My first Wild Willy 2

[Yoshisaur 282]

Hi all,

After always wanting to have a Wild Willy when I was a bit younger in the eighties I finally bought one. It's not the original, it's a Wild Willy 2, but who knows where it will lead.

Anyways, I started building it but still awaiting the delivery of a bearing set and ran into a problem with the RC equipment, so not much progress on the chassis part yet. So I decided to start with the painting, also my very first paint job!

Here's the progress so far

I've ordered the 3D printed M38 style grill from shapeways, I'm not to happy with the result so I will have to redo it.

 

[GToddC5 1574]

Nice! I will eventually get off the fence and order one of these, some day.

[JimBear 793]

I am going to get me one of these too - there is a bunch of nice examples in the showroom to get some inspiration from, in case you aren't going down the box art route.

[Yoshisaur 282]

Today the bearing set arrived, exchanged the nylon and bronze bushings in the gearbox and greased it all up (photo was taken before the greasing)

Next I attached the arms, uprights and suspension which finished the read chassis part, including the wheelie bar!

I'm having so much fun with building this, my inner child is very happy    

[Dan1891 210]

Thnks for reminding me! I must complete my Wild Willy 2 build soon, almost forget it, because i'm working on my old Datsun 280ZX at the same time. :)

[Yoshisaur 282]

A little more progress, chassis is fully assembled. I painted the chassis beam earlier when I was awaiting the delivery of parts, Olive Drab (TS-28) same as the body.

 

Next up will be the wheels and I'll temporarily mount the RC parts on the chassis to take it for a spin  

[Yoshisaur 282]

Today I didn't spend my time on the RC parts and taking it out for a spin, I did some work on the body:

Masked the 'windshield rubber' using the 2mm Tamiya Masking Tape for Curves, the white tape. Great stuff, works really well!

Next added some more masking

Sprayed it with TS-82 Black Rubber Matt and, result after peeling the outer masking

And here with all masking tape removed and the 'windscreen' in it

Took me quite a while to get this all done, but I'm extremely happy with the result!

[JimBear 793]

That white tape looks like magic, like laser beams going around corners stuff. Gotta keep the TS-82 and that in mind when I get that far.

[Willy iine 18823]

Looks great @Yoshisaur!   I didn't even bother to paint that seal on my M38's and M151's.. but that is a good idea to use the masking tape for curves.  I might do that down the road on mine as well.. 👍

[Yoshisaur 282]

Thanks @Willy iine I can definitely recommend that tape, it’s really good stuff. I’m also looking into making the seal between the back of the hood and the windshield assembly, not sure yet what I’ll be using for that though.

I also did a little testrun today, just to check if the chassis and drive train are ok, was great fun, but my Willy behaves like a little puppy!! Constantly on his back with it’s belly up 😂  I’m so glad I ran it without the body! I never used a transmitter with a trigger before, really have to get used to it.
Learned me another thing too; will not be running this car with the body I’m currently working on, will order a spare one for driving it on which I will not spent to much time painting it  😉 

[Willy iine 18823]

@Yoshisaur  Yeah, I frequently use the 2mm and 3mm masking tape for curves.  It's almost like e-tape, but with cleamer edges.  It's good stuff. 

 

The GP body is definitely heavy!  Good thinking to run a different body for your actual driving.  I don't drive my Willy's outside these days, (only on EVA foam) so no damage even if I do roll it..  

In fact, all my one-off cars (comical Sand Scorcher, PumpkinHead F100, etc) go through a forward tumble test to validate the body post and body durability at the very end.  It's pretty shocking for some to watch.    

[Yoshisaur 282]

A little update, quite some things going on. I'm painting Willy, that takes a while due to the waiting between the different steps painting his face. I the mean time I've also been working on making Willy's head move when steering, how I did that can be found here: 

Next to all that, I've also been working on body parts, currently working on the tank. Here's the state of the body at the moment:

 

[Yoshisaur 282]

The paint job on the body is mostly done, except for the grill and Willy itself, those are still work in progress.

I'm pretty happy with the result:

 

 

 

I am definitely not gonna drive it with this body, I've already ordered a spare body set, and I'm also a bit reluctant to put the body clips in because they may scratch the body. 
I'm curious to know how others think about this or have a method to prevent this.

[Willy iine 18823]

That looks fantastic @Yoshisaur.  Nice work!  

[nicherotors 321]

Great job @Yoshisaur.  You should be very proud.

To prevent the body clips scratching the paint when being fitted or removed you might want to consider cutting a little bit of thin card. Or, as in this case, two bits of Tamiya masking tape stuck to each other.  When cut to this type of shape it can be put around the post before the body clip is fitted to avoid scuffing the paint.  And don’t forget to slide the template under the pin before removal.  Mine has been used for years and might be a bit tatty but as long as it’s clean it will work fine. 
 

Driving (or lifting by the roll bar) can leave a witness mark but the pin often hides this when still in place.  It’s the scratching I try to avoid when the pins are being fitted or removed.

A lesson I’ve learnt the hard way from experience!

[Yoshisaur 282]

That’s a great tip @nicherotors thanks!

[Yoshisaur 282]

A little update on the progress, I'm almost done painting Willy's head and body. Jerrycan is done but most work lately has gone into this little project:

The grille is from Shapeways, made by Magic's Models. The headlights are from Aliexpress and the blackout marker lights are made by myself from white square leds. I've not yet soldered wires to the leds, as soon as I've done that I'll see if I can take a decent picture of it and post it here.

[Johan 182]

Nice job so far!!

[Dan1891 210]

Great work!! I must get goin with my Wild Willy too!! It has been a long standstill over the summer

Every time i see a Wild Willy it brings on a big smile on my face!

This must be the most fun car Tamiya ever released

[Yoshisaur 282]

Soldered wires to the leds, result exceeds my expectations!

The light is visible as 2 lights at close range. When moving away from around 2 meters it starts looking as a single light, that's pretty scale accurate! Very happy with it!

[Grumpy pants 5175]

Looks superb, really nicely executed 👏

You could use a small piece of clear plastic, with a hole punched through it, too protect the body from r- clip scratches as well 👍

[Yoshisaur 282]

It's done,... well almost. I've painted Willy's face and while it's not perfect it's ok for me.
But somehow I just can't get the white on the helmet as it should  Well, will sand it and start again (again)

 

 

 

 

[Yoshisaur 282]

I finally received the light switches, back of the grille now looks like this

Now I can switch the headlights and black-out lights independently, and it turned out these switches had several modes to cycle through from the transmitter.

[Willy iine 18823]

@Yoshisaur  On your one earlier post you mentioned you painted Willy's face..  I only see a white face/helmet..(?).  did a photo disappear from your post?

The M38 grill looks fantastic on your car.  

[Yoshisaur 282]

Yeah, I painted his face first and then masked it off to paint the helmet but I wasn’t happy with the result so it has the masking tape on since I’m still working on the helmet. Problem is, the weather is to bad for painting outdoors so I’m not sure when I can finish it  (I’ll be killed when spray painting it indoors 😜)

Thanks on the grille, actually it’s a 9 slotted MB style grille. Seems my Willy is a MB, M38 and M151 mix-up but I like it anyways.