Scale Technics Lancia Stratos

[technics 3161]

The body is a vintage NIB - ABC hobby 257mm wheelbase Lancia Stratos. Overall Its very good, best Stratos I’ve seen in this scale. The best there is I feel is the one from HPI for the M chassis.

The chassis placeholder during building is a TRF419. For real world use it will likely be my TRF417X WRC build or perhaps a XV02 series chassis. TRF417X Build Thread

I love the more popular Alitalia livery but I am going for the 1978 Pirelli livery which will be more unique in my opinion. As a bonus I feel this livery could hide some of the body height and inaccuracies. Generally I find darker & correct scale metallic Tamiya colours can help make rc cars look more realistic as Lexan is never 100% correct.

 

Start date 2022/03

Tamiya TRF419 - 42285 

 

Ambitions -

Magnetic body mounts 

Functioning windscreen wiper 

Functioning aux / fog lights on separate channels ch3, ch4

DIY Flocked dash

DIY Interior cage 

Openable clamshells?

Prototype Correct offset wheels?

 

Let the fun begin!

[technics 3161]

ABC hobby has Incredible packaging, its a full on car board box with a sturdy plastic handle. You can reuse it for complete chassis storage or transportation. Love the obscure instructions, definitely pre internet 😅😃

[technics 3161]

The hunt and exploration begins.

Aux lights, LED light unit, channel switches, magnets. I am completely new to electrics and soldering so I am out of my comfort zone. Number of off the shelf wheels that could pass as useable.

[technics 3161]

Magnet body mounting. After trying this I never want to do body posts again, unless of course vintage pre drilled bodysets or doing onroad track racing duty. 

It feels really solid mounted, you can lift the car by lexan body alone.

[technics 3161]

I do not know if these are the final wheels but they looked pretty convincing and were of very low cost.

The rubber tires feel accurate for the scale - Tamiya’s “rally blocks” and other 26mm tires feel huge. This is more appropriate for 1:10th scale. 24mm. Less cartoon looking.

Still want to try to make my own wheels. Really meaty rubber maybe from an m chassis or onroad pan car. Good offset Stratos wheels.

The bodyset is not of Tamiya standard for accuracy but it still looks amazing. I hope I can make it look good through to the end.

Pop up lights are so good.

[technics 3161]

I want to go absolutely bananas with the front lamps setup. Controllerable by the third and forth channel or a external remote. It’s what makes the era and the genre look so special. 

Here I have the body parts cut out and mounted more or less where it will be. I will do detail cutouts on all the louvers and roof wing. I want to cut out all the vents on the hood as well but will judge structural rigidity first. 
 

There will plenty of fine tuning and gluing later on. I’ll have to fabricate a center light stack and light holders for the fog lamps.  The headlamps have the same foglamp housing inside of the lexan.

Overall it’s already taking shape, it certainly looks like a Stratos!

[technics 3161]

Since this wasn’t a livery or even a common bodyset sold the decals out there are limited. I managed to piece together some decals however that already make up some key areas on the body that I want to have. It doesn’t have to be exact to the 1:1 what I care about it is the overall feeling. I don’t mind substituting with rc decals or other automotive ones.

The pirelli decals are from CZ eBay and the Bastos were from UK eBay. Both look top quality. 

I also thought about buying 1:43 or 1:24 resin kit decals in order to scanning, scaling them up and finding a place to print. But I have not committed yet to trying that. Alternatively one could make the exact vector files for each decal missing and have them made of course, we’ll see what I feel is needed when the time comes.

[FoxShot 280]

That is going to be SO cool

 

 

[ThunderDragonCy 8115]

I use those Schumacher rally tyres on a couple of my builds. Loads or grip. I really like them. 

Suggestion for the wheels if I may? The 50548 and 50549 set from the Taisan porsche have lovely deep dish rear which would look great, but you would need to mod the wheels as they seem to run wide rear tyres too. Maybe worth a look? 

