WR-02CB Comical Grasshopper For Some Fun!

[toyolien]

I've been collecting a few bits for this build since just after Christmas. Now seems like a good time to make a start on it.

When I first saw the Comical Grasshopper I thought that it was just what the WR-02 chassis needed. Slight smaller wheels and a lightweight, low lexan body. My plan is to try to make it a good handling, fun wheelie machine. Time will tell....

Anyway, here's the obligatory box.

 

As most people seem to do, I opened up the gearbox to add bearings and some AW grease in the diff. I also added the lightweight gear shafts too.

 

The first thing I wanted to do to try to improve the handling was add some toe in to the rear wheels.

 

The next thing on the list was to replace the upper fixed length links for some adjustable ones. I drilled the chassis mounting points out to 4mm and added some 50593 flanged tubes to install some 5mm balls.

 

Also added some universals to the rear.

 

Next job is the servo install.

 

On to the front. Now, I really didn't like that Tamiya used a 4wd shaft for the front wheels when they already produce something much more suitable, and neater looking. The axle shaft from the M-Chassis cars. Fits perfectly and looks so much better.

 

Here's the difference between the kit part and the M-Chassis part.

 

And here's where I'm up to as of tonight. More coming soon...

 

 

 

I had chance to do some more work on this little fella this afternoon.

Shocks are on.

 

I've used some Schumacher truck foams for the rear but was struggling to find some for the front. In my spares box I found a pair of foams from some RC4WD 1.55 tires that were spot on.

 

Toying between brushed and brushless I decided on brushless. A 13.5t Justock with a 10BL60 esc (with the fan removed).

 

Not decided on a body colour yet, so just put these wheels on to get it as a roller for now.

 

And finally all wired up. I like neat wiring and look forward to doing in on any build. But, this was certainly the most challenging one I've ever done. Especially to get it looking good in such a small amount of space, and avoiding the driver figure.

 

And that's all for tonight.

 

I did just pop the wheels from my Konghead on to see how it looks. I was thinking about using the Jimny body I have for the WR-02 instead of the Grasshopper, but decided to leave it for a future build... maybe...

[Yorkshireman]

Looking good mate. Love the scale garage! 👍

[willb]

That's excellent! Look forward to seeing that run, especially on a 13.5t 

[Oh How Original]

Also considered buying one of these just for giggles... Dads still got a Holiday buggy, regret selling my original Grasshopper, they were good fun in a small space.

[No brains]

the chassis looks good, are you going to paint the body box art or do some other color ?

 

 I am going to build my wr-02 with the jimny body and long arms from a wt-01 and stadium thunder wheels and tires I have all off these parts laying around.

Edited March 31, 2020 by No brains

[toyolien]

On 31/03/2020 at 10:47, John Booth said:

Looking good mate. Love the scale garage! 👍

 

Thanks very much.

 

On 31/03/2020 at 11:56, willb said:

That's excellent! Look forward to seeing that run, especially on a 13.5t 

I've had a quick run round the patio and I think 13.5t is spot on for this buggy. Even on nimhs!

 

On 31/03/2020 at 14:45, Oh How Original said:

Also considered buying one of these just for giggles... Dads still got a Holiday buggy, regret selling my original Grasshopper, they were good fun in a small space.

I've got a re-re Grasshopper to build up next as a beach basher. Never had one as a kid, but it's so iconic I thought I would now.

 

On 31/03/2020 at 15:39, No brains said:

the chassis looks good, are you going to paint the body box art or do some other color ?

 

 I am going to build my wr-02 with the jimny body and long arms from a wt-01 and stadium thunder wheels and tires I have all off these parts laying around.

 

Thanks. I'm probably going to go with either silver or green for the body. I'll see. Love the Jimny body on these chassis. And the Wild Willy 2 too.

 

[toyolien]

Managed a little more work on the Comical Buggy this afternoon.

 

First job; the bumper. I've never liked the look of the big spring loaded bumpers on these WR-02's, so decided to remove the springs and chop up the kit bumper. Much happier.

 

Next up, painting the driver. I'm not great at painting figures. I always seem to end up rushing it and then wishing I hadn't. I've tried to take my time on this one, a little, anyway.

 

First thing was to fill in the hole in his arm. I just used some styrene bar I had.

 

On to the head. I screwed and glued it together, then filled in the hole in the back of his head, and sanded the joint. On to a couple of coats of plastic primer.

 

Followed by masking off the face using some Tamiya masking tape for curves... I love this tape.

