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Terz1

Mudblaster 2 build with a twist at the end

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Hi all. Well after a recent thread I started about which is the best basher in WT-01 (mudblaster 2, blackfoot 3 etc) vs the staduim blitzer, blitzer beetle etc to decide which to buy it turned out there wasn't really a winner. I eventually went for a mudblaster 2. They both seemed to handle the rough stuff and looked loads of fun. I decided on the mudblaster 2 because it was going for a really good price, roughly £90 delivered from Germany to the UK. Also I had a plan with the wt-01 plus the fact that if I ever wanted to do I could do a 4 wheel drive/steer conversion which is really easy with this model. It's a really versatile kit.

So I thought I'd do a little build thread of what I had done during the build. I took photos at every stage but don't worry I'll just skip to the big parts.

Here's everything laid out. It's not a dining table anymore, its a tamiya workbench! :D

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Front frame

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Front axles with replacement rubber sealed bearings from rcbearings

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Front assembly almost complete

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Assembling dampers

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Front assembly complete

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Adding rubber sealed bearings to the gearbox

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Rear gearbox assembly complete

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Metal geared servo with tie-rods attached (thanks to mr crispy for the link to buy the servo)

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Chassis halves attached with the tamiya teu-104bk esc installed, towardpro MG946R metal geared servo and the receiver

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Fully assembled gearbox added to chassis along with completed front assembly

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The wheels are on! Woo hoo.

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So instead of the mudblaster 2 body shell I decided I wanted to put the blitzer beetle/sand scorcher/monster beetle shell on instead. Here it is after arrriving from kamtec after a trimming. :) I used some curved nail scissors and was really pleased with the result.

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Then I ordered a couple of cans of tamiya PS-34 bright red polycarbonate paint and built myself a spray booth. The shell ended up like this...

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Then a really satisfying part. Peeling off the protective layer revealing the shiney red shell. :)

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Next the monster beetle decals went on

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Decals applied to shell

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And finally I modified the mounts to fit the beetle shell. With the front I just used one of the mounts as apposed to the 2 for the mudblaster shell and put it in the middle of the support and sandwiched it with some of the rubber tubing that was used on the dampers. Someone on here has done a very similar mount for this body so I can't take credit for this method.

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Rear modified mounts

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All done.....

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So that's it for this build so far. I did the monster beetle conversion because I really loved the original monster beetle but tamiya never did a re-re. I think if they did it probably would have been based on the wt-01 chassis going from what they did with the blackfoot and mudblaster so I tried to make what they haven't. I was going to buy an original but I bought an original blackfoot which is rarely run and I don't want to ruin 20+ year old originals. This is pure basher! :D

From here little touches like tinting the windows will be done as it won't have a driver and I'd like to fit an original monster beetle rear bumper or fashion a plate at the back like the original has with the huge monster beetle decals on it. This will help fill the big space at the rear too. After this I'll look at improving the performance, esc, motor, batteries and changing to 2.4ghz radio gear. I've also got some plans for the suspension too. Eventually it will be lipo powered and brushless but I'm going to start at the bottom with a standard 540 motor and friction shocks and enjoy the improvements as they come along.

Hope you liked the build. I'll put up a vid soon of its first run. It'll probably be in the snow. :)

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That looks really good! Nice to see another shell making its way onto a WT01 chassis. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the rear end. Duratrax engine maybe?

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Thanks :) . At first I was thinking of an original style monster beetle rear bumper at the back but I've just had a look at that duratrax engine. Much better! I might have to invest in one of those. Just googled it for an image.

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Very nice. I also wonder why Tamiya haven't released the MB on this chassis yet? The wheel base is a little long but fits in with your body cut just fine and isn't any different to how the Blackfoots or Budblasters look on it.

One thing I did on my King Blackfoot when I fitted a Kamtec Beetle shell was put a full size spare wheel on the back to fill the space. This is the only pic I have showing the wheel in place.

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I still have that spare wheel and tyre if you're interested (have since sold the chassis), the tyre has a few splits but it's not obvious until you squeeze it. I found it worked like a wheelie bar and stopped my KBF from flippin over :)

Edit: Those Duratrax engines are well worth it and look great with a bit of paint and a fan shroud added :)

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The cage is also included!

