Naughty Dawg's KA Wraith Build

[Naughty Dawg]

I got my first RC rig a couple of months back, a RTR SCX10 Rubicon, and I've had so much fun upgrading it that I decided my next one would be a kit. I chose the Wraith and the KA stands for Kick Ass, which I hope this will be. No pics yet, as I'm still getting parts in and haven't yet begun the build. Here's the specs, though:

POWER & ELECTRONICS

Holmes Torquemaster BR-XL Waterproof ESC
CC BEC programmed to 6v
Holmes Crawlmaster Expert 13T motor
Savox 1210SG Waterproof servo
3s 3400 mah
Futaba 4PLS

DRIVETRAIN

Robinson 32 p 56/12
Robinson steel bottom diff and idler gears
Axial steel drive gear
Axial HD differential gears, UD rear
MIP driveshafts
VP 3D diff covers
Axial aluminum lockouts
Fast Eddy bearing kit

SUSPENSION & STEERING

VP titanium link set
Axial front and rear sway bar kits
TBD shocks
Axial aluminum servo horn
VP chubs
VP knuckles

TIRES & WHEELS

Gearhead 2.2 BTR TT bead locks
2.2 BFG Krawlers
Crawler Innovations Deuces Wild loses cell foams

And then I got a driver and a passenger to put in it, lol.

[Naughty Dawg]

Most of the goodies are in now, and I'm ready to start putting this thing together:



And my calling this my Kick Ass build was a bit of a play on words for the 'theme' of this rig. LOL, here are the driver and passenger that will be piloting this Wraith. The color scheme will sort of flow with this.

[Crawler++]

mm, those rims are sure tasty.
Got some more pics of em?

[Naughty Dawg]

Here ya go,

[Naughty Dawg]

Well, I made a little progress over the weekend and tonight, so this project is coming along.

As you can see above, I got the Krawlers mounted up on the Gearhead headlocks.

I also got the tranny built, with all the Robinson Racing parts, and got it and the Holmes motor mounted up to the skid.


I got the axles built, with the Vanquish steering parts installed and servo mounted on the front, and the Axial aluminum lockouts on the rear.


I got the chassis about 80% assembled.


I got the Vanquish links put together.


I got the interior and dash cut out, trimmed, painted and steekers applied.


and finally, I got the body panels cut out, trimmed, and painted in the KA theme.

[Naughty Dawg]

Well when I got that diff cover screw stripped out, while I was waiting for the super tiny left hand drill bits to arrive, I made the decision to go with the VP axle housings, link/shock mounts, axle trusses and servo mount. I really wanted to go that route from the beginning.

So now I've got the axles reassembled and every mounted up to the skid.





While I was idle, I also decided to paint the chassis. I've got it mostly done. I need to do some touch-ups on a few areas, so I completely assembled the chassis to facilitate that.



I'm not totally thrilled with the way that the painting of the chassis has gone. I am using Krylon Fusion, which I have used on many other projects for painting plastic, and I prepped all of the parts with SEM Plastic and Leather prep. Still, the paint seems to want to 'run away,' for lack of a better term, from some areas, leaving the black still visible. I may be trying to spray coats that are too thick. Anyway, I probably am not going to spend a lot of time on areas that won't be visible when it is complete.

I also got my driver and passenger set up with the seats. I'm using 3/8" diameter rare earth magnets as the main means of holding the figures to the seats, and then I had some harnesses made by user hatefulboy on here. He did a really good job on these.





I also decided on Gmade Piggy Back shocks for this build and got those, along with the sway bar links installed to the axles.

This build is taking more time than I thought, but it's the first kit I've built and I'm learning as I go. Damned if building these isn't as much fun as running them!

[Sevastra]

Looking good!

[Naughty Dawg]

Thanks!

[clickaus]

I think you have nailed the color scheme
Looking forward to seeing more progress

[Naughty Dawg]

Originally Posted by clickaus

I think you have nailed the color scheme
Looking forward to seeing more progress

Thanks. I re-sprayed the chassis last night and it looks a lot better.

[Naughty Dawg]

Not a whole lot of visible progress from my time spent tonight. I disassembled the chassis after final paint, and then spent time figuring out the battery location, with help from a couple of you guys. I fit the interior around that, and got it completely assembled, with Kick Ass and Hit Girl on board. I say complete, but it seems Kick Ass's arms aren't long enough to reach the steering wheel, lol. Gonna have to figure that out. Or say 'screw it', I don't know which.

[Guesstrain]

You can adjust the steering wheel with a little tweaking. I cut the steering column in half, drilled two small holes in either half then used a long machine screw to attach them back together. Had to cut the head off the screw. Then covered it all with heat shrink.

[Naughty Dawg]

Genius! Thanks for that!

[Naughty Dawg]

Two posts for the price of one today. I didn't do a lot with this build last night. Really, I just modified the steering column so Kick Ass could reach the steering wheel, got the electronics box and battery tray mounted up front, and then got the interior installed and the rest of the chassis built around it.




And then I got started this morning and worked on it straight through. I haven't got the electronics all hooked up yet, so I haven't ran it yet. It's killing me, but I need to spend some time with the wife. After all - she tolerates the spending I do on this new addiction, not to mention two 1:1 Jeeps and stuff that goes bang.

The build pretty much came together today, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I hope y'all enjoy these pics. I'll post some more later in the weekend when I can get it outside.

[Naughty Dawg]

Thanks man.

[Sevastra]

That looks killer!

[Naughty Dawg]

Thanks man.

So I had some minor issues that I had to get sorted out and by the time I got that stuff taken care of, the weather in H-town had turned shoitty. So I set it aside and finished AC4. I'll get some stuff up next w/e to close this out.