DOUBLE d
Jeremy Kilburn « Havre De Grace, MD
Here’s an incredible Ultimate Scale Truck Expo (USTE) worthy rig that’s built by a well-respected scale RC-er. Jeremy won a Team Raffee D110 Station Wagon Body Set at USTE 2022. He then set out to customise it for the 2023 event. “I thought about how to customize it for quite a while by looking at Land Rover internet pages and found inspiration from an old military conversion to a dually pickup style,” Jeremy tells us. “Creating a single-cab, longbed dually Defender D130 was daunting, as no such thing existed in the real world or in RC. It took me about five months to plan and collect parts.” Jeremy converted it to a two-door single cab first, then created fender extensions from styrene layering to cover the dual wheel adapters and dual tires. The cab bench seat, the bed-mounted toolbox, which also functions as an access door for the battery, and the scale GCM Racing Toyota 22R engine were all scratch-made. He is looking forward to presenting and running this ride at USTE in Florida 2023. We’re sure it will attract plenty of attention, as it’s a great-looking ride. Jeremy, congratulations on your outstanding work!
BUILD HIGHLIGHTS
– Chassis: Boom Racing BRX02
– Body: Customized Team Raffee Defender 110 Wagon
– Motor: Castle 1900kV Slate
– Speed Control: Castle Mamba X
– Battery: Pit Bull RC 2200mAh 3S
– Wheels and Tires: Boom Racing wheels and Pit Bull Temco 1.9 x 3.65 tires
– Shocks: Boom Racing
– Axles: Boom Racing
– Radio System: Spektrum SR515 receiver and DX5 Rugged transmitter
– Other Options: Custom-made styrene plastic accessories, GCM Toyota 22R scale motor, Reefs RC Raw 500 – Operation 11 Charlie edition servo, Reefs RC micro 99 servos
F-250 Rock Crawler
Chris Kimmelshue « FALMOUTH, ME
Chris starts off by telling us, “Once I saw CEN Racing’s lifted F-250 RTR, I knew I wanted to turn it into a rock crawler.” In order to achieve his goal, Chris added the much larger and stronger Ryft axles. He also corrected the rig’s suspension geometry in order to optimize articulation and stability by using a mix of Axial’s M6 stainless links. The chassis braces and mounts were rearranged to improve the balance of the vehicle. He also moved the battery to the front for better crawling. “I added RC4WD’s two-speed Wraith transmission for the truck to quickly get to the rock piles and gear down for the ascents,” Chris adds. “To mount the gearbox, I made a custom Delrin skid plate and dropped the position of the transmission to lower the center of gravity.” One of the final touches was swapping the stock front bumper for Axial’s Basecamp bumper, which he reports fits nicely. The F-250 has a nice approach angle with the F-250 crawler bumper. It’s an amazing build and we’re absolutely loving it, Chris, great job!
BUILD HIGHLIGHTS
– Chassis: CEN Racing F-250
– Body: CEN Racing Ford F-250 SD KG1 Edition Lifted Truck
– Motor: Castle 1412-3200kV
– Speed Control: Castle Mamba X
– Battery: Powerhobby 3S 4200 mAh Si-Graphene
– Wheels and Tires: SSD Challenger 2.2 and Pro-Line Baja Pro X 2.2
– Shocks: GMade XD Diaphragm 103mm
– Axles: Axial Ryft AR90s
– Radio System: Spektrum DX5 Rugged radio and SR515 receiver
– Other Options: Axial SCX10-III Basecamp front bumper, Vanquish Products 2.2 wheel weights and hubs, Samix stainless steel pivot balls throughout, NSDRC RS1 monster torque servo, custom MIP driveshafts, sway bar mount, torsion rod using Reefs arms.
