Bathtub Buggy Build

[redscampi]

I'm really enjoying this build! Not only have you saved a wreck, you've turned it into a master (bathroom) piece.

[Farmboy]

Always happy to hear when someone's enjoying a build process Gary.  Thank you much.

[Farmboy]

moving another step backward....

This build started at the front as the placement of the sink/rad shroud/engine dictate the placement of the boudoir back.  Speaking of boudoir...

This is the firewall side of the desk/windshield(s).  The foil pieces off to the side are inserts cut oversize for trimming.  The whole plastic piece will be white

and here's a rough-in of the effect to make sure all pieces fit nice and tight before gluing.  Again, this stuff is easily trimmed with an Xacto blade and it conforms when cementing with no 'spring'.

...and it's free with every can of Melitta ground coffee lol!

I have a few things to do to the boudoir piece before adding the foil.  Firstly I've removed the lights from the outsides of the window frames, rotating them 90 degrees to face the rear.  I'm thinking also of replacing all overly thick curly pieces with wire equivalents like shown below.  I think I can pull this off with a bit of practice..

As for the windshield, I'm tossing the oval idea and filling the bottom square with 'glass' and the upper section with the same, but pivoted out from the bottom at the bar, much like the model T's and others of years gone by.  

This may take a few days what with Christmas, New Year's and all...

Comments and observations welcome.

 

[David G.]

Wow!

What an awesome reimagining / resurrection of a classic show rod model!

I love all the refinements you're creating for this. I think you've given this kit much more attention and thought than than the original designers did.

David G.

[slusher]

Real nice work!

[Farmboy]

Hey Dave, Carl.  Many thanks for the kudos and observations.  Hope you're having good holidays, and thanks for stopping by!

[Farmboy]

The following items are still in the 'just finished' stage.  A little touching up with a microbrush will make the firewall and window frames respectable, but that has to wait till the unit is installed.  Still have the windows to put in and some curved wire shapes to attempt.  I did this boudoir piece in white but the color kind of took over.  Think the tub will be a bit of an issue but I have time to think about that.  Anyway, gold it is.  I gave the foil finish a coat of Molotow and it is now in harmony with the engine compartment and mirroring.  The bottom left of the foil needs adjusting even though it's not visible when the piece is in position .

I've removed the lights from the windshield frame, they reminded me of the popcorn vendor wagon at the fall exhibition.  Then it looked a little naked so I rebuilt my own and put them facing the desk/driver area.  Two shots, one with flash, one without just because..

They're build from plastic headed pins, a 3/64ish piece of brass tube, and a small sequin.  Each.  I predrilled the ten holes earlier.  The wear on the paint comes from handling.  That will be taken care of.  I still have more to do to this piece so I'll put it off for now.

Comments and observations welcome

 

 

[slusher]

Your doing som fine work on this build..

[MeatMan]

Great work!

[David G.]

Those pinheads work amazingly well as vanity lights!

David G.

[Farmboy]

Many thanks for the shout outs guys.  Some things are working out better than others, but overall I think it's turning out ok, glad you're enjoying the build. 

[Farmboy]

Got the two piece windshield installed, but just before we get to that, here are the pins I used to do the lightbulbs.  I find them great for glue application of course, but I buy them because if you drop one or set one down, it's so much easier (for old guys like me anyway) to pick up the first time ?.

Nothing big to report, just a mockup.  The two windshields were easy enough to make.  I didn't measure but started with a rectangle of clear plastic.  The pieces are small enough to cut in one scissor snip so I just kept gradually cutting a narrow strip, test fitting, cutting another etc until it made for a gentle friction fit.  I used Future clear acrylic (or whatever the name is this week) on a pin, touched it to joint letting it evenly fill in.

