Dr. Cranky

Holy smokes, those are some great pics . . . nice mockups and ride. Keep it going.

Those are some great reference pics!!! Keep it going, J.

Thanks, Brent, still trying to make some progress on this thing!!! Stay tuned in . . .

This is absolutely beautiful. I likes it! Congrats!

Don't give me so much credit so fast, pardner!!! Those are actually Woodland Scenics circus style letters . . .I just did the little squiggles and devil's tail, that's all . . . and the other reason why I got into the pinstriping on there was because I didn't get the letters centered right . . . I figured I'd be able to trick the eye or something like that. How's that for a confession?

I had to be brave this morning and try my hand at adding free-hand graphics to this build. I head my breath and went for it. I think it turned out pretty desent, I think. Here are some pics . . . of course, you can already see a huge chasm of departure between the orinal picture and this build. Sometimes your imagination takes you away from the germ of a good idea . . .

Ha, I like that CB. Yes, I am indeed living in another dimension, it is called ###### Cranky's MIND!!! Stay tuned in for more progress . . .

Thanks, Raul, I hope to make some more progress today . . . I appreciate the comments. Stay tuned in.

Thanks, chaps. I really appreciate the comments and the energy. I will have more progress tomorrow. I'd love to hit the bench tonight, but I am beat after a long day at work. Stay tuned in for more tomorrow.

You betcha I'm watching closely, J. I'm wondering how you are gonna weather this one . . . if at all. Keep up the good progress.

I'm liking it, J. I likes it!!! You are making good progress. More, more, more!!!

I have to say it looks a bit too clean for my taste, but that will all change in the next few days . . .

I sprayed white paint first over the black, then I mixed in some yellow, then orange, and finally I darkened it to red. This way the red didn't turn pink on me. Here are the results . . . I know I messed up in a couple of places with diamonds that don't connect, but hopefully this is where some well-placed rust spots might come in handy!!! I might also come back in and dot some gold where all the diamond tips touch . . .

Okay, so I put the blue tape mask on and this is what it looks like: I realize that I could have been more exact in cutting my diamonds, but that would have required measurements . . . and well, you know how I get along with math!!! This is close enough . . . The wonderful thing about his blue tape is that it is extremely compatible with acrylic paints . . . does't lift or leave residue.

Of course, the idea is not to stress out about these kinds of graphics . . . a little overspray is actually a good thing because it give the build a hand-built (1:1 ratttle can job look!) or at least that's the story. There's more to come . . . more masking and more graphics . . . stay tuned in . . .

Hi, Clay, thanks . . . I am using a faded sweep I picked up through Amazon.com . . . it's not a cheap sweep, but it does a beautiful job . . . and it's matte vinyl which can be cleaned with a little windex and water . . .

Here's the "J" on each side masked and then sprayed with green for contrast . . . Again, I sprayed a few light coats making sure the mask did not lift . . . After the paint dried, I cut a diamond out tape and put it over the J making sure it's all centered . . . I sprayed the orignal body color lightliy over the diamond, and when I achieve full coverage, I dried the paint with the hairdryer . . . And voila!

Bernard, the skulls come from Games Workshop WARHAMMER skeleton army . . . Warhammer has a lot of great stuff. Check it out, and thanks for the kind words.

Here we go: I airbrushed a few coats of flat black on the first round, and then I added a few drops of dark blue to make the black a bit more menacing . . . if that is possible. Going slow, a few coats, the idea is not to get full coverage right away . . . and I used a hairdryer between the coats . . . .

As you can see, I cleaned up and got my guns ready (Iwata Micron C and Micron C-Plus), and brought out the paint to start the graphics off . . . I also got out my rub on letters for some masking . . . and that's a process I've explained elsewhere . . .

Thanks, J. I'm trying to do the best I can. Oh, man, I almost forgot the firewall!!! I think I might scratch build it with diamond metal plating . . . or I might go witht he stock version, we'll see. Stay tuned in for some painting progress . . .

In preparation for the paint, I prepared some masking tape with lots of diamons on it for masking . . . I cut them in several sizes, though I might just to the even on the hood . . . Stay tuned in for some painting progress . . .

Here's a close up . . . some of the mistakes in the body work are really highlighed this close up, but it all adds another dimension to these kinds of builds--at least it is my story and I am sticking to it! There's going to be a similar motif in the back too!

Before I start on the paint, I found my skulls (Courtesy of Warhammer!) and decided to mock them up with a little tacky glue just to make sure it would look good. I also put a screen behind them for some contrast later . . . once everything is painted. I also added screen to the rear side windows . . .

Yeah, I can see the Spiderman thing going, but once I saw it, I had to put it into this build. That's the fun thing about building these types of rat vehicles . . . 1) you never know where you are going to go and 2) everything works as long as it is slightly over the top!