i_r_beej
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 993
A few months ago my plans to buy another 1/10 car evaporated but I still had the itch to get some sort of 4WD vehicle and I had been eyeing a crawler.
A couple of weeks ago I was hanging around in the back yard with the cats and was trying to figure out what I was going to do with the pile of random rubble in a corner of the yard...
Then it hit me. The perfect excuse to get a crawler. On a limited budget, I immediately thought of the Temper. But which size? I've also been wanting something super-portable that I could drive around hotel rooms, landscaping, etc.
I settled on the 1/24 scale Temper. And so I began building a "rock garden" for the car.
I plan to create a little rock-scape as part of a landscape reconstruction effort after our yard was dug up to replace a failed septic tank.
Anyway, the start of my efforts centered on a couple of concrete slabs: one was still upright and one fallen at an angle. We have a small number of awkwardly-shaped chunks of concrete along with several large rocks that would lay the foundation for the first stage. The ground on our property is really rocky and after our yard was dug up, I managed to fill a wheelbarrow with small rocks so that I could mow the new lawn. There are also (almost quite literally) tons of small, smooth river rocks on our property. (Our entire neighborhood is this way, probably the result of our region once being underwater millions of years ago.) So I have lots of raw materials to create my "crawler garden."
I started placing the rocks to create a path up and over the standing slab.
Here the Temper has just crested the "trail" is preparing to drive off the slab onto the remnants of concrete post anchors (courtesy of the previous owners of the house). I've filled in the gaps with progressively smaller rocks and pebbles. With just a little "tuning" I was able to create a rock feature that offers a few different route possibilities that are challenging for the 1/24 scale Temper but not impossible... if approached just the right way!
With a few more small rocks and pebbles to fill in the feature on the right of the photo, I'll have a created a small, circular route. At the top of the photo, just out of the frame, is a fig tree. I pland to rough in a path circling the base of the tree with large, partially buried rocks, and then fill in with smaller rocks and pebbles creating something that looks somewhat like a conventional rock garden.
Down at the Temper's "eye level" the moss-covered concrete creates a really cool scale landscape!
So far the 1/24 Temper has been great fun to drive. It's a fun alternative to my racing buggies. Instead of requiring loads of space to allow high-speed driving, the Temper can creep around comfortably in a space the size of a kid's sandbox!
A couple of weeks ago I was hanging around in the back yard with the cats and was trying to figure out what I was going to do with the pile of random rubble in a corner of the yard...
Then it hit me. The perfect excuse to get a crawler. On a limited budget, I immediately thought of the Temper. But which size? I've also been wanting something super-portable that I could drive around hotel rooms, landscaping, etc.
I settled on the 1/24 scale Temper. And so I began building a "rock garden" for the car.
I plan to create a little rock-scape as part of a landscape reconstruction effort after our yard was dug up to replace a failed septic tank.
Anyway, the start of my efforts centered on a couple of concrete slabs: one was still upright and one fallen at an angle. We have a small number of awkwardly-shaped chunks of concrete along with several large rocks that would lay the foundation for the first stage. The ground on our property is really rocky and after our yard was dug up, I managed to fill a wheelbarrow with small rocks so that I could mow the new lawn. There are also (almost quite literally) tons of small, smooth river rocks on our property. (Our entire neighborhood is this way, probably the result of our region once being underwater millions of years ago.) So I have lots of raw materials to create my "crawler garden."
I started placing the rocks to create a path up and over the standing slab.
Here the Temper has just crested the "trail" is preparing to drive off the slab onto the remnants of concrete post anchors (courtesy of the previous owners of the house). I've filled in the gaps with progressively smaller rocks and pebbles. With just a little "tuning" I was able to create a rock feature that offers a few different route possibilities that are challenging for the 1/24 scale Temper but not impossible... if approached just the right way!
With a few more small rocks and pebbles to fill in the feature on the right of the photo, I'll have a created a small, circular route. At the top of the photo, just out of the frame, is a fig tree. I pland to rough in a path circling the base of the tree with large, partially buried rocks, and then fill in with smaller rocks and pebbles creating something that looks somewhat like a conventional rock garden.
Down at the Temper's "eye level" the moss-covered concrete creates a really cool scale landscape!
So far the 1/24 Temper has been great fun to drive. It's a fun alternative to my racing buggies. Instead of requiring loads of space to allow high-speed driving, the Temper can creep around comfortably in a space the size of a kid's sandbox!
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