In the Scale Crawler / Scale Truck market, there is a new player in town. Enter the Vaterra Ascender. Unlike others before it, the Vaterra Ascender is the first to feature a adjustable length ladder frame chassis allowing for easy wheel base adjustments for various style body’s. The truck also features vast rigidity improvements in just about every area of the clean, well thought out design with a host of standard features not included on its closest competitor. If you haven’t checked it out yet, you need to take a closer look! Now that you have a brief low down of the Vaterra Ascender, let’s take a look at all the cool Pro-Line parts and accessories that will allow for a total vehicle transformation!
Starting with the Chassis, The stock plastic shocks were removed and a set of our 6060-00 Powerstroke Scale Shocks were added. They were first modified from their 90-95mm advertised lengths to over 100mm in length options by using some of our longer 6063-07 Powerstroke HD Shock shafts. In case you missed the article on this modification, check it out here: Pro-Line 6060-00 Power Stroke Scaler Shock length upgrade for Axial SCX10 Chassis Applications.
For wheels and tires, our Newer 1197-14 1.9” INTERCO TSL SX Super Swamper XL tires were chosen and mounted up to a set of our 2748-15 Faultline 1.9” Black/Black Bead-Loc wheels. The outer rings were customer painted with the Same Tamiya PS-61 Metallic Orange to match the body colors.
Now for the body, our tried and true 3321-00 1992 Jeep Cherokee 300mm Wheel base body was selected and the trucks frame and suspension were adjusted to that specification. I love these trucks and have even owned a few of the 1:1 versions so it was a natural fit. The body has little overhang front and rear so it allows for step angles of approach and exit with minimal hang up’s. The body was painted with Tamiya Color Polycarbonate Paints using PS-61 Metallic Orange for the man body color then backing it up with PS-5 Black. You can use PS-31 Smoke to tint the windows for some transparency or just back them up with the PS-5 for Limo tinted looking windows. Weathering and dry brushing techniques were then added to give it that Trail hardened look.
High ground clearance with steep approach angles are the best, so the choice was made to firmly mount our 6089-00 Ridge –Line Wide Bumpers Set to the front and rear of the body. I used the included Ridge-Line SCX10 bumper mounting plate attaching it to the front of the body with M3 screws, Lock Nuts and washers. For the rear, I attached it directly to the body using M3 Self Tapping screws and washers. The faux front winch cable was made from Elastic Jewelers cord using super glue and shrink wrap tubing to attach it to the hook. The hook was carvers fro the roller fairlead detail of the winch included in our 6040-00 Scale Accessories Assortment #1
Next, our 6085-00 Performance Off-Road Crawler / Desert Truck Light bar Kit was added along with the 6084-00 Rectangular Scale Off-Road Tubular Roof Rack. To finish it off on top, I loaded the Ascender up with our scale crawler accessories. We have over 10 sets to choose from with everything from shoves to full fuel system detail parts. Check them all out on our Rock Crawling Performance Parts Accessories page!
The CB whip antenna was made by selecting a piece of brass tubing that a M3 bolt would pass though. I then soldered a smaller piece of brass tubing in the shape of a ‘T”. The smaller piece will hold the antenna which we will make from piano wire. The Piano wire was then soldered into the smaller tube and let cool. After it is cooled, you can wrap a coil of .1 Dia. thin gauge solder around the base to make it look like a spring. The solder was then covered with black shrink wrap tubing. Mount the antenna to the side of the body using an M3 button head screw, washers and lock nut. Finally cut the antenna to your desired length.
For a full list of Parts that fit The Vaterra Ascender, look for our new out our Pick By Kit section coming soon. Here you will be able to find everything we make that fits your model.
I hope you enjoyed this article as much as I did building this truck. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line at customerservice@prolineracing.com
Check out all of these cool accessories we here at Pro-Line Racing have to offer.
