HIGH-DETAIL HILUX FROM RC4WD
ZACH AUDET « SAINTE-AGATHE-DES-MONTS, QUÉBEC, CANADA
It’s been more than 2 years since Zach first showed us his RC4WD xst system. He also went to town in the RC4WD custom parts catalogue, snagging a set of Yota 2 axles with ARB diff covers, Superlift scale shocks and the Superlift steering rod kit, a Warn 9.5CTI winch with wireless winch controller, and the Mojave light kit. For power Zach chose an Axial 27T motor with a Hobbywing 1060 controller running on a 2s 5000mah Lipo from Gens Ace. I all rolls on Pitbull rock beast 1.55" tires on RC4WD black stamped steel wheels. But it’s the surface detailing that really drives this one home. The Krylon Bahama Sea Blue rattle-can base coat has been treated to some extreme wear and tear with airbrushed faux rust and soot from a Tamiya weathering kit, finished off with a black wash to make the details stand out. He also cut the front edge of the fenders and the grille for an authentic crawler look. Zach says he’s put countless hours into the build and countless more running it in Class 1 competitions. He has even more plans for the Hilux, and you can follow his progress by checking out “Zrc_customs” on Instagram, Youtube and Twitter.
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ALEX KAHN « ORLANDO, FL
Alex has a thing for horror movie cars, and muscle Mopars in particular. We featured his Phantasm Cuda in the December issue and we’re following that with the less wellknown (but more challenging technically) ’70 Road Runner from the post-apocalyptic vampire flick Daylight’s End. The chassis is a fairly stock Lighting EPX drift car from Redcat Racing, but the body that tops it has been extensively reworked to mimic the ’70 Plymouth, and then modified even more to match the movie car. Alex recruited his friend Billy C. Leworth to do the body fabrication. The first step required taking a toy-grade hard-body Nikko Plymouth Superbird and “de-supering” it by chopping off the bullet-shaped nose cone and the giant rear wing. With the nose removed he then had to build the Road Runner’s grille, headlights and front fascia completely from scratch, which has been done with impressive accuracy. The rest of the body then received a weathered primer paint job followed by mesh over the windows and some sheet styrene for the armor plating. He even added the tow hook under the left rear, which is a plot point in the opening scene of the film.
BUILD HIGHLIGHTS
CHRIS RAPPEL « OAKVILLE, ONTARIO, CANADA
Chris admits that while he has been running RC vehicles since he was a kid, it wasn’t until 2011, when he bought his son Will his first truck, that he really went all-in on the hobby. Chris and Will turned to Youtube to pick up tips on customizing After countless hours soaking in the knowledge, it occurred to them maybe that they could do their own Youtube channel sharing what they had learned and documenting their own projects.
The channel—called Scale Town—grew, and video production became another facet of the hobby for Chris, even as he and Will expanded their fleet to include more than 40 project vehicles. Will has taken up scale photography as his skills have grown; the pix you see here are his, and he shares his work on Instagram.
com/will_r_photo. In fact, it was a photo contest which landed Chris’ Redcat
Gen 8 at SEMA this year. Redcat invited builders to submit pix of their trucks, and the winner would get theirs displayed in Redcat’s booth at SEMA 2019 and receive a prize pack too. Chris and Will won, and that’s where we got our look at their Genny. The chassis works pretty well stock, but Chris upgraded electronics with a Hobbywing Quicrun 1080 controller and a Yeah Racing Hackmoto Just Climb brushed motor. A Savox 1210 servo handles steering. The tires are stock Super Swampers with Pro-line foams, but the thing that put the truck in the spotlight at SEMA was the customairbrushed Xtra Speed Ford F-150 Raptor hard body.
COREY GRISHAM « CLINTON, MO
Corey dusted off a RCP Wreckluse tube-frame chassis from the mid-2000s and brought it back to life using a repurposed set of SSD D60 axle housings stuffed with Axial HD gears, Vanquish Products VVD axle shafts and a Vanquish Stage One kit with black-anodized aluminum knuckles, C-hubs and lockouts. He made a set of custom brass links to produce an 11.5-inch wheelbase. The “body” consists of an old-school round headlight bezel grille and custom metal panels bolted to tabs in welded steel tube frame which features a lowered roofline and a fastback-style rear contour and is painted antique bronze color to . He also added custom inner fenders and a custom 3D-printed dash with LEDS and a digital voltage readout. A Holmes Hobbies brushed system sends power through a SSD Wraith transmission to a set of TSL Swamper tires mounted on a set of chrome Jellybean-style SSD 1.9 wheels.
PETER LUNDBERG « FARMINGDALE, NY
Plans for this makeover started when Peter scored this Element Sendero from a buddy. From the beginning he had a vision for the look he wanted, and with the truck in hand he went to work. Step one was cutting away the back of the body, replacing the bed with a back-half cage Pro-line that looks great and firms up the frame. With a solid foundation in place Peter installed a servo winch from Reef’s RC and stepped up the speed control to a Hobbywing 1080. Rolling stock also received an upgrade: SSD bead-locks wrapped in Pro-line’s Flatiron XL tires. The finishing touch was an LED light kit from My Trick RC.
BJ BOILER « PAYSON, AZ
Traxxas captured a whole new audience with the introduction of the cult-classic ‘79 Bronco version of the TRX-4. The only full-size Bronco to run solid axles it’s the perfect foundation for a scale crawler, but BJ didn’t want to leave it stock so he started making upgrades. Power now comes from a Holmes Hobbies 11T Crawlmaster Sport brushed motor with a Hobbywing 1080 controller. Stability gets a boost thanks to a full set of brass weights, including the front diff cover, the front axle, and the front bumper mount. I set of 110mm King shocks keeps the Voodo KLR “OG” 1.9 tires planted, and they’re mounted to a set of DJX aluminum bead-lock wheels. BJ dressed up the stock Bronco shell with a body wrap, then added an LED light kit plus a lighted roof rack.