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Zombie The Lovebug


CabDriver

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I’ve been wanting to do a patina’d VW bug for a while - there’s nothing new or clever about the concept but they look cool and I want one for my shelf!  I also came across this crazy extremely rotten Beetle showcar on a blog a few months back and kept thinking what I could do to make a ‘zombie’ Beetle of my own: http://www.speedhunters.com/2017/04/resurrecting-the-dead-bugly-the-zombie-beetle/

Then I got to thinking that ‘Herbie’ kinda sounds close to ‘Zombie’, and thus a dumb idea was born 🤪

Starting with the Polar Lights Herbie kit, which is fairly basic but nicely done of a semi-snap kit:

7E6C5FE2-3227-406E-87FA-EB23F1855317.thumb.jpeg.07a7c06530276db387842500deebf338.jpeg

Marked out a sunroof with Dymo tape (which works great for plotting out straight lines for scribing:

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Then got to scribing:

 ECF55A3B-CF78-4FBC-9E98-60BAEBBE575C.thumb.jpeg.607444828ea7ca92a32dcc86caae0cdc.jpeg

Tada!

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Next up, using ‘Bugly’ as a loose reference, ruined that nice body and got it into primer:

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Next, various dark brown shades as a base for the weathering and rust effects I’ll be adding later:

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And then I used watercolors and pastels to add some more depth and variety to these browns:

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Plenty more weathering fun to do, but this is the ‘blank canvas’ for all the rest of the paintjob…tomorrow’s progress will mostly involve salt, crackle medium and more abuse of a perfectly good Beetle kit.  More soon! 

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Thanks fellas!  Not sure what I’m going to do with the interior yet…guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there!  

Fun with salt and crackle medium today.  First up, season the body 🤪:

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Then light gray, followed by a little more salt:

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Then tan:

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And whilst the tan color was still wet, I brushed on some crackle medium do create some chipping and cracking paint - like this:

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Next up, brush the salt off (being careful not to rip off the crackled  paint):

8721C965-A75E-4235-9BA2-786240BB73A8.thumb.jpeg.e41e369ef701207d04930892da7f7795.jpeg

And then finally for today add some black and rust color washes to bring it to life a little more:

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I’ll keep tweaking and adding to the weathering no doubt until I’m happy with it, but I’m far enough along that I can get started on painting those distinctive ‘53’ gumballs and stripes to make it look more Herbie-ish!  

More soon, thanks for looking! 

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WOW! What a great start to this one! One of these days I have to try to do a weathered build too, but I'm just so nervous to start one. I have a couple of extra bodies that I might practice on real soon. Your techniques look very solid and doable for me, so I'll probably try to follow them as close as possible. Thanks for the guide!

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On 6/13/2021 at 6:08 PM, Dragonhawk1066 said:

WOW! What a great start to this one! One of these days I have to try to do a weathered build too, but I'm just so nervous to start one. I have a couple of extra bodies that I might practice on real soon. Your techniques look very solid and doable for me, so I'll probably try to follow them as close as possible. Thanks for the guide!

Thank you sir!  Like most complex stuff it’s all just little easier-steps!  Nothin’ to it!  A set of watercolor pencils and brown and orange pastels help a lot tho, I’ve found!  
 

16 hours ago, TooOld said:

I think this is the first time anybody has clearly shown how to do this , Thanks !  What is the "crackle medium" you talk about ?

Hey Bob!  The stuff I’m using is called Decoart One Step Crackle - but it might be discontinued seeing as I got it from the Hobby Lobby Clearance rack.  So…I grabbed a jar of this (currently available) stuff too - works just as well and you get a big ol’ pot for $5 or so…

014BDEA8-21AB-4F1F-B01D-F2FA09A7E77D.thumb.jpeg.f8ddfaf0cf35b109d020c1aba8a9d41c.jpeg
 

10 hours ago, Bainford said:

Nice weathering. Thanks for showing the process. How is the salt originally applied? Is it just stuck to wet paint?

I actually brush a little water on there with a paintbrush so I can control easily where I want it, and then sprinkle the salt on top.  I’ve seen people do it with spray bottles before too and just randomly throw the salt on there - depends if you’re trying to get a general rusty look or hit particular spots (which I was in this case…)

Thanks to everyone who didn’t have a question too - nice to log in and see all the kind comments!

Just a little progress tonight, but another fun evening at the bench.  Sprayed Createx white through circle masks for the gumballs:

FBD35F09-5FEE-4DB8-A21B-FE24120FA796.thumb.jpeg.22f7f1ed02070bee5a734e82ca5e7fca.jpeg

Then applied crackle mask over the paint before it fully set up:

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Gave it half an hour to dry before painting the next layer - if I was doing a shiny paintjob I would leave it longer to avoid accidentally damaging any of the paint, but damaged paint is ok for this one…masks applied:

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Shot black my favorite black Createx sealer over top…dabbed on some more cracking agent and peeled back the masks:

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Not done weathering these (and they’re too flat right now so I’ll do a little something to fix that) but it’s starting to look like a Lovebug!

Thanks for looking - more soon!

 

B78D3DD9-216D-4445-989E-53FB609D3C44.jpeg

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Thanks everybody! 
 

14 hours ago, TooOld said:

Yes it does keep getting better !     I found the DecoArt One Step Crackle on Amazon , can't wait to give it a try ! :)

Awesome!  I KNOW you’ll do something cool with it!! 

12 hours ago, Andrew D the Jolly Roger said:

Very very impressive; I've often seen the salt technique used on aircraft, particularly late-war Japanese planes whose paint was practically peeling off in sheets at that time.  Very nicely done there!

I had never heard about that before - had a fun half hour reading about wartime primer shortages and the superiority of American paint at the time versus Japanese paint! 

12 hours ago, ranma said:

That project reminds me of Herbie Goes Bananas

Herbie-Goes-Bananas-ScreenShot-80.jpg

Herbie-Goes-Bananas-bullfight.jpg

I haven’t watched that movie in forever - those Herbies look even worse than mine! 😂


Tiny bit of progress tonight, but not a very interesting process - masked up the stripes and painted the remaining gumball on the hood:

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And finally, started adding watercolor washes to the white bits to make them less white and more like a yellowed enamel or something:

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Excited for the paint to dry fully on these bits so I can ruin them some more! 🤪. More soon!

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