Chief Hopper K5 Blazer Stranger Things tribute build

[Richterat83]

Not sure if you're familiar with the show or not, but my wife's super into it!

So after driving my scx10 XJ at her first big scale event, Ultimate Scale Truck Expo 2018, she wanted her own truck. I suggested "The Hop's" blazer as a joke and she loved the idea.

SO, thanks to the speed and scale sale going on, I pulled the trigger on the K5 Blazer kit.

Plans: Do the lexan body (which she wants to try to paint herself) up to scale with full interior but eventually get the hardbody as a "show" body. We will also dip our toes into styrene building, which she also seems interested in after seeing the crazy work at USTE of all the builders.

Ordered a set of BOOMRacing 1.55 Yota Classic beadlocks and 1.55 Pitbull Rock Beasts

Power is an Axial AE2 and 27t motor which will run on 3S until the brushes give up. BEC and Solar D772 servo for steering.

Will do functioning police light bar and light kit as well.





and current progress of build


Thanks for stopping by

[Natedog]

Nice start, the picture in my thread of Hopper was super familiar, now I remember he's from Stranger Things!

[Shinchu]

YYYYYES!!!!!!!!!!

and the fact its for your wife is even better!!!!
i was thinking about doing one of these on a rc4wd body! ohhh man i cant wait to see how this turns out! i was going to jump on it when i saw the figures coming out but I'm still working on my 79 ford.
only thing is i wish Chief's hat wasn't all... "derpy" looking. i would try to find a better hat from another figure, even if i had to cut the brim from a Rick Grimes hat and swap them.
and it looks like Chief will sit just fine, but Eleven might need some work with that dress.

how are you going to do the paint? custom mix and airbrush? i cant find anything close to either of those colors on his blazer from anyone in a spray can.

i will watch this build just like i watch stranger things... on the edge of my seat, begging for more!

*here is how serious i was, but congrats on beating me to it!
(from my 79 ford build thread)

Originally Posted by Shinchu

hey guys...



GUYYYS?!??!






might have an idea for my next build...

*btw, feel free to print out the above image and post it above your work area for... motivation ;)
i did it here http://makeitstranger.com/
it was a while ago, maybe they worked the bugs out so it looks better and everything lines up now? lemme try... nah still kinda mis-aligned. still cool though!

[Richterat83]

Yeah, i might have to have her print that out on a small banner or something (I will be doing a scale garage at some point as well but that's way down the road)

As to paint, since I can't find anything close in aerosol either (and no budget for an airbrush) we're going to attempt to do it via brush on the inside and hand mix colors. Then weather the outside so it's not a shiney lexan fresh paint job.

[Ninomaniac]

Awesome!
I liked the show, it was perfect for us folks that grew up on Spielberg and Steven King stuff. The second season was pretty crappy but still.

Nice project. I think even my wife would forgive me if I spent some cash on a new truck if I went with this theme

[Shinchu]

Richterat83, maybe consider painting the outside? people have had various success with priming with a Tamiya PS can, then painting with just about any paint on top of that.
i'll post a link here in a sec from at least one thread i know of...
*link Automotive paint and lexan bodies?

and i agree, the 80's nostalgia of this show is incredible. i kinda think they are cashing in on that a bit, but hey it works lol and season 2 was... yeah not as good but still very cool! i like the character development and the relationship between Hopp and Eleven. and the ghostbusters scene was classic!

ok lemme go get that link about using other paints on lexan...

**and because i can't leave well enough alone...
here is a good read for everyone about the cars from the show, including Hopp's Blazer. (warning: potential spoilers!)
https://jalopnik.com/the-cars-of-str...how-1784727336

and for accuracy, his blazer is a 1980, the only year with a grill like that. (2 headlights, blinkers below)
I'm looking on shapeways for the correct grill but so far, bupkis. i know somebody makes one...

[Richterat83]

The lexan body is only the temporary body, wife wants this as her "learning" body / basher so as to not worry too much about beating on it. If the internal paint doesn't look right, i'll do the outside as well. And then as i save some funds, i'll order the RC4WD hardbody (which she REALLY wants-not gonna lie, i'm pretty stoked she's into it as much as she is now-after trying to get her out on the trail the past 5 years and not happening)

Had RCADDICT order the wheels and tires, now just waiting for them to come in to ship to me.

Boom Racing Yota Classic 1.55 beadlocks (and will be shoed in 1.55 Pitbull Rock Beasts)
They're not perfect but pretty close


Also ordered BowHouse RC double sheer knuckles from Shapeways

[JatoTheRipper]

Is that a boy in a dress?

[Shinchu]

jato you haven't seen the show? she's an escaped secret gov't "project". she has... powers. you gotta see it i don't want to spoil it.

*this is how she looks in season 1


and season 2


and Rich, i couldn't be more stoked for you how excited your wife is for this build! i got my wife to drive our son's barrage on my backyard rock pile and she genuinely enjoyed it. i asked if she wants a truck of her own she said "sure!" but when i ask her what kind she's kinda like "meh, doesn't matter." so I'm happy for you she really wants something specific. kinda makes it "easy"? lol

BTW i don't know if you know this but they are releasing more of those figures down the line too! i think Mike and Dustin are next, as well as the Demogorgon! and they teased some prototypes of all 4 boys in the ghostbuster costumes!

