Grasshopper body quick project

[tilstad1]

Im with pintopower on this. Perfection isnt always necessary. I challenge you to find the sags and drips on the gasshopper i built with my son. He never saw it, and no one else ever spotted it, but I know its there.

If all else fails, do a satin paint scheme with same hue but lighter for "decals", kind of like how army vehicles are painted. Works for other colors than olive drab aswell.

"Stealth-Hopper". Would be unique.

Did I miss the completion of the A100, or is it still in progress?

Im just resuming a third build myself. Atleast now Im seeing the end of the §h|t creek ive been in for the past year. Nothing fancy like you pull off, but perhaps worth a thread nevertheless.

[mongoose1983]

Im with pintopower on this. Perfection isnt always necessary. I challenge you to find the sags and drips on the gasshopper i built with my son. He never saw it, and no one else ever spotted it, but I know its there.

If all else fails, do a satin paint scheme with same hue but lighter for "decals", kind of like how army vehicles are painted. Works for other colors than olive drab aswell.

"Stealth-Hopper". Would be unique.

Did I miss the completion of the A100, or is it still in progress?

Im just resuming a third build myself. Atleast now Im seeing the end of the §h|t creek ive been in for the past year. Nothing fancy like you pull off, but perhaps worth a thread nevertheless.

Hi there Kjetil, how and where have you been?

Well, the Grasshopper body is still at my buddy's place. I have to go pick it up, perhaps later on this week. The only thing I can do with it now is go down the sandpaper route. Perhaps that would work. I am not building it to run it. So I was in hopes to make it look as good --and eye-candy-- as possible. Now you are correct, if I was looking for a runner buggy the olive drab would have been spot on.

You know I had to change the chassis frame on the Dodge A-100 project. It's sitting there as I have other things to finish before, the IH tractor in example.

Yeah, open a thread with your RC projects. It's always nice to have a look at something nice

[Hibernaculum]

I am not building it to run it. So I was in hopes to make it look as good --and eye-candy-- as possible.

With that in mind, I think nothing less than a NIB original body will do

[tilstad1]

I cant highjack the thread explaining how ive been, too much bs, and too much of it.

Im ok'ish now though, got a new place, 80% settled, and starting to add a half hour here and there with tamiya stuffs. Will still be a while before things are back to normal. Im getting 1-3 hours max sleep most nights, as there is still so much to do and not enough time. But thats better than this summer, where i had to work 24 hour shifts 3-4 days in a row every week, and 12 hours the rest.

So I dont get to post often, tried to get an initial pic of the project, but too poor lighting. Perhaps this weekend.

[mongoose1983]

With that in mind, I think nothing less than a NIB original body will do

Haha, I know that's TRUE. I should have added to my original statement "within my possibilities". So it should be "I was in hopes to make it look as good --and eye-candy-- as possible within my possibilities". And those aren't too big -I'm in the third world, mate.

I cant highjack the thread explaining how ive been, too much bs, and too much of it.

I'll use the e-mail, no problem.

Back to the Grasshopper, I'm going to pick the body sometime the next ten days and will see what my "resourcefulness" (as Crash Cramer would say) can do with it

You all have a good Thursday!

[mongoose1983]

Well, last Sunday I dismantled the scissors and spent over an hour working on the Grasshopper body. That hurt a bit my wrist! Anyway, I did what I could with it, and scraped most of the paint off of it. I think the bodyshell by now is a bit thinner than before! Oh, well. I was so tired I worked a lot in this humble bit. You know if I was getting paid for doing this I think by now I'd be able to pay for, say, an original Blazing Blazer bodyshell -it's crazy! If I get to remove the paint from the hard-to-reach sides then I'll have to sand it endlessly to try and get a decent finish. And after everything I've done with it by now if that doesn't happen I know I'll be *******ed.

Here's a couple of pics showing the updates. I think the Grashopper body is somehow going somewhere now.

WAY too much for what I thought was going to be a quick smile! Ohhhhh.

[Nitomor]

I love the amount of time you have spent on this. I can empathise, I have spent tens of man hours on my Bruiser shell (I estimate it'll be 100+ man hours by the time its complete) and dozens of weekends practicing on my test Mad Bull shell which now looks terrible! Bruiser shell is still not even done. Painting a hard shell can be very therapeutic but to us obsessive types also very frustrating.

I spent ages sanding down all the flash lines and the like, stripping a shell is even worse, takes ages but somehow you'll get quite attached and engrossed in it. Just try to enjoy it and put it down when it gets too much. The main thing that has wound me up with my Bruiser shell has been the frustration and guilt of knowing how much time I've spent on it, a totally unjustifiable amount. Not that one needs to justify a hobby but difficult when you have a family to spend time with! You wonder if the end result can really be worth the time spent but when it goes right it is really satisfying, with practice you'll realise that you can achieve those results far more consistently.

Good luck, looking forward to seeing how it progresses. It's great to see this time and effort going into the humblest of shells. Well done.

[mongoose1983]

Well, patience DID pay in the end.

Here's what I have on my hands now. That of course after lots --and LOTS- of work... it's been absolutely crazy.

This is where I was standing about ten days ago:

The piable "paintbooth", LOL.

And the results:

Everything went better than expected. I will have to retouch the screw holes though, as they did not catch enough paint from the spray can. I'm confident I'll be able to solve that alright in the end.

