Hand me downs fade; Optics stay sharp

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Hey all!

I picked this up on Monday, kind of an impulse buy. I have been watching the pricing and with nothing else grabbing my interest I decided to pull the trigger.

I'm not really sure what I want to do with it yet.
So far I have swapped the tires and foams out. I put on some Pitbull foams I had along with a full set of Vanquish VXT2 tires.

I have ordered a set of SSD wheels in bright finish that I think I am going to put the Yoko's on. We'll see.

I ended up moving the electronics over to the passenger side door in an effort to TRY and balance the weight out. I forgot to take a before, but here's the after;

That's with battery installed

It is almost impossible to try and get a picture of that lol

I definitely want to swap out all the electronics, I am just not sure what I want to do there yet.

Feel free to chime in, I would love some tuning advice.

Thanks!

 

[MVRCA]

Hobbywing Fusion Pro is a great setup and removes the pesky ESC. The Furitek 1800 kv outrunner is also a 2:1 setup that has my eye.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Those are definitely on my radar as well.
Personally, I want to stay in runner on this as I plan on driving the ever-living out of it with light to medium crawling.

Here's my short list;
Castle Mamba Micro X2

Fusion Pro

The two things I give separates is if something fails you still have something of value and I can try and offset some weight with an ESC. Not necessarily the Micro but I could swap out something from another rig.

I'm thinking of stealing the Reefs 1100 out of my Stance and replacing that with a 800lp in brass. I need a tad more up front weight on that so it could be two birds, one heavy stone.

 

[MVRCA]

Fusion Pro is the way to go, no question.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Fusion Pro is the way to go, no question.

I'll be sure to tell my wife I had no choice.

In all seriousness, what I am gearing up towards in my RC journey is a comp coming up in a few weeks where I'll be running the Stance and Ascent 18 Apex.

This guy is going to have to make do with hand me downs for the minute.

 

[MVRCA]

 

[xjtorc]

Awesome! The H10 is a great, really fun rig! I've been thinking about getting another one because I miss the one I sold...

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Awesome! The H10 is a great, really fun rig! I've been thinking about getting another one because I miss the one I sold...

I peeped your build thread, rig looked good. I liked the motor detail in part 1 with the mesh hood.

Update: November 21st 2025

I have a set of tires for the SSD wheels arrive; Pitbull Rockstars

I tried them on my Stance and I found the VXT2's did better on most of the course.

I could try a softer foam but I just don't think they're the right tire for this indoor comp. Everyone is running JConcepts Ruptures and I will now too. Gonna pick them up tonight.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Wheel day!

I initially picked up the bright finish to go on the Optic. However, in person it makes the subtle silver accents on the Stance really pop.
And I happen to like the contrasting look on the H10.
Plus it's keeping with tradition of handing things down on this one. Infact, I am changing the thread title to reflect the direction.

I ended up installing the Pitbull Rock Beasts on the H10 (another hand me down). I don't think anyone is going to call me on it being a Yoko livery, we'll see LOL

I ended up using the standard SSD hubs that come with their wheels, but I'll have to change them out to something wider; they narrow it up even greater than stock.

I have some Vanquish aluminum hubs somewhere, I'll have to look for them so I can get a matching set. Another thing I need to go with that is more scale hardware. I do not have enough to do a complete set of four.

I also picked up a set of brake rotors for the wheels, however a 8mm socket will not fit. Be it MIP nut driver or Vanquish socket.

I packaged them up with the Vanquish socket. I'll have to get my friend to open them up a little. Probably a millimeter.

*Update* Heading down to the LHS for brass scale hardware, some SLW hubs and some foams for the rig in the background.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Oh baby!

That hardware

Almost done with wheels and tires. On to some 1.9's x 4.19 and 1.7's x 4.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Back on the bench today, time to deal with the electronics.

I thought I could program the 1060, but you cannot so out it comes. I like drag brake on my trail rigs/crawlers.

I looked through my stuff and dug out a few servos. The Savox having better ratings so that went in.

Not a huge fan of the orange but I found a small sheet of vehicle wrap I had leftover so I cut up some strips to black it out a bit.

So much better!

I tossed on the aluminum holders for the ram too, just no pic.

Next was the ESC.

I looked around for a doner chassis.

I hate to rip it apart but in reality I only drove it a few times. That's a new MMP and it's a lot of ESC for the mini lmt. I had found something else to go in here while digging around.

Back to the Optic:

I had to change the bullet ends on the motor to fit the MMP. I'm going to run it brushed for a bit then swap the motor out to something else.

I'll plan some other upgrades while I have the cage off.

Fits in the battery compartment perfectly!!!

Besides screwing it down that is one of the most secure ESC's I have in the fleet. Snug as a bug in there!

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

There were certainly some challenges with getting everything tucked in there but it was so worth it!!

The scales also show the effort to fit it in there was worth it.

Only thing I am not pumped about is the servo;
It's really twitchy. I don't remember it behaving that way in the 1/10th buggy it came out of ages ago.

As I said earlier in the thread I do want to get a heavier servo for my Stance and then shift the servo over from that. I just have to wait a bit, the hobby budget is very much in the red.

