New pics, or ... more projects started than I ...

[gwangiboy]

... should possibly handle at one time!

The Carl Casper Paddy Wagon continues to get the body work done ... getting part of it prepped for some possible painting here soon! And I think I have the new rear axle situation figured out as well.

Now ...

This, I think, is the 4th time I've painted this body for the Snake funny car, and it looks like FINALLY this time the paint job is a keeper! The other attempts either some dirt managed to find its way onto the paint, or some weird crazing went on after the 2nd or 3rd coat (but not the