The Junkyard Stance Sand Scorcher Build

[Junkyard Stance]

Originally Posted by marzo

ah ah
thank's

i love also sand scorcher

http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76443

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Hey marzo - great build - and a touching tribute, your skill at building parts by hand from scratch is very impressive !, Sadly, I have to rely on computer skills - and technology.
I do attempt a painted finish though, coming up,,,

[Junkyard Stance]

Time to get some paint on that shell,,,

First, two coats of gloss black, acrylic primer





(Mental note, Scorchers look way cool in black),

Then a coat of metallic acrylic all over, and once dry, two coats of satin acrylic varnish.

Then I start to mask off individual panels





On this build, I'm going for a junkyard, rusty look with peeling paint and some bare metal showing through. So, I'm painting some of the panels slightly different metallic shades, by masking other panels off before spraying:









Some parts of the shell are masked of just using a cut stencil:



The results, an undercoat of metal panels to work up my junkyard look on



I finish this paint stage with a another couple of light coats of satin acrylic varnish - I spray in my garage where it is quite damp, this often results in white watermarks on the varnish layers when dry. A light rub with a cloth with a touch of olive oil should remove them,,,

[Junkyard Stance]

So, back to replacing some of those standard Tamiya parts that fall into my " could do better " category- Front lighting - Here's my plan

A hooded-lid design for the headlamp that can hold a 5mm LED, and a replacement for the indicator/side light that can hold a 3mm LED - both should hopefully use that standard clear plastic "glass":



And the effect I'm going for:



Here's the printed headlamp in white nylon:



And round the back with the fitting column, and LED holder:



The standard "glass" is a snug fit but eventually went in - top part first under the lid, then with firm pressure on the front of the glass, it went in with a reassuring 'click'



The side light part needed a light scraping with a scalpel to clean up some residue, but, again with a tight fit I eventually got the small clear plastic part in (I'm going for a tinted, black-out look to the the "glass", this was my first test with a mostly smoke , plus green/black acrylic mix):



The headlamp with 5mm LED, in primer:



And the LED in place, round the back:

[Junkyard Stance]

Fitting my headlamps does require drilling a 6mm hole directly in-between the fixing hole and the bottom of the back-face .

So, a small pilot hole first:





Then, I plumped for a 6mm wood bit:



I went in from the front - I thought perhaps a bit too high at first:



But from round the back, although I shaved the fixing post, the fit was good



and from the from the front, the hole was quite tidy:



The other side didn't go quite so well !

To Fix, I used two M2.5 6mm screws, with wahers:



Lights in place, with blacked out glass fitted, I'm liking the effect



With the LEDs on - surprising hard to photograph in the daylight - I'm reasonably happy with the results ( the right one went in a bit wonky )

[Junkyard Stance]

As you might have guessed, I'm adding a Tamiya lighting unit to power the LEDs, and with eight sockets available, I need to maximize my lighting on the rear

I'm planning a replacement cluster on each rear wing to hold a red, orange and white 3mm LED, and a replacement for the light holder over the license plate, with holders for two white 3mm LEDs

Here are my designs:





And on my 3D Scorcher:



Here are the 3D prints for the rear light cluster, with a printed clear acrylic part for the "glass"
( the unused Tamiya item that comes with the kit were just a touch small small too allow 3 LEDs - shame )







And the LED holder for the license plated light, which looks pretty much like the stock item:



But round the back, room for two 3mm LEDs:

[Junkyard Stance]

I painted the inside of the clear acrylic part with a smoke plus green/black acrylic - inline with my blacked out look for all the glass on this Scorcher



and painted the white nylon part with a primer, then metallic, the varnish



The fit of the license plated light holder was good ( on the third attempt ! ), here's the results of much tweaking of a curved part on a curved surface:



and from underneath:



It attached using the stock hole, I've used an M2 5mm button cap



I couldn't wait to test the rear light cluster with some LEDs - the holes needed slight cleaning up with a sharp 3mm drill bit until the fit was snug



and flip that switch,,



I was concerned my blackout on the glass was a little too much, but the effect was cool:



So on they go,,,

[Junkyard Stance]

