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Morph's first build - Dingo Defender

morphias

Newbie
Joined
Jun 19, 2012
Messages
23
Location
Brisbane, Australia
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. :cry:

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:

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Now she flexes like she should!


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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! :cry:

Lesson learned...mask off and mask off again!

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Making sure everything lines up...


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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...

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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!

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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...

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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! :???:


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Anyway...thanks for taking the time to read through my build...more updates as the happen...

Ben. :mrgreen:
 
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Love it! It's like the twin to mine :)


Thanks Bubba...your's was the main inspiration combined with Mogmowie's one - he has the sickest hardtop I have seen so far! He made it from styrene...wish I had those skills...

Mogmowie's YouTube Channel

Ben. :)

If anyone is interested, I got my Land Rover decals here:

Decals for 1/10 Land Rover Defender D90 D110 body | eBay

If you are in Australia and are looking for a reputable seller of all things Dremel, as cheap or cheaper than on eBay and they are legit Dremel gear, not knock-offs, then this is where I go now:

My Tool Store

Rob is a stand-up guy, is only 15mins from my house on Brisbane's northside. He mails or will do pick-up at a time that suits you because he runs the business out of his home. I spent about an hours there talking to him last night and showing him the forum.

Ben.
 
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OK...so I got around to redoing my top links to fix the diff pinion angle.

The angle of the pinion to the drive shaft should be, ideally, somewhere between 0 and 7 degrees.

Anything more and you will create unnecessary stress and wear on your drivetrain - specifically, the CV's. Mine was so bad, it made a clicking noise as the shaft rotated.

The other big reason to get it right on a rock crawler is that the CV's and shafts will be above the lower links, thus giving them additonal protection from rocks, etc.

Here are some pics to illustrate what I mean:

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And this is how things SHOULD look:

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The only draw-back to this is that the steering is now slight downhill because the front diff is facing downhill. This is not a major issue for crawling and is eaily correct by some C hubs with adjustable castor or a set with some castor correct buolt in - some come standard with 6-8 degrees of castor.



And now that the tech is out of the way, time for some flex porn... :mrgreen:

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Ben. :)
 
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Learned the hard way about cheap rotary tools vs good ones too. :oops:

I bought an Ozito rotary tools from Bunnings (the major hardware warehouse chain in Australia) less than 2 weeks ago for $50.

The cutting discs that came with it were CRAP - sometimes taking 3 discs to complete one cut of tube or allthread!

The flex shaft sheared off internnaly and the the broken bit anded up flying around inside the aluminium housing on the tools. Thankfully I was quick enough to switch it off before it totally flew to pieces.

I took it back and got a full refund.

I then found a nuts online price for a Dremel 4000 kit, took that to Bunnings and they applied their "Find a lower price and we'll beat it by 10%" guarantee and walked out with the kit for $149. :) The 4000 is the duck's nuts trade model. I'm never going to wear it out in my lifetime.

Mate! What a difference on the cuts making up the new top links. It has reduced the build time on making the links by ~80%! "thumbsup"

As the saying goes, buy cheap, buy twice...

There is a reason the Ozito is a 3rd of the price of the Dremel... :roll:


Ben. :)
 
Hey Morphias, great to see another Aussie playing with a mini LandRover!

I am about to embark on the same mission as yours and have got some great tips that I will definately include on my build. The shackles were a real eye opener for me - they just smack of detail and I love it! I was also thinking of a white body, but I do have some great stainless steel repair paint that looks a little like Tungsten when applied to PC which I might also use. Actually started thinking of the old light tan colour too from the early models, just to make it look epically stock and original...I'll think on that though.

Thanks for the sticker sheet tip...I will order one for mine.
Love the lighting idea using a pair of cree....I have a mate who will hook me up with that most certainly!!

Couple of questions though mate, if you would:
Where did you get your white beadlocks from, and about how much if you recall? They look perfect for these machines!
Did you end up getting one of Peppe's grill and light surround sets, and if so - are they worth it? The molding looked a little rough on his site, but if they clean up OK they certainly have the detail I am after.

Anyway mate, hopefully you can help me out with that info.

Have you done anything else with yours in the meantime?

I found an old car phone antenna in my box of electrical stuff and an idea came to me. It has a moulded knob on the top that will prvent it jabbing someone's eye out, so I trimmed the stem, added a lightweight spring and heat shrinked a fake loading coil onto the stem and made a nice flexi antenna. I used the bottome of the antenna shaft to make up a nice, chucky VHF antenna as well, complete with massive spring and short mast. Two great looking antennas that will help to set the Dingo/LR110 body off I reckon. I even whipped up a tow cable made out of an old carphone antenna cable...nice.

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Isn't it funny - as soon as we start thinking of scale detailing, everything in the shed begins to look like a miniature...something! hehe

Anyway, hope to hear from you as I wander off to search for more scale ideas to make this new toy extra special!

Cheers.
 
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Hi Steve,

I got the beadlocks off fleabay...

Gmade GM70106 1.9 VR01 White Beadlock Wheel SCX10 Tundra Hilux Honcho Crawler | eBay

You'll want 3 sets of you want to put the spare on the back.

You'll also want to get yourself some wheel weights like the tyre places use. I have a mate that is a mechanic, so he hooked me up for free.

I put 160g in each rim...you stick them to the outside of the ring that goes inside the tyre - you'll know what I mean when you get the beadlocks. Makes a HUGE difference to the traction when out crawling. I just need to star cut the foam now to get the softness back in the tyres again because of the space the weights take up.

I have moved the receiver box to the back of the chassis and put the circuit board and batteries for the extra lights into another Axial recever box at the back as well to protect them and keep things neat. I then put some heavy duty velcro on top of one of the boxes to stick the ESC to.