Other than that, I have some ideas for the roof and the driver. This Evans dude is going to look cool, take my word, haha.

And finally --as Bob wold say- What's next, what's next!!??

Fog lamps, and body details.

I have some fantastic MRP and Parma decals from the early/mid 80's for this one. Believe me, you're going to like this one

I'm excited.

Now Kids, don't you ever forget the Mad Cap's motto NEVER GIVE UP !!!

Y'all have a great Sunday!

[NWarty]

That yellow looks fantastic

[mongoose1983]

Well, I'm halfway done with the project. So far I am very happy with it. I have to add a couple of more decals to the body, and paint the driver. As always I am against painting the helmet/torso with the same color of the car or the bars. I never liked how they seem to disappear when the colors match.

I used Testors copper for the roof, and matt red for the bars. I was not happy about not having Marchall decals for the fog lamps, but although yellow, the KC smileys look alright. Also my semi matt black bottle dried for some reason, so I had to back them with silver. I like the results, but I would have liked the original lamps much better.

And by the way, no, it's not that I wanted to have a non-boxart Grasshopper. I just did not have access to some original or re-re decal sheet for this model, otherwise I would have been very happy to have a nice example of the boxart.

Anyway... here's the buggy halfway finished.

Hopefully I'll finish this one sometime next weekend.

You all have a good Thursday!

[markbt73]

Nice work! Always better to save something old than throw it away and get something new, I think.

And by the way, my "paint booth" looks almost exactly like yours... if it works, why not?

[Terz1]

Yes great paint job! And my paint booth looks just like that too. I think mine is two walkers crisps boxes attached together. It definately works and is completely free. Like the wheel and tyre combo too.

Look forward to the rest of the project.

[Nitomor]

Love the paint booth, I had one like that too, just a shame we don't get your weather!!

I admire the effort you put into rescuing it. Yellow looks great as do the wheels, brat front tyres? What are the wheels?

Cheers

Nito

[mongoose1983]

Thank you guys for the encouragement and the kind words. Appreciated!

(Yes, the paintbooth is great, haha. I just put it over some newspaper pages all spread, open it and get some tools over the top borders so the wind won't throw it and that it's. Easy, cheap, and always there to be used again!)

Love the paint booth, I had one like that too, just a shame we don't get your weather!!

I admire the effort you put into rescuing it. Yellow looks great as do the wheels, brat front tyres? What are the wheels?

Cheers
Nito

Well, I'd wish the weather was warmer. We had such a cold 2015 in here...

To answer your questions:

The tires: Nope. They are not Ranger/Brat. They are Turbo Blaster F-255, and they were given to me by TCer pleiku68, a great guy from FL. They look very much like the Brat ones, but the OD is smaller and they are narrower as well. These tires are only temporarily mounted on these rims (they are stock Hornet's by the way), and I have the rear ones which look just like the Brat's but are much taller and wider. You can see the rear ones temporarily mounted on my Dodge A-100 2wd puller project car (not finished yet).

The wheels: They are original Tamiya but the covers are aluminum CRP ones. They were given to me by my good friend blackfoot_dave, in OH. I am not sure if they will stay on this buggy as I have another mystery project car in here...

Okay here it is but PLEASE don't ask me to unveil it yet

Haha, you all have a good one!

[XV Pilot]

That looks great! I think I need a Grasshopper in my fleet now...

[Nitomor]

The grass(hopper) is always 'greener' Mr Xv!

Looks like an SRB chassis to me Erich, but what shell, looking forward to the unveil!

[mongoose1983]

I've just finished my Grasshopper. I'm smiling I truly believe this is one of the most beautiful buggies ever released by Tamiya.

Before letting you see the pictures, I have to remind you guys I think boxart white is what's best for this vehicle. Myself, not having access to the decal sheet, I turned out to what I thought would be 2nd best within my possibilities. I'm only missing a couple of small "9" number decals for it. Other than that, the car will pretty much stay in my collection as it looks now.

The grass(hopper) is always 'greener' Mr Xv!

Looks like an SRB chassis to me Erich, but what shell, looking forward to the unveil!

That's one of the other cars I have to turn to now. You'll get to see it probably next week

Anyway, here's a couple of photos of the Grasshopper finished with the driver and all:

You all have a fantastic week!

[tilstad1]

Thats a nice quality paintjob there, love the color.

Im not going to lie, id much prefer the roof in the same color, over pink? Unless of course, the driver is experiencing gender issues, and its reflective of that. Lol

But good to see your active, and I admire the level of quality you put into your builds.This being a resto, makes it that much more impressive.

On my end, i have finally gotten into more permanent accommodations, and have been looking for our rc cars to continue where we left off. Big ile of stuff in the garage makes that harder, but soon. Need to finish my third grasshopper for the little one.

[mongoose1983]

Good to hear from you, Kjetil!

Well, for good and not-so-good reasons I'll be able to resume my hobby work from this week on.

I'll send you an e-mail right away.

Oh, and by the way, the roof is not pink. It is actually copper, and just to keep a couple of things clear, nobody's pitching for the other team over here, hahahaha.

I hope you'll share with us some pictures of your buggies sometime

EDIT:

More pictures of the finished car in my showroom: http://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=128709&id=23692