Bill's Glove Box Scaler

[northernerbill]

So my RC4WD 1/18 Gelande arrived today.

First impressions out of the box, just simply smiling. Its so intricate yet sturdy feeling really like it.

The shell is very finely detailed, nothings been lost in down sizing, in fact barring the lack of interior it actually seems sharper than the 1/10 version. Haven't tried yet but the roof looks totally detachable making painting easier.
Mirrors don't flex very much so guess they'll be a spare for the future. All the grills or add ons are heat welded in already so damage may occur for somebody at some point if trying to remove them.
Lastly the shell is screwed to the chassis from underneath.

The Chassis is simply exquisite, very tiny scale typical RC4WD feel.......love it. Tyres/foams seem brilliant, nice and squidgy/grippy but stiff enough to stand tall.

Electronics, well it has a similar ESC/RX to the Losi (wonder if it pairs to Spektrum). Motor and servo, well yes it has them but unsure on their power yet.
The little 2.4ghz TX has all the usual knobs and dials and seems very nice, but in white its gonna get Grubby soon.

Pics?

Well out the box it stands exactly how you've seen it......tall

Need a scale garage for this lot now.


Next up the full package. TX, Lipo (RC4WD branded), Lipo alarm and instructions.


Last up for now was my tinkering with ride height. I decided to chop the internal shock springs in half and split them one above and one below forcing the car to sit at about 60% compression. Articulates identically, doesn't rub on the arches so recon thats worked for now.



This is a true glove box rig you can have in the car and just have a chill on the trail when it comes your way.

[Druxus]

I got mine today as well and love the looks of it. It runs good on anything hard surface, as soon as it hit carpet it stops. Tried it outside, ran over a few leaves and boom it stops again. I have a unused tactical servo i took apart and it has the same mounting bolts with a smaller pinion gear. I swapped the motor and it helped a little, but I'm still really disappointed with the performance of it. Trying to find i higher power motor i can put in this thing.

[spoo76]

Nice. In the other thread for this someone removed the brass spacer inside the shock to get some more articulation.

[northernerbill]

I managed to take the main shell components apart. Warning the roof is a tight fit and has to be manipulated, front window just drops out after that. The rear windows are all one piece and really put up a fight so be careful there some thin sections you can snap.

[northernerbill]

This shell in its original form clearly has a few different looks, somewhere in the world theres toy shops selling these in all their variants.

Ok so my favourite Land Rover colour is the really light green, I've only really noticed recently on the more recent cars.

A car this small doesn't justify going and getting a can mixed imho, so I got the nearest colour I could Ford Highland Green (though a bit dark) then used white primer instead of grey and only applied about 1.5 coats and its come out pretty close (painting in the dark on the terrace lol).

I masked the bigger bits, then all the indicators I'll just paint by hand. Gonna leave this a day to cure then matt black the window rubbers etc.

Need to paint the wheels white now I guess.

[northernerbill]

Got all the black bits done tonight. Painting these micro shells is really really difficult for me, I think age, eye sight, shaky grip. Anyway only the coloured lights to paint and a bit of touching up.

Even the depth of the masking tape effects how it ends up at this size.

My last difficulty was getting the rear window section back in, that is proper difficult.

[Sparks1337]

Nice work mate It looks proper old skool. I'd go with black arch extensions to finish it off and that green has all sorts of potential for some weathering. It looks like a proper little tinker. Still waiting for customs to finish playing with mine :(

[northernerbill]

Cheers mate, any word from Customs???

All the lights done and some muddy weathering, oowarrrrr, git orf moy larnd. That dogs bin bothering moy sheep.

[kakachille]

Thing looks nice

[Sparks1337]

Lol weathering looks great chap. That thing looks like it's shifted a few hay bales in it's time now. Told you it'd look good

Well mine finally arrived yesterday morning - probably the very last of the first batch to be delivered, anywhere in the world :/ Still it was worth the wait - customs had slapped a £22 ticket on it, but the postie just handed me the parcel and said nothing. Result Happily I'd also booked the day off work...

[northernerbill]

Just handed it over to the boys for a play with it in the back garden, quite nice watching it bobbling around. Nothing to really test it on climbing wise but will be watching the motor recommendations people do.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by Sparks1337

Lol weathering looks great chap. That thing looks like it's shifted a few hay bales in it's time now. Told you it'd look good

Well mine finally arrived yesterday morning - probably the very last of the first batch to be delivered, anywhere in the world :/ Still it was worth the wait - customs had slapped a £22 ticket on it, but the postie just handed me the parcel and said nothing. Result Happily I'd also booked the day off work...

Yes, paint and weathering looks spot on! Love it. That's a great postie, and what good timing on your part...enjoy your day off with new toys and post up some pics, did you start a thread yet? I"m checking now.

Originally Posted by northernerbill

Just handed it over to the boys for a play with it in the back garden, quite nice watching it bobbling around. Nothing to really test it on climbing wise but will be watching the motor recommendations people do.

Sounds great, keeping the boys entertained and watching your artwork at work on the garden.

A leaf sprung version would be nice too.

[northernerbill]

Cheers guys, no video yet I don't think bobbling over grass warrants it lol.

A couple of outdoor pics though

[Sparks1337]

It really does look good Bill, love that shot from the back. Any idea what the small holes either side of the rear door are for?

It really isn't worth me starting a thread yet for mine, all I've done is swap out the stock electronics, put the battery up front, move the lower links around and chop the springs in half - unlike Bill I didn't put the chopped half under the piston as it seemed to restrict travel. Also swapped the tyres for a set of rok lox and snapped a mirror. I found a few loose screws on the way round and opened the pumpkins up to check -mesh seems fine and they are well greased, as is the tranny. Nothing other people haven't already done though.

After moving the links I noticed the axles have a lot of side-to-side slop - it obviously needs the double triangulation. I'm thinking about bending them into a slight Z shape like the uppers and putting them back to stock mounting positions - if I've got it right this will give the needed triangulation without restricting the travel. We'll see. Also thinking about paint - Arles/Pacific blue with a white roof is where I think its going, but proper LR touch-up cans are an extortionate price. Also considering conversion to a van back, less interior to worry about

[northernerbill]

LOL I think thats more than anybody has done mate, and well worth a thread!!

I've returned my springs to stock, putting the two halves back together (non wrap end to non wrap end so they wind into each other). I would like to see how yours handles with just the 1 half in, sounds like a plan.

All my linkage screws where loose too.

Small holes in the back........for sure it is for an interior, which would have been there in its original incarnation, probably as a push along toy.

Halfords must have something close to that blue? My green wasn't quite right but the weathering has hopefully masked that.

[northernerbill]

One down, one to go



Done

[Natedog]

Hey Bill, thanks for the updates. Any chance to take her out on proper trails yet?

Sparks1337,
Start your thread!

[jimbo_wa]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Hey Bill, thanks for the updates. Any chance to take her out on proper trails yet?

Sparks1337,
Start your thread!

Pretty sure he's sold it already... :(

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

[northernerbill]

Yeh it was a very quick turn around on it. A guy had seen it and asked if he could have it. I would have ended up putting as much into it as a 1/10 and so for that outlay I'd rather have a 1/10 I think.

[Sparks1337]

Lol there's no flies on you Bill, you move too quick

Not sure where you see the outlay though, there's nothing to buy? I suppose if RC4WD start releasing the upgrade parts necessary to bring this thing up to scratch it will start getting expensive pretty quick ;)

Cheers Natedog. I'm working on v3 of my little gearbox - once that's running I'll be about ready to start a thread. Looking forward to seeing how Jimbo_wa's turns out too