Scaleart - assembling an Arocs 8x8 roll on roll off kipper

[tc1cat]

While the truck does look outstanding and does have some great engineering in it, it should not have all of the design flaws in it for what you pay for the kit. Even for an early production kit, there have been too many small errors to correct for the cost. I know that I would have been pulling my hair out long ago over the many errors that have been corrected in just the chassis and now to find more in the body. This is not acceptable in my eyes.

I am not ripping the truck as it does look great, just the many overlooked design flaws which Scaleart should have addressed before marketing the truck.

[Prop Shaft]

Originally Posted by tc1cat

While the truck does look outstanding and does have some great engineering in it, it should not have all of the design flaws in it for what you pay for the kit. Even for an early production kit, there have been too many small errors to correct for the cost. I know that I would have been pulling my hair out long ago over the many errors that have been corrected in just the chassis and now to find more in the body. This is not acceptable in my eyes.

I am not ripping the truck as it does look great, just the many overlooked design flaws which Scaleart should have addressed before marketing the truck.

Sounds alot like another company I am familiar with.. Cough..Capo..cough cough...

[Rakthi]

Hi Prop, yup, bolting this thing together I keep being impressed by the way things fit together, holes line up etc etc. Someone spend a lot of time thinking about this. When I put the front bumper on the frame I was expecting some problems because you got a lot of parts and assemblies coming together there. The only "problem" was finding the access for the Allen key.

Which brings me to tc1cat's comment ... Yes, the kit is expensive, but I do feel I have gotten value for the money. I have no idea which design flaws caught your attention. I didn't notice any.

There were 4 missing hydraulic parts, a couple of wrong sized screws (easily replaced), one ball joint with a wrong thread, missing insulator on rear lights and the sliding hook part of the hydraulic mechanism that turned out to be a bit of rough machining (easily sorted). The missing parts were send out after an email. If I had found the balljoint with the wrong thread and the missing insulators at the same time, they would have included those too. So no problems there. Follow up is fantastic.

The raised exhaust not fitting well. Considering this variation is sold without exhaust, it was upon me to sort it out. The raised exhaust is not meant for this model, so can't blame them for it not fitting.

For the rest, everything went together as it flawlessly. Some of it required a bit more thinking than others, but most of that was because I didn't strictly follow their guidelines or misinterpreted the technical drawings. Most if not all of the mistakes in this thread are caused by my own inattention or simple stupidity like mounting the supports for the locking mechanism on the wrong side or putting things in the wrong order.

The rough casting where the door hinge fits I sorted just now in about 10 minutes. Not a deal breaker for me. Neither is having to run a 2mm drill through a hole to make life easier, shortening a screw a tad or remove some paint to make something fit.

All I can say is that 99.99% of the parts fit perfectly and the 0.01% is an easy fix. Just looking at the workmanship and engineering of the parts is a pleasure.

Would I buy one again (given enough disposable money)? No question about it. This kit is an absolute pleasure to assemble.

Now off to locate my soldering stuff ... next step is the roof and for that I need some wiring sorted out. Will post the pics of the fitting of the doors in the next update.

Cheers.

[tc1cat]

Stephan,

Design flaws are anything that does not fit correctly the FIRST time. Not after you modify a part or screw to get things to fit. This is something that most of us expect with a Tamiya kit due to their use of plastic parts which are known to bend during production. The needed filing of the door hinge slots is the last one you showed us. Lack of fore thought on Scalearts part to allow for paint/powdercoat thickness is a design flaw to me. Having to modify a bolt head to get a part in place is a design flaw. You have had to do this more than once if I remember correctly. You saying that most of the little things that you had to fix are not deal breakers is fine BUT you should not have to do this in a Scaleart vehicle. Scalearts attention to detail should make for a kit that goes together flawlessly. Their use of longer than necessary bolts that you need to shorten during assembly is a cost saver for them which should not be necessary for a kit of this expense. Even the most inexpensive Tamiya kit uses correct length screws and bolts. While I haven't looked at the frame rails in your latest pics, they looked like someone's test rails from 2 or 3 trucks with all of the holes in them. Hopefully, these holes have all been used by now. If not, this is a flaw for me plus it weakens the frame if not used. I know that you mentioned that these rails are used for several different trucks but give me a break. Extra holes are still unacceptable in a frame unless you remove a part from a stock frame rail.

Please remember that this in my opinion and not someone elses.

With all of this said- would I get a Scaleart vehicle--- YES!!! But probably not as a kit unless it was the only way to get it. Their attention to detail would be the reason. Have to win the lottery though to be able to purchase one

[Prop Shaft]

Concidering kits like this and Capo are 10 times more intricate then your standard rc kits. The amount of deficiencies are on par. If a standard kit takes 100 steps to build and you find one problem, no one says anything. A 1000 steps for something like this and you find 10 small issues and people seem to only see the bad. Or think that for something that costs so much it should be perfect. It all seems pretty relative to me though. **** ive built most of RC4WD's offerings for instance. And the problems with their models well exceed any ive encountered building Capo's. Given the choice to have 4 or 5 run of the mill scalers from the mainstream manufacturers, or just one super scale offering from Capo or Scaleart, or Afv or whoever. I'll go with the super scale offering every time.

[Rakthi]

Hi tc1cat, well if you want to see it that way ... About the screws I trimmed down. The ones from the under run protection can be installed without trimming. But that means you have to paint the little parts separately. Easier to grind a bit of the screws. The other one, where I had some trouble with the transfer case, well, shouldn't have moved the support of the oil tank one opening over so its fastener came in te way.

Allowing paint thickness? Considering the size of the parts and the fact that it is a human doing the painting, would be asking a bit much I think.

The openings in the frame ... yeah, actually to be true to scale, they need even more of those. Might not be like that with US trucks, but EU trucks all have lots of holes in their frames. Have a look at the Mercedes-Benz UK website.

And the screws that need shortening ... there are probably more screws in the frame than in your run of the mill kit. Why add another €100 to an already pricey kit if all it takes is 15 minutes to shorten them.

We can keep arguing about this till the cows come home.

Cheers!
Stephan

[Rakthi]

Didn't get much done today ... soldering is not my strong point.

Since I was doing it, did the 2 LEDs for the indicators as well as the position lights which will go in the roof of the cabine.

They supply ample wiring and shrink tubing



The resistors are not needed because I use ScaleART's bus system.

Finished product:



After this I painted the outside of the white LEDs black so only the tip has the light come through. (A tip from Christian - aka Newcomer_2). Then couldn't continue with the roof because I had to wait for the paint to dry.

Didn't take pics during soldering. basically, solder red wire to long + of LED. 2 mm shrink tube, then solder black one to the short - of LED, 3mm shrink tubing to go over both, followed by 6mm shrink tubing over the LED. The indicators get a yellow and grey wire instead of a black one so you can keep them apart.

Here the pics of the doors after the filing (as luck would have it, I have a file of exactly the right width):



While I had it all apart some pics of how it fits together. This is really thought out.











Next up the roof and the sun vizor ...