Comical Wild Willy 2 for LOTs of FUN!

[toyolien 4679]

The correct thing to do when you have a couple of unfinished projects on the go is to start another one, right? So here goes.

When Jadlam had the Comical buggies on offer for 85 quid I bought two. One I built up as my Comical Grasshopper, which I love driving, and the other one remained in the box. For a while I'd had the idea to use it as a base for a Wild Willy build and have been buying bits and hop ups here and there over the last 6 months.

First up was to take apart for the pre-assembled transmission to remove the plastic bearings, replace them with metal ones and add some AW grease to the diff.

 

I was saving this 24t UGT motor for a Lunch Box build, but decided to use it in this.

 

I love some of the hop ups Tamiya have for the WR-02. This is the motor guard/heatsink. It looks great.

 

I also like the look of the plated chassis parts, which include this plated wheelie bar.

 

GPM alloy rear hubs. The bearings weren't a very tight fit, but hopefully they'll be ok.

 

I've bought a few Core servos recently and have been impressed with them. The prices are good too.

 

Servo and motor in, and chassis assembled. I will be shortening the servo wire as I really do like the wiring to be neat.

 

I want to sit the body a little lower on the chassis, and will probably chop off the 'L' shaped plastic underneath the body so it can. Therefore, I decided to put the ESC and receiver at the front of the chassis on top of the servo. There's plenty of room for them under the front of the body. Here, they won't prevent the body from being lowered like they would at the rear.

I made a simple mount to fit on top of the servo using some 2mm black styrene glued together using MEKK.

 

Next problem to solve. The ESC wires are too short. I'm using a brushed motor and Hobbywing 1060. I thought it would be a simple job of removing the case and soldering some new ones on. But it's not. As it's waterproof, the inside is full of the waterproof sealant stuff. So, I had to succumb to joining the wires instead.

I started by stripping back the outer housing the same amount on each piece.

 

Push and twist the wire together making sure that it retains the same diameter as the original inner wire. A big, bulgy lump of solder in the middle is not a look I like.

 

Then I cut a small piece of heat shrink just long enough to cover the inner wire.

 

Then, a piece of heat shrink to cover the whole joint.

And that's done. I would have preferred to add new wires, but I'm quite happy with this.

 

Some more blue goodness. Tamiya's hubs with 8 degrees of caster.

 

Last piece for now, the beautiful plated chassis sides.

 

Thanks for taking a look. More coming soon.

[Grumpy pants 4484]

Looks great already!

Will be watching this thread with interest, my favourite chassis type and I am a massive fan of the Wild Willy 👍

[Re-Bugged 10135]

Very smart and clean build as always 👍🏻
 

[toyolien 4679]

On 6/29/2020 at 7:56 AM, Grumpy pants said:

Looks great already!

Will be watching this thread with interest, my favourite chassis type and I am a massive fan of the Wild Willy 👍

Thanks very much. Slight change of plan now.... And i think this is my favourite chassis type too. Very versatile, and a lot of fun!

On 6/29/2020 at 11:38 AM, Re-Bugged said:

Very smart and clean build as always 👍🏻
 

Thank you. My builds always seem to take a really long time though. 

[toyolien 4679]

I've had a slight change of plan (not unusual for me) with this build. My wife has commandeered my Comical Grasshopper for herself. She's got a Comical Hornet body that she wants to paint up as a 'Splatoon' themed Comical Buggy.

So, I've decided to turn this Willy in to a replacement Comical Grasshopper. I absolutely love the Comical buggies so it was an easy decision. I would love to see Tamiya release a Comical Sand Scorcher with some padla trak bubble tires!

 

Anyway, the first slight change was to remove the front knuckles that used bearings, to the Comical kits version that use hexes. I've never really like the use of a 4wd outdrive at the front, so I cut it down and etch primed the end.

 

I know it doesn't make much difference, but to me it's much better looking.

 

I'm going to try the Avante rear tires on this one, as I have some from the GF01 kit I bought. I'm also a fan of foam inserts. The bigger the tires, the more they are needed, I think. Although this is a 'fun' kit, I still think these will help. These are some I kept from some RC4WD tires that I replaced the foams on. They are the perfect size. The fronts also have some old RC4WD foams in.

