Building an RC sixth scale Jeep

Wow this get better and better ! Self made flat springs and the gearing mechanism is amazing and Very intresting welding Parts.

Coming together nicely. I like how your figures are always interacting with the build.

Very Cool looking project!

Ephiane wrote: Wow this get better and better ! Self made flat springs and the gearing mechanism is amazing and  Very intresting welding Parts.

Thank you again, Eph. I did what made sense for the build at the time. Brazing (basically mechanical welding) was a new endeavor for me. Takes a bit of practice, but as I went, I got better at it...thankfully.

Stryker2011 wrote:Coming together nicely. I like how your figures are always interacting with the build.

Much appreciated, Stryker. I figured I needed to do something to get, and try to keep, folks interested. The interaction was about the only thing that came to mind...plus, it was fun.

Mr. Razz wrote:This is coming along nicely...now, as for those two credit stealers, beat them at their own game...let them brag about making the sliders and then have the others ask them to show how they did it...

Thanks much, Razz. Good idea, too. Between the two of them, they can't even pick up the damn torch.

BAD WOLF-787 wrote:Very Cool looking project!

Thank you very much, Brother Wolf. Fiddly in places, but very enjoyable.



Installment VII



Another old friend dropped by one evening.

Damn Dadrab, this really is the way to do a build thread. Your crew of mechaincal helpers only adds to an already fascinating build. And it's cool that you stepped out of your comfort zone on the roll bars. One of the best parts of a project is when you get experimenting with something you don't usually do, and it works. And this really works. Looking great!

Lon Chaney's Wolfman was always my favorite monster as a kid. Had pictures of him all over my walls. I really wish they'd revisit those classic monsters in 1/6. Those were the best. Can't stand all this serial killer nonsense and gratuitous violence you see in "horror" movies today.

That's quite a team you've got there, helping out with the build.

dadrab wrote:
It wasn't great work, but it was damn fast (to the point that I had to strap the action figures to their seats to keep them from being slung out in hard turns).  

Fantastic build...attach a go-pro onto the buggy and take it out for a spin !
That would be fun !

Indeed very cool team!

dadrab, not only does that conversion look extremely complicated but, you've managed to make your posts very entertaining too, great work.


Cheers,

Peter.

ReverendSpooky wrote:Damn Dadrab, this really is the way to do a build thread.  Your crew of mechaincal helpers only adds to an already fascinating build.  And it's cool that you stepped out of your comfort zone on the roll bars.  One of the best parts of a project is when you get experimenting with something you don't usually do, and it works.  And this really works.  Looking great!

Many thanks, Rev. You're exactly right about the "comfort zone" thing. I had no idea what I was doing (besides wasting MAPP gas) when I started. Fortunately, things improved with practice.

Stryker2011 wrote:Lon Chaney's Wolfman was always my favorite monster as a kid. Had pictures of him all over my walls. I really wish they'd revisit those classic monsters in 1/6. Those were the best. Can't stand all this serial killer nonsense and gratuitous violence you see in "horror" movies today.

Mine too. My dad (remember, sci-fi/horror movie geek) told me about the process Chaney developed (invented, really) for applying a little make-up and filming; apply, film...repeat. Basically stop action, but with a person. If you'll notice, in the old movies when they'd show his face change, he'd always have his head against something that wouldn't move (tree, etc.) The sessions were long and tedious and, after a break, he'd have to get his head back into the exact same place for the next take.

Mr. Razz wrote:I'm still sitting here waiting for the end of this movie, dadrab...lol...

Fear not. There's more below. Thanks for following along and I apologize for the wait.

GubernatorFan wrote:That's quite a team you've got there, helping out with the build.

Thanks very much GF. I kind of pulled out a lot of stops with this one.

Allotropos wrote: Fantastic build...attach a go-pro onto the buggy and take it out for a spin !
That would be fun !

I appreciate that, Allotropos. You're right, that would be fun. I'd probably have torn up a perfectly good Go-Pro, though.  

BAD WOLF-787 wrote:Indeed very cool team!

Thanks again, Mr. Wolf. I was trying to keep folks interested, so I'd toss something (someone) a little unusual in from time to time.

peter the painter wrote:dadrab, not only does that conversion look extremely complicated but, you've managed to make your posts very entertaining too, great work.

You're very kind, Peter. Thank you, sir. What I don't have in figures or graphics know-how, I tried to make up with humor and conversation.


Installment VIII


Time for a little update.

As always, I had help whether I wanted it or not...






Since this was a pretty big project, I decided to bring in a supervisor, of sorts. Seems I was having a helluva time keeping the figures on task. It was like herding cats...

So, I brought in "the man."

Nice to see the team growing, too.

That's certainly an ambitious project.  Your skills make it seem simple, although I know that it is not.

A most entertaining presentation, as well.

Excellent work, sir.

