CB

I'm totally loving this Ken! 100% scratchbuilt!!! THE ONLY WAY TO GO! Just can't stop looking at those very cool styrene tires Might have to take a cue from you on your taking a break from the midget by building those awesome balsa wood aeroplanes-- I have a big 1/16 scale Fw190 balsa kit that needs built. Looking forward to seeing whatever you're having fun with.

Thanx Erik, but 'tisn't PhotoShopping what done the deed. I used a softie called 'PHOTO EXPLOSION 3' from Nova Development. Have used it for years and keep recommending it to peeps as it's very user friendly and dirt cheap-- around $50 at Staples, or online thru 'Nova Development'. Everbody seems to think they gotta have the 'real' thing, and go to all kindsa lengths to get the PhotoShop fer really big bucks. True, the 'PHOTO EXPLOSION' softies are nowhere near what PhotoShop is, but for most peeps what wanta do a little artsie fartsie stuffs, fer $50 they can not go wrongo with it. I've just recently got the Adobe Creative Suite 4 that has PhotoShop, Illustrator, and a host of other stuff, and I'll probably not use even close to half of it in my lifetime. Thanx fer the kindly words-- I like them effects too. Would love to have a 1:1 what's lit up like that!

Been spending some time in the 'Shop' doing some 'painting' of this here Rambler...... ...masking the flames off prior to painting them here. Close up of the masked off flames with the 'painting' just about done. The circle above the fender is the 'airbrush' and will only 'paint' the flames. They're surrounded by a white dotted line signifying that that area has been 'selected' and is the only part of the screen that is 'active'. Kind of like a transparent layer above the drawing. Got done with the flames, then 'masked' off everything but the windshield and layed a heavy red tint on it. Spent quite a bit of time masking and painting the body green and a kinda primer front end. That's all for today! More WIP pix of the process in my Fotki: http://public.fotki....mbler-rebel-ga/

Saw a cool old two tone green Rambler in one of Ed Shaver's gas station dioramas, and got inspired! Went looking for a pic of a late 50's Rambler similar to Ed's two toner and found a cool '58 Rebel. It was a 4door, but.... worked up this ball point pen drawing of that Rebel as a gasser-- the 'Rebel Rouser'. Made some copies and did some color studies, liking the two tone green on Ed's and hoping to make that the predominate color scheme. Worked up the gasser parts from pics from an old AMT Nova funny car kit. Here's where we be at the moment. Just got me a montrous new Dell and the Adobe Creative Suite 4, and have been doing some exploring. Playing back in PhotoShop again and lovin' it. This is a cleaned up version of the original ball pointy pen drawing with some revisions made. Thought this would be a nice little project to practise on, still need a lot of practise with the lasso tool. So far I just cut away the car and all the smoke, shadow area, etc, layed in a blue/white gradient on the background, cleaned up the car layer a bit and merged the two layers. Plan is to follow the color study more or less, still not sure about the 'Rebel Rouser' for colors yet, and hope to add some more lettering; cubic inches, gasser class, etc, in PhotoShop. As usual, I learned something-- really gotta start with a better drawing-- much less clean up that way. Wouldn't mind finding a reasonably priced old Johan Rambler to build up like this here, but I'm probably better off not adding another project to the bench, and just 'build' this one in PhotoShop.

.....a little carried away....??? I just don't worry about that anymore--less stress that way! Ok, now what ya got-- carrying us away? Lookin' inkeresting, but what you started with? Looks like metal. Can't wait to see sidewize 'n @.

OOOOHH! Too pretty!

SWEEEEET!

Or one big headlight?

Looks GREAT Ira! Really does look like a pepper!

Some cool lookin' VWs there Robert, and that streeeetttccchheed out racer-- very cool. Let's see us some more

Very cool Jairus! Kinda sprint car, single seater lookin' Vette! What's the front end look like?