I managed to get glare in the bottom piece so you can see it's there.  The top piece that's canted out has a goldish strip of tape along the bottom.  It's only there so your eye picks it up.  The top of the piece has a dark brown hinge fabbed from a stir stick (thank you Tim Horton's) that's been split and glued at an angle.  It's not really necessary but I find it makes for a better -- and less obvious -- glue joint.  I could have tinted the glass with clear acrylic and food coloring but that whole area is busy enough already.  Some minor paint touch up and that piece is finished.

Comments and observations welcome

[Farmboy]

I've used the 'aqua' paint technique a few times, mostly for stark contrast.  This is the first time that I'm after subtleties.  I'm going for a marble desktop finish.

I decided on tones of gray.  I used primer/gloss and flat.  Not much of a difference in the end anyway.  For those not familiar with this technique, it involves water and paint. 

A suitable container (line it with plastic if it's reusable) is filled deep enough water to cover the piece you want painted.  Submerge your piece and spray the top of the water at a very shallow angle.  When you see a pattern you may like raise the piece up thru it, gently rolling it to avoid wrinkles as you do.  Here's what's left after I did my counter top thru three shades of gray.

...and here's the immediate result

I'll be  v e r y  gently giving it a wet sand tomorrow, finishing with clear matte.  Here it is ready for sanding.  I put the unfinished  gauges on just so I was sure the pattern is something I liked.  

Mikey likes it!  The sides will be done in gold to match the rest of the boudoir. 

Comments and observations welcome.

[redscampi]

On 1/3/2024 at 12:12 PM, Farmboy said:

I've used the 'aqua' paint technique a few times, mostly for stark contrast.  This is the first time that I'm after subtleties.  I'm going for a marble desktop finish.

I decided on tones of gray.  I used primer/gloss and flat.  Not much of a difference in the end anyway.  For those not familiar with this technique, it involves water and paint. 

A suitable container (line it with plastic if it's reusable) is filled deep enough water to cover the piece you want painted.  Submerge your piece and spray the top of the water at a very shallow angle.  When you see a pattern you may like raise the piece up thru it, gently rolling it to avoid wrinkles as you do.  Here's what's left after I did my counter top thru three shades of gray.

...and here's the immediate result

I'll be  v e r y  gently giving it a wet sand tomorrow, finishing with clear matte.  Here it is ready for sanding.  I put the unfinished  gauges on just so I was sure the pattern is something I liked.  

Mikey likes it!  The sides will be done in gold to match the rest of the boudoir. 

Comments and observations welcome.

Very cool work here! Your countertop is extremely realistic. I believe this technique is referred to as "hydro-dipping".

[David G.]

Excellent technique for getting a marble finish! I've seen this kind of dip painting used for other applications but I don't think I would have thought to use it for model building.

Thanks for sharing the tip.

Nice progress on the rest of the build too. It's quite easily the most detailed and well-appointed version of this kit I've ever seen.

David G.

[Farmboy]

From here on in, "Hydro Dipping" it is Gary. Wasn't even sure there was a specific name for the process lol.  Thanks for the heads up.?

Dave, happy you're enjoying the build!  Slowly working my way back to the bathtub.

[Farmboy]

My apologies for the delay in posts.  Onward and upward.

First off, the tub, beginning with the legs/feet.  The moulded on 4 pegs didn't do it for me and I looked a long time for ball and claw feet.  I honestly bought a few dinosaur toys hoping to wrap some T Rex claws around a small round bead but no luck.  I decided to go art nouveau and put my own idea together.  It started with things called earring backs.  They're shiny brass with a clear flexible plastic flange that's easily separated with a single cut from a knife or scissors.  Dollar store of course.  While there, I grabbed a variety size pack of pearl beads.  The photo below shows the two cemented together, cemented to the tub.  I think it looks ok.  incidentally, this corner foot isn't secured in this shot, but the 3 others are.

I decided to keep with the kit supplied stop light assemblies, but a quick stop in to the brother in law's got me a couple of much better looking 'lenses'.  The make ceramic christmas trees so they have lots of sizes and colors of this sort of stuff.

