petrolhead
Newbie
I thought I'd share my Paj with you all on here, seeing as it's one of my favourite models and it's been a kind of ongoing project over the last 2 or so years. I'll give you a quick run-down of what it's been through so far.
It's no match for some of the mad scale things that I've seen on here, but it does me fine.
How it started - A box of bits and a body with about 10 coats of paint:
After a few days of fiddling and an online manual, and a god-awful shade of matt grey
At this stage it was bog standard, as I was just getting to grips with it :
After a while I read up about the 4 link rear suspension you can do to the rear axle, and gave that a go. I sourced the parts from ModelsportUK:
.. and set to work fiddling around trying to get it set up as best as possible. Since I first did it, it's changed too many times to count. Now I'm at the point where I'm happy with the amount of performance I get from it as there's a good dollop of articulation, but decent stabily at moderate speeds too. This is how it was at first install (forgive the wonky-ness... and mud):
And that gave a pretty decent amount of flex:
After that, I got bored with the paint job that seemed, literally, to be getting duller by the day, so was inspired by a neighbours car and painted it a more normal, brighter colour:
These were taking during one of it's runs in my Mum's flower bed:
I'd been thinking about it for a while but decided to go ahead and bite the bullet. The front suspension is, along with the steering, one of the worse parts of the XC in my opinion. My solution was to drill two holes in the chassis above each of the front shocks. This allowed me to fit 4" shocks to the front, and after some innovative mounting, I managed to get them set up. The front now provided a good amount of travel, a lot more than before, and I'm pleased with it. This is after front suspension mods:
At one point I found a couple of spotlights off another model lying around so I mounted them up. I also used an old cut up speaker cover to use as "light covers" which, I thought, looked pretty good. Although on the first run, I managed to lose them, so that was the end of that:
I can't sit still for very long, so I started having wild and wacky ideas of how to change the body up a bit. So, with my two (tiny) pictures of what I was aiming for, I set to work:
I'd never done any body work before (well, I've done a bit to real cars, but not plastic), so it was a good experience and a learning curve, as much as actually getting it done. And I really enjoyed doing it. Basically, what I did was first cover up the inside rear windows with fibreglass. Layers and layers and layers of fiberglass. Smelly stuff that "thumbsup" When that was done, I moved onto filler, and after layer and layers and layers of that, it was time for paint. After the first coat of primer I saw all the imperfections come out, so sanded it back and added some more filler. I wasn't toooo fussed to be honest though as I'd be running it into the ground anyway. So, this is the end result:
Since then, I've painted the chrome front and rear bumpers black, to stop them sticking out like a sore thumb.
At the moment, it's in bits as I've stripped it down to give it all a good clean and freshen it up a bit. I'm also making an alu front skid for it. I've got some Rock Stompers coming in the post, not sure how well they'll fit but I'll make it work.
I'm also having ideas about new bodywork after seeing everyone elses on here. I'm thinking about chopping it straight down, just behind the front doors. Then, making a bed for it, and maybe some sort of cage. However, I've never worked with styrene or welding / braising before, so if anyone could give me a link to some decent guides, I'd be most grateful.
And that's it for now. I'll get some pics when the new rubber gets here.
It's no match for some of the mad scale things that I've seen on here, but it does me fine.
How it started - A box of bits and a body with about 10 coats of paint:
After a few days of fiddling and an online manual, and a god-awful shade of matt grey
At this stage it was bog standard, as I was just getting to grips with it :
After a while I read up about the 4 link rear suspension you can do to the rear axle, and gave that a go. I sourced the parts from ModelsportUK:
.. and set to work fiddling around trying to get it set up as best as possible. Since I first did it, it's changed too many times to count. Now I'm at the point where I'm happy with the amount of performance I get from it as there's a good dollop of articulation, but decent stabily at moderate speeds too. This is how it was at first install (forgive the wonky-ness... and mud):
And that gave a pretty decent amount of flex:
After that, I got bored with the paint job that seemed, literally, to be getting duller by the day, so was inspired by a neighbours car and painted it a more normal, brighter colour:
These were taking during one of it's runs in my Mum's flower bed:
I'd been thinking about it for a while but decided to go ahead and bite the bullet. The front suspension is, along with the steering, one of the worse parts of the XC in my opinion. My solution was to drill two holes in the chassis above each of the front shocks. This allowed me to fit 4" shocks to the front, and after some innovative mounting, I managed to get them set up. The front now provided a good amount of travel, a lot more than before, and I'm pleased with it. This is after front suspension mods:
At one point I found a couple of spotlights off another model lying around so I mounted them up. I also used an old cut up speaker cover to use as "light covers" which, I thought, looked pretty good. Although on the first run, I managed to lose them, so that was the end of that:
I can't sit still for very long, so I started having wild and wacky ideas of how to change the body up a bit. So, with my two (tiny) pictures of what I was aiming for, I set to work:
I'd never done any body work before (well, I've done a bit to real cars, but not plastic), so it was a good experience and a learning curve, as much as actually getting it done. And I really enjoyed doing it. Basically, what I did was first cover up the inside rear windows with fibreglass. Layers and layers and layers of fiberglass. Smelly stuff that "thumbsup" When that was done, I moved onto filler, and after layer and layers and layers of that, it was time for paint. After the first coat of primer I saw all the imperfections come out, so sanded it back and added some more filler. I wasn't toooo fussed to be honest though as I'd be running it into the ground anyway. So, this is the end result:
Since then, I've painted the chrome front and rear bumpers black, to stop them sticking out like a sore thumb.
At the moment, it's in bits as I've stripped it down to give it all a good clean and freshen it up a bit. I'm also making an alu front skid for it. I've got some Rock Stompers coming in the post, not sure how well they'll fit but I'll make it work.
I'm also having ideas about new bodywork after seeing everyone elses on here. I'm thinking about chopping it straight down, just behind the front doors. Then, making a bed for it, and maybe some sort of cage. However, I've never worked with styrene or welding / braising before, so if anyone could give me a link to some decent guides, I'd be most grateful.
And that's it for now. I'll get some pics when the new rubber gets here.
