Building a proper SCALE lunchbox or VW T1 samba kombi

[WillyChang]

Anyone built a scale model with Lunchbox shell yet?

With proper tucked in wheels, nothing monster.  

Have lately spotted a few VW kombis on Dromida 1/18th Rally/Touringcar chassis, this looks pretty hobbygrade (shaftdrive chassis, radiogear looks FlySky-type usable) for the price... must be a recent appearance... Dromida sounds like it's a Hobbico USA brand, hasn't appeared downunder yet but it's slated with the same mob as Traxxas.

Width looks good ~145mm and wheelbase looks spoton to the Kombi.

Must go measure up a Lunchbox when I next trip over one 

[Grastens]

Many moons ago, TC member Shodog explored just that:

The image from that post:

A bit like this?

It was an M-chassis job, I believe- @Shodog can correct me on that one.

[WillyChang]

M-chassis usually sits at 165mm track, but the kombi body is only 145mm. 

Other issue with 1/18s is they use a smaller hex hub 7mm on their axles, so limits choice of wheel. might have to make adaptor to fit 12mm hex of 1/10  

[WillyChang]

21 minutes ago, Grastens said:

The image from that post:

A bit like this?

It was an M-chassis job, I believe- @Shodog can correct me on that one.

yep that's the general idea, but I don't think the front wheels have enough clearance to steer?

The Dromida 1/18 is 4WD too.

[Grastens]

Probably not enough clearance. If you are talking Kombis, too, then we cannot forget TC member Skottoman's excellent example:

http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=71623&page=4

[WillyChang]

haha yes, that's a stunner.

The Maisto shell is a lot bigger than Willy's kombi though. There's a few hard bodies in the toy shops these days, but they look too big next to a M-chassis Beetle.

[Shodog]

my lunch box body was sitting on my Alpine a110 m chassis

[WillyChang]

thanks Jim, 210mm it is then 

[drewbush]

I was looking at doing this swap with the type2 body (i bought the body kit because it was too cool to not own for a later project). The closest chassis I could find (if I remember, it was a few years ago), was the Tamtech chassis. Wasnt perfect, but close.Plus they had the porsche bbs style wheels.

[WillyChang]

6 hours ago, drewbush said:

I was looking at doing this swap with the type2 body (i bought the body kit because it was too cool to not own for a later project). The closest chassis I could find (if I remember, it was a few years ago), was the Tamtech chassis. Wasnt perfect, but close.Plus they had the porsche bbs style wheels.

haha yep same here... the kombi got bought when it first came out as spareparts - years & years ago  definitely bought 1, unsure about a 2nd... haven't quite come across it in hoard in recent years

yeah got the Tamtechs, I assume you mean TamtechGear... got both on toad & buggy... both are more m-chassis width though, bit wide

 

Actually good of you to mention TTG, maybe their wheels could fit on another 1/18 like the Dromida.

but a Kombi needs Fuchs don't it?  

 

[WillyChang]

And dang it... 

Quote

Hobbico, Inc. headquarters is located in Champaign, Illinois and is a manufacturer and distributor of hobby products including radio control airplanes, boats, cars, helicopters and multirotors/drones. Other products include plastic model kits, model rockets, model trains, slot cars, crafts, jigsaw puzzles and games. The company has approximately 850 employees worldwide.^[1]. On January 10, 2018, Hobbico filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and announced the company is for sale.

The company distributes over 150 brands of hobby products including about 30 proprietary product brands. Proprietary brands include: Axial, ARRMA, Dromida, Team Durango, dBoots, Revell, Monogram, Top Flite, Great Planes, AquaCraft Models, FlightPower, Heli-Max, SuperTigre, O'Donnell Fuel, Duratrax, RealFlight, MonoKote, Carl Goldberg Products, ElectriFly, Coverite, Dynaflite, Flyzone, MuchMore Racing, LiFeSource, Tactic, VS Tank, Estes Industries, Proto-X, TrakPower and others. It is the exclusive distributor for Futabaradio control products in North and South America, for O.S. Engines in North America and HPI Racing, Italeri, Novak Electronics and Nine Eagles in North and South America.

 

[rcb1138]

I was just thinking of that the other day. I'd love to see a scale version like a hi lux.

[WillyChang]

this is what caught my eye

 

[Kingfisher]

1 hour ago, WillyChang said:

And dang it... 

 

Price hike and lack of availability for all of those brands incoming. 

[WillyChang]

7 hours ago, Kingfisher said:

Price hike and lack of availability for all of those brands incoming. 

Or is it...

• Sales fall off a cliff of all Hobbico house brands when buyers boycott buying unknown future &/or firesale clearance

and

• prices on Traxxarse goes up 'cos they're now monopoly

hello Texas, HQ of TRX Legal Dept 

 

[drewbush]

16 hours ago, WillyChang said:

haha yep same here... the kombi got bought when it first came out as spareparts - years & years ago  definitely bought 1, unsure about a 2nd... haven't quite come across it in hoard in recent years

yeah got the Tamtechs, I assume you mean TamtechGear... got both on toad & buggy... both are more m-chassis width though, bit wide

 

Actually good of you to mention TTG, maybe their wheels could fit on another 1/18 like the Dromida.

but a Kombi needs Fuchs don't it?  

 

Your right on the width. I was originally looking at the gt01 thought maybe about sectioning the chassis to get it to fit right. But I dont want to cut up a good chassis. 

[WillyChang]

Yeah, no... looked at GT01, M06... no easy way to chop them narrower... parts are already so packed tight together there's no room to wiggle. Doubt you can design new suspension arms etc would be easier to find a smaller donor chassis.

hence quite intrigued when I saw that the Dromida 1/18 fitted so neatly both track & wheelbase 

the T1 kombi shell wasn't really made to fit any specific wheelbase afaik, dare say just whatever looked good to the eye of designer who drew it up

[Basket Case]

Here’s my take on a low rider lunchbox. It’s on an rwd m-03.

[WillyChang]

You flipped around M03 to run in reverse?  

Got more bodies of track ~150mm but longer wheelbase I'm trying to scalebuild, both are intended for T-Maxx so dimensions are a bit arbitrary.

Bunker Jumper

 

Root Ripper

 

[Basket Case]

Yep. Just swapped the front suspension for the rear & visa versa. It's pretty simple. There's a great 'how to' by Kyoshocollector(?) on the site somewhere. The wheelbase is a bit long & the m-03's track is a bit too wide, hence the fender/wheel-arch flares.

[WillyChang]

yep we tried flipping a FF02 back when it was current, before M04 was out... didn't handle too well.