Tamiya Fast Attack in NOD Arid Zone Camouflage

Phyrephish · **Joined:** Tue May 10, 2011 1:17 pm **Posts:** 1123

Tamiya Fast Attack Vehicle

In a moment of madness I finally decided to get a Tamiya remote control vehicle. The Tamiya Fast Attack Vehicle looks like a bit a fun and was available at a reasonable price from my local hobby shop so I figured what the hell?

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First up it appears that there are at least two versions of this kit on the market, one with an included ESC and one without. I got the one without and then blew more cash on a Tamiya TEU-104BK electronic speed controller (ESC) and black sports tuned motor. Again what the hell. At least I'm helping to keep the local hobby store local. I stuck with a Tamiya ESC & motor because they had Tamiya written on them no other reason.

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Ok so on to the kit. At first look at the instructions it seemed that assembly might require thought. I don't like thinking so I was pleasantly surprised to find assembly was a breeze. It was such a nice change to screw Part A into Part B without having to make Part A and Part B in the first place. Needless to say assembly was completed within a few nights. 10 pm to midnight is the only quiet time I get in my house so it was just a few late nights and the vehicle was assembled and ready for painting.

Now about the model itself. AFTER I bought the kit I had a look on the net for examples of the actual vehicle for ideas on painting. Now here is where things could have gone one way or another. The Tamiya Fast Attack vehicle is NOTHING like anything used by the US Army. The closest thing I could find was the Desert Patrol Vehicle was built by Chenowth Racing Products, Inc (pictured below).

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As interesting as a project would of been to convert the FAV to something resembling a DPV, time, money and desire just didn't allow it. Thus since the FAV is a 'fantasy' vehicle I decided to keep it in the fantasy realm. My boys love Command & Conquer and are NOD fans so they voted for a NOD Raider Buggy prototype.

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Such a vehicle is best suited to desert conditions so I keep with a desert camouflage pattern using Tamiya Light Sand as the base colour with patches of Model Masters Afrika Khakibraun , Signalbraun and Schokoladenbraun. It came as a bit of a shock to see how close this combination came to looking like Aussie Army Vehicle camouflage. The NOD patches were custom printed decals on Testors transparent decal paper and the numbers came from some left over tank decals.

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While in the US Phil & I got nice desert camouflage outfits from Bass Pro Shop and thought this pattern would be cool on the driver. For figures there is no going past Vallejo paints they ROCK. I used German Camouflage Orange as the base, with Khaki patches and medium brown splinters. This got really close to what I wanted but I wanted also those little stones that Stormin' Norman used to wear in Desert Storm so I added them in. The 'stones' were German Black Brown spots with a dot of Offwhite in the middle. Olive Drab for the helmet and Periscopes for the lenses of the goggles. Once painted the usual weathering processes were applied, an oil wash, dry brushing and a coat of dullcote to finish off.

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What about the electrics? Nothing special, a standard Tamiya ESC, Tamiya Sport Tuned Black can motor, and cheap Hobby King standard size servo for steering. For a radio a Hobby King 2.4gHz 2 channel job because they are dirt cheap AND the receivers will also bind to the Turnigy 9X. As for a battery I have used a Turnigy 2200 LiPo because I was keen to keep all the wires within the body of the vehicle.

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How does she run? Beautifully, just as you would expect 'out of the box' from Tamiya. Though the first real 'hit out' of the vehicle did provide one gripe. There are only a few parts that don't get screwed together on the kit. One of these parts is the left arm of the driver. On the first outing over rough terrain the left arm got 'blown off' in action. Thankfully, an eagle eyed MBRCTC member was able to find it for me. So the only bit of advice I have to give is to make sure your arms are SECURE. Other than that the FAV is a great kit, easy to assemble and heaps of FUN.

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Tamiya Fast Attack in NOD Arid Zone Camouflage

Tamiya Fast Attack in NOD Arid Zone Camouflage

Tamiya Fast Attack in NOD Arid Zone Camouflage

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