RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Despite having tank projects on the go, I’ve decided to venture into the world of WPL trucks. After doing some shopping around, and checking out the evolving market for these trucks, I’ve decided to go with a HEMTT-style truck from Fayee. It has some of the upgrades over the original WPL trucks, while still maintaining an entry level price for a six-wheeler. It seems that you cannot buy directly from WPL at the moment, so sites like Banggood or Aliexpress are the main source of trucks and parts. Their poor descriptions make it vague as to what version or parts you are purchasing. The Youtube reviews of the Fayee made it the best bet for my money. It arrived in a fairly good state, with minor damage to the box.



With a cabin that has opening doors, and so much glass, I decided it needs to be driven by a crew - Ella, and her twin sister, er, Bella. The twins are enlisted in the Colonial Marines, and can’t wait to get to grips with their outfit’s new vehicle.



However, neither of the pair can fit behind the wheel. The footwell and steering wheel aren’t meant for a driver with legs.



A bit of work with the saw makes some openings in the floor for leg-room, and raising the steering wheel to a more truck-like position allows the girls to get inside. Now they’re able to hit the road!



There will be more improvements on the way as I try out a few things. I’m used to having sound with my tanks, so that will be on the cards at some stage.

Welcome to the world of trucks, like me you appear to be taking a break from the tank to have a stab at something else

Cool start Mr Estnische

Every truck needs an Ella and Bella

Now, the question is, are they from a series of figures with males included? And what should I search for on the world wide web?

Indeed they are from a series. Search Hiya Toys Aliens figures. They are a few years old now, but if you are prepared to part with some cash, there is a large range, including Hicks and company.

Worst of all, there is an APC fully decked out with an awesome back-lit interior in 1/18 scale begging to be RC’d. If only I could justify the cost.

Ohhh, I know the series, thank you

Yes, I too looked into that APC, it's not cheap.

Good trucks, work well and great price, enjoy the build

These vehicles are good enough to become a decent and cheap base for the development of other vehicles, for example WPL.

It’s been a long time since there has been any work on this project. In the meantime, Ella and Bella have been conducting field trials of their Fayee truck. It runs OK on smooth surfaces, but off-road the open diffs loose grip too often when the suspension takes load off one side of the axle.

After a look through the Weyland Propulsion Labs catalogue, their Colonial Marines Procurement section ordered a complete heavy duty truck kit – the B-36KM.



The kit is full of good heavy duty gears, casings and nice bearings. Heavy duty prop shafts and stub axles are nice too. Wheel weights should also keep the wheels firmly planted on the ground.

Everything came as individual components to be assembled using the too-small instruction sheets. Luckily there are plenty of Youtubers to show how to do it. I like the Run That RC channel.



There were a few glitches though, to hold up works. Firstly, the grub screws holding the hub drives and crown wheels drag on the axle housings. A bit of work filing them flat created the required clearance.

Then the brass crown wheel gears wobbled around like a dodgy plate-spinner. Consequently, when meshed with the pinions, they did half a rotation and jammed. I put them on a drill bit and spun them up, and they all had the same degree of wobble – a bad production batch. Frustrating but easily fixed, replacement sets were pennies. Once they are lubed and assembled, they’ll go under the truck.

A bit more progress on the weekend.

Bella and Ella have had the truck in pieces more times than they care to admit.

The Fayee truck uses essentially the same components as WPL. As promised by the Weyland Propulsion Labs, the heavy duty metal axles bolted straight in. Unfortunately, the driveshafts were too short. You see, the B36 has a shorter wheelbase, and the gearbox output shaft is a different length. After much cursing and measuring, Ella and Bella figured it was better to build-up the B36 chassis and transfer the Fayee body and tray across.



It all went in well, including the more powerful 370 motor and two-speed gearbox. For now, the existing Fayee control board was re-used, so the servo for the second speed is not yet installed. Everything fired up again and the diffs and steering servo worked fine. Although the front body slipped on to the B36 mounting points, the rear tray and wheel housings wouldn't line up by 17mm.



The box at the rear of the cab body has no real purpose other than the FPV camera connection point, and as a mount for the muffler. The box was able to be shortened, losing the unused FPV socket, but not affecting the muffler. The cut was stepped in order to keep the chassis mounting screws at the base, but now it all fits and is up and running again.

With the essentials taken care of, Ella and Bella set about changing the truck around to suit their liking.

The spare wheel was mounted up on the roof to make more storage for the jerry cans and other equipment. The exhaust was detailed and connected to the engine bay and details added to the air receivers.



On the other side, a cap was added to the fuel tank and an air cleaner similar to that seen on the HEMTT. As per Jarndice’s suggestion, the fire extinguisher was spruced up and place behind the driver’s position.



Not wanting to stop there, the girls gave the interior a paint job to break up the plastic a little.



The girls have heard on the rumour-mill that something is brewing with the brass. Perhaps they’ll get upgraded to this?