keymaker

Yet another Trophy Truck - MOC | Work in progress

Recommended Posts

1280x720.png640x480.png

The front of the car looks perfect. I really like the suspension arms on the front axle, they certainly define the look of the trophy truck at the front. I also like flexible arches for arches more. They look graceful and don't overwhelm the look. The only thing I would change is the small protective bumper underneath in black. Or depending on the final color scheme. Since the bumper in LBG color is not very suitable and distracts attention. I would have made it in body color. But here, of course, a matter of personal preference, so it's better for you to decide with the color.

 

1280x720.png
The rear of the car, in my opinion, is not yet so balanced. The rear axle looks too massive due to the motors and additional panels. I know there is a temptation to put protective panels on the axles, but they end up ruining appearance a lot, especially at this scale of the moc. On the contrary, I would try to lighten the rear axle as much as possible. To try to get closer to what it looks like on real trophy trucks. It may also be worthwhile to slightly reinforce the trunk to even out the balance with the rear axle. Maybe you should reinforce the roll cage or add a panel underneath the spare wheel or something. Another option is to place the two spare wheels vertically. If the springs of the shocks allow it, then it's better to make the trunk heavier, and lighten the rear axle as much as possible. Then the suspension will work more realistically when driving.

All of the above is my subjective opinion and I may be wrong, since I cannot rotate the model in my hands, and I draw all the conclusions from only a few renders. In addition, I may simply be wrong due to the lack of the necessary experience, nevertheless, I poke around with my comments, which should not be taken too seriously. :blush: I was simply hooked on your project. I have long wanted to build a trophy truck on the same scale, but I don’t like everything that is on the rebrickable now. After trying your Hornet, I realized that you know how to build - your crawler rides amazingly! So I have high hopes for your current project. :classic:

Edited by Igor1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I am back with some updates based on your advices:

- after seeing many photos of baja trophy cars I decided to abandon using classical bumper as most of this kind of vehicles do not have them

- I adjusted front mounting points of front arches and located them one stud closer to the center to achieve smoother body/hood line

- front mounting points of rear arches are redesigned, they are closer to the body and angled to match new smoother lower line of the body

- rear part of the body is filled with panels now to match style the rest of the truck

- rear shock absorbers no longer use big mounting constructions

- rubber dampers are back (idea I saw in real trucks and also I used it at early stages of this project), they can be seen on gif

- (the biggest change) rear axle is redesigned, portal hubs are full in use (but I am using 1:1 ratio)

I designed "naked" version of rear axle (a minimum but necessary amount of parts to make it rigid) and "armored" one. I decided to go with armored one, even if it is 36g heavier (244g vs 280g, with wheels and tires of course). I am aware of the "unsprung mass" thing, but I just like this armored one, it fits the rest of the car, it protects motors and gears and thanks to "shortened" shock absorbers and using portal hubs it doesn't look as "off" as the previous one, it doesn't stick out of the frame as previous one. Another big advantage of using portal hubs is of course improved ground clearance. Now rear GC of the truck matches the front one and it is almost 4 studs.

800x600.png800x600.png800x600.png

800x600.png800x600.png800x600.png

On 9/26/2021 at 5:57 PM, Igor1 said:

I cannot rotate the model in my hands, and I draw all the conclusions from only a few renders

That is why I prepared gif, it should let you and all interested to see model from many more angles since it can be paused in any moment :)

Trophy_truck_ver2.6.gif

Any suggestions/critiques you have, please share it. They are very useful in improving this MOC. More photos and renders can be found HERE.

1280x720.png

1280x720.png

Edited by keymaker

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
20 minutes ago, P McCatty said:

Slightly off-topic but you can add the Buwizz Motor to your custom parts in lieu of recoloring the older Buggy version

It would be very usefull, but I do no know how to use files you provided. I have some custom parts, imported to Studio from PartDesigner, but usually I download a file with ".part", which contains whole part with connection points etc. Here everything is separated.

Edited by keymaker

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
25 minutes ago, keymaker said:

It would be very usefull, but I do no know how to use the file you provided.

In your Studio installation folder, there's an 'ldraw' subfolder. That either has a 'Custom Parts' subfolder, or if not, you need to create one, and then put the contents of that zip on the link into that folder. If subfolders already exist in there, you have to merge them. Then those parts will appear on your custom palette. I have just recently had to figure this out again :)

I like the naked version of the axle, as it shows a minimum useful build, and the proper use of the portal axle is also welcome, as this way it can be reused for slower but more torque-hungry builds by changing the gearing. I have been also thinking of building a live axle with the BuWizz motors, but more for off-roading. The latest armoured version is still pretty slim, I think!

A slightly unrelated question, have you tried the BuWizz motors in a setup where there's a real drivetrain, the motors not built into the axle? I am curious how much it would wear the drivetrain parts and the axle holes, as I am afraid it would be too intense for the plastic.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@gyenesvi thank you for advice about Studio, I will check this out later today.

In case of rear axle and off-roading capabilities. I plan to test this version outdoor on some sandy ground or gravel. I believe it will perform as good as prevoius version did on parking showed on this video.

About your question, I did not try this solution in this MOC and I do not intend to do that. There are two reasons behind that. First, I already created MOCs with such solution, please check my UAZ 3151 or KrAZ 255 and with this Trophy Truck I would like to try something different. The second reason is efficiency and reliability of the construction. With those motors - the shorter drive train and less gears in it - the better. I wish to transfer power from motors to wheels without or with minimum losses and also I do not want to risk, that something in drivetrain won't withstand the power of motors or that I create unnecessary places which can be damaged by sand, dust etc.

And I can share with you my observations, that after wild parking rides shown on video, I observed axles and axle holes wear. They ware covered with very tiny white dust created from plastic, which slowly increased friction between parts.

Edited by keymaker

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, keymaker said:

About your question, I did not try this solution in this MOC and I do not intend to do that.

I did not mean in this MOC of course.

1 hour ago, keymaker said:

I already created MOCs with such solution, please check my UAZ 3151 or KrAZ 255

Sure, I have seen them, but they are not driven by BuWizz motors.

1 hour ago, keymaker said:

I do not want to risk, that something in drivetrain won't withstand the power of motors or that I create unnecessary places which can be damaged by sand, dust etc.

Exactly this is my fear, that a more realistic drivetrain would be quite risky with those motors.

1 hour ago, keymaker said:

And I can share with you my observations, that after wild parking rides shown on video, I observed axles and axle holes wear. They ware covered with very tiny white dust created from plastic, which slowly increased friction between parts.

This, I was actually even able to 'generate' such plastic dust with 2 PU XL motors geared up, although it may depend on how well all the axles are braced on each ends, how much wiggle room they have, I guess the less the less this wear effect appears. Thanks for sharing the observations for this case!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Wow! Now I like everything! The muzzle without protective bumpers turned out to be graceful and expressive. Arches with flexible axles look great. The rear axle looks much better now. And the portal hubs on it allows to do a reduction, if necessary. Cool! My BuWizz motors are on the way, I look forward to the instructions. :thumbup:

It would be nice if you foresee the LED mounts for the headlights (taillights) in advance.

Tell us, please, what is the mass of the entire moс?

Edited by Igor1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

@Igor1 Thank you! In case of LED mounts, it can be tricky for the front, because lights and grill are built with plates mostly. It can be a little easier for the rear lights, but still no trivial thing. The MOC in current version weights 1217 grams (which is 110 grams more than the version presented on the video). I think this is acceptable increase. The weight won't go up, because the model is pretty much done and this increase of weight (+ ~10% versus version from the video) should not impact on overall performance of the truck.

The plan is to take this version on less even terrain and test the performance and start real thinking about the final colours.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I really like the way you attached the rear shock absorbers at a spacial angle and the use of the 16L links as diagonal braces. Can't wait to see the final video.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Quick question on the rear suspension. If you pull down, do the shock absorbers disengage at the ball joint (specifically at the axle connection)? I know it will be mostly under compression, but at an extreme tilt I feel like one side may slip out. I ask because I've run into that situation before using the 9.5L shock absorbers.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, P McCatty said:

Quick question on the rear suspension. If you pull down, do the shock absorbers disengage at the ball joint (specifically at the axle connection)? I know it will be mostly under compression, but at an extreme tilt I feel like one side may slip out. I ask because I've run into that situation before using the 9.5L shock absorbers.

Ball joint connection secured with links should prevent such extreme one sided tilts, but... I have also a backup plan to counter this, showed below (I colored it red to make more visible on render). I faced this kind of problem quite painfully during extreme testing of my Off-Roader :)

640x480.png

Big shout out for @Philo for his directories with custom parts. And sorry for spamming with more renders, but I couldn't help myself :) I have it on my desk, but not all parts are in desired colour yet and on renders it looks just much better with those tires (I would say much more aggressive).

1280x720.png

1280x720.png

Edited by keymaker

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
6 minutes ago, keymaker said:

it looks just much better with this tires (I would say much more aggressive).

Agreed, I love it with those tires, and I just bought the Ford today, so I should be covered :) But I'll need to buy one or two spares I guess :)

One more tip about Studio. I have just recently realized, that if you set the detail level to medium or low while working, it also shows on the realistic renders (I think it should not, it may be a bug) on some curved panels and on the rims especially, like on yours above, the rim just appears blocky. So when doing renders, I guess we'll have to set it to high detail, to get nice round rims..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
41 minutes ago, gyenesvi said:

the rim just appears blocky. So when doing renders, I guess we'll have to set it to high detail, to get nice round rims..

Thank you for pointing this out, you are right, I forgot about this. So I switched both renders in previous post for better ones. Maximum effort :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, keymaker said:

Ball joint connection secured with links should prevent such extreme one sided tilts, but... I have also a backup plan to counter this, showed below (I colored it red to make more visible on render). I faced this kind of problem quite painfully during extreme testing of my Off-Roader :)

Beautiful execution.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I tried many colour variants, but ended up to choose between those two. I also did some testing on heavy off-road terrain, but conclusions are that I will change gear ratio a bit to add more torque. In heavy terrain Buwizz motors take too much power and they are shutting Buwizz down :(

1280x720.png

1280x720.png

1280x720.png

1280x720.png

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I also like the very first color and the wheel option. I would only replace the rear shocks 9.5L with red ones (2909c02). They are really rare, but for me personally this isn't a problem.

Trophy_truck_ver2.6.gif

Edited by Igor1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

the all black version with the red roll bar is magnificent.  In addition, the new tires of the Ford really give it an off-road look.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.