My first kit build. Gelande II with cruiser body.

[jeff22]

I received my RC4WD Gelande II with the cruiser body yesterday.

I have never built a kit before but thought I'd give this a try as I love the look of the body and it seemed like a solid kit.

I don't have a step by step process of the build, there are a bunch out there if you look around.

It started off well, the packaging is great, the parts are well organized, the manual is easy to follow. Everything is metal! the only thing I can think of that was plastic is the receiver box and endlinks.



I took apart the transmission, transfer case, and front and rear differentials to grease everything with marine grease. This was a suggestion by many builders I came across online.

After about 7 hours worth of build time across yesterday and today I got to this point. (RC4WD says 2-3 hours for the build)


I don't know why it took me so long other than this being my first build. I followed the instructions and applied loctite as necessary. I had a few minor hang ups along the way, I had some trouble figuring out exactly how to mount the servo and one of the shocks was locked up and wouldn't rebound after being compressed. I added some shock oil and it freed right up. I then filled all 4 shocks with oil.

I did a trial run with the electronics temporarily mounted and everything seems good. But I need to to do some more work to get everything permanently mounted. The receiver box is in the rear. I bought a 6inch servo extension to make the servo cable reach. (I knew ahead of time this would be needed)

What I didn't think about is that if you use the ESC mounting plate with the kit the motor wires will need to be extended also.

I haven't even started the body yet. I think that will take a fair amount of time also. If you didn't notice I don't have the front or rear bumper mounted yet. The rear bumper has light lenses that need to be installed. I didn't realize that all the lenses are clear and also need to painted amber or red before being mounted.

The kit is really solid and feels very substantial compared to my SCX10. But I don't think I'll be building another kit any time soon. I am not exactly finding the build enjoyable and I didn't think it would take this much time to build. I also really don't know what to expect with the body work but I suspect that another substantial amount of time will be needed to complete it.

[jeff22]

Got everything wired up. Did some test runs and I really like the maneuverability of this chassis. The turning radius is much tighter than my SCX10 Trail Honcho. I am running a 35T motor and between the gearing and motor this is a bit slower than the SCX10. I like the slower speed and may go to a 45T at some point for some extra torque.



I didn't have a chance to do any painting today other than painting the clear lenses with Tamiya X26 and X27 clear orange and clear red. I hand painted the inside of these with a brush and I was surprised at how well they turned out.



I also really like the new transmitter. I got the Spektrum DX4-C that comes with the waterproof receiver, it has a ton of adjustability and the menu is really easy to scroll through to change settings. I didn't realize how much difference a good transmitter makes. I have only used the RTR SCX10 transmitter which is very basic.

[jeff22]

When I painted the lenses I was going by the light kit that is available for this truck which if all goes well I'll be adding in the future. The light kit has 2 orange bulbs and 2 red bulbs for the rear bumper lights. After looking at some other builds and pics of real FJ's online it looks like all 4 of the rear lenses are red. 2 are real lights and 2 are red reflectors on the 1:1.

I thought having all 4 rear lenses in red will look better and wanted to repaint the small rear lenses in red. I took a chance and painted clear red over top of the clear orange on the inside of the lense and it came out red like I had hoped.



I thought I was going to mount the large rear lenses in the bumper tonight but when I cut the chrome trim rings out of the parts tree it didn't go very well and there is a bit of chrome missing at the top and bottom where the tabs that held it in the tree were.

I'm going to try to find some chrome touch up paint or end up stripping the chrome off the parts and respraying them silver.
(I did manage to find some chrome touch up paint and after doing a little touching up the marks are still noticeable but not so bad that I need to do anything other than put them on the truck.)

Very slow progress in the paint department. Hopefully I'll have the first coat of primer on the top half of the body tomorrow evening.

[jeff22]

I spent the last two evenings putting on Tamiya Fine Surface White Primer. Got the roof done one night after work and just finished the main body after work today.



