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41 Chevy Pickup Hovercraft


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It's a great feeling when you finish a model that you really enjoyed working on. This is a 41 Chevy pickup 1/25 kit from Revell. I made a few modifications....

I have been making these hover themed cars for a few years now. This pickup truck is number 6 of my fleet.

I really enjoy the DieselPunk, retro style. Lots of heavy steel, grime and mechanical gadgets that appear to serve a purpose. I typically use older cars with large protruding fenders. This way I can add lots of hardware under the wheel wells.

The truck has two large turbines that are attached to the frame, under the bed. These would be for forward propulsion. The turbines at the corners of the truck would be for take-off, landing and turning.

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Since the two large turbines under the truck would need plenty of air, I made the large intake vents in the truck bed. One intake on each the side of the truck bed as well.

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I love the grill of this truck. It has a very menacing feel. The turn signals were made from styrene tube. I melted some clear amber sprue for the lenses.

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I had a second identical kit, that I borrowed a few other pieces from. The kit comes with 1 windshield wiper that goes on the driver's side roof. I used the wiper from the second kit on the passenger side. This unfortunately made it so that I had to mount the visor at a much higher angle. I really wasn't happy with it sitting up high on the roof, so I cut two reliefs for the wiper blades to go under. Now the visor sits at a proper, cool looking height, and it got some neat little air flaps.

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I wanted something interesting under the hood. I made this generator looking thing and it fit the look of the truck. I kept adding bits to it until I ran out of room.

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I mentioned big turbines. This is where the monster began. I made these twin turbines for a 71 Hemi Cuda that I was going to make into a hover car. I tried them under this truck and I instantly switched full time to this model.

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The interior was good fun. I made a floor center console and added 2 long manual shifters. One red handled and one white. I added a few more flight controls and a throttle lever to the right of the driver's seat.  The steering wheel resembles a flight yoke.

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I made a access plate that could be removed to work on the large turbines.The second plate is hinged and lifts for cooling. Most of the wires and hoses are styrene rod.

Thanks for looking!!!

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Thank you all, I appreciate the kind words!

I'm going to try to put all 6 of my hovercars in one post soon. They've been on the shelf too long and collected some dust. I need to clean them up and shoot some new photos.

Here's a few more of the truck.

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This view shows a little more of the undercarriage.

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I haven't glued the truck bed on. I like the look of it without as well.

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This was a very nice build. I enjoyed the entire experience.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm a huge fan of all the punk genres and maybe especially the dieselpunk era, this truck pulls off the concept very well, I can almost write some kind of script in my head for a movie starring this one when looking at it... Like, something cobbled together on a farm to fight some kind of threat..... Great job.

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On 10/31/2019 at 2:51 AM, Cpt Tuttle said:

I'm a huge fan of all the punk genres and maybe especially the dieselpunk era, this truck pulls off the concept very well, I can almost write some kind of script in my head for a movie starring this one when looking at it... Like, something cobbled together on a farm to fight some kind of threat..... Great job.

Thanks Matt!

I thoroughly enjoy building these as well as the weathering process. I feel that I'm telling a story as I'm putting these vehicles together. The rust and grime help to tell the story as well.

Thanks for taking the time to comment!!

 

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  • 3 months later...
12 hours ago, stevez said:

What is your rust technique?  Great build !!

Thanks Steve!

I've tried the salt or hairspray techniques before, but the results are a little too random for me. I think both look great on weathered cars, but I prefer have a little more control over it.

I do all the body modifications first then spray with a dark rust colored primer. I prefer darker rust so that I can later lighten up the areas that would see the most sun.  After the primer is dry, I use Vallejo Latex airbrush paints to create highlights. Spraying lighter colors of rust towards the top of the vehicle. I usually use 3-4 different shades of brown/rust. Ending with a very light coat of orange rust to simulate sun damage. Latex paints are great since they dry so fast!

After the latex paint dries, spray with a few coats of Dullcoat. I put it on pretty thick because I'll be sanding off the next few layers of paint. I let this completely dry. If it's not dry it'll gum up when it's sanded. It's tough for me to wait since I use Latex 90% of the time.

Then paint the vehicle with your color. I use Vallejo Air latex for this as well. A few thin coats. Thicker coats on the sides and bottom since I'll be sanding the top of the car. I sand the areas that get the most human contact and the spots that see the most sun. Using different grit sandpaper can give different end results. Fine grit gives a nice fade from body color to rust. Rough grit gives it a more scratched, chipped paint look. After I'm happy with the amount of body color removed, I'll go back with a light wash of light rust colors on the exposed areas.

Here's a link to the build. The paint in the 1st photos was an experiment. Disregard the first few. Later in the post I repaint it like I described above. You'll see where the sanding starts out light...then a few pics later you'll see that I sanded a lot more of the red off.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/14/2020 at 3:46 PM, Lunajammer said:

Sorry I missed this earlier. I'm a big fan of this series of builds and I see Pinterest is pretty nuts about them too. Keep it up, I'll be a fan. Thanks also for sharing the details about your process.

Thanks Mike! You've been following me a long time friend. I appreciate it!

 

On 2/28/2020 at 6:55 AM, NOBLNG said:

Very cool! I am currently building a stock version of this kit. Yours takes a lot more imagination and skill that’s for sure! How about a flat deck with a hover bike on it instead of the box?

The Kansas City scale model show is in June I believe. This kit has been 95% done since November. I've known that I have a few spots left to weather and get the final details done before the show.

Gotta say, I do love how it looks with the bed removed. I like your idea. I'm going to seriously think about this.

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It would give me an excuse to build the hover chopper that I've been wanting to make for years now.

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  • 5 months later...

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