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BloodClod

Blackfoot 3 - how I think it should've looked...

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Here's my recently built BF3...

bf3_01.jpg

Awesome shell released on a fun, durable (and afforadable) chassis but as many have pointed out - the wheelbase just looked a tad off.

Mine still needs to be painted and decalled up but I think it looks a lot better with the wheelbase reduced to match the original Blackfoot's. B)

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Awww... You beat me to it. I am going to section the chassis through the battery box, but I am not allowed too for another 6 weeks.... Christmas present.

I must wait, or Mrs BMT will be very cross.

On the up side, thank you for being my guinea pig B)

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I still like the look of the BF III... have always liked all the BF incarnations

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BloodClod give us a "How to" so we can do it as well!

Looking awesome!

Badboy

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You have done a great job shortening the wheel base, that's the single thing that did put me off this kit.

As Badboy I'd really like a guide on how to shorten it.

Thanks

Jerome

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Looks great with the shorter wheelbase. Count me in for those seeking for a how-to-guide. B) Tamiya should have done it with the BFX, BFIII and MBII just like you did.

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Lovely job! I think a "how to" would be great, just so all us Monster Beetle fans can make our own re-re B)

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That looks much better. I have an idea of how to do it, but I'd love to see your method.

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Thanks for the comments guys, I'm glad you like how the truck looks - I really think it looks a lot better with the corrected wheelbase. The turning of the car with the shorter wheelbase is sharper too - which is just right for a fun monster truck like this one.

I had 2 ideas I was playing with for shortening the wheelbase - the first was to fashion new shorter chassis plates but the problem with that was that I would either have to lose the stock battery placement OR I would have to do some major front end mods to fit the front suspension on.

I still might try such a re-design sometime later but I decided to go with my second idea which was to make new wishbones to shorten the wheelbase. I'll post some pictures later but they are quick prototypes which are cut from white delrin... I think they look quite trick in white, but I may cut some out of black delrin now that I've mounted them all on and everything seems to work perfect.

Together with new shock towers and 3.5" shocks all around, the suspension works well...

My basher Parma F150 shell has just arrived so I need to paint that up and go bashing once the local weather clears up. :rolleyes:

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looks great

would like to see more pics though.

especially the bits you have made.

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Here's a picture of the front suspension.

The wishbone is made of 6mm delrin which seems more than up to the task to handle the suspension duties. Suspension geometry remains unchanged although I added another additional hole in between the stock two holes.

Also made custom shock towers to mount the TRF shocks.

bf3_03.jpg

Here's another pic of the truck from a different angle. I probably will alter the shape of the rear-wishbones a tad for both aesthetic and geometry reasons.

bf3_02.jpg

Anyone else have good ideas on shortening the Blackfoot 3?

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Will you be able to manufacture these arms for the rest of us? <_<

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Hi that looks great about the white delrin you can use RIT dye and dye it any color you wish... simmer water in a pot flame on lowest it can go mix in dye with a pinch of salt and stir till all dye is mixed and desolved now put your parts in and stir fequantly and check color of parts every so often leave in longer for darker color and shorter for lighter color.

Shen

Thanks for the comments guys, I'm glad you like how the truck looks - I really think it looks a lot better with the corrected wheelbase. The turning of the car with the shorter wheelbase is sharper too - which is just right for a fun monster truck like this one.

I had 2 ideas I was playing with for shortening the wheelbase - the first was to fashion new shorter chassis plates but the problem with that was that I would either have to lose the stock battery placement OR I would have to do some major front end mods to fit the front suspension on.

I still might try such a re-design sometime later but I decided to go with my second idea which was to make new wishbones to shorten the wheelbase. I'll post some pictures later but they are quick prototypes which are cut from white delrin... I think they look quite trick in white, but I may cut some out of black delrin now that I've mounted them all on and everything seems to work perfect.

Together with new shock towers and 3.5" shocks all around, the suspension works well...

My basher Parma F150 shell has just arrived so I need to paint that up and go bashing once the local weather clears up. <_<

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im might try and build a alloy chassis shortened.i have a full size alloy chassis to copy.just got to find time.