This primer is pretty easy to work with once you get the hang of it. It's easy to sand using 800 grit after it dries and then go back and fix any blemishes. I have never used this primer before and you need to be closer to the surface than you would think because it dries so quickly. I started off spraying too far away and wasted a lot of paint because it was drying before it hit the body and just left a dust all over instead of coating the body with paint.

The body looks great though. I think it will be worth the effort in the end. I can't wait to put it all together with all the little details that come with it.

Now to decide what color to paint it.

[jeff22]

7 Days into the build and it's time to put some paint on the body. I decided to paint it with Rustoleum 2x Satin Fossil color paint. A 1:1 builder had used the exact paint and it looked great.

I tried the satin paint on a trial piece and I didn't like the satin sheen the paint had. The best I can describe is that it made the piece look like plastic again and not very realistic.

I then decided that flat was the way to go. I found some Rustoleum Camo Flat Paint in Khaki.



Here is how it came out.



The roof is still just primer white right now, I'm going to tape off the body when the paint has had some time to cure then put another coat of matte white on it to finish it off. I got all the major pieces painted today. I painted the grill white to match the roof and I was thinking about painting the chrome pieces black but I didn't want to get too much of a military look (I think it's a little too close as it is now) so I'm going to keep them chrome and see how it looks.

Tomorrow I'll be working on all the details. Getting the lights put on, interior put together, painting the window trim, etc.

[jeff22]

I'm nearing the end of the build. I completed the interior today and took it outside for some fun. Getting it outside with the sun shining on it really made the paint look lighter and I think it looks much better outside in the natural light.













There are still some details left to complete. I tried to paint the window trim with some tamiya black in the small jar and a fine brush but that didn't go well, even with taping off the edges it still didn't look very good when it was complete. Luckily I started on the windshield and it was easy to repaint. I'm going to try sharpies next, hopefully I will get better results.

After the window trim is complete all I have to do is mount the windshield, windows in the top, and bolt the top on. Shouldn't be much more work as long as the window trim goes better the second time.

I tried to put the stickers that come with kit on the dash board but had less than stellar results. I took them off because it looks better without them than the butcher job I did putting them on.

Having some model building experience would really have helped with getting this body together. I still think it's coming out nicely and it was a ton of fun to get it out and drive it. I can't wait until the roof is mounted and the glass is in. I wasn't going to get a driver for it but it does look a little strange driving around without anyone behind the wheel.

One thing to be aware of is to really make sure the shock mounts in the right location. I couldn't get the body on because the rear shock mounts were hitting the interior. I couldn't figure out why there wasn't any clearance and ended up going back through the instructions. There are two different types of shock mounts, one is taller and the other has staggered legs. I had them backwards and after moving the tall mounts to the front and getting the shorter mounts on the back the body went on.

[new2rocks]

That's a good looking build (esp for a first kit). For the window trim, the Sharpies with the brush-like tip or any of the good art markers with the brush-like tip will work well. Keep the updates coming!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[jeff22]

The sharpies worked great. Much better than the actual paint and brushes I tried. I only got the windshield done, I don't think I'll have time to get anything else done tonight.



I bought all three different kinds of black sharpies they had at the store. They had ultra fine, fine, and a big one that had a pointed tip on one end and a chisel tip on the other. The ultra fine tip was way to small to be of any use. I don't plan on doing the shut lines but they would probably work great for that.

I taped off the outside of the trim lines with some painters tape and used the chisel tip to do the inside of the windshield lines and the flat (forward facing) line I used the regular fine point marker to do the outside edge along the tape.

This came out way better than I expected it was going to. It didn't look that great after going over it just one time so I went over it twice. I also noticed that the slower you go the smoother it looks so I really took my time going over it on the second pass.

[Natedog]

Looking very good especially for first time kit build. Keep the updates coming and can't wait to see your trail pics.

[jeff22]

I have completed the build for the foreseeable future. I tried to estimate the time it took to get it completed to where I'm happy with it and it came out to about 42 hours over 12 days.

