Oh no, not another Willys build!

[Retrocosm]

I may be biting off more than I can chew here but I'm going to attempt a 1/6 Willys Jeep, not a lot of them about here in the UK. I've seen several excellent examples and have that 'I need one now' feeling.

Here is the Hasbro one that I bought, shipped with no additional charges to the UK for approx £75 in total.



Charlie

I've been fiddling with the undercarriage and managed to get the Willys linked and suspended. I've also done some work on the Jeep (sorry couldn't resist.)

It's sitting a bit high at the moment but is unladen so I've taken a guess at the spring rate, hopefully once everything's on board she'll drop a little.



I decided to go with Wheely King axles as I found some used ones at a good price and they don't need any modding to fit, just some rear lockouts and in this case some upper link mounts.

For now I've just been concentrating on getting all the angles and levels correct so it's a bit messy but everything seems to be working. I've no idea how the geometry will pan out in performance terms but we will see.



I'm concerned the offset required for the rear shocks will put too much stress on the axle mounts, may need to look around for some aluminium ones.



I've also mounted the transfer case and hooked up some Axial drive shafts just to evaluate the angles, something stronger will no doubt be required.

It's wheeling and articulating OK and Indy seems to approve.



P.S. Don't tell him but I've ordered a 1/6 scale figure and head sculpt of Jason Statham. I guess they'll have to fight over it.

Managed to mount up the GRU and motor today. Combined it's just a tad too long so I'll have to trim out some of the radiator which is not a huge problem as I was also going to trim it for a fan anyway.



For once I actually had a drive shaft in the spares box that was the right length so I was able to hook up to the transfer box.





I had to do a bit of jiggery pokery to fit the servo as the four link bracket was fouling it, it now slides up nicely behind it. The steering incidentally is atrocious but possibly quite scale.





I threw in an ESC and receiver and took it for a quick run in the garden. It's as noisy as hell what with the body acting like a big echo chamber for the drive train and the high voltage Savox servo which has always had an awful screech to it.

Still it all works at the moment. I've ordered some aluminium C-hubs and knuckles and am still on the hunt for some aluminium shock/link mounts for the axle.

I'm looking forward to working on the appearance soon and hopefully making it look a bit more scale and a bit less toy like.

Charlie

Got some paint on. I went for Mazda Classic Red which is a nice kind of cherry red.



Did the grill in matt black.



I also did the chassis and bumpers in black.



Did some detailing on the dashboard and some weathering on the seats.





Cheers, Charlie

'When's it gonna be ready you Muppet!?'





Not a lot of interest here but shall persevere lol. I've been doing some detailing and slowly adding bits back to the body.

[Mike Flea]

Looks good, better without the windshield frame, because your driver's head is higher than the frame. Might have to push his legs in further, or cut them a tad to fit, if you use the windshield. He seems to be sitting a little high in the seat.

[TacoCrawler]

yay ! not odg, again.

looks cool... even yer doll's

[Retrocosm]

Originally Posted by Mike Flea

Looks good, better without the windshield frame, because your driver's head is higher than the frame. Might have to push his legs in further, or cut them a tad to fit, if you use the windshield. He seems to be sitting a little high in the seat.

Yes good point, I think these Hasbros are a little smaller than 1/6. When I have the frame I think I'll run it without the windscreen

Cheers, Charlie

[JatoTheRipper]

This is awesome! Did you take any running video?

Are you using 1.9 or 2.2 wheels and tires?

[Retrocosm]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

This is awesome! Did you take any running video?

Are you using 1.9 or 2.2 wheels and tires?

Thank you, I haven't quite finished it yet but will get some film done as soon as I do. I'm currently having a protection frame/roll bar made for it and then a bit of tweaking here and there and it should be ready.

The wheels are 2.2 and the tyres are 2.2 Axial Falken Wildpeaks.

Pete Attryde is making me this frame as I don't have the skills required:-

[j.krug]

Very nice build you've got going.
I like how you did it all without building a separate frame/chassis.
Can't get over how real Jason Statham's noggin looks, where did you have that made?

[Retrocosm]

Originally Posted by j.krug

Very nice build you've got going.
I like how you did it all without building a separate frame/chassis.
Can't get over how real Jason Statham's noggin looks, where did you have that made?

Cheers chap, if you do a search on Ebay for '1/6 scale head sculpt' there are a variety of models available.

[Retrocosm]

Excited to be getting this back from Pete's Scale Fab Shop tomorrow. Pete has built me a fantastic frame and winch bumper inspired by the Mad Brit's Willys.

[Retrocosm]

Took some time off today for a shakedown run. Overall very pleased with how the Jeep performed and learned a few things.

The Stathe's head is a bit too wobbly, need to find away to secure it without making it completely immovable.
Axial Falken Wildpeak's are useless on wet rock.
Axial plastic driveshafts are stronger than I gave them credit for.
The turning circle is indeed atrocious.
Drag brake is too strong.
It doesn't roll as easily as I'd imagined but does need some more weight up front.
It climbs over surprisingly large obstacles.
The Stathe never cheers up.
Make sure you get your son to tell you when he's 'borrowed' your camera the night before and used up half the battery and memory card making an animation.

Here are some pictures and a quick video.



























https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kboY8bxTJbE

[BigSki]

Nothing else beats the fun factor for one of these rigs. I still grin every time I drag the roll cage or one of the steel grab handles against a rock and it leaves scrape marks on the rock.

[cmbscx10]

Very nice. Fun video to watch. The save around 1min was perfect. Scenary and video editing were prefect. Look forward to more.

[robbo]

Very clean looking Willy's! nice work! Suspension seems a bit on the stiff side.

Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk

[dadrab]

That's a mighty damn fine looking Willys. It's an absolute success on many levels.

Killer work.

Originally Posted by j.krug

Can't get over how real Jason Statham's noggin looks, where did you have that made?

Get that self same sculpt here: One Sixth Kit Custom 1/6 Scale Jason Statham 2.0 Head Sculpt In my opinion, it's the best one out there (although there are several this is the only one that gets the head shape right).

Fear not about the vendor being in China. He's a good vendor as I have ordered from him several times and always been thoroughly pleased.

[Retrocosm]

Originally Posted by BigSki

Nothing else beats the fun factor for one of these rigs. I still grin every time I drag the roll cage or one of the steel grab handles against a rock and it leaves scrape marks on the rock.

Yes indeed, they are good fun, cheers.

Originally Posted by cmbscx10

Very nice. Fun video to watch. The save around 1min was perfect. Scenary and video editing were prefect. Look forward to more.

Thanks man, I appreciate that, looking forward to doing some more.

Originally Posted by robbo

Very clean looking Willy's! nice work! Suspension seems a bit on the stiff side.

Sent from my HTC6545LVW using Tapatalk

Cheers, I know what you mean, I'm hoping the springs will bed in a bit as the next grade down are too soft and don't properly support it.

More tweaking to do.

Originally Posted by dadrab

That's a mighty damn fine looking Willys. It's an absolute success on many levels.

Killer work.

Cheers, thank you very much

[Retrocosm]

I had another very enjoyable run out after upgrading the shock mounts on the axles to aluminium ones.

[TheAxialNut]

Gorgeous.






.

[Retrocosm]

Originally Posted by TheAxialNut

Gorgeous.

Cheers

[Big Mike]

Not bad at all!