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GooneyBird

Project Rally Bug / Street Scorcher

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Dam ! that's looking great gooney

What does the body  back end look like when on the chassis?

Are you going to put a 3d printed engine in as well?

wild

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On 28-10-2017 at 2:16 PM, wildwillhappy said:

Dam ! that's looking great gooney

What does the body  back end look like when on the chassis?

Are you going to put a 3d printed engine in as well?

wild

Hi. Thanks! :D The body's rear looks a little something like this:

IMG_2231.jpg 
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However, I do have plans to fill that big empty gap. I don't think I can stuff a 3D printed engine in there, but what I can do is this:maxresdefault.jpg

That rear bumper is available separately, and bolts right up to the stock TT01E rear plate (as this truck is also a TT01E). In terms of width it should be a decent fit. I might get two 'exhausts' poking through it to dress it up a bit more, or something like that. 

Today I tackled the front bumper too. I noticed that the two mounting points for the bumper (the 'teeth', if you will) were interfering with the body, and with repeated handling were already marking the nosecone of the VW. 

Out came the Dremel:

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I actually found I like this look a lot better. I might get two spotlights (from a Frog or something?) to fill in the two holes, or make a little U-bracket with some lights attached to it, not too sure yet. As this car doesn't have a light set I might go with the yellow covered spotlight-look. But this is something I can decide later on. 

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Just a few quick pictures after a few hours of building:

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It's very nearly there! I can't believe I'm actually going to manage finishing this project in 2017. (Only took me, what, a year?)
Still to do:

- License plates
- Driver figure (dun-dun-dunnnnn!)
- Prop open the sunroof and affix that into place
- The odd decal here and there to bring the thing to life
- Widen rear track
- See if I can narrow the front track a bit more, brining the offset better in line with the rears.(The Scorcher is really nothing more than a triangle when viewed from above. The rear is currently 200+mm wide, and the front hovers around 180mm. And I still feel I need to bring the rears out further and tuck the fronts in a bit more).
- Spotlights on the front bumper(ette). 
- Mirrors. I know the included chrome ones are rather fragile, but I have a plan....
- Rear bumper. See above.

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First off: license plates. I didn't really like the included plates, so I made my own through this website. 


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It's getting cloose! I can feeel it! :D

Next up, the part I've been dreading for a while. Painting up this guy:

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I've managed to paint the base plate and his overall just fine, surprisingly, and I went with a cool '70s gold for the helmet. I haven't started on his face yet, because that's the part that's probably the most difficult in this whole build. No idea how people like @JennyMo and @IBIFTKH get their Willies (ahum..) looking so nice. 
IMG_2245.jpg
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Some more fettling about happened.

Firstly, I've painted the face of the driver. Let's just say that when it comes to painting faces on little men, I'm very good at scripting tasks in Linux. :P

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To be honest he looks a bit...unwell... In the flesh it's a bit better, but I'm nowhere near the Willy-painting skills (Ha!) of one of our other respected members. 

I've also decided to do something with the front bumper. There are two large holes in there from me cutting off the stands for the front bumper, and it looked rather silly. @Fuijo had a few spotlights left over, so a solution was quickly found.

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The initial issue was that they came really close to hitting the nosecone. I've heated up the bumper plate and bent it a bit, giving them about 5mm of clearance. Not sure if it's enough, but it's better than nothing.

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Also on the to-do list was the sunroof. I don't think I understand why Tamiya decided to make the sunroof a seperate piece, but then not give us the option to open it up. No problem, @Fuijo gave me a simple and elegant solution. Basically, you glue a bit of styrene to the inside of the roof, using two risers near where the glass attached. Then, you make two triangles and put that on the small plate. You then attach your sunroof. For added security I added two strips of duct tape to the front of the sunroof. This acts as a hinge.

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IMG_2297.jpgThis has a few advantages. Mainly, if the car rolls over, the plate flexes and simply shuts the sunroof, without damaging anything else. Also, should you ever want to close the thing, it's 100% reversible. 

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So this body comes with a driver figure. If you can remember what I did with the Skyline, you'll know I like to have the driver be a bit more ... animated. 

However, whereas with the Skyline's interior set you have enough space to align the servo with the head, you can't do that with the SS body. The servo has to sit under an angle. 

