Airstream Bambi trailer for scx10 Cherokee

[frizzen]

I have always been highly impressed with the 'salesman sample' tents that many of the outdoor suppliers had mounted to boards as shelf demonstrators, and had often thought one of those would look great with one of my crawlers. Long ago, i happened across an Airstream Trailer in the alcohol section of a store? That looked close to 1/10 or 1/12 scale and i think is even more trick than having a tiny tent!!! I filed that memory away for my ADD to randomly chew on...

Back in summer of 2025 that idea resurfaced at the correct time, and one came over to my garage in June.

Jose Cuervo 1800 tequila - Airstream Bambi 22FB.
This was an advertising piece. It kinda worked, my eye hooked on it pretty hard!!!

The full set has the trailer, a grass base, fire pit, 2 folding chairs, and cooler. Very few are complete. The chairs advertise 1800 tequila, kracken rum, hangar 1 vodka, boodles gin, jose cuervo tequila, bushmills whiskEy, three olives vodka, tin cup whiskEy.
The trailer also has front and rear blue vanity plates for "1800 tequila" and "Jose Cuervo". I don't hate them, so i moved rear to front.
Mine didn't have the astroturf square, cooler of drinks, or a fire pit. No big loss.

I figured the best way to start this project was getting Vanity Plates.
Wanna get hitched?

Stoodis?

Skoden!

 

[Kingduck]

nice looks, exalty like the real thing

 

[frizzen]

Thanks kingduck! I'm pretty happy with the looks of this trailer.

Big airstream bambi somewhere in the wild

Why an XJ Cherokee, they're not really known as a tow rig?

(No sudden movements, and back away slowly. Mother jeeps are very protective of their young)
My big one is a 1999 Sport.
My small one is a SCX10 dingo with proline early (84-96) Cherokee body.

Mockup of outfit in tall grass

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Why was that in the alcohol section?!

Looks great behind your Jeep.

 

[JimrC]

That looks damn awesome

 

[frizzen]

Jimrc, thank you! I hope this one gets even more awesome.

Jato, that's a very good question.
The scale trailer was part of a promotional thing between Jose Cuervo tequila and Airstream trailers. It was an unknown number of "many years ago." This is far enough back Airstream site doesn't mention as a partnership or collaboration. I don't think i was even into rc rock crawling when these were out on display, so before Axial ax-10 release.

The awnings say "Airstream" "Get in the Summer Spirit"
The folding sling-chairs advertise 8 flavors of alcohol the parent company makes
It was to help you think of summer, camping, relaxing and sipping adult beverages around a campfire... i mean itstill sounds way better than pushing a cart through a supermarket.

I was absolutely holding out on you by not really showing the 2 awnings or chairs since i think travel-mode looks better when its behind a car. Also i don't have much 1/10 scale camping stuff.

 

[Gula]

Mine came with everything.

 

[frizzen]

Gula, that's awesome, i'd love to check out your build thread!

i wasn't having a great time looking for tire / wheel / axle options that wouldn't lookbad or stupid on the trailer..
I finally settled on some Tamiya "racing semi" wheels, picked up a set with 120mm & 140mm widths of unpowered rc axles, and some leaf spring kits.

Plus it needed a hitch coupler, then jeep needs a hitch or bumper. And then, and then, and then...
Started with a drophitch recciever, then the stock bumper didn't fit the smaller 36mm pin spacing
Tried ordering bumpers 4 times, kept getting eventually canceled at jungle site


This trailer frame doesn't give a ton to work with, but it's enough to start. Stamped 16g steel perimeter, with servo tape holding the vaccuformed body. Makes a nice light weight outfit that you shouldn't really notice behind a rig.

 

[Gula]

I plan on putting the chrome cr12 wheels and tioga tires on mine....

 

[frizzen]

Since we're working on stuff, and waiting on parts, and this kit has been sitting near the jeep for a couple years... my cherokee needs more lights!

Used some home printed and 'Club 5 racing' Light buckets, painted black, molotow chrome. Some light buckets were filled with hotglue to diffuse better. E6000 lights in.

It's cool and all, but now the body won't fit on chassis around the interior plate.

i need the Wire Stretcher

It fits, but that's not final.

