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I picked this up in September 2017. It was cheap on eBay and at the time I was probably more interested in the Sand Rover front wheels and tyres.
I was slightly taken aback by the packing, it looked more like a leg of lamb.
At the time I just thought well I’ve never owned an ORV chassis and this seemed to be mostly intact and spares seemed readily available.

Initially it was just a tear down of the chassis and a clean.
I bought some new front suspension arms and the rubber boot for the dog bones.
Neither of which have been used on the final build.

November 2017 and luckily this delivery was in an actual box.

And this is the contents of the box.
The reason for buying this, was purely because it’s an original with clear glass. Well it’s supposed to be clear.
I was never a huge fan of the ORV chassis and Brat body combination.
But the shell is really good, loads of details.
Plus I think I fancied the challenge at the time.
Don’t expect too much of this bit at this point.

This took quite a bit of work to get to this point.
There’s also a nasty chop out in the rear bed.
It will still need a bit more work prior to painting.
But it was a start.
The window glass is going to be the biggest challenge to try and rescue it at all.

April 2019, according to my phone.
Any way curtesy of Lars, my Brat now has his box. Also some new wheels and tyres awaiting the day it gets put back together. These were originally intended for my Ranger build, but I managed to get the correct deep dish Ranger wheels so these went straight to this build.
I think I can spy the wires for the MSC. For some reason I like trying to get the MSC’s for the early kits.

So this year ??!!
Any way I finally started to take this build seriously.
I’d been picking up small batches of bits that might come in handy.
The hardest part to get and I think I was looking for a good couple of years was the front body post.
The original is a single piece that screws into a plastic piece held between the front suspension arms. The re-release part is blue anodised and is a fixed length. This original one can be screwed in or out to get the height required.
Also managed to get the rear cab glass in clear as well.
I thought I’d already got this, but when it turned up it was lightly tinted.
Which I now can’t find either ??

So here’s pretty much everything to start the build and that time had arrived.

Luckily I’d already cleaned up most of the parts. I picked up the missing front suspension arm in a pile of bits I bought, so the new ones get put back in a box.
Prior to building I realised I was missing a few screws so bought the A and D screw bags from Tony’s Tamiya Parts.

I like the detail on the Brat body, though I'm not a fan of the whole "truggy" look. TBH my biggest issue with it is the "4WD" decals ... assuming I ever get around to doing my "Super Brat" properly I plan to correct it - but I'm still not sure to go with "2WD" or "RWD", the latter having the advantage of a void that can be made red like the original. Or leave them off entirely, as per the box art

Hi Jonny, when I get to finishing the body, the big 4WD sticker is definitely not going on.

My biggest issue is how far the wheels and tyres stick out from the body. I know it’s for stability, but I’d have preferred something closer to reality.

So here’s the closest I’ll ever get to doing the Brat fresh out of the box.