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The 037 Obsession: Grastens' 1:24 RC Lancia 037 (by WLToys and Hasegawa)

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At some point, my passion in all things Lancia 037 resulted in me acquiring two of Hasegawa's Lancia 037 model kits in 1:24 scale. I elected for the models of the 1984 Tour de Corse Rally car and the 1994 JGTC entrant at Fuji Speedway, with the latter piquing my interest and the former following for comparison between the Group B racers and the one that found its way to Japan.

The "Other Makes" relevance came some time later, as my intermittent love affair with small-scale RC cars had me on the lookout for a Kyosho Mini-Z. However, in my research, I found information on a less expensive alternative: the WLToys K989 1:28 RC car, which shares a few components with the better-known Mini-Z lineup:

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Several body styles exist; I opted for this Ken Block-inspired rally car.

There was an ulterior motive, however! I also owned a Tamtech 1:24 scale RC car, specifically the BMW GTP. It was one of my flings with small-scale RC cars; while I enjoyed it, parts were too difficult to find and the car was a bit too powerful for my purposes. My attention began turning to the possibility of mechanizing one of my Lancia 037 models, in the same fashion as Tamiya's early RC offerings being "models suitable for radio control."

The reason I considered the Mini-Z and then the K989 was because I had measured the wheelbase of the 037 shell, and initially measured it at around 98 mm, with a width of around 72 mm. Several types of Mini-Z share these dimensions, and compellingly, so did the K989. I went ahead with the order for a WLToys K989, in a bid to make a project on a budget.

I had heard of WLToys before, but was quick to dismiss their offerings. The K989 was a bit different: here was a 1:28-or-so-scale RC car with a genuine metal double-deck chassis and a JST-plug-equipped servo, and true proportional steering and throttle. The car also had full ball bearings, front and rear differentials, and the ability to change wheelbase length (albeit between two settings: 98 mm and 102 mm). It came ready to run at less than $100 CAD, which was a fair bit cheaper than a genuine Kyosho Mini-Z.

Sure enough, the first thing that I did to it was remove the bodywork, and size it up next to the 1:24 scale Lancia 037 shell. Incidentally, 98 mm was a bit too short, but extending the chassis to its longer 102 mm wheelbase resulted in a perfect fit:

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Lots of promise here - I was pleasantly surprised to find that the width was essentially spot-on, with narrow knobbed rally tires completing the look:

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The other candidate for this project was a Kawada M24 Tripmate; however, those use much of the same technology as the Tamtech series, and are also hard to find. The WLToys K989 is a bit more modern, as you can see here:

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I chopped the stock body posts to get an idea where the 037 shell would sit for a proper stance:

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In anticipation, I purchased a Tamiya Mini 4WD motor in the event I should want to swap out the stock 130-type motor for something more powerful ;)

There are plenty of projects to be found involving the K989 and 1:24 scale models, which was reassuring. It does beg the question, though: are these 1:28 RC cars really true to their advertised scale? Although the 037 was a small car, if I remember correctly...

With the chassis established, it was time to do some scale model building!

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While I wavered between which of my 037 models to use, I elected to use the 1994 JGTC model kit as my base:

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Eventually, though, I would use the decals from the Tour de Corse model, in the hopes of building up the 1994 JGTC car as a static model. While I drive more like Naohiro Furuya in an ill-suited car than Markku Alen in a true rally weapon, those tires and wheels suggested an off-road racer more than an on-road type. The wheels are of course not accurate, but suit my purposes just fine.

As I only intended to use the bodywork from this model kit, painting and preparation were limited to a few pieces from the kit. Here are some of them with paint; I was a bit optimistic in thinking I could use the inner wheel wells (painted black in the foreground sprue):

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What I was unprepared for was just how much detail the Hasegawa model kit packs into 1:24 scale: unlike the 1:10 Lancia 037 shell from Tamiya, the 1:24 model has separate pieces for the grilles, front hood, gas caps, and even the door handles! Some more assembly required, as they say... It really speaks to the quality of the Hasegawa kit, and of course makes detail enhancement with photo-etched parts much easier to enact.

Anyway, I did a middling job and broke out a panel line pen that was far too big in attaching some of the accessories:

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But the sight of the 037 shell sitting on the chassis provided a lot of motivation:

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After deliberation, I made the rare-for-me decision to use body magnets to mount the shell to the chassis, instead of drilling holes in the body to use the typical post-mount system. The body clips that came with the car were a bit uninspiring, so I found a magnet kit compatible with the K989 and installed it at the desired height:

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The magnets were glued to the shell while attached to the chassis, to set the correct position. There were a few attempts involved, but in the end, the glue proved strong enough to make the magnet system reliable.

I had not assembled a 1:24 scale model in over a decade, and had forgotten just how fiddly the parts can be! My positive experiences with 1:10 scale modelling did not serve me that well for the smaller project, though I was at least able to get a relatively-clean finish at glue joins. Here, the front lights have just been installed:

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The temptation to equip the car with LEDs was certainly present, though I decided it was beyond my skill level for this project and so used the kit-supplied headlights. The canopy glue I was using was dubious, looking a lot like regular white glue but being even less effective! It held on and at least dried clear, though, which is about all I could ask of it.

