Readers Rides – April 2023

Readers Rides – April 2023

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 and set out to customize it to bring to 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. Additional scratch-made styrene parts were added, along with a bed-mounted toolbox that also serves as an easy-access battery door, a bench seat for the cab, and a scale GCM Racing Toyota 22R motor. He looks forward to running and presenting this ride at USTE 2023 in Florida. We’re sure it will attract plenty of attention, as it’s a great-looking ride. Congratulations on the exemplary work, Jeremy!

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

DOUBLE D         Jeremy Kilburn

DOUBLE D         Jeremy Kilburn

DOUBLE D         Jeremy Kilburn

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. He then rearranged the chassis mounts and braces to optimize the weight balance and moved the battery tray to the front to benefit in 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 crawler bumper gives the F-250 a great approach angle. 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.

F-250 Rock Crawler

F-250 Rock Crawler

F-250 Rock Crawler

F-250 Rock Crawler

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 built a shallow cockpit from scratch, including front and rear rollover pylons, gauge cluster, steering wheel, and instrument wiring. The cockpit shape was modeled after photos of the 1:1 scale car as well as 1/20 scale models and replaces the molded 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 is a tribute to that Canadian icon Gilles Villeneuve, and a celebration of the rare crossover between Tamiya and Canada. And despite the added weight of the scale details, it is fast!” We believe it! Fantastic job, guys, thanks for sharing it!

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

Salut, Gilles! VilLEneuve’s FeRrari 312T3

Salut, Gilles! VilLEneuve’s FeRrari 312T3

Salut, Gilles! VilLEneuve’s FeRrari 312T3

Salut, Gilles! VilLEneuve’s FeRrari 312T3

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. Not to disappoint, Benjamin repainted a set of JConcept wheels and tires he had left over from another project and moved them to the truck you see here. 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 make a body lift and raise the side steps to match. We also mounted the bumpers directly to the body to close the gaps and make everything look as factory as possible. 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

Dillon’s Old School  High Trail K10

Dillon’s Old School  High Trail K10

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. The look is further enhanced with a set of Powerhobby gold wheels that are mounted with Powerhobby Gripper belted tires. 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

King Nothing

King Nothing

King Nothing

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Updated: May 21, 2023 — 3:20 AM
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