To fit the rear light clusters, I'm using the stock locating holes as my fix points,



with two M2 6mm button cap screws:



After fixing loosely - before drilling, the part won't sit flush - I marked the top and bottom hole points





and then enlarged with a 5mm drill bit



and then cut away the material in-between



This allows space for the rear of the part, and it then tightened flush



The results of my rear LED holder, trying to stay true to the original sand scorcher, but should allow me to light up on nighttime drives:

[Junkyard Stance]

With my lighting taken care of, for now, I kept looking at that front sun visor, thinking what could I do on the rear of this Scorcher. A cool 70s looking louvered rear sun shade ? too much ? Na, never too much





My design includes a hinge, so I could flip up the shade enough to access the release for the body shell - and a part that replaces the two stock Tamiya spacers that sit between the body shell and the metal catch.

Firstly, I wanted to test fit a "snap in" version to test the accuracy of the rear window frame on my 3D model -

Here's the snap on prototype:



The fit was reasonable, so I made a few minor adjustments, added in and extra slat at the bottom, and pushed ahead with the hinged version:



Unfortunately, instead of getting closer to a snug fit on the the window frame, adding the hinging mechanism made the fit somewhat off when closed



It did open nicely though



More tweaking, and my for I next attempt, I tried a new version of the printed nylon material, allegedly black, but appears to be the white which has been subsequently died black after printing

Still looks way cool when open:



But now it won't even close at all !



And looks well off from above



I could see some thinking was needed on how to achieve accuracy on a square with rounded corners, that curves in two different directions,,,

[marzo]

[Trini2DBone]

Holeee crap!!! I love this!! Genius work on the added bits...outstanding no doubt!!

Subbed!

[Junkyard Stance]

Originally Posted by Trini2DBone

Holeee crap!!! I love this!! Genius work on the added bits...outstanding no doubt!!

Subbed!

Hey, Thanks Trini2DBone !

I promise we'll get to something a little more exciting that replacement bits soon ! (What kind of engine does this junkyard build need, me thinks) - thanks for the sub,,,

[Junkyard Stance]

Originally Posted by marzo

Hi marzo, thanks for checking back - the build is still some way ahead of the photos, still more to come

[Junkyard Stance]

We're nearly at the point where I will stop grumbling about Tamiya stock parts and get on to something more exciting, but not quite.

The wing mirrors ! Pretty flimsy and naff looking. What would be cool is a robust, cast metal part that uses the original mirrored plastic and fitting, won't break the first time you put the shell on it's side - and one that looks a bit more, well,,, scale

Here are my plans:



And on the 3D Scorcher:





Before trying a cast metal part from Shapeways for the first time - it is 3D printed in a waxy resin material, which is destroyed when it is then used as the cast for the alloy part - I decided to test my prototype in another new print material - Frosted Ultra Detail:



It looked great, with superb detail, but a lot more brittle that the nylon.

The part broke the first time I put the body shell on it's side

It did, however, survive long enough to know the fit was good, and I ordered the cast alloy wing mirror - in what Shapeways call "Polished Black Steel"



The tolerances in the metal part is slightly different, with the minimum thickness going up from .7mm ( on the nylon ) to 1mm on metal parts.
The surface id also slight rough and pitted, meaning the Tamiya mirrored plastic part needed sanding round the edges to fit:



It went in with a little coaxing



I used the original rubber O ring to fasten, and although it would come loose with rough treatment, is pretty firmly fixed in place to the touch



I got quite excited at ths point, happy with the results, so "mirrored" - excuse the pun - the part in the 3D software I use, and ordered the other side !

[Junkyard Stance]

On the Scorcher body shell, I'm pleased - after the trickiness and disappointment of my louvered sun shade ( not giving up ) - it was nice to have a design go smoothly

[Junkyard Stance]

While were at it, we might as well do the wipers,,,

Adding the fins give me that retro look I'm after:





The nylon prototype was made with a 1mm wall thickness - the minimum for a cast alloy part:






After a tweak to the angle the wiper sit at, onward with the cast alloy wiper blades



Of course, you need two for a sand scorcher



And on the body: