OLD BLUE
parkerfest west 2018
For the first time on the West Coast and we were there to take it all in
HPI venture We got on hands on one...Now what can we do with it
About scalers for scalers
table of contents
Old Blue Peterbuilt Welderup Project Blazing The Way
editor shoutout
table of contents
Editor Shoutout Product Review HPI Venture
Readers’ Rides Feature Event
Parkerfest West 2018
Did you miss us? I know it has been a while since you were last able to lay eyes on what has become the best source of scale goodness the online world has to offer. Life has been kicking me constantly for a while, but with the continued support and encouragement from all of you, the magazine continues. I am humbled by everyone who still appreciates what we do here with the magazine and how everyone still looks forward to the next issue. Well, there is nothing to look forward to anymore because here it is: Issue #8. In these digital pages you will find the scale goodness you desire. We have the coverage of the first-ever Parkerfest West. We also got our hands on a HPI Venture and we’re going to see what we can do with this pretty cool rig. So grab your devices, sit back and enjoy. -Todd Henderson Chief Editor Scalers Magazine
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product showcas
The HPI Venture was a greatly
anticipated entry to the scaler world. After a few delays, it finally hit the market and was well received. It has many of the features we were looking for like the forward motor mount. It also had some features that were pleasantly surprising to see. Most notable, the behind the axle steering link that put the steering link, well, behind the axle. HPI Racing was nice enough to send us one and we thought about doing a review on it. Plans have changed. If you want a review, you can find that anywhere. Scalers Magazine is going to bring you a build series instead. We are curious what we can do with this rig and want your feedback. So drop us a line on our Facebook page and let us know what you think or what you think we should do.
HPI Venture To get this project rolling, we hooked up with Chris Seib of RC by Queso del Diablo and he sent over some goodies he has for the Venture. We received his battery relocation tray and mounts, brass spring retainers and metal lower links. Let’s get crackin’
Ohh these pieces are nice. Time to tear these open and see what we’re working with
Battery Tray Relocation This Battery Tray Relocation kit is super nice. The 3D print is nice, thick and feels pretty sturdy. Now to get them on the rig
product showcas
Out with the old and in with the replacement brace is the first step. Its pretty straight forward. Just remove the screws securing the shock hoops and one screw the holds the bumper mount to allow the frame rails to be spread apart enough to get the old tray out and the new cross brace in
This is where the new tray mounts go. Just remove the screws for the side rail mounts and install the mounts with those same screws. Note the orientation of the mounts. You will want to make sure that the mounts are angling forward and the tray screw hole are facing the center of the chassis
All that’s left is to mount the new tray. There’s no hardware included but most of us will have screws laying around to get this done. We used four 3x8mm KNK stainless button heads. Now we can enjoy the performance benefits of having that battery wait lower and further forward.
Brass Spring Retainers Adding a bit more crawling performance and stabilty are these hefty brass spring retainers. Installation is fairly simple Remove the shock assembly from the rig. Remove the old spring retainer and the springs. Remove the tie rod from the shock shaft. Reinstall the springs. Now slide the brass retainer (smaller side toward the shock body). Reinstall the tie rod back onto the shaft and reinstall the shock onto the truck. Repeat for the other shocks and that’s it.
Metal Lower Links Last, but not least its time for some strength and stabilty by replacing the flexy, stock plastic links Finish assembling the new links. Remove the old links. Have patience when installing the new links. The ball ends are a tight fit on the skid. Also, we made lives easier on ourselves and installed on the outside of the axle link mounts. We’ll know if this works out later.
readers ride
Eric Weber Ride of the month goes to this killer submission from Eric Weber. Featuring a X-trail chassis, traxxas Big Bore shocks set to full droop in the rear and half droop in the front and SCX10 axles stuffed with over and under drive gears. The front axle also has brass Beeftubes, XR steering setup and machined XR10 universals. An Integy 45T motor gets things rolling when the Hobbywing ESC says to. A Savox gold 440oz provides the steering duties. H.O.G. servo winch pulls this Blazer out of perdicaments that gets the rig stuck which isn’t often with the 4.19 KLRs doing the clawing. Eric runs G6’s and Class 1 comps with his group WNYSCALERS
Justin Kyte Three year veteran of this hobby, Justin Kyte built this gorgeous Land Cruiser that started life as an SCX10 II. The backbone is still pretty much stock but he did add Boom Racing rod ends to the stock links. This Land Cruiser sports a GCM LRT2 trans, Novak 35T Terra Claw motor, Holmes Hobbies BRXL ESC, Holmes Hobbies servo, Gens Ace 2200mah 3S lipo. GCM dual servo mount, PowershiftRC 250 servo winch, with custom land anchor. Boom Racing 16 hole steel wheels wrapped with Ottsix KLR ATs. The body is a Chinese 80 series land Cruiser hard body with Knight Customs Front Runner roof rack. Also running a Proline universal chassis tray with inner fenders and a Proline universal interior.
ride of the
month
James Jordon James submitted this pretty dang cool Class 2 Hilux that’s running on a Toyzuki v2.5 chassis. Under the chassis, you’ll find Vanquish SCX10 II Currie axles that hang from Dravtech Shocks. A set of Hardcore RC keep the axles in line. A Holmes Hobbies BRXL Crawlmaster Pro 11T gets the party going while a Protek 370tbl tells the party where to go. The Hilux body is fitted with a drop bed and full interior. Everything sits on a set of Vanquish OMF wheels.
Reader Rides' Submissions
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feature rid
Virg gives credit to TCRC for the build of his RC4WD Blazer. Standing just right on a set of RC4WD Dick Cepek wheels that are bear hugged by 1.55 Pro-Line Hyrax tires, this Blazer sports a good bit of RC4WD scale accessories. Keeping the stance where it needs to be are a set of Gmade shocks up front and the standard RC4WD shocks in the rear. Underneath the weather-beaten body, you’ll find a Holmes Hobbies 35T motor spinning the gears of the single speed transmission. A Hobbywing 1080 ESC coverts the go-go signals to actual rolling power. Holmes Hobbies was also enlisted with their HSV500 v2 servo to keep things pointed in the right direction. Mr. Duran would like to thank his sponsors, Simone Racing and BLT RC. It was the well done details and perfect execution on the build that allowed this Blazer to blaze its way to the front of the crowd and pull in the Best of Show win.
Blazing The Way
Virg Duran
Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce you to Virg Duran, the man behind the build you see in front of you. I had to pleasure to meet up with him at Parkerfest West this year and present him with the Best of Show award there. This rig really stood out to us there at the show and I just had to know what went into the building of this beauty.
e s i t r e v ad e r e h
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We got our first
glimpse of this beauty on our Facebook page (keep posting them up and you might find yourself in these pages too). I was awestruck and knew immediately I had to know and see more of this rig. I hit up the owner, Drew Turner, to learn the how and what that went into making Old Blue come to be.
Drew Turner
Old Blue
Photos by Cormier Action Crops
Life for Old Blue started as an Axial SCX10 Dingo. Obviously the stock body was ditched in favor of a cut down FJ body from Capek Scale Creations. The FJ cab was mated to a RC4WD steel cage meant for a honcho and placed on top of the chassis. Various scale accessories from Pro-Line, Exclusive RC and some of Drew’s buddies that have 3D printers were added to give it a touch of scale realism. Of course you have to have an interior and an Axial Wraith interior tub was placed to fill the void inside the cab. The interior was treated to some Exclusive RC love with their light up dash kit and GPS. The body was finished off with some handmade goodies like the exhaust stack and CB antenna. Mr. Turner could have just placed all that on the stock chassis and called it a day, but who does that? The stock rails were hit with some hardware from the go-to hardware folks over at Team KNK. The stock transmission was filled with Hot Racing steel gears to make sure the power always gets to the over and under drive gears down in the axles. Those axles are held in place with a set of handmade links. Everything has to rotate smoothly and Fast Eddy Bearings take care of that.
Now that everything looks good and is built like a tank, it was time to get this static model moving. At the heart is the Holmes Hobbies 27T 540 sealed can. The motor adds to grunt to the system when the AE5 ESC gives it the green light at the pull of the Tactic radio’s trigger. A Radiant digital HS servo make sure the wheels point in the commanded direction. When things get tricky, a RC4WD winch with a handmade winch controller is equipped to get Old Blue out of any situation the RC4WD 1.9 Hummer wheels and MIL Spec ZXL tires can’t roll out of. Juice for the old girl comes in the form of a Sling Shot 3S LiPo that give her plenty of get-up-and-go. Drew has done an excellent job of creating a superb piece of rock crawling art. If this doesn’t get your head turning, you might want to go see a chiropractor and get your neck checked. I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing it in person and I know photos don’t usually do things justice, but Old Blue is a show stopper. If you do get to see this in person, take it all in and enjoy the eye candy in front of you.
Peterbuilt Welderup project Davy De Weirdt
This is what six months of building passion looks like. Davy De Weirdt, hailing all the way from Belgium, has a passion for building custom RC’s. That is quite evident is this creation spread across these pages. The Peterbuilt Welderup is a 90 percent ground up build to replicate the Peterbuilt rat rod truck on the television series Welderup. I have never heard of it, but I’m pretty sure most of you and myself will be looking it up now. Davy used styrene and material he could find to create this masterpiece that sits on an Amewi 8x8 chassis with some axles removed and the stock body. The details in this replica build are off the charts. He even went as far as reproducing all the rivets with headpins. Fun fact: currently Davy has used a total of 1286 head pins on this project. The amount of detail that is being poured into this project mind-boggling. Davy estimates that he has another six months until this project is compete. We can’t wait.
Parkerfest West
Yreka, CA / June 2018
If you haven’t heard the name Brian
Parker, then you must be new to this. Like really, really new to this if you haven’t heard of the kilt-wielding, scale magic-making wizard. Brian Parker is the name behind the epicness that is Parkerfest. We were able to meet up with Parker and the G-Crew at Yreka, CA for their west coast stop of Parkerfest West 2018.
Day 1: Festivities kicked off at 8:30 am and I would love to tell you all about it, but I slept in and miss that, my bad. I did roll in about an hour later which gave me plenty of time to setup my EZ-UP and little work area while folks were out playing with their little trucks. There were still plenty of people around to chat with as everyone geared up for the next event. After lunch, I hooked up with some of my buddies from Bow Tie Brothers and cool kid I nicknamed Eagle Eye (more on that in a second) to tackle the Ultimate Team Adventure Challenge or U.T.A.C. This challenge was a team scavenger hunt with sets of challenges to find the clues out in different sections of the entire area. With Mount Shasta in the backdrop, we set out. Well, we checked the map about ten times and then set out after everyone else had left. We hit the first section, got our rigs through the driver section and then the hunt was on. Eagle eye was able to spot the first clue that would lead us to the main clue for that section. Once again Eagle Eye was able to track down the main clue for the team. We got through the other four sections pretty much the same except our little hiccup on the final section. One of our teammates was down to FWD and of course we had to go uphill. Nothing a few tow ropes couldn’t fix. We did get through the final driver section, find the clues and head on over to the final two challenges. First was a blindfold challenge which had one team member drive blindfolded while the others verbally guided them through. I put the blinding googles over my face and pulled the trigger. My teammates got me through the course in no time and we were off to the final challenge. We had to all drive one rig through a little course. Not so bad except we had to keep a ping-pong ball in a soda cap that was double-sided taped to the rig. With steady hands we were able to get through and found ourselves with a second place finish. After a little break, it was time to set the dirt flying through the air at the Outlaw Drag Races. There was a 1.9 class and 2.2 class. The racing was intense, crazy, entertaining and electrifying. Trevor Lund was able to outlast the competition and win the 1.9 class while yours truly somehow managed to take the 2.2 class. I did choke for the Grand Winner match and Mr. Lund was crowned the winner of the Outlaw Drags.
Day 2: Bring on the Team Trials! Three courses really brought out the skill of each driver in every team. To say they were challenging would be an understatement. I hit the courses with some new teammates whose combined ages were still ten years younger than me. I’m getting old. We hit the first course and made it about five gates before losing a teammate off course and hit with a DNF for that course. At the next course we made it to the third gate before being handed another DNF. Third times a charm, right? Got four gates in and received our third and final DNF. Our team trial was over but I still had a blast watching my young teammates really push their skill and rigs to their limits and walk away with their heads up high. Up next was the Buzzsaw 5K Enduro. I don’t run, so I grabbed my camera and just settled in to snapping pics of the action. It was ten laps of a brutal course. Drivers had folks lining up on the side of the course providing water just like a marathon. Lap after lap the beads of sweat were just puddling off their foreheads. At the end, youth and skill came through at the end and took the win.
Time for some short course, big pack racing called Terra Cross. Once again, it was split into two classes: Small and Big tires. We hit the course for some practice laps, but as we packed up the rigs for prep for the big show, Parker and crew decided to throw in some unplanned obstacles on track right before the real racing began. Once Parker’s voice dropped the first “GO”, the carnage was unreal but extremely entertaining for everyone. I turtled on the first race and broke my 1.9 rig trying to right it back on all fours. Then it was time to break out the Monster Bug for the 2.2 races. Once again fate was not on my side as I got a little too trigger happy and whipped her on her lid right at the start of the race. Since I was now track art for the first race, I just watched and enjoyed the action from the driver’s box. Since my 1.9 was out of commission, I got to sit back and take in all the dirt slingin’, dust cloud brewing chaos that was heat two. When the dust finally settled it was time to hit the track again with my monster bug for a little redemption from the first heat. The rigs were lined up. The tension was growing. I was planning the entire race in my head, taking mental notes and going over them and over them from watching the earlier races. I had a plan and knew how I was going to win this. Hit it hard when I could, ease into the corners and just let the truck naturally glide over the bumpy stuff. It was fool-proof and I was going to win. Parker got the crowd riled up and yell the word we were all waiting for: “GO!” I eased into the trigger gentle, but firmly. I was going to get a nice smooth start. I looked at my motionless rig just sitting there causing a pile up like it was on a LA freeway. I pulled the trigger again. Nothing. Once everyone finally cleared my well place track art, I took the walk of shame to see why my truck decided to anchor itself to the ground. Apparently, I stripped an idler gear and the truck was done. The Terra Cross had defeated me, again.
It was then time to do the mad scramble to find parts to get the Monster Bug up and going again to get ready for the Huck-a-Truck. I was lucky enough to get the parts I needed to get it running just in time. I must say thanks to those who helped me out with the parts. With charged batteries, I was ready to send this truck flying. The truck-slinging action was just plain awesome. Backflips, high-flying and distance breaking was the name of the game. Some broke, some flopped and some missed the ramp altogether, but it was all in great fun watching the rigs soar through the air. To round off the day, was the Parkerfest Parade. Tiny trucks lined up to strut their stuff and lined their way through the event site before staging for a show ‘n shine. Thank you, Parker, for allowing my crossed-eyed, half-blind self to assist in the judging. I will tell you all right now, that is never an easy job to select winners at a show ‘n shine. Every rig there is just stellar in its own right, but winners have to be chosen. Congrats to all the winners and to the Best of Show, Virg Duran, with his very well done Blazer that is featured in this issue.
Day 3 I did it! Showed up in time two days in a row! Sorry, I had to give myself a pat on the back for that. Today was the day for the big Top Truck Challenge. Man and machine against multiple challenges setup all over the event. Every section was definitely a true test of who was top trucker. My personal favorite was the mud pit. The consistency was perfect, soup-like and made for some pretty epic pics. Honestly, I spent a bit too much time there taking in all the action that I really didn’t see much more, but look at the pics. Can you blame me? Here comes the absolute best part of a Parker inspired event: The Awards Ceremony. Laughter, cheers and the most unique “trophies” the hobby has to offer is how it always goes down. You owe it to yourself to experience this kind of award ceremony. So, when Parkerfest comes around your neck of the woods, make sure you get there.
end of the trai
Keep It Coming Setbacks, delays and plain ‘ol life has been a real trick lately. I have been trying so hard to keep things on track for everyone, but 2018 has not been friendly. That’s ok though. I’m not giving up and have taken the time to restucture everything, once again. I have said it before and will keep saying it: Thank You. Its because of all the support from all of you that gives me the fuel to continue to do this for everyone. I continue to meet some of the greatest people on the planet in this hobby and see their amazing builds. I love sharing these build to the world. I will keep bringing the best that this hobby has to bring for the best people this hobby has. -Todd Henderson Executive Editor
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