Made another light bucket for front side markers. Then stuck some printer-raft onto grill for mounting light controller and wiring connector

Still need to get the Magnetic Pogo Pin Connector installed. I wanted to just put the light control on the chassis, but if i do that every channel gets 2 pins. Or if i mount light control on body it's only 4-6 wires to passthrough a connector.

 

[frizzen]

Then more parts arrived, mockups, eventually some warm days happened...
I really wasn't happy with the cheap leafspring kits, 1 hangar style is misdrilled, and spacing is wrong. So i got 2 kits to make 1 good setup.

Some 1/2" mild steel box tube got split & ground to become shallow C channel. Made a "roman numeral 2" which would fit leafsprings mounted to axle. Chopped and moved a chassis brace, chopped out other, centered the axle, and vertically lined up with stiffener bend, then reinstalled the other chassis brace

This is the 140mm axle, looks like 157mm should be able to fit on mine if i need it. Forgot to measure frame width before i hacked out braces and reworked things.

Then i realized it's sitting too low, made some lift blocks between frame and spring hangars. It's still a touch short, but this is limit of 3mm hardware i had on hand to engage nylock.

 

[Gula]

Those wheels and tires look good!

 

[frizzen]

Thanks gula, It took a while to decide on those.

I think they keep the trailer pretty well scaled. Tamiya 'Racing Semi' actually a touring car with weird body. The front and rear wheels have opposite offset cone so it looks front and rear but really same backspacing. Most airstreams i've run across are on 8-10 hole aluminum rims, and i like that more than the spokes on a lot of Bambis. Size looks pretty close to the Bambi in post #3. Plus i should be able to find touring car tire foams pretty easily

My axle is a touch narrow at 140mm, but i haven't taken a micrometer out to see if wider options would fit

 

[Gula]

Seen these yet?ya, I have a few of those wheels in white, chrome, and black and a set of them tires came with a kit I have.

 

[frizzen]

Great find, i had not seen those folding steps yet! Where did you find those?

 

[Gula]

Great find, i had not seen those folding steps yet! Where did you find those?

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mqAlPCN

 

[Gula]

looks like this.....once Mounted, it'll float like the real deal!

 

[frizzen]

Oh yeah, gula that's a great find!!!
My frame is about 2" off the ground, which is about where the side skirts end on a stock Tonka Dollhouse.
Those steps say 50mm tread width, 40mm depth with 20mm tread run, 20mm rise between steps. If the top step is mounting plate, i probably should have ordered a '3' instead of the '2'. I guess we'll see in a month or so.

I'm not sold on the sling-chairs, but i don't hate them.

 

[frizzen]

For taillights Truscale RC has some really nice aluminum bezel round lights for 5mm leds that i've used on some other builds

Light Bezels

True Scale R/C your stop for custom 1/14 Semi Truck parts.

www.truescale-rc.com

2/$13
Then i heard about these clearance lights in a build thread on another board. Type B is teardrop

Position LED Side Skirts Light Marker Lamp Unique Special Upgrade Part

Specification: Brand: Degree Item Condition: New Scale: 1/14 Material: plastic Voltage of light: ????????13V Current of light: ????????160mA Suitable for: 1/14 Tamiye RC tractor truck 56323 car, DIY LESU HUINA models The package included: 2pc LED light If you have any query or are not sure...

www.toucanhobby.com

Degree rc. 2/$13
But that gets pretty spendy when i'd need 7 red, 4 amber.

Degree Tear Drop Marker Lights

Tear Drop marker lights for trailer build or your truck build. You will need to fasten them with either glue or some type of cement. The package includes three yellow lights and resistors.

bedrockrc.com

Degree Rc. 3/$18

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256809936940541.html

Square lens clips onto 3mm led. Red / amber / white. 5/$6
Pretty sure i could make a jig to file edges of these to shape of the originals. whites for some area flood lighting

Open to any ideas! I like 'teardrop' style of clearance lights better that the 'lens in a chrome icecream cone' style

 

[Gula]

The chairs look "out of scale" as in: too big....imbho. But thats not something that has stopped anyone from going to the local Michael's/Hobby-Lobby/Crafts-shits store, and picking up, some......say what's that soft ass wood you can press your nail THRU? make another set that's "To scale" and re-use the tequila "hammock"