A while back, i stumbled across
Hondabiker's TA02SN build in his showroom on Tamiya Club and decided it would make a good starting point for an attempt to build a mostly stock looking Hobby Grade Tyco Bandit.
here's what the first mock up looked like after getting the initial TA01 bits and a lot of the TYco bodies. (the rollbar is actually from a cheap New Bright toy I picked up)
Another angle.
After staring at the black bandit setup for months, (trying to find time etc) I managed to pick up this bad boy (my holy grail) on eBay as well
For the original project I'd picked up a lot of bodies on eBay
If you'll notice, the holy grail is the alternative color (frequency) to the body on the far left in the lot picture, so on a whim, I put that body on the mock up chassis I had for the black bandit, and was sold. That pretty much made my decision to try to reproduce the truck (the blue one) for me. The first problem though was that I didn't have a suitable rollbar for the truck, so I took a beat up one from the standard bandit, wet sanded the living daylights out of it and sprayed it with Tamiya TS-14
I didn't think to take before and after pics, but it essentially went from the one on the left, to the one on the right
And here's what they look like side by side
I may need to hit up someone later for some custom decals for the Tyco, Nissan and Good Year logos. The rear wheel will be bolted on as soon as I get an extra pair of M-chassis Rally blocks.
Chassis side, I've only managed to add some small Tamiya rod ends, tires and shocks.