Eventually, the bodywork was finished, and I got to realize my vision of a 1:24 scale Lancia 037 RC car:

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To retain the ability to separate the hood from the chassis, I put a chunk of a rubber eraser under the base of the windshield:

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This way, both the shell and the hood do not need each other for structural support when one or the other is off the chassis.

The project had gotten this far, but I was not quite satisfied with a test-car appearance. Decals are next!

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As before, I decided to use the decal set from the Tour de Corse kit, saving the 1994 JGTC sheet for the static model I hope to build from the two kits:

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Being indecisive as to whether to depict Alen's #5 car or Bettega's #1 racer, I settled on using the sponsor decals but omitting the event-specific decals, meaning the car would not be numbered and would bear no plates. I found this to be a good compromise, and it would take the pressure off me to drive like one or the other! :P

The Hasegawa kit features decals "realized by Cartograf" (as it reads on the decal sheet itself), though that did not stop me from ripping the first one and making a mess of the second one to get off to a fine start:

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Working with waterslide decals was trickier than I remembered, especially when I was making a hash of otherwise-high-quality types. I used Testors Decal Set to help things, though I still managed to wrinkle a few decals. I also lost one of the tiny "Nitro&C" decals after applying it, which was a gutting moment for me after putting so much work into putting it and all the other decals on the model. I put the remaining one on the window to keep from disposing of it, while also recalling that the 1:10 Tamiya version does not feature those stickers...

I persevered (and managed to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs defeat the Boston Bruins, 2 - 1), and was rewarded:

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This remains only the second RC 037 I have built up in Martini Racing colours; the first was my original Lancia Rally, and all others have used alternative liveries. The decals really enhance its presence:

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And in the end, a less-than-perfect job makes it easier to run the thing:

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Surprisingly, I did manage to install the rear fender wells:

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I have yet to install proper mudflaps, which the Tour de Corse kit provides material for. Just getting those tiny mounts was challenging enough! They are held onto the body with double-sided tape, as simple gluing would not have provided sufficient structural integrity for running.

And so, I am the proud owner of a 1:24 Lancia 037 RC car, thanks to WLToys and Hasegawa:

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To go with a 1:64 version by Hot Wheels!

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That first true drive will surely consist of equal parts excitement and anxiety! :ph34r: The project is provisionally finished, pending a front bumper solution... Until then, the Internet has one more 1:24 model car on a WLToys chassis!

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Additional reading in the same vein as this topic:

 

Of particular interest is TC member MrFung's Peugeot 206 RC car, which uses the driver and co-driver figures from the kit. It seems this was made possible by moving the ESC-receiver unit to the very rear of the chassis. Ideas abound!

I may end up wanting to use the model kit wheels on this RC car, though the rears are quite wide and may be a struggle to fit underneath the shell on this chassis...

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I had some free time today, so I revisited the potential of fitting the model kit wheels to the chassis.

The model kit wheels have protrusions that fit into hollow poly caps in the hub carriers. I had to cut these out and drill through them in order to fit the wheels onto the chassis. The K989 uses a flat step on each output shaft to fit the wheel, in the same manner as the Kyosho Mini-Z. As such, I had to drill out the wheels and then produce a square recess on the backside for the wheels to slot neatly onto each output:

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"Neatly" does not describe my work, however... It especially does not describe how I narrowed the rear wheels to fit on the chassis; the cut section is below:

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No matter; you don't see the back of the wheel anyway!

After the mixed results of the rear wheel narrowing, I elected to skip the same process for the tires and instead fitted model kit front tires to all four wheels. As I was working with two Hasegawa kits, this was possible. I would need to source new front tires if I wish to build up the static model someday, although I believe I intended to assemble the 1994 JGTC version, which requires different wheels and tires for a scale appearance (I have 1:24 scale aftermarket wheels for this purpose).

It would have been easier to fit the front wheels from the other model on the rear of the chassis as well, but knowing that slight differences exist between the front and rear wheels on the full-size thing would have irritated me :P The front wheels and tires from the model kit were almost identical in dimensions to the stock K989 wheels and tires, but the rears are significantly wider and slightly taller. The 1984 Tour de Corse 037 was set up for asphalt, and the 1994 JGTC model uses the same wheels and tires, so I was hoping to figure out if the Hasegawa models depicting off-road setups (i.e. the 1983 San Remo R6 model) used narrower types. Alas, my search turned up nothing, so I will have to purchase another kit if I want to find out!

I installed the wheels and tires and gave the chassis a quick test run as a proof-of-concept:

lZRRQgN.jpg

Even unglued, everything worked! There was some slight binding of the front left wheel on the front shock absorber lower collar, so I gave that a quick filing. I glued the tires to the wheels, giving everything a cursory truing before the glue set.

And with that, the 037 took a slightly more authentic look:

rgiRkil.jpg

I ordered some aluminum K989 wheels regardless; their silver colour and semi-pneumatic rally block tires should do better for outdoor running than the solid slick model kit tires, while looking enough like the original wheels.

