morphias
Newbie
Heyas,
This is my first nbuild of a model. I had RC boats when I was a kid, but they were all pre-build.
Doing this build has taught me HEAPS and I have done a lot of reading on this forum and others on how to go about many of the things involved in the build. Thanks to everyone (too many to mention) who's advice, tips and ideas I have used and borrowed.
There are things I would do differently next time and others that I would take more care on. One thing I learned was that doing parts of the build with no sleep only results in an average result rather than a great result.
I was just too excited and ambitious to get it done quickly and this shows in the final product.
While there are still bits and pieces I want to do when funds permit - that is, when the credit card recovers and the 'minister for finance' lets me - I am still pretty stoked with my first attempt and she is a good '10 footer'. 8)
I am a Land Rover man...always have been, always will be. I grew up with them, learned to drive in them and have been around a lot of Australia in them.
I went with the Axial SCX10 Honcho RTR kit because I couldn't be arsed waiting for the other bits to arrive and too impatient to build all the diffs, etc, myself.
I did a straight body swap for a Dingo chassis and bumpers with the hobby shop.
In hindsight, if I did/do it again, I would go with the Dingo kit and build it myself. The time I spent doing assembly would have been long enough for the motor, receiver, ESC, etc, to arrive.
I was given a $500 budget by the 'minister for finance', but intended to make as mauch of the bits myself to keep costs down. That said, I quickly blew the budget out of the water with tools, paint, electronics, stainless rod and tube, batteries, charger, rims, etc.
I have plenty of materials left over for future projects and more mods to this rig. The tools you have for life.
So, without further ado, let the barrage of photos begin!
First things first - pull it to pieces and start making links to shorten the wheelbase for the Dingo shell and to get rid of the pathetic nylon links and convert it to from a 3-link front to 4-link.
What did I learn here? LOTS!
I need to re-do the uppers because I failed to pay attention to the diff pinion angle. For those that don't know, this ideally should only be a 0-7 degree angle.
Here is a link to the Dingo Link thread with the lengths I settled on.
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/axial-scx-10/375767-dingo-link-lengths.html#post3799984
I also put 6mm bolts in the drive shafts to stop wall collapse and twist. Got this tip from Squirrel's YouTube series - he does this to Wraiths with high-turn brushless setups and doesn't strip the splines, so it will be plenty strong for my purposes.
Changed the rims to beadlocks. Unpicking tyres off glued rims SUCKS! :evil:
Now she flexes like she should!
Masked up the body for painting.
Just going a simple two tone black and white job given it's my first foray into painting and I love the classic white Land Rover look.
Because I wanted the sills to be white, it was a complete bastard of a job to tape them up. I used yellow Tamiya tape for the edges and then just normal trade tape for the bulk masking.
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Spewing! Some black overspray that I thought was on the outside, was not!
Lesson learned...mask off and mask off again!
Making sure everything lines up...
Couldn't help myself - the decals were screaming to go on. :ror:
Light switch and ESC on/off switch as gear shifts as per Mirage's idea...
Some shots of making up my LED's.
Because it is based off the Honcho RTR, you only get two front and two rear LED's.
I used the the supplied setup for fog lights at the front and brake lights at the rear.
I then made up my own loom using 5mm Cree 45000MCD LED's (as used in LED Lenser torches) for the headlights and the spotties and some medium output 3mm clear lens red LED's for the tail lights.
Needless to say, she cranks out the light!. :twisted: The pics don't do them justice.
I can go 20% lower resistant resistors for the headlights and spotties for more light if I want, but I wanted to start out conservatively.
I also changed my battery connectors to XT60 plugs. Some people don't like them. I think they are great.
My soldering isn't that pretty - it's been 10 years since I did any on a small scale, but it works. There is a MASSIVE amount of soldering and heat shrinking in this rig - you may not be able to see it, but trust me, my eyes, hands, wrists, back and neck know it is in there!
The finished product...
