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toyolien

GF-01CB Avante. Let the Stoppies begin!

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Before I get on to the pics, I'll give some background as to how this build came about. I'm a big fan of the Comical/Wheelie Tamiya kits. I had a Midnight Pumpkin as a kid, and absolutely loved it. I have some great memories of using it along with my friends Lunchbox most weekends. For me, Tamiya kits are all about FUN!

It seems that not everyone 'gets' the Comical range, or assume that they are aimed solely at kids getting their first kit, but while that is true, to me they are exactly what I love about Tamiya. A proper kit to build, a driver figure to paint, some hop ups available if desired, and a whole lot of (wheelie) fun.

I recently built a Comical Grasshopper that became my Wild Willy 2 (I have another Grasshopper to build at some point), and it's had a lot of use. My two daughters both have a Comical Grasshopper and it's great for us to use them together.

 

Now, I had an idea of building a 4wd Wild Willy. It seemed to me, a natural progression for Willy to make towards a modern 4wd Wheelie Jeep using a mild brushless motor and a 2s lipo. That was (and still might be), the plan. However, having started the build I'm really starting to like the look of the Avante body. Therefore, I'll plough on with the build and see where it ends up. It'll be a surprise I guess.

 

What's the Tamiyaclub consensus? Avante vs Willy...

 

On to the pics. Here's the starting point. A great looking box art.

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On a side note, I bought this one way diff hoping that it would fit the GF-01 diffs. And it does. I'm not going to install it yet, as I'm quite intrigued by the stoppies. But, if I get bored with them, then I'll pop this in. I thought others might like to know that this fits.

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All the parts bags organised to start with.

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I decided to use some thinner grease in the front diff, and some Tamiya AW grease in the rear. I also marked them so I'd know which was which.

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I treated myself to these on my last Plaza Japan order. They are superb. So sharp.

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Motor of choice: Hobbywing Justock 13.5t.

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On to the arms. I used some longer 5mm balls for these.

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I used these toe-in rear hubs on my Wild Willy. They are a nice tight fit.

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That's the main 'guts' done. More coming soon....

 

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Looking good, toyolien!  I did not know there was a one way available for these chassis.  Interesting.

Nice set of hop ups already. 

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Theres a lot more going on inside one of these than i anticipated!

In your other thread you mentioned about the tyres - do they fit on any other wheel types?

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22 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Looking good, toyolien!  I did not know there was a one way available for these chassis.  Interesting.

Nice set of hop ups already. 

Thanks. Nor me. I spotted this and it seemed like it would fit the GF01 diff case, and it does!

13 hours ago, Superluminal said:

Theres a lot more going on inside one of these than i anticipated!

In your other thread you mentioned about the tyres - do they fit on any other wheel types?

It's a great chassis. As far as I know the comical tyres only fit the comical wheels. I've not tried them on anything else yet.

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A little more done this evening. I made some upper links. I opted to use some turnbuckles rather than the fixed links that come in the kit. I like to run 1 or 2 degrees of camber.

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I also replaced the stock plastic steering link for the hop up alloy part.

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And lastly, some lovely #54670 dampers. This is one of the parts of a build that I look forward to the most. Building dampers. And, Tamiya certainly make some of the finest. The kit CVA's will be going on a future build.

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Yellow 400 in the front, and blue 600 in the rear. Not 100% settle on springs yet. I'll sort those out once it's complete.

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That'll do for tonight.

 

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Looking great as always in the garage mate👍🏻 

I must admit that I’m kinda in the not so fussed about the comical’s bracket, but the Hot Shot is pulling me in.
Having done some time consuming projects such as my Scorcher and a 1/14 Truck (still going) I find myself watching Lunchbox video’s for a bit of fresh air, chuckling to myself and see them for what they are, just to have a bit of fun and enjoy 👍🏻

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toyolien- Looks good!  Are those pink o-rings on the drive axles for appearance or.. toe identification.(?) 

