They aren't really "scale" are they

[spacephrawg]

It just occurred to me that all "scale" RC bodies or most anyway that are fitted to chassis' aren't so much scale as scaled to fit whatever frame/wb they're on, am I right? The Tamiya CC01 bodies have a lot of compromises in them, and some proline bodies do too, right? For that Cherokee body to be properly 1:10th scale it would have to be a little different yes? I was just looking up some vehicle blueprints for a 3d rendering project at the two following (excellent) blueprint indexes:

http://carblueprints.narod.ru/index.htm
and
http://www.the-blueprints.com/blueprints/

And when I was looking at the entries for the FJ40 variants, I noticed that the proportions were not quite the same as they are on the Tamiya body.

The reason this is of interest to me is I am looking to render and then have printed, a pattern for vacuforming a Uaz 3151 Hunter body and I am finding I would have to take some liberties with it for it to fit on a CC01 chassis with a 10.5in wb. Some real steel Uaz's have been modified for trials and rallies, with enlarged wheel wells for bigger tires, which would probably make the most sense here given that smaller tires on a CC01 wouldn't perform as well.

However ultimately I am sizing a model to fit a wheelbase and its wheels. This is not an exercise in scale so much as proportion, am I right? So all this talk we have about things looking scale or not is more an issue of approximation than of precision, am I right?

Or did I just take all the fun out of it by stating something obvious? (my apologies if so)

[ScalerLover]

You need to scale your body off of the cc-01's track width, not its stock wheelbase. The wheelbase can be altered VERY easily by making different length rear links.

[squatch71]

yep..the width is the important aspect...you can't make it much skinnier...wider is doable, but with lots of work...length is rather easy to adjust.

[spacephrawg]

Track width? you mean the width of the wheelbase or the width of the chassis tub? I am confused. Thanks for the replies btw!

[Erock]

track width is the width at the outside edge of the tires or wheels. but yea 1/10th scale bodies are not true scale, I noticed this most with touring and drift car bodies (they all have the same wb) so a coupe will be about the same size as a 4 door.

[spacephrawg]

In that case: What is the track width of a CC01? I do not own one yet.

I am relieved that these things aren't true scale because I do not like working from plans without some creative wiggle room.

About the wheelbase being easily modified, I was thinking of building the body around the 10.5in wb because there already exist shock-mounting holes for it, right?

Btw, there exist aftermarket metal drive shafts that extend to fit the 10.5in wb yes? Just checking.

I figured if I were to make something specifically for an easily achieved wheelbase config, it would have more sales appeal. Am I right?