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A very interesting conversion from Leonard from the Netherlands who is a member of Battletanks Nederland, here is his description:

“After I built my first tank (a Tamiya Panther G), I wanted to make a conversion of the Sherman tank. In a book I found some pictures of this strange looking mine clearing tank.

History:
In May 1944 two prototypes of the Sherman with T1E3 mine-exploders were sent to Britain. They were demonstrated to US and British officers. These tanks were nicknamed “Aunt Jimima” after a popular pan cake mixes logo, because somebody thought the big exploder wheels resembled gigantic pancakes. The Whiting Corporation built at least75 T1E3s between March and December 1944 (some reports say 200 were built). At least 27 of them saw action with the US first army in France, Belgium, Germany and with the 7th (?) army in Italy. The T1E3 wasn’t very practical, it took the space of 2 or 3 football fields to make an U-turn and with it’s 54 tons it often got stuck in the mud so a pusher-plate (or bumper) was attached to the rear of the tank to permit another tank to get behind the mine-exploder tank and give it a push.

Driving the tank requires much practice and patience, the disks of the mine-rollers sit loosely on the shafts so they can move. I estimate that the turning radius is about 30 meters! Making shorter turns is possible by letting the tank slide sideways but I am afraid this is a heavy burden on the gear boxes. The bumper on the rear is strong enough for another Sherman to give it a push when stuck. The tank has plenty of power to handle the extra weight and can even climb uphill. It is equipped with a battle-unit (BU) but it isn’t able to move around the battlefield quickly. The mine-exploders can be removed easily without the use of any tools, so it can be used as a normal tank as well. ”

Just different wheels, paint scheme and detailing. In my humble opinion this car is a beautiful classic, thank you Tamiya!

Recently, seeing a Mini 4WD Wild Willy and a Mini 4WD Unimog together, I got an idea that I can’t possibly understand I hadn’t got before. In 1985, when the Mini 4WD Unimog was released, I was one of many enthusiasts that dreamed that Tamiya would make an RC-version too, just like Tamiya had made a Mini 4WD version of the Wild Willy. As we all know, it would take 23 years for that to become reality, and when it did, it was thankfully a realistically proportioned body, and not a caricature like the Mini 4WD Unimog.

However, what would a Tamiya RC Unimog have looked like, if it had been based on the WR02-chassis (Wild Willy 2), true to its Mini 4WD predecessor? Well, as long as Tamiya doesn’t do it, it was only one way to find out, and it involved cutting a Unimog body in two. Measuring the bed of the Mini 4WD Unimog, it was clear that cutting the RC body along the rear mold line would result in quite correct proportions. This also meant I could keep the original 172mm wheelbase of the WR02 to emphasise the caricature look I was aiming for. In hindsight, I wish I had turned around the front suspension arms (like the Willy’s Wheeler 2) to create a 190mm wheelbase, combined with a slightly longer bed. Furthermore, using M05 body posts would have put the holes in the body in places that would have looked a little better.

The rear fenders and the box and tank between the front and rear wheel arches were cut and modified to suit the shorter wheelbase, and the lower body cut line was slightly manipulated, but apart from that, no body modifications were necessary. As for paint scheme and stickers, there was only one option, the Mini 4WD Unimog box art. As even the license plates of the Mini 4WD and RC-version are identical, it’s very clear that Tamiya had the Mini 4WD in mind when making the CR-01 based Unimog after all! I opted for the opaque headlight and taillight stickers to make the most of the caricature look. For the same reason, the wind screen wiper stickers and several other “realistic” stickers were omitted. I forgot to put on the grill stickers before making the photos though! To suit the caricature theme, the chrome Wild Willy 2 wheels were stripped and painted silver and gold similar to the Mini 4WD wheels. Comic books aren’t printed with chrome ink, are they?! Otherwise, the chassis is box stock. I played a little around with bumpers, assuming that it would look better with the TL01B or the large WR02 practice bumper, but ended up with the small WR02 bumper after all.

As for name, both because of the license plate and to be in line with the Wild Willy name and the unrealistic look, only “Mad Mog” seemed appropriate to me. I may end up making one more with the improvements mentioned above, but for now, I love my Mad Mog as it is. Born 23 years “too late”, but still my baby!

Before Tamiya announced the return of the Buggy Champ in 2009, I never thought this would ever happen. But as we all know, Tamiya surprised us with fantastic re-releases over the last years. And finally after the release of the Sand Scorcher 2010 it seems that Tamiya is possible to make every dream come true.
For me it was a real experience to build such a historic car. I´ve restored a Super Champ in the past, but to build a SRB from new is another thing.
As a regular visitor on tamiyablog, you may know that we try to use different colours and paintschemes on most of the Tamiya re-releases. So this Buggy Champ is no  exception.
This time Tamiya “TS-39-Mika Red” was used.  The car is totally stock, except for the alloy wheel covers which give a more authentic look to the whole car. Sometimes, it seems unreal for me. You can really buy new SRBs ?
Again, a big “THANK YOU” to our favourite company.

