puddingwrestler

I've got the Tofudabeest interior done. It's very simple afterall. Paint is Tamiya light blue and flat aluminium. I used some BMF on the kick panesl and purplish blue flocking from a craft store sample set I got (used for scrap booking I think - got twelve little jars for about $10 as I recall, each jar has enough for about five or six car interiors easy). The dash glues to the inside of the body, not the interior. I've used a little PVA glue on the guages for the glass look. One great thing about this model is that it fits together really easily and quikly, making it a snap to check the overall look of things. This is how we stand at present. The roof still needs a little work.

A chap I know from another forum recommended this site to me. Looks pretty good for picking up detail-y parts, althought mostly modern stuff, not traditional custom gear. Still need to order from overseas for that I guess. E Scale Models They're in Sydeny, and according to my associate 'They can probably get it' if they do not have it.

I'm working on the interior paint and flocking at the moment and blending the roof back into the body. I'm smoothing off various of the gutters etc. on the roof in the process as it makes it easier to get the joins smooth. I might put them back later after I've seen how it looks.

Here are some photos of my display cabinet. Not everything I have built fits in there, but just about all my cars are in it anyway. Note: The Morris Minor and Merc Custom are both dicasts bought as is. I keep intending to do something with the morris, but never get round to it. It's been re-organised a bit since these photos. I've grouped the models a bit better and stuck posters proclaiming what is on each shelf onto the back wall.

Did I mention the tyres don't fit? AMT seem to have supplied the wrong ones for the wheels, they're about 1mm too thick.

It's a public holiday over here (Queen's Birthday). UNfortunately I had to spend the morning finish my thrice cursed reports. I'm a teacher you see. Anyway, this arvo I got the crazy taxi finished. Here's the last 'on the bench' photo - still missing a few final things. Now that it's done, I've opened up a show-off-o-matic thread in the 'Under Glass' section of the forum. And because I rate convenience higly, here be a link!

Well, ir's finished. I even cracked out the ol' photo booth to get pics. There are plenty of thigns wrong - I forgot to attach various parts fro a start. There are holes in the bodywork were putty went wrong, the decals nearly drove me to tears, clear paint ran on the tail lights, and I could not get the engine bay to line up right. I find old AMT kits frustrating that way... ANyway, I learned a lot about BMF (never foiled this much before) and decaling. It's certainly not the best thing I've built, but I've learned from it, which is the main thing. Now for pics: I'm pretty happy with the paint, It took a very nice shine - it was really flat and dull right out of the can.

Whatever you do, use the super heavy duty 'kill all the whales and destroy the environment' version, not the odourless one. It doesn't work.

It was a translation error. They put it through Google Translate, and who was to know that in Japanese 'Morgan' translates as 'American Big Block?' Other cars in the series include the Ford 'Translate Server Error'.

Thanks for the offer Van Halen, but it's not actually any specific car from the game, just a build in the style of the game. The white guy's car is a sort of cadillac I think... I remember doing some research on the game at one point, and I think wikipedia listed the cars which the playable machines are based on. The '59 caddy is not in the original game (unless it's a hidden bonus and I have not found it), I think it was in the second, but it makes perfect sense. In fact, I always associate the '59 caddy with the game above all other cars. I should be able to do final assembly later today after I finish writing reports (I'm a teacher, and it's that time of year... )

We're trying (well, I'm trying) to get more car modeling happening over there, it's a bit aviation-o-centric, and I think there asre plenty of great what if scenarios with cars. Anyway, I've gotten past the swearing at decals phase. Hopefully final assemlby can happen tommorow.

I like the timber carrier thingee. I saw something like that (but more modern) at a lumber yard a few weeks ago and thought it'd make a cool model; but I'm not really up for that level of scratch building really. Might have to see if a toy one is available in anythign approaching 28mm wargames scale, it's look great as a rusting out hulk in amongst some Necromunda terrain

Where in Victoria are you? Can you get to Melbourne? The three main hobby shops in Melbourne (Hearn's, Victorian Hobby Center and Hobby Place) all carry a good range of cars, but not really accessories and parts. I get most of my kits from eBay since I moved to the country, and anything exotic I buy online. Try Frontlinehobbies (www.frontlinehobbies.com.au) and HobbyCo (www.hobbyco.com.au) both are Australian online stores, both from NSW. I also like a place called 'Bongo's Basement' www.bongosbasement.com.au.

