My SCX10 Build Thread (Stormtrooper)

[r34gtrgodzilla]

This is actually my first post here on the forums and thanks for this amazing place to enjoy this hobby.
I have done some mild rock crawling in the past with two crawlers, which I sold to a mate because I wasn't doing it much anymore, only to get re hooked into as soon as I sold them. I guess looking at them again reinvigorated my passion for it.
I have bought a Rubicon SCX10 in kit form, have bought some parts already, well a lot of parts and I will be listing them as the build goes.
I used to own an extremely fast R34 GTR in real life with time attack records around some racing tracks in Australia and it was black on white in it's appearance colour scheme and looked so clean but very aggressive, so this is the reason I have chosen this route with my crawler.
I used to hate the colour white, but now is probably one of my favourite colour schemes.
I have also used the Crawler "Rattle Trap"in real life as my inspiration and also to all of you good people out there who have built amazing SCX10's before me, so thank you for all of your ideas.

I about to start the basic kit build first and update with progress in the next few days as I wait for a lot of my other parts to arrive including my Airbrush air compressor to start painting my New Bright 4 Door Rubicon body.

[Wade]

Well this is going to be interesting

[Johnnysplits]

Damn!! Someone's credit card is melting

[Undefined]

Damn...that's a chunk of change..unless you been buying slowly....ill be watchin

Sent from a whiskey downer beer pounder's shop

[r34gtrgodzilla]

I have been doing a bit of basic kit building over the weekend and I can see some very good improvements from Axial compared to a few years ago, definitely more attention to detail in the SCX10 basic kit form.
I highly recommend this kit for anyone getting into crawlers, it is a very easy kit to build with a fantastic set of instructions and all parts needed plus many spares.

I'm hoping a few parts turn up this week and the main piece is my Airbrush compressor, I really need to start painting the factory shell and preparing the New Bright shell too. I'm still trying to find a nice gloss white enamel and still decide on a colour for the stock shell too?

Here a few pics from the weekends build time. It's pretty basic so far, but the good bits will start soon.

[r34gtrgodzilla]

Got some more parts yesterday and today and have done a bit of building.
The Vanquish axles are fantastic, super quality and really nice weight increase from stock.
The wheels are very nice too with very well machined parts and fitment, I highly recommend Vanquish stuff.





Fitted up with Mickey Thompson tyres from RC4WD I have had for a while.





My Vanquish rear axle all finished.













I have just received some more parts at the front door, will post up some progress soon.
Just one more photo, the inspiration behind my build. It won't be exactly, but white with black and touches of red with a similar suspension height will be the goal, the only thing is, I will not be using 2.2's, just 1.9's at this stage for a more scale, but fully modified look.

[Ty@Tekin]

Watching this one!

[JonnnScott]

I cant wait to see how it all turns out.

[r34gtrgodzilla]

Righto, all finished with the axles, wheels and links for now, just waiting on the electronics to arrive and start putting that together. I have my paints, compressor and airbrush ready to go for my lexan body and hard body. I'm going to be painting the lexan body TS-50 Blue from Tamiya, and the hard body with the black and white scheme for my main part of the build.
The blue JK body will be my functional body and the hard body will be my show truck body.
It's hard to see the panhard bar in these shots, but you can sort of get the idea with the last two phots looking down.
Anyway here a few photos of the truck so far, I know it's not much yet, but I am enjoying every part of this build at the moment, and taking photos along the way is half the fun.
I think I might start using my SLR instead of my phone from now on, the phone camera is no really doing the job.

[TAT76]

I'm watching this one... Hopefully its going to get used. O:-)

[r34gtrgodzilla]

Originally Posted by TAT76

I'm watching this one... Hopefully its going to get used. O:-)

Yep, it will be getting used no matter what wear and tear it faces.
I probably won't be getting it muddy or running under water with it as I'm not a fan not a fan of mud with anything and water creates far too much maintenance with RC crawlers, but rock-climbing, trails and sand running will be happening

Hopefully will be building a SCX10 FOFF after this build, as there is a lot of sand around where I live.

[bilinvic]

Nice build going on. With a CMS and panhard link, I would recommend the VP 3 link conversion; the front suspension will bind with the 4 link.

[r34gtrgodzilla]

Originally Posted by bilinvic

Nice build going on. With a CMS and panhard link, I would recommend the VP 3 link conversion; the front suspension will bind with the 4 link.

Oh ok, I haven't really noticed anything at the moment with the stock shocks, but I guess with bigger suspension travel it can bind on droop?

Cheers for the heads up mate, I might look into that for sure
I might even use my stock 3 link parts to test out the geometric differences with the new shocks when they arrive.

