My Tamiya cars
Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2008 2:57 pm
I've built a few Tamiya cars in the past but I'd prefer to stick to a military theme, so earlier this year I had the idea to build a Chenowth Light Strike Vehicle onto the R/C chassis of a simple 2wd buggy like the Tamiya Grasshopper. I wasn't too bothered with getting it perfectly to scale, just wanted something that looks the part and goes like stink.
Typically for me though, once I was on ebay I found someone selling both the Grasshopper and the Lunchbox chassis at a bargain price and had an attack of nostalgia. When they arrived (£40 including postage for the lot) they were in pretty poor shape and needed lots of spares, the Lunchbox body had 5-6 coats of paint in places and looked like it'd been applied with a house brush. All thoughts of the LSV went out the window and over a couple of months I rebuilt them both.
I really wish I'd taken some "before" pics. To be honest, I've probably spent as much doing them up as it would've cost buying 2 new ones from Hong Kong... but it seemed a lot more fun. Then I realised I'd only need a few more bits to make a 3rd running chassis out of the parts I'd removed, so now I have a Super Grasshopper that needed a body shell.
Having thrown them both around the garden and down the street I'll keep the Lunchbox as it is but I think I'll put the Grasshopper body onto the "Super" chassis, so I can go ahead with my original idea and build the LSV on to the basic chassis. Hopefully it'll look something like this little fella I made earlier:
I Also have an old Wild Willy 2 which i intend to repaint in a weathered condition when i get the time:
And a strange mix up of a Baja King with Humvee wheels which was the original idea I had to make an R/C 1/6 scale LSV but just didnt have the right dimensions. So I ended up just painting the body green and left off the spoiler so it looks a little different. Still it dont half shift being a light 4x4
Typically for me though, once I was on ebay I found someone selling both the Grasshopper and the Lunchbox chassis at a bargain price and had an attack of nostalgia. When they arrived (£40 including postage for the lot) they were in pretty poor shape and needed lots of spares, the Lunchbox body had 5-6 coats of paint in places and looked like it'd been applied with a house brush. All thoughts of the LSV went out the window and over a couple of months I rebuilt them both.
I really wish I'd taken some "before" pics. To be honest, I've probably spent as much doing them up as it would've cost buying 2 new ones from Hong Kong... but it seemed a lot more fun. Then I realised I'd only need a few more bits to make a 3rd running chassis out of the parts I'd removed, so now I have a Super Grasshopper that needed a body shell.
Having thrown them both around the garden and down the street I'll keep the Lunchbox as it is but I think I'll put the Grasshopper body onto the "Super" chassis, so I can go ahead with my original idea and build the LSV on to the basic chassis. Hopefully it'll look something like this little fella I made earlier:
I Also have an old Wild Willy 2 which i intend to repaint in a weathered condition when i get the time:
And a strange mix up of a Baja King with Humvee wheels which was the original idea I had to make an R/C 1/6 scale LSV but just didnt have the right dimensions. So I ended up just painting the body green and left off the spoiler so it looks a little different. Still it dont half shift being a light 4x4