 

And fast forward (because I got too engrossed to take any more pics) to the finished fella.

 

Next up, the body.

 

I decided to paint the roll cage rather than using the supplied decals. Kind of regretted it at first purely because of the amount if time it took to mask up. About 2 hours in total! I used some of the masking tape for curves again, amazing stuff.

 

Really pleased with the results. Well worth the time and effort.

 

Next up will be the final body colour. It won't be box art. Either silver or green. I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.

 

Thanks for looking.

[Oh How Original]

I think based on the masking tape, it's got to go green!

[toyolien]

1 hour ago, Oh How Original said:

I think based on the masking tape, it's got to go green!

Oh. Just finished the final coat of silver.  😬

[Oh How Original]

Just now, toyolien said:

Oh. Just finished the final coat of silver.  😬

 

Boooo.

[Yorkshireman]

I'm sure it will look great.  You got me thinking about one of these kits now !!!!😁

[toyolien]

6 hours ago, John Booth said:

I'm sure it will look great.  You got me thinking about one of these kits now !!!!😁

 

I was a little unsure when i first saw these comical buggies, but i have to say I'm totally converted. I've had a Lunchbox for 10 years and love it, but this is so much better. It handles properly but is still loads of fun pulling wheelies on demand. Plus I'm a sucker for any vehicle with Willy behind the wheel! 

[toyolien]

This afternoon I finished off Willy. Painting isn't my strong point, but he didn't turn out too bad I don't think.

 

I added a little bit of 'flesh wash' to his face.

 

After some deliberation I decided to go with silver instead of green.

 

And, as I usually do, backed the inside with a dark colour to hide the underneath a little when the body is on.

 

While I was waiting for the paint to cure I made a start on the lights. I'm using 5mm reds for the rear and 5mm bright whites for the fronts. The fronts will need to be unplugged to remove the body, and I also wanted the rears to have the ability to be unplugged in case I ever need to replace them.

So, I started to make up some 2 into 1 plugs using some JST connectors.

 

Taped together while I solder them together and then crimp them in to the plug pins.

 

I've had this specific crimping tool for a year or so, and it's well worth the money (about £15 I think). Until then when ever I shortened receiver or servo wires I just crimped them with some pliers, with mixed results. This tool is perfect everytime.

 

All nicely tucked away in this small electronics box.

 

I bent up a small piece of black styrene at the front of the chassis to house it.

 

Nice fit, and reasonably neat.

 

And, lastly tonight I just wanted to see what the body looked like with the stripes on. More coming tomorrow.

 

Apologies for the large amount of pics. I do like to take a lot of pics as I build. It's good to refer back to them in the future...

[toyolien]

 

It's all done. Finished off the front lights as neatly as I could.

 

 

And here it is all done. I've not go overboard with the decals. I might add a few more, or maybe some racing numbers. No decided yet.

 

 

That's all for now folks. Not sure what to do next. I've got a Wild Willy 2, and re-re Bigwig or a vintage Boomerang to restore. Quite fancy the Bigwig I think...

[Gaz!]

Oh man, I really can’t add anything more to what I usually say, but you are certainly one of the few that can make a ordinary build into something quite special and for me less is more on the decals, looks perfect as is!!

 

also mate, you can’t get away with garage pics now, we want to see “wheelies” and some “gettin air” pics now please 

 

as ever mate, cracking job. 

[Yorkshireman]

Great build mate, really enjoyed this...but, yes....get some a action shots up !

BTW...you've inspired me and, I've gone and ordered one !!! 😁

[toyolien]

On 03/04/2020 at 17:14, Gaz! said:

Oh man, I really can’t add anything more to what I usually say, but you are certainly one of the few that can make a ordinary build into something quite special and for me less is more on the decals, looks perfect as is!!

 

also mate, you can’t get away with garage pics now, we want to see “wheelies” and some “gettin air” pics now please 

 

as ever mate, cracking job. 

 

Thank you Gaz, much appreciated. If i had a longer garden i would definitely get some action shots. I'll see what i can do. It wheelies amazingly on the patio though... 

 

On 03/04/2020 at 20:44, John Booth said:

Great build mate, really enjoyed this...but, yes....get some a action shots up !

BTW...you've inspired me and, I've gone and ordered one !!! 😁

Fantastic. They are such a fun kit to build and details. It's what i love about Tamiya. You don't just get it out of the box all done and blast it around. You have to create it yourself!

[jph]

Love this! 😍

I built a comical frog recently for my young daughter to learn to drive but I'm thinking I might build another for myself and go wild with the hop ups!

Some of the shots appear to show extended hex's, do these work ok with the standard length axles and can you share the part number please?

Thanks 😀

[toyolien]

2 hours ago, jph said:

Love this! 😍

I built a comical frog recently for my young daughter to learn to drive but I'm thinking I might build another for myself and go wild with the hop ups!

Some of the shots appear to show extended hex's, do these work ok with the standard length axles and can you share the part number please?

Thanks 😀

@jph

 

Thanks very much. I had a bit of hassle with the axles. I'll try to explain:

 

The M-Chassis fronts weren't long enough for the  #54610 extended hexes i wanted to use. So i reverted back to the kit 4wd axles and just ground of the end where a CVD would fit in to neaten it up. I then etch primed and painted the bare steel.

 

On the rear i had a similar issue. I bought the #53847 46mm  TA05 shafts which work with the extended wishbones on the WR02CB chassis. However, the axle ends (threaded part) were also not long enough for the extended hexes. I also had a set of #54394 39mm WR-02 CVD's for a Wild Willy 2 I'm now building. The axles ends on these CVD's were as long as the kit fronts. 

 

So, i ended up using the axles end from the #54394 CVD's and dog bone shafts from the #53847. This gave me the 46mm CVD with the long threaded ends to work with the extended hexes.

And, the other pieces I had left over have made another pair of 39mm CVD's for the Wild Willy 2, but I'm having to use thinner hexes on this.

 

I hope that makes sense?

[jph]

8 hours ago, toyolien said:

@jph

 

Thanks very much. I had a bit of hassle with the axles. I'll try to to explain................

 

........So, i ended up using the axles end from the #54394 CVD's and dog bone shafts from the #53847. This gave me the 46mm CVD with the long threaded ends to work with the extended hexes.

And, the other pieces I had left over have made another pair of 39mm CVD's for the Wild Willy 2, but I'm having to use thinner hexes on this.

 

I hope that makes sense?

@toyolien

 

Thanks for the detailed reply, it's much appreciated. 

 

What you described makes perfect sense, although not quite as straightforward as I'd hoped 😂

 

What is odd is that the Tamiya USA website list both the #54394 CVD and the #53847 CVD on the hop up list for the comical buggy;- 

https://www.tamiyausa.com/hop-ups/34382/B84page/1/ which is rather confusing!

 

I can see myself spending more on all these hop ups than on the kit itself! 😂

[bertberr]

Just finished reading this with my tea & toast - very enjoyable, as always!  I really like the way you photograph everything so well, and provide lots of build details including part no's etc for specific hop-ups, very useful for others looking to do a similar build in the future.

 

One question though, what are those shocks?  Are they different shocks or kit ones with ali caps etc?

[toyolien]

I must have missed the pic of the shocks. They are for the gf-01. Part number #54670. 

 

Have a look here for a good list of hop ups:

https://tamiyablog.com/2018/06/tamiya-optional-parts-catalog-by-rc-model-chassis/

[Evoman]

How did you fit the longer drive shaft exits on the rear so you can use the original 9mm hexes? there not in the TA05 shaft set as there for 4/5mm hexes. Thank you

[toyolien]

7 hours ago, Evoman said:

How did you fit the longer drive shaft exits on the rear so you can use the original 9mm hexes? there not in the TA05 shaft set as there for 4/5mm hexes. Thank you

 

Aah, I found that out too after buying the TA05 shafts. I then had to buy the WR-02 shafts too:

 

The #53792 (tt01) & #54394 (wr02) are the same length but the #54394 (wr02) come with the longer stub axles. These are both for the shorter WR-02 arms. If you want universals for the comical length arms these are #53847 (wr02cb). However, these don't come with the longer stub axles. On my comical I wanted it to be a little wider so I used the #54394 (wr02cb) shafts with the #53847 (wr02) stub axles. This allowed me to then use the longer 9mm hexes. (#54610)

 

Here's the option parts list for both the WR-02 and WR-02CB

https://d7z22c0gz59ng.cloudfront.net/cms/img/usr/inst/parts/wr02_PARTS_CATALOG.pdf

https://d7z22c0gz59ng.cloudfront.net/cms/img/usr/inst/parts/wr02cb_PARTS_CATALOG.pdf

 

Hope this helps.

Edited August 8, 2022 by toyolien