So so what I did is slip a bit of fuel tubing over the servo's outdrive, and secured it with a tie wrap. The other end is a long grub screw screwed into the head and into the tubing. This makes the joint flexible. 

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A bit of hot glue affixes the servo to the body. It's on a third channel, mixed in the steering channel. 

I have a video of the whole thing in operation, I'll find a place to upload them. 

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Nice work all round....     quick question, what hot glue do you use.  Every time I've tried to use it, its never bonded very well to the inside of the driver..   :)

 

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On 10-11-2017 at 2:23 PM, SRB Bloke said:

Nice work all round....     quick question, what hot glue do you use.  Every time I've tried to use it, its never bonded very well to the inside of the driver..   :)

 

Thanks!
I use the glue sticks (and gun) from HobbyKing. It's cheap, but it works fairly well. Here's a link to the stuff I've been using.

 

In the mean time, to decal or not to decal? Here's a quick PS.

street_scorcher.jpg

On the one hand, it's iconic. This is thé Sand Scorcher look, with the decals and the number on the door. On the other hand, I kinda like the 'naked' look too. Maybe just add one or two decals to the rear window, but keep it at that.

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Just start adding some stickers on the windows, maybe. One can always add stickers / peel them off. I always take my time with decals...check from different angles. Start with the ones that I know I really want...go from there.

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I like the decals, because I got used seeing the Sand Scorcher for 30 years. 

But I understand: you don't want it to look too much like the Sand Scorcher.  Maybe only a few stickers would work better? .... like below...  sorry, my photoshop skills aren't as good as yours.  

Very cool project, by the way.  I like the proportion of your car.  Tamiya might have seen your project and came up with VW rally.  I prefer the scale look of the hard body though.  

scorcher.jpg.3b1b99d3411aaba4231966d667c0836d.jpg

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I got some new parts in today! Yay!

I've been looking for something to fill the big hole in the rear. A fake engine wouldn't work, as the chassis intrudes pretty deeply into the hole, but it does need something. With Tamiya recently having released the MAN Racing Truck, a perfect solution came to be. I ordered a sprue...

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(Note, the machine-thread screws in this picture are actually the wrong one. I grabbed a set of M2 bolts, but needed M3)

The actual construction is kinda nifty. You throw in two nuts into the premade recesses, where they lock into place. You then attach the rear bumper with two machine-thread screws before screwing the whole thing to the rear bumper plate by way of two self-tapping screws.

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It's a little bigger and wider than I thought, but I think it looks good! It lends a certain dirt-oval track racer look to it, and will functionally work really well in protecting the rear license plate in a collision.

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I also 'stole' the mirrors from the MAN. I'll get some pics of that soon!

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What a great looking custom rally bug my friend :) Looking forward to seeing what you find for a front bumper & of cause some pictures of it spraying dirt ;) 

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Yesterday I got yet another part in to continue with the build. @Fuijo lent me a set of two spotlights for the front, but for some reason it just didn't look 'right' to me. A little too much Dakar, not enough Tamiya. So I went in search for something else to perch on the nose.

As I was messing around with brass tubes, my wife said to me "What about the Pajero's front bumper?" My Pajero still has the stock CC01 bull bar. Most people choose to leave it off, but I like the look of it. Some measuring later, and it turned out would actually work. Someone on a Dutch Tamiya Facebook group had a spare front bull bar (as no-one seems to mount these up), and was willing to send it to me for the cost of a stamp. Winning!

First thing I did was cut off the mounting plate, as I didn't need that. I then flattened the remaining 'stubs', so I could use that as a base to mount to the stock TT01 front plate. As it turned out, the large holes left by cutting off the TT01 bumper mount provided a good spot to drill a few holes, tap it with a 3mm tap, and put some bolts and lock nuts through.

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It's surprisingly sturdy, as the bolts go through a thick section of the front bumper.

The overal look is very cool, if I may say so myself:

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Also note the new mirrors! They come off of the MAN truck sprue I used for the rear bumper.

I might try to find one of those gray Sand Scorcher bumper rubber stopper things to complete the look. But as it stands right now, it's equal parts shades of Monster Beetle (the upside-down U-bar in front of the license plate) and Sand Scorcher (The bars extending in front of the wheels).

IMG_0096.jpg

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That looks great!

I'm really impressed how you've managed to come up with such a coherent look without simply throwing money at it. It looks pretty close to that picture of the real one you posted on the first page of this thread.