**okay it turns out next is Lucas not mike but i was right about the other two!
https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/Search?Brand=10123

[Richterat83]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

Is that a boy in a dress?

It's not supposed to be, but it's not the greatest reproduction

But what Shinchu said, just watch the show and you'll see

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Shinchu

jato you haven't seen the show? she's an escaped secret gov't "project". she has... powers. you gotta see it i don't want to spoil it.

Nope and judging by this thread it's not my thing.

[Richterat83]

Chassis is all together with the wheels/tires off the SCX10 while waiting on it's wheels/tires to arrive and given a quick shake down run in the living room. Now to start on the interior. Need to splice the servo lead to be just a few inches longer to get into the rear fuel cell



I still can't get over that steering straight out of the box!

[JohnnyAnguish]

This is great. I wanted to do this build, too. Alas, it just kept getting bumped down the priority list. I'll have to live vicariously through this thread.

[Richterat83]

Due to unforseen circumstances, we're helping a family out so we have house guests for an undetermined amount of time, so my "hobby room" has people living in it, so my building/wrenching time is limited to the kitchen table (which the kids use for school work). SO. . . this is sadly put on hold for now until i can start leaving parts out to build the interior.

HOWEVER, thanks to Krawler Koncepts, i've got a pair of license plates en route for both the Lexan body as well as the hardbody when i can order it.


and the actual tag (thanks to a Reddit user)


Speaking of interior, i think i may just go with the Dinky RC interior with standard 3d printed seats instead of the wraith race buckets, for the lexan body vs building a full styrene setup and then scrapping it for the hardbody.


Also still waiting on the Yota beadlocks to come in from China

[tuanies]

I was wondering when someone would build one

[Richterat83]

Originally Posted by tuanies

I was wondering when someone would build one

I'm not the first, but hopefully will be the first hardbody.
There is a guy on ScaleBuildersGuild that's doing a full from scratch styrene body, a completed build on RCHub, as well as a guy on youtube has one.

BUT, 2 of those are just lexan bodies with no interior. Lexan body/interior will be the loaner body, but the hardbody will be built to "Dollhouse" specs

[Shinchu]

Man those other guys are missing out... how could you NOT do interior with those awesome figures?!
When those came out it's the first thing I thought of!

Love that you're doing this, cuz I can't afford to right now hahaha it's so cool!
Need a bunch of eggo boxes in the back, maybe the toy millennium falcon she levitated. Micro machine version would be good scale.

This build seriously has me thinking what other awesome pop culture builds could be done. Exciting!

[Richterat83]

Originally Posted by Shinchu

Man those other guys are missing out... how could you NOT do interior with those awesome figures?!
When those came out it's the first thing I thought of!

Love that you're doing this, cuz I can't afford to right now hahaha it's so cool!
Need a bunch of eggo boxes in the back, maybe the toy millennium falcon she levitated. Micro machine version would be good scale.

This build seriously has me thinking what other awesome pop culture builds could be done. Exciting!

Wife's already working on designing the small Ego boxes to cutout on heavy paper to fold boxes up. Hadn't even thought about a Micro Machines Falcon (I do however have a box full of Micro Machines I just went through to pull out scale RC boats, planes, trucks, cars etc for builds for those scale points.

on doing Google searches, this same build could potentially be the Amity Police Dept truck from the first Jaws as well.

The Back To the Future Toyota also has me highly interested!

[Ascender'nMN84]

Originally Posted by Richterat83

Wife's already working on designing the small Ego boxes to cutout on heavy paper to fold boxes up. Hadn't even thought about a Micro Machines Falcon (I do however have a box full of Micro Machines I just went through to pull out scale RC boats, planes, trucks, cars etc for builds for those scale points.

on doing Google searches, this same build could potentially be the Amity Police Dept truck from the first Jaws as well.

The Back To the Future Toyota also has me highly interested!

The Brody Blazer is on my list of trucks to build for my fleet. Need to get a clear shell for the inventory first though. The first few times I read the title of this thread, I kept reading "Hooper" who is the shark expert from Jaws. I haven't jumped on the Stranger Things bandwagon yet but it's also on my list. Great looking build though!

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[Shinchu]

if you like 80's music (or 80's anything!), the soundtrack of this show is worth the watch on its own. and the story is pretty neat too!

yeah I've been looking at other pop culture movie/tv trucks for inspiration. found an awesome pic that wont let me load the website from work (its not a "bad" website, sometimes gov't computers block stuff on accident) that has a ton of trucks from movies and shows.
anyone remember the truck from Red Dawn? it was a blue K10 stepside. tempting! other decent considerations: the blazer with top removed in Last Action Hero, the 81 bronco from Romancing the Stone... also with top removed.

*HA! found the image, but its too big to post here, so here is the link http://img.webme.com/pic/t/truck-dri...ovietrucks.jpg

so yeah... I'm ready for stranger things 3! i just read filming could be starting any day now!