Product review: Orlandoo Hunter OH32A03 1:32 scale DEFENDER 4x4 micro crawler

About

Hey there! Welcome back to our latest article review of R/C products for season 2019... trying to save every penny to enjoy my hobby but looks like there lots of temptation sprawling around the market place and at R/C forum discussion board.  Well its a great year to start review latest rave on crawler products, by now as observed throughout online there are lots of Land Rover Defender from various brands in RTR package but nothing comes hot on our next yet obvious contender. Last year, by the end of November 2018 ORLANDOO-HUNTER company released sneak peek of their fourth micro 4x4 model to the R/C community which hit the sweet spot of every crawler enthusiast; its the "ORLANDO-HUNTER 1:32 scale OH32A03 DEFENDER"..based on replica Land Rover Defender 110!..the iconic legendary LAND ROVER platform that bring us the nostalgic CAMEL THROPHY events now makes it way into micro R/C scaler. I was like; "Holy cow! i must have this!".  Having this kit is like going down the path of pilgrimages/righteous path to 4x4 scaler!..if you don't have a DEFENDER it felt like life as an R/C crawler enthusiast not complete like walking naked without underwear in the public; breezy but naked.  A month later it was released but at between $60~$70 price tag in US currency dollar had really hurt my wallet (our Asian economic isn't doing great) so i waited and waited for weeks realized the price isn't going anywhere since ORLANDOO products always remain stable and going up, i blew my previous budget on my cycling parts, lmao!   Only by late January 2019 i got a lucky break from our long time sponsors BANGGOOD.COM who offer me to review their drones (cheap drone again) but instead i exchanged suggestion to review their latest ORLANDOO OH32A03 than multirotors because reviewing toy-ish grade FPV multirotor isn't going to help my true FPV enthusiasm (Wish they send me JJRC HERON X9 instead...hopefully?..maybe?). A week later i've received the OH32A03 DEFENDER kit early March 2019 just after Chinese New Year.  It doesn't come with electronics so i ended up purchasing ORLANDOO's 2.2g servo, 80rpm motor and integrated ESC unit all specifically for this kit as usual. Other required build ternary include some Acrylic based paints, plier, plastic cutter and grease pack....unfortunately i didn't see grease pack inside the box like previous ORLANDOO kits probably i'm the unlucky one to received missing batch still no worries since i still have left over original grease pack from previous ORLANDOO model builds which used about 5% portion per-build. 

I do notice that prior to the release of the new OH32A03 kit the ORLANDOO-HUNTER company also introduces its own radio unit and pairing integrated radio received /ESC electronics the "Orlandoo-Hunter D4L 2.4G Multifunction Radio Transmitter System W/ 4 In 1 Receiver Set" to make installation easier and less hassle of choosing the right radio on the market. Some package of kit already comes with combo radio set (D4L) prices around USD$120~$140 average giving customer more alternative choices especially for first timer into micro crawler building.  Well at the end of the day i've successfully owned a complete sets of ORLANDOO series of crawlers!  Yippeeee!!!.  Of course thanks to BANGGOOD.COM for saving me the hassle to get the kit and make this hobby an enjoyable moments else i would be having bunch of noodle in a cup just to save up for this awesome kit, lol.  So let go and read further more information about the new DEFENDER below i've experience on.

Specification (as describe by vendor/manufacturer)

Package included:

1x Orlandoo OH32A03 Kit
1x Grease pack (*Mine missing from the box)
1x Tools
1x Manual book.

Quality, performance and builds.

The DEFENDER (OH32A03) share the same chassis build and setup as the PAJERO (OH32A02) so there no need for me clarify further elaborate technical aspect setting up the chassis unless if you missed out the previous ORLANDOO OH32A02 PAJERO build article which you can read about it at this link (here). Both 'core' chassis parts are interchangeable to each other which i can say 92% percent can easily swapped between them where else you can also swap about 85% of JEEP's (OH35A01) parts except the main rail chassis which is shorter than what's on the DEFENDER and PAJERO. The drivetrains, gearbox and axle unit on all last three models the OH32A03 DEFENDER, OH32A02 PAJERO and OH35A01 JEEP are 100% compatible to each other so next time when you broke the drivetrains parts no worries picking any off from their OH3*A0* siblings.

 Despite both DEFENDER and PAJERO share almost the same wheelbase size, width dimension, height, tire traction, tire type, handling, steering and mass yet the obvious differences other than the bodyshell mountings is that the DEFENDER rear tail is shorter by few millimeter than PAJERO which mean at high angle of attack during climbing the rear bumper doesn't scrape the ground much unlike longer rear hind of PAJERO which makes the DEFENDER a great crawler for full size cabin body. Building the base chassis, transmission and axle assemble is pretty much the same like any OH3*A0* chassis generation and same goes to electronics setup, except this time i choose to use 80rpm motor instead of stock 120rpm motor which mostly used on my Jeep, F150 and Pajero build. I picked 80rpm because just curious how slow it could go since i saw this motor in stock online so why not. I would expect 80rpm will give me more climbing torque instead trading off the extra speed.