GubernatorFan wrote:Nice to see the team growing, too.

Thank you, GF. I'm grateful to you.

I figured "what the hell... I have other figures, might as well give them appearances."

PureEnergy wrote:That's certainly an ambitious project.  Your skills make it seem simple, although I know that it is not.

A most entertaining presentation, as well.

Excellent work, sir.

Man, I appreciate that, PureEnergy. This kind of stuff challenges me and I get something out of it in the end...another toy.

Mr. Razz wrote:
Great job on the spare tire holder, dadrab! Hopefully the "Old Guy" can keep this bunch of misfits in line! It seems, tho, that the females that are helping are more responsible than the "boys"...

No apology necessary, either...I haven't seen this before and I like how it's turning out. Post updates whenever you have time to. Trust me, I understand being too busy in real life...lol

Many thanks, Razz. The women keeping the men on task is another little reality laid open for all to inspect. Nah...I don't want to go all "deep" here. It was just fun.



Installment IX

As earlier alluded to, this is a rebuild on an old thread. The sons referred to below have grown up nicely in the ensuing years ... for which I'm truly thankful.

The part about going to an official school visit was true, however, and it did make a nice segue into the question, "why do all the photos look like they were shot in hotel room?" They were. Had many hours to kill on those visits.



Good afternoon, all.

Been rather busy with son #2's baseball season (part of it...), but I made time for an update. Sorry it's been so long coming.

Recently I had occasion to take son #1 to an official college visit. He's a swimmer and the coaches will bring prospective students in for a weekend here and there. On this occasion, we went to East Carolina University in North Carolina. Since I knew I'd be stuck in a hotel room for a couple of days with very little to do (the coaches don't really want the parents around after about the first two hours), I took the project with me to work on. Of course, I had to deal with stowaways...









It took them a while to acclimate (an acceptable amount of bitching and moaning), but we soon got to work.

I had an el cheapo radio system sitting on the work bench, so I took it along. Instead of sitting still the whole time, I found occasion to search out a hobby shop for a few things and a Radio Shack for a battery.





On the platform there, the motor and transmission are already screwed into place. The main shaft going to the transfer case is also visable. All that will be under the hood once the body is mounted.















And, test it I did. Truthfully, it was geared really slowly...too slowly in fact. That was about the time I decided to upgrade to LiPo batties so I could run one with 11.0V and conserve space. Still, the tests went well. There was torque to all be damned. The bare chassis would crawl up a curb with no trouble at all. I did considerable driving through the hotel flower garden as that was the most challenging terrain available.

I was actually beginning to have a pretty good time until the powered chassis went dead. The motor would still spin, but there was no movement.

So, I picked up the chassis and went back to the room. I got there just in time to witness this:








Now, that's entertainment. Still, rules are rules and the guys and gals know they're not supposed to smoke. Back to the suitcase he had to go.








I'd needed an extra long section of drive shaft to bridge the distance between the transmission and transfer case. So, I put two Axial axles together with some brass tubing inside the plastic shaft and epoxied it all together. I reckon I discounted the amount of torque being sent to the transfer case. That was a mistake. It spun in two within 10 minutes with far less weight than the finished vehicle should have.

I've since replaced that shaft with a custom-made one in steel. It won't break again.

Stay tuned.

Come on now dadrab, time to come clean, how much of this work is down to you, and how much is down to your army of little helpers? Great work, you are a talented bunch.



Cheers,



Peter.

Very epic build dadrab great job!

peter the painter wrote:Come on now dadrab, time to come clean, how much of this work is down to you, and how much is down to your army of little helpers? Great work, you are a talented bunch.

Thank you very kindly, Peter. You pegged it...most of the work was on me. When it comes to getting stuff done, the figures are a pretty lousy bunch.  

Mr. Razz wrote:Excellent installment! Question:Did you get the guy's side of the story before putting him back into the suitcase? Maybe he didn't really want a smoke BUT wanted her to "flick his bic"...

The test run brought out an issue and your "crack team of engineers" got on it and resolved the issue!  

So far, this is a very interesting thread...very much looking forward to the outcome!...

Thank you, Razz. There may be more to that "flick his bic" comment than you know.  

As you probably know, most drive shafts are splined inside of a tube into which another splined solid shaft is slid. That way, when the vehicle goes over bumps and such, the shaft can lengthen or contract a little to avoid component damage. Scale shafts work the same way, but this particular shaft, since it links the motor transmission to the transfer case (which enables 4-wheel drive), is a fixed length. I figured the one I built would be fine, but it was not. A lot of torque there.

BAD WOLF-787 wrote:Very epic build dadrab great job!

Much appreciated, Mr. Wolf. Hope you enjoy.



Installment X


In our last episode, the battery and radio gear had been installed and we'd taken a test drive only to spin a makeshift drive shaft.

