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alvinlwh

My first crawler, Carisma SCA-1E Range Rover

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On a recent visiting to TTM, Neil recommended this over a Tamiya. There is a choice of a pickup body or this RR body, I decided on the RR for it being a British icon.

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Planned electronics are a 27T 550 motor, 1040 ESC (for a start, may go to a 1080), 15kg servo and a 5A BEC.

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It is a bagged build system just like 3R, MST and a few others, each bag for a step/part.

First up, Bag A, the shocks.

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Lovely metal shocks in a £200 kit, wonderful!

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Shown is a built up shock and a shock with all its bits laid out (in a mess). I used Green Slime as called out in the instructions for the seals and Tamiya yellow shock oil (not provided), instructions called for 30WT oil, no idea what that is but usually one can never go wrong with Tamiya yellow. Nearly a whole large bottle is needed for these large shocks.

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Piston is held on by a nut instead of eclips.

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All 4 shocks done. They are very smooth.

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That is Bag A done.

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Bag B is the front and rear diff. Shown is one done and one in bits, nice heavy piece of metal locker. I may wish to make it a moving diff later but need to source some gears that will fit.

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This is not a complicated part but I ran into the same problem as the PUBG Buggy build, the screw holes are just a touch too small for the screws. I rounded the hex of at least 2 screws and the heads of 2 more Tamiya screws trying to get the diffs together. Off to Amazon to get some taps. This early problem is probably a sign of things to come and I will suspend this build until the taps arrived before I round more hexes.

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Awesome. I haven't seen Neil in a lifetime but we keep in touch on Facebook - I worked for Time Tunnel Models for about 5 years as my first ever job whilst I was in college.

Wth the screws, are you applying any grease as you go? With some of my Tamiya builds (especially into the harder abs plastics) I use a tiny dab of kit grease on the end of the screw to help it "cut in" to the plastic. Works a treat (and I figure the kit grease shouldn't negatively affect the plastics either...else we would have all sorts of problems!)

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1 hour ago, ChrisRx718 said:

Awesome. I haven't seen Neil in a lifetime but we keep in touch on Facebook - I worked for Time Tunnel Models for about 5 years as my first ever job whilst I was in college.

Wth the screws, are you applying any grease as you go? With some of my Tamiya builds (especially into the harder abs plastics) I use a tiny dab of kit grease on the end of the screw to help it "cut in" to the plastic. Works a treat (and I figure the kit grease shouldn't negatively affect the plastics either...else we would have all sorts of problems!)

I first started out on my RC life with Neil, in his Stevenage store, way back in 2009! I was down in Musselburgh trying to buy a 1:1 car last month so I dropped by to say hi in person.

Grease is probably not the issue here. I will try to explain. With Tamiya, the screws, even machine screws, will bite and go in correctly, 'virgin' holes or tapped. The only difference is tight or smooth. However with this (and that PUBG Buggy), the holes are so tight that the screw will not even 'bite' correctly to get started, they will not even stay straight to get started if it makes sense. Also, those screws that I managed to get in caused the side of the diff to budge. It seems to me that the holes are just too small to begin with, even after I tried to open them up a little with a Philips screwdriver. Now, I do have the Tamiya thread forming tool, but it is the M3 one, and these are M2 screws. I went through a lot of paint doing the PUBG Buggy and I don't want to go through that again, with much more screws with this one. So I am suspending any building until I can cut threads.

 

 

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Welcome to the crawler club :) the SCA-1E is a great kit for the money and definitely better on the trails and courses than anything with a Tamiya badge on it.  If you find you enjoy the trailing lifestyle, definitely consider a 1080 ESC - IMO the price difference is worth it for the extra control and configurability you get with it, specifically the setup around drag brake and forward/reverse control.  All of my crawlers have 1080s.

M2-into-untapped-hole seems to be a common problem with modern crawler builds.  There were lots of complaints about various Element Enduro kits, especially more recent ones as the hardware has got softer.  Firstly the provided screws aren't that hard, plus the instructions say nothing about using a tap, yet as you've discovered, it's kind of essential.  For my last Element build, I bought replacement stainless screws from ebay which were much harder, plus I use a tap - it's a useful piece of kit to have.

I hope you enjoy the crawler lifestyle, you can never stop adding more scale bits to them, they're never really finished, and you can make so many scale accessories yourself 

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42 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

definitely consider a 1080 ESC

I am actually thinking of Carisma own ARC-2, are they any good?

43 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

M2-into-untapped-hole seems to be a common problem with modern crawler builds. 