I love the way this turned out. I spent some more time driving it this evening. It really is fun to drive, the weight of the chassis and body really makes the suspension look realistic as you drive it. The rear wheels tuck up into the body when compressed which is pretty cool.

It does need fender wells/liners to hide everything underneath the body and a radiator to block the view through the mesh in the front.













I just noticed that all the pics are of the passenger side. The other side looks the same.

[Scotski]

Nice job on the truck. Strangely, I bought the same controller and also chose the AE-5 speed control. What servo is that? I bought a Hitec HS-5646WP, but felt it wasn't strong enough to turn the wheels fully when not moving. The cruiser weighs in around 10 pounds. I went all out basically and bought a Savox SA-1230SG servo. It has a whopping 500 oz. of torque at 6v although it isn't waterproof.

[jeff22]

Thanks. It is the hitec 5646wp. I think it has enough torque especially since the tires are small and narrow. Even though the truck is heavy the small contact patch doesn't take much force to turn the tires.

I really wanted waterproof/water resistant electronics because I will probably be taking this out to play in the winter when we get some light snows.

I also won't be taking this thing over any serious terrain, that is still the scx10's job. This is for fun slow relaxing scale driving.

If I was going to do more with it than that I would probably upgrade to better electronics too.

[new2rocks]

I really like the Savox 1210 and RC4WD Twister Ultimate High Performance servos for 1.9 rigs. Both are waterproof out of the box with plenty of torque (~270 oz-inch @ 6v), but not so much that they will break things. I save the 400+ oz servos for my 2.2 rigs.

[jeff22]

So much for being complete. Looks like a motor change is already coming this weekend. I ordered a 55t axial motor for it today. The 35t has much more speed than I need. I would rather have more low speed control.

[new2rocks]

You should be able to get plenty of low-speed control with a 35T motor. You might want to try playing with the exponential setting for the throttle on your radio. The expo setting can be used to switch from a linear throttle curve to one with decreased sensitivity at low throttle and increased sensitivity at high throttle. I usually program this on my ESCs through Castle link because most of my radios don't have the capability. But you can do it quickly and easily from your radio, and it will make a big difference.

[jeff22]

Thanks for the tip. The motor was cheap enough but I will definitely try the expo settings. I saw that option in the radio menu but didn't really play with it to see how it worked.

[jeff22]

I spent about 1.5 hours driving around today with the 35T. I gave up before the battery did. (5000Mah NIMH)

I Put the 55t motor in tonight. I think this motor is going to be better suited to this truck. The top speed is just right and I think the extra torque will help because the truck weighs so much. I'll get it outside tomorrow for some more play time to see how it does.

While I was changing the motor I decided to try to clean up the wiring a bit. The back is a tough situation because when you put the body on there is almost no clearance. I tried to wire loom the wires to the ESC and receiver but the body wouldn't fit so I had to take it off.

[Scotski]

Nice! I went from an old school P2K Pro 27 turn motor to the Axial 55t as well. It has plenty of torque even for a $20 motor. I want to eventually bump to a 65 or 80 turn rebuildable. Call me crazy, but I want every ounce of torque I can muster. I tried dialing down my controller on the 27t but it was at a loss of power and torque. Maybe I was doing it wrong.

[jeff22]

Another update to this build is that the Axial AE-5 ESC I was using in this truck caused a pretty bad motor whine that I found annoying and took away from driving a scale looking truck.

To solve this I bought a waterproof version of the Holmes Hobbies BR-XL ESC turned on quiet mode using the Castlink and just did a test tonight.

Here are comparison videos showing the AE-5 vs the BR-XL with quiet mode enabled.

AE-5:
https://youtu.be/gqQqFpiCBHI

BR-XL:
https://youtu.be/R0ErE8IXeBU


Motor whine is completely gone. I can't wait to get this put back together with the new ESC and go do some driving outside.