sqc049
Newbie
Hey guys, new to this forum and new to crawling but not RC. A little about me before I get into pictures and descriptions. I've been an avid off road racer for years, I've done pretty well for myself and never really ventured away from electric and some nitro off road racing. I never really paid much attention to rock crawling, even going so far as to mock it because of how slow they are.
That all changed a couple of weeks ago. I was at the J Concepts Fall Nationals at RC Excitement in Massachusetts. This race had huge attendance, so much so that there was hours in between heats. RCE has an awesome rock crawling track out back. So during one of my many walks outside to get some air, I was watching some guys crawl. A few of them were kind enough to let me try their rigs and I was hooked. I immediately went into the hobby shop to look for a crawler of my own. At this point I still didn't know anything about scale crawling or much about this segment of the hobby at all.
After looking at some RTR trucks and some kits, the racer in me took over and I decided to pick up the K5 Blazer Ascender kit. I went back to the pits and started to build my new truck. I also picked up an RC4wd 35T brushed motor and cheap Dynamite speed control while I was in the shop. I'm going to use some of my race shorties for batteries and a Futaba HV servo for steering out of my nitro buggy. Ultimately I'd like to upgrade to a Tekin FX-R down the road, but this setup will work to get me going.
I built the kit per the manual with 314mm wheelbase and mounted up my electronics, I just need to wire up the speedo and change the connector to get it running. This was a nice build with no issues other than some missing screws which I was able to source from my spare hardware.
Here she is all built out of the box:
Once I got home from Massachusetts, I started doing a lot of research and really got into the idea of a scale build. I have some experience in static models so this appealed to me. I also own a 2013 FJ Cruiser, so my own truck will serve as my inspiration for this build up.
Here is my muse:
I'm going to build this truck not how my FJC currently sits, but how I would build it if I had unlimited funds. I've always imagined this truck as an overland vehicle, capable of getting in and out of the wilderness and being able to spend a few days there if need be.
The first order of business was finding a body. After doing some research I decided to go ahead and order the Tamiya FJC body. Based on the dimensions of this body, I knew I would have to rebuild the truck to the shortest wheelbase possible and probably have to narrow the track width as well.
I also decided to ditch the 1.9 wheels and tires that come with truck. They looked way to big and wouldn't fit under the body properly. I ordered a set of 1.55 black steelie beadlocks from RC4wd and a set of 1.55 Rock Crusher tires. This should give a much more scale appearance to the truck.
The body showed up on Friday and I got straight to work.
Here is the Tamiya FJC next to the stock Blazer body:
Here is the FJC body on the chassis built at 314mm and with the 1.9 wheels and tires:
You can see in the photo the truck is way too long and tires are way out of scale.
Yesterday I ripped the chassis down and rebuilt it at the shortest wheelbase available. Here is the chassis shortened up:
Here she is with the 1.55s mounted up:
And with the 1.55s and body mocked up. The length is just about perfect:
The next step will be narrowing the track width. The shots below show how wide the truck is in relation to the body. I probably won't get a chance to work on the truck again until tomorrow or Tuesday, but I'll post an update once she is narrowed up and sitting properly. After that I will get the body painted up and mounted and then start on the scale aspect of the body build. This will be a bit of process for me as I'm learning as I go, but looking forward to this build.
Thanks for looking guys, hope this wasn't to long winded.
-Andrew
That all changed a couple of weeks ago. I was at the J Concepts Fall Nationals at RC Excitement in Massachusetts. This race had huge attendance, so much so that there was hours in between heats. RCE has an awesome rock crawling track out back. So during one of my many walks outside to get some air, I was watching some guys crawl. A few of them were kind enough to let me try their rigs and I was hooked. I immediately went into the hobby shop to look for a crawler of my own. At this point I still didn't know anything about scale crawling or much about this segment of the hobby at all.
After looking at some RTR trucks and some kits, the racer in me took over and I decided to pick up the K5 Blazer Ascender kit. I went back to the pits and started to build my new truck. I also picked up an RC4wd 35T brushed motor and cheap Dynamite speed control while I was in the shop. I'm going to use some of my race shorties for batteries and a Futaba HV servo for steering out of my nitro buggy. Ultimately I'd like to upgrade to a Tekin FX-R down the road, but this setup will work to get me going.
I built the kit per the manual with 314mm wheelbase and mounted up my electronics, I just need to wire up the speedo and change the connector to get it running. This was a nice build with no issues other than some missing screws which I was able to source from my spare hardware.
Here she is all built out of the box:
Once I got home from Massachusetts, I started doing a lot of research and really got into the idea of a scale build. I have some experience in static models so this appealed to me. I also own a 2013 FJ Cruiser, so my own truck will serve as my inspiration for this build up.
Here is my muse:
I'm going to build this truck not how my FJC currently sits, but how I would build it if I had unlimited funds. I've always imagined this truck as an overland vehicle, capable of getting in and out of the wilderness and being able to spend a few days there if need be.
The first order of business was finding a body. After doing some research I decided to go ahead and order the Tamiya FJC body. Based on the dimensions of this body, I knew I would have to rebuild the truck to the shortest wheelbase possible and probably have to narrow the track width as well.
I also decided to ditch the 1.9 wheels and tires that come with truck. They looked way to big and wouldn't fit under the body properly. I ordered a set of 1.55 black steelie beadlocks from RC4wd and a set of 1.55 Rock Crusher tires. This should give a much more scale appearance to the truck.
The body showed up on Friday and I got straight to work.
Here is the Tamiya FJC next to the stock Blazer body:
Here is the FJC body on the chassis built at 314mm and with the 1.9 wheels and tires:
You can see in the photo the truck is way too long and tires are way out of scale.
Yesterday I ripped the chassis down and rebuilt it at the shortest wheelbase available. Here is the chassis shortened up:
Here she is with the 1.55s mounted up:
And with the 1.55s and body mocked up. The length is just about perfect:
The next step will be narrowing the track width. The shots below show how wide the truck is in relation to the body. I probably won't get a chance to work on the truck again until tomorrow or Tuesday, but I'll post an update once she is narrowed up and sitting properly. After that I will get the body painted up and mounted and then start on the scale aspect of the body build. This will be a bit of process for me as I'm learning as I go, but looking forward to this build.
Thanks for looking guys, hope this wasn't to long winded.
-Andrew
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