Ol' Gypsy

[Henchmen4Hire]

I should point out I'm new to working with model kits, so if I say stupid stuff please correct me haha. I'm looking for some pointers

So this is the car I'm going to build, it's Ol' Gypsy from the Wasteland Angel game.



After some clicking around, I figured a '67 Mustang GT500/GT350 body would work well as a base. I'm going to have to do some resculpting anyway so whatevs. I got a 1/25 1967 Shelby Mustang GT350 by AMT, which is okay, but the nose isn't quite right. Seems the game developers designed the car with a combination of bits from different years.

Now the questions!

-My main concern is all the sculpting needed to bulk up the model to give it that boxy aggressive look in the reference picture. I have Apoxie Sculpt, is that okay or are there any other clays/putties you would recommend for model kits?

-Any ideas on how to make the crash bars, pipes, etc? Could I maybe just melt together acrylic rods and sand/reshape them as needed?

-Is there a boxier meaner looking Mustang I could use as the base instead?

-Are there any good places to get cheap model kits? I feel a sting paying 20 bucks for a model I'm just going to damage on purpose!

-Why do people keep thinking I'm going to make Eleanor when I ask if they have a '67 Mustang for sale? haha

Thanks in advance!

Edited March 2, 2013 by Henchmen4Hire

[crazyrichard]

nice idea

pretty ambitious when your new to moddel building hehe

the crash bars could be made from the windows the parts are in from the kit. all depends on the thickness of those some are perfect oher to thick ..

if you really want to make it easy for yourself you could get round styrene from evergreen or .....but thats more expensive and if you can make stuff from scrap its always fun ...

[Deathgoblin]

Reminds me of the one from Cherry 2000. That'll look cool.

[Henchmen4Hire]

nice idea

pretty ambitious when your new to moddel building hehe

the crash bars could be made from the windows the parts are in from the kit. all depends on the thickness of those some are perfect oher to thick ..

if you really want to make it easy for yourself you could get round styrene from evergreen or .....but thats more expensive and if you can make stuff from scrap its always fun ...

Thanksss, I was actually going to make a 1/18 scale version (in-scale with GI Joe figures, so I could make the character too) but couldn't stomach the price tags haha

Neat idea for the crash bars, if there isn't enough to work with I'll go the rod route.

Reminds me of the one from Cherry 2000. That'll look cool.

Sounds like a good way to pass the time while I wait for the kit to get here lol

[Henchmen4Hire]

Figured I would give my first impressions of this car model kit so it might benefit other new builders.

Here's what I got:

BODY
I was worried about big ugly mold lines but the few there are are in easily fixable spots. Some light sanding/scraping and they're gone a few seconds later.

I'm not intimately familiar with a GT350 but I think this model looks good and fits my needs. The grooves are sharp and even the tiny letters on the grill are crisp. All major parts aligns fairly well.

Note that the raised bolts on the hood aren't shown on the box's image.

TIRES
These tires suck. Maybe it's just the small scale messing with my perception but they look scrawny and I hate them haha. They also don't fit the beefy look of my project so they have to go.

The rims are okay, though the Cobra logo at the center is little more than a snaky blob. Maybe the chrome blotted out detail.

By complete serendipity I found 1 (and only 1) tire from a kit someone gave me like a million years ago, probably a '90s Viper. This tire is awesome. It's the same height as the Mustang's but fatter with a snazzy tread pattern. The rims switched easily since they're probably the same scale. I'll have to find 3 more tires like this elsewhere because the Viper model is long gone.

Viper wheel in rear

Viper tire right, Mustang tire left

Different construction of tires/rims

Viper tire with Mustang rim

COST
Cripes. I got this used for almost 20 bucks and it's missing a scoop and the front chrome bumper. I don't care about the bumper because I don't need it, but sculpting that scoop will be annoying.

Do yourself a favor and head to Michaels instead with their free 50% off coupons. Michaels didn't have it near me so I had to get it online.

That's it for now! I'm annoyed because I need those tires to judge how much I need to bulk up the fender area.

TO DO LIST:

-Bulk up fenders

-Reshape the lower grill area

-Add hood scoop (can I buy it premade?)

-Add missing scoop behind door (maybe trade for it?)

-Create armor, spikes, guns, etc.

