Back in 2014 this was my first crack at building a custom "scale detailed" R/C vehicle. It was built for a themed R/C scale truck competition that followed a real life train robbery by the Jesse James Gang. A couple hidden features of this truck that makes it stand out from the others are details like containing $100,00 in 1/10th scale cash, to hauling two crates full of real functional 1/10 scale dynamite.

This photo illustrates how real a scale R/C model can look with the proper paint job and some scale weathering and distressing.

This truck is not just a shelf queen. It does hit the trails every now and again and with the SCX10 Chassis it is a very good performer.

The Toyota FJ-45 pickup body actually started life as a clear poly-carbonate Toyota FJ-40 "SUV style" body. I had to cut a couple inches out of the existing body and graft the rear face of the body back on. I also had to add some aluminum patches to cover up the remainder of the rear wheel well. I left some of the body filler and seam un-sanded before the final painting so that I could highlight this seam during the weather process as this was a common modification on full scale trucks.

I fabricated a custom steel and wood flatbed with a roll bar and a tire mount for the back of the truck. The frame was made by splitting a 1/2" square steel tube lengthwise to create a C-channel frame. then welded to the other steel parts to support the wood sides.

I created a custom 1/2 interior to give the truck a more realistic look. I made the bulk of it from scrap wood. I made custom gauges by layering clear acrylic, printed paper, and gluing in some metal "craft" rings commonly used for making key chains.

The truck was built for a "train robber" themed R/C truck event that followed the real life account of a train robbery commited by Jesse James on the property that the event was held on. following the theme I made money bags complete with around $100,000 in 1/10th scale cash.