This allowed me to lower the battery tray, which in turn lowers the centre of gravity and weight is better ditributed between the front and back now. The ESC is also as high as it can go in the body, so it is also more protected. I'll get some pics up soon.

I haven't got the grills from Peppe yet. He was on holidays with his family, so I'll chase him up in the next week or so. THey do look a little rough, but that is normal for resin casting - you just need to sand the dags off and it will all be sweet.

I've got 4 Cree LED's in the front...it cranks! ;) These are the exact ones I got...they are the brightest you can get in a bare LED:

LED 5MM CLR WHITE 45000MCD CREE - Jaycar Electronics

Cheapest way to get more light buckets and lenses (and heaps of other stuff) is from Toadz RC. They are really helpful and only charge about $6-8 for postage too.

RC Parts, RC Spare Parts, RC Car Parts | ToadzRC

Because mine is a factory build drivetrain, I found out the hard way that you need to check what the clowns that assembled them have done.

The drive cog on the motor was only just meshing with the spur gear. As a result, under load, it stripped the tips off the teeth on the spur gear. Thankfully, because it was only just engaged, I was able to correct the meshing and have had no issues since. Also, the slipper clutch was wound as tight as it would go, so there was zero slip. It should be backed of 2-2.5 full turns of the adjustment nut.

Nice work on the antennas too. "thumbsup"

Ben.
 
Great build! Welcome to the Dingo club. Question for you. I see your servo is axle mount (stock position) the way it looks. When I change my driveshaft angle my servo hot the frame braces. Does yours? Plus when I watched my wheels steer, it looks like they are turning down. If the steering is on vertical axis, my vertical axis was leaning towards the front alot. Mine was stock three link and if read here you might have seen posts about a 7mm spacer should be used. That's what I did. It was to much. I'll have to measure see what it is. Does your steering pivot on a leaning axis? Sorry for the long post! Again great job.
 
Great build! Welcome to the Dingo club. Question for you. I see your servo is axle mount (stock position) the way it looks. When I change my driveshaft angle my servo hot the frame braces. Does yours? Plus when I watched my wheels steer, it looks like they are turning down. If the steering is on vertical axis, my vertical axis was leaning towards the front alot. Mine was stock three link and if read here you might have seen posts about a 7mm spacer should be used. That's what I did. It was to much. I'll have to measure see what it is. Does your steering pivot on a leaning axis? Sorry for the long post! Again great job.


Hi mate,

Thanks! 8)

My servo location is all stock and the servo was hitting the risers till I got the link lengths correct - I actually went as far as doing some fine filing of the riser and the servo housing to give the servo clearance before I realized that my top links were the wrong length...all part of the learning curve. Took me a couple of goes - here are the final numbers using Traxxis Revo tie-rod ends:

Here are the final lengths I used - all lengths are the actual lengths of the material:

Lowers - Front and Rear

Rod: 92mm
Tube: 80mm

Uppers - Front and Rear

Rod: 88mm
Tube: 76mm


With these lengths, I no longer had issues with hitting anything. The bottom links determine the wheelbase and the top links determine the diff pinion angle. Longer top links roll the housing back, reducing the pinion angle and also, in the case of the front axle, increases the clearance of the servo from the risers.

Yep, you will be steering downhill a bit, but not really enough to worry too much for the slow speed crawling these things are designed for. If you are really worried about it, you can get a set of aftermarket CHubs with a set amount of castor (6 or 8 degrees) to correct it.

Convert to 4-link - heaps better articulation, the parts should be in your kit and it only takes a few minutes to do.

Hope this helps...

Ben. :)
 
Thanks a lot Ben. You have some great tips and links there - much appreciated.

Re the weights, I work for Wurth and we sell these things so I guess I'll be ram-raiding the warehouse when I need some!! We do the 60gm strips of zinc weights which should be fine..hehe.

Those crees....can I just de-solder the original leds and add these in with the same resistance in the wiring I wonder? That would be damned handy!!

You and the others have inspired me to go all out on this build - with whatever I have laying about the place and not too much actual expense that it....I want to make the light switch/gear knobs look realistic by perhaps turning the shafts down in the lathe to make it look like a gear knob. I'll see how that goes.

I will have to wait to get the kit because everyone is waiting for stock atm, but when it is sitting on the bench I will be able to set my mind into gear and mod it like mad! I hope I do as good of a job as you with the picture diary too - these threads are priceless for new builders.

Thanks again mate.

Steve
 
Nice build. This is the first one where I've seen someone actually got the lexan light buckets with the kit. Mine came with the masks for the lneses on the body, but no light buckets. I found another way to make it work, but this would have been simpler and saved me some money. Nice job.
 
The lights in the kit are pretty bright. You could desolder and resolder if you wanted too, but they won't be as bright as they could be due to the higher resistance used in the OEM lighting kit.

I guess it all comes down to how keen you are and how good your soldering skills are. I have about 15-20hrs of soldering and all the tinkering that goes with it invested in mine. Many a session with sore fingers and a sore neck and back from doing all the fine work.

One of these is an absolute must! The wife got sick of holding wires and getting her fingers burnt after about 20secs. :)

PCB Holder with Magnifying Glass - Jaycar Electronics

My kit is actually an RTR Honcho Kit. I swapped the painted Honcho shell for a Dingo Shell Kit and the light buckets were in there. I'm only using them till I get my grills and bezels from Peppe.

Maybe they'll have them in new kits?

Ben.
 
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Nice build. This is the first one where I've seen someone actually got the lexan light buckets with the kit. Mine came with the masks for the lneses on the body, but no light buckets. I found another way to make it work, but this would have been simpler and saved me some money. Nice job.

Were they really supposed to come with kit? I've never seen those lexan parts.
 
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