JJrc MAN Kat 1 Trial truck build

[Jay-Em]

I’d like to introduce my first, modest attempt at scratch-building something.

I got 2 JJrc MAN Kats from Banggood, with plans of upgrading them to a useful standard.
Colour me surprised that below the crapola electronics, there was a decent just-a-tad-more-like-hobbygrade-than-toy-grade car.

A Mini servo, a €5 ESC, a Turnigy 3 channel, a Turnigy light&sound module and a 2-speed 370motor drive later, I got a fairly decent RC.

Then I started thinking: That rear, it’s a tad plain. What can I do with that... I stumbled upon a couple of video’s of Truck Trial in Germany, and a plan took hold.

I started by carefully cutting-off al sideboards from the rear, and while I pondered further mods, I noticed a fresh-in-the-bag-never-used Tamiya Pumpkin rollbar languishing in my ‘box ‘o Parts’ Took it out, test-fitted it on top of the MAN batterybox, and..ló an behold.. it fìt. It only took 2 little square profiles to extend behind the battery box to get the rear bit of the roll bar to be able to be screwed to the bed.
Two holes drillled to fit the metal thread, 2 holes for the backpiece of the bar, and pooff. It already looked a bit like a Trial truck.

Upon studying the vids a bit more, I noticed the builders used large pieces of cloth, or plastic on the sides of the beds to stick huge sponsor decals on.

Òn to my stash of plasticard and round styrene bits, and after half an hour of measuring and some old-fashioned ‘glue a kit with MEK’ I had a reasonable facsimile of those bed-sides. Looked a bit empty, though.. buuut.. I had twó MAN trucks... and one chassis wasn’t going to be used, because its body is going to end-up on a WPL URAL chassis. ( Another build, not yet started beyond painting the MAN cab, and the URAL communication pod bright yellow)

So, I nicked two tires from the meant-for-parts MAN, screwed in four eyelets in the bed of the Trial Truck, 2 green hair bands/elastics. Voilà. Double spare tires in the back.

This is how it stands currently. Not yet painted and stickered, but the idea is there.

View from the side.

Top down, with spare tires and inside of sidepanels, reinforced with styrene rods. Exhaust is just some thick sprue with a hole carefully drilled in the bendy side, painted silver, and screwed to the cab.

Interior with Thunderbirds Kayo 3 3/4 inch figure.

The fact that 3 3/4 inch figures seem to be exactly right, means that the truck is somewhere between 1/18 and 1/20 scale. Not 1/16. Measuring the truck confirmed that.

Cabin from the side, showing how nicely the figure fits.

Well. That’s how she stands now.

For now it runs admirably with some 50000cps diff-oil in the diffs. Drive shafts are already replaced with metal ones. Mebbe order extra set metal gears, spools and stuff used in the URAL. Maybe even put that interesting swing-arm/pendulum rear axle assembly from the URAL in. For a bit of crawling, for now, I probably just stick some play-doh in the diffs.

To do list:

-rollbar for cabin
-scratch-building some fire extinguishers
-more greeblies for the bed, tools, spare parts, whatever.
-repaint
-sourcing stickers (probably going to order the sticker-sheet for Tamiya’s racing MAN. Seems fitting)

 

[Short_Bus_Kustoms]

Agree after replacing the electronics, it’s pretty decent. Are you planning on making the doors open? If so I’d like to see your method as I am currently fighting it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jay-Em]

I probably am going to use the “wire trick” for cutting the doors. Basically You’ll just use standard sewing thread as a ‘saw’ . An old trick from my Airfix kit days. It usually takes a good part of thread, ànd time, but the cut is as small as possible without flash, or rough edges left. This shows how that works:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0XDFoKaRAhc

Though, honestly, I dunno if I actually want to cut the doors out.

 

[Brake Weight]

Ever tried any braided fishing line instead of thread?

 

[Jay-Em]

Nope. Cóuld work. But it has to be a bit coarse to work. Nylon and its derivatives are too slick. I use something they call ‘steel yarn’ overhere ( ‘Staalgaren’ in Dutch) a very strong kind of thread often used to sew buttons to jackets. No idea what it’s called in english. Kevlar thread could work too. Never tried it, though.

Added to that, when nylon gets warm ( through the sawing motion) it starts to glue itself to the cut. Afaik it hàs to be cotton or something like that.

 

[Joshs4x4toyz]

I use the really thin wire from home depot by the picture hanging stuff. Its not as smooth as with fishing line but it shreds through easy and accurate because you dont need much force. Then a quick pass with 500 grit it comes out smooth.

Might be similar to your steel yarn. Works great

 

[Jay-Em]

The difference a bit of paint and some stickers can make..Truth be told : I made a giant, noobish, booboo... I forgot to sand the bed’s side plates before painting.. and now it’s flaking.. I am a certified idiot :facepalm:

Interesting technical detail: Apparently the Turnigy light&sound system combined with the bigger 370 motor in the 2-speed emits quite a bit of interference in the 2.4ghz spectrum. I had to triple-surpress the motor, ànd put one of those thick anti-interference metal rings around the ESC lead to prevent glitching if the truck got anything beyond a couple of meters from the transmitter.

Something learned today..