Well, we got home from the university visit and the figures set about the task of preparing the body for paint.

First up, all the accessories and pieces of body armor that had been built had to be coated. Everything got hit with some 320 grit sandpaper to make sure it was all nice and smooth. Next, we washed it all. Then, we got to spraying.

Here's Old Guy for some commentary:




Next, we sanded the body with progressively finer grit papers beginning with 200 and ending with 400. The outside of the body got taped up and masked so the interior could get a shot of black. I use regular old rattle can paint from the auto parts store. The black on the inside is designed for bumpers, so it's got a bit of texture to it.

Here's one of the guys working on the tape job...




Of course, the spray painting didn't take very long. I believe he was a bit upset at the next step...



What 'cha gonna do???





Once completely dried, the inside had to be taped up so color could go on the body. I have no paint booth, so I choose a nice calm day and set my work up in full sun. Spray paint likes sun and open spaces. The paint will "flash" off nicely outside and the warm sun helps get drying started. As long as there's no breeze, there's little chance of trash blowing onto the paint. Be careful not to leave it out too long, though. Bugs seem to be attracted to drying paint and they're a pain to sand out.











After the color, three coats of clear were applied. That will offer a little protection to the top coat.

When everything was dry, we all settled in to admire our handiwork.










Until next time, all...thank you for watching.

Very well done. I was distracted and for a moment thought Sons #1 and #2 had accidentally trod all over it and it was a car wreck. But after the tape came off, I was able to see it in its true and pristine glory.

Looking awesome. Lot of fine work, and funny story.

GubernatorFan wrote:Very well done. I was distracted and for a moment thought Sons #1 and #2 had accidentally trod all over it and it was a car wreck. But after the tape came off, I was able to see it in its true and pristine glory.

Thanks again, GF. I reckon I wandered off in the weeds a little with the comment about my boys. Suffice it to say that they've turned out OK, thus far and I'm proud of them.

The color on this body turned out very well and the paint has held up except for the obvious spots where paint is going to get rubbed despite being careful when running. I've never been one to beat hell out of one of my builds. I'll leave that for someone who enjoys redoing their work over and over. I don't.

Stryker2011 wrote:Looking awesome. Lot of fine work, and funny story.

I really appreciate, Stryker. Oddly enough, looking back on it, I put damn near as much work into the photos and story as I did in the build.


Before moving on...I figured I'd make this installment a "two-fer." Both are short, so what the hell? Besides, I wanted to get the animation of the driver in this posting. Hope to get it wrapped here up by Christmas.



Installments XI and XII


Try though I did, I couldn't get that sorry bunch to help me with the following, so I had to go it alone.

The steering wheel was pretty "plain" looking. I contemplated making a new one, but scrapped that idea when I tried the following and really liked the way it looked.

I took some OD colored heavy nylon twine and simply wrapped it around the "business" part of the wheel. It was finished off with a light coat of superglue.

Here's the result:













And, of course, we can't have a restoration of an old rig like this without some leather (very thin, from an old purse my bride donated to the cause) on the seats, right? So, here we go, leather seats:




(I know, I know...smart ass...













I've always wanted an RC vehicle that had an RC animated driver as well. I figured this was as good a time as any.






Despite our boy's protests, I removed his head (not a simple "pop-off-and-on" type. I cut a plate from his back using my trusty Dremel.

From there, I could access the slotted tabs that held the head on. With his head off, I ground out the tabs, thereby making space for a microservo. In the above photo, you can see how I altered his neck post to fit a circular servo horn.

Below, you can see how the servo fits in the chest cavity. It's not pretty, but I used hot-melt glue because of it's quick drying properties and the fact that I had to get the servo in the correct place in one shot. The glue gave me a little wiggle room, but didn't take two hours to set up.

The hole in the middle of the horn is what attaches it to the servo and it's splined to mate with the splines on the servo shaft. I was hoping for a friction fit and it worked. Still, his head comes off pretty easily, so I might be forced to make further alterations (i.e. put a screw in to hold the horn to the shaft. Very easy operation).

My apologies for the sloppy looking work, but it's going to be covered up by clothing anyway, so what the hell...



And, then he found the servo cord... It wasn't pretty.




Our boy was raising so much hell, I just put him in a drawer for a while to cool down some. When I went back to get him, he'd calmed a bit and was far more rational.




Here you can see the top of the servo in relation to where his head will be.






And, this is how the surgery turned out:





I explained to him that he'd be drivng the Jeep all the time, hence the modifications.





I, somehow, don't believe him...

Nice work on all the details, and very impressive animated driver.

All certainly well worth the effort...

Amazing! Fantastic work, brother.

Still just loving this build (and the accompanying commentary from your assistants). The steering wheel looks great (love those type of little details) the chairs are perfect looking, and I dig the animated driver. Does his head turn automatically in the direction he's turning, or does it operate interdependently, with it's own control on the remote?