Source and more

The new son meets his 31 year old father. Thank you again Tamiya for making such possible, giving every Tamiya-fan the opportunity to build a NIB SRB, a must-do in the life of every Tamiyast (like a planting a tree)! Unfortunately weather is poor and photos don’t give the chosen paint tones fully justice, especially the champagne gold.

Those of you who had the Sonic Fighter as your first RC-car, surely have fond memories of it, and probably also don’t think it’s ugly. When it was originally released, it was for most other enthusiasts among us just ugly and unrealistic, and combined with quite terrible handling and inadequate durability, It was at that time by many simply not being considered worthy of belonging to the Tamiya RC-car range. Anyway, I think there is no denial that it was a rather poor attempt at making a new model by using basically the same parts as the even uglier and worse performing predecessor, the Striker.

Although not much appreciated back then, it now belongs to the Tamiya classics, and though it’s not among the favourite models of most enthusiasts, it doesn’t look that bad at all anymore! Once an ugly duckling, Now, 22 years after its release, it still isn’t a swan, but it’s attractive in its own unique way and triggers memories of the “good old days”.

So, as a tribute to the “ugly duckling”, I painted a Keen Hawk body in the Sonic Fighter’s colour scheme and applied original Sonic Fighter stickers. The wing was cut and modified to resemble the wing of the Sonic Fighter. To give the model a proper “military look”, although a hi-vis scheme, I covered the body and wing with Tamiya PS55 matt clearcoat after applying the stickers. The chassis has the same modifications as used for the DF-03 “Racing Master” presented here some time ago, except for the more appropriate black wheelnuts. I tried with white Keen Hawk wheels first to stay in line with the Sonic Fighter’s design, but opted for the dark yellow Avante Mk. II wheels in the end as they compliment the paint scheme better.

I think few enthusiasts would claim the Keen Hawk to be beautiful, and giving it a Sonic Fighter look certainly hasn’t changed that, but as a tribute to the poor ugly duckling, it’s maybe not that bad….. Maybe I should attempt a modern interpretation of the Striker too?

Since I am long fascinated by the fantastic creative Japanese drifter bodies and drifting style, I wanted also to make a drifter in that style, hope I succeeded at least a bit. Chassis is a Tamiya TA03F Pro which is great for drifting due to its front motor and weight balance, body is a Tamiya Nismo Silvia with custom decals and paint, tires are Tamiya Driftech on gold painted wheels.

As I love the Tamiya re-releases to try paint schemes and modifications I wouldn’t dare on an original, I chose this time for the fantastic Rough Rider / Buggy Champ a scheme which tries to capture a bit the innocence and colourfulness of its time. Hope I managed it at least a bit, anyway it will be just a fun runner and bodysets are now easy and cheap to get.

Yes, as the title implies, the model below is a joke! After getting the idea with the Neo Bigwig that I presented here on the blog a few weeks ago, I started thinking about other old Tamiya models that might have design similarities with the Keen Hawk, especially the swooping lines and the large and high air intake. This ended up with one more Keen Hawk body painted in the scheme of yet another vintage Tamiya buggy, a model that will be presented here on the blog soon.

However, in the process, it struck me that also the Can Am Lola and the Porsche 936 actually have design similarities with the Keen Hawk body, so I painted a Keen Hawk body to resemble the Can Am Lola, but followed the lines of the body rather than strictly doing the paintscheme of the Lola. It’s just a bit of unserious fun though, as a “Racing Master Mk. I” based on a buggy is quite unthinkable, but I still like the idea to be honest.

The A-pillars/rollbar were painted black because of the black surrounding of the cockpit on the Tamiya Lola (clear windscreen on the fullsize Lola), but regret not painting them red instead, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with the result. And as it’s in no way meant to be a serious model, the stickers are a combination of repros and selfmade, as I think using an original sticker sheet would be a shame on anything but a Lola body.

Just like on the Neo Bigwig, I used white TNS-B dish wheels, but dyed them red with Dylon fabric colour. The colour used is the very light red “Scarlet” to avoid getting dark red wheels and I opted to dye them just for a short time to mimic the “semi-translucent” wheels of the Lola.

The chassis came from my Dark Impact, where all parts that were originally other colours than black were replaced with identical black parts where possible, except for the wheelnuts to stay in line with the Lola.