Green Mountain Girl - Grand Hauler Build

[TaltosVT]

Hi all. I've been working on my first truck, which I've nicknamed "Green Mountain Girl," as she has a sort of Vermont theme. I'm up to the cab stage, but I thought I'd start a build thread here, and post photos from the beginning to where I'm at now. Probably not much new for experienced builders, but maybe can help inspire some beginners like myself.

First up, some pre-building before my Grand Hauler kit arrived. I printed up and painted some jack-stands for my "garage." These are 1:10 scale, but they worked just fine.

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-Elroy

[TaltosVT]

Arrival day!

Yes, my daughter could probably fit in the box. :-)

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[TaltosVT]

Arrival of electronics. Being a newbie, I elected to go with this "Truck Completer Package" from Hobbyconcepts, which includes a pre-configured radio, receiver, servos, bearings, and ESC. I also purchased a battery, charger, and 80t motor at the same time. With all of the electronics received, I hooked everything up for a test.

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https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/51152211434_ab64648cb6_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kW9skU)
Link to video of Electronics Test (https://flic.kr/p/2kW9skU) on Flickr.

[TaltosVT]

Servos and frame built. I made sure to label my servo wires, because I'm a forgetful sort.

Servo arms attached.
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Servo brackets attached.
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Large cross members assembled.
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Frame assembled.
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This was the end of my first day of building.

-Elroy

[Lil Giants]

That's a good start to what I'm sure will be an enjoyable build for you.

The aftermarket ball bearings might seem like a cool upgrade & maybe inexpensive, but the oilite bearings that come in the kit are actually better for weight bearing & won't seize up if you run the trk through any moisture.

[jerry56]

Looking forward to seeing this one step by step always good to see builds from start to finish... any plans for a trailer...

[TaltosVT]

any plans for a trailer...

I'd like a box trailer for it. I was considering scratch-building a 53' trailer, but now I'm thinking that I'll buy the standard Tamiya kit for my first one. Being a bit shorter, it may be easier for me to learn to drive and back up with.

Moving on with my build, and following the kit instructions, suspension hangers were added to the frame, shocks were built, control arms were added, and front shocks were installed. I also purchased my first upgrade part: a pair of King Hauler baffles for the stacks. My thought right now is to pry them open a bit to work with the fat stacks, though I may change my mind and replace the Grand Hauler stacks with the thinner King Hauler ones.

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-Elroy

[TaltosVT]

Before I moved on any further with the build, I wanted to paint the frame. While I waited for my order of spray cans to arrive, I went ahead and assembled the driver figure that came with the kit.

Parts cut from the sprue:
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Sub assemblies glued together:
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Full figure assembled:
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Some rough gaps filled:
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A coat of primer:
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A base coat of dark flesh:
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Mid-tone of lighter flesh, and eyes roughed in:
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Some really light highlights, some hair, and a dark wash over his shirt. I didn't get a photo, but his jeans were later painted blue, and his shoes brown.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/51151426661_7761d73de6_c_d.jpg

-Elroy

[TaltosVT]

Once my paint arrived, the frame was given a few sprays of Tamiya's Candy Lime Green. Transmission and rear axles housings were primed, and the front tie rod and steering arms were assembled.

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Once the front axle was built, it was bolted into place, then I hooked up the electronics to give the steering a quick test.

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https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/51150794522_cab609f1fe_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kW2c9o)
Link to video of Steering test (https://flic.kr/p/2kW2c9o) on Flickr.

-Elroy

[Tommy R]

Looking good!!:)

[skeeter]

Bob @ HobbyConcepts is wonderful to work with! I've bought a few items from him. I liek the frame color you chose.

[TaltosVT]

The next build session began with assembling and adding the rear leaf springs. After that, I moved on to assembling and greasing the differentials. I used thick marine grease to increase the resistance without completely locking the diffs.

For a bit of fun, I decided to add a mechanic to my "garage." A year or so ago, I purchased a 3d printer. I've mostly been using it for little things, so this was my first attempt at a large print.

One of my other hobbies is miniature wargaming. There's an online company, called HeroForge (https://www.heroforge.com/), that allows you to design a custom miniature, then purchase either the figure or the STL file for printing at home. Usually these miniatures are about an inch tall, but the resolution is fine enough that I was able to enlarge the figure. It took a couple of tries, but I was able to print her to scale nicely with the standard Tamiya driver. My friends have nicknamed her "Sparks" because I later built a little welding cart to go with her.

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[TaltosVT]

Next up was the assembly of the rear axles and finishing of the rear suspension. The last shot shows Sparks with her partially completed welding cart. The hollow welder holds a watch battery that lights up a couple of flashing LEDs at the end of the welding cables. I still need to paint the figure and finish the cart, which'll probably be a project for after the truck is finished.

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[TaltosVT]

The next night of building was dedicated to assembling the transmission. As recommended by most builders, I replaced the stock motor with an 80t motor. I tested the shifting by hand before encasing everything in the transmission case, then tested the electronics once the motor and servos were connected.

The smallest part in the kit?
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https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/51193204194_f0bde2f902_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kZLy4C)
Transmission Test (https://flic.kr/p/2kZLy4C) video, on Flickr

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https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/51192432516_f4c52138d9_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kZGAEQ)
Test of Full Assembly (https://flic.kr/p/2kZGAEQ) video on Flickr

-Elroy

[Brel]

Arrival of electronics. Being a newbie, I elected to go with this "Truck Completer Package" from Hobbyconcepts, which includes a pre-configured radio, receiver, servos, bearings, and ESC. I also purchased a battery, charger, and 80t motor at the same time. With all of the electronics received, I hooked everything up for a test.


