Bigwig Build

[Nitomor]

I see that no one else has started one of these yet for the new Bigwig 2017. 

Just received a pair of these today courtesy of Fusion Hobbies. I've been waiting donkeys for this to be rere'd so thanks Tamiya, couldn't wait to get stuck in tonight...

Box art and Contents...

Thanks for approving mods...

As I set oit start building I thought, oh no, I don't have any metal bearings! I couldn't remember if it came with them after the excitement of getting the kit which I ordered back in Jan sometime. Fortunately, it comes with metal bearings...

Bag A contents...

So the build starts off with the rear gearbox,

The kit comes with a Bigwig branded GT tuned motor, although being old school, I'm using a Mabuchi RX-540VZ for this build...

Love the 4wd inscription on the gbox casings...front gearbox built...

The kit comes with two pinions... 13T and 15T. There are also 16T and 17T as available options.

Rear and front gearboxes assembled and complete...

That's bag A completed. I'll start bag B tomorrow hopefully.

cheers

Nito

[MadInventor]

Don't tell me you're actually going to use the aluminium pinions , or is this one for the shelf ?

[Effigy3]

Love the Technigold motor!  Will be following your build progress.

[Nitomor]

Thanks Effigy,

Lol Mad Inventor, I did think the same thing, I'm going to build it with the ally pinion for now. It's not predominantly for the shelf but it won't be a basher either. I intend to experiment with the four different pinions options before settling on one which I'll then upgrade. It was a total surprise for me to have four pinion options.

cheers

Nito

[Supercoolnothing]

Looks great so far, I'm hoping to start my build when I get some free time tomorrow. 

[Quandry]

Looks good, I've got mine queued up to build real soon so watching this with interest!

[drcarlos]

Pleased to see this, I'll be getting this and hopefully a top force for my birthday in April. Shouldn't have sold my original or my fox. Maybe take the top force historic racing.

[Nitomor]

Thanks chaps,

So for tonight, Bag B...again, full bearings so that includes the wheel hubs as well as the gearbox bearings...

Hang on, wrong model!!

I knew the Bigwig and Boomerang shared a few parts but didn't appreciate how many. So the rear wishbones, hubs and a few other parts are Boomerang. Nice to see plenty of 58057 sprues as well though such as the gears and what not.

Rear hubs and wishbones going together

Nice beefy rear drive shafts...

Underguard and rear 'fenders'...

These were a curiosity...

I've not experienced this setup building a Tamiya before. Though I had a Hotshot II when younger I never built it, I believe that and the Boomerang had a similar setup. Anyway, seems to be a pretty tough setup, a little fiddly to get together and you'll need a small screwdriver tip for the little screws. I was trying not to get grease on the instructions, as such I assembled the front hubs then realised I hadn't greased the BB7 ball so had to go around redoing it...

Note the different black driveshafts up front, also beefed up.

That's bag B done, took a bit longer than this post suggests...front and rear ends complete...

Couldn't resist offering the tub up for the final shot...

The build might slow down a bit now as I decide what to do paint wise. I'd like to detail the engine top and exhaust pipes so will give some thought as to what to do. I'm thinking blue sparklescent rocker covers with some silver/aluminium ribbed detailing. The exhaust pipe thinking of manifold coloured primaries and aluminium silencers with burnt tips.

Final stages of the build are mainly electronics, steering rack, dampers, bumper, prop shaft, shell and wheels.

cheers

Nito

[drcarlos]

I found those black plastic discs wear like fury and then the ball joints pop out but are caught by the rims at the front! The rack and pinion steering was good and very reliable with little or no wear on mine when I sold it.

Carl

[Supercoolnothing]

That's exactly where I've gotten to in my build. Like you I'm going to detail up my cars engine block as well. I'm thinking about painting it in silver enamel paint then give it an oil paint wash to bring out the detail. That should give it a nice well used slightly oily look. I'll then build a distributor cap and add thin wire with a small bit of heat shrink on it to represent the plug caps. 

[Nitomor]

11 hours ago, drcarlos said:

I found those black plastic discs wear like fury and then the ball joints pop out but are caught by the rims at the front! The rack and pinion steering was good and very reliable with little or no wear on mine when I sold it.

Carl

Interesting, on a related note, I observed on assembly that there are two ways the metal plate can be secured down, under the ball which allows very little movement, which I deduced to be incorrect, or above the ball mounting flange which allows plenty of rotation. It's packed with grease so hopefully wear won't be so tragic but thanks for the heads up, something to keep an eye on. 

5 hours ago, Supercoolnothing said:

That's exactly where I've gotten to in my build. Like you I'm going to detail up my cars engine block as well. I'm thinking about painting it in silver enamel paint then give it an oil paint wash to bring out the detail. That should give it a nice well used slightly oily look. I'll then build a distributor cap and add thin wire with a small bit of heat shrink on it to represent the plug caps. 

Funnily enough I've been pondering the same, was thinking of using some random bits and miliput to make an air filter/carbs/distributor, some thin plastic pipe for HT leads and a screw inserted from the underside for the plugs with a flat nut which'll look like the plug base and maybe a nut with miliput around for the plug caps. I worry if I get too ambitious though it'll never get finished so for now I might just do the rocker covers while I think more on how to achieve the desired effect!!

