The DB-01 Hangover

[Nick-W 1790]

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to start with a little bit of housekeeping. This is going to be a slow build. Life in general and work in particular have really encroached on my hobby time lately. I’ve haven’t raced in nearly six months and have only been able to snatch out the odd day here and there for tinkering. Work and life show no signs of slowing down any this side of Christmas so updates will most likely be generously spaced. With that out of the way lets get on with the build!

 

Cast your minds back to the heady day of Friday April 12th. Britain was enjoying it’s 7th month of autumn and I was settled, after a long day at work, in front of the fire. My wife had gone to bed, and I was left with an improving bottle of wine, YouTube on the telly and eBay on my phone. One thing, as it so often does, led to another. I was curious about a new project and had been researching the Kyosho Turbo Optima when the algorithm started suggesting videos about the Durga. I sat through a few, intrigued. It wasn’t available locally so I hadn’t paid it any mind but it certainly tickled my fancy. Belt drive, buggy, 4WD all present and correct and people seemed to really like them. I poured the last of the wine into the glass and took to eBay. None were available locally but there was a seller in Japan offering a NIB kit for £150 including delivery. With no responsible adult in the room to stop me and convinced by this absolute bargain I hit the buy button.     

The next day I had two nagging feelings in the head. The one at the front, above the eyes, was easily explained by the empty bottle of Claret. The one at the back was a little trickier to nail down. There was a smidge of buyer’s remorse mixed with a worry that the deal was too good to be true and I’d been ripped off and a final top note of sadness that the Turbo Optima would now have to wait (recent stock levels have proved that feeling right). The worry I was being ripped off subsidised as the kit was dispatched and the remorse reduced as I began properly researching the chassis and what it was, this could be a very nice car and something a little different from the buggies currently available.

The car arrived nice and quickly and, crucially, without picking up any further taxes or charges. The box it was packed in was an immediate success with one member of the family and is still in service three months later.

As is traditional with my thought process around projects I vowed the car would be built quickly and in box stock form. Obviously I would have a little look around the forum and online stores to see what others were doing and what Hop-ups were out there but I would stay firm and upgrades would only be introduced if and when they were needed. This also didn’t pan out how one would hope and one lunch time at work browsing PJ led to this order hitting the door mat.

With hindsight I’m very pleased I brought these when I did, the recent price rises would have made them unattainable later. I now deeply regret not picking up the gear diffs at the same time and curse my luck that the rear universal joints only came back into stock after the order had arrived. With all this I pretty much met spec for the DB-01r and I was very pleased just recently to find the slipper clutch on eBay for a reasonable £30. I’d also slowly been collecting hex hardware, either through kit spares or grabbing a spare pack or two to make up PJ orders over the last couple of years and a quick stocktake shows I have enough to build the whole kit with them.

But the actual chassis build will have to wait for another day because I first kicked off with the body.

[Nick-W 1790]

I was very keen not to follow the box art for this car. The Durga is a lovely shape but I think that dark red and black design does it no favours at all. With the exception of the DT-03 and TD2 all my other buggies are quite dark and moody looking so I wanted some thing bright, something different. I looked around online and saw the usual TRF style schemes, I checked out different masking templates, but nothing took my fancy.
I began to look elsewhere for inspiration. Because of fact I imported the car in and that it seems way more popular over there I think of the Durga as uniquely Japanese. This isn’t a logical thought process, all Tamiya’s are Japanese, but in my head it had become stuck as my car from Japan. I wanted the body to reflect that but without following the well-trodden Honda style white with red nose race car look. I began googling Japanese colour schemes and traditional colour pairings and the grouping of purple, white and gold kept jumping out at me. It feels inherently Japanese without necessarily defining itself as such (I hope this is making sense)



I had my three colours! I wanted the white to be a little more subtle than the stark PS-1 so I settled on PS-57 Pearl White. The purple would be PS-18 because in the 90s I had a MX5 on the M-02 chassis in that colour which I just loved. The gold would be PS-52 Anodised Gold in the hope of recreating the gold leaf like colour seen on the examples above.


I’m not a natural designer and after cutting out the body it took me a very long time to settle on a masking plan. I knew for certain that I didn’t want to use the window stickers and that I wanted the white to be the main body colour, followed by the purple and accented with the gold. With no better ideas presenting themselves and knowing that I really should put the purple on first, I decided to broadly follow the masking plan from the box art and go for the top canopy and rear sidings in PS-18. I also followed the line of the front side black stickers so that would be purple too. The metallic purple paint goes on beautifully, it covers well with just mist coats and just pops. I’ll be using it again on other cars.

As I was rapidly running out of masking tape and knowing that the gold wasn’t a strong colour I decided on the white next. I cut out the front and side stickers and used them as a guide for marking out the gold masking on the nose cone and top side pods. I tried for hours to incorporate some more gold on the sides of the body but could never settle on something I was happy with so I just hoped that less would truly become more. The white pearl paint was a pleasant surprise. It’s a very subtle effect but noticeably different from standard white being slightly off-white with a light sheen. I’d always considered the paint for my hypothetical Turbo Optima build and will now definitely use it if that car ever comes to pass. I used most of the can of PS-57 and backed it in three coats of PS-1.

