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Today, started to deal with the upper arms...


That was quite easy. I did one, and did some copy paste with amendments of the rears' length.

Next was about the steering rods. one of the pivot ball is on the side, as I did not search the servo to add in the bathtub


I'm not sure the geometry is perfect, but I do not have the tie rods of the 44B-LWB and derived this from the manual information...


Then built dogbones... I did not put them in place, they are on the side for the moment...


I also took care of the rear belt, which is currently visible and will be kept visible as the the belt cover will be made transparent.

Then I took care of the front belt. The idea is not to have the possibility to print, but just to be able to show how this works...
To make a belt, I do a sketch on the mid plane of the belt. I include in the sketch the intersaction with the plan for the main pulleys and diff, and as well the roller which are used to deal with change of angle of the belt...


Next I do an offest of this corresponding to the thickness of the belt and I will do an extrusion of this. Next step is to create another body, which is one of the teeth of the belt, and do a pattern on path on the inside of the belt...

And I have the belt, and it's circonvoluted path...



Enough for today, tomorrow will be shocks. I'll have to tear down a front and a rear for this.

And I forgot to include this view, which I like a lot

Today, I sarted by the wheel. I did adjust the profile of the spike with some fillets, added the markings and make the rim.


Next I assembled shocks. I could eventually print the red parts, but I'm likely to replace the shocks by some Kyosho Legendary series when I rebuild this car.


NB: the springs are progressive, so normally the model should be slightly different for the spring : It would require to make it in 5 different segments...

Then I added the wheels on the chassis


And then the shocks



Servo is still missing, some screws, the body mounts and the bumper and a body shell... It still a lot, but I'm focusing on the chassis first.
Not sure if I do the Zerda or the 44B-SWB first for the next in.
 

I really like your work on those belts.  I don't think I've seen a belt contained within the bottom of the chassis like that before.  It makes for some really cool transparent views.

On one side I really like the way it is because it allows for a clean chassis organization... On the other side, it's probably inefficient, especially considering that the 3 rollers were not initially on bearings, that makes for a lot of loss, and is not really good for the life span of the belt on the long run...

Yesterday, I did not have much time to work, but I did spend some time to work on the SWB version.

First, the chassis plate: once you have the dimension right form most of the functionalities it is very easy to derive the missing ones from the rest (made a small mistake that was easy to spot at the next part being done, so the picture is incorrect).


Then I started to work on the bath tub. It is easier than the LWB version, so it should be fast. First, I put in my file the chassis plate, front and rear gearbox side, to have all the key dimensions, then I draw the profile and did some extrusions.


After having done all the key extrusions to include all the key recess on the side and under the tub, I applied a shell and applied the inside features


Next work was to finish it by applying the fron t feature first.


And few minutes later, rear features were done as well...


At the end, this was quite quick to do... The fact of having all the dimensions around and the learnings of the LWB mistakes I did allowed me to gain a lot of time...

This morning, I did add the switch slot. I made it for a single reason : by doing it, it would be esay to do another version depending on the switch you want to use.



I decided then to tackle one of the part I don't have. I've looked at pictures on internet and derived from what I saw and what I know from the design and the LWB bath tub design.




The design is made in a way that would allow to revise it if someone provides me better measurements (there is basically one sketch to review for the profile and one extrusion for the front, the rest is totally derived from the bottom design)...

Next : bumper and winch

I said bumper and winch next...

Bumper was quite easy...


But the winch took me some time... There is a lot of details... and possible mistakes to do in key measurements


The details are small details, and it requires quite a work... There is different ways to do the rope, I decided to draw a sketch with all of the rope details and do a revolve.
Then I added other details


And it took another bunch of time to deal with the hook...


At the end, I have all of it...


I will do the City bumper as soon as possible, and I need to find a Vega bumper as well...

Having all key parts for the SWB chassis, I decided to assemble it... Joints is definitely not my prefered thing in Fusion360, it takes time. But on the other hand, it allows to spot the mistakes...

Started to put the transmission and gearboxes together with the short chassis.


Then I put the radiobox...


F*!  I have a big mistake here... I took the part, its file and rechecked all measurements... multiple times... Seems ok????!!!? What is that? Both transmission are the same at the rear end, the only possible issue is the bath tub. Then it's obvious! And if it was not symetric, as I made initial measurement... 

The LWB bath tub is symetric, the SWB bath tub is not.


Modifying the file itself then was quite easy: modify the extrusions, and check all plans reference in sequence...

And we have now something that seems more compliant. I also added the bumper the motor and the shocks anchor at the rear.


Next was the suspension arms


And the shocks


And the wheels




And the SWB body mounts


Currently missing : steering servo, servo saver and steering tie rods, and a body shell...

Looking at the file and knowing one of my friends is doing skeleton cars to make the internal beauty visible, I decided to see if it was worth considering a clear radio box....



Maybe the belt color should be different, or the chassis, but it may be an idea...

I will add the steering missing components and will migrate to the Zerda parts I need to model next... Beside the roll cage, I will need the chassis, the topdeck, the battery plate, the belt cover, and the front C-hub and knuckles (front arms are already available). It should be not much work, actually...

On the 44B side, I will need to find some pictures of a Rock'n Vega bumper to  model it, model the body mounts of the Rock'n City, understand how the Lancia and Baja shell were mounted as well...

Another crazy and lovely work Marc.