 

[Supercoolnothing]

19 minutes ago, Nitomor said:

 

Funnily enough I've been pondering the same, was thinking of using some random bits and miliput to make an air filter/carbs/distributor, some thin plastic pipe for HT leads and a screw inserted from the underside for the plugs with a flat nut which'll look like the plug base and maybe a nut with miliput around for the plug caps. I worry if I get too ambitious though it'll never get finished so for now I might just do the rocker covers while I think more on how to achieve the desired effect!!

I'm not going to go as far as carbs etc but looking at the cap on the tube of ceramic grease supplied with the kit it dawned on me that it looked a bit like a distributor so that'll probably be the basis for the one I make for mine, just fill the top with the pointed bit for piercing the cap with milliput or the like, push the wires for the HT leads in and when it sets it should hold them in situ and look quite convincing once it's painted up.

 

 

[Nitomor]

Great idea that! Thanks

[Nitomor]

[Admiral Ackbar]  IT'S A TRAP!!! [/Admiral Ackbar]

It's a Tamiya trap. While rustling through the box that all the parts bags come in, I discovered another set of blue hubs on their own little sprue. Hmmm, so consulting the manual I see this...

Note the hubs shown in the manual on the main sprue are shaded "not used". Unhelpfully there is no note in the build step and the blue hub is not referenced with a sprue number either on that step. So off with the old hubs and on with the new. The good news is, the ball connector comes undone without needing to remove the 3 small fiddly screws!

Not a massively noticeable difference, the incorrect ones have a slightly longer gap between the moulding and the first screw hole...

All sorted and pic below shows the individual sprue...

 

[kontemax]

The second pair of hubs are the mould of the TA01 that are beefer than the Boomerang ones. I never broke anyway the Boomerang hubs.

 

Max

[Nitomor]

Thanks Max,

so the boomerang hubs would work just fine also then?

Not much to report today, just walked in from work but managed this early this morning...

Receiver is setup, I could have sworn I had some quicrun esc's 'in stock' but it appears I don't so put a Tamiya esc on for now!

[kontemax]

3 hours ago, Nitomor said:

Thanks Max,

so the boomerang hubs would work just fine also then?

All vintage Boomerangs in the world had and still have them and I never seen one of these hubs broken in my life. I've seen the TA-01 hubs broken, for sure.

 

Max

[Rb4276]

12 minutes ago, kontemax said:

All vintage Boomerangs in the world had and still have them and I never seen one of these hubs broken in my life. I've seen the TA-01 hubs broken, for sure.

 

Max

I broke the  red hub on my super sabre as a kid, are they considered as strong ?

[WillyChang]

3 hours ago, Rb4276 said:

I broke the  red hub on my super sabre as a kid, are they considered as strong ?

have broken a few red SSabre ones and at one stage could only buy Boomerang sprue so blue ones went on... at its last overhaul replaced with Skyline red knuckles & proper SSabre bits, all happy now  

[Nitomor]

They don't look any different strength wise to me. The only difference I can see is a slight variance in the steering ball location, maybe 1mm!!

[kontemax]

I never seen these hubs broken in my life, in my life, not in your life.

 

 

Max

[WillyChang]

2 hours ago, kontemax said:

I never seen these hubs broken in my life, in my life, not in your life.

Not breaking in half but mine mostly have ripped out ballscrew from steering link. One knuckle stripped it's threads at the bigger ballscrew. 

Monoshock's on suspension arm breaks with similar occurance. Not often but I've gone thru a few since new. 

[Nitomor]

Bunch of animals lol!

Well, after careful examination they look identical except the area where the steering ball mounts, the Boomerang ones are longer on the stem with the holes further away by 2.5mm. Pic below shows the Boomerang hubs which the Bigwig manual says 'not used';

the dim shows approx 5.5mm above. It's difficult to get a similar shot of the Bigwig (TA one?) as it's mounted on the car now but measuring from the same point yields 3mm.

On a progress note (using the term loosely), the steering is all hooked up now, because of the grease involved I don't have any assembly pics of the rack which is a pity as it is a unique setup and quite enjoyable to see come together.

A little mock up...

And this is where I'm up to, I've fitted the front end but left the rear as I want to paint the engine. I've tried to house the RX beneath the yellow plate, not stuck down yet but looks suitable there. I'd like to use a quickrun esc but unfortunately looks like I'm going to need to buy one as clearly I don't have any left unless I put one in an unbuilt kit box, which I've yet to check.

Shocks to do and then I'm stuck until I can get into paint time, which is always a time consuming process that is hard to start and put down when using airbrushes with cleaning time in between, etch primer, base coat, top coat, clear coat etc to mess about with nevertheless I'm looking forward to it. Need to cut the shell out and mask first so I can paint all the bits I need in one hit.

 

[matman]

Nice build , How did you go with the boots on the steering , as they are tapered & go one way . By the manual .

I didn't notice it at 1st . That took up some time redoing it  .. I would have had the bigwig done it 2 hours , with

out painting the body of course . I had set up ready for 5 hours i was thinking , but have built this type of chassis way to many time's i think .   . 

I could not wait to build it , as i have been looking at your build   . So thanks for the motivation Nitomor  .

 

 

[Nitomor]

Thanks, yeah the gaitors, I followed the manual first time but it looked wrong and didn't fit great, so I redid it, I'm happy with the second attempt which has it tapering on the vertical profile rather than the horizontal.