Body-shop Brat (TL-01) - aka. "Rat Brat"

[JennyMo]

2025 Update: the original photos in this thread were hosted by Photobucket, and unfortunately that account has now been deleted... various photos of this model are still available in my showroom however: link here

 

 

Winter is here, so I guess it's time to pick up my indoor hobby once again!

I did consider submitting this as part of the WBO2016, since it is an amalgam of various parts I've had in my stash for ages - but since technically it is also a revamp of an older model I already have in my collection, then I feel it really ought to be considered more of an update - although it's a pretty comprehensive one I hope you'll agree!

 

In fact this particular [rolling] chassis is actually what got me started with Tamiya in the first place. If you've seen my showroom profile, then you'll know that my friend Julie bought me a tatty TL-01 from a car-boot sale back in 2008, which subsequently inspired me to take up RC modelling to a far more detailed degree...

Initially I bought a genuine Tamiya F150 [Lexan] body and wheels from eBay, and refurbished the [Subaru Impreza] chassis to create a fun runner...

Despite the open diffs, it actually worked pretty well on dirt thanks to it's 1.9 wheels and tyres, and the F150 truck body was one of the few non-car shells that fitted on the 257mm wheelbase of the TL-01 pretty well too. 

However, I was never particularly enamoured with Lexan as a body material, much preferring the greater detail and realism of a hard ABS shell, which is why the TL-01 ended up sitting in a box once I'd discovered the possibilities that hard bodies, plasticard and salt offered... not least as there were no 257mm hard bodies that I liked.

It was only more recently, having shortened any number of body-shells to fit more stumpy chassis, that it occured to me I could perhaps also do things the other way...

photo. That is my original TL-01 chassis, with F150 wheels and tyres, and M-chassis shorty bumpers fitted. The body is the new left-over shell from my Brat kit, that I bought for the chassis for the FRO(g)-SCO(rcher)* project.

(*again, please do visit my showroom pages if you are not familiar).

 

Clearly the 245mm (or thereabouts) Brat shell doesn't fit at all well on the 257mm wheelbase:

photo. If the front wheel arches are lined up...

photo. ...then the rears are way off.

 

Now I know it is a relatively straightforward mod to shorten a TL chassis - and indeed I had a go myself a while back, in an effort to make a super-short chassis for a scale Wild Willy 2 - but I felt that I'd rather not compromise the integrity of the TL-01 chassis if possible, as it is as strong and as simple as they come, and in that regard perfect for a basher-runner.

So the only other option would be to re-position the rear wheel-arches, fortunately something that would be reasonably easy to do on a slab-sided pick-up I thought...

photo. The first thing to do was to work out how much they would need to be moved back - turns out 12mm is pretty much exact to centre the wheel in the arches (or more accurately centre the arch over the wheel of course)...

 

photo. cutting the complete panel away...

 

photo. repositioning the arch in the correct location above the wheel/axle.

 

photo. filling in the gap at the front with the segment removed from behind the arch originally.

 

photo. Araldite used to bond the plastic panels in place and fill the larger gaps... (note a small piece of plasti-card was required at the bottom of the infill panel, as it originally tapered upwards at the rear of the arch).

 

photo. Isopon P38 body filler was used to finish the surface prior to prep and painting.

 

As this butchery took quite a lot of sanding and finishing to create something that looked 'factory' I elected to take a couple of short-cuts, and eliminated the small square moulded recesses that were originally in front of the rear wheel-arches, together with the moulded rubbing strips on either side of the arches - and this 'work in progress' look got me thinking about the final paintwork...

photo. Jack Willy points out that at the same time, I also Dremel'd off the moulded rubbing strip on the driver's door... and then drilled a series of tiny holes along the original moulding line, as if the trim had been removed.

The more I sanded and rubbed at the shell, the more I thought about a suitable back-story for this vehicle - that in effect it was a renovation of a rusty old early 80's pick-up, but which still required to be used day-to-day - ie. it had to remain a 'runner' which in turn had prolonged it's ultimate restoration indefinitely...

With that, it was time to rust-up and paint the body in a suitably late 70's/early 80's shade of nasty beige!

photo. I always had this sort of colour in mind, as it is both a good period example, plus the lighter colour works very well with the red oxide and grey primer undercoats for the weathered/rusted look.

 

photo. the base coat finished, and the salt washed off.

