About
Ahh!! been away for too long this month....we'll let's get back to review a very inspiring crawling project that i've build last year shall we. If you've visited my twitter account you might notice i've been 
spending more time on the Orlandoo Hunter models more than other R/C activities in my schedule simply because its a very addicting to drive around. If you remembered my previous DIY foamy crawler track project the 'WASTELAND RUBBLE' that i've worked on back in 2018 we'll it has dropped it name now evolved into something much bigger and much exciting ever. Since the start of COVID-19 outbreak last year this track have been through huge changes via expansion mods. 2020 pandemic lockdown got me tinkering creative side of me tooling around some unused box foam and stuff from the bin. So i was thinking why not i do some expansion work on the 'WASTELAND RUBBLE' transform into much bigger layout adding more challenging obstacles, extra elevation, more caves to explores and more axle twisting action that will push all my 1/32 and 1/35 scale Orlandoo Hunter micro crawlers performance to it limit! With lots foamy materials in the bin and globally everyone went into home lockdown i have all the free 
time i need to complete the expansion project. I gotten bored with the old track layout so time to move on!
For the new expansion ideas i have envisioned my new track layout should be more cavern like theme; slightly darker yet mossy environment, photogenic, adventurous, lots of boulders, lots of climbs, technically narrow trails, vertigo elements and have great ambience when crawling in the dark. It has to be something that i would spent at least between 45 to 90 minutes per-loop around the track without getting repeatedly boring over time just driving straight line. Plus i have to optimized the terrain to ensure all micro crawler's mechanical aspect such as axle articulation, suspension, tires and model mass are fully utilized...flex to the max baby! It was the starting point where '4x4 ARENA' track was born.
The build
Thankfully i didn't throw away all those foamy boxes that used to package all my R/C models and also some house hold appliances. I knew time will come when i need to use those white packaging foam for my DIY projects....and so that day 2020 the pandemic day was that day i utilized them! The process to extend and re-build the existing track share similar process to the previous 2018 article on how 'WASTELAND RUBBLE was build. The only the only thing that was different are how the foam was sculpted using a handy gas blow torch and additional LED lights for night ambient around the track to give overall track design looks more adventurous, high aesthetic value, fun and more challenging to crawl about then the old track layout. Below are summaries of the overall build phase of '4x4 ARENA' track.
Phase 1: The extension
Since i'm going to expand the existing track which is originally having size at approximately '86cm x 63cm x 30cm' (length x width x height) i'm planning to add more by extending up to 130mm x 95mm x 65cm with couple boxes of white foam. Foam boxes attached to the side of the existing track by connecting them via bamboo skewer to reinforce them as rigid base structure and then hot glued all pieces in places. Extra elevation bridges are added by stacking the foam together via hot glue and extra spar of bamboo skewer as skeletal reinforcement inside.
Phase 2: Foam sculpting
The expected theme design of the track should cavern like structure as seen inside caves, terrains like rocky reefs as seen along the stony beach shore and lots of interconnected long overhead bridges on the 
upper level of the track. Original 2018 track layout just seems to have more slab like concretes piled on each other like fallen wall of rubbles hence it was called ' WASTELAND RUBBLE' but that all going to change later....was my 'cheap' build actually. For the new layout to sculpt the foam i have to manually peel and dig the surface of the foam by handle crumbling piece by pieces. Once i have the desired shape of the surfaces then it will be smoothen using a hand held butane gas heating blow torch. The heat will partially melt some foam to create smooth round and rocky like texture. Since i applied two type of foam both dense and lighter ones the out come of the sculpt can be varies. Melted dense foam create nice smooth roundish rock surface while the lighter/less dense foam looks like the surfaces of beach rock coral which is rough and very granuled like texture.
Phase 3: Texture painting
The paint works will cover all the track including 'over writing' the old track which is already painted will be repainted again to make sure overall track design looks equally balance/linear in terms of aesthetics. 
I'm using 3 types of base color; Pale gray, Brown and Black. All colors came from small bottles of TAMIYA acrylic paint which i have abundant. To paint the acrylic on foam material the acrylic paint will be mixed with water instead of soluble alcohol to avoid the the foam from melting. By normal practice should have used paint thinner (alcohol) to dissolved the paint for quick drying and smooth color dissipation but water can be use instead but the drawback is it takes time to dry and color dissipation are very spotty. I started paint with 'Pale gray' as based color, then added 'Brown' color on specific part of the track especially place to mimic muddy, wet or very mossy texturing especially inside caves or surrounding vegetation. Then finally yet tactfully hand bursh a 'Black' acrylic paint on surfaces to add contrast to the texture of the track like cracks and crevices around rocks and roots. Overall paint works took me a day work from 10am morning till 3.30pm noon. Fortunately we have a good sunny day that week which helps a lot on fast drying.
Phase 4: Glossing and foam hardening
This is unique process which is absent from the early track making project. The purpose is to harden the track foamy surface so it doesn't flaked easily nor soften too much when the rock crawler tires scrapping about during crawling on foam surfaces. Also it makes the track more tacky to climb too. To harden the track i've use a bottle of general purpose glue used for craft works which i got from stationary store, soaked onto a huge painting brush and then spread a huge goop of glue across the track surface. Once done i'll leave it dry naturally under normal room temperature. The final outcome will have a nice thin layer of matt varnish like layer that give the foam surface some kind of protection from tearing and scraping damages and also looks aesthetically good like a real rocky surface in appearance.
Phase 5: Decorations
For green vegetation as usual i used pieces of crumbs from green colored dish washing
sponges. Carefully combed and stretched each of the crumbed foams to produces soft looking shrubs. Then glued the on the track using foam safe glue or you can use POR UHU to stick them around. Glue took 24 hours to heal and tact in so its takes another day to proceed the build. Once the glue held in place the green shrubs then have to be painted with both brown and black color acrylic paint to created dirty and shrub shadows looking texture. Then added some flag poles indicating stage area/check points. Due to vast amount of trails and alternate path both lower and higher level decks there are 12 stage/check points added where each offer different crawling experience and set of skills needed to crawl over the obstacles.
Phase 6: Ambient LED lightings
Finally SMD's LED lights light of various colors are placed all over the track to provide various lighting ambient when driving at night. There are 3x types of lighting color; White, Green and Red. Different sets
of color provide partition of stages visible on the track at night that gives awareness to the driver of up coming challenges ahead of the trails eg: RED ambient inside tight indicating level of extreme difficulties ahead. Thus overall LED lightings provide much exciting feeling of being adventurous at night and making track backdrops more photogenic when capture beautiful photos in the dark. All SMD LED lighting unit i used are from recycled parts bin mostly from old multirotor parts like the Quanum 250 race quad 'GHOST' frame and also other rotor frame too. As usual the hidden LED strips are powered by a single (11.1V) 3s 1500mah Li-po battery same ones used on previous old track.
The expansion work took only less than 5 days to complete. By 15th April 2020 the track is ready for crawling and its was that moment i decided to drop the old track name and called the new one as the '4x4 ARENA'. The decision to give such name is because the track have partition of 12 stages/check points drive through.
Videos/Medias
Here are sample of video of i posted on my Youtube channel contain the track driving using all my Orlandoo Hunter models.
- Track gallery: 1/32 Orlandoo Defender 110 OH32A03 4WD Crawler
- Track gallery: 1/35 Orlandoo OH35A01 4WD Crawler
- Track gallery: 1/32 Orlandoo Pajero OH32A02 4WD Crawler
- Track gallery: 1/35 Orlandoo F150 OH35P01 4WD Crawler
Track expansion costing
So how much did i spent to expand this track? Here the list of raw material used including their price tag:
- Unused foam packaging/box = $0
- Acrylic paint Grey & Black: 2 x $5 = $10
- Hot glue sticks = $1
- Kitchen washing sponges (Green): $0.50
- Tooth picks + Papers: $0.30 + $0.10 = $0.40
- Recycled 11.1V LED SMD strips + wires = $4
- 11.1v 800mah Li-po battery = $4.00
- TOTAL PRICE in USD currency = $15.80
So there you go, ultra cheap DIY that can make huge difference enjoying your micro crawling activities.
