Russell C Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 (edited) I built this one way back in 1991 for a club theme contest where we had to build "a vehicle for sale". I figured nobody was expecting anything this small. The kit is a model railroad N-scale '34 Ford, and as can be seen from this first photo which I snagged off eBay, there's only 4 pieces to the kit. Really primitive. I hollowed out the cab, and wiped out the passenger side door purposely so I could hang a crooked scratchbuilt new one made from clear sheet material. It has a very narrow bit of scotch tape to simulate the beltline, and a tiny bit of wire for the door handle. The interior has a scratchbuilt steering wheel, and some scrap bits to simulate the remains of a seat base. The gear shift lever is either very fine wire or heat-stretched sprue, I forget which. To simulate a bent-open tank compartment door and partly open hood, I gouged away the metal and simulated those panels with the same clear sheet material. The "4 sale" sign is just stiff dirty paper, marked with a fine marker pen. I 'lathe-turned' the headlight buckets, horn and wheels/tires on my motor tool. I'll have to do up a photo tutorial to show how easy it is to make small plastic parts like that from scratch. No need to own an expensive lathe to create such things. The headlight cross bar is stretched sprue, so that the headlight buckets could be solidly glued onto it. The weeds are also heat-stretched sprue, yellow plastic pulled to hair-thin thickness, wound into tight ovals, stuffed into holes in the base, then the tops were cut off which resulted in the toothbrush bristle look. The tumble weeds under the truck are wadded up (and glued to hold that shape) stretched sprue, placed there to hide the rods that holds the truck to the base. The 'dirt' is a combination of tan paint heavily sprayed onto the base and then immediately covered with extremely fine windblown dust gathered from a roadside curb. The wood base was a cheap craftstore pine item, stained to look like better quality wood. I forget exactly what paint I used, probably an airbrushed model railroad color with a bit more work with watercolor brown and tan and some dust rubbed into it to get it looking like good ol' out-west rust patina. Handy thing with derelict vehicles, you aren't obligated to create windows..... Edited April 29, 2020 by Russell C fixed 1 busted photo link, gleaned two of my old thumbnails off the internet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobraman Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Wow ! Thats tiny. Looks very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crazyrichard Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 whow sooo cool !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 22, 2013 Share Posted October 22, 2013 Nice Build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charlie8575 Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Okay, I'm officially impressed. VERY nice job on that. Charlie Larkin Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sixties Sam Posted October 23, 2013 Share Posted October 23, 2013 Great job on such a tiny model! It looks real! Sam Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russell C Posted October 25, 2013 Author Share Posted October 25, 2013 (edited) Many thanks for the nice words. I'm impressed, too, but in a different way, which sorta beats up on teensy models when they are viewed at actual size. Way back when I entered this one in a contest or two, in rooms that weren't so well lit, it seemed to get lost in its own basically dark color and its small size. Funny how on the computer screen, it is much bigger and the details come to life out in the harsh sun. That's one reason why I get a kick out of a diecast Cobra I have, its dark metalic blue is ok inside, but the color really pops out in the sun. And from the pic below, it reinforces how my apartment is actually really murky at night with just the 60watt lamp behind me. I had to turn on whatever the extra light is in the ceiling fan above.... Edited October 25, 2013 by Russell C Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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