Fallen's GCM CMax LC70

[Fallen]

Two firsts for me; my 1st 1.55 wheel build and my first hardbody. This will be my most scale, and most challenging build yet. This is as close to scratch building as I've ever gotten, and it's still not scratch building!

I scored this GCM LC70 chassis & body from Mudbeast in a trade for my old LMT.

I'm currently planning for a different bed, different color, different tires... and I think that's it.

This truck will be driven and expected to perform like a full-size LC70 that showroom stock, with nicer tires. In case you didn't notice, scope the machined radius arms at the front suspension. I think the chassis is my most exciting part of this build.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Looking forward to this one. I'm not a Yota boi, but I love that body. GCM seems to make very nice stuff. I'm lazy so I would have bought the Boom Racing LC70 kit, but you will have a better truck in the end.

 

[Fallen]

Yeah, this one is a departure for me, and thanks for the interest. I'm hoping I can do justice to how good this body looks.

For reference, here's a photo of how it looked when I got it:

Electronics not installed yet, body assembled in white, and a few unfinished odds & ends.

 

[JimrC]

Good looking project that, any idea on colour scheme yet?

 

[Fallen]

I'm planning for single color, Tamiya TS-53, deep metallic blue. But let's see what colors my hobby shop has in stock...

I might buy new versions of those orange stickers to go back over the blue.

I've never painted styrene well before. I'm assuming it's just lightly sand, clean & paint. But is primer necessary? The body is in good shape and doesn't need any holes or gaps filled.

 

[HumboldtEF]

I'm not sure how necessary it is but I alway use Tamiya's fine surface primer on raw plastic. If you're putting down new paint on old paint all you should need is to scuff up the body so the new coats have something to grab onto.

I assume those radius arms and axles are from GCM?

Looking forward to what you come up with.

 

[Fallen]

Thanks. The arms are sold by GCM and come with their CMax LC70 kit.

The axles are the NCYota 157mm housings from Bowhouse's Shapeways store. Bowhouse designed them to be used with the LC70 chassis, so GCM recommends them.

Fortunately for me, the chassis came as an unfinished roller that just needed some finishing.

I plan on hitting up the hobby shop today for hardware and paint.

 

[Fallen]

I made a satisfying amount of progress on the LC70 tonight. After two trips to the hobby store, I scored several bits and bobs. Most notably, 3 cans of Tamiya TS-53 and some Tamiya Fine Primer.

My new bed also showed up 1 day early; the CC Hand Kober bed for the LC70 body. It's designed to fit the TF2 chassis and I figured that would give me problems. This bed is nice! It's all steel and wood.

I thought mounting the bed to the chassis would be hard, and mounting the bed to the cab would be easy. The inverse has proven true.

The front mounting tabs which secure the bed to the chassis align perfectly with the front leaf hangers for the rear suspension. I had to open the bolt holes up from 2MM to 4MM.

That left me with only needing to figure out the rear mounting. Fortunately, Mudbeast included an aluminum brace he made to mount the stock bed. I just needed to add new holes to that brace, new holes in the bed matching those and voila! She's on! A couple of spacers under the rear of the bed get my bed nice and level.

Now I have to figure out how to mount the cab to the bed. I figured that would be easy, but that's going to be difficult. What I may do is just mount the cab to the chassis instead. I know these GCM chassis are designed to run SCX10 sliders. I may try to get creative and mount the body to some of those.

Paint and finishing is a ways off. I have a decent amount of structural work here first.

And boy is this type of building neat! I'm still far off from scratch building but this is way more fun than opening a box and installing a battery.

 

[Fallen]

Looking forward to this one. I'm not a Yota boi, but I love that body. GCM seems to make very nice stuff. I'm lazy so I would have bought the Boom Racing LC70 kit, but you will have a better truck in the end.

While the GCM is more realistic, that realism definitely comes at the cost of performance.

The Boom Racing truck is probably more fun to actually drive. Maybe suspension tuning on the GCM will lead me to feel otherwise though.

Now with that super heavy bed I'll need to add helper springs to the rear. And even 5WT oil in the dampers is way too heavy.

 

[ferp420]

performance dosent always equal fun

 

[Fallen]

performance dosent always equal fun

I'm betting on that with this build! Plus, that Boom Racing kit is pretty expensive.

 

[cooper_xl]

Just the radius arms give an unmatched look. I did them for my LC70. Flex better than I've expected. Downside is that they only accept just one shock length

 

[Fallen]

I noticed, your LC70 is quite the build. You did everything from scratch, whereas I'm relying on GCM and Killerbody.

And I don't mind the limits on performance that the realistic suspension comes with.

If the LC70 gets stuck, my SCX10.3 Bronco has a winch...

Also, I'm glad I score that CC Hand Kober bed. It appears to be discontinued and I might have scored the last one commercially available.

 

[cooper_xl]

I didn't made the body..and there's nothing wrong in relying on GCM. They make nice stuff. Don't know about the Cmax but tried a Skeleton once and was a real performer. But they are a bit expensive to get on my country.
By the way, when I said mine "flex better than I've expected" , I didn't say it flexes much . But it is enough for the build

Following this build . Love that rear bed