Henchmen4Hire

Hate this camera so much I found some Testors International Orange in a box so I used that. It looks red in pictures grrrrrr so I tweaked the image. Its a little darker than I wanted, but it's alright.

Mmmm, dem fender flares haha Looks cool, never seen an engine like that either.

Test fitting the engine, and I use that term loosely because there are no engine mounts on this kit, just a little indentation on the chassis where the engine rests. However, the engine does seem to have cavities for engine mounts... Also, please ignore the nasty paintjob on the red parts lol. I'm probably going to paint them gloss orange.

I don't know if the top is black or dark grey, but dark grey looks really cool.

Decided on some kind of industrial color scheme, like orange/black/grey/metal, kind of like how Black & Decker drills look like. Maybe some striped "CAUTION" decals, jet exhausts, a giant wing lol Some progress, along with a shot of the radiator and underside that I spent an hour drybrushing so they look scraped up, only to have the picture hide all the careful brush strokes I like this kit, there's enough little pieces to help me practice painting little things

Have this spare kit and have no good idea for what to do with it, any suggestions? (AMT 6550 - Viper RT10) Are there any iconic Vipers out there? I don't like making brand new looking models because painting a flawless body is hard, so some kind of junky badass Mad Max type design would be cool. So far I sprayed everything with VHT Vinyl Dye as a basecoat and chopped up the trees to make drybrushing easier. Pretty happy that many of the parts are supposed to be black anyway heh

Everything looks better with fender flares Looks sweet and nasty, just like a perfect woman lol

How much was this kit? Looks great, way better than the red

Base coated with black VHT Vinyl Dye, airbrushed a flat Folk Art Red.

Whats that red stuff you're using to scupt? Nice hood scoop, I had to make one recently so I know how annoying it can be to get it just right lol

Huh, it figures that now I see a body I really like and it costs $50 lol. Why is it so expensive? Are there any cheaper alternatives for that model, like a non-promo or something?

Radiator and Battery

A slightly better shot of the dash, also finished the seat, let me know if something seems off. There's silver trim, like on the gauge bezels, it's just hard to see because of the lighting.

Started on the little bits, glued to toothpicks, the usual. Again, sorry for the bad pics, I miss my DSLR

It's Apoxie Sculpt, takes a few hours to harden, great if you need time to work the area. The crash bar is assembled, now I just have to sculpt a little and round a few corners.

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.

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!

I really like the engine, I hope mine look that good when I try to do a realistic paint job. Also, could you do a quick walkthrough of how you're going to blend the fender flares to the body? I'm doing the same thing right now and am thinking of simply using white glue to fill the gap between the body and fenders, then letting that harden and sand it till it looks nice.

Yep, though I download them and listen the night after because I hate commercials, so I hear them on a 24 hour delay lol. The program is around 2.5 hours without commercials. David Paulides was on again recently talking about the tons of creepy disappearances in our national parks, the stories always creep me out, especially since I go hiking/camping regularly. Anyway, painting at night sucks, but you get more done since no one is around to tell you to do things like take out the trash or get groceries lol. I usually just basecoat at night since I have to paint by hand, detailing and drybrushing during the day only.

It makes sense to start with a bigger scale, it's easier to paint larger details and work with bigger parts, but it'd be funny if he was trying to sell you a big honking tank model when you're there buying 1/24 race cars. I'd love to make some 1/18 scale cars, mainly so I can make 1/18 figures to ride them (GI Joe scale), but I'm not keen on spending 50 bucks for a big model haha. The selection of models isn't that great either.

It really shouldn't though, for example you can make that rim in like 5 minutes or less using basic shapes (a cylinder, a 6-sided polygon, some insetting and scaling). Scaling an object to the right size is a one click operation, you can even type in exact dimensions. Give it a shot everybody, who better to learn how to make 3D-printable models of car parts than model builders?

Ooooh, I like that dark metal finish on the underside, is that just straight up spray paint over primer? About the airbrush, not too much difference spraying out of it compared to a can of paint, everything is about technique. You waste a lot less paint with the airbrush though since you can get it exactly where you want. Don't worry about learning to use it, as long as the paint is the right consistency you won't have any problems. Using an airbrush is easy to master, the biggest hassle you may have is just cleaning it when you're done, or when you want to change colors. I hate that blue hose by the way, two of them popped within a week before I stopped using them lol

It's not that hard to make 3D models guys. I learned to make models for video games in like a day, just by watching free tutorials of varying quality online. After a week I was already comfortable experimenting on my own and have made lots of cool models since. You're simply moving around a bunch of dots (vertices) to get the shapes you want, the more dots you use the more detailed the model can be. Whatever 3D modeling program you use makes the process easier by letting you create shapes, lines, bends, curves, extrusions, etc. You can even set up a blueprint in the program (pictures/drawings from different angles of the object) and use it for reference as you make the model, so it's not like you have to use a ruler and measure every little thing in real life. I don't know what other steps you have to take to get the printer to recognize a model, but I imagine the kind of model needed would have to be sculpted in something like Zbrush, something with tons and tons of polygons/vertices (high-resolution, or whatever the term is). But again, it's not hard to learn, provided you have a good teacher and the money to keep paying for the classes haha. Good luck with those outrageous prices...

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

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. 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.