The sand scorcher was based on a real baja bug that ran the 78-79 mint 400. As was the Rough Rider, and the Blazing Blazer. Tamiya execs attended the Mint 77-79 to get ideas from real off road racers.
Great video, the sand scorcher is definitely one of the most iconic rc’s I remember from back in the day………probably along with the frog 🐸 Hope your house repairs are going well & you & your family are not finding it to stressful ❤️
Wow, I've never seen an XB Sand Scorcher, well done to Keith at RC Icons for finding it for you. In some of the close up camera shots the lines between the blue and white on the sides of the body looked a little less than perfect, but pretty damn good anyway. Seriously though, as long as you;re happy with it then that's all that matters. I recently got myself a 2nd hand Clod Buster, and despite it's many flaws, I absolutely love it!!
Love my SRBs!! Released year I was born, all metal components, hard ABS body is truly Tamiya magic ! 😂. No seriously cool buggy and congratulations on finding an XB !
Nice catch 😊 It's even written "Enjoy it as a display model as well" 😇 I totally understand not wanting to paint that difficult scheme and it's worth the price difference 👍🤝
I used an oring instead of the front body clip so doesnt scratch the paint taking on and off and the flares could be hand polished out with tamiya polish mate, they did an amazing job all things considered, they must have precut masks made up to get the lines mint, maybe clear for the 1st coat so minimize bleeds on the blue like on a lexan body could work.
After painting my lunchbox i know what you mean, i do love the sand scorcher, if i had one it would get ripped around the beach for sure. One day i may get one, but having limited funds and room it will have to wait that little bit longer 😥
Box art is hard and fun, If you use tamiya clear to seal the tape before the new color it helps. You can get a new body kit for $45 so grab one and go for it.
That IS a nice shirt. Some bare metal foil on those door handles, that trim rib, etc. would make that body "pop" even more. Looks great regardless. Probably one to leave box stock anyhow. Nice find!
That's interesting that they did this and I wonder how they went about making these as it's very time consuming. From what you are saying they don't quite do a perfect job which is understandable. I did have a go at the classic paint scheme and it was pretty good and now I have one that somebody else painted and it's better than the one I did but not quite perfect. I've got the metal wheels and front bumper to make it more like the box art and I'd recommend them. Great vid, thanks for sharing 👍👍
Thanks. I most likely will do another sand scorcher that I build myself and I am interested in getting the middle wheels and the middle bumper. I think it’s definitely better looking.
Thanks. I most likely will do another sand scorcher that I build myself and I am interested in getting the middle wheels and the middle bumper. I think it’s definitely better looking.
all of the "flaws" can be easily fixed. given the car was sitting in storage for years some bubbling in decals isn't a shock. either pop them with a pin or hit them with some light hair dryer heat and flatten them. or peel them off and replace them. detail paint up the driver figure, that's easy. done. if you can paint the RC10 body you can paint a Sand Scorcher. you have to take your time. you do a little each day. that's how you handle difficult work. silly putty works for masking abc bodies when doing taillights etc. XB built are nice sure, but you gotta remember the factory is banging them out, in high numbers, they're not all going to be perfect.
$550 is cheap man. Congrats on finding this XB. I have been hunting for the Hyundai i30 N XB for years. That might be the 2nd rarest XB behind this one.
I don't understand all the trepidation when it comes to painting these abs bodies, especially this VW, coming from the world where in the 70's we painted lots of 1/24 plastic models kits probably one a week for close to 20 years, so painting something this scale in spring 1980 was a treat. I had 10 of these body kits quickly painted up, some with one colour. Practice, is all it takes. Get yourself some 1/24th scalers, practice on them, then get yourself a couple of these 1/10th scale body kits and give it a go, if it doesn't work out, strip the paint off it, do it again, repeat as needed. That is the fun part of it, don't sweat it, don't have to do it all in a day, take the time you need to do it, as it is comfortable for you. One of the best parts of these earlier kits is doing the body work and paint.
For me, the big big big mistake of this painting are the taillights! In the real world, this type (from '62 - '67 VW Bug) have the transparent plastic part with only two colors: orange at the top for turn signal, and red all the rest for light, brake and reflector (the white reverse light was introduced from the '68 model year, with a different shape of taillights). Why Tamiya make this mistake? And why only in the re-re Sand Scorcher (the original one was good and right...)?
