TLC body swaps a VS410-Pro "VS410 Face-Off"

[TLC]

Caution ! This thread shows the use of a lexan body and may eventually contain graphic images of lexan weathering that hard body purists may find disturbing. Please view at your own risk and seek help if any images below are triggering for you.




So, the story goes, I really wanted some of those cool Vanquish Currie F9 axles from the VS410-Pro in the clear anodised finish to use under a project I am slowly building up.


What I found was however, to buy just the axles and required parts to build them up (axles, gear sets, spools, knuckles etc.) would cost me more than half as much as buying the entire VS410-Pro kit! This seemed like a waste of funds to me.
I mean, why spend a large sum of money for a couple of axles when you only have to spend twice as much to get an entire kit?

At least my RC spending logic is undeniably sound....

No prizes for guessing that an anodised clear VS410-Pro arrived as soon as I saved up the coin.

I wasn't originally planning to build it, just rob the axles and leave the rest for a future me. However, once I opened it and assembled the axles, there was no stopping me, I just kept on building.

I then foolishly told myself I wasn't going to run it much, but after my first outing with it, I was hooked on its awesome performance.

The only real issue I had with it was that International Scoutesque body??..

Don't get me wrong, I reckon early Scouts are way cool.
They just aren't something you often see down under.
They're around, but rare and not something I can really connect with.

If I could've traded places with Josh at Vanquish when he was helping design this rig, it would've ended up with a Nissan Patrol body. Then I would've been stoked!!.
But the rest of the world would've been rolling their eyes at it

Anyway, at the start of the year I decided it was time to do something about my SBD "Scout body dysmorphia" and re-body this awesome trail rig.


I also decided to remove the axles whilst I was at it and slipped a set of SCX10.3 straight axles under there instead.
This is a straight-forward swap that Josh covered during his first "Sunday RC Car Cast" in late January this year.
It also of course freed the F9 axles up for the original project that I bought this kit for, but that isn't being worked on, because I'm too busy building this rig that I never intended to build........
If that makes sense.....

For the body I decided on the MST J45C.

Firstly, because it is nice and beefy! Everyone knows, you don't make friends with salad!!!

Secondly because a Landcruiser ute is definitely something I can connect with. They are super common to see both on road and off-road in OZ Trail Ya.

Next, what to do to personalise this body and add some scale goodness (i.e. - un-necessary weight) :lol:
I also wanted to try my hand at weathering a lexan body.
I've seen many excellent examples of this art form on here and thought it would be cool to give it a crack.


So I am thinking, what if this.

Was turned into an off road rig mash-up between this sad old bloke...

And this weapon...

All the stock VS410 side sliders and inner guards had to be removed to get the body sitting where I was happy with it.

I will relocate the ESC to beside the steering servo and then the next job will be fabricating some barwork.
This is probably enough of an image dump and waaaaay too many words for now.

Much more to come for fans of tiny trucks. Cheers.

 

[imthatguy]

I approve of these messages.

 

[TLC]

I approve of these messages.

Thanks Guy, it's always nice to get a stamp of approval from the boss... :lol:




On with some more body swapping.

I wanted the body sitting fairly low but didn't want to do major surgery......
The rear bed is mounted with magnets and resting right on top of the rear shock towers. The front of the body is a press fit down into a slot I cut in the front chassis brace.
I felt dirty hacking into the Vanquish pristine excellence, but sometimes a bloke's just gotta get primeval....

I didn't want to trim the front guards back, so to stop the front tyres from rubbing on the body and pushing it up, I made a set of side sliders and front scrub rails that all tie into a front winch bumper with a small stinger.

Getting the sliders/scrub rails bent up to match was a bit tricky but worth the extra fiddling around.

Once I had the mounting tabs for the sliders and the front winch bar and stinger sorted, I brazed them all together.

Presto-chango and Robert's ya Mothers brother, we have some barwork.

From some angles that bumper does look to be sticking out like the proverbial injured opposable digit.
But if you line her up exactly side on, you'll see it's not that bad.

Hmmmmmm....Words you never want to hear spoken to you in a hesitant and high pitched voice...."It's not that bad"

That's all for now my tiny truckin' mates. Thanks taking a peek.

 

[TLC]

I've had a productive few evenings on the re-body.

The next little fab job was a rear bar with recovery points.

At this point I modified the rear cage a little by removing the infill in the front steps and also adding some damage for a bit of character.

The cage was then removed and primed before final painting and an initial weathering.

I used some Vallejo armour modelling rust effects to add rust to the damaged tube work of the tray.

I also added some spattered dirt and mud, next I will tone it all down with some light dusting from the airbrush. This will have to wait until the cab is painted and attached so it ties in though.

Next job was the lexan cab. This was painted on the inside with some Tamiya PS55 matte clear to etch it before a coat of Tamiya TS69 Linoleum Deck Brown. The outside got the same treatment, PS55 and then TS69.