May not look it, but there is ~50 hours tied up in it. If I wasn't rusty on my soldering skills, didn't do as many lights, had more experience in masking, didn't have to unpick glued on tyres, has correct measurements for the cuts for the links, etc, a chunk of time would have been saved.
That said, it was well worth the learning experience. If I get to do another build, I will be all the wiser. I would like to do a Mercedes Unimog on an SCX10 chassis. I love the Unimog 404 and almost bought one a few months ago. The missus wouldn't let me in the end, so this is the closest she would let me get...women...
I got some cotter pins today to try my hand at making scale D shackles.
I plan to get some more light buckets and replace the stock headlight inserts.
This is the grill kit I am planning to get:
Axial Dingo - LR defender 90 conversion - Scale 4x4 R/C Forums
You get them from here:
rc-cawler.it
Peppe is the guy's name. He does some amazing stuff. Got a lexan D90 and D2 body I like the look of as well...
I like the more detailed grill of his resin casts vs Reign's one.
Added some D shackle goodness.
Thanks steele42 for the idea and credit to Bubba for using smaller pins rather than a bolt and screw - I agree, looks more scale. "thumbsup"
Using 3.6mm and 1.6mm cotter pins (split pins to us Aussies). First attempt was a failure - trying to work out how to drill the hole without going out the side wall. I clamp the pin to a saw horse with a quick-clamp and then use a fine punch to make a small indent - just enough to get purchase on with a 1.5mm drill bit. I then carefully drill the whole way through and then wiggle the drill around a little to get the hole out to a bit over 1.6mm.
I then carefully spread the pin using two pairs of needle-nose pliers and cut it to length with some heavy side-cutters.
Takes me about 5mins to make one now. "thumbsup"
My brother also had a spare set of steering links, so I don't have to make my own for now. The plastic steering link is like a piece of licorice! :???:
Anyway...thanks for taking the time to read through my build...more updates as the happen...
Ben. :mrgreen:
This is my first nbuild of a model. I had RC boats when I was a kid, but they were all pre-build.
Doing this build has taught me HEAPS and I have done a lot of reading on this forum and others on how to go about many of the things involved in the build. Thanks to everyone (too many to mention) who's advice, tips and ideas I have used and borrowed.
There are things I would do differently next time and others that I would take more care on. One thing I learned was that doing parts of the build with no sleep only results in an average result rather than a great result.
I was just too excited and ambitious to get it done quickly and this shows in the final product.
While there are still bits and pieces I want to do when funds permit - that is, when the credit card recovers and the 'minister for finance' lets me - I am still pretty stoked with my first attempt and she is a good '10 footer'. 8)
I am a Land Rover man...always have been, always will be. I grew up with them, learned to drive in them and have been around a lot of Australia in them.
I went with the Axial SCX10 Honcho RTR kit because I couldn't be arsed waiting for the other bits to arrive and too impatient to build all the diffs, etc, myself.
I did a straight body swap for a Dingo chassis and bumpers with the hobby shop.
In hindsight, if I did/do it again, I would go with the Dingo kit and build it myself. The time I spent doing assembly would have been long enough for the motor, receiver, ESC, etc, to arrive.
I was given a $500 budget by the 'minister for finance', but intended to make as mauch of the bits myself to keep costs down. That said, I quickly blew the budget out of the water with tools, paint, electronics, stainless rod and tube, batteries, charger, rims, etc.
I have plenty of materials left over for future projects and more mods to this rig. The tools you have for life.
So, without further ado, let the barrage of photos begin!
First things first - pull it to pieces and start making links to shorten the wheelbase for the Dingo shell and to get rid of the pathetic nylon links and convert it to from a 3-link front to 4-link.
What did I learn here? LOTS!
I need to re-do the uppers because I failed to pay attention to the diff pinion angle. For those that don't know, this ideally should only be a 0-7 degree angle.
Here is a link to the Dingo Link thread with the lengths I settled on.