*Assembly tips: Keep it on 'parts tree'.
If you have hard time screwing in those 'ball linkages' while holding the plastic parts on your finger then it is recommended to keep the parts intact on parts tree and screw in it while its still on its branches.  When done you can cut/snap the parts out from the plastic tree ready for complete chassis assembly.

Painting the body shell was a straight forward task,my overall paint works on the body uses Acrylic type paint from TAMIYA 'TS' type spray can which is 'SAND' color for base and 'Gun Metal' color for roof and fender. I do notice that some part of the body surface still have those factory plastic injection molding residue that needed to remove and smoothen using sand paper, however these doesn't seems to happened on previous model.  Permanent black ink Graphite pen with 0.1 size nib is used for creating door panels lines, door hinges/panel texture and a bit of weathering works by smearing the ink around using cottons.  When it comes to assemble the plastic bodyshell of the DEFENDER this is where distinct differences shows its contrast among all the ORLANDOO collection i've built in the past;  being most detailed looking models means it was way harder to put together, the body kit contain mass amount of detailed plastic parts sized 'tiny than grain' needed extra work to glue on to the plastic body shell...so small even a drop of glue could sunk into those parts into sea of liquid slime. I have to use my finger nail to hold the parts together....its feels like forever to complete the assembly task yet twice harder concentration needed having to assemble base chassis set itself. But the effort will be worth it because with all those tiny details such as door handles, latches, foldable rear bumper stair case, tiny lighting panels, fuel cap, mud flaps and etc the OH32A03 looks more stunning, sharper and pure scaler looks than its previous siblings...of course the worst aesthetic quality is the F150..felt so 'Diecast' to look at and even holding it.  To compliments the detailed scaler looks the OH32A03 comes with multiple SMD LED support on its front and rear light bucket to make sure all those light panel lens around the light ports on the body are well lit, it need approximately 10x tiny SMD lights to complete to lighting features on DEFENDER but the supplied SMD inside ORLANDOO's integrated ESC unit comes with just 4x SMD just enough for rear light assembly...but still enough to lit at average amount of lighting without looking 'uncool'.  Unfortunately my front headlight only have standard LED for normal head light while missing SMD to lit smaller side lamps, i might buy some SMD lighting and install it in the future. 

Upon completion of my build you can clearly see that the OH32A03 DEFENDER and OH32A02 PAJERO shared 'almost' the same size, mass, tire type, center gravity, wheelbase and chassis height with minor differences of rear hind being short on DEFENDER, yes off course the DEFENDER looks better in aesthetic value. So both pretty much in their same category except the DEFENDER is well known for its classic 4x4 heritage in real off-roading world.  The DEFENDER at my lightest trimmed build have average weight of 106gram while the PAJERO is at 108gram..if i remove PAJERO's front K-bar (2g) then both should be on par.

As mean to power up the DEFENDER i'm still  using the same 6.0v 400mah (2s Nimh cylinders cell) battery pack used throughout all my ORLANDOO models. Upon test drive for hours on my custom build crawling track the 'Rubble Wasteland' i was astonished with the performance of OH32A03 DEFENDER, it caught me by surprise what look like huge mass/top heavy full cabin 4x4 off-roader actually could out perform a PAJERO despite both are in the same class, weight mass and wheelbase. The DEFENDER climb much easy on any steep climbing angle over huge boulder with less frequent being stuck scrapping its rear where a PAJERO used to be a problem.  Its obvious short rear hind of DEFENDER helps to clear more ground height from being scrap around at the back when the models tilt at high angle while the PAJERO having longer rear hind will get it bumper scrapped on the ground getting stuck very often leaving the rear wheel hanging without any traction in the air. The success rate of perfect climbing on DEFENDER without slipping to much on stock tire is about +40% more than what PAJERO is capable of on the same tire set, throttle pace and path that it used along the track.