Ah, glad that it is not just me being stupid then. Perhaps I am getting too used to Tamiya's shake and bake kits. TBH, this is the second time I ran into this problem, the first being that toy grade PUBG Buggy. The 3R and MST kits I had done before did not have this problem. I just feel that the holes are drilled too small, as I see the sides of the diff budging out when the M2 is finally in.

46 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

I bought replacement stainless screws

I had used some SS screws in my other builds but a fellow member told me that are softer?

47 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

I hope you enjoy the crawler lifestyle

If I like this, I have a Sawback in my sights too. Is that one any good?

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1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

I am actually thinking of Carisma own ARC-2, are they any good?

I've never used one, if they're made for crawling then I would guess so.  If you can set up a 100% drag brake, and also disable freewheeling so it won't run away from you, and also have a good brake response that won't suddenly go 100% reverse if you're pulling the brakes on multiple times during a descent, then it will be good :) 

1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

I had used some SS screws in my other builds but a fellow member told me that are softer?

I don't know enough about different grades of stainless to say for sure, but in general, stainless is harder than mild.  That probably makes it more brittle, but if you're shattering stainless screws you're probably doing something wrong.  From personal experience, the stainless screws I get (generally from Westfield Fasteners but also from Ebay for some M2 sizes that Westfield don't stock), they are way harder than the mild steel cheese included with some kits.  Element / Associated in particular recently have had some very poor hardware.

1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

If I like this, I have a Sawback in my sights too. Is that one any good?

I've never owned a Sawback, but I do love my BOM.  I think the two are quite different, so I can't really say about the Sawback.  The BOM was a fun build and a quirky design, not as easy as some other scale rigs to modify due to its interesting transmission and battery tray design.  But that's a question for another day, you have a Range to build first :lol:

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Awesome! I didn't realize these came in kits, that's good to know. Carisma is not exactly easy to find stateside unfortunately. 

I've had a couple of Sawbacks now, they are pretty decent kits. Lots of Phillips screws, but it's fairly simple to build and pretty durable. 

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1 hour ago, OldSchoolRC1 said:

Lots of Phillips screws

Given my recent difficulties with hexes, I will not mind Philips.

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Welcome to the club! I have an earlier SCA-1E that I built from a kit, it now wears an Axial Chevy Blazer body.

Yes, those axles are miserable to build, but the good news is that once they're together, they work quite well. Don't skimp on the threadlock on the screws that hold the axle pinion onto its shaft. I had one back out early on, and the whole shaft came out of the rear axle and I lost a bearing.

But you'll be happy to know that I've been running mine hard for a couple of years now, and nothing has broken.

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Got a set of cheap Amazon mini taps, now I can continue with the build.

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With the tap, it is time to got on to Bag C, which is the axles.

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As advised, I made sure I used threadlock on metal to metal screws.

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With the tap, the screws went in easier.

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Careful observation of the directions of the diff is needed. I actually built one the wrong way and had to take it apart.

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There is a little ring that can fall out of the diff, a bit of grease will hold it in place.

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Another point of attention, make sure all 4 screw holes faces the same direction.

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Diff greased up and ready for closing.

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There is no way of identifying which is front or back, so make some making to ensure easy identification later on in the build.

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What I noticed is, particularly with the M3 holes are, even the Tamiya thread former tool is difficult to get in to start. The screw holes are definitely too tight for comfort.

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Bag D is doing up the steering and front axles.

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First up,the CVDs.

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Steering hubs.

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Front axle built up.

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Next is the steering linkage.

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Front axle with steering completed.

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Today things made a turn for the worse on this build. But first, on with the build.

Bag E is just the rear axles, which is pretty much straight forward.

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Completed with little fuss.

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Bag F is a lot of links to make, using the thread forming tool makes things much easier.

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Bag G is building up the front and rear prop shafts.

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Nice and easy, for now!

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Bag H is a big bag, the gearbox.

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First the internal gears done up, nice and heavy metal gears.

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Next is the rear diff, locked of course. What I discovered and confirmed is the screw holes are far too small. The screws that hold the diff together are M2.5, but the tap will barely get in. They are M2 sized. Indication of worse things to come.

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A nice metal motor plate.

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Internal gears inserted and greased up.

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And gearbox closed up.

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Spur gear and slipper clutch.

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And built onto the gearbox.

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Using a 550 27T motor.

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Problem is the motor is too "fat" and the stock 14T pinion will not mash at all. Went into my pinions collection, a 18T will not mash either and I have to use a 21T.