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Great build thread. I agree those side cutters are nice to use, Tamiya kit is good stuff! I think you should put the Comical Avante body on this one & get a heavy metal dump truck (with the chrome chassis) for your GF-01 Wild Willy build :D

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It looks fantastic thus far! I recently finished mine after a long layoff, and am already disappointed in its appearance next to yours :P They are fabulous runners, too - enjoy the build!

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On 4/17/2021 at 11:31 PM, Re-Bugged said:

Looking great as always in the garage mate👍🏻 

I must admit that I’m kinda in the not so fussed about the comical’s bracket, but the Hot Shot is pulling me in.
Having done some time consuming projects such as my Scorcher and a 1/14 Truck (still going) I find myself watching Lunchbox video’s for a bit of fresh air, chuckling to myself and see them for what they are, just to have a bit of fun and enjoy 👍🏻

Thank you. I know what you mean about the comicals. I wasn't sold at all when they first came out. But, they've grown on me over time. My Lunchbox was the kit that got me back in to Tamiya again about ten years ago. Love it!

On 4/17/2021 at 11:54 PM, Willy iine said:

toyolien- Looks good!  Are those pink o-rings on the drive axles for appearance or.. toe identification.(?) 

Aah, nothing that elaborate. When I used to race 2wd off road in the mid 90's we used to do add bright 'o' ring to find them easily if they popped out in the long grass. So, it's just a habit really!

On 4/18/2021 at 1:44 AM, J@mes said:

Great build thread. I agree those side cutters are nice to use, Tamiya kit is good stuff! I think you should put the Comical Avante body on this one & get a heavy metal dump truck (with the chrome chassis) for your GF-01 Wild Willy build :D

Thanks. The Avante body has grown on my. My spare Wild Willy body will be going on a Brushless WR-02 chassis in the near future.

On 4/24/2021 at 2:54 PM, Grastens said:

It looks fantastic thus far! I recently finished mine after a long layoff, and am already disappointed in its appearance next to yours :P They are fabulous runners, too - enjoy the build!

Thank you. Your build thread is what made me look again at the Comical Avante.

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I'm really enjoying this build and have managed to tick off a few more jobs the last few days.Even though some say it makes little difference shimming the play out of a kit like this, it's still something I like to do. I feel it makes a difference to how the car feels and drives, plus I enjoy doing it. The Tamiya shim packs are great for this job.

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I've been using Core servos on the last few kits I've built and have been impressed with the quality for the price. This is the low profile 9009LP.

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I had intended to use a 10.5t motor but have put in this 13.5t Justock to try. I suspect this will provide enough power for a few cheeky wheelies...

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Next job, the driver figure. I've never been that keen on the driver that comes with the newer Comicals. So, I'm going to try and fit in Willy.

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I've only built up a handful of Willy figures, but one of the things I noticed was how little material there is around the helmet for the glue. So, I opted to reinforce the joint with some styrene. I used some 0.5mm from my scrap spares box. That allowed it to bend nicely around the join. Overkill? Probably, but that's how I like it.

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A hole in the bottom piece to clear the screw that holds his head on. I made the mistake of forgetting this hole on the first one I did like this.

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Tamiya cement fills up the final joint. I then used some round styrene bar to fill up the hole in the back, followed by some sanding, filler, sanding, filler and primer.

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Same thing for the hole in his arm. More on that in the next few days....

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toyolien - Nice job.  And smart idea to use the bright o-ring on the axles!

That's the driver figure my wife called "Billy" so I've named mine Billy.  The ones with the screw at the back of the head are Billy's.  The ones without are Willy's..  sort of.

 

Funny my Billy drives the Flamingo which is like 10x faster than my M38 Willy's and still he gets called 'biri' or caboose..  

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22 hours ago, Willy iine said:

toyolien - Nice job.  And smart idea to use the bright o-ring on the axles!

That's the driver figure my wife called "Billy" so I've named mine Billy.  The ones with the screw at the back of the head are Billy's.  The ones without are Willy's..  sort of.

 

Funny my Billy drives the Flamingo which is like 10x faster than my M38 Willy's and still he gets called 'biri' or caboose..  

Makes sense about the names. I'd forgot that the Willy driver doesn't have a screw hole in his head. 