[Robs07junk]

Your Build Is Coming Along Nice . I'll Be Watching

[Ty@Tekin]

Originally Posted by r34gtrgodzilla

Oh ok, I haven't really noticed anything at the moment with the stock shocks, but I guess with bigger suspension travel it can bind on droop?

Cheers for the heads up mate, I might look into that for sure
I might even use my stock 3 link parts to test out the geometric differences with the new shocks when they arrive.

With the 4-link and panhard it will bind because the panhard wants the axle to move to the side under compression and the 4-link is designed to keep it centered at all times. You could probably just take one upper link out and be good to go. CMS + 4-link will create pretty bad bump steer, so panhard is for sure the better option.

It's looking nice so far! Those axles are pretty, I just don't think I could beat on them if I had a set.

[bilinvic]

The nice part about the VP 3 link conversion is that the axle truss can be removed. With my build, removing the axle truss resulted in more suspension travel.

[r34gtrgodzilla]

Originally Posted by bilinvic

The nice part about the VP 3 link conversion is that the axle truss can be removed. With my build, removing the axle truss resulted in more suspension travel.

Cheers for the info mate
I'm actually going through a few issues with the Panhard bar being restrictive on droop, I'm of the opinion that I don't need a panhard bar as the links are triangulated creating stability without it resulting in full suspension travel, I will post up a video when all is done of the articulation.

[r34gtrgodzilla]

Well it's been a few days now and have put a bit of time into the beast.
I have also had to make some decisions about the body.
First of all I will be building the stock body to the best I can, then later on doing the new bright body.
A few changes need to be made for the hard body so I'll build it with the stock one first, do a photo shoot, then immediately do the hard body build without much crawling so I can get some photos of it when everything is still fresh and new, then I will start the crawling photo shoot, then let my filming skills begin, I can't wait.
So during the week I got a few new things turn up including all of the electronics, sorry I didn't get any photos of the process, just been hell busy this week and have been just trying to do some building any chance I got.

Sorry about the photo quality, I promise to take some photos with my SLR today and stop using my stupid phone camera for this.


The Blue Bird 31kg servo and two 2200mah 3S Turnigy Batteries.



The electronics soldered and awaiting install.



Custom rear chassis tray that I made up with the stock receiver box now mounted down the back of the truck.





Stock battery tray now installed up front as low as I could for scale weight distribution and feels front end heavy now just like the real thing.





Everything installed to my liking and am pretty happy with the layout.







New shocks turned up today.













So that is everything for now, it has been test run and everything seems to work nicely except the panhard bar issue, but will be seeing how it runs without it hopefully today.
The lexan body is next on the list to do and maybe readjusting my link lengths to push the front end out a little.
So far I'm quite pleased with the progress, but still many little adjustments and instalments yet to come.
The rear tray will be good for installing the winch controller and also some lighting accessories. The winch and lights will probably run off of a separate battery, I'm not quite sure yet.
I still have to tune the ESC too as it is very raw and jerky at the moment and needs drag brake adjustments too.

[spookyseven]

Why are you still trying to run a triangulated 4-link with a panhard? Just like Ty said in an earlier post,

Triangulated 4-link= axle stays centered
Panhard= moves the axle side to side

The way you have it set up you are most likely bending your chassis a very slight amount when you cycle the suspension up and down. The solution is to remove one of the upper links which will allow your panhard to function properly.

Also, the panhard (chassis to axle) and drag link (servo horn to steering knuckle) need to be the same length and mounted at the same angle so the spacer under the servo horn needs to go.

Nobody is trying to be rude by pointing this out, but it's basic geometry and it needs to be followed in order to get the suspension to cycle without binding or bump steer.

[r34gtrgodzilla]

Originally Posted by spookyseven

Why are you still trying to run a triangulated 4-link with a panhard? Just like Ty said in an earlier post,

Triangulated 4-link= axle stays centered
Panhard= moves the axle side to side

The way you have it set up you are most likely bending your chassis a very slight amount when you cycle the suspension up and down. The solution is to remove one of the upper links which will allow your panhard to function properly.

Also, the panhard (chassis to axle) and drag link (servo horn to steering knuckle) need to be the same length and mounted at the same angle so the spacer under the servo horn needs to go.

Nobody is trying to be rude by pointing this out, but it's basic geometry and it needs to be followed in order to get the suspension to cycle without binding or bump steer.

Already sorted out, it was only setup like this for the first time, no testing of suspension travel had been done at this point.
The panhard bar has already been removed and works well now.
The spacer under the drag link is to centre the arm and make it central so you can eliminate bumps steer as much as possible, if you start with an angle, then you get suspension droop, the bump steer is more exaggerated.
I was only playing around with setups when I took these photos, tweaking won't stop for quite while yet.
Got some more photos going up soon.