Dakar Rally Trucks

I was watching the Dakar rally a day or two ago and remembered how cool the trucks are. I cant find a model so i was thinking of converting a semi once i find a flat-face at my LHS. i have a kit i could use but its a 1/35 which isn't big enough (8x8 10 ton military transport).
Has anyone done this yet? Here is a rough picture of one of the trucks in action. i won't the first pic because it is huge.

http://www.dakar-derooy.com/2004/pictures/2004stage12a.jpg
[IMG]http://www.clearlight.com/~brawicz/tatra_trucks/tatra-dakar3.jpg

If you get a truck in 1:24 from Italeri you can find a lot of conversion parts like terrain tires, extra axles, driven front axles grille bars etc. from these places:
http://www.kitformservices.com/
http://www.rnkconversions.com/
http://www.mgmouldings.co.uk/index.htm

i remember seeing somewhere a while back that there was a company that had the kits of those trucks ... will search around again and see if i can find them again

I have never seen a kit such as that anywhere. It probably wouldn't be too hard to do a conversion though.

Great news! There is a perfect doner flat face semi at my LHS, it's $32 but it should be worth it. Martin S has some great links to iron out the details. I plan to put my Subaru WRC on hold to start the truck.

Not sure about the quality or scale, though for the price I would hope they are at least 1/24, and they run $80-150US each...but www.scaleracecars.com has some. If this link doesn't work:

http://www.scaleracecars.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Gaffe

go to the site, look under Rally Kits and click on Gaffe.

:biggrin:

Not sure about the quality or scale, though for the price I would hope they are at least 1/24, and they run $80-150US each...but www.scaleracecars.com has some. If this link doesn't work:

http://www.scaleracecars.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Gaffe

go to the site, look under Rally Kits and click on Gaffe.

:biggrin:
Actually they are 1/43. But a 1/43 truck of this size has a similar size to a 1/24 car! They are a bit taller though so for a resin kit you actualy get more in one of these 1/43 kits than you do in a 1/24 kit. The detail is very nice but the resin may need a little more cleanup than some of the "best" manufacturers. Very buildable kits.
Also Revell of Germany made a 1/24 Unimog in rally trim many years ago. I have one but they are very hard to come by these days.
David
http://www.scaleracecars.com

I'm planning to convert a Revell of Germany Unimog kit (the 'emergency rescue' version, not the airport fire truck) into a Paris Dakar truck. The 1/24 kit only cost me $22 USD. It looks like an easy conversion. I just need to decide what team to make it. I'll probably just make it a phantom racer.

For the past 3 years I've been looking for 1/24 Kamaz (Russian team drives it). The only one I found was 1/43 scale, but I'm not fan of such a small cars.
If anyone finds something simular - please let me know.

If you want it to be challenging, buy some "stock" truck and lift it etc... :iceslolan. I'm thinking to scrathbuild one :iceslolan

I bought an italeri Scania semi 1/24 today to begin. That thing is huge. Box will be all custom and maybe some frame mods depending on the actual dimensions. i found tires from a 1/18 hummer model which are scale 46 in tires (in 1/24), but most run 49.5. i hope i can't tell the difference. I will also need to do some massive facia alterations for there to be the proper approach angle. My front axel may some from a 1/35 10 ton transport puttied to look bigger or order a rear axel from the kit and "fix" it
This project will take forever.
http://www.despodata.pt/quitecnica/scania.jpg

I'm planning to convert a Revell of Germany Unimog kit (the 'emergency rescue' version, not the airport fire truck) into a Paris Dakar truck. The 1/24 kit only cost me $22 USD. It looks like an easy conversion. I just need to decide what team to make it. I'll probably just make it a phantom racer.


:iceslolan Thanks for the idea! I never even thought to use that truck, even though I see time I go to the store. I already the Italeri truck accessories, so now the only thing is to make up a race team for it.

I think that this would be a great idea. I was watching Dakar a few days ago too. There would be a lot of scratch building that you would have to do though.
You could also make the smaller trucks and motorcycles too. I don't think anyone makes all the trucks though. Things like the X5, the Mitsu etc would also be a fun build, and would make a great little scene.
Keep us posted on this project. I'm very interested to see what will happen, and how it'll turn out.