Body

Getting a suitable body is easy – Traxxas sell not only painted bodies, but also a white body, including all accessory parts. This includes the roof rack, mirrors, fender flares, and even the jerry cans and jack that are mounted to the rear. The part number is 9712. You can of course also disassemble the body that came with the car and paint it, but I prefer to keep the original body as reserve. Disassembly would also be complicated by the fact that some parts are held on by melted plastic plugs. You’d have to cut these away and then try to glue the pieces in place instead.

Paint

The easiest solution is probably Tamiya’s Camel Yellow. The code for a spray can is TS-34. I’ve seen a web post of a guy who did a TRX-4 with Mustard Yellow (which is slightly less orange than Camel Yellow), but this is from Tamiya’s PS range, designed for painting the inside of transparent Lexan bodies. The question is whether Tamiya’s Camel Yellow is a good match for the car of the actual cars, as it is more yellow than the sand color seen in most images. It seems to be a better match for the later years, but color fidelity in images is a subject on its own.

Decals/stickers

There are several options out there, search for Camel Trophy decals or stickers on eBay and Amazon. Make sure that they are for 1/18 scale vehicles, as there’s a set marketed specifically for the Traxxas TRX-4, but this is of course the larger 1/10 scale car. The set that I liked the most is by seller screenprintdigital on eBay, I went with the Team Germany set.

Wheels & tires

This is actually quite difficult. Most aftermarket tires and wheels aim at improving crawling performance and are quite large. It’s not easy to find something with a more scale look. I only found something suitable by extending my search to Axial SCX24 options. Horizon Hobby sell the Method MR307 hole wheels (part no. AXI40000) that look a bit more old-school. They look like a beadlock design, but as they are plastic it should be possible to sand off the bolts. An alternative are Injora’s 9-spoke stamped steel or CNC Aluminum Beadlock rims. These add a bit of weight, but are considerably more expensive.

Injora also sell a few tire sets that are smaller than the stock Traxxas tires. But once again I prefer some of the Horizon Hobby offerings for the SCX24, foremost the Nitto Trail Grappler Tires with part no. AXI31567, which look quite narrow with a tread pattern that isn’t too crazy.

Accessories

The Traxxas Pro-Scale lighting kit is pretty much a must-have. Injora has quite a few interesting options, too: Pelican cases, shovels, and the essential sand ladders. They also sell a roof-mounted light kit with four round lights. It looks like it might be possible to cut these up to place a Camel Trophy sign in between, I’ll have to see what is possible with a bit of help from my 3D printer. 3D printing can also be a solution for some other details such as Zarges boxes, and I’ve even seen a few STLs of interiors floating around.