The curved assist bars are craft items.  I didn't feel they looked out of place.  These bars have flat ends with holes in them.  A few pins snipped off at the head left just enough of the pin to hold them in the hole.  CA cemented and all done.  These shots as usual are hi mag and don't look half as primitive up close as they do here.

A bit of perusing the internet for french tubs told me I wanted a hand held shower.  I had a necklace with a snake chain, small enough to suit my needs.  I built the sprayer from a cut down shock absorber body, a short piece of brass wire,  a round piece of aluminum I had punched (a leftover from another project) for the sprayer back, and a 4 cyl photoetch distibutor for the sprayer face.  I drilled a hole in the top of the tub faucet, cemented the necklace part into it adding a short piece of brass tube for support and devised a way to make it look halfway believable.  A piece of brass colored wire was formed to make a support for the shower head and cemented under the lip on the outside of the tub.  Not exactly scale but I'm ok with it.

 

Next I decided on a footrest.  These are apparently quite common in a wide array of forms though I've never heard of one.  I made mine from a piece of brass and a couple of craft support pieces that lent themselves well  to the project.

I painted the tub interior with Tamiya white primer, leaving a smooth eggshell finish that's easily and invisibly touched up while I was still working on this.  The outside was sprayed with Humbrol copper, but didn't like too bright and shiny finish.  I ended up using acrylic copper craft paint, darkened with a few drops of acrylic Gunmetal.  Worked great, tough as nails.

That's it.  Back soon.

Comments and observations welcome.

[David G.]

Wow Mike!

First of all, welcome back. It's great to see this one back on the bench.

I love all the little features you're adding. That's one of my favorite aspects of this hobby. Finding little out of scale items that work as added-detail features.

As I think I may have already noted, you're doing way more for this kit than the designers ever intended and all of it looks fantastic. As it should for a fantasy custom.

David G.

[Farmboy]

I appreciate the comments Dave.  The end is in sight.  Throttle linkage, a couple of water pipes, scratch built header supports and I'm almost done!  I'm experimenting with using the large hex union couplers (I'm repurposing the no longer needed kit air intakes) as header pipe endings like on the 1:1.  It's not so much the building but giving them a good finish that'll make the decision. So glad you're enjoying the build.

[slusher]

Really nice personal touches looking outstanding!

[Farmboy]

Thanks for the shoutout Carl.  Just about finished this build.  I added copper water lines to the tub this afternoon and the car is now all together but for the headers.  If I hack the exhaust pipes I'll show how I did it (kinda forgot to show a few things I had done along the way with this build) but other than that, the next shots will be the completed model here, then the Under Glass section.  Your kind words appreciated.

 

[Farmboy]

I decided to try my hand at modifying the exhausts to more or less mimic how they looked on the real deal.  Here's the sequence in one easy photo:

From left to right:

One of 2 sets of air intakes coming from the top of the mystery box on the kit engine.

Hex fittings cut from the intake pieces. They've been drilled out for depth.  Next to them are the separated shaft pieces.

The header assembly.  The header ends are moulded 90 degrees to the pipes.  Filed flat, they will be where the hex fittings go.

The model is finished.  I'll have photos soon.

[Farmboy]

And here's the immediate result for the pipe ends.  The ends were drilled out for depth, some dark accent paint will be added later.

That's it for this build.  I think it turned out ok.  The pipes are a pain.  They have a seam the full length on the top and after removing it, I had no way of duplicating the finish.  Decided to hide it in plain sight by adding a brass bar to give one the impression of a heat shield.  I'll post pics of the build in the Model Cars Under Glass section when I get back.  Many thanks to those who stopped by.

Comments and observations welcome.

 

[David G.]

Mike, that build is so far beyond impressive that I've run out of superlatives to describe it!

I can't wait to see it in the Under Glass section.

David G.

[Farmboy]

Yowza, Dave, that's a heck of a kudo!  Really pleased you like the results of the wip!  Thanks for the comment!