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Willy's head has been sanded, primered and masked up ready to paint. I agree with those who say that all vehicles should have a driver figure. However, painting them is my least favourite part of the build. I just don't have the patience or skills to get a finish I'm pleased with. I am working on it though.

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At this stage I thought I'd taken some pics of the final look, but alas, I didn't.

 

I wanted the body to sit as low as possible, so trimmed about 10mm off the sides so that the front sat as low on the body posts as it could. I'd planned to mount the servo on top of the receiver but it now interfered with the body. So, I made a quick mount out of some styrene to place it further back under a higher part of the body.

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Willy installed, and the body is now ready for paint. Just need to decide on the final colour.

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Looks vey clean, toyolien.  I should get myself a crimper for the servo wires too and just cut the wires to match the lengths.

So are you going to do the Jeep body on this at all or going to keep the Avante body?  I thought these kits came with a pre-painted blue body.  Huh..

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47 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

I thought these kits came with a pre-painted blue body.  Huh..

They do; however, Tamiya subsequently released spare un-cut and un-painted body sets, for those preferring another look.

Speaking of which: how about a nice dark green, @toyolien:D Excellent work on the helmet, by the way!

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The wiring looks good & the heat bend on the aerial is crafty. I’m sure it my imagination but I think dirty Richards eyes follow me round the garage :ph34r:

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On 5/7/2021 at 8:08 PM, Willy iine said:

Looks vey clean, toyolien.  I should get myself a crimper for the servo wires too and just cut the wires to match the lengths.

So are you going to do the Jeep body on this at all or going to keep the Avante body?  I thought these kits came with a pre-painted blue body.  Huh..

Wasn't too happy with how high the Willy body sat, so this is staying as an Avante.

On 5/7/2021 at 8:57 PM, Grastens said:

Speaking of which: how about a nice dark green, @toyolien:D Excellent work on the helmet, by the way!

Thanks very much. Colour has been chosen. Coming soon...

On 5/8/2021 at 8:11 PM, J@mes said:

The wiring looks good & the heat bend on the aerial is crafty. I’m sure it my imagination but I think dirty Richards eyes follow me round the garage :ph34r:

Thank you. He is rather creepy. Perhaps I should do a new one using Wild Willy's head?

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Small update:

 

Over the last few evenings, I managed to get the body finished. I've still got a few small jobs like cutting the posts down, installing the front bumper and fixing in Willy. He's the progress pics so far.

 

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@toyolien I like the blue/silver contrast.  Did you paint the wheels black?  I'm looking at mine (still shrink wrapped) sitting 40cm above my head and noticed it has yellow barrel wheels.  

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Thanks. I bought them. Grey wheels and grey spokes. Never liked the box art colors to be honest. 

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Not a comical fan myself, but that was a great build!  Loved seeing all the blue hopups!  Sweet ride!

Terry

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@toyolien I remembered this thread while I was prepping my recent Billy’s.  I too had a hard time getting rid of the parting line between the front and rear halves of the helmet.  I don’t know what Tamiya did, but it appears there is a variance in the injection and or injection material on certain lots.

It was odd because usually I do not need to use anything but Tamiya cement to glue the two halves together, and later sand off the excess for a super smooth finish.  

When I did that on my recent 3, I ended up with obvious gaps.. requiring me to use putty.  You can see how big the indents were on the outer two.

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It turned out fine, but took a bit more effort .

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5 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

@toyolien I remembered this thread while I was prepping my recent Billy’s.  I too had a hard time getting rid of the parting line between the front and rear halves of the helmet.  I don’t know what Tamiya did, but it appears there is a variance in the injection and or injection material on certain lots.

It was odd because usually I do not need to use anything but Tamiya cement to glue the two halves together, and later sand off the excess for a super smooth finish.  

When I did that on my recent 3, I ended up with obvious gaps.. requiring me to use putty.  You can see how big the indents were on the outer two.

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It turned out fine, but took a bit more effort .

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Out of the last three I've painted two have needed filling but the third was fine. They were all done at the same time, the same way.

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