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/axial-scx-10/375767-dingo-link-lengths.html#post3799984
I also put 6mm bolts in the drive shafts to stop wall collapse and twist. Got this tip from Squirrel's YouTube series - he does this to Wraiths with high-turn brushless setups and doesn't strip the splines, so it will be plenty strong for my purposes.
Changed the rims to beadlocks. Unpicking tyres off glued rims SUCKS! :evil:
Now she flexes like she should!
Masked up the body for painting.
Just going a simple two tone black and white job given it's my first foray into painting and I love the classic white Land Rover look.
Because I wanted the sills to be white, it was a complete bastard of a job to tape them up. I used yellow Tamiya tape for the edges and then just normal trade tape for the bulk masking.
Spewing! Some black overspray that I thought was on the outside, was not!
Lesson learned...mask off and mask off again!
Making sure everything lines up...
Couldn't help myself - the decals were screaming to go on. :ror:
Light switch and ESC on/off switch as gear shifts as per Mirage's idea...
Some shots of making up my LED's.
Because it is based off the Honcho RTR, you only get two front and two rear LED's.
I used the the supplied setup for fog lights at the front and brake lights at the rear.
I then made up my own loom using 5mm Cree 45000MCD LED's (as used in LED Lenser torches) for the headlights and the spotties and some medium output 3mm clear lens red LED's for the tail lights.
Needless to say, she cranks out the light!. :twisted: The pics don't do them justice.
I can go 20% lower resistant resistors for the headlights and spotties for more light if I want, but I wanted to start out conservatively.
I also changed my battery connectors to XT60 plugs. Some people don't like them. I think they are great.
My soldering isn't that pretty - it's been 10 years since I did any on a small scale, but it works. There is a MASSIVE amount of soldering and heat shrinking in this rig - you may not be able to see it, but trust me, my eyes, hands, wrists, back and neck know it is in there!
The finished product...
May not look it, but there is ~50 hours tied up in it. If I wasn't rusty on my soldering skills, didn't do as many lights, had more experience in masking, didn't have to unpick glued on tyres, has correct measurements for the cuts for the links, etc, a chunk of time would have been saved.
That said, it was well worth the learning experience. If I get to do another build, I will be all the wiser. I would like to do a Mercedes Unimog on an SCX10 chassis. I love the Unimog 404 and almost bought one a few months ago. The missus wouldn't let me in the end, so this is the closest she would let me get...women...
I got some cotter pins today to try my hand at making scale D shackles.
I plan to get some more light buckets and replace the stock headlight inserts.
This is the grill kit I am planning to get:
Axial Dingo - LR defender 90 conversion - Scale 4x4 R/C Forums
You get them from here:
rc-cawler.it
Peppe is the guy's name. He does some amazing stuff. Got a lexan D90 and D2 body I like the look of as well...
I like the more detailed grill of his resin casts vs Reign's one.
Added some D shackle goodness.
Thanks steele42 for the idea and credit to Bubba for using smaller pins rather than a bolt and screw - I agree, looks more scale. "thumbsup"Using 3.6mm and 1.6mm cotter pins (split pins to us Aussies). First attempt was a failure - trying to work out how to drill the hole without going out the side wall. I clamp the pin to a saw horse with a quick-clamp and then use a fine punch to make a small indent - just enough to get purchase on with a 1.5mm drill bit. I then carefully drill the whole way through and then wiggle the drill around a little to get the hole out to a bit over 1.6mm.
I then carefully spread the pin using two pairs of needle-nose pliers and cut it to length with some heavy side-cutters.
Takes me about 5mins to make one now. "thumbsup"
My brother also had a spare set of steering links, so I don't have to make my own for now. The plastic steering link is like a piece of licorice! :???:
Anyway...thanks for taking the time to read through my build...more updates as the happen...
Ben. :mrgreen:
Last edited:
These are the exact ones I got...they are the brightest you can get in a bare LED:
