TOPIC:

Just started on my Sand Rover 2011...

Chassis is nothing special but has been slightly improved with proper bearings throughout, alloy hexes on the rear, and a Mardave G2 silvercan - reputedly 25T, and that does seem to make sense - I gave it a quick razz on carpet & despite using a battery that hadn't been charged in a while, punch & speed seemed most of the way to a 23T Sport Tuned motor ... I've never run my Holiday Buggy, so I will probably nick the CVA shocks off that at some point ...





There are a lot of holes for fill on this car ...

Under the body:


... on the nose:


... & on the rear:



Of interest to proper Sand Rover owners will be the driver & rollcage sprues ... apart from the sprues being marked with plastic type recycling codes (PS & ABS, respectively) they look to be identical to the originals ... apart from the driver's face sections & hat being removed, painted & bagged separately, which won't be the case on "spares" sprues.

The rear bodymount clips are included on the rollcage sprue, but not used on the 2011 version - handy for me as the first time I touched the previuously intact clips on my 1981 original, one of them cracked ...

Jonny, this looks interesting.
What are your plans for filling the holes for the suspension? Are you planning to convert the suspension to lower shock towers etc?

I did not know that the body clips were included in the rere sprue. I remember searching for the originals for ages when I restored my Sand River. Back then, these were next to impossible to find.

Lars

Happy New year JR, All the best for 2012. My question it what you going to do to cover the rear shock tower? That is going to be a serious engineering problem. I'm pulling up a chair for this one...

larbut wrote:

Jonny, this looks interesting.
What are your plans for filling the holes for the suspension? Are you planning to convert the suspension to lower shock towers etc?
...

I'm better at doing bodywork/making things than chassis mods, so it's going to be "luggage" on the rear, simple side panels fixed to the chassis sides ... & probably some sort of "power bulge" over the front shocks

Louisbaby wrote:

Happy New year JR, All the best for 2012. My question it what you going to do to cover the rear shock tower? That is going to be a serious engineering problem. I'm pulling up a chair for this one...

Shouldn't be keeping you too long on that one - I'm 2/3rds of the way there on the basic bridging of the gap

Right, "filling" that hole for the rear suspension tower/rear shocks:

First I found the largest of the coolers I'd made but not yet painted, and hacked the bottom & sides mercilessly before gluing it to the body:







The crates I'd made were a little too large, so I made another one - sides are 3mm styrene sheet, top & bottom are 1.5mm sheet, as are the "edges" ... again that got hacked vigorously before gluing:










The final gaps got filled with another "box" - really just a 3mm sheet front & a 1.5mm sheet top, overenthuisiastic shaping on the cooler side got covered up with a chunk of 3mm sheet ... I decide what those last two "boxes" are when I paint them




I'll reinforce/fill any holes from the underside:




Also remembered another hole I'll want to deal with, though at least this one is also there on the original

Like the idea of hiding unsightly bits with scale "stuff" (Particularly the cooler!). I think you should do some scale cases of beer too, & maybe a slapper for the passenger seat?

Very nice JR, I noticed however you use black styrene. I there a difference between the white and black? As far as I know, we only get the white styrene here in South Africa.

Found this link the other day, thought of you.

tamiyaclub.com/...7&id=14925

It does look a lot more suitable for off roading with those side panels...
Great details to hide the holes in the body. For the purpose of realism you might wanna strap them down though...
They could cause quite the headache when humping around or suddenly breaking.