 

photo. It was then time to start on the detailing... you can see above the prep on the passenger door, plus the front wing is actually left primer grey - as if it were a new part that had just been welded in place.

 

photo. The rest of the car was then masked off, and the passenger door painted in a contrasting metallic red - as if the orignal [beige] door had proved unsalvagable, and a replacement from a scrapyard fitted in it's place.

cont.

[JennyMo]

With the main spraying finished, it was time to un-mask the panels, and start detailing the window rubbers and shut lines etc.

photo. I used self-adhesive aluminium foil for a more realistic finish for the chrome trim around the windows and on the door handles. Matt black acrylic paint used for the window rubbers and side moulding strips.

 

photo. Similarly at the rear (and front) the bumpers were trimmed in aluminium foil, and lightly sanded with 1200 grit wet&dry paper to create a weathered/worn patina.

 

On the whole, I really like the detailing on the Brat body - particularly the moulded grille and tail-gate badges, and the Subaru logos on each wing too. In fact the only thing I wasn't overly happy with was the moulded light lenses, which would require painting (in a solid) colour... the overall effect isn't bad, but I was conscious that all my other models now have proper working head and tail lights, and while I wanted this to be a budget restoration (and primarily a runner), I also had a set of Axial LED lights and a control unit in my stash, that really were looking for a home...

photo. Jack Willy discusses the lights proposal with driver Crazy Kelly...

 

photo. Because of the limited space in the Brat cabin, I though this would be the perfect home for a driver I've had for a while... You may remember my Wild Wanda figurine that I created using a Willy head and Kelly Osbourne body - well, the above is the left-over head (after a haircut) from that original Kelly figure, with a Sand Scorcher driver helmet fitted, and mounted on the Brat driver body panel... meet Crazy Kelly!

 

cont.

[JennyMo]

So, with her blessing, it was time to hack away at the front and rear panels, in an effort to install some lights that would not look out of place...

 

photo. I originally painted the moulded headlights yellow, with the intention of detailing them as covers...

 

photo. ...however, I found a set of Axial Lamp housings that would actually work very well as buckets and corresponding lenses.

 

photo. Buckets glued in place - initially with superglue to hold them, then back-filled with Araldite.

 

photo. gaps filled with Isopon P38 and sanded.

The headlights were wired in using a daisy-chain of four LEDs - the two middle lamps illuminating a pair of spot-lights to be fitted to the bull-bar. Note. I elected to cut the middle lamps out of the chain, and insert the wires through a pair of small holes in the radiator grille, to keep things as neat as possible - then solder the wires back together, and ultimately seal the joints with a dollop of Araldite.

 

photo. the result is a pair of white headlights, and yellow-lens fog lamps on the bull bar.

 

cont.

 

 

[JennyMo]

At the rear, things were going to prove a little more complicated...

photo. cutting the moulded lamps off was the easy part.

I considered buying a pair of clear rear lenses - for example the Toyota Hi-Lux/Trailfinder II rear lamps could probably be made to fit and are a similar shape to the body panel - however, I'd come so far without spending any money on new parts, and really wanted to utilise the Axial lamps and associated housings I had already.

photo. So it was out with the Plasti-card, to fill in the holes...

 

photo. Then drill an 8mm hole to accept the round rear lamp housings that I've used on a number of other models.

 

photo. Sanding and rounding and finishing to effectively create a completely different shaped rear quarter panel.

 

photo. The result is quite authentic I feel?

 

photo. While not a direct replacement, it's the kind of modification the Jeep guys do to their vehicles to make the rear lights less vulnerable in off-road situations...

 

cont.

 

 

[JennyMo]

So what does it look like all together?

 

 

A few more shots highlighting the details:

photo. Driver's side: missing door trim, primer/filler rear wing, faded chrome door handle and window surround, front wing badge.

 

photo. Passenger side: scrapyard door (with moulding trim still attached!), new front wing in primer (no badge on this side), rear wheel-arch repairs, wing mirror/s are from a Trailfinder II.

 

photo. Front details: Rusty bull-bar, 12mm fog lamps (yellow lenses), working headlights, faded chrome bumper. note: Short M-Chassis front bumper on the chassis to allow for 1.9 wheels to turn on full lock.

 

photo. Short front wing moulding still in place on this side (but not fitted to brand new primer wing on passenger side), rusty holes for the missing door trim moulding.