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With the gearbox done, it is time to add the prop shafts from Bag G. Problem is the screws provided will not work. They are either too big for the holes or the holders are misaligned. I destroyed a screw trying to get it in and had to grind a slot to get it out. I tried some screw pins which threads are confirmed to be correct but they will not go in correctly either, which makes me suspect the opposite holes are not lined up correctly.

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I will have to order some other prop shafts as I cannot trust these anymore, or bodge it with some locking wires.

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Giving the problem about the prop shaft screws more thought.

The main issue here is screw 16019 will not fit correctly. I tried a M3 screw and it seem to go in correctly.

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However the kit supplied screws will not. This is as far as it can go.

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After destroying a kit screw, I tried some M3 screw pins I have. They will not go in fully either.

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After giving this problem some thought, I decided to order:

A. Some stainless steel lock wire, to bodge it up.

B. M2.5 screws and locknuts, perhaps the smaller screws will get through correctly.

I expect the same problem to surface on the other (axle) end of the prop shafts too.

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That is peculiar. I did some digging and a build / review on YouTube suggests that the factory assembled propshafts are assembled the wrong way around, see below 19 minutes onwards:

 

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32 minutes ago, ChrisRx718 said:

That is peculiar. I did some digging and a build / review on YouTube suggests that the factory assembled propshafts are assembled the wrong way around, see below 19 minutes onwards:

Thanks for that video (thanks also for sharing precisely the point of interest!). I double checked and my shafts are built correctly, with the lipped side toward the gearbox and on the fixed part of the shaft.

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What I did seem to notice, but have no way of precisely measuring, is that the 2 holes don't seem to be perfectly in line. This will cause problems with a through screw I suppose, causing it to catch somewhere on the opposite hole.

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I noticed in Mark Bryan's video that his instructions are different from mine. For example at 11:25, his instructions said to "ream hole a little", which does not show on mine.

Now, I cannot say which instructions set are better as mine is definitely clearer on the shocks. Mark got confused on where to put the O ring while mine is quite clear.

@ChrisRx718 just realised I was sharing the same video as you. One thing that is different between his and mine is that his shafts are pre built while mine are self build. Another thing is his are different in length while mine are same, not sure why.

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After watching Mark's video, I moved on with the chassis, Bag I.

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First is the servo. I will be using this HK 14.8kg servo. Should be plenty of power to turn the steering.

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No servo saver here, just direct drive. I think an upgrade to metal arm is in order here.

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The shocks mount, careful attention is required here to ensure the right one goes to the right position 

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Half the chassis done.

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Both sides done. I left the gearbox out at the moment.

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Painting the body next. A very old jar of PC-17 Metallic Green will be used. I am not happy about the window masks as they are of the hard vinyl type which can often leak paint. I am concerned that this can all end in tears but at least black windows stickers are also supplied.

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After spraying the entire jar.

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Two problem, PC is really difficult to get right. I ended up with all these these marks, but they don't seem to appear on the important side. A second problem is the lack of opacity of this color. Due to the poor result, black is my only choice as white will make them show up. Hopefully it will remain some kind of green instead of turning into black green. I would prefer to back with white to lighten it but it is what it is now.

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Backing paint will be Vallejo black primer but unfortunately, I only got a bit left to give it a very light coat so far. Ordered a large bottle from Amazon but it is only arriving oin a few days time.

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Mark's video (and his instructions) called for the tie links and shocks to be mounted to the axles before fitting to the chassis. I had a hard time with a MTX-1 with similar setup, so I thought it is easier to do it that way 

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I tried to fit the prop shafts at the axle end this time. This is it! Only 1 of the 4 supplied screws for this purpose works correctly. At least I can fit the other axle with a screw pin.

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Now I decided to fit the motor, since the props are fitted on the other end. The 550 motor is definitely too fat and long for what the chassis is designed for. The heat guard will not fit without forcing (too fat) and I had to undo everything to fit a link later as the motor is blocking the ball.l (too long).

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The motor sits just on top of the ball seen just above the red wire.

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For some reason, one of the prop decided that it will let a screw pin slide in, very tight but it got in all the way, probably due to me forcing the kit screws earlier cut the threads.so the front axle can go on.

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I actually fitted the above upside down and since the prop screws are thread locked already, I do not want to undo that. A quicker and easier option is to undo where the links go onto the axle and spin the whole thing around. As mentioned earlier, the motor sits on the ball so I cannot just pop them. That is the front axle on correctly and steering hooked up to the servo the arrangement for connection feels rather unusual. The M3 goes through a threaded ball and then screw into the servo horn (screwed twice).I don't really see a reason for that and may change for a simplified connection later.

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Rear will have to wait for my M2.5 screws and nuts to arrive.

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