Thanks Jairus. Yeah, the b&w works. Solarization can be cool, but everything just has to be right for that to happen. I do so like seeing the colors change tho..... I've almost thought of changing my user name to "Pixel Pilot' at times. Being OCPD, I must be productive, so yeah, my 'playing' is at all times really 'practising' to the un-informed. Gotta be me, and the more I is me, the better off everything, and everybody, is Since I 'retired' 4 years ago from 33 years inna steel mill, I love telling peeps when asked what my occupation is--"Goof off" Awaiting delivery of my new super Dell computer (12GBRAM--1TB hard drive) Unless the FedEx truck is running a plow up front, I doubt it's gonna show up today tho with all the snow we got. Was supposed to arrive yesterday. I'm part of a band and they have been so kind as to provide Adobe's Creative Suite 4 so I can do video editing as well as other artwork. Really looking forward to being back in the hallowed halls of PhotoShop again

Took some new pics of my 51 Chevy 'Primer Liner' yesterday. Was playing with this pic doing different things to it until I got the look I wanted. Basically applied a 'solarization' filter to the pic after cropping it and rotating it a bit (original pic made it look like it had a flat up front ) The solarizaton filter gave it a bit of a dark, sinister look-- no red in the pic at that point. I saved that solarized pic to a jpeg, opened it up in my Photo Explosion softie, and 'painted' in the glowing red headlights, and seeing how cool they looked, I just had to 'install' some red glowies behind that toothy grille.

Took some new pics of my Li'l T (with the big wheels) the other day and while getting the pics ready for uploading, I was doing the final adjustments-- cropping, lighting adjustments, etc in the simple HP Image Zone I have here. Here's the 'normal' pic of the Li'l T adjusted for best look before uploading to my Fotki. Here I converted it to black & white, did some pushing of the limits of contrast & brightness, etc, saved it to a jpeg, then put it in my Photo Explosion softie to 'sign' it. Almost has a pencil drawn look to it. Just might have to print it up and frame it. Basically same drill: First, in HP Image Zone, I applied the 'solarization' filter to the top image. I believe I then did a wee bit of adjusting of the contrast & lighting in 'adjust image', and again, saved it to a jpeg, opened it up in Photo Explosion to 'sign' it. Always like the effect when applying the solarization filter. I spend waaaaayy too much time playing with the little colored pixels

Really cool Ed! Who'da thunk a buncha paper & plastic could spark such a lively discussion abouts dem good old days!? You's really got a knack fer the historicals. I's glad I got to work at a real live Amoco station from '69 to '73 when all the muscle cars was out & about. The dingin' air hose bell, rear bumpbumps 4' up in the air when them young punk hot rodders would pump up their air shox Seriously, I put gas in some kids Tempest on nite and his back bumpbump was almost high as me nipples! Can't imagine you on a Shewinny StingRay George! Guess you know'd what you was a doin' when you pumped dat slik up with the comp air. A buddy of mine used to hang out at the station, and tried helpin' a couple young kids put air in their bicycle tires-- blowed both of 'em right up! poor kids! I always wished I coulda kept doing that kinda job, the pumpin' gas, checkin' the oil, washin' windshields, takin' inventory, and puttin' snow tires on.............but the times they was achangin'. T'anks Ed, fer bringin' a lot of cool memeories back fer a lot of us over the freakin' hill types.

Long as it looks like it Harry! I'm still trying to figure out the front wheel drive thingee for it Aint these aritstic licenses great?

