Monster Truck Madness – Rotten Apple Losi Mini LMT
Happy Thursday all!
In case you missed it, final week I posted my ideas on the Losi Mini LMT. I preferred it quite a bit.
As a lifelong, card carrying BIGFOOT fan, that Grave Digger physique wasn’t gonna work for me although. I’m solely half severe here- I’m somebody who HAS to place their very own model of physique on an r/c truck, no matter what it got here with. If I’m utilizing an RTR physique, meaning I’m not REALLY a fan of the rig!
Ok, so to use my Rotten Apple livery to the child LMT, I went with a Traxxas TRX-4M High Trail Ford F-150 physique. I had seen some pics that the marginally longer wheelbase High Trail our bodies (versus the usual TRX-4M) match the LMT wheelbase completely, and that is true!
However, some modifications will must be made- a minimum of when you plan to make use of the inventory cage/physique mount like I did.
The very first thing to know in regards to the Traxxas physique is that it’s a tough physique i.e. not lexan. This means you have to to color the surface. I’ll speak about this extra once I talk about paint, however simply know the physique is gonna get scuffed and scratched much more simply than when you go along with one thing lexan. It’s heavier than lexan, although with the small dimension it’s not too unhealthy.
An enormous plus of this being a tough physique is that this appears to be like VERY scale to a 1:1 monster. Mounting the unpainted Ford physique on the LMT appears to be like similar to mounting a fiberglass physique onto a full scale monster truck. Even the cuts and numerous little hacks into the physique to make it match look life like.
So, to make it work I reduce some out of the tailgate to suit the wheelie bar and a number of the behind-the-grill plastic. Doing this, I might nonetheless put the grill and tailgate part into the physique, however I’d haven’t any clearance points.
The hardest a part of this was mounting the physique, as a result of it’s important to mate the cage to the brand new physique by the use of screws, not physique posts. I centered the physique as greatest I might, made some tiny marks with a physique reamer to estimate the centerline of the place the screws/holes wanted to be, after which did some measuring to double examine all the pieces. I began with tiny holes and it appeared good, so I went entire hog. Bam, the holes on prime had been excellent, and I might re-use the Grave Digger mounting grommets with no situation.
I had deliberate to place two extra holes on the hood to make use of these mounts as nicely, however as soon as I cinched the roof down I felt no extra was wanted. I did use a pair items of adhesive foam padding beneath the hood so to carry it cosy with no bouncing. After it was mounted, it was time for paint.
For the physique, I used Tamiya Light Gun Metal TS-42. (Note for laborious our bodies, DON’T use a poly carb paint). The physique was already white so I didn’t prime it beforehand. The large factor I did do was put a transparent coat on it after the primary paint. There are numerous rattle can clears you possibly can use- I used a Vallejo Gloss Varnish. Whatever you employ, be sure to clear the end as a result of the physique will scratch and chip very simply with out a protecting coat. On a monster truck that likes to leap, roll, and be the wrong way up you’ll nonetheless have that occur, nevertheless it’ll be drastically much less so with than with out.
Once the paint was dry, it was time to complete the physique by mounting the grill and different trim items, adopted by the decals (thanks JB Scale Graphics and Michael Arndt!).
The result’s what’s most likely the very best trying truck in my fleet. The Mini LMT appears to be like extremely scale with the laborious plastic physique/cage combo!
To end this publish off, after finishing the Losi, I assumed the physique was cool sufficient that I figured I’d seize a TRX-4M High Trail F-150 RTR, and the mini crawler is lots of enjoyable to this point!
Alright of us, that’s it for this week. Until subsequent time, hold it on all 4’s!