JennyMo 3526 Posted June 14, 2020 On 6/13/2020 at 1:49 PM, Badcrumble said: As you can see Dustin’s feet thanks to those cut down doors, would you give him some pedals to push? It looks like he’ll reach them OK! The problem with having the battery there is there isn't really any way to mount pedals (in the same way as I could with Hopper's HiLux for example) - I like to think he uses 'the force' to propel this one ;o) Jx 1 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JennyMo 3526 Posted June 14, 2020 The boys rolled into the garage last night, and what do you know... The rear cage is easy to remove being secured with four M3 screws through the top of the bed sides... I think ultimately this is probably the way I'll keep this as a runner (not least for easier access to the rear battery compartment, and to show off that lovely Method Roost spare wheel ;o) - and perhaps incorporate a smaller piece of net behind the cab as a nod to Boba Fett's cape? Jx 7 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JennyMo 3526 Posted June 26, 2020 Ooooh, look what the postman brought me... But I've already got a similar front winch and bumper on the 4Runner: I know, but this one is going on the rear! photo. the winch bumper will fit the rear of the chassis in the same way it does at the front, and with the stinger hoop removed, the winch itself will be recessed into the rear tailgate panel. More soon! Jenny x 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ACCEL 2014 Posted June 27, 2020 well it's soon, we want more! 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Kayak 50 Posted June 27, 2020 Love it. Keep going. The Boba Fet paint scheme is great. Your body builds were the inspiration fro rescuing the crushed Monster Beetle's body I've been toying with. Styrene and solvent has awakened a long dormant 'need' to build some scale stuff... and the beetle doesn't need to look 'right', so I can refresh my paltry skills. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Re-Bugged 10146 Posted June 27, 2020 The Force is definitely strong in this one 👍🏻 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JennyMo 3526 Posted June 28, 2020 Well that's another job done! Originally I had planned this to be much more of a basic runner - strong chassis and running gear, topped with a simple body... however, as with all these things, the longer I took to pull it all together, the more ideas I wanted to incorporate - including a detailed full interior, two occupants, and along with the front winch, well - this is kind of what you end up doing too: photo. rear winch and bumper mounts in exactly the same was as it does on the front of the chassis, although I did end up drilling to alternative/extra holes in the sides of the plastic fuel-tank crossmember to position the screws closer to the end of the slots. photo. some careful guestimate marking out before Dr Dremel was employed once more... photo. Yep, I'd say that works pretty much how I envisaged! photo. nurf-hoop carefully removed, leaving just the stubby bumper as a suitable winch mount - plus will be secure enough to add a tow-hitch drop plate if I wanted (and you know I want to!) The overall effect kind of reminds me of those demountable winch carriers you can get for 1:1 vehicles, so I may end up adding a couple of handles and Warn stickers too. I'd say this one really is getting close to finished now... all that is left to do is wire the rear winch via a two way switch [mounted in the cabin] to the wireless remote receiver - that way I can select which winch is powered from the same key-fob remote. Once that's done, I'll aim to photograph the finished build in detail and add it to my showroom too! Jenny x 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JennyMo 3526 Posted December 3, 2020 Quick update: With a bunch of other projects getting in the way, I finally found time to wire up the twin winches on the 4Runner: photo. single wireless remote receiver and two-way toggle switch. While I've incorporated a 2nd/dedicated battery for the winch/es on this build, rather than run two separate controllers for the front and rear winches, I wired the single remote receiver via a toggle switch so that either can be run from the same remote fob - (and even flicking between the two as required in a particularly tricky rigging-situation), since I don't envisage them ever needing to actually be run simultaneously* *I suppose it's feasible if you were traversing a side slope and wanting to use the winch cable to keep the vehicle suspended while moving in one direction or the other - playing one cable out while the other winds in... but I don't really see that happening to be honest. photo. the two-way toggle is situated under the interior floor (along with the rest of the winch wiring), and reached through the rear wheel-arch. photo. winch/es are powered by a separate battery - the fabricated tool chest in the load bed large enough for a shorty 2S Lipo or even a full-size 6-cell NiMh if desired. You might also have noticed in the photo above that I've trimmed the top of the load-bed sides with cherry wood strips (complete with pin heads as coach-bolts), in the same way as I trimmed the rear of Hopper's HiLux: photo. real wood trim finished with linseed oil. I've also added some returns on the scratch-built latches for the tool chest lid, to stop the bolts dropping out: And finally for now, following on from the magazine accessories I bought for the Big BJ40 rebuild recently, being such a fan of the genre, I thought Lucas would fancy reading all about the Ghostbusters too! photo. these scale newspapers and magazines (based on the montage from the original Ghoastbusters movie) are awesome! That is pretty much it now for this build... all I really need to do is paint the spare wheel matt black to match the others perhaps? I hope you like these latest modifications! Jenny x 8 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
OldSchoolRC1 983 Posted December 4, 2020 Looks fantastic as always. Love the theme, and the rear winch came out great! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badcrumble 4203 Posted December 6, 2020 On 12/3/2020 at 10:38 PM, JennyMo said: *I suppose it's feasible if you were traversing a side slope and wanting to use the winch cable to keep the vehicle suspended while moving in one direction or the other - playing one cable out while the other winds in... but I don't really see that happening to be honest. That would be fantastic to see! One for the trail bucket list?! Ingenious switch location and that rear winch does look awesome! 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JennyMo 3526 Posted December 7, 2020 On 12/6/2020 at 2:24 AM, Badcrumble said: That would be fantastic to see! One for the trail bucket list?! Ingenious switch location and that rear winch does look awesome! Hee hee - you know I actually witnessed that scenario many years ago when taking part in a 1:1 winch-challenge event with some friends who had 4x4s... there was a particular section where you had to traverse a side slope through some trees on a wet muddy embankment, and not drive lower than some markers the organisation had put across the slope. If you'd try to simply drive it, the vehicle would have crabbed sideways and eventually slid down past the markers... so one guy hooked up his front and rear winches to trees above the chosen line and left the transmission in neutral and just inched himself along with the front winch, and every time the back started to slide, he'd pull the back end back up the slope a bit with the rear winch... it took ages mind you, and he needed to re-rig the rear cable a number of times. It was funny though, after we'd spent all that time watching that guy inching along with two winches, another competitor (who didn't have a rear winch) had the idea to string an extension winch cable (100ft long) between two trees on the high side of the slope, and simply put a strap from the rear of his vehicle to a pulley/snatch block on the winch cable, and was able to pull himself along with his front winch while the strap kept the rear end from sliding down the slope in less than half the time - I want to say he won that particular section! Good times! Jenny x 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Carmine A 2046 Posted December 12, 2020 Jenny - THANKS for reminding me about the VS4-10 SBK!!! 😊👍👍 Roughly the same Price as the far inferior Injora Chassis, and I believe more adaptable. The Body was a clever choice! It's NOT everyone else's Hilux!! And the idea of using the SCX10 III Engine Cover was BRILLIANT. 👏👏👏 Since I know how Detail Oriented you are (OCD!!), there is at least two different left side Valve Cover Kits available - to better cover the Servo. My Friend, Josh works for Vanquish in Sacramento... Knowing his deep disdain for Asian Knockoffs, I can picture him throwing Wrenches in his Office!! 😜 However you're right from your first post... $750 and UP is WAY TOO MUCH for most People to spend on at its essence - a Toy. What you're really PAYING for with the VS4-10 Kits, are the Axles and Gearbox - both brilliant and build for Competition Performance. The Vanquish Chassis, IS superior to most on the Market - and outstanding value for money!! The Plastics used are well Engineered, and quite strong. What I'm most impressed with though, is the Interior!! I haven't seen a BETTER full depth Interior WITH a Center Gearbox - except for the Vanquish LCG Transmission, which places the Motor LOW and in Front. I expect to COPY many of your ideas there!! 😉 I wish there was a LOW cost Plastic Ford Engine Cover.... I'm planning on building a Broncos - and I'm NOT of the "LS Swap the World" way of thinking! I REALLY like this Build!! 👏👏👏👏🍻 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JennyMo 3526 Posted December 23, 2020 As an excuse for my ongoing procrastination with my Jeep TJ build (new build thread soon I promise), I thought I'd draw up a list of 'finishing off jobs' for all the other models I've been juggling recently, and see if I can't call them finally finished - well, at least until I'm inspired by 'just one more thing' to add... So starting with the 4Runner, together with wiring up the winches (a few posts above), I decided that due to the substantial weight of this build and what appears to be a somewhat tired NiMh battery under the scuttle, I've elected to convert this one to LiPo too - essentially all that was required was swapping the ESC to one with a LiPo specific low-voltage cut-off, and run the main battery cables back to the tool chest in the rear bed (for easy access for charging/swapping batteries), and utilise the NiMh under the dash to run the winch control, which is likely to be far less frequent. I also finally bought some 'flat black' spray paint to match the spare - and I'm pleased with how close a match it is to the four matt anodised versions I'd fitted to the axles: photo. you might notice tiny Yoda (or is that The Child?!) wielding a spanner, as a further tie-in to the whole Boba Fett/Mandalorian theme. And of course, no under hood detail would be complete without a working oil dipstick - scratch built in the same was as I did with Hopper's Hilux and the Baja Blazer... photo. dipstick is made from a bent piece of wire with an M2 nut superglued on and sanded round. The tube is actually a short length of Rx aerial wire support, since those are rarely required with contemporary 2.4Ghz receivers these days. So I'm confident that's the 4Runner finished for now... Jenny x 4 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JennyMo 3526 Posted March 3, 2021 2021: A quick update to this thread too... over the past few weeks, I'd drawn up a list of 'finishing off' jobs for my existing collection - yes I know that sounds like procrastination with regard to getting on with the Mega-Bug build (car #72, No Activity), but I'm still waiting for some parts for that one (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)... and equally, having an increasing number of vehicles all with little jobs which need doing, plus a couple of new projects on the bubble - it's makes sense to try and tidy up the loose ends before starting anything else now - if only for my sanity! While most of these other jobs were just the odd decal or badge, or a dash of paint here and there - something had continued to bug me about this particular vehicle, in that while I'd been able to incorporate all manner of interesting and clever scale details (such as the twin winches running off a single remote) and the full interior despite the Axial style centre transmission, I had had to compromise slightly with the body mounting so that it cleared the horizontal NiMh stick-back battery mounted vertically underneath the dash (which dictated the overall body height). The result was that while I had still been able to utilise the moulded belly sections which come as part of the Vanquish chassis kit, they'd needed to be mounted higher on the chassis rails than the stock position, so that in turn the body-shell could be high enough to clear the battery, and offer enough clearance for the 115mm tyres to articulate fully without dragging when using the original 90mm shocks... Unfortunately, this also meant there was a larger than ideal gap between the base of the load bed and the chassis rails, and coupled with what turned out to be an excess of wheel-arch clearance at the front (having removed the arches to the natural body-crease), this is ultimately what was bugging me - it was so close, but proportionally just not quite right... Then it dawned on me that having converted this truck to Lipo too recently, it was no longer necessary to have that traditional NiMh stick pack mounted under the dash at all really (which I'd initially decided to keep to power the winches separately) - a single 2S Lipo shorty pack realistically providing more than enough juice to power both the truck and the winch/es as required, and that what was now the main vehicle battery fitted far more easily in the tool chest in the rear bed anyway - meaning the whole wiring set-up could be simplified, the original battery tray removed, and the whole body dropped lower onto the chassis - result! Anyway, that is probably far too much waffle to describe what to the casual observer appears to be very little difference to the overall build... however, I would add that along with these subtile stance changes, I also took the opportunity to revise the axle and suspension layout - having purchased another pair of portal axles similar (although unfortunately not exactly the same) as those I'd fitted to the Defender 90 recently, which in turn has significantly improved the ground clearance, and in reverting to the original more softly sprung 90mm shocks all-round, has given the 4Runner some very impressive articulation - if you ever wondered why people like the Vanquish VS4-10 chassis so much, here's your answer! photo. that is 5" of vertical wheel travel, with all three others still on the ground! photo. you will notice the bonnet (hood) is missing - don't worry, I'll come to that in a minute... Getting to work... So having removed the vertical battery bracket in the cabin footwell, it was clear the body could be mounted approximately 10mm lower than before - reducing that gap at the rear above the chassis, and fundamentally allowing the chassis side plates to be mounted in the standard location - essentially providing a completely flat belly, as Vanquish had always intended. The replacement portal axles were a direct swap - other than I had to adjust (extended by the thickness of an M4 nut) the rear upper links to level the rear diff, and that the shape of the [central] pumpkin and the upper link bracket on the front axle means it does now touch the panhard rod on full compression - I can probably address this with a custom bend panhard rod in future (although in practice it does not appear to really be an issue with general side to side articulation, only when both front wheels are fully compressed)... photo. initial test fit with the 80mm rear Gmade shocks... I've ultimately reverted to using softer sprung 90mm shocks all round, which means the truck now runs at almost full droop, but offers huge articulation. The only issue with using much softer springs is it can jack to one side under power. With the body lowered, some minor revisions were also required to the cabin floor to clear the centre transmission assembly: photo. while the body and interior floor remain in the same relation to one another, having dropped both over the chassis meant the centre transmission now protrudes further through the seat-box, which needed to be modified. In turn the seats (particularly on the driver's side) needed to be cut to fit around the transmission - fortunately when Dustin is seated, this is essentially hidden. photo. fortunately I had a cheap set of rubber seats the same shape as the Axial ones fitted, so I could easily experiment with where the final cuts needed to be made. While I was rejigging the interior, it occurred to me that while I could indeed just run a Y cable between the main ESC and the winch remote control receiver and run them both from the main LiPo (in the tool chest), equally I had a small square 7.2v NiMH pack that had been doing nothing for ages, which I felt I could repurpose into a 6-cell stick pack with a little soldering and insulation tape - and what do you know, it fitted perfectly in the slot at the back of the seat-box - honestly, just as if it has been made for it originally! photo. being a NiMh pack, I factor there is very little risk charging this in situ (ie. with the body on), and it means that the winch circuit remains separate, hopefully holding sufficient charge long-term for those few occasions I actually need to run the winches. I then fabricated a replacement footwell bulkhead (now that the old full-size NiMh battery had been removed) to close up the gaps, and revise the under-bonnet layout slightly: photo. the tray in the foreground is to relocate the scale ProLine battery against the engine bay bulkhead. photo. yep, that works! I purposely left a gap in the inner fenders in front of the shock towers at the front of the engine - not least as a 1:1 extreme trail rig like this probably would have some cut-aways to improve heat dissipation at crawling speeds, plus it allows a glimpse of the scale engine, which I like. However, having refitted the [lowered] body, an issue immediately came to light... the manifold of the V8 engine cover was now too high to allow the bonnet to close properly - doh! So there was only one thing for it, and that was to create some kind of bulge in the existing hood - carefully, as I really didn't want to have to redo all the elaborate painted and weathered Boba Fett helmet design of course! photo. I carefully cut out the leading and side edges of the raised centre portion of the bonnet with a Dremel, then realised I could have just scored the plastic with a Stanley knife a few times and got a cleaner cut (as I did for the rear of the scoop) - ah well, you live and learn... The centre portion of the bonnet was then raised with a strip of styrene at the front (this being a bulge rather than a vented scoop), and filled with Araldite at the sides, using masking tape to form a mould. photo. some filling and a lot of sanding, and once repainted black I think this is not going to look too out of place? Meanwhile, I thought I'd reassemble the rest of the truck and tested the tyre clearance on the new suspension: photo. 10mm lower overall ride height, while the tyres still clear the arches on full articulation front and rear... I also kind of like the ghetto missing-hood look, similar to Hopper's HiLux of course. photo. the boys have more foot clearance against the new bulkhead too! photo. portal axles with skid-plates and stainless-steel Husky links offer plenty of clearance under the smooth Vanquish belly plates. Overall I'd say this build finally does the performance advantage of using the Vanquish VS4-10 chassis justice - offering impressive off-road performance, to equal the effort I put into the unique scale detailing and overall theme. I hope you like it too! Jenny x Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Badcrumble 4203 Posted March 4, 2021 When I saw that the bonnet and interior needed adjustment my first thought was "Nooooooooooooooooo!" but I can see it was well worth it at the end - especially once I got the pics up on a monitor to see the rig in all its glory. It is nice to see the boys have plenty of head and foot space and the transmission is largely hidden. Will we get a photo of the finished bonnet? This rig was my favourite until the recent photos of OK TC! Now I can't decide! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JennyMo 3526 Posted March 4, 2021 12 hours ago, Badcrumble said: When I saw that the bonnet and interior needed adjustment my first thought was "Nooooooooooooooooo!" but I can see it was well worth it at the end - especially once I got the pics up on a monitor to see the rig in all its glory. It is nice to see the boys have plenty of head and foot space and the transmission is largely hidden. Will we get a photo of the finished bonnet? This rig was my favourite until the recent photos of OK TC! Now I can't decide! Yes - I'd been putting it off for a while, but felt I ought to just jump in and see how it goes, and fortunately it all came together pretty easily... the main issue was the space between the seats for the [slightly more prominent] transmission like you say - but unless you're really looking for it, the black transmission case kind of gets hidden between their arms/the seats anyway. photo. got the hump... maybe I should include one more sci-fi mash-up and cut a slot and put in a Knight Rider light?! There was just one more thing (there always is!) to do before refitting the bonnet and body too - as you might have noticed from the previous photos at the top of the page and then more recently, another casualty of lowering the body was there was now no room for the moulded radiator I'd used to disguise the blank front panel behind the winch... Of course now that the leading edge of the bonnet is just above the winch it is not as noticeable as before, but I wanted to put something in there - so ended up gluing on a couple of thin strips of styrene either side and painting the centre section black, then cut a piece of aluminium mesh as a cover: The only other casualty of the body drop was that the rear bumper no longer fitted over the rear winch, so Dr Dremel was once again employed to undertake some minor day-surgery: photo. I also took the opportunity to replace the previous slightly over-size red hook with a more scale Warn branded version from RC4WD. Previously I considered this build had ultimately evolved into more of a showcase of pop-culture detailing and scale modelling techniques [with half an eye on bagging another trophy at the 2020 RC4WD Scale Challenge event, which was subsequently cancelled of course] - rather than remain a usable day-to-day trail-crawler which was the main reason for choosing the Vanquish VS4-10 chassis platform in the first place... but I'm pleased to say that while these latest refinements were primarily intended to improve the overall stance visually, lowering the centre of gravity plus adding the softer (and longer at the rear) springs and portal axles has significantly improved the crawling performance too... so I'd say that is a result all round! I'm just a little bit afraid to get it dirty, that's all! Jenny x Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