Pretty sure I posted this some time ago here, maybe a couple years ago now? The original painting, a watercolor I did for a show at the art center near where I live, was simply a circle of watercolor paper glued to an old Oldsmobubble hubcap so's I could hang it. The show was called "The Painted Hog" and was all kinds of cool gearhead art. This is the original painting that I removed from the hubcap (since nobody bought it ) so I could scan it to get a higher resolution (my camera only does 180dpi). Here it is 'cleaned up' quite a bit. I realized I gotta do the originals with much more contrast. Did this on my old HP Pavillion comp with a photo editing softie called "Photo Explosion" by Nova Development. Nice easy creative softie for cheap at Staples or online. Perfect for anybody wanting to try something like PhotoShop without spending big bucks and/or trying to learn some pretty complicated procedures. I've used it for years and know it pretty well, but it's been crashing my computer as of late, and I've learned to 'save' the piece after just about every change I make. It's maybe 1/1000th of what PhotoShop is (probably less) but still, for around $50, one can do a lot of really cool stuff, and if one is artistically inclined, they can do a whole lot of really cool stuff. Basically what I did here after I scanned this poor Focus owner in, was to start 'selecting' areas and removing them-- all that blue sky for the greatest part. That alone made a HUGE difference. Then I started 'selecting' different areas and then pretty much just adjusted the brightness, contrast, color saturation, etc. I did add the greenies to the flames. Thought about pumping up the color on the Ford body, but am giving the old HP a bit of a rest for now. Getting myself a hi-powered new Dell for artwork and video editing for the band I'm a part of. The band is providing Adobe's Creative Suite 4, and I can't wait to get back into my beloved PhotoShop!!! Perhaps I'll park this Focus there for awhile and 'clean' him up a little more.

YEAH!!! Much better Jairus!

Ol' Dewey done ya good Jairus! I saved both pics into My Pictures to eyeball the differences. Going back & forth between the two, it does a nice little wheelie Amazing what an eraser can do sometimes.

Gettin' me a new computer, needed to make room in my studio/workem up shop for the computer, as well as keep styrene and other stray bits out of it. Been building walls in a nice sized room adjacent to my studio. Yeah, them's baseboard heaters-- that don't work. They blowed up a couple years ago. Nice size--about 8'6"X 8'. Plenty big enuff for SKWILRY and SPARKY . Paint & other toxicaters goin' out the window. Won't take much to heat this cozy little workshop

Very cool Jairus .......but I think "YEAH" would work a little better if it was in color, or a gray? Looks like maybe a 'just one color' Tshirt? Like I said, it's cool, and works, but at least one other color sure would add to it. No way I'll make that show, but any chance on getting a large via snail mail, etc?

That there is one cute li'l ride Mike! I can see it as some kinda altered drag racin' kinda mini tho with some huge slicks filling up them li'l rear fenders .....anyhow, don't mind me You was asking fer ideas in that front grille area. Soon as I saw that li'l hood and it's lines I thought 39-40 Ford grille! Probably really have to be cut down, but might just be the perfect proportion and a bit of a mild custom look to it? At any rate, it's looking really good so far.

Nah.... I got's 'em both locked up in a spare room- - with no heat! Might see about gettin a pic of ol' Gunthy if'n he turns blue enuff So anyhows, back at this here SPARKY Mighty Merk-- Don't really know how prototypical (whew!) this here is, but I figgered I'd weld all the body parts together. Stretched some sprue over a candle into some thin stuff and glued it into the door lines, and some on the hood & trunk too. While them 'welds' were settin' up, I finished sheeting out the intererior with that scrapbookin' cardstocky paper. Did some ruffin' up on dem 'welds' and the rest of the body too. Ol' SPARKY gonna be purty ruff. That there be a brass wire brush btw. Oh yeah, I done forgot to mentions-- I done tore off all the chrome stuffs and ruffed up dat Merk a bit. Just about ready fer some paint, but I's gonna fab me up a booth first and then start squuirtin' with me airbrush. Man! them slicks are kinda big, aint they?

Just kiddin' Zuk I'm lovin' watchin' you trying out yer ideas I's kinda the same as you. If'n I spended more time at the bench workin' on just one model, instead of lookin' at all the other cool rides hereabouts, I might actually get one done myownself.... ....but now seeing dat totally outrageseously outrageous stacked straight 8 of yours with them magnificent headers I guess I just gotta start another one Thanks a lot buddy

I agree about that green Dave, it is sweet. Maybe you could call those sink marks 'dents' ? The blood red ove black primer sounds very nice Not in the house 36 hours before getting the chop, eh? Maybe you should have a drive thru choppin' window for your feller modelers? Carry on Bro