spacephrawg
Pebble Pounder
Leftfield question:
Does it every bother you scaler guys (whose ranks i intend to join when i can afford to) that some of the bodies you've chosen for your rigs are models of vehicles that in real life either suck or are notoriously unreliable? For instance, Land Rover Discoveries, Range Rovers, Jeeps, to a lesser degree, Ford trucks? (I base that list on vehicle reviews and asking mechanics.)
Strange wrinkles:
I've got Aspergers. High-functioning autism, for those not familiar with it. Until i got to art school, I had typical really passionate obsessions about various things over the years. Most people with Aspergers tend to be into things like science fiction subgenres, Dungeons and Dragons, trains, military hardware. I was a bit unconventional in that my obsessions changed over time, but i was typical in that whenever I was into something, it was my whole world. Also my interests started out as age-typical and then got...unique. In early childhood, I was into trucks, dinosaurs, the Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, and then it got weird: the Soviet space program (because their hardware looked cooler and some of the stories of missions were crazier), warships from the age of sail, WW2 warships, sports cars, military aircraft of all eras, military vehicles in general, for a brief time, Warhammer 40k, Ma.k zvb.3000 (google that if you're not familiar with it - its pretty cool), and then I graduated high school, hit art school and began to realize that all of my interests were aesthetic in nature, and now that i found out how design and composition worked, I was able to largely ditch the whole obsession thing and focus on interesting designs. Now I do abstract sculpture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phrawggmak
Anyhow, one thing that would cause me to shift my interests over time is that I would find out everything there was to know about a subject, including its flaws, which would eventually color my whole view of the thing, or at least kill the romance of it. In late college, the obsessions started to come back just a little, with an interest in WW2 PT boats, so I bought a great big RC scale model of one and I have no regrets. However I made a point of limiting how much information I took in about it, not that I hadn't already researched it to death in my early teens. I didn't want to pollute my experience with this thing. So far so good, though it has gotten dampened just a little by my evolving political views which can be summed up as a swing from left to right, to center to a general unimpressed attitude towards all sides; I think they're all nuts and they're all wrought with ugly compromises which i prefer not to discuss on this forum. However I still manage to love my boat and not think too much into it.
The Aspergers mind is obsessively analytical. I listen to music for its patterns and if life had gone differently, I would've been a composer. I read literature and watch movies, reading for themes and tropes and metaphors, which deepen my appreciation of the media and sometimes kill the romance I may have initially had with it.
So back to trucks/crawlers: I keep up with automotive technology, though i try not to immerse myself in it like i did when i was 12. However I know which vehicles are better than others in various respects, which sometimes comes into conflict with my aesthetic sense.
So the thing is I find myself conflicted when I see your awesome rigs and try to decide what to get for myself. I shouldn't since they're just models but i can't help it. I like the Land Rover bodies. I like the Ford and Chevy bodies. Occasionally I find a Hummer body I like. I like the Toyota Hilux bodies but they don't always do it for me. The result is a lot of indecision and mood swings between drooling over a design and being disappointed by what it represents.
And then theres the issue of how some of these behave as RC rigs, and the conflict between what looks good and what handles well. For instance, the D90 hard body, with its roof intact, looks epic no matter which chassis you fit it to but it requires you to have an ~11" wb and according to a few users on here, it can be top-heavy and roll backwards when crawling uphill. The pickup truck bodies look fine if you don't mind the fact that on an SCX10, which is the chassis that most appeals to me right now, it is inevitable that the wheels will extend outboard from the body because of axle width, which doesn't looks all that realistic or appealing to me. Yes, they do it in Iceland but unless you go full-droop, its very difficult to have a low-enough lift that it will look like a real truck, or at least look as if, if it were real, that it wouldn't flip over on a turn.
I suppose one way around the problem with the D90 top-heaviness is to cut the roof off and put in a roll cage instead but i have mixed feelings about how that looks and I'm not at all set up to do brazing (would 5ton epoxy hold the metal together well enough?)
I'm not too hot on how the Dingo body and I'd prefer to stick with hard bodies rather than Lexan if I can help it because I love the detail.
I recently saw a couple of things online re: the D90: a clip from Fifth Gear that praised the thing, and a lengthy discussion thread on a car news blog that heavily criticized its reliability. "Yeah its more capable than the Toyota Landcruiser, but it will break down on you in the middle of nowhere whereas a Toyota will keep going and it can get anywhere with 4wd and a winch that the D90 can stock" [sic]. The last thing i need is somebody bringing that up while I'm tooling around at the local park with my scaler.
I have similar concerns about Jeeps, though i don't find them to be as attractive.
If somebody started selling a 1984+ Toyota Tacoma, all of this biznatch would be settled for me and I'd be all over that, but they don't and I'm not set up to modify the model of the 1983 hilux that way. Weathering and grinding dents into it, no prob. But I wouldn't try additive modifications.
I anticipate that some of you will tell me I'm missing the point somewhat. Actually I'm hoping that some of you do. However, its not enough that the hobby is about "having fun" - enjoying it is multi-leveled for me. Maybe you can help me figure out how to justify having a model of a vehicle that looks cool but has a so-so reputation in real life? Maybe theres an angle that I'm missing that would allow me to not care about how the real steel vehicles are?
Maybe it is possible to modify a real steel D90 to be uber-reliable, on par with Toyota, and I should modify my body-to-be to look like one of those?
Maybe the sans-roof + rollcage idea won't be so top-heavy? Maybe there are a variety of ways to lower the CoG?