[yogi-bear 2413]

very cool project, I'm especially keen to see how you do the pop-up headlights

[technics 3161]

@FoxShot Thank you! I really hope so! 
@ThunderDragonCy Hey that’s a great tip. Luck and chance has it I recently got a full Taisam GT2 roller I can quickly try those wheels. Beautiful dish on the rears! Actually with enough luck could use the barrel of the wide rears and pop in a Strato-esque 5 star center. Not sure though. Trial and error will lead the way.

@yogi-bear Thank you! Me too 😅 Best would be to have them active and motorized to pop up / down. But this is a ambitions enough project for my skill and time. I have motorized pop ups planned for a shorter “simpler” project that I feel will end sooner then this one. 😀
 

Since I like this car most with all lamps “up” all the time they will be static but in any case toggle-able & functioning.  Hopefully crazy bright 😀 Night rally !!

[Krustybus 220]

This a proper cool project, look forward to seeing the progress

[Silver-Can 402]

BOOM 💥 that is looking awesome already!! Really looking forward to seeing how you get on with this. Great start and good luck 👍 

[Pylon80 3319]

Looking good so far!

For the wheels I thought immediately of the 5 spoke 2 piece ones 50672. Offset can be adjusted, I think 2 or 4mm or 0 or 4 (I can check if you need). However they might rub on TRF lower arms. They fit on a TA-02 or a TT-02 (non type S) for example. On the XV-02 I'm not sure.

[technics 3161]

@Krustybus Thank you!  it’s a good plan I think. Hope it turns out ! 

@Silver-Can Thank you very much! It’s always such a long process it’s fun sharing it helps with motivation.

@Pylon80 Great tip, thank you! I’m new to really wide rims I’ll see where this takes me! 

[Rally! 150]

This is amazing. Wow.

[technics 3161]

Six months later, this is at a stand still, I took this project out of storage and layed it out for inspiration.

Might start taping masks for the livery on the body, that’s always super inspiring to see the body come into correct form. Part of me wants to make a XV02 to sit under it.

 

[Pylon80 3319]

8 hours ago, technics said:

Six months later, this is at a stand still, I took this project out of storage and layed it out for inspiration.

Might start taping masks for the livery on the body, that’s always super inspiring to see the body come into correct form. Part of me wants to make a XV02 to sit under it.

 

Glad to see you take it out of storage. Once you see the colors on the body you will be running with it! Really looking forward to it, whether it sits on a TRF or an XV 

[technics 3161]

A leap forward from a October 2022 start. I was excited taking these, think this might turn out great. Again the black bodyside livery might help conceal some inaccuracy’s of a non Tamiya bodyset.

It’s really a wild looking body already with some tapes highlighting its brutality and proportions. I haven’t fully committed on opening up the louvers, but I will once the excitement of each stage will fuel the next. 

 

 

 

[Mokei Kagaku 2909]

1 hour ago, technics said:

......Again the black bodyside livery might help conceal some inaccuracy’s of a non Tamiya bodyset.

I agree that the ABC body isn't quite up to Tamiya standard, but in my humble opinion, you've chosen the right Stratos body. The ABC TC Stratos body is by far the best 1/10 scale Stratos body, not considering the Nichimo hardbody and very different looking Killerbody Stratos Turbo. 

[technics 3161]

@Mokei Kagaku One day maybe the M chassis HPI, Active Hobby or even Colt 210mm will be made, lets see for now I´m going to give this my best!

Thank you for looking.

[technics 3161]

Debating to add a bit of depth for the red sections. Think it might be a bit too dark though. Probably go the traditional route.

[bRIBEGuy 3321]

PS-15 is a GREAT color (specifically backed with silver than black), but it is pretty dark, and a notably different shade.  Could work well for your livery though... I always felt the PS-34 was a bight to light (maybe even hinting towards orange?).

This is PS-34 backed with silver and then black.  It's pretty light still, IMO...

[technics 3161]

@bRIBEGuy Looks incredible mate! Think PS-34 is the way. With white and black colours helping makin it super vibrant.

 

[technics 3161]

Tape off, masks off, overall great. Could be better of course! Few amateur mistakes in the name of speed unfortunately 😃.
Very pleased though.

 

PS-34 Bright Red was used.