I got everything painted
I made up my own cheap weathering wash with some water based paint samples from the hardware store. I dont plan to get it wet and then scrub it down so I think the wash should hold up over time.
I also found some oxidizing iron paint to play around with. though with this rig I'll be going for a worn and dirty look but not beat to snot so if I rust anything it will be the mufflers.
I found that this light brown looked the best with the dark green base, kind of a dusty dried mud look.
First I scratched and scuffed up the panels lightly with a brass wire brush. then I applied the wash and let it sit a few minutes before wiping and dabbing it down.
I didnt get any shots of this but to get some greasy oil spots I used a Testors matte black paint pen, dabbing it on and smearing it around immediately.
My scale garage is now too small
There were a few other bits that I squared away when I was wrapping up paint.
I put some styrene brackets/stops in the battery tray to hold my teeny weeny shorty 3S. On one side I was able to bolt them on but the other side has the speaker located right below it so screws cant be used but I was lucky enough that the styrene bonded with the body plastic easily with Acetone.
I also lopped off some of the rear of the chassis, I'll be cutting back the top section eventually too as I've already seen how easy it is to back up into the rear lights and bend them, so I'd like them to be inwards a bit more.
This is the dome light (upside down)
To hide the circuit board I used some heatshrink with a hole cut in it where the LED is
The rear lights (and circuit board) mount inside of the tail light housing and are mounted to a metal bracket. The circuit board when pushed in all the way still isn't as inset as I'd like, its not proud more like flush but I dont like the idea of this contacting the metal plate behind it so I put a small strip of electrical tape on the back side to shield it.
Rear lights assembled
And I took it out back to the rock pile, not my first drive but the first with the body on it.
Front bumper naturally weathered by driving it, lol
It weighs in at 18 1/2-ish pounds, likes long walks on the beach and mud wrestling.
I wasn't able to get the light kit working or the sound kit but this was probably down to me trying to use a bypass adapter when using these kits passed the power though anyway. So I will try it again without the BEC and bypass adapter installed. I actually did get the sound kit sort of working, I could honk, start the car and let it idle but throttling it did nothing it just stayed at idle (the sound).
I took a closer look at the servo leads they provided and they were all mixed up in order, one side had signal on the left and the other put signal on the right which might be ok if you plug the "wrong" end into their controllers because they can be plugged in backwards to compensate. I de-pinned them all and corrected them so they're good to go next time I mess around with it.
I've realized my new 5 channel remote can only control 3 aux channels when I need 4 Doh! my mistake. I'm not sure what I'll do about that yet.
I took some video last night of it running on the rock pile which I should have edited and posted some time tonight.
I'm really pleased with how the body came out and how it drives. I was after a different driving experience and it is different for sure. The front end is super long and has a very wide bumper so you'll find yourself hitting the front bumper on the smallest of obstacles until you get a few tires up angling the rig upward once there it will monster its way up some very steep climbs.
I did roll it once which was pretty nail biting since its sooo heavy, it landed on the corner of the roof and fender and i thought for sure something must have cracked at the very least but all seems well surprisingly. I can say that the mirrors are likely to hold up well since they fold in easily, if you hit something or roll they should just fold right out of the way.
I though other owners might be interested to see the stand I made for this to keep the weight off the suspension and tires. 3" tall, 21" long 8" wide at the cross piece made from 3/4" thick maple cut into 2" wide strips.
Once I have the lighting and sound kit (which I may or may not use) I'll clean up this rats nest.