The Defender seems able to roll on everything with minor slippage on loose slope and the axle articulation seems to flex much better over lots of terrains compare to PAJERO, the wheels/tires 'perfectly' sunk in under the body's wheel fender which is a popular attributes of scaler.  Turning radius still remains the same for both models since they have the same wheels base and servo steering 'throw' (Servo EPA) however i do felt the 'top' of DEFENDER body is slightly heavy or maybe the height is higher compare to PAJERO which causes it to tilt more on its side during critical 'side way' climbs due to high CG (Center Gravity) but not that critical enough to cause any sideways instability during crawling..more likely its the skills of the driver to avoid such occurrence to happen.  Another issues i discovered is that if you don't glue the tires on to the rim/wheels at some point during serious crawling one side of the rubber tire will come out of the rims and this also happens the same on OH32A02 PAJERO where both using the same type of narrow tarmac style tire, ironically it doesn't happen much on OH35A01 JEEP nor OH35P01 F150 since both have much wider bogging size tires which seat nicely on both plastic and optional alloy rims.  I assume much of these cause by the weight of DEFENDER and PAJERO carry on its chassis and the width of tire tolerance carries stress load around the rims from.  Unfortunately there no bead locked wheel available as optional upgrade for 1:32~1:35 scale yet to tightly lock the beaded tires unlike seen on 1:24 to 1:10 scaler.  You could glue it to solve the issue but if you intent to upgrade the tire and reuse the same rims later make sure the glue can easily peel off by finger, a simple paper glue will hold both the tire and rim nicely without leaving hard crusty gunk residue.

Let's talk about side door mirror, every ORLANDOO model i've driven always had its side mirror squashed, detached or broken to bits when crashed on its side...the JEEP suffered the most.  As for the DEFENDER even if it did fall on its side either left or right the side door mirror parts seems to survive impact by detached loosely from the place holder and sometimes seems to flex a bit because the base plastic that holds the mirror panel seems to be flexy and durable enough to accept incoming impact.  I guess ORLANDOO developer seems to recognized those issue in the past about frequent broken side mirror when it crashed on its side by implementing more flexy material and easily detachable parts incase it happens to minimized damage so kudos to them.

*Assembly tips: Don't glue the side door mirror to body.
As mentioned before on DEFENDER built its best not to glue side door mirror on to the body through the 'square slot'.  Just snap in the side mirror by hand it will hold tight nicely, in event of crashing on its side it will detached safely than being squished to pieces.

Earlier i've installed 80rpm motor which is far off spec from default recommended 120rpm stock motor, the DEFENDER crawls pretty much 'linear' yet pull huge amount of torque as i try to grab the wheel with my finger.  However my experience with this 80rpm isn't astounding as i thought it would because on my lighter build 106gram DEFENDER (without battery pack) the torque effect isn't noticeable during climbing as the truck is too lightweight to have such as impact nor usefulness during crawling. At times when it struggle climb over the obstacles it didn't have 'accelerated push' to create sudden boost to climb up.  If it were at 120rpm those speed are useful for lighter models for immediate 'bump up' throttle. 80rpm was way too slow and only have much impact if the model itself was build heavy best using with rims/wheelset are laced with heavy metal ring hidden inside the rubber tire which will helps add weight stability thus add grip pressure to the tires during climbing and that's where torquey 80rpm does its job.  It was my mistake going for 80rpm motor but still the DEFENDER overall performance didn't let me down a single bit since it was able to surpass OH32A02 PAJERO capability and getting closer to OH35A01 JEEP agility where both on 120rpm motor.  My next build definitely getting 120rpm motor again. After run few laps around the my crawler track spending for about 15 hours and few cycle of NimH batteries my overall experience with the OH32A03 DEFENDER was fun, challenging and addicting to drive compare to OH32A02 PAJERO, i can drive a complete lap of extreme obstacle without much manual assistance to lift the models by hand if it get stuck....pretty much as good as OH35A01 JEEP but the JEEP is definately flawless at turning radius, climbing speed and traction.  The DEFENDER is now my number two favorite among all the Orlandoos followed by Pajero...somehow i don't feel like driving my Pajero much often after this, lol.

Videos/Medias
Here are sample of video of  i posted on my Youtube channel contain test review on Orlandoo OH32A03 DEFENDER.

• Product gallery:  1/32 Orlandoo Defender 110 OH32A03 4WD Crawler
  • Video:  Orlandoo Hunter: 1:32 scale OH32A03 Land Rover Defender - Midnight 4x4
  • Video:  Group Convoy - Orlandoo Hunter 1:32 scale OH32A03 Land Rover Defender
  • Video:  Orlandoo Hunter: 1:32 scale OH32A03 Land Rover Defender - Builds & Extreme crawling!

Vendor/seller

Here are list of reputable vendor/seller which i bought from and also verified by community forum discussion groups. Also i've experienced buying from these places that have good support and services:

1. Seller Banggood.com (Kit only):  Orlandoo-Hunter OH32A03 Defender 1/32 4WD DIY Car Kit RC Rock Crawler Without Electronic Parts

2. Seller Banggood.com (Kit + electronics combo):  Orlandoo-Hunter OH32A03 Defender 1/32 DIY Assembly RC Car Kit Rock Crawler OH32A03 With Electronic Parts

Spare/upgrade parts:

