My second Wild Willy 2

[TexVan]

The Wild Willy 2 was my first RC back in the early 2000s.  It was a fun car, but I always wanted to redo the body.  So I bought another body, driver, and decals and worked on it every now and then when I had the time.  Well, I finally got around to finishing the body.  I don't really like the decal for the spare tire cover, so I'm still on the lookout for something to put there.  Still working on the chassis...

[Twinfan]

Awesome skills there, way above my painting level!

Can you share how you do the small and fiddly silver bonnet catches etc on the body?  And how did you get such a crisp finish on the wheelarches?

[Gebbly]

Wow, immaculate job. The black bonnet is an interesting take I haven't seen before but it works really well in the colour scheme. The Willys body shell is one of my all time favourite Tamiya bodies and this is a brilliant example. Looking forward to seeing a snap of it fully built.

Only snag is, once you have a paint job so nice its scary to take it out for a run. Did you coat it in any kind of clear varnish to try and protect the finish?

[TexVan]

Wow, thanks guys!

@TwinfanI found some work in progress photos.  I'll try to post some more soon.  Those wheel arches were challenging.  I just made really, really sure that no paint would leak through.  I used Tamiya masking tape, and I think I used some of that vinyl tape that you can sort of bend around curves.  Then plastic grocery bags to cover the large areas.  I also had to do a few touch ups here and there.  I was really happy with how the seat looked considering all those curves and hard angles.  Tamiya's masking tape is really good!  As for the little silver details...just a really steady hand and a fine tip brush.  Ha ha.  I tried to be super careful. 

@Gebbly It turned out so well, I'm not sure I will drive it.  I know these are meant to be driven,  but I don't want to mess it up!  Well...maybe one careful drive..I  Ha ha!  I also have the old body I can use when I want to drive it.

These photos show how I did the seat.  The other areas like the front hood, and silver box in the back were done the same way.

[Twinfan]

Awesome - the back of the seat is pretty challenging to mask I suspect!  You clearly have a steadier hand than I have - there's no way I could do the silver parts as well as you have.

And yes, Tamiya masking tape is truly excellent.  That stuff for curves is brilliant.

I did mine all by hand with brush paint rather than spray cans, and the body is unpainted as I think yours is.  As you can see, I didn't even attempt the small silver parts and I went off-piste when it came to the seat and silver box.....

[JimBear]

Do I love the Wild Willy 2? Oh, yes!

Splendid paint job, @TexVan! I especially like the black hood - a relatively simple thing to do to make it stand out. 

Just came to think of this build thread from @Yoshisaur with some nice tips on modifications:

 

[TexVan]

@Twinfan  I like what you did for the driver's helmet.  It reminds me of how Eddie Van Halen would paint his guitars.  I wasn't as creative as you and just did solid red, well metallic red.  Ha ha.  I actually did paint the body Olive Drab.  I felt that the ABS plastic was a bit too shiny.  Maybe I went overboard, but I think it ended up looking pretty good.

@JimBear  Thanks!  I agree.  The star really pops against that black.

Does anyone know where I can get reproduction decals? I kinda like the classic decal for the spare tire cover more than the updated one.  A large number 2 in the same font as his helmet would look cool too.

[Twinfan]

23 minutes ago, TexVan said:

@Twinfan  I like what you did for the driver's helmet.  It reminds me of how Eddie Van Halen would paint his guitars.  I wasn't as creative as you and just did solid red, well metallic red.  Ha ha.  I actually did paint the body Olive Drab.  I felt that the ABS plastic was a bit too shiny.  Maybe I went overboard, but I think it ended up looking pretty good.

As a guitar player who grew up in the 80s, that was exactly the inspiration!

He may have had an influence on my 1:1 track day helmet too.....  

[TexVan]

@Twinfan  That is awesome.   Eddie Van Halen fan is my favorite musician!  Your real helmet looks great!

[TexVan]

Just a quick update.  I finally received my custom decal for the spare tire cover.  I created the design in Inkscape, then uploaded the SVG file to the MCI Racing website.  The decal is nice and exactly what I wanted.  l think it turned out great.  Still waiting on that gearbox...

[TexVan]

I finally received the gearbox, so I was able to finish off the build!

