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my first scale truck. scx10 with pro-line jeep cherokee body

ultrataco

Newbie
Joined
Oct 10, 2015
Messages
14
Location
Charlestown
Hi. This is my first post here. I hope this is the right place for this. I'm into rc helicopters mostly (also planes and quads a bit too) but recently decided to get a truck for winter. I got a little 1/36 losi desert truck for in the house and it was fun so decided to go bigger. I was going to get a ECX Ruckus but then discovered scale rock crawling through rc sparks videos on youtube and it looked awesome so I decided to try that. While doing a lot of research, I kept ending up on this forum so that's why I'm here. Thanks for your help. "thumbsup"

Anyway, on to my truck. (yes I forgot to put the stickers on before I took these pics)



I have a friend with a real jeep cherokee and I like them so I knew I wanted to do that. I started with the scx10 deadbolt because it was the cheapest scx10 and had the shorter wheelbase needed for the pro-line cherokee body. It was still a bit long but I found a couple shorter links in the big bag of parts that came with the truck (thanks, axial). I put those at the front and removed the spacer at the front of the y-shaped link thing. I also got a set of scx10 ram power wagon wheels and tires from ebay because they are smaller than the stock deadbolt tires.




This is my first scale rc truck but I do have some experience with paint and masking (and other things I needed to do) and I got a spare body for the micro truck to practice on.

The black trim is plastidip. The window trim is electrical tape. The red on the taillights is a red sharpie. The orange is a mix of orange and yellow sharpie.





The tires (at least in the rear) rub a bit at high angles but I don't really care. I like how the truck looks and don't want to cut up the body. (except maybe the front bumper when I get an aftermarket one)




As you can see, my back yard is very flat. Fine for small helicopters but not exactly the most fun place for a rock crawler. I need to find some more rocks. :) I live near a state park so may try that.




my cat, marker. he doesn't like my trucks very much. (probably because I sometimes chase him a bit. :ror:)




The body is mounted using some rare-earth magnets I found at home depot. The red things are cut up vinyl end caps. The light buckets are made of foam board and aluminum foil. everything is stuck on with hot glue (love that stuff :mrgreen:).






A taillight. (that's an "L" for left)



Headlight, blinker, side marker. (that black stuff is plasti-dip over spray)




This was a very fun project. My future plans for it are bumpers, roof rack and under body tray, possibly window tint, and I'd like to try an fpv camera on it. I took the camera off my fpv nano qx and stuck it on my losi micro truck and that's a lot of fun so I want to try it on this too. If I like that, I may go with a better fpv set up like on my 250 mini h-quad.


anyway sorry for the long post but hope you like it. :)
 
added pro-line bumpers and axial wheel wells.

got to do some good off-roading today. The body turned out so nice I hate to scratch it up but I was having fun. :)



 
It snowed today. :mrgreen:

a couple of the magnets came unglued so I may need to use ca instead of hot glue.





 
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Can you give any detail on how you made the lights? The look great.

Thanks. :) I wish I'd taken pics of the process but didn't think about it, sorry. It wasn't too complicated though. I cut out pieces of foam board (I got it at a dollar tree). I wasn't too precise about the shapes or anything. Just trim, test fit, etc. When I got one side how I wanted, I traced the finished pieces out on more foam board so the other side would be about the same. I glued the pieces together with hot glue and stuck on some aluminum foil with CA glue. I used a screwdriver or something to poke the holes for the lights then hot glued it all to the body.

The orange and red on the lenses was done with sharpie markers. :mrgreen:

The actual lights and wiring was just a kit I got at a hobby shop. It just plugs into the esc.
 
Thanks. :) I wish I'd taken pics of the process but didn't think about it, sorry. It wasn't too complicated though. I cut out pieces of foam board (I got it at a dollar tree). I wasn't too precise about the shapes or anything. Just trim, test fit, etc. When I got one side how I wanted, I traced the finished pieces out on more foam board so the other side would be about the same. I glued the pieces together with hot glue and stuck on some aluminum foil with CA glue. I used a screwdriver or something to poke the holes for the lights then hot glued it all to the body.

The orange and red on the lenses was done with sharpie markers. :mrgreen:

The actual lights and wiring was just a kit I got at a hobby shop. It just plugs into the esc.

Any kind of lense in there, or is it just shining through the lexan?
 
Any kind of lense in there, or is it just shining through the lexan?
oh it's just the lexan. I masked off the light areas before I painted. I colored the inside with sharpies before I glued in the light buckets.

i love the magnet body mounting system. very slick
Thanks. The magnets aren't as strong as I originally expected but they're good enough for me. The body usually comes off when it rolls over but the aftermarket bumpers keep it from getting knocked off when I run into stuff. Next time I'll go with bigger magnets.

Recently some of the magnets have come unstuck. I guess hot glue doesn't bond well to the metal, especially in the cold. I just put them back with CA glue so I'll see if that works better.

I like them. It's much more convenient than clips and looks nicer on a scale build. "thumbsup"
 
Sorry to keep bumping this. Hope that's OK. This has kind of turned into my build/update thread for this truck. :)

I just got some 2.8 Proline Trenchers for my ECX Ruckus (2wd). It was still pretty useless in the 3-4" of snow we had today. Even my scx10 struggled to get around (never got stuck though "thumbsup"). So I decided to see if the Trenchers would fit it. They did! :mrgreen: Of course they rub like crazy and don't look very scale, but the jeep now had no problem driving around in my yard in a few inches of snow.

I prefer the scale look so will put the 1.9s back on later, but it's nice to have the option of bigger tires. I may get a second body that I don't mind cutting up just to use with these.



 
I took off the silly 2.8s and yesterday I moved the battery tray to the front. I zip tied the front of the tray mount to the wood stick I had hot-glued to the wheel wells. I used velcro to stick the other end to the esc. This meant of course I had to move the on/off switch so I zip-tied it to the tray mount.

It's wet because I just got back from my first time with it on a real trail "thumbsup" It was awesome. About 3.8 miles of snow covered hiking trails. :mrgreen: I need to get another battery or 2. I carried it on a few boring parts to save battery and it still was basically dead near the end.





 
Wow, beautiful job, my cherokee doesn't look half as nice, i have the same bumpers too, I'm about to order a new cherokee body for spring that I won't butcher quite as bad as my last one, I think I may copy your light idea, thanks!
 
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