Fun factor
Did i enjoy it? Well after a year later yes i did! Mid year 2020 was my most active moment with Orlandoo Hunter collections on the newly expanded track. I've pretty much spend almost everyday both 
during the day and at night especially during COVID-19 pandemic lockdown period in 2020. The track itself i felt far more enjoyable and had more playtime than the old 'WASTELAND RUBBLE' layout because there's lot of area to challenge my driving skills, its like "Is that all you got!?" moment when i think i've conquered every crawling obstacles. There no such thing as 'I've completed the challenges' on this track as it has 1001 ways to drive around as long i have variants of Orlandoo Hunter crawlers under my arm.
On average crawling about 100% of the entire track layout took me an almost 90 minutes to complete unlike the old ' WASTELAND RUBBLE layout which is around 30 minutes to complete the entire track. Plus new track have lots of narrow path, turns, boulders to dig in and lots of uneven traction surface to put my crawling skills to the test. So it take lots of patients and skills to master this track through few rounds of hot coffees and cushy pillows to keep me going for hours especially when there are 12 stages challenges to cover about. Being stuck on the same spot for 10~15 minutes due to lost traction started to be come norm and getting mental but challenging the tactical mind is the real game on this track....patience and precision is the key when overcome obstacles on this track.
Crawling difficulty
Definitely more difficult and time consuming to crawl than the old track layout. However the new expanded layout bring more variety to the crawling scene. This is because the entire track are 80% more rougher and tougher to crawl for every 0.5cm distance it travels; pot holes, bigger than wheel size diameter boulders, narrow pathways, caves, sloppy terrains and axle may get stuck a lot. It really forces me to use more of my brain power to solve the problem how to navigate around than simply just crawl in straight line going trigger happy with the throttle. So being tactical where to steer the wheels and get a proper angle on the grip surfaces is the key to get the truck moving. Older track layout allows simply just roll over anything but newer ones not that easy...that's where the funs are.
Track grip performance
80% of the time i always slipping a lot on several surfaces. Regardless how many tire upgrades i used its always slipping if i didn't get the angle right. Older track layout was easy but newer layout was more slippery and also tippy to claw out from stucky situation. It takes some skill and slow moving pace to get those rubber tire grip the terrain surface with under 30% throttle throw.
Orlandoo Hunter model performance
Unfortunately for Orlandoo Hunter models that have longer wheel base like the OH35P01 F-150 or the OH32P02 TUNDRA will struggle to drive on this track. Most likely unable to complete even 30% of the total 
circuit because the new layout have very tight narrow cornering to steer about and the obstacles are more favorable for solid axle front and rear setup than on front independent suspension on OH32P02 TUNDRA. I can confirm that loner wheel base model is unusable on this track which is the reason why i never intend to buy any Orlandoo Hunter OH32P02 platform yet. Based on my observation the best platform to drive on would be the OH35A01 JEEP which taking the top position as the best crawling performer followed by OH32A01 DEFENDER in second and lastly the OH32A02 PAJERO in third. I do notice that 80rpm motor seem to perform ideal on this track than stock 120rpm motor because since the track have lots of tall boulders, climbs, axle twisting obstacles and narrow ledges at very short interval the 80rpm motor suit best for precision traction control and torque needed to squeeze out from narrow caves and tight boulders in between while 120rpm motor was way too 'jumpy' to control and goes over the edge especially at 'Stages' have lots of ledges, cliffs and vertigo drops.
Attention span
The track experience is very engaging. The time i spent playing on '4x4 ARENA' track would sometimes takes between 45, 90 to 120 minutes but more frequent at 90 minutes per-session to completely drive the whole 12 stages on 'Jeep' platform. On old track layout 'WASTELAND RUBBLE' usually i could complete it in between 20 to 30 minutes which is too easy to roll.