Link to video of Electronics Test (https://flic.kr/p/2kW9skU) on Flickr.

good choice of radio and receiver, I like the green colour you have chosen

[dremu]

Oh, baby, the FSi6 is an amazing radio. There's a whole ecosystem of new firmware for them to expand them to 14 channels (or more!), change the switches around, add new controls, etc etc.

https://github.com/qba667/FlySkyI6/

is a good starting point, with the original firmware hack, and then if you want to get Arduino-crazy, I have a page too

http://www.slosh.com/rc/flysky/addl6switches/

Your paint skills far surpass mine, that's for sure.

I'm chuckling at the jackstands, as, well, I might have done exactly the same thing for mine. They're handier than you'd think for multi axle builds like this -- I did a 10x10 military truck that was a total PITA without them.

Do I detect a few pieces done in ABS and warped in there?

-- A

[TaltosVT]

Oh, baby, the FSi6 is an amazing radio. There's a whole ecosystem of new firmware for them to expand them to 14 channels (or more!), change the switches around, add new controls, etc etc.

https://github.com/qba667/FlySkyI6/

is a good starting point, with the original firmware hack, and then if you want to get Arduino-crazy, I have a page too

http://www.slosh.com/rc/flysky/addl6switches/



I'm definitely going to have to check these out. The further I've gotten into the build, the more light channels I'm finding that I want. I'm also just starting to teach myself Arduino (I can blink LEDs :-) ) so that'll be interesting to study.

I've actually finished up the major build of the truck, just a few more details to add. I'll keep going with my in-progress photos here, and try to get caught up on posting.

So, next up was priming the rear fenders:
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For the tires, I decided to try a few ideas to see if I liked any sort of "Goodyear" look. Running this photo past friends, the overwhelming vote was to leave them factory black. The Tamiya name in white was a very close second.
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Assembling tires and wheels:
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Fenders painted and bolted on:
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Wheels added. Officially a rolling chassis!
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Adding the side steps. I scraped the chrome off the raised bits and painted them black for a "grip tape" look.
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Masking off the air tanks, and scraping the chrome so that I can paint the hangers.
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Passenger step in place:
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Adding the ESC. I hid this in the driver's side step. I had to carve out a bit of the back to get it to fit. If I was to do it again, I think I'd put it in the sleeper cab.
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Driver's side step. ESC on/off switch it underneath, and easily reachable without picking up the truck.
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How she looks at the end of the night:
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-Elroy

[TaltosVT]

The next night, I added the fuel tanks, and started wiring lights. The light kit was the basic kit from HobbyConcepts, which gives headlights, turn signals, backup lights, taillights, and a set of amber "fog" lights that come on while driving, and a set of blue lights that come on when the truck is stopped.

Fuel tank after scraping chrome and painting bands and fuel cap:
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Wiring mess:
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Video of testing the lights:
https://live.staticflickr.com/31337/51193279639_182f74dfe7_c.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/2kZLWup)
1303 - Lighting Test (https://flic.kr/p/2kZLWup) by Elroy Davis (https://www.flickr.com/photos/12534314@N04/), on Flickr

With the lights working, I then worked on the rear bumper. The kit comes with New Jersey and California license plates, but that wouldn't do for a Vermont truck, so I made my own. The number, 11577 is a reference to the date (January, 15th, 1777) that Vermont declared its independence from Great Britain, and the colonies of New York and New Hampshire, thereby become its own nation until it joined the United States after the American Revolution.
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-Elroy

[TaltosVT]

At this point, one of my upgrades arrived in the mail. I purchased a yet of aluminum wheels for the front. Lots of itty bitty lugnuts, but I think the look is worth it.

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With the new wheels in place, I turned back to the rear bumper. Using the innards of some phone cable to extend the lighting lines from front to rear, and a couple of red LEDs that I had laying around, I patched in some taillights to my headlights, so that they'd both come on when the light switch is flipped.

Extending the wiring:
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Adding taillights:
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Bumper back in place and lit:
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-Elroy

[frizzen]

Good looking progress, you'll like how much a light kit brings it to life

[TaltosVT]

I didn't forget about this thread, just been too busy to update. :-)

The next couple of sessions were dedicated to constructing the fifth wheel and starting on the cab. The fifth wheel was pretty straight-forward. For the cab, after starting to install it, I decided that the floor was too plain, so I added flocking, then painted it, to add a little texture. For the seats, I used styrene to fill in the backs.

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Fifth wheel plate was painted to match the frame.
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I had to try the cab on to see how it would look.
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The standard hollow backs needed some filling.
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To get the size of the seat backs, I slobbed on some wet paint and made in impression on styrene sheet. When the paint was dry, I cut inside the lines for an (almost) perfect fit.
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With the seat back in place, a little filler in the gaps helped smooth things out.
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Finally, cut the hood of the cab. This was done carefully with a craft knife, and took far longer than I expected it would.
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-Elroy

[TaltosVT]

Next up, some upgraded rear wheels. I really like the look of these.

Hub pieces:
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Comparing the standard plastic wheels with the upgraded aluminum wheels:
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Looks nice with matching rear and front wheels:
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Before working on the cab more, I made an attempt at adding a 3D printed engine. I found the file on Thingiverse, and scaled it as best I could. It turned out a bit smaller than scale, but I moved ahead with it anyway.

Engine still on the printer:
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Cummins engine, right side up:
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Test placement:
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Trying the engine with the cab in place. About half of the print was cut away to fit over the model's motor.
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-Elroy

[TaltosVT]

Painting and adding the seats and engine:

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-Elroy

[NRS91]

feel sorry for that little 5.9 powering that whole rig ;)
but awesome build!