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Here's a crazy idea - I wonder if you could make some sort of pushrod/bellcrank setup for the rear shocks, and lay them down above the battery compartment?

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I wonder if a clod buster body will fit a stock chassis better. I wish tamiya used the brat chassis for the blackfoot 3 :D

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Will you be able to manufacture these arms for the rest of us? :D

I'd love to but these arms take quite a bit of effort to machine up. ;)

If I ever do I'll surely post them up on Tamiyaclub!

Here's a crazy idea - I wonder if you could make some sort of pushrod/bellcrank setup for the rear shocks, and lay them down above the battery compartment?

The point of which would be to mimick the look of the original with the laydown shocks? Interesting idea!

I wonder if a clod buster body will fit a stock chassis better. I wish tamiya used the brat chassis for the blackfoot 3 :)

That might actually work quite well! But I bought this kit for the BF body more than for the rest of the chassis. lol!

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6 months since building this and I still haven't gotten round to painting the shell but I did cut a custom chassis that I've been thinking of doing for sometime now.

The objective is to return the wheelbase of this truck back to that of the original Blackfoot so it looks better with the shell. The stock wheelbase just doesn't look right as it is too long.

I previously cut new wishbones to achieve this and although they worked well I always thought aesthetically they always looked a tad off.

So a custom chassis was designed and cut... here's the truck with the new chassis and how the wheels fit better under the body. I took almost 40mm off the wheelbase.

bf3_08.jpg

One of the challenges in shortening the wheelbase with a new chassis was where to put the battery as it sat snugly between the front and rear gearbox assemblies. I don't know why I didn't see it before but it recently occurred to me that the front "gearbox" (actually it's a 2WD so it's just a casing to hold the front suspension assembly together) had a sloping rear surface... it was perfect to locate a battery there without raising the center of gravity too much.

bf3_05.jpg

So off to work on Autocad and the result is the battery neatly placed just above the front "gearbox" casing. While I suspect the slanted-battery-look may not work for everyone, I actually think it's quite unique!

bf3_06.jpg

Here's a pic of the suspension towers which allow the mounting of 4" buggy shocks. I run the TRF tamiya dampers. There are multiple upper mount positions for tuning.

bf3_07.jpg

Here's a pic of the chassis from the top. The chassis was also designed so the stock body mounts could be used without drilling new holes in the body. So what we have is a shortened chassis that fits snugly under the original shell without hassle.

bf3_09.jpg

One more pic of the truck. I'll be doing up the hard shell and also a lexan shell for bashing. It currently sports a 8.5T brushless motor so I suspect it should have some nice power and speed. :)

bf3_04.jpg

I like the idea of having a "modernized" vintage-inspired basher... let me know what you think!

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That looks great BloodClod. Mods (or should I call them repairs of factory stuff ups) like this make you wonder why Tamiya didn't put in a bit of fore-thought and came up with solutions to keep the style and vintage appeal in their modernised vintage 're-releases'.

I like this body. Think it would look great on a shortened vintage 3 speed chassis.

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now if Tamiya made it like that I would buy one since I've always been a BF fan

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That is a great conversion you have done. Brings it back to it's original stance, the way it should have been done.

Would you be willing to share the plans for the chassis plates?

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That looks great BloodClod. Mods (or should I call them repairs of factory stuff ups) like this make you wonder why Tamiya didn't put in a bit of fore-thought and came up with solutions to keep the style and vintage appeal in their modernised vintage 're-releases'. I like this body. Think it would look great on a shortened vintage 3 speed chassis.

Thanks. I think Tamiya have done a nice job of many of the re-releases but IMO some of their "sequels" like the Blackfoot 3 could have benefitted from a bit more attention... would have made very nice tributes to their originals while being capable runners.

now if Tamiya made it like that I would buy one since I've always been a BF fan

:)

That is a great conversion you have done. Brings it back to it's original stance, the way it should have been done. Would you be willing to share the plans for the chassis plates?

I could always post some templates. But I'll need to make some slight revisions first as some of the dimensions were just a hair off what they should've been. :)

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