-I might have to reshape the scoops too

-Find cooler rims if possible

Edited March 5, 2013 by Henchmen4Hire

[Henchmen4Hire]

Soooo I have to wait for new tires, I posted stuff in the Wants/Trading forum so please give that a look. Mainly I need the fatter tires so I know if I have to modify the chassis before painting.

Here's a WIP, simple black base coat with metal dry-brushing, a little orange because orange is awesome lol. I'll take a better shot later. All the pieces fit well so there was minor fuss.

Edited March 7, 2013 by Henchmen4Hire

[Henchmen4Hire]

Yay more WIP

Bought a Bret Hart figure yesterday, figured I'd give Ol' Gypsy a Napoleonic Violet engine to match. (there was no Canadian Violet in my paint bucket)

So I spent time carefully drybrushing this thing because I want it to look gritty, I even added metal wear marks on the violet and cylinder heads, then I took pictures and realized:

A] These pictures suck and don't show any detail

and

B] Most of my painting detail is hidden anyway after assembling the engine haha

Oh well, at least it looks cool in person. Might take better beauty shots later.

Colors (Acrylic Testors):

-Chrome pieces came with the kit

-Engine block/oil pan: Napoleonic Violet

-Cylinder heads: Flat Black

-Carburetor: Bronze (I currently don't have Gold, will brush it on later)

-Intake/exhaust manifolds: Silver (lightly drybrushed so they look darker, same as the metal parts in the previous WIP)

I like the color scheme and contrast between the chrome and colors, might be an eyesore to everyone else I guess. Will probably finish painting the rest of the engine parts tomorrow.

Feel free to comment/suggest stuff/make fun!

Edited March 8, 2013 by Henchmen4Hire

[Henchmen4Hire]

Who knows if anyone is reading these, so no more in depth updates lol

Here's the start of the beefier fenders, using Apoxie Sculpt. Next step will add a more defined shape, this is just to get the bulk on there.

Pretty easy way to keep them symmetrical, just grab a blob of the apoxie and cut it in half, then just eyeball the shaping. You can refine the shape later with sanding if needed. I'm not too worried about it looking pretty since this is a badass murdermachine haha.

And here's the rest of the engine. I'll probably add cables to the distributor if I ever find anything suitable, I like how they look on all the other cool models I see on here.

You can kinda see the drybrushing better here, added more wear, like on the fan blade's edges.

The difference between making something look like gritty metal or making it look like a black part (or any color really) with exposed metal parts is how much drybrushing you do to the part. All these parts start off as black.

If I want something to look like gritty metal I drybrush it heavily, and uniformly. Then I can do yet another round of light "dryer" drybrushing hitting only the very high spots so it's brighter than the rest of the part. It's possible to create multiple shades of metal with just one color simply by varying the amount of brushing you do.

If I want the scraped black paint look, I just skip to the light dryer drybrushing and use it sparingly, hitting only the high points where paint might scrape off a lot. If you lightly drybrush the whole thing it just looks like you were trying to paint it metal but didn't finish the job.

I stay away from washes because I hate the puddle stains it can leave, though I'm sure if I was better at it I'd do it more often. But if it aint broke don't fix it lol. I might add some kind of coppery wash to the metal parts though, just so they don't look so "clean".

I also don't spray stuff with sealer because sometimes it makes the piece sticky (humidity issue?), the paint is durable enough as is though. I also like the flatter colors for this build.

Also, is this a common painting style you guys see? Looking around I see a lot of really nice clean engines with bold colors, but nothing this gritty. I guess this style falls somewhere between clean and dirty haha.

Easy way to paint stuff

It's as simple as it looks! Instead of painting stuff on the sprue tree, just pop the part out and glue it to a toothpick in an area that won't be seen later anyway. This has the advantage that you can get rid of all flash and mold lines and get through the painting faster. No need for touchups and you can paint multiple parts at once by assembling them beforehand and gluing the entire unit to the stick.

Next step is to spray the underside of the car black, then DBing it really dark grey. I've been doing all this painting by hand but I like to save time by just spraying larger pieces.

Edited March 9, 2013 by Henchmen4Hire

[IMPALA SS 427]

Nice progress, I love the "post apocalyptic" look on older cars, it just seems so right... These types of builds are really great to watch, keep the pics coming.

By the way I really like the more "in depth" updates, I like seeing how things were done and what process was used...

