SCX24 & indoor crawling course

[Steve71]

Well I don't know where this would go, so I'm guessing it'll fit in this forum best maybe. I guess I'm doing the two extremes (size wise) now lol. Building the biggest rc truck in the 1/5 scale monster I have going, but now just ordered one of the smallest rc truck in a scx24 the other day. I've been thinking about picking up one of those little guys for a while now, and finally pulled the trigger. Main thing that made me decide was the fact that I recently downsized my aquarium hobby. Just got burned out from having so many large aquariums so I downsized to just a couple tanks now. So after a guy came the other day to pick up the big 240g aquarium that left me with a corner of the basement shop that was wide open. So I immediately thought..."hmmmmm...indoor rock crawler course and a scx24 sure would pass the long Michigan winters faster"

So I started building this the other day. Got the walls painted with some sky/clouds as a backdrop. Got the tables built today and painted. Then started working on getting all the "hills/mountains" formed this evening. Doesn't look like much at the moment but once the plaster cloth gets here on the weekend so I can start covering it and then painting then it will look good. Going to do some realistic flocked trees (think large scale railroad) and some sand/log area and then going to build a wooden bridge to connect the two hills on the right side. Area is 8ft x 5ft so should be a nice space for the little scx24 to roam around on.

This is what I started with after the tank was gone. The tank did take up the entire wall including the spot the chair is in.

[Burniefloyd]

This looks really cool. Very interested in seeing the progress. Good luck.

How does the scx24 look scale wise on the display?

[Steve71]

Still waiting for it to get here, gotta love usps shipping times Should be pretty scale to the hills I think. I looked up the size of it and cut a piece of wood 8"x4" to us as a "mock truck" just to get an idea of how big to build the paths/hills.

[romulus22]

Pretty cool. One thing I miss most in the RC world is competing in crawling competitions. It was really fun while I was involved it was just too time consuming traveling to run with the closest people who took it seriously.

[Steve71]

Some more work done on the indoor 1/24 scale rock crawling course. Sure would be nice if usps would actually do their job and get some of the materials to me before I'm too old and decrepit to actually use them.

[Steve71]

Got the course all covered with plaster cloth today. Stil have to cut some narrow strips to finish coating the edges tomorrow, then can start working on paint work and other scale details as well as flock the trees. The lil scx24 jeep came today so I just had to test it out Gonna be a fun way to pass time during the winter. Almost as much fun as when I was a lil' kid with a Evel Knievel stunt bike flying down the hallway into a pillow



Couple short videos of it testing out the truck & the course....

[GeneralZod]

Great idea! I would love to build one in my living room but the wife would be pissed!

[Dadio]

very very cool !

[Steve71]

All done now. Put about 20 hrs into it over the weekend and managed to finish it. After doing the plaster work I put a coat of drylok on it to hide the seams and some holes in the cloth, as well as the added traction from the texture. Then I had the paint mixed up to match some pictures I found online of the Moab, really happy with the color it turned out. I also added 2 cups of play sand right into the paint itself so it has a real high traction to it. The trees are a large branch I found in a parking lot that I liked the looks of (people probably thought I was crazy putting a dead branch into the truck lol). I looked online at some scale model railroad sites to learn how to do the flocking on the trees. Pretty happy with how they turned out for my first attempt at those. Went ahead and shaded some areas after the base coat as well as covered some spots with sand to give it a real natural look. Certainly going to be a fun & relaxing way to take a break between rod orders and pass time this winter.