Willy goes to S. Korea

[JeepnMike 150]

I thought I was the only Tamiya nerd in this neck of the woods.. Hello from Maple Valley, 40 mins north of you. The Willy's looks awesome!! Keep the pics coming!

[Shodog 1835]

Great detail on your willy. A while back I noticed on eBay there are replacement grills that have light buckets molded into them. I was lucky enough to get a set of custom light buckets made by Cul-tech for my WW2 that use High Lift lenses

Not sure if he is still producing them but you might try contacting him

[NWarty 1325]

I thought I was the only Tamiya nerd in this neck of the woods.. Hello from Maple Valley, 40 mins north of you. The Willy's looks awesome!! Keep the pics coming!

Hey Mike!

Yep, I'm down south in Oly. This WW2 came from Everett. Few of us far between and we should try to get something together this spring/summer!

Jim,

I'll try and track him down, thanks bud and love the Wendy

[NWarty 1325]

Lights have arrived so I'm going to open up the grill housings this evening. Sweeeeeeeet

[NWarty 1325]

Utilizing ToyKid's method, I measured the fog light housings, centered everything up and traced the outline. Drilling a pilot hole and then all the way up to my biggest bit, I then took my Dremel to the grill to finish the job. The body mounts on the body itself had to be removed, but I will glue this sucker on once it's down. Mounted up the housings, ran the LED's and screw the housing backs on to keep the LED's from coming loose.

Success! He's got lights baby!

Since I took the pictures an hour or so ago, I've already drilled out the turn signal indicators and laid down the first coat of paint on the grill.

[EDIT] Added two photos of the turn signals and tail lights. Nothing's glued in at this point. Hope to start shooting the camo pattern tomorrow evening.

[SRB Bloke 237]

Blimmey, there's no stopping you at the moment..... well done.. lights look Uber cool !!!!

[IBIFTKH 1369]

So much great work in one little truck!

Sergeant Willy looks fantastic, 1/6th accessories are too cool, lights, great camo choice - loving every minute!!

[Shodog 1835]

Are you going to paint the light lenses so only a stripe of light projects?

[NWarty 1325]

Are you going to paint the light lenses so only a stripe of light projects?

SD,

No, as M151's and late M38's had "Blackout" markers mounted on the turn signals and tail lights. These were little rectangular lights directly under the orange or red lenses that projected a very minute amount of white light to see the person in front or behind you. We typically used our "Blackout Drives" with NVG's, but it wasn't unusual to have enough moonlight out to be able to drive without them. I thought about trying to source some turn signal housings from the Tam HMMWV but decided the $ and time to find them wasn't worth the effort. Funny in that up until several years ago, all of the cabin light switches and do-dads on our HMMWV's and various trucks were no different than trucks and jeeps from 50 years ago.

I'll probably add wire brush guards around the lights though, especially on the tails. One thing I am trying to research is a lens cover for the tail lights. The LED sticking out the back sort of resembles a nipple

Lots of little things to still pick up/order, i.e. Hilux clear lenses, shovel/axe, new roll cage, new decal set, etc.

[NWarty 1325]

Willy gets some paint.

Lots of mistakes, lots to fix and the lines not crisp enough. But....a lot of these flaws will get fixed once I do the pastels, weathering, chipped paint and acrylic wash and other small components added.

I had the same initial reaction with my Heng Long Tiger I at first and as the build progressed, I was very stoked with the final finish.

[CoolJetta3 39]

Not to sidetrack but I love your B/W tile kitchen floor.

Willy is coming up fantastic

[NWarty 1325]

Thanks man! My buddy owns a masonry company and my house is a colonial bungalow

[NWarty 1325]

Bumper on. Much better Paint is drying nicely too

Crummy Iphone photo

[NWarty 1325]

LED Orange Beacon came today, so I used some Evergreen Sheet styrene to fabricate a mount. Also utilized solder for ring braces. This is getting fun Filled in the ejector mark holes in the rear spare. Going to use a small removal cap to cover the screw hole and get it prepped for the Tiger mural. Installed the NOS Bottle, Willy, steering column and painted his seat Olive Drab. Waiting on a new decal sheet to arrive for the instrument panel and then glue it in place.

Also, it looks like I can start on the template for the canvas top tonight. I have an extra US Army issue shelter half that is the perfect material.

[NWarty 1325]

Mocked up but not glued on. Will be located a little bit higher on the fender.

[NWarty 1325]

Was finally able to make a template too

[SRB Bloke 237]

Loving the updates keep them coming... you need to make yourself a white photo booth.. it will show of the photos a lot better and we'll be able to see the details you've spent hours on a lot clearer...

Have you thought of using a 2.4ghz radio system, (hey have very short areial wires) you could loose the very unscale plastic tube areial...

You may seen that a guy has made a chassis on shapeways for the Wild Willy thats 4wd, Simon is building one now this body would be so cool on that chassis.. but then he won't wheelie anymore..

Whats next...

[mr crispy 2293]

Nice paint work there NWarty, I especially like the figure painting. Keep the photos coming

[NWarty 1325]

SRB,

Yeah, I do need to make something up as far as a photo booth. My photography skills are suspect But at the end of this project, will get some good, clear shots of the finished WW2 against a screen and outdoor photos.

You make a great point about the antenna, and it's bugging me too. That's why I'm buying a SkyFly GT3C and Rx today! I would have to move the antenna anyways since it would interfere with the top. But with the new rx, that won't be a problem. What I am going to do though is make a scale static antenna from piano wire and mount it right near the "Whoopie Light". That antenna will be held in the down position by a "tie down" affixed just in front of the windshield. An antenna cap will be made from Games Workshop "Green stuff". And the tie down bracket from wire.

The "Convoy Follows" decal was ordered last night and that will get affixed to a piece of sheet styrene in front of the windscreen.

I'm still debating on painting the ladder chassis. But it might look pretty darned good.

Stuff to order today: SkyFly radio, TEU-105BK ESC, Hilux lenses, new decals, shovel and axe.

A lot more left to do. This weekend, while I'm awaiting parts will see the body get an acrylic wash and the weathering done.

[SRB Bloke 237]

Great minds think alike

Cant you use an SRB areial... it has that spring at the base like the one in the picture above... and easily mounted...

[NWarty 1325]

Didn't know that! Thanks bud! Another on the "to purchase list today"!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention I'm cutting the canvas top wire and the canvas itself this weekend also.

I was able to just barely make out the measurements from the "All weather Willy" thread in the vintage section.

[mr crispy 2293]

FYI You can pick up Heng Long whippy Tank aerials for about half the price of the SRB ones. They will screw onto a 3mm bolt or standard Tamiya self tapper.

http://bit.ly/1n3muZG

[NWarty 1325]

Thanks Crispy!

I didn't want to steal the one off of my HL Tiger But this may be a better option due to the smaller base and whip length!

-Blake

[NWarty 1325]

Just ordered a ton of stuff, time to start ripping out the MSC, antenna and Rx

The Convoy sign was pricey but hopefully worth it.

This is my first 2.4ghz surface radio so I'm excited. Ordered a Skyfly FS-GT3C in silver. Wow the prices on these radios are fantastic!

The roll cage just had its fog lights removed, primed and painted. Working on the wire support for the canvas this evening.

[wood5tock 864]

Wow that is looking fantastic! Love the details