[Henchmen4Hire]

Thanks James, I added a little more substance to the update for ya :]

[Henchmen4Hire]

Sooooo I think I outsmarted myself this time. I was thinking how I could add some kind of texture to the underside with as little work as possible, as in not having to throw salt at it or rub dirt in it, etc, so I settled on a theory.

I have an old can of Black Krylon Fusion with a slightly clogged tip and noticed the pattern of the droplets/mini globs would make a neat texture. I figured I would only spray enough so that I get the texture, let those globs dry, then finish painting by hand as usual to keep the texture.

I sprayed and it looked good, the plan was working, the globs were there. I let it dry for like 20 minutes and when I checked again the globs had magically self-leveled themselves because apparently Krylon Fusion is

haha

So whatever, I finished painting by hand as half-assedly as I could but it still looks smooth. Don't know whether to complain or celebrate lol

Next step is some heavy dark grey DBing then metal DBing on top.

Worked on the fenders a little more, next WIP the rear ones will probably be done.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Henchmen4Hire

[LacrosseBoss]

Nice work. This is going to be cool. Not sure if I was new to the hobby I'd be biting this off the block, but I like what you've done with the engine. The toothpick idea is pretty cool. I usually just paint on the sprues like you said but then I have to touch everything up when I cut them off.

[Henchmen4Hire]

Thankssss

I used to modify action figures so this isn't all that different. This is a little harder though because it's annoying sculpting blocky inorganic things symmetrically. If you mess up it's very noticeable. I'm not looking forward to reshaping the front and rear, going to have to get a styrene sheet, or maybe use some old trading card hard plastic cases.

Quick update, I shaped the rear fenders and they look good, now I just have to find the tires I need so I can do the final shaping and blend them into the body.

Edited March 10, 2013 by Henchmen4Hire

[crazyrichard]

great progress , but you said you dont have any experience with modelkits ?? this looks far from that

so what have you been building / doing previous to modelkits ?? you must have been making stuff either professional or for a hobby if you get these results on a first kit

keep the updates coming

[Henchmen4Hire]

Well, aside from a few colors like white and yellow, it's not hard to paint stuff by hand, just keep the brush a little damp and the paint goes on smooth.

The model fit together well so I haven't had to do any major fixes, nothing like the full-body work I see around here anyway

Here are some more bad pictures lol

The fenders are like 97% symmetrical, they just look weird here because of the camera's awkward position. Once they're hard I'll carve and scrape to sharpen some of the angles. Then a quick paint test along the seam with the body, if there's a noticeable gap I'll fill the gap with talcum powder and hit it with a little super glue, then sand away the excess.

Still looking for tires I need the ones that come with Viper kits, the tire I have is from a Yellow AMT 1995 Viper RT/10 if that helps.

And another shot of the painted chasis/underside, it's okay. I think I'll hit it with another round of drybrushing with lighter grey and more metal on top.

Edited March 11, 2013 by Henchmen4Hire

[gwolf]

That is looking good. The engine paint is amazing...

[Henchmen4Hire]

That is looking good. The engine paint is amazing...

Yessssss, here's another bad shot with a bunch of stuff attached, it's all just held together with friction right now. Added a few more coppery accents just because.

very awesome work.. your making that chassis pop! Also those fender flairs are looking good.. keep up the good work.. I think I have a yellow molded viper coming in the mail from a scrap lot.. if the wheels are there I will take pictures of it...

Thanks for the offer! I just ordered the Viper kit I needed though. $10 for a kit just to take the wheels doesn't seem so bad since resin cast tires seem to cost about the same. At least I also get another sweet engine to paint (and maybe install in this car? haha), maybe I can trade my painting skills for other cool car parts.

[Henchmen4Hire]

So, funny thing about this Viper kit is that the front tires are narrower than the rear ones. BAH! Now I need 1 more of the rear tires to complete the set, though the narrower tires look pretty good too.

And maybe it's just my imagination, but using rear tires in the front makes them jutt out maybe 1 or 2 millimeters farther than the rear ones. It's not really noticeable but I guess I can just slide the rear ones 2mm out to correct it, or find a way to force the front ones 2 mm inward. I'm just being picky I guess.