Salut, Gilles! VilLEneuve’s FeRrari 312T3
Evan Lee « Strathroy, Ontario, Canada
We don’t see nearly as many ’70s-era F1 builds, so it’s a delight whenever one is submitted to Readers Rides. Evan fills us in on this great-looking racer: “This build was a collaboration with another TamiyaClub member (alias speedy_w_beans), who designed, printed and painted the custom 3D-printed parts. I designed and built my own shallow cockpit including the gauge cluster, steering wheels, rollover pylons at front and back, and wiring for all instruments. The cockpit was designed after photographs of 1:1 and 1/20 scale cars, replacing the kit parts. The seat belt is a generic 1/10-scale 5-point harness, and the driver is a heavily modified Tamiya 4×4 figure with a Tamiya Rally Cockpit helmet. This build pays tribute to Canadian icon Gilles Villeneuve. It also celebrates the rare crossover of Tamiya with Canada. And despite the added weight of the scale details, it is fast!” We believe it! You guys did a great job! Thank you for sharing.
BUILD HIGHLIGHTS
– Chassis: Tamiya F104W
– Body: Tamiya Ferrari 312T3
– Motor: Tamiya Sport-Tuned 27T
– Speed Control: Mtroniks Sport 20 ESC
– Battery: Reedy Wolfpack 7.2V NiMH 2400mAh
– Wheels and Tires: Tamiya F104W rubber tires on custom 3D-printed wheels
– Paint: Tamiya TS-8 Italian Red, TS-26 Pure White, assorted Tamiya brush paints for detail parts and cockpit
– Decals: Tamiya
– Radio System: Spektrum DX4C radio and SR-315 receiver
– Other Options: Custom 3D-printed front brake ducts, rear wing mount, rear motor case panel; scratch-built cockpit with modified Tamiya
4×4 driver figure
Dillon’s Old School High Trail K10
Benjamin Garron « Hallstead, PA
Benjamin’s 9-year-old son is a huge fan of old iron and classic 4×4 trucks and had been asking Santa for one of these trucks for months. Benjamin didn’t disappoint his son and repainted some JConcept wheels and tire he left over from a previous project. Then he moved them on to the truck. Of the project, he says, “After a few hours of trial and error with some fit and finish, we had it dialed in where we wanted it. I used 1/4″ aluminum spacers to create a lift for the body and to raise the sidesteps to match. The bumpers were mounted directly to the body in order to make the truck look factory. The truck has an awesome classic 4×4 look now with the scale performance to match!” Great job on delivering this great-looking old school pickup in time for Christmas, Benjamin!
BUILD HIGHLIGHTS
– Chassis: Traxxas TRX-4 High Trail K10
– Body: Traxxas 1979 High Trail K10
– Motor: Traxxas 21T 550
– Speed Control: Traxxas XL5 3S
– Battery: Venom 2S LiPo
– Wheels and Tires: JConcepts 2.2 Midwest wheels and JConcepts Rangers tires
– Shocks: Traxxas
– Axles: Traxxas TRX-4 portals
– Radio System: Traxxas TQ
– Other Options: Custom 1-inch body lift, custom bumper mounts and side step relocation
King Nothing
DION ROPER « WEST ALLIS, WI
It’s not often that we get to see custom paint jobs on large-scale RCs, such as the one seen on this Arrma Felony. From what we can discern, the Felony’s ample 1/7-scale body was hydro-dipped and painted by Pitdawg Hydro in the company’s Nightmare patterned graphics and is backed by a rust-colored paint. Powerhobby wheels with Powerhobby Gripper tires are added to the look. Great-looking ride, Dion!
BUILD HIGHLIGHTS
– Chassis: Arrma Felony
– Body: Arrma Felony
– Motor: Spektrum
– Speed Control: Spektrum
– Battery: Spektrum
– Wheels and Tires: Powerhobby gold wheels mounted with Powerhobby Gripper belted tires
– Paint: Pitdawg Hydro
– Decals: Pitdawg Hydro
– Radio System: Spektrum
The post Readers Rides – April 2023 appeared first on RC Car Action.