The top coats where PS1 White on the roof and PS56 Mustard yellow on the rest.

Then it was all of the wet sanding, rust paint and chipping effects and finally a top coat of PS55 matt clear.

This was my first attempt at painting lexan on the outside and weathering it......
I may have overdone the weathering a bit, but I was having too much fun and just couldn’t stop. Hmmmm, first time fever….

Shout out to Wesmade for providing the inspiration with his awesome weathered F-Truck.

Plenty more to do on this rig yet, I am really enjoying this simple body swap. Stay tuned for more you tiny truckin' legends.

 

[imthatguy]

OOoh, you nailed that look on the body. Pretty incredible what people can do with Lexan these days! A very handsome patina. I think I need to give this, shiny on the outside, cruddy on the inside paint a go!

 

[TLC]

Thanks for the compliment Matt. I'm chuffed in the general gulliver area...



Today I spent a ridiculous amount of time simply adding some weathering to the door mirrors, wipers and front indicator/park lights.

I then did some light dusting with the airbrush and added the standard wiper mark thingos....

I'm quite happy with the look of these door mirrors, nice and knackered.......

I just need to finish off the scale accessories for the rear tray and I can then start putting this beastie back together....

Have great week all you tiny truckers out there...

 

[TLC]

Small update.

I got a bracket made and a Jeremiah Can mounted on the tray this week.

More cruddy looking stuff to come..

 

[kincer]

Nice job weathering that body! That's something I need to learn how to do, they look so real that way.

 

[TLC]

Nice job weathering that body! That's something I need to learn how to do, they look so real that way.

It's great fun to do, this is my first attempt and I had a ball.
There is plenty of info and builds on here to give you the confidence to have a crack at it.

Also, check out Wesmade RC on YouTube. He does a weathering job on an F250 hard body and that is the same basic technique I used on this lexan.
The only difference is I painted a rust/weathered colour on the inside so that the body won't scratch back to clear as it wears..... hopefully

 

[TLC]

Hey, check out the junk on the back……



I’ve added a small box with a snatch strap and some oil to top up the old 2H.......
(Yeah, that probably makes it a HJ47, not an FJ45… I know, I know…)

There’s also a fire extinguisher, not because Toyota’s catch fire of course, it’s just in case there’s a bush fire..... or a Jeep on the trail……..

Speaking of Jeeps, there is also a drag chain……............ Just sayin'...........

Maybe just one more thing and then I'll call it done.......... On the outside...... I need to do some sort of basic interior still though.....

Thanks for droppin' by tiny truckin' legends.

 

[Markster]

How to unlock this level of detail on my airbrush? Lol! Awesome!

 

[dagabba]

Loving this build- very cool ideas/techniques!

 

[TLC]

How to unlock this level of detail on my airbrush? Lol! Awesome!

Thanks for the compliment.
I'm quite new to airbrushing techniques myself.
Like most fine detail skills, it just takes plenty of practice...... and plenty of YouTube tutorials....

 

[TLC]

Loving this build- very cool ideas/techniques!

Cheers mate, glad you like my sad old Toyota.

 

[TLC]

Well, I just couldn't help myself and added one more piece of scale goodness in the back..


Boy, I sure do love me a Hi-Lift jack..........

Handy 'round the farm and handy off-road. I wonder if they'll read this and send me a free one......

I made up some little metal brackets, weathered them and used scale hardware to bolt the jack to the cage.

That'll definitely do for junk in the back now.

I also got inspired by Mr Martin Kovak of Night Shift models on the You Tube. He recently did a bit of a "How to" on photographing models.

Although our toys are way bigger in scale and way less detailed than what Martin does in the static world, I thought I'd give it a crack.
So I busted out the camera, jerry rigged some work lights, got a roll of white paper and channeled my inner......

Thanks for droppin' by tiny truckers..

 

[Pesikar]

These photos look nice. Like a professional photo shoot.

 

[imthatguy]

Looks awesome. Popping it up on Insta today!

 

[TLC]

These photos look nice. Like a professional photo shoot.

Cheers mate, glad you like 'em. Far from professional though......

 

[TLC]

Looks awesome. Popping it up on Insta today!

Thanks Mat, I'm quite chuffed, pop it anywhere you want.

 

[TLC]

Small weathering and detail update. Barely worth adding to this post, but here it is anyway.


Added some metal Toyota emblems to the grille and front guards from RC4WD.

I dulled them down with a Vallejo rust wash and "dusted" them with the airbrush.

A couple of other subtle mods were, rust wash over the scratches on the SSD rims and leaking oil added to the oil container in the box.
I also did a bit more "dusting" with the air brush and added a couple of SBG stickers.

This one on the back window is my favourite........

Thanks for takin' a peek tiny truckers.