 After that, I laid down a rope barrier and some tiny pylons to take the 037 for a run!

f3wSZs8.jpg

A few observations:

- The circuit pictured is far too small for the likes of this model. The stock 130-size motor still gives an astonishing turn of speed, meaning I was driving at less than half-throttle for most of this session. Of course, this also means it lights up the tires readily, and on the laminated vinyl floor, drifts and doughnuts were easy to provoke. It was the case for the stock tires, too, so not much of a change here.

- The same 130 motor runs quite hot in this model. I have read user experiences of binding/tight drivetrains in their K989s and similar chassis, and took measures to adjust the gear mesh and loosen up the drivetrain. The same user experiences also report that it is a matter of breaking in the chassis, so over time, that should be resolved with more running. However, the reality is that the 130 motor gets quite warm, and that has me wondering if that was one reason the K989 uses a metal chassis instead of a cheaper plastic one. I have ordered a heat sink in any case.

- The first observation has me thinking that this car would be well-suited to gymnasiums or clean parking lots. I have better access to the latter, but after the work I put into the bodywork, it would take a lot of nerve to run the car in a place where a pebble can write it off! I am figuring out if I should fit a larger bumper to protect the front end, and whether that looks like a wire bumper (similar to the earliest Tamiya 1:10 RC models), a "snow plow" style slab type (as in the Tamiya 1:10 Lancia 037 re-release), or a flat piece (like the original Tamiya Tamtech cars).

Whatever the case, I look forward to the first full-speed outing with this model! WLToys has created a surprisingly-capable small/micro-scale RC car at a very competitive price point, and the ability to adapt this chassis to use plastic model bodies is compelling.

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As a bonus: the new solid rubber tires should make flat-spotting from storage a thing of the past!

mEuLlK7.jpg

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I went further today with the addition of tire decals and scale mudflaps (both provided in the kit):

ojXeXRs.jpeg

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I used the yellow Pirelli decals since I already messed up the white ones, making the mistake of treating them as regular waterslide decals instead of special tire-specific types.

I do not anticipate either feature lasting too long, but "scale model suitable for radio control" perseveres as the mantra! The extra care I now need to handle it made comparisons of this model to a precious gem quite apt...

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Thank you!

And today, it was on the road for Round 29 of the TamiyaClub Racing by Post series:

gelpZFS.jpg

This is actually the second attempt at this round; the first one resulted in a DNF when the battery died after the first minute.

This time, the battery merely died with one minute to go (races are 5 minutes long), but until that time, it had been going quite well. The steering was quite twitchy compared to the 1:10 cars I was driving in the same session, though not impossible to manage. In fact, it became easier to find a rhythm around the circuit with the little Lancia, since turns took less time and there was more time between said turns as the car was negotiating a circuit used for larger scales. It should be noted that almost every round of the Racing by Post series takes place on rather technical circuits for ease of setup, so the 1:24 Lancia eventually got comfortable on a course that requires a lot of concentration at 1:10.

And until that battery died, I was well within the possibility of challenging my best result for the session! Throughout its brief run, the little car looked magnificent, a tiny flash of Martini stripes zipping around the chalk corner markers. I can say I am quite happy with how it drives :) The good handling also puts the bodywork at less risk than I expected, despite rolling the car twice now and damaging some of the decals. An overflow parking lot (which is where I usually drive my 1:10 cars) is more than enough for a chassis of this scale, and it looks a lot happier with room to go full-throttle. For a 130-motor-powered device, this thing is fast!

The issue then becomes: how do I repair the bodywork? I am entertaining an order of downsized Lancia Martini decals in vinyl to replace the fragile waterslide types. Replacing damaged body parts with genuine model kit parts also costs at least $50, since I have yet to find someone who will part out Lancia 037 model kits in 1:24 scale. And unfortunately, polycarbonate Lancia 037 bodies in 1:24 scale do not seem to exist. Such is the tradeoff for scale aesthetics at this size...

One thing is a bit more certain: I would recommend a WLToys K989 for anyone thinking of a similar project!

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Go for it!

What I went for today was a motor swap; my pinion puller finally arrived, so I was at last able to remove the stock motor from the chassis. What replaced it?

b7twZri.jpeg

Having realized that the chassis and Tamiya Mini 4WD cars both use 130-size motors, it was impossible to resist!

However, I did need to drill and tap two screw holes for mounting the motor to the chassis:

hzgsTZC.jpeg

I soldered the wires myself, having found the appropriate connection for the motor to the ESC-receiver combination.

I made a slight modification by removing part of the motor mount to fit a small heat-sink, even though installing it would cover up the motor decal:

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My choice of motor was actually quite conservative; I arrived at the Hyper-Dash 3 after comparing advertised RPMs and torque across each of Tamiya's Mini 4WD single-shaft motors. Of them, the Hyper-Dash 3 offered a few more RPMs and similar torque to a standard 130 motor, which I felt would be a decent upgrade without making the car uncontrollable. Of course, with the experience of installing one motor, I now know what to do should I find myself wanting more power ;)

We will see how it runs with the Tamiya motor!

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