That. Is. Fantastic! Having his head turn like that is brilliant. Really looking forward to seeing this whole thing in actin (probably have to film in slow motion).

Heh. Reminds me about the urban myth of the dude who woke up in a bath tub with his kidneys removed.

Animatronics works best when it is subtle. This is a good example.

The jeep's look good and animated driver is very Cool!

impressive engineering overall!

GubernatorFan wrote:Nice work on all the details, and very impressive animated driver.

Thank you, GF. I've always wanted to try it and I'm glad I did.

PureEnergy wrote:All certainly well worth the effort...  

Amazing!  Fantastic work, brother.  

I appreciate that, PE. Took a good several hours to put the plan together, but it worked out OK.

ReverendSpooky wrote:Still just loving this build (and the accompanying commentary from your assistants).  The steering wheel looks great (love those type of little details) the chairs are perfect looking, and I dig the animated driver.  Does his head turn automatically in the direction he's turning, or does it operate interdependently, with it's own control on the remote?

You're very kind, Rev. Thank you.

Not sure where the idea for the steering wheel came from...just popped into my clouded brain and I started wrapping.

The driver's head operates on its own channel. I started to do it the way you suggested, but had extra channels to play with, so...there you have it. The steering wheel also turns, but it IS wired to go along with the wheels.

Stryker2011 wrote:That. Is. Fantastic! Having his head turn like that is brilliant. Really looking forward to seeing this whole thing in actin (probably have to film in slow motion).

Thank you very much, Stryker.

You're absolutely right about the slow motion. You'll see what I mean.

shazzdan wrote:Heh. Reminds me about the urban myth of the dude who woke up in a bath tub with his kidneys removed.

Animatronics works best when it is subtle. This is a good example.

Many thanks, shazzdan.

I agree with your assessment. Too much of this sort of animation looks jerky and fake. I tried to stay away from that.

BAD WOLF-787 wrote:The jeep's look good and animated driver is very Cool!

Thank you, Mr. Wolf. I've seen it done a couple of times since, but never before. Now, I'm not saying I did it first, but just had never seen it done.

kyekye wrote:impressive engineering overall!

Much appreciated, kyekye. Seat-of-the-pants engineering, but it worked out all right.




Installment XIII


You guys know about the best laid plans...

I'd hoped to get this one done by Christmas, but with the holiday activity and family visiting, I just didn't get off my sorry ass and do it. 'Nuff said.


I reckon it's about time I wrapped up this build. I've been working on it on-and-off for several month's now, but about three weeks ago, got down to cases.


I didn't like the original cage I'd build for it, so I pulled it apart and remade it. I'm still not much with a torch, but the newer incarnation looks a little better. It probably won't hold up in a "horrendous crash" as they used to say on The Dukes Of Hazard, but it'll do for what I need.

There are a bunch of little bits that have been added. See for yourselves. Roll the pix:





The toys wanted some non-skid texture on the hood, fenders and door steps, so I accommodated them. It's actually some high-quality skateboard deck texture cut to fit. It comes in sheets, so really easy to work with.






And, how about a real mirror for that rear view. I found some at Hobby Lobby that were just right.




Found the lantern at HL, too.






Here's an interesting tidbit. I really wanted some retro looking tail light lens, but something a little different. So, I heisted a couple of peppers from a string of old red-pepper lights we got from somewhere and cut the tips off them. If I cut them at the correct spot, they fit just right inside the light bezel on the factory body molding. I'd already drilled a hole inside the light bezel areas and installed some LED bulbs. The pepper tips fit over the LEDs and inside the bezels so sweet... Turned out rather art deco looking.




In the reflector bezels, I put some reflector material. If one uses a regular old paper hole-punch to pop some holes in a strip of reflective tape, the part that pops out fits inside the bezel perfectly. Too easy...




And, here's a top view:




I believe I'll turn it over to Old Guy to be the tour guide for a while.
























































Well, that about does it. I'm going to try and toss a video out there since I recently took the Jeep and a camera on a bit of a trail ride.

I'm very pleased with all the torque. No problem pulling a pretty steep grade.

Oh yeah, meant to write about it earlier... I had to replace the steering servo. That piece of junk I used for a place holder during the build just wouldn't cut it. It was replaced with a Savox sporting about 300 oz. of torque. Now the steering's nice and true.

The Jeep is fairly devoid of meaningful articulation, though. It's rather like a real Willys, but I'd still like a little something more. Perhaps those leaf springs will soften up some with use.

Thanks for looking all. Feel free to comment, complain, criticize, grouse, demean or whatever...

As I strive to be a man of my word, I'll toss out three decent videos I've shot and edited since completion of the build. And, if you're in a position to do so, turn the volume up on your computer. Good tunes to accompany the vids.








Thanks to all for following along.