Kyosho Trail King: Custom Unimog (Benz)

In this video, I've customize a Kyosho Trail King to look more like a tracked Mercedes Benz Unimog.

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This winter I wanted to work on a tracked vehicle. I thought it would be cool to take a break from normal cars and try a Trail King. But the stock kit looked less appealing, more like a toy with a low budget look. I’m familiar with the Unimog (manufactured by Daimler Benz) and started looking for inspiration—because I think the Trail King body is inspired by the Unimog 406/407. Unless there is a Japanese equivalent.

I’ve never had a tracked vehicle so this is something new. In this video, it’s mostly about the exterior customization. I didn’t have the time to run it due to work and the pandemic. I may test run it when it snows.

There are various mods you can do to the Trail King since it’s based on the Kyosho Blizzard. However, I wanted to keep the electronics and mechanical mods to a minimum and first focus on cosmetic work. The three mechanical related things I only did are:

1. Replaced the 16 plastic bushings with metal ball bearings (4x8x3mm)
2. Replaced the stock 16T pinion gear with 13T (so it looks more scale-like when running, and for efficiency)
3. Added a couple aluminum heatsinks on the motor (since I covered up one of the vents on the bumper, but I think it’s not as necessary. More for cosmetic)

I also have an ESS One sound system I was using on another project car and thought I’d try it on the Trail King to give it a more realistic sound. The Trail King has two speed controllers—one for each track/side—but the ESS is supposed to hook up to only one by design. Initially, I thought of rewiring an adapter but eventually just decided to hook it up to one side so as to not complicate things.

For the exterior, I used Tamiya PS-63 gunmetal (body) and TS-21 gold (wheels and sprocket). Added a few details like a grill cover and dual exhaust (taken from a Tamiya Ford F150 High-lift), added an ABS front underbody cover (to hide the silver front shaft and make it look meaner/lower), light bar with switch, a couple decals and a Brabus tuner badge.

Overall, I’m happy with the look. I think I made it more mature and classy. Thanks for watching and I hope you enjoy the video!