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Very nice. I also wonder why Tamiya haven't released the MB on this chassis yet? The wheel base is a little long but fits in with your body cut just fine and isn't any different to how the Blackfoots or Budblasters look on it.

One thing I did on my King Blackfoot when I fitted a Kamtec Beetle shell was put a full size spare wheel on the back to fill the space. This is the only pic I have showing the wheel in place.

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I still have that spare wheel and tyre if you're interested (have since sold the chassis), the tyre has a few splits but it's not obvious until you squeeze it. I found it worked like a wheelie bar and stopped my KBF from flippin over :)

Wow, you're a lot younger looking than I expected Mr Crispy. Do you moisturise?

Lovely job with the shell Terz1, but I gotta say, go 4wd with that chassis and definitely go with the longer shocks/proper shock tower conversion.

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Thanks guys. Like the look of the wheel at the back crispy but love that engine even more now I've seen yours. I think you're right about the wheelbase too on the wt-01. It's too long for the shells that they provided for it. The mudblaster shell has the traditional arches and they look about 1/2 inch out front and back if you centralise the body and it shows it up more than on the beetle shell with it's flared arches. I put my clod shell on the wt-01 to see how it looked and it was spot on and the wheel arches lined up with the wheels perfectly. So if anyone wanted a truck shell that fit perfectly on this chassis, that's the one. I might measure the wheelbase and see what other shells are out there that will fit as good as the clods.

I think that's the way to go with the shocks getting longer ones and the shock tower conversion. I've been reading other threads and it seems the 93mm shocks are the best trade off with travel and not rolling around the corners. I'd love to get some shocks in gold (not real gold :lol: ) as a nod to the original beetle with its red and gold theme.

That's other thing I love about this chassis, like you said zomboided 4 wheel drive would be excellent. Plus it could be 4 wheel steer too :) . So many things to do with this. It'll keep me busy for a bit. Lol

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Awesome, love these - the Mud Blaster is my most frequent 'basher' of choice (follwed by the Turnigy buggy, when that works...)

I'm going to disagree entirely with the above post however and advise strongly against 4wd, as it slows this truck down, increases battery consumption and handles worse (plus, being heavier it doesn't jump so well).

The problem with the twin-motor 4wd setup is that it is both bulky and compromised. Don't get me wrong, a Twin Detonator / similar setup will never get stuck, but it understeers like a b****d and just isn't anywhere near as much fun.

All in my opinion of course, having had both...

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Thanks reillour. I suppose with the 4 wheel drive it'll have more of a go anywhere ability but loose some of the fun by the sounds of it. The 4wd/4wst would be one of the last things I'd do though. There's so much more I want to change before that. Hearing what you said has put me off a bit though :wacko::lol: .

That's exactly what I wanted, a basher which I didn't care about too much. With my vintage clod and vintage blackfoot I'm always holding back a bit, particularly with them being hard shells. This things going to get put through a lot. :D

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They are incredibly tough.

When choosing shocks, make sure you pick a length where the chassis bottoms out before the shock absorber travel - this will minimise damage. The other way around will cause you problems and added stress on the wishbone mounting points and shock towers.

The primary problem with the front gearbox is that the motor is spinning backwards - hence why I said it was comprimised.

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That Duratrax engine will look spot on mounted to that very well placed flat area just above the rear mounts - almost made for the job

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Awesome, love these - the Mud Blaster is my most frequent 'basher' of choice (follwed by the Turnigy buggy, when that works...)

I'm going to disagree entirely with the above post however and advise strongly against 4wd, as it slows this truck down, increases battery consumption and handles worse (plus, being heavier it doesn't jump so well).

The problem with the twin-motor 4wd setup is that it is both bulky and compromised. Don't get me wrong, a Twin Detonator / similar setup will never get stuck, but it understeers like a b****d and just isn't anywhere near as much fun.

All in my opinion of course, having had both...

Is heavier, but I found mine way more drivable with two motors doing the duties. I did swap to 4wd and sort the suspension at the same time, and compared to the 2wd and the normal suspension, found it so much better as a basher that liked to crash into things. Obviously battery life does suffer...but it's a price to pay

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That Duratrax engine will look spot on mounted to that very well placed flat area just above the rear mounts - almost made for the job

Just ordered the duratrax engine from fushion hobbies. I was looking into it and found a post were mr crispy was fitting one to a baja beetle and he mentioned you'd got one too. Think they look great.