What do you guys say? Thanks awfully much!
Does it every bother you scaler guys (whose ranks i intend to join when i can afford to) that some of the bodies you've chosen for your rigs are models of vehicles that in real life either suck or are notoriously unreliable? For instance, Land Rover Discoveries, Range Rovers, Jeeps, to a lesser degree, Ford trucks? (I base that list on vehicle reviews and asking mechanics.)
Strange wrinkles:
I've got Aspergers. High-functioning autism, for those not familiar with it. Until i got to art school, I had typical really passionate obsessions about various things over the years. Most people with Aspergers tend to be into things like science fiction subgenres, Dungeons and Dragons, trains, military hardware. I was a bit unconventional in that my obsessions changed over time, but i was typical in that whenever I was into something, it was my whole world. Also my interests started out as age-typical and then got...unique. In early childhood, I was into trucks, dinosaurs, the Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, and then it got weird: the Soviet space program (because their hardware looked cooler and some of the stories of missions were crazier), warships from the age of sail, WW2 warships, sports cars, military aircraft of all eras, military vehicles in general, for a brief time, Warhammer 40k, Ma.k zvb.3000 (google that if you're not familiar with it - its pretty cool), and then I graduated high school, hit art school and began to realize that all of my interests were aesthetic in nature, and now that i found out how design and composition worked, I was able to largely ditch the whole obsession thing and focus on interesting designs. Now I do abstract sculpture:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/phrawggmak
Anyhow, one thing that would cause me to shift my interests over time is that I would find out everything there was to know about a subject, including its flaws, which would eventually color my whole view of the thing, or at least kill the romance of it. In late college, the obsessions started to come back just a little, with an interest in WW2 PT boats, so I bought a great big RC scale model of one and I have no regrets. However I made a point of limiting how much information I took in about it, not that I hadn't already researched it to death in my early teens. I didn't want to pollute my experience with this thing. So far so good, though it has gotten dampened just a little by my evolving political views which can be summed up as a swing from left to right, to center to a general unimpressed attitude towards all sides; I think they're all nuts and they're all wrought with ugly compromises which i prefer not to discuss on this forum. However I still manage to love my boat and not think too much into it.
The Aspergers mind is obsessively analytical. I listen to music for its patterns and if life had gone differently, I would've been a composer. I read literature and watch movies, reading for themes and tropes and metaphors, which deepen my appreciation of the media and sometimes kill the romance I may have initially had with it.
So back to trucks/crawlers: I keep up with automotive technology, though i try not to immerse myself in it like i did when i was 12. However I know which vehicles are better than others in various respects, which sometimes comes into conflict with my aesthetic sense.
So the thing is I find myself conflicted when I see your awesome rigs and try to decide what to get for myself. I shouldn't since they're just models but i can't help it. I like the Land Rover bodies. I like the Ford and Chevy bodies. Occasionally I find a Hummer body I like. I like the Toyota Hilux bodies but they don't always do it for me. The result is a lot of indecision and mood swings between drooling over a design and being disappointed by what it represents.
And then theres the issue of how some of these behave as RC rigs, and the conflict between what looks good and what handles well. For instance, the D90 hard body, with its roof intact, looks epic no matter which chassis you fit it to but it requires you to have an ~11" wb and according to a few users on here, it can be top-heavy and roll backwards when crawling uphill. The pickup truck bodies look fine if you don't mind the fact that on an SCX10, which is the chassis that most appeals to me right now, it is inevitable that the wheels will extend outboard from the body because of axle width, which doesn't looks all that realistic or appealing to me. Yes, they do it in Iceland but unless you go full-droop, its very difficult to have a low-enough lift that it will look like a real truck, or at least look as if, if it were real, that it wouldn't flip over on a turn.
I suppose one way around the problem with the D90 top-heaviness is to cut the roof off and put in a roll cage instead but i have mixed feelings about how that looks and I'm not at all set up to do brazing (would 5ton epoxy hold the metal together well enough?)
I'm not too hot on how the Dingo body and I'd prefer to stick with hard bodies rather than Lexan if I can help it because I love the detail.
I recently saw a couple of things online re: the D90: a clip from Fifth Gear that praised the thing, and a lengthy discussion thread on a car news blog that heavily criticized its reliability. "Yeah its more capable than the Toyota Landcruiser, but it will break down on you in the middle of nowhere whereas a Toyota will keep going and it can get anywhere with 4wd and a winch that the D90 can stock" [sic]. The last thing i need is somebody bringing that up while I'm tooling around at the local park with my scaler.
I have similar concerns about Jeeps, though i don't find them to be as attractive.
If somebody started selling a 1984+ Toyota Tacoma, all of this biznatch would be settled for me and I'd be all over that, but they don't and I'm not set up to modify the model of the 1983 hilux that way. Weathering and grinding dents into it, no prob. But I wouldn't try additive modifications.
I anticipate that some of you will tell me I'm missing the point somewhat. Actually I'm hoping that some of you do. However, its not enough that the hobby is about "having fun" - enjoying it is multi-leveled for me. Maybe you can help me figure out how to justify having a model of a vehicle that looks cool but has a so-so reputation in real life? Maybe theres an angle that I'm missing that would allow me to not care about how the real steel vehicles are?
Maybe it is possible to modify a real steel D90 to be uber-reliable, on par with Toyota, and I should modify my body-to-be to look like one of those?
Maybe the sans-roof + rollcage idea won't be so top-heavy? Maybe there are a variety of ways to lower the CoG?
What do you guys say? Thanks awfully much!
