For more details of my builds, see this article: Taking Tamiya bodies to the next level

I'd wanted one of these for a while and when the XB model was on offer at Tamico I picked a couple up. I'd wanted to put an interior in but the shell was painted over the windows on the inside so I sold that and bought a clear body plus wing and stickers from Muddybaldboy on Tamiyaclub (thanks Darren!).

 

 

As you can see from the pic of the XB version (above), it's very toy like with the blackout tints, narrow track and stickers for details. Plenty of scope for improvement. First up was correcting the stance by dropping the body down and spacing the wheels out. I swapped the multi spokes for these ones (image below) which match the spare in the cockpit set better. There's also more room for OZ logos and they hide where the brakes would be, saving time in painting up a set of discs.

 

 

I then added the details - cockpit, cut vinyl decals, mesh grille and an exhaust made by heating and squeezing styrene tube into an oval shape before painting. The shark fin GPS aerial isn't technically accurate but it hides the antenna hole in the shell nicely!

 

 With the lights for stickers it'll never look as good as cars with proper light buckets and LEDs but it's a nice improvement over standard I think.

Chassis is still the plastic fantastic XB TT-01 Type ES, frictions shocks and a silver can will do just fine for sitting on a shelf!

 

 

Details:

• Rally cockpit set
• Styrene roll cage
• 3mm wheels spacers all round
• Exhaust made from styrene tube
• Grill cut and meshed
• Intercooler from the Touring Car accessory set, painted black
• OZ Magnesium type wheels
• Semi-slick tyres
• Windscreen wipers
• Roof aerials
• Thin black wheel nuts

For more details of my builds, see this article: Taking Tamiya bodies to the next level

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Written by TB member Kuhfarben (Adrian)

Please visit facebook.com/kuhfarben