Cross RC BC8 Project
Page 3: Building the Body
The body is built like a static plastic model rather than a typical
RC. There are a lot of parts here and a lot of detail work to
do. I started by spraying almost everything olive drab and then
went to work on the bush painting. The left image shows the
interior door panels, handles, seats, and dash. On the right you
can see a close-up of the dash which shows the illuminated gauges.
Here we see the steering wheel, pedals, and seats installed onto the big
base panel along with a couple of big fuel tanks in the back. The
battery will sit in the center. On the right you can see the
hodge podge of wiring. There was a lot to hook up here including
the 6 channel receiver, lighting kit, sound kit, BEC, ESC, and various
splitters and extensions. It seems like there is plenty of room
inside (and there is), but things still need to be close together to
avoid a dozen more servo extensions.
The completed model. I tried to glue the top half of the body on,
but I found that I kept needing to remove it for access so at the moment
it is just friction fit which seems adequate. I've also painted
the fuel cans and fire extinguishers.
Here is a shot of the many products I needed to do the finishing on this
model. We have primer, 4 spray paints, 6 brush paints, 2 paint
pens, 2 washes, and adhesives including various viscosities of CA,
cement, Plastic Weld, thread lock, and Shoe Goo.
Phase 2:
I was one of the first North American owners of the BC-8, and at the
time I bought it no accessories were available yet. I came back
later and added the optional winch. As shown on the left, it
includes a big cable drum, a huge gearbox, a motor, and a speed
controller. The winch fits, not surprisingly, in the winch housing
behind the cab along with the fan. There are no instructions
included for the controller so I ended up burning up the first one (it
literally burst into flames due to reversed polarity) and had to buy
another.
©2018 Eric Albrecht