 

photo. Kelly doesn't care this is a junk-yard jalopy, it still goes like stink (with a 540 motor and 4WD!)

 

photo. From what was my least favourite model to my current favourite after all!

 

Hope you like it too!

Jenny xx

 

[Nitomor]

I love it, you've done a superb job as always. Lots of interesting ideas and the execution is inspirational

I like the way Crazy Kelly isn't looking where she's going,  very authentic and might explain all the damage lol!!

favourite part for me is the work on the front bumper, chrome and lights, looks incredibly lifelike and the rust looks brilliant. The rear arches don't look any different, which of course is a compliment to the time that has gone into that process, I'm a big fan of the Brat and when the time comes I might need to emulate the front end!!

thanks, great stuff

[Terz1]

Great stuff! When you said you could do the reverse of shortening the shell to fit the chassis I thought you were going to cut it in half and have a section in the middle to extend the trailer ( you can tell I've never done something like this ). Loved how you you cut out the rear arch and moved it along to fit the wheel base.

It really does look like a pick up truck from 80's that's seen some action over the years. 

[StrokerBoy]

Ace.  Love your builds.

[Nobbi1977]

Fantastic work. I love your builds, they put everything I do to shame.

[IBIFTKH]

Wow J, you've been busy! Lots of updates on old favourites and this little gem as well. Impressive as always, and I really like the way you went about modding the wheelbase too. Keep up the good work!

cheers,

Rob 

[i_am_scarecrow]

I sooooo look forward to your build threads!!!

 

Incredible stuff as always, what's next???

[Mad Ax]

no way  that is awesome!

[JennyMo]

Thank you for your kind words and enthusiasm everyone, it really means a lot - I always like to try something new, and I'm particularly pleased with the 'scale' elements of this particular model - so it's great to hear that hopefully I've inspired other builders to try something they may not have thought of before in their own builds.

As for 'what's next?' as I_am_scarecrow asked... I'm running out of space for any new models (I still have the Cage Racer sitting dormant on the shelf), and this latest refurbishment has prompted me to look at one or two of my other models and see if I can't improve them too.

As a sneak preview I can confirm I've ordered some dually rear wheels for Tam' Mater - so that's going to be fun to try and re-imagine the rear wheel-arches to accommodate them...

I've also found that the Nailer Scaler (my Wild Willy shell on a HPI Mini Recon chassis) has some electrical issues - either a duff battery, or perhaps a faulty speed-controller - which is the perfect opportunity to try and make a full size NimH battery fit under that shell and upgrade the electronics... Ultimately though, I was never 100% happy with the toy-like nature of the Recon chassis (flimsy suspension and 4mm axles), even though it's wheelbase fits perfectly under the WWII shell. So I have a plan*, which some of you might be able to guess - but I fear it's going to require a few body mods to the front and rear to fit.

Stay tuned!

Jx

 

edit (16th Jan). *I've started a dedicated build thread for the Nailer here: 

 

 

[Mokei Kagaku]

Inspiration for yet another build? The Baja Brat......

[JennyMo]

3 hours ago, Mokei Kagaku said:

Inspiration for yet another build? The Baja Brat......

 

Oooooh, I do like that! It's pretty close already (the colour and tyres) - maybe I need to work on a twin headlight conversion, and a beefier bull-bar... and I also have some left-over race stickers from a Pajero Wheelie kit.

Hmmmmmm ;o)

Jx

[JennyMo]

Just a quick update to this thread - I decided to sell the Rat Brat (to help fund a new project ;o) and it was bought by Only4Fun (Derek) here on Tamiya Club - who has a Youtube channel, including this latest film!

 

Glad to see Krazy Kelly has gone to a good home!

Jenny x

 

[Only4Fun]

On ‎20‎/‎08‎/‎2017 at 0:21 PM, JennyMo said:

Just a quick update to this thread - I decided to sell the Rat Brat (to help fund a new project ;o) and it was bought by Only4Fun (Derek) here on Tamiya Club - who has a Youtube channel, including this latest film!

 

Glad to see Krazy Kelly has gone to a good home!

Jenny x

 

Only just seen this post. Thanks for the channel shout out @JennyMo. Kelly has settled in nicely and has made a bunch of new friends  : ))

[JeffSpicoli]

ugh so awesome i wish i had lights in my brat body.