Henchmen4Hire

I could have sworn tape can already be bought that thin, specifically for pinstripers. Oh well, I guess if anyone would know, you would lol

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.

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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.

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.

That's a cool brick pattern inside, is that a decal or molded detail?

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

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.

Just when I thought I couldn't love orange anymore you pump this out haha That is some sexy orange.

I'm glad to read you're having fun detailing the engine, I just started building car models and it's been my favorite part so far. My engine didn't have so many bolts and rivets though, lucky you! Looking forward to how you do the wiring if you get to it. I like your axle color idea, I was wondering why my underside looked a little bland. The best painting advice I can give is to use small brushes to paint small things. It's not sarcasm, it's the best thing you can do! For example, you can paint all the little bolts with the mechanical pencil, but you get better results (no brush strokes or goop) by dotting them with a little brush, everything is about practice.

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!

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.

I'd totally trade you a few cans of Grabber Orange for that, regulations be damned haha

I look forward to the day we'll all have affordable good 3D printers at home, but I think it's going to happen when I'm dead already, so it's hard to get excited haha. All the home-3D-printers I've seen so far print things that look like a pile of spaghetti, the midrange ones leave some kind of ugly texture, only the really expensive ones print exactly what you want it seems.

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

I'm new to model car building, but I couldn't help but notice: In this day and age when we have such amazing tools like laser scanning and high resolution 3D printing, why is it that model car kits aren't all incredibly detailed and amazing? I've been poking my nose around car model kit forums lately and see that there are definitely kit brands people prefer over others, whether because they're more accurate models or have crisper lines or whathaveyou. Are the fancier model kits made with 3D scanning or do they just have better sculptors who are more detail oriented? Is scanning a car (and all or most of its parts by disassembling it I assume) so expensive that it warrants the 4-times-higher pricetag for the model? Also, why are model kits expensive? For example, LEGO sets are expensive because they require a high degree of precision (that's the reason I read anyway), I imagine car model kits require precision too but I would argue car model kits are manufactured with much less precision than LEGO elements. Model car kits have things like flash and dents and warping, but for the $20 you get a much cleaner product from LEGO as well as a lot more plastic in the box. Are there licensing fees the model companies have to cover so we have to pay 15-20 bucks for a box that's 80% air? haha Please enlighten me!

I wanted to ask about the part where you said this was painted and THEN sanded, do you mean you sanded the paint? As in to get rid of brush strokes? That's pretty cool, I didn't know that could be done, much less that it would give such slick results. I don't have an airbrush anymore so this is good news to hear if that's the case.

This looks like the outlandish kind of hover-car designs I make with LEGO, really cool to see you make a realistic representation. I hope you inspire people to make more of these!

That's the most beautiful tank-rig-thing ever haha I think you should move the tank treads forward more, right now they're hanging back too far making the model look kinda lanky.

That is one manly truck, I tell you whut lol Inspiring! I hope I find a model that rugged and cool someday, all I see are modern curvy rigs.

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

Aw, I was loving that grey stripe, but it's definitely too light. Also, thanks for pointing out those dents in the body, now I understand why I see patches of putty all over WIPs (new guy here haha)

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!