• Required - motor: Orlandoo OH35P01 KIT RC Car Parts Gear Motor
• Required: - Battery: Orlandoo OH35P01 KIT RC Car Parts Li-po 2S 7.4V 260 mAh Battery
• Required - Micro servo: 2.2g Low Voltage Digital Servo Orlandoo OH35P01 KIT RC Car Parts
• Required - ESC/PCB unit: Orlandoo OH35P01 KIT RC Car Parts Mini 2S ESC
• Required - Radio system:  Flysky FS-GT3B 2.4G 3CH Transmitter With Receiver With Fail Safe
• Special - Combo radio/electronics:  Orlandoo-Hunter D4L 2.4G Multifunction Radio Transmitter System W/ 4 In 1 Receiver Set
• Upgrade metal gearbox: Orlandoo OH35A01 Kit 1/35 DIY Upgrade Gearbox RC Car Spare Part
• Optional alloy wheels: Orlandoo F150 OH35P01 KIT Upgrade Parts #1 Wheel Hub 4 PCS
• Optional alloy wheels: Orlandoo F150 OH35P01 KIT Upgrade Parts #2 Wheel Hub 4 PCS
• Optional sound system: DasMikro Programmable Sound Unit for Orlandoo F150 OH35P01 KIT Micro RC Crawlers

Support group:

Places where you can find help and resources related to this product:
ORLANDOO-HUNTER official website:  http://www.oh-model.com/
Topic: Rcgroups.com - Orlandoo OH32A03 1/32 scale Land Rover Defender 110 Crawler
Topic: Rccrawler.com - 1/32 ORLANDOO OH32A03 Land Rover Defender 110 builds
Topic: Rctech.net - Orlandoo Released 1/32 Defender D110 Crawler Kit
Topic (Orlandoo collection on track): Rccrawler.com - DIY scale rock crawler track made from foams
Topic (Orlandoo collection on track): Rcuniverse.com - DIY Foamy rock crawler track
Topic (Shared topic with OH35A01): Rctech.net - 1/35 scale Orlandoo OH35A01 Jeep crawler build

My related review:
Product review:  The Orlandoo OH35A01 Jeep
Product review:  The Orlandoo OH35P01 F150
Product review:  The Orlandoo OH32A02 Pajero
DIY Project: RUBBLE WASTELAND rock crawling track

Summary

For my verdict, i definitely have to say ORLANDOO-HUNTER did really good job introducing their 4th release OH32A03 DEFENDER to please all the micro R/C crawler enthusiast out there not only because due to popularity of Land Rover Defender 110 body styling but also the crawling performance that came with it exceed my expectation. It performed better than the 3rd releases OH32A02 PAJERO in terms of high angle of attack climbing/crawling capability due to shorter rear chassis from bumper to rear wheel distance which eliminates bumper to ground scrapping like what i've experienced on PAJERO in the past.  Nicely articulated axle agile enough to flex over various obstacles with its wheel/tires perfectly tuck under the fender giving impression of seriousness of its all terrain climber capability despite having high towered full cabin boxed size 4x4 off-roader.  Overall when it comes to crawling capability among all four ORLANDOO models released till recent February 2019 the OH32A03 DEFENDER seated on the second spot just below the OH35A01 JEEP which took the first spot and the OH32A02 PAJERO on the third while the under performed OH35P01 F150 took the last seat.   When it comes to aesthetic/realism value such as attention to body visual parts details the OH32A03 DEFENDER takes the first spot for being sharp looking model with detailed looking parts hanging around the body; support multiple SMD led light buckets, detailed number plat lighting, signal lights, fuel cap, foldable bumper rear ladder, exhaust muffler, door handles, rear door latch, mud flaps and etc.  With all those nice body details mentioned it also does come with extra hard work putting microscopic parts in place which means its also most hardest to assemble compare to previous ORLANDOO models that was released in the past....if you have background building miniature scale plastic models you should be good at it.  To cut things short the ORLANDO-HUNTER OH32A03 DEFENDER seems to be the "go getter" of micro 4x4 off-roader; it strive well to get as close crawling performance as OH35A01 JEEP and refuse fall short into OH32A02 PAJERO's lap.  It marked all the checklist's of any serious 4x4 scaler enthusiast bucket list; it has style, sharp aesthetic details on physical body, build based on iconic LAND ROVER platform, full lighting support and excellent performer on just 'stock' setup.....and of course it's something classic which we can relate from = CAMEL THROPHY!  If you're really new into 1:32~1:35 micro crawler and wanted to start this hobby the OH35A02 JEEP will give you all best crawling experience and performance to boot your enthusiasm, but if you wanted raise the bar higher then the OH32A03 DEFENDER could be your best second collection that challenges your building and driving skills.....hence everyone knows if you have a Land Rover Defender in your collection you're instantly part of the 4x4 raging crowds.  Oh btw i've just received second unit of OH32A03 DEFENDER kit!!..yay!! Gonna paint it 'Green Army' and 'White' top color soon!  The more the merrier! Hehehe!...