A couple of things...Yes, I bought the overly engineered wheelie bar from Yeah Racing.  Ha ha.  Also, I have the CVA Mini Shock Unit Set II (50519) and the rear shocks are completely compressed.  Is there a better shock set I could use, or maybe they needs stronger springs?  And I seem to have lost the short front bumper, so I have the long one attached.

Anyway, I hope you all like it.

[Twinfan]

Looking good!

Not sure what you've done with the shocks.  I used the same (well, the four shock kit 53619 plus the kit springs) and they're fine.  From memory, I built them to same length as the standard friction dampers.

[simensays]

Yesss - the Wild Willy 2 also got me back into Tamiyas in 2002. Great work on painting, and I totally agree about the spare wheel decal. Honestly I don't like most of the decals provided with the kit so I've opted for some repro decals from the Wild Willy 1 for mine. Well, I've gone all in and modified it to resemble the early version (shown here)  




I'm currently enjoying building another WW2 with my 8yo nephew which will be more stock, but I did buy a set of the retro looking paddel tires for the WR02 just to make it look a bit more like the original  To be clear - these are NOT the same as in the pic above - those are original WW1 tires and custom wheels, the ones below are similar size as the stock WW2 tires only with the retro paddle track look. From first impression after receiving them, the queality seem to be very good indeed. Maybe I'll use them for another GF01 build instead, my nephew won't know the difference



Keep posting pics of your build - never too many WW pictures on here!

[TexVan]

@simensays  Fine job on the Wild Willy!  I like those original tires.  The proportions are just about perfect.  The Wild Willy 2's tires are so over-the-top, it's almost too much.  Ha ha.  Is it easier to control/handle with the smaller tires?  I've only driven one with the current style tires.  What type of shocks did you install on your Wild Willy?  Where did you get the original front vertical grill?

[simensays]

20 hours ago, TexVan said:

@simensays  Fine job on the Wild Willy!  I like those original tires.  The proportions are just about perfect.  The Wild Willy 2's tires are so over-the-top, it's almost too much.  Ha ha.  Is it easier to control/handle with the smaller tires?  I've only driven one with the current style tires.  What type of shocks did you install on your Wild Willy?  Where did you get the original front vertical grill?

Not to take up too much space in this thread I would recommend taking a look at my old thread covering some of the work I've done to my Wild Willys here. To clarify, the tires shown on my WW2 in my post above are custom designed wheels with original, as in the 1983 WW, sized tires (excellent repros by @RA1028 often discussed in the forums) in an attempt to convert the looks of the WW2 to resemble the original WW. The last image show a tire/wheel combo that has popped up recently, which are made for the WR02, Lunchbox etc platforms with tire dimensions close to that of stock WW2 tires. So these are about the same size and width, but with the similar classic paddle track look of the vintage WW tires (only shared with the Blazing Blazer). As I have only seen one single showroom entry of a WW2 with these tires - and I am now building another WW2 with my nephew I thought I'd share these tires so more people see them. I can make a separate post about these when we get to that stage of the build, so not to derail this thread.

Front view of my heavily modified WW2 with vintage style tires:


These are the original size WW tires which are much smaller than those on a WW2, but naturally wider tires are much more stable than the ones found on the WW M38. I've designed the whole Wild Willy in CAD many years ago, so all the custom parts you see are 3D printed as described in the link above - actually that grill might be one from a co-lab with @Toykid which he casted many years ago. 

[TexVan]

@simensays  I took a look at your Wild Willy thread.  Tremendous work!  I am also a 3D modeler.  Respect!

[simensays]

As my prior photos might be confusion here's some quick pics of a stock WW2 tire, the aftermarket paddle track tire and a vintage WW M38 tire.

[TexVan]

So I got around to putting my first Wild Willy 2 upper body back together again.  This is the one I'll use when I take it out for a run. I built this one with my dad around 20 years ago.  Time flies!  I did the chassis, suspension, and electronics.  He painted most of the body, including the driver.  This body was bashed pretty hard.  He added a lot of weathering like it had been through some battles, but it picked up a lot of scars and damage when I ran it and they blend right in.  Ha ha.

Also, I recently added the Tamiya Aluminum Oil Damper Set (54670) to the suspension.