I wanted all three colours to be represented on the wing. Using the same method of sort of following the box art I masked out the area that would usually be covered by the red stickers to be gold, the front of the wing would be white with the back purple. This meant spraying on to the side of the lexan usually covered by film so a liberal amount of paint killer was needed to clean up all the overspray.

The gold flashes were added last. This was the trickiest paint to lay down, it did not want to go on even, and just these small parts here represent the use of most of the can. Speaking of the can, the sticker on top calls for the gold to be backed in PS-5 Black. This seems madness to me, does it really work? I’ll never know because I went for a backing of silver across the gold and the whole car. A final smoking of the windows (a skill I seem completely unable to learn) and we were done.

It turned out OK. I think I should have backed the white on the wing better before putting the purple down because it doesn’t seem to have the same lustre as the rest of the body. I was backing with white and then silver before the purple but perhaps not enough coats of either. I have a spare TRF201 wing set somewhere so if it continues to bother me I can swap it out. On with the stickers!

 

[Nick-W 1790]

Following my sort of box art but not approach I used many of the stickers included in the kit. My attempt to use the window frame without the window itself was not entirely successful and the finished article looks a little skewed but the integration of the side pod stickers on to the gold flashes was much more successful and, even if I do say so myself, has come out pretty well. The side design had to go, it didn’t flow with the purple and the gold on the sticker clashed with the gold paint, so I filled in these areas with some left-over stickers from other cars. The gold in the sticker on the wing also clashed with the anodised colour but I couldn’t find a satisfactory way of leaving it out and I wanted to still use the large name design. I was also unsure about edging the different colours with micron tape, it does cover a multitude of sins and paint bleed but isn’t really in keeping with the effect I wanted. As with all decisions of an aesthetic nature I consulted my wife. She said keep the edging, the colours pop a little more, so here we are.

 

And that is where we’re up to. Due to the aforementioned lack of time the body took a full three weeks from initial masking to complete stickering. During that time it seemed the world and his wife started building Durga’s on YouTube so I’m not feeling quite so special anymore. I’m hopeful of getting the chassis started over the next couple of weeks. I had originally set myself a deadline of the end of July so the buggy could come on holiday with us to the Isles of Scilly but changes at work mean we’ve had to cancel the trip; I’m now aiming for mid-August.
I hope some of this was interesting and whilst time for building is short there is at least some time for chatting on the forum so if there are any questions or comments please feel free.  

 

[Howards 595]

That looks good. Masking that body is pain in my experience.

Wouldn't worry about the gear diffs, they aren't brilliant. The ball diffs are fine with the 501 full metal outdrives which you bought, right? (insert Anakin / Padme meme here). 

You do need the UJs, Slipper and metal suspension mounts unless you are planning on some very sedate driving. 

[ThunderDragonCy 8127]

Enjoyed reading that, thanks. Love love LOVE the colour scheme. Looks fantastic. Enjoy the build and the car. I had a DB01R for a while and they are lovely runners.

[Nick-W 1790]

1 hour ago, Howards said:

501 full metal outdrives which you bought, right? (insert Anakin / Padme meme here). 

Ermmm… nope. I didn’t pick those up. I’ll have a look. 

[Jonathon Gillham 4690]

I'll be following this one. I had the same experience when I bought mine, I probably had the wine and definitely worried the deal from a Japanese seller was too good to be true. The hopup selections even look similar. Its a great build, except painting the body. Mine turned out rough, yours looks great

[Room335 840]

I think that looks great @Nick-W You've given me inspiration for my own Durga body. Have fun with your build!

[Blista 1549]

I've definitely had late night conversations with myself about tracking down a DB-01.  Can't wait to see yours when you're done.  Looks great in that colour scheme.  Needs some white wheels!

[Nick-W 1790]

10 hours ago, Blista said:

Needs some white wheels!

I think you might be right about that! 

[Nick-W 1790]

On 7/20/2024 at 3:12 AM, Blista said:

I've definitely had late night conversations with myself about tracking down a DB-01.  Can't wait to see yours when you're done.  Looks great in that colour scheme.  Needs some white wheels!

Yep. You were definitely right! 

[middleagedgrup 235]

Keenly following this build with interest. Like @ThunderDragonCy says, loving that colour scheme on the body. Looking forward to seeing the rest of the build. Confession time: I too succumbed to a Japanese DB01 on eBay many months ago now. Still sitting unbuilt in my cupboard, waiting for me to get the courage to build it! 😆

[guggles 269]

Yes, all metal outdrives,  slipper clutch, kevlar belts and ceramic or nitride diff balls are really great upgrades, especially with more powerful motors.  

Your cat is very cute btw love the eye colors! 

And the body paint scheme is choice imo, not really into gundam but its opened my mind and suits the body style.