Not much progress, all I did was smooth the lower scoops to the body and get the chassis done, it's all body work and a few more bits for the engine bay from now on. Have to get some finer sandpaper too. This project is already costing me more than I hoped lol

[Henchmen4Hire]

Didn't have a camera for a while, not much motivation either, went to Death Valley for a few days because I'm stupid and my friend didn't want to go die alone there lol

I was debating whether or not to give this bolt-on fenders, all I would have to do is stick a mini-skateboard tool along the edge while the apoxie was still soft to get realistic bolts, but decided to stick with the original design. I really like the bolt-on fender look though so I might make some other model to use them.

Anyway, fenders are done, time to move on to other stuff.

Not going to bother boxing up the body, the design fluxuates between drawings anyway so it's all good in the hood. The only new bit of advice I can give to anyone wanting to build this car is that you should maybe start with a Boss Mustang as the base because it looks beefier. I don't know if it really is beefier but it seems that way to me from pictures I'm seeing. Then add the scoops and be sure to get the proper nose, like this one.

It's all good under the hood too, I slapped some paint onto the Viper engine. All I had for red was some old Folk Art Bright Red, and I frikkin' hate it. It's dull and has a weak bond, because it's old I guess. I do like the worn paint effect it gave me when I accidentally tore some of it off the edge there while dry-brushing though. Again, the bond is weak so I'll have to apply a few more layers then hit it with some sealer before I can call it done.

I still don't have gold paint d'oh! Maybe adding some silver to the copper paint will give me a nice color.

I DB'd more silver than usual on the engine/transmission to make it look cleaner and get a more solid bright metal color. While researching, most of the Viper engines were really clean and shiny so I didn't want it to look too grungy and worn out. The Wasteland Angel takes good care of this engine haha.

Again, sorry for the crappy pictures, the colors are kinda washed out.

Here's a shot with the original engine:

Also, I don't know what the BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH happened to the nose section with the grill and lights and stuff. It's like it just disappeared out of the storage box! If anyone can send some good part-finding vibes my way I'd appreciate it!

Edited March 27, 2013 by Henchmen4Hire

[Jantrix]

After seeing your work, I'm not sure you need much help in the creativity department, but I have build a few cars like this over the last few years. If you are interested, check out the following. I'm very much enjoying your work.

Cherry 2000 Mustang

http://s53.photobucket.com/user/Jantrix/library/Cherry%202000?page=1

Spartan Deathracer

http://s53.photobucket.com/user/Jantrix/library/Deathrace%20300C?page=1

The Gunslinger

http://s53.photobucket.com/user/Jantrix/library/Gunslinger?page=1

If I can be any help, let me know.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Jantrix

[Pullin Gears]

Great work!

[knarf]

what product do you use for dry brushing? i really like the look you're getting with it and would like to try it on a 69 superbee wip for the cannonball 2013 build.

and i dig that engine color

[greasymodels]

have you found a hood scoop?if not the amt 69 chevelle kit has a nice one or the amt 67? impala the box art of this one shows a yellow one sorry im not good with dates on kits maybe another member will know the kits i speak of and help?

anyways they both would look right at home on this build im thinking of trying one myself never done one of these death race cars if i may call them that? great build great job!!!

[Henchmen4Hire]

Found the motivation to pick this up again, and it only took a year! rofl

So, instead of spending a bunch of time looking for just the right parts, I went ahead and sculpted what I needed. The hood scoop, the missing side scoop, metal plates, and the louvers (although I made them more like armor plates than actual louvers). Used craft mesh for the wire cage. Also beefed up the front spoiler area. Again, I should have started with a 70/71 Mach 1 Mustang, to make the car beefier and get the grill/stop lights right, but now I know better at least.

Some pics, I'll get better ones later, the flash washed out a lot of the drybrushing.

Knarf: What product do you use for dry brushing?

It's just a normal brush and paint, the technique is more important than the materials. When drybrushing, make sure the previous coat of paint is cured enough to withstand more drybrushing, otherwise you'll just tear up the previous layer and make a mess. [Folk Art] Silver Metallic, [Testors Acrylic] Steel, [Folk Art Multipurpose] Steel Grey for the interior, etc. I really like the Multipurpose Folk Art paint, it paints well and is more durable than the normal line that's kinda chalky and weak.

For a basecoat on the hood, I used VHT Vinyl Dye Spray (Black), it's awesome. Just make sure to sand the surface so the dye can penetrate.

Edited September 14, 2014 by Henchmen4Hire

[OffTheWall91]

Yes!!! I was hoping you would pick this thang back up I love the workmen ship. Keep it up man can't wait for updates.