Black Three: The Bear Necessity

[tachikoma1373]

This Is Black Three. The latest edition to Black Squadron. if you've seen my other threads you may remember all my RC's have a Star Wars theme. The latest sub-theme being Poe Dameron's Black Squadron and in particular his T-70 X-Wing, "Black One".

Having decided to start the franchise reboot with Black One: Rebirth Of The EXOTrooper I then moved on to Black Two: Rebirth Of TK-422 .

When I saw the GOM ther was no way I wasn't going to build one. Hence, Black Three: The Bear Necessity.

A short time ago in a hobby room not so far away......


I'm not going to bother with a full build thread, just some summary info, some highlight shots etc.

So here's the parts list ...

G-Made GOM Kit
10.5T 3250KV SKYRC Cheetah 60A Brushless Motor ESC for 1/10 Buggy Combo
Axial Universal Rigid Industries Light Bar Set
Power HD LG-20MG servo (Steering)
Power HD LF-20 servo (shift/dig)
ESS One+ 2017 Sound Unit
Radiolink AT9
Radiolink R9D receiver

I was going to use my FS-GTB3 (and hack the firmware) but having given up on my quad and wanting a few extra channels I decide to use my radiolink instead)

I decide to go cheap and cheerful route with the motor/esc combo. I figure the 3250K isn't gonna be too much but it will still have a turn of speed. Lets see shall we

I want to try and make this quite a "scale" build so plan to do a bit of work... It not going to some SBG candidate, I'm not that skilled, but you know, enough
cockpit - some diamond panelling, passenger handles, extinguishers, window nets, maybe even some led behind the dash etc.

Accessories - Ultra 4 style - big high lift, extinguishers, spare, waffle boards, etc.

Lights - I went with the axial kit because of the scale looks - so many other LED based light bars seem too big (is that just me?).

Sound - never been too impressed with the cheap sound units but the ESS One+ 2017 was on offer at Asiatees and cost me under £50 inc. shipping. They are typically about £90-100 here in the UK and having watched few youtube videos of the latest version I thought what the heck this is my Christmas present to my self right.

Anyway here a few shots of progress.


I decide to enclose the front end so rustled this up out of foamcard and some metal mesh.

Obviously need to be able to turn the ting on and off but with an ESC that has a switch buiolt in this was a problem. So I rustled up a little push button that fits against the button on the ESC

I also wanted to try and stop crap getting into the up under the transmission at the rear so used some more foamcard to make a panel for the rear.

Followed the lead of several other GOM builds and decided to fit a plate to protect the shift gears so I rustle this up out of 1.5mm plasticard.

The build was easy enough but definitely not a first timers build. Not as good as an axial in terms of instructions, packaging etc. but not bad. tread on the tyres looks good but is really shallow so we'll see how that works out.

I was going to use an old Traxxas servo for the Dig/Shift but given the challenges people have been facing I decide to go with the 20KG PowerHD. Some basic testing has shown that it does stick a little but I have found the If I stop to engage/shift it works pretty well - I can't imagine this thing is really designed to shift on the fly.

So thats were I am so far. I'll be spending some time on painting the panels and interior this weekend. Colour scheme is the same as the rest of Black Squadron

I'll also be looking at the best way to hide/mount the ESS One. I thinking either some sort of casing that will allow me to mount it in the driver side, making the buggy lok like a single seater, or something at the rear to make it look like a Fuel Cell. Not sure yet.

 

[OzarkCrawler]

As someone playing with "bear" titles, I approve of this. Looking sharp brother.

 

[tachikoma1373]

love "Build-a-Bear". I'll have to run mine in the woods to see if it poops though

 

[Brake Weight]

Like this?

 

[tachikoma1373]

Didn't get time to paint but have done a bit more mocking up and made some parts.


First is a rear cockpit panel/firewall/thingy made from foam card and mesh, to be painted of course.

Second is positioning for the axial radiator. Its a little small but better than that flat panel thing and decals

Here you can see what I mean about the size. it just looks a little bit lost. Poor thing. You can also see the Axial lightbar and the rear "tray" to support the ESS One, which will be disguised as a fuel cell - somehow

I also had to rustle up something to mount the axial rigid industies light bar on the roof.

