TOPIC:

Just bought this on eBay, it's described as being complete apart from the Technigold motor.

I can already see it's not complete - it's missing the front off the fake roof duct

Plus, does anyone have a decent quality scan of the decals?

Great buy i love the looks of the Bigwig and id be very interested in a rebuild thread if you wanted to start one JR Keep us posted

Jonny wrote:

does anyone have a decent quality scan of the decals?

If you pm me your e-mail adress, I'll send you some scans.

tamiya wrote:

Great buy i love the looks of the Bigwig and id be very interested in a rebuild thread if you wanted to start one JR Keep us posted

This is my 2nd Bigpig - thread for the 1st one is here

I just scanned through that thread briefly ... this time I'll stick to a brushed motor - probably a 19T or so, but - doh! - I just realised I gave away my only 8.4v battery with the Wild Dagger I sold recently, thinking I had no other use for it

I've got itchy fingers to get on with this one ... but not having the car in front of me is a bit of a problem

I did start working out whether I had enough stainless fasteners for it, or, being short, whether I could justify the cost of buying more ... but I got distracted by thinking about colour - I don't feel I have to go #1 boxart on this ... though that will depend on what state the body is in:
1 - good body, good paint - no point changing it;
2 - good body, lousy paint - strip it, and shellfish associated with planetary domination come in to play
3 - lousy body - buy a TBG one, and ditto ...


Looking around, I've seen a few alternative paint jobs:

Lighter blue (i.e. as it is now) = seems to be quite popular

Yellow where the white should be = nasty

black all over = NO

black with red sides = yuk!

green where the blue should be = still not that nice...

red where the blue should be = maybe ...

orange where the blue should be = I'm actally warming to this ...


I do have to think about resale value ATM - no point halving it if I'm not 100% set on the colour ... which probably means going with a semi official #2 boxart scheme, for instance:

Stars & Stripes ( example on TC ) - my painting skills really aren't up to it, so I'd have to cheat (blue & white paint, star & red stripes as decals) ... but why do something that's already been done?

In the build manual, there are a total of 9 "color schemes" shown - but in grey scale

I'm going to try & work out what the colours should be ... I could be some time

ok, these are the 9 schemes:




I'll start with an easy one - #7, top right has an Exxon logo on it, so the scheme has to be red, white & blue in some way... after trying a few combinations, I'm thinking blue top, white & red stripes (bottom right):




It's a possibility

Had a go at #2 (left middle) - STP logo gives a clue... I thought silver for the sides of the wing...




It gets harder after that, I think #3 says "Potenza" on the wing, meaning Bridgestone - so, black, white & red ... no idea about the 4th colour though, so I chose yellow ...

#4 I just used blue and red - TBH this is not proving to be anywhere near as helpful at I'd hoped

Well it's arrived /

I don't think I've ever seen a car in such bad shape - what hasn't been lied about is worn out and/or broken, and made worse by a misguided attempt at lashing it up to make it complete/work ...


Starting with the body, I can't believe anyone would be stupid enough to consider this in good condition with only a couple of minor cracks














Wheels seem to have been badly abused, badly painted & badly stripped ...




Tyres have been badly painted & the fronts are looking pretty worn:

Subchassis has half of one of the hooks missing:




All the rear arms are broken & held together with new cable ties:




Chassis & gearbox have stripped threads & cracks all over, for example:





Front arms, balljoints & cups are horrendously worn:




Most places have a horrible, plastic & rubber ruining mix of grease/oil on them:




MSC has had some attention with 60 grit sandpaper & Araldite very recently:









....

Broken/missing steering wheel, bent & rusty antennas & bodged hub pins are pretty minor problems in comparison ...










More shonky wiring - cracked resistor pack, bin fodder battery, lashed up RX battery holder loom, bodged up battery connector:











I've stripped it & made a list of what would need getting ... but TBH I think all I'm going to do is clean it enough to stop it deteriorating & keep it for spares - I could easily spend 200 GBP on it & it would still be unusable.