Being in a car building mood, I thought I'd build a quick build while I waited for the Crazy Taxi to dry or when I was bored with sanding it endlessly. So I pulled a 1955 Toyopet Crown from my stash, and decided to hit it with late 50s American style custom touches. Then a little later I invented a custom car club to go with it; the Sinister Orientals CC. A club for Japanese cars made in the American style. I plan on adding a Mazda Carol hot rod next... As to the name; well, this is how I descrfibed it on the What-If Modeler's forum: "Imagine taking a 55 Toyopet Crown and making it into an American style custom. It's small, slow and not very powerful. But then the whole point of early customs was to make them look like something they were not - a more expensive and luxurious car. Power was optional. The Tofudabeest is like that... with out the power at all. So many hot cars involve the word 'beast'. Uncounted hoons refer to thier hoonmobile as 'The Beast' and plenty of drag cars have born the name in some way. But this car is not a hairy cheasted beast. Remember the farside cartoon where the Leopards accidentally killed a 'health antelope' - it looked like a real antelope, but it was tofu. A Tofudabeest. Which is why I have named the car the Tofudabeest - it looks like a real custom, but under the skin it's not really. It's just pretending. Plus it is a Japanese machine, and Japanese food involved Tofu. And learning mad drift skills in oyur car involves Tofu - just watch Initial D if you don't believe me." Anyway, on to the pics! Roughly what the chopped roof will look like when installed (still sanding at present) Custom grill opening: Custom grille (this will be BMF'ed before installation) Custom side trim and fender skirts installed. I've cleaned up the ends of the trim a little, but this is basically where I am now up to. I've also lowered the car, but no pics to show that yet. I'm thinking a blue exterior with two shades of blue for the interior. I might paint the area under the side trim silver, not sure just yet.

Some of you may be familiar with Crazy Taxi, a game Sega made late last century. For those who are not, it involved driving aroudna city at break neck speed trying to drop fares off against the clock. I have the Game Cube version and play it throught the Wii. I am told the Dreamcast original is superior, but I don't have the hardware. Anyway, I decided to have a shot at making a car similar to those in the game. They're all convertibles, all bright yellow, and all based on real cars, but not exactly real cars. For my base kit I chose an AMT 51 chevy convertible, and bought some taxi checkers from eBay. I got a bit carried away and added a sort of boat tail look to the boot by grafting on a 50 Chev truck hood. not very well actually, after paint I found some holes in the putty work, but couldn't be bothered fixing them... Anyway, It's almost done now, I'm working on the decals at present. These pics are a little old and show the build stages. Interior: The aforesaid boot: On the paint stand: Incidentally, the whole build process is documented on the What-If modelers forum, here.

Sorry things got a bit messy there, I was a bit confused by the two 'add reply' buttons and I think I got things rather wrong. At one point part two was appearing about part one, and part one still looks like a quote or something... I have to get used to teh way this forum works I geuss.

This is basically the second car kit I ever built. The first was a Tamiya Morgan 4/4 built stock. This is actually the second time I've built this car. It was fairly poorly built the first time cause I was young and foolish. Now that I am older and foolish, I decided to rebuild it with my modern skills.There's a lot of scratch building here. I was particularly happy with the boot panel. Not the copy of 'CarWars' in the back seat This netted me the 'Best Auto' whiffy (the What-If Modeler's forum annual grand awards - not many cars on that forum ) It's a PAH Small Car - Russia's answer to the mini. It was reverse engineered by the Minsk Tractor Collective using a Britihs Mini shot down in Soviet air space and biult by unwed teenage mothers. Then the factory sort of exploded and there was only one survivor. Whic broke down shortly there after. Anyway, it's a Tamiya kit and the result of a 'Sovietize It' group build on What-If modelers. This is a hover street rod I made using an AMT 34 ford and some cast 1/32 jet engines. I flocked the interior with model railway static grass Again from a What-If modelers GB, this is the Tortwagen Gulf GTI amphibious hot hatch. It comes from the fictional country of San Torta, a tiny island nation off the coast of south america where any trip involves more sea than road. This is the first time I seriously flocked an interior and used Bare Metal Foil. Interior and wheels are from a 1/36 or so toy Nissan Skyline GT-R. Well, that's about it for car models, or atleast roughly speaking car models (I do have a few SF kit thrashes based on car kits as well). I'm in a bit of a car building mood at the moment, so there'll be a few things in the 'on the workbench' section as well. Owen in Gippsland; Self appointed lunatic to the gentry.