I decided to try tossing a cap in there to see if that helps. I haven't had any issues in the past with an MMP powering a good servo so I didn't think it needed it. We'll see if it makes a difference in the feel. You can see it just under the RX.

Oh, and Megalodon is fixed

Update:

Took the Optic out for the first time. Gosh it looks great under natural light!

Positives, too many to list!

Negatives - Servo, steering angle (the servo stalled out a few times while trying to fight).
- More wheel speed.

Be kind, I was wearing gloves and trying to use my phone on a stick for the first time. Usually I set it up more like a trail cam.

Crawling is at 5:00

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Got the Optic back on the bench.

I wasn't happy with a few things so I set out to address those. First off was speed; it needed more of it.

I looked at my other crawlers and bouncers and decided to move a system over to this truck. That chassis is discontinued, and while I have TONS of spares, it's time to take it a bit easier on it. The H10 will take over those rough trail duties now.

Here's what I yanked from the bone yard:

Working on these buggies is okay. Unless you forget a transmission screw because it's three in the morning and you have to do it all over again

So the bullets were a different size on the BL motor. I figured I'll just swap the ESC's around instead of soldering anything. Perfect!

I'm still lurking the bone yard for a servo.
I checked a few vehicles yesterday. One I had to disassemble only to find the same servo

I know this is the hand me down build on purpose, but the budget has dried up at home.
With being off work I need to be much more responsible and not constantly just buy new.

Update:

I found a servo hidden away inside this dude!

I haven't raced in 10+ years, this was the only thing left in the chassis. Removing it reminded why I left it in there many moons ago LOL

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

I didn't have anything left to black out the orange, but I did find some window tint stickers that I cut up to "tint" the bright orange. It's not perfect but I just didn't want to paint today.

Now it feels about right!
The steering it desperately needed along with more power, que Tim Allen.

I plan on taking it to the new and improved Mile High course on Sunday

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

Time to work on this again. I have decided I want to change the look.

I know the theme of this build is hand me downs, so I am not using the body I had printed, I will use the one gifted from McCrawl Industries

I will eventually paint the other one I have but I am trying to get this done for a trail run at the end of the month.

I thought I did an okay job sanding until I put down the adhesion promoter and then all my sanding lines showed up and then some!

First coat of high build primer layed down.

I messed up a bit on this step. I am so used to spraying lightly, but that's the opposite application technique for this product.

Next pass I went over it "heavier."

Time to let it cure then I can give it a sand.

 

[xjtorc]

The youtubers make it look so easy, but painting prints is HARD. Good luck on this journey!

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

The youtubers make it look so easy, but painting prints is HARD. Good luck on this journey!

Thanks!

It's definitely an interesting material to work with. You'll be sanding a high spot, then open up a whole vain that is deeper than the rest of the panel.

I have some auto body/coatings experience and I am glad I do. I had a pretty good idea of what I would need and how it would go. As I said, the only surprise is how the material responds to being worked.

After blocking it out for the first time last night, they look significantly better. I shot them again with primer before bed, my plan is to sand them again this morning and see about getting some putty on those trouble spots. AKA the hood lol

Post Sand
Spot the low spots lol

Time to help them out

Sanded the glazing putty round one and fresh primer

The biggest challenge by far is the hood.
I have the other panels 98% completed, but the hood has taken significantly longer.

I ended up buying multi pack of disposable plastic body blades and cut one up into various different applicators; 5mm wide, 10mm wide, etc etc. You can see some of them in one of the photos. That has allowed me to be much more accurate with placing the glazing putty versus using 1:1 tools.

For blocks I am using a 400 1" X 3" x 1" foam block and then a small red scratch pad cut into 1" X 2" rectangles that I wrap 400 around.

I reckon the feathering and sanding the body work will be done soon.

Update:

I have officially lost count..

That hood is really coming along now!

Update May 21st 2026

Things are really moving forward nicely!

The doors are done besides another prime and quick directional sand. The roof is almost there and the hood is down to maybe two more sanding sessions

Update May 22 2026

We're getting really close!

I just sanded again, along with applying another guide coat. We're currently drying under heat and fans. My hope is to lay some final color down today.

I am honestly shocked with how much material it has taken to get these four little pieces of plastic to look like this.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

We have officially entered the "good enough" stage and then of course I knocked it off my fresh sheet of paper

It has its first nick lol
I already touched it up.. by painting it LOL

A few coats in

Not satisfied with the texture so I knocked it down a bit, plus there was a dust spot on one of the doors.

I sprayed them again, let them cure and now I am painting the other side before I wet sand the finish side.

Spraying the back side is not to get it perfect, just to get some coverage on the seams like the top of the doors/battery box, etc.

Update:

We're on to clear!

 

[xjtorc]

DANG! That looks so good dude.

 

[CreepyQuarryCrawler]

DANG! That looks so good dude.

Thanks dude. It was a frickin journey and a half.

I am letting everything cure for a bit then I want to wet sand the texture down and polish it out plus I have a few small defects in the clear on the doors.

I am hoping it'll be a eye catcher at our outdoor event at the end of the month.

My goal is to have something that resembles a SEMA Show build.