Made a canopy frame for the rear, and sewed a 'canvas' cover to go over it. Small Neo magnets along inside the hems hold the cover in place. Hooks and elastic cord pull the flaps round the rear pillars for a better fit. A floor is fitted to the canopy as well for accessories.

I've made a few accessories to add at one time, so as to speed things up. Headlights are LEDs fitted into plastic furniture screw caps (as I did with the spotlight on my vintage runabout) They are drilled at one side for the LED legs to go through, and have ally foil discs glued to the inside backs as reflectors. Leads are soldered on and insulated and bent back carefully to fit in the truck body. The plastic pop in bases which have a screw slot (using these in reverse) are popped in place for lenses. A punched disc of acetate clear could have been used over these, but haven't bothered yet, as they are fine as they are.

Nudge bar is 5mm ally rod from the 'LHS' (85km round trip away local) with ends drilled on the lathe and tapped M3. They were bent slowly round a bar in the vice (too fast will crack the ally) The bar is bolted to the bumper bar, which is 20x20mm ally angle.

Cab top red flashing light (guts from a Chinese bike light) Re wired (to + - terminals on printed circuit) on a ply back, with the actuating button siliconed on over the circuit board pad, which momentarily shorts 2 wires to change the flash mode,- (has 6 modes,) and stops and starts it. LEDs protrude through holes in the cab roof, lens is glued on top. Button is actuated through the cab back window. 3V power comes from a small roof mounted VR powered from one of the 2s water drive batteries. Unfortunately the on off part has to be manual, as the terminals on the pc board are too close together to solder.

Headlights are operated by a servo mounted mini 3A micro switch which receives 3V power from another small VR which is powered from the main drive battery. A canvas cover was made to disguise the RX water proof lunch box.

The grille was made with a soldered brass strip surround, and mesh from an old halogen heater was cut to size and epoxied to the back. A piece of 2mm black EVA foam was cut for the backing, and the whole thing attached with 2 screws.

More to come yet.

Added a few more lights,- orange LED grille lights (ex Xmas tree lights) and a light bar made from the innards of a clip on LED cap light. Did the same with this as I did with the red roof flasher,- removed the small PC board which holds the LEDs, and soldered on new + and - wires. All front lights are hooked to the same VR set at 3V.

Now that the canopy has been made, and I shouldn't have to flip the model over, I have added some of the breakable accessories which had been previously made, (along-side other things as usual) Exhaust pipe, intake snorkel, (made from ally tube from an old TV aerial, V cut, bent and bends filled with epoxy to mould in place, - intake top was another screw cap epoxied onto the tube, door handles and 'hinges', a couple of tool boxes (balsa) with decals, and name 'badges' for the front and rear. Also added a pair of fire extinguishers from Ali Ex,- bought last year for the runabout, (which were too big for it). Some pieces of reflectorized tape were added to the back as well, (bought a roll for marking my letter box and fence posts on the drive)

More to come yet.

I was in the big hardware shop picking up some fertilizer and having a browse in the cabinetry fittings isle, for anything which might be of use on the truck, when I spotted some very interesting items,- spring loaded drawer pushers ! "Drawer pushers"? you might ask, "what would you want those for"? I thought they would make perfect levelling jacks. Painted them black and screwed the brackets to the truck sides, trimmed the brackets so the pushers could slide in and out easily, and presto! truck jacks. (Pushers are a push on, push off type". Made some balsa foot packer blocks as well, stained them and added pull ropes.

With the blocks in place, all 6 wheels are just off the ground, (or any corner if required for changing a wheel), Could do with slightly stronger springs, but as they are,- 90% perfect. Might groove them near full extent and add circlips to hold it right up for storage and display purposes. Blocks and 'jacks' all fit nicely in the tray each side.

The blue EVA foam is glued to the the slides for the RIB (under construction)

Almost finished the RIB and outboard combo, which slides into the back of the truck. RIB is just carved balsa blocks and balsa sheeting. Outboard is a balsa block, squashed ally tube (ex TV aerial) and decals copied from the real ones, - prop is just from a plastic container. RIB's a bit rough, but is mainly just for effect, although it can float. RIB is 280x160x35mm

Latest addition is a fire monitor, made with a nozzle from an epoxy kit, a plastic dome of unknown origin I've kept for years, and a few other bits and pieces. Dome has a ply base glued on, with a hole for the silicone tube (also a hole in the dome for the tube to exit) There is a 3mm bolt with nut, tightened and cyano'd in place in the center for the pivot. Holes for the bolt and a quadrant for the tube to travel in were cut in the roof.

The silicone tube was fed through the dome and base and into the nozzle as far as possible. Nozzle cupped end was filled with hotmelt glue and applied to the dome. A thin plastic disc was made to fit under the dome,-over the bolt and tube to provide a friction reduction. Another disc was made to go under the roof, and under the 'tiller' for the monitor. The 'tiller' has a corresponding bolt hole and tube hole at the rear end which holds the tube and uses it to turn the monitor round the quadrant, using the bolt (secured with Loctited nut) as a pivot/leverage point.

A servo was mounted under the roof on the opposite side with a plastic tube and clevis connecting rod. The servo is activated using the assigned pitch throttle rotary sw on ch 8 the 9x TX. The lights are on ch 5 which uses the assigned gear switch, the water pump is on the assigned throttle stop sw on ch 7.

The water pump (6-12v) is mounted on the diff box cover, (mounted with silicone) and has a pickup tube through the hull in front of it. Monitor has about a 30deg range of motion, and a range of 8ft on a 2s LiPo (vid before rotator servo fitted)

I've also turned up a new primary stepped d/shaft (4x5x4mm - from the motor to the first diff) as the soldered brass tube and rod was not up to the job. Shaft was turned from a piece of the 10mm carriage shaft from my old printer (saving stuff is good !) Tolerances were improved to eliminate the sloppy Chinese effort in the universals.

Testing the water pick-up for the monitor, and draft. Has had a total of 1.5kg added, - pump, canopy, RIB, (silent H 😁 lol) etc, which has increased the draft by about 5mm. Still heaps of freeboard. Have ordered a 1000rpm/12v reduction geared motor, as the 1600rpm/12v is a bit high for the weight, and struggles a bit on thick grass. Motor got hot and faded during a hard test, even though the auto cooling fan came on at 55c. Have now fitted a 30c temp switch, to start cooling earlier.

A lot to ask of a small 35x40 brushed motor, trying to haul 5kg on anything but fairly smooth terrain with that gearing. The geared motor was from the Jeep tow wagon for the Hartley model, (just used to set things up) which was also swapped for a 1000rpm/12v version. Can go even lower if necessary, as these little gearboxes have tons of torque, - will skid all 4 rear wheels if held back on a table for eg. Jeep with that set-up pulls 13lbs total easily.

Might try to lighten the battery load a bit, as 3000mAh 3s LiPo seems to have way more than enough endurance. I have a few 2200 3s LiPos I might try. Water motors only need a 2s 2200 LiPo as there is very little drain on the 28mm outrunners. There was no info on the diffs, but they look to be around 10:1 ratio (didn't bother to count the teeth)

Trying out the fire fighting capabilities. Would have been quicker if I had remembered it had rotation.

A few pics from todays beach outing. Actually had the truck swimming, but forgot my bike helmet with the camera mount, so couldn't video it in the water (too many fingers required.) Quite a current running with the tide coming in, which made it a bit difficult to manoeuver (full power, it was standing still). have to do another one on a better day. Did a quick vid on land while I was there. Made a fuel tank for the outboard earlier as well, for another small addition.