribed @Mad Ax 👍

1/10 scale?

@Busdriver is the same as your one?

Again 1/10?

If I didn’t have soo many teenagers to fund I’d have one of these too 💥

My Raptor is on the Baja Rey chassis so is dessert racer rather than monster. It’s supposed to be 1/10 but I think it’s closer to 1/8

[Grumpy pants 3434]

22 minutes ago, Busdriver said:

My Raptor is on the Baja Rey chassis so is dessert racer rather than monster. It’s supposed to be 1/10 but I think it’s closer to 1/8

Nice, in my excitement I’d missed the MASSIVE wheels on @Mad Ax MT 😂

 

[Mad Ax 6653]

I still haven't masked the body, because I still can't decide on a colour scheme.  I've had a dozen ideas, but none are working for me.  My original plan has been scrapped, it looked good in my head but I haven't got quite as much real estate as I thought on the body to make it work.  It's a detailed moulding with lots of lines everywhere, and I think any paint line that crosses the moulding lines is going to look wavy.  So I could be back to my regular method of painting individual panels in complimentary colours.  Part of me wants to go back to my classic blue and silver scheme, part of me is thinking of 80-inspired non-metallic primary colours, and a huge part of me wants to just paint the whole thing shark grey with black details.  I'm sure the latter would suit it perfectly on a scaler, but seems too plain for a monster truck.  Modern trucks seem to favour a single colour with all the excitement in the graphics, so in theory I could go silver or shark grey and design some really crazy graphics for it, but I'm better at doing simpler designs.

I also find myself thinking about darker colours - all black, all gunmetal, or featuring some metallic red or something, but these colours are too dark for my decals to work, so I'd have to pay someone else to produce the graphics, and right now I need to save money for the summer's meets.

I'll try to devote some background processing to thinking about it while I'm playing board games with my daughter today  

[Grumpy pants 3434]

The board games might inspire some ideas or a theme 👍

[Badcrumble 3592]

How about a modern take on the Mystery Machine? There' are third party stickers out there and a tenuous tie-in to the current Scooby Doo monster truck. 

And maybe approval from Small Ax?

[Mad Ax 6653]

22 hours ago, Grumpy pants said:

The board games might inspire some ideas or a theme 👍

Snakes and Ladders might not be a bad idea, but we played the woke board games that she got for her birthday.  I don't think the "Climate Change Puzzle Board Game" livery is going to work well on a mass-produced plastic truck that went from China to the USA to the UK and which replicates a 1500 horsepower blown V8 powered gas guzzler.

If I asked my child what colour it should be, she'd say "purple."  We already have some purple trucks

I'm thinking "No Limits" is a cool name, and is a subtle play on LMT, or I could invoke one of the weapons from my own fantasy fiction library to keep in theme with my other trucks.  A couple of years ago I wrote a track called "Nightstalker" which might work, but sort of invokes that dark, Gravedigger style theme that might be hard to print.  I've got some ideas brewing, though, and I'm WFH tomorrow and Weds so I might have time for some lunchbreak painting

[Mad Ax 6653]

I'm still having livery ideas running around my head.  I've just done a yellow monster in the form of Runeblade, but part of me keeps coming back to an 80-style livery of yellow up front, blue out back, with some transitional diagonal stripes in orange and red.  Other ideas keen in my mind are metallic blue and orange, black grey and orange, or maroon, and I can't stop seeing it in white or shark grey, either.

I just decided to hit Goole Images for "ford racing truck" to see what came out - specifically if there were any classic liveries that might work, or anything that had the colours I was already considering.  These have popped up:

source

source

I have to say, the livery in the top pic is exceptionally nice.  It's a bit too complicated for me to replicate exactly, but I could definitely be inspired by that.  On the other hand, I wasn't intending to use Ford's official racing colours (it's a Ford of Thailand racing truck) and I want to avoid this looking like Ford have specifically built their own monster truck.  Plus sides is there's plenty of scope to build in large white panels to display my truck name on.

The second image has those other colours I was keen on, and possibly explains why I keep seeing white or grey when I picture the shell and close my eyes.  A monster truck should be bold and visually loud, white or grey just felt like I was putting a scaler body on a monster truck and calling it done.  The addition of the shredded orange adds something more to the design, and remains light enough to put some black lettering over without losing impact.  I've done shredded fluorescent orange before (with black and silver on my Blitzer Beetle) and it came out really well, plus it's easy to mask just by ripping up bits of tape to get that jagged edge.  I can then have some straight lines between shark grey and white, as pure white can make everything look like a dishwasher.

I think I can work with that...

[InsaneJim69 1575]

That bottom pic is Def nice imo, not too loud and not too bland. Would be good to have that colour scheme then set a name for the truck to give it an identity. Something like "Raptor Force", "Wild Raptor" or something, and have some decals made up with a picture of a cartoon Raptor (dinosaur) for the theme.

James.

[Badcrumble 3592]

I have *cough*, I mean my son has the Raptor in the second photograph as a Hot Wheels. I do like that livery .

Oddly enough, I stumbled across some Jurassic Park stickers earlier today

Linky

I don't know whether they would be the correct scale though.

[Mad Ax 6653]

Despite the Raptor name, I hadn't even considered anything dinosauric.  Not a bad idea!

I might pop in the LHS on my way home today and get some more masking sheet.  Although the weather forecast has once again changed from "it's going to be dry all week" to "it's raining today but it's going to be dry tomorrow", tomorrow in this case not referring to any actual specific day but to the abstract day which never actually comes.

Plus the Spare Time Demons have been nibbling away at the calendar, and just when I thought I'd actually worked hard enough this week to earn myself an early finish tomorrow while the house is empty, I've been reminded that I have a school picnic to go to on Friday, which means I have to work tomorrow instead.

Aah well, it's not like I ever actually drive my monster trucks, it can sit on the workbench until there's a spare day on the calendar.  Right now, that's looking like mid-June (I'm not joking either!).  At least it might have stopped raining by then

[Badcrumble 3592]

As you were thinking about a grey colour, how about the fighter plane aesthetic? F-22 Raptor?

There are silhouettes on the internet you (given your skills, it would be a push for me!) turn into a mask?

I know those demons, very active in these parts.

 

[Mad Ax 6653]

well there's another interesting idea!  A fighter plane would work nicely with the shark grey I've already got.  Plenty to be thinking about, at least  

[Jeepy2013 464]

The LMT really does look pretty stout overall, much better than a SMT10. I've been trying to resist the urge to buy one of these myself. 

[Badcrumble 3592]

2 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

well there's another interesting idea!  A fighter plane would work nicely with the shark grey I've already got.  Plenty to be thinking about, at least  

Could could call the truck 'Maverick' 

[paullyjay 182]

If you have grey, what about a Ken Block Tribute...

[Mad Ax 6653]

Progress has actually been made on this truck - and it was indeed painted in grey, although not with a Ken Block tribute livery.  I've got a theme in mind but I still need to do the graphic design and print out the decals.  Grey really suits these trucks.  If I was building a scale version I'd have gone with gunmetal, but I wanted a lighter colour so I can print dark ink on clear vinyl.  Despite some brilliant ideas from contributors here (thanks everybody for your suggestions!) I have come up with something that works well for my existing themes, almost by accident.

Pics to follow when the body is stickered and mounted