After the crazy intricate Lancia 037 build, I've decided to give myself a bit of a break and take on an easier task. This time I'm doing a modern sport-level 2WD buggy, the Desert Gator, based on the DT02 chassis platform. It shouldn't take too long to complete this car, though the storm that's passing over the west coast right now may put a damper on my body painting schedule.

Picture 1: Ah, beauty in simplicity. It literally only takes a few minutes to get what you see here!

Picture 2: The transmission assembly is actually a little disappointing in its simplicity. There aren't even any shims in the diff, it's just metal large bevel gear on plastic housing, cushioned by some grease. Tamiya includes what's essentially differential grease as the only lubricant in this particular kit, interestingly, which is good for the inside of the diff but not the best for the plastic-on-plastic meshes.

Picture 3: The design is a bit different from most competition-style buggies in that the spur gear and input gear are molded as a single unit. They ride on a common shaft that is located on the front side by a mounting point in the rigid gear cover. What's great is that the entire transmission rides on ball bearings, stock.

Picture 4: All sealed up. Again, that gear cover is very rigid, as the gear mesh depends on it. Unfortunately the motor mount is only designed to accomodate two sizes of pinion gear, the included 17T and an optional 19T unit.

Tips:

• At step 2, put a little thread locking compound on the ends of the 18mm screws to hold the ball studs securely.
• At step 5, be careful with the 2.6mm screws. There's not a lot of material for their threads to bite, so don't overtighten them. For a little more security, you might want to use 3mm screws instead if you have extras with low-profile heads.
• A more experienced modeller may want to use a different grease to lubrigate the gears in the transmission (but not inside the diff). White lithium grease or Tamiya's "ceramic grease" will drag less on the drivetrain. Even a petroleum gel-based lube like Traxxas or Associated black grease would be better.
• At step 9, be sure to luse a little locking compound on the set screw.

Picture 1: Again, verey simple assembly to get here. The arms are very beefy and made from one of Tamiya's more flexible fiber-reinforced nylon blends. The axles ride on 5x11 ball bearings.

Picture 2: Make 2! Not at the same time though! Bah, it saves time to do both as while you're waiting for the bubbles to rise in one you can be assembling the other The rear shocks are significantly longer than the fronts. Make sure you use the correct bladders -- green fronts, red rears.

Picture 3: Attaching the shocks & towers basically finishes the business ends of the car!

Tips:

• In steps 10 & 12, again use threadlock to secure the ball studs.

Picture 1: Here's the middle section, quickly finished with the included cheapo non-BEC ESC and an AdSpec radio system.

Picture 2: That's it! About 2 hours of work is all it took to fully assemble the chassis!

The DT-02 It's not a competition-ready vehicle by any means as it has far too little adjustability, particularly with the restrictive motor mount, but it seems like a decent entry-level kit. The stock suspension tune feels really great, exactly how I'd set it up myself for starters in both damping and spring rate. A little under-dampened in the front but I would expect a sport-level kit, especially with the motor as far back as it is on this one, to exhibit understeer, which the softer front end should help to cover up.

Now it's body time. I just need to wait for a break in the rain!

Tips:

• In step 25, don't remove the stock little plate on the top of the on/off switch, as this will result in a clearance issue for the rubber boot. You can reuse the stock screws, though.
• When you attach the rear end, decide whether you want to run the ESC to receiver wires under the horizontal plate of the shock tower, or over it. If you go under, it'll look neater, but you'll have to do a little disassembly if you want to change out your electronics later.
• In step 32, be gentle when tightening the front body mount stub into place -- it's soft & fragile.

Leave it to Tamiya to produce a kit sufficiently low-end that it comes with blackout stickers to simulate windows, but then requires hand masking and deft water-slide and heat gun decal positioning. The chassis may have taken just 2 hours to complete, but the body took 3 1/2. C'est la vie!

Here it is, waiting for the ground to dry out somewhere for a test, maybe next week!

Looks good! Is the diff the same as the M-series cars from Tamiya? The diff looks similar to the MO3L that I have.

Good eye. If it's not the exact same diff, it's about as identical as they can get! I think that intermediate gear is used in the mini too.

Thanks, yeah, I was thinking they looked quite alike. Hoping that maybe I could get a hop-up diff from the DB and use it on the MO3L, but seeing as how I don't ever use the mini, don't know if I should even look into it.

The internediate gear does looks the same, too. Hollow bearing shaft, though? That's different.

Whelp today I stopped by the track to preview the situation in advance of my "Friday test day" and the offroad track is still quite wet from this week's storm & downpour, so I will not be testing the Desert Gator this week unfortunately.

It's here! The writeup is done and the video & gallery are now online:

• Tamiya DT-02 Desert Gator