I have a monster beetle shell on my blackfoot 3, great choice. ;)

Cheers! I love the beetle. :)

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You'll be well pleased with that engine Terz1, it's simple but very effective.

I've gone an ordered myself another BF3 as I felt I was missing out of all the fun :) I too was considering adding a 2nd gearbox as I have all the other drive cups and shafts in my spares. I'm wondering it running a slightly fast motor in the front, or fitting a higher tooth pinion on the front motor would help the under steer? Comp crawlers do that to improve the traditionally poor turning circle you get from having locked diffs. The WT01 is so easy to reconfigure it's no hardship to try it out and see how you get on with that set up. You also don't need the Tamiya specific twin motor ESC. Just a decent ESC that will handle the motors you intend to run should be ok.

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On my Wild Dagger 4x4x4 creation i have't found the twin motor's to be a issue . IMO as long as the motors are set to zero degrees it seems fine . In theory both should run at the same speed either in forward or reverse surely ?

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You'll be well pleased with that engine Terz1, it's simple but very effective.

I've gone an ordered myself another BF3 as I felt I was missing out of all the fun :)

The engines so cheap too it'd be rude not too. :)

Excellent. Love the BF3. My 2 favourite bodies are the beetle shells which are on the blitzer beetle, monster beetle and sandscorcher and the shell on the original BF and BF3.

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You'll be well pleased with that engine Terz1, it's simple but very effective.

I've gone an ordered myself another BF3 as I felt I was missing out of all the fun :) I too was considering adding a 2nd gearbox as I have all the other drive cups and shafts in my spares. I'm wondering it running a slightly fast motor in the front, or fitting a higher tooth pinion on the front motor would help the under steer? Comp crawlers do that to improve the traditionally poor turning circle you get from having locked diffs. The WT01 is so easy to reconfigure it's no hardship to try it out and see how you get on with that set up. You also don't need the Tamiya specific twin motor ESC. Just a decent ESC that will handle the motors you intend to run should be ok.

Ooooooh, I might have to try this...throw a spare sports tuned in the front and see what happens. I had also assumed you needed the same speed front and rear. This weekend if nobody does it first (and I finish building a stupid dog kennel)

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Cheers woodstock. :)

I've learnt a lot from people on here, obviously looking at your builds being one of them. ;):D

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Well done Terz1, you don't need to hang around waiting for Mr Tamiya to re release something, you can just build it yourself!

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Cool build, it really is a modernised Monster Beetle. Those Duratrax engines are really neat and will help disguise the gap at the back. Gold (or maybe yellow?) shocks would set it off nicely. The wheels are quite easy to de-chrome and repaint too ;)

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Thanks Wez-li and IBIFTK.

As soon as I find the right shocks they'll be on order, gold or like you said yellow would defo fit with the theme.

I hadn't thought of de-chroming the wheels. Great idea! What's the best way to de-chrome. Would paint stripper be okay or too harsh on the plastic? Or would rubbing them down be best? As for paint are these gold chrome paints any good? Do they really give a chrome effect?

My other idea was to find 2 sets of original monster beetle gold chrome wheels and use adapters to fit them. Another thought I had was to try to fit some gold chrome wheels from the lunch box special edition, again with adapters but I don't know if the tyres would fit the lunchies wheels. Finally I was looking for some after market wheels in gold but not had any luck yet. Any ideas?

Right that's it I'm not saying gold again! I've said it far too much. :lol:

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De-chroming is easy, soak them in some oven cleaner for a couple of hours. I've never used chrome paints though, so can't help with that.

Be careful with Lunchbox wheels. If I remember right, the rear adaptor is quite thick and may not leave enough thread to fit the wheel nut, and the fronts have an odd offset.

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De-chroming can be easily done by placing the wheels in the dishwasher.

You will need to dye them afterward however; the plastic (nylon?) beaneath is a sort of creamy yellow, not pearly white!

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You can also de-chrome plastics just by soaking them in ordinary thick bleach, like you use in the toilet. Depending on the type and thickness of the chrome it may take a bit longer in some areas.

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