Ambience & aesthetics
One of the most startling differences in transformation between 'WASTELAND RUBBLE' versus the new '4x4 ARENA' was the overall appearance hence aesthetics. The new layout looks more realistic, 'vivid' 
and stunning to drive around...felt lively to roam about. The atmosphere looks 'living' and 'breathing' with its both the 4x4 trucks and its backdrops. The track also is a great miniature size for convoy like 4x4 Jamboree drive than its larger counter part on 1/10 since it does take big commitment and effort to organize a group crawling with multiple vehicles. Why going out when the indoor table size track is realistic enough for sizeable crawling experience. This track spark great imaginative ideas how 4x4 adventure should be although in artificial way. For being photogenic quality my post on social site and forum always give an overwhelming experience and wonders for miniature crawler community.
Fun factor
Of course after crawling around a year after it was build i had so much fun and never get bored driving on repeated trails because since i owned several series of Orlandoo Hunter models each offer different 
driving challenge and unique crawling quirks. The random amount of obstacles can have very different out comes on the grips, slips and being stuck that consume time and patience yet positively challenged my tactical mind how to overcome sticky situation. The outcomes always varies even been there on the same spot multiple times. Its like there are 101 problem, yet 101 solution to get over it. Driving around this track is almost like solving a constantly changing cross word puzzle. My mind always pondering about how to get myself unstuck, sometimes it could take almost 15 minutes just to move 10 millimeters (mm) from the spot due to traction problem or got squeeze between two boulders. So with minds, technical and navigation skills into play its far 'mentally' fun than just racing an R/C car. Since the track offer day and night (in the dark) experience the overall crawling activities keeps me mesmerized and awe all the time.
Casualty/damages
One of the drawback of this track is since its made to be very narrow along the path, corners and lots of vertigo area where if the model looses its footing it will landed on its side or roll down of the cliff damaging 
some external parts. For Orlandoo Hunter models especially the earlier generation OH35A01 (Jeep) the side mirror parts always took severe hit, it broke to pieces because the side mirror is the most protruded parts extended outward from the door panel exposed to much crawling hazard. Other models than OH35A01 series like the F-150, Defenders and PAJERO seems to be safe from being severely squashed since the side mirror just detached from the mounting slot rather than breaking plastics.
Overall the '4x4 Arena' is a pure addiction for all those rock crawling junkies including myself! A perfect roaming platform for micro enthusiast.
Summary
Ah! the playground of perfection! The 4x4 ARENA makes strong statement why i should keep the Orlandoo Hunter's wheel spinning all day, it was so addicting i almost absent from going outdoor with my 1/10 AXIAL 
SCX-10 or even with my FPV buddies because crawling 1/35 and 1/32 on this track is far more enjoying yet more challenging than crawling outdoors....its a miniature world of barren rocky land and caves all within my grasp. Although some traces of WASTELAND RUBBLE old layout is still there yet the experience will be completely different from the past giving the track a second life and a new look...nothing is boring and always have new things to try out. As for aesthetic value the track simply looks and 'feel' amazing to crawl than its original form,l ooks more appealing to crawl about 
plus more photogenic for my photo gallery as published at my website gallery. Looks visually stunning in the background especially when taken photo at night with variable RGB LED light ambient. Dropping the old name to new one as '4x4 ARENA' was the right thing to describe all the challenging events the crawlermodels have to pass through the circuits.
I'm not sure what improvement may come next in the future for this track but so far i'm really happy for what it is right now since its perfectly fits my interest into micro crawling scene. I still have few surplus of foamy box laying around but i'll keep it for future track mods. Hopefully the track stays for longer period of time before it becomes stagnant until a bulb of ideas sparks a new inspiration in my head. For now i'll just enjoy what i have and keep sniffing for any new releases of micro crawler model so i can again test drive them on my '4x4 ARENA'.