Cracking look.

Could this be the best handling Sand Scorcher-based car that has yet been built? :D

I can't believe you've managed to resist sticking any stickers on it. For me it would be like pressing the big red button that says "Do not press", impossible not to.

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A couple more shots (since I bought a new camera this Thursday, and I can't stop messing around with it):

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(Obligatory flex shot follows. It's not CC01, but for a touring car this isn't too bad)

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54 minutes ago, Fuijo said:

That looks great!

I'm really impressed how you've managed to come up with such a coherent look without simply throwing money at it. It looks pretty close to that picture of the real one you posted on the first page of this thread.

Cracking look.

Could this be the best handling Sand Scorcher-based car that has yet been built? :D

I can't believe you've managed to resist sticking any stickers on it. For me it would be like pressing the big red button that says "Do not press", impossible not to.

Thanks! On the one hand it's quite realistic, but with the big bumpers it still somehow captures the "Tamiya could have done this"-look.

I might stick a decal or two on the rear windows, but I've otherwise decided to keep it fairly clean. I think I like the 'modified street Beetle' look more than the Baja-look.

As for handling, I've seen a few badly-adapted to TA05 chassis, I think they might have this one on handling. Unless we're talking wide-open beach running, in which case the original completely wins.

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1 hour ago, Jason1145 said:

Great work Gooney does that new camera of your record video too?

Thanks! Yes, it does. I've bought a Canon Powershot G7X Mk2. I used to be big into (D)SLRs, but found that I drug all my photo gear along less and less. So about 6 years ago I sold the whole kit-and-caboodle and relied instead on a compact. After a while I grew less and less satisfied with the performance of it, and decided to buy an upmarket compact with a good lens and large sensor to recapture some of the performance of an SLR without the weight and size penalty.

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22 minutes ago, GooneyBird said:

Thanks! Yes, it does. I've bought a Canon Powershot G7X Mk2. I used to be big into (D)SLRs, but found that I drug all my photo gear along less and less. So about 6 years ago I sold the whole kit-and-caboodle and relied instead on a compact. After a while I grew less and less satisfied with the performance of it, and decided to buy an upmarket compact with a good lens and large sensor to recapture some of the performance of an SLR without the weight and size penalty.

Makes sense, I never got into DSLR's, point and shoot was enough for me which has now become Iphone somehow.

Its a cruel twist that as we become older and generally wealthier our eye sight deteriorates... makes buying the latest ultra 4K TV a giggle.... they can only be as good as our eyes can make out ;)

( Your last photos are crystal clear though)

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This thread keeps getting better, every time I check. Congrats on the camera.

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So, small update.

It has run on my local track. During a race a few weeks ago I brought it along to show off, and in the recess between heats I did a few laps with it. It's a LOT faster than I had imagined, even though it's on the lightest gearing that a TT01 supports (61/19). I'm blaming the large tires. At any rate, on the beach, or any other wide-open space this shouldn't be a problem.

What is a problem, however, is this:IMG_1277.jpg

During the last lap, one wheels simply exploded. I was going in a straight line, maybe half-throttle, when I heard a sharp POP, and the car veered off to the right. It started a slow roll, and when I came to pick it up there were plastic fragments all over the track.

I blame Chinesium for this. It could be a molding issue, where there was somehow a bit of force on the wheel at rest, causing it to fracture. Seeing as how I do like the look of the wheels, I ordered a new set (for a whole €6 including shipping), and will try that out. If another wheel breaks I'll go and look for a different solution with a similar look, but for now I'll stick to this.

No further damage was done during the roll. Even the mirrors survived. @Fuijo's solution with the sun roof worked well, and instead of damaging anything it simply shut.

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On 11/23/2017 at 6:00 AM, chevelle said:

.. of cause some pictures of it spraying dirt ;) 

Ask and ye shall receive! I finally had the time off this morning to go for a quick run. I still had a charged battery from my track outing this Sunday, and wasn't going to let the charger have all the fun running it down to storage-voltage.

It does gorgeous rooster tails! Because it's 4WD it does really controlled dirt drifts, but the locked rear diff makes it kick out easily, unlike most 4WD cars.

I had to cut my run short because one of the battery wires came loose. Apparently they didn't like the vibration much.

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And of course the aftermath:

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That looks awesome covered in that dust. Don't clean it! :)

 

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