The lightbar isn't the fit I'd hoped, its a few mm wider than the roof meaning any bracket is even wider. the angled front and the thickness of the bar doesn't help either as if I try to mount the bar level with the roof line - off the front so to speak - the sides and hence mounts, stick out in a really clumsy way (does any of that make sense?) I think I may revisit the lighting. I may even go old school baja like these:

comments welcome

 

[tachikoma1373]

Late night last night. Got some work done. Not a huge amount of progress but all the panels are done, as is the new lightbar mount which I'm much happier with.

 

[tachikoma1373]

Bit of work this afternoon. Plasticard a press stud and two screws a fuel cell lid will make For now at least. Unfortunately out of red paint so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

 

[Ditchrat]

I know this is going to be a good build. Anyone that clearly into Starwars does not have a wife or girlfriend to interfere with their hobbing.:lmao:

 

[soze]

Alright! Great to see another GOM build!

 

[tachikoma1373]

Had some time to tinker on and off past couple of days. I'll let the pictures speak for now.

 

[tachikoma1373]

Whilst I like the Gmade shocks ( I have 'em on Black Two as well) I wanted something a little more scale looking. Whilst browsing last night I noticed Asiatees had a sale on some Team Raffee shocks that look the part.

Didn't have exactly what I was after so bought:

2 x Team Raffee Co. Aluminum Adjustable Piggyback Double Spring Shocks 90MM (2) for Crawlers Black
2 x Team Raffee Co. Aluminum Double Spring Shocks 100mm (2) for Crawlers Black
1 x Team Raffee Co. Aluminum Double Spring Shocks 110mm (2) for Crawlers Black

Which came in under £60 including shipping (which is pretty quick and cheap with asiatees). I looked around (ebay etc.) and whilst I could have found actual 110mm piggybacks the sale prices at asiatees still made it cheaper to buy as above. And postage was the usual "anytime between now and the 2nd coming".


I'll be taking 90mm piggybacks as donors to create

2 x 100mm with piggyback at the front
2 x 100mm and 2 x 110mm piggybacks at the rear.

Although 3mm shorter than stock lengths I'm hoping it will work. We shall see!

 

[OzarkCrawler]

Although 3mm shorter than stock lengths I'm hoping it will work. We shall see!

If they work out, I may have to copy you.

 

[tachikoma1373]

Little bit of work tonight. Pins for switches. I also sanded down all the body panels to cut them ready for undercoat.

 

[jaybob]

Little bit of work tonight. Pins for switches. I also sanded down all the body panels to cut them ready for undercoat.

Love those switches. Looks really good

Sent from my SM-A520W using Tapatalk

 

[tachikoma1373]

The painting begins. And yes its getting painted on the outside. Its just a thing with this Black Squadron theme OK

 

[tachikoma1373]

A little more work this evening whilst the undercoat dries.

 

[tachikoma1373]

Now that is interesting

 

[tachikoma1373]

Sat Nav. Well sometimes.

 

[tachikoma1373]

A little more progress. This is the inside of the body panels. Just drying now, then coat of matt acrylic varnish and I'll mask then off to do the outside of the panels

The shocks came within about 5 days. Asiatees shipments are always good (for me) and no tax bill either.

The verdict? Hmmm.

OK lets do the non piggyback ones first. Engineering is sound with no leaks once the oil was in. They have the look I wanted. But, they look lost as single shocks on the front. However, I think they'd look pretty good as a dual shock setup on the front (I might get a set of wraith dual front shock mounts and try those, or make something), a normal and a piggyback together. But that's where the "fun" starts.

I'll keep it simple, the piggybacks look great but put oil in (even really thin oil) and the hose end will leek and pop off. They are in fact completely useless as a functioning piggyback. But here's the thing. I looked into it and I think with some decent fine bore hose (made from plastic/silicone) should fix things. The problem seems to be the piss poor rubber tube they supply which is (1) a bigger diameter than it should be, and (2) made of such stretchy rubber it has zero holding power when under pressure.


So, I'm not giving up hope yet. I'll probably use then without oil in for the looks on the rear - which I forgot to say looks OK . I'll try and remock them up and take a couple of shots so you can see what I mean.

I'll hopefully get paint done over Easter.

I also started work on a side project.

 

[thewildblue77]

Now that is interesting

This would look great. The only issue I see is that the cage wouldn't survive a pack...they arent the strongest things....my front bumper has broken and my sons cage cracked on its 1st trip out and first roll over...