 

I switched the UGT 24t for a 13.5t Hobbywing sensored brushless motor and 10BL60 esc. I forgot to take some pics of this until it was installed. The last part was to find a way to keep the receiver antenna underneath the body in a neat way. After some thought, I drilled a hole in some 3/4” wooden dowel and heated up a plastic antenna tube to wrap around it using my bench fan heater.

 

And here's the first practice result.

 

And here's the third attempt. In pink to match all the 'o' rings I've used.

 

And, here's the second attempt, where I was too engrossed listening to the radio in my garage, and forgot about the heater.

 

And here's the final result. Although there's a small amount of space for all the electrics, I'm happy with how it looks.

 

I'm just waiting for the front wheel hexes to arrives before I can fit the wheels and tires.

[ACCEL 2014]

just how fast are these lil' critters. (not that i expect them to be sonic or anything) like a fast walking or jogging running speed?

i've been puttn' them off, since they're kinda make fun of their bigger versions

i do dig the mini crawlers though.

[toyolien 4679]

11 hours ago, ACCEL said:

just how fast are these lil' critters. (not that i expect them to be sonic or anything) like a fast walking or jogging running speed?

i've been puttn' them off, since they're kinda make fun of their bigger versions

i do dig the mini crawlers though.

Fast enough is what I'd say. But what they lack in speed, they more than make up for in fun. That's what I like about them. They are pretty low geared for wheelies, but this 13.5t motor definitely wakes it up, even using nimhs. But, it's not going to win any races at your local track (unless it's a comical race!) The original Grasshopper is definitely more 'scale' looking but is still slow and has terrible handling. This is the complete opposite. It handles much better (especially with a couple of degrees of negative camber) but is just great fun... to me anyway.

[toyolien 4679]

The hexes arrived this morning. Wheels and tires are on, and the chassis is all finished. I plopped on the Grasshopper body I painted a while ago to see how it looks. I also trimmed down the front bumper so I could use it without the springs. Looks much better, I think.

 

 

Still need to paint the driver figure, trim the body posts down and maybe add LED's.

[Grumpy pants 4484]

This looks superb as I have come to expect from your builds, the attention to detail and neatness is enviable.

I have a CGH NIB to build which I am looking forward to building at some stage.

[KalEl63 695]

Nice build... I love theses things and more fun than anything

[toyolien 4679]

On 7/7/2020 at 1:03 PM, Grumpy pants said:

This looks superb as I have come to expect from your builds, the attention to detail and neatness is enviable.

I have a CGH NIB to build which I am looking forward to building at some stage.

Thank you very much. I think the WR-02 is probably my favourite Tamiya chassis.

On 7/12/2020 at 7:21 AM, KalEl63 said:

Nice build... I love theses things and more fun than anything

Indeed they are fun. Thanks.

[toyolien 4679]

As is usual with me, my plans on this build have changed, once again. Grasshopper bits off, Willy bits on. Although this will be a weekly runner (when I take my daughters to the local park with their Comicals), I still want to try and do a half decent job with the body. One thing I always grapple with is the tendency to want to rush painting bodies. My brain always says “you can get this done in a day”.

I've not taken as many pics as I usually do, so apologies for that.

 

Anyway, while I was thinking about what colour to paint the body, I made a start on Willy. Using some very thin styrene sheet, I reinforced the joint on Willy's head. Not really sure why, just thought it would be a good idea.

 

While I had the styrene sheet out I made a template to reuse in the future for blanking off the back of the fuel can. Something I've been meaning to do for a while, as I'm sure I'll be building more Willy bodies at some point.

 

The colour I went with was TS-1 Red-Brown. I'm pleased with the final look.

 

And TS-66 IJN Grey for the seat and fuel cell.

 

Halfords semi gloss black for the inner fenders.

 

More coming soon...

[toyolien 4679]

This Willy is finally done. It's taken many more hours that I originally anticipated though.

As I've done before I drilled a 3mm hole through both arms and strengthened them with some 3mm styrene bar.

 

Then, mixed up some paint to try to get a 'denim' look for the trousers.

 

And, the main body is finished. I don't have a lot of patience when it comes to painting, but I'm pretty happy with the finish.

 

On to the head.

 

I wasn't sure on which colour to go with for the helmet. Green, Red or Blue. Red won.

 

And here is the final look. I'm so happy with the colour combo. Hoping to take it for a spin tomorrow.

 

Thanks for looking at my Willy!

[Badcrumble 4201]

You say you don’t have a lot of patience?!! I like the helmet / tank / wheels with the red-brown body. Lovely job.

[Carmine A 2046]

You certainly change your mind more than I do... But the results are NICE!!! 👍👍

GOT to get me a Comical one of these days... MIGHT even get my Wife a little more interested!  I really like that Soldering Jig too. Never seen one like that before.

[J@mes 2326]

I really like the builds but I love checking out the garage! 

[Grumpy pants 4484]

Great colour combo, spec and build thread.

But now it is time to bust out the Konghead!

I think it was going to get moved along? But now you are keeping it, I am looking forward to see the finished article but also to find out what you make of it as a runner.

[toyolien 4679]

22 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

You say you don’t have a lot of patience?!! I like the helmet / tank / wheels with the red-brown body. Lovely job.

My patience starts to run out towards the end of the painting and I usually end up rushing it to get it finished. However, I tried really hard not to do that on this one.

13 hours ago, Carmine A said:

You certainly change your mind more than I do... But the results are NICE!!! 👍👍

GOT to get me a Comical one of these days... MIGHT even get my Wife a little more interested!  I really like that Soldering Jig too. Never seen one like that before.

I certainly do. I blame the internet! I always see someone elses build and think "That's what I'm going to do". I should follow my own desires more I think. But, It's all goo in the end I guess. Soldering jig was from Hobbyking I think. Had it several years, but I think they still do it.

12 hours ago, J@mes said:

I really like the builds but I love checking out the garage! 

Thank you. I've been meaning to do some weathering on the Garage for some years. I'll get round to it one day.

10 hours ago, Grumpy pants said:

Great colour combo, spec and build thread.

But now it is time to bust out the Konghead!

I think it was going to get moved along? But now you are keeping it, I am looking forward to see the finished article but also to find out what you make of it as a runner.

Thank you. Yes, you're right. It's Konghead time. In actual fact, I did end up selling the Konghead as a stock kit and kept all the blue bling. But instantly regretted it and bought another kit when they were the weekly off on Tamico. I just need to paint the body, and It'll be ready to go. Hopefully try to get it at least started in the next couple of days.

[toyolien 4679]

I've taken this little Willy out a few times now. I absolutely love it. The GT Tuned motor is the perfect amount of speed to get wheelies on demand with it constantly flipping on to it's back. Such a great little truck.

Here are a few pics from last weekend. 

 

My dad passed away last March, and this Bullhead was his pride and joy. So, my Wife took it out for a spin in his honour.

Thanks for looking.

[ruebiracer 1046]

Great result! And a very special and good runner Willy! 

And one day, when I have time enough, I have to built a scale garage for my Herbie. Following your other thread with interest, how to build such a nice garage.

 

Kind regards,

Matthias

[toyolien 4679]

On 10/9/2020 at 4:09 PM, ruebiracer said:

Great result! And a very special and good runner Willy! 

And one day, when I have time enough, I have to built a scale garage for my Herbie. Following your other thread with interest, how to build such a nice garage.

 

Kind regards,

Matthias

@ruebiracer Thanks very much. Sorry for the delay in replying, I missed your comment.

I look forward to seeing your scale garage build :o)

[ruebiracer 1046]

20 hours ago, toyolien said:

@ruebiracer Thanks very much. Sorry for the delay in replying, I missed your comment.

I look forward to seeing your scale garage build :o)

No problem,

it will be some time, until my scale garage will be built. First I need to build me a garage and a new man cave...