Super Clod Buster black edition 2020

[CoolHands 816]

I like monster trucks but never had one of these or a txt when I was younger. To be honest the box lid made me buy it. Plus black & red looks good.

first thing I did was clear up my desk and make space for this humongous truck! Even the box is massive. 

 

Steering servo. I bought a Power Hd LF20  servo 20kg from modelsport as I realised I needed something half decent. These seem to get good reviews on this site, I read up before choosing. Digital and metal geared with decent torque. About 24 quid so still not that cheap but I didn’t want some rubbish servo, I’ve had enough of pants gear.

 

making the gearboxes. Some kind of nylon / glass reinforced? plastic gears, seems quite hard. I bought a full set of bearings from RCbearings (in the uk). Box gearboxes are identical so you make 2.

[CoolHands 816]

Next fit the motors. I just have the stock ones that come with it.

i like to get all the parts for the next 2 or 3 steps out in one go, ready to build the next sections rather than hunt for screws as & when

the arms and bits are fitted to the gearboxes

i cut off the stops on the hubs as per most advice to maximise steering 

then fit them with the bumpers. There are some metal brackets that are fitted which are very hard to get the screw through - I found I had to bend the top angle of it slightly with pliers to make the holes line up.

[CoolHands 816]

The gearboxes are fitted so now it looks like an upside down spider. 

Shocks. I’m amazed at how poor these are having never seen them before! Literally just a spring. And then you end up with only 1cm of travel after you fit the rubber bump stops! Terrible! At least they’re quick to make though.

 

 I fitted them at an angle, (there’s a choice of 3 locations)  just because. I figured the suspension is so dire the angle won’t make any difference:

electrics. I bought the quicrun 0880 dual brushed esc (£31.50) as I read in here it was worthwhile. Soldered 4mm HXT battery connector just cos that’s the batteries I have.

wheels! These are very big and very heavy. But as we all know, pretty cool. The hubs are a nice kind of smoked chrome and look good.

 

obviously despite telling myself beforehand that I wouldn’t be running it until I completely finished the build, including paint and body etc, I took it out for a spin. First in the back garden then out in the road!

at first I thought it was awful but after a bit of playing around with steering setting on my radio, it was quite fun. 

[CoolHands 816]

(Yes, I’m painting outside). Not finished, but started painting today. I decided to stick with black (it being a black edition). So I bought some plastic primer, white primer, and black spray paint.

white plastic primer first. Initial coat a VERY light dusting: (trying to be more patient than my younger self)

then couple more coats of the plastic primer led to:

 

then swap to normal white primer for a couple of coats:

 

then I decided to paint the body metallic silver before I paint with black, in the hope that some of the silveryness will come through the black to help with sparkle. I don’t really know if it will make any difference. This is hard to see as bit dark, but is after multiple silver coats (looks like white in pic!):

 

finally few coats of black. I have chosen an audi metallic black called mythos black. By the way to paint this large body in tamiya colours would be ridiculous in terms of cost, in my opinion (as tamiya paint cans are so miniature). It would need 3 tins of the final colour.

not finished, 1 or 2 more coats to do tomorrow:

 

none of the decals are pre-cut so you have to use a scalpel. These stickers aren’t available as spares so don’t mess it up!

 

Spray water with few washing up drops onto body before applying:

[mman2005 443]

Thank you for this build. Have always wanted a clod and that will probably remain the case  but at least I get to drool over this one. 

Didn't realise how big the hubs are on these things! 

[Butler 338]

They are comically big. I built one for my nephew just 2 months ago. I am fighting the temptation to get one. Good work Chris.  

[CoolHands 816]

 

[Kamika007z 43]

Beautifully done!

You definitely need a good pair of channel locking pliers to pop in all those tie rods!

I recently finished mine this past weekend and I gotta say, I really love the way the black edition looks. 

[Smokeylocc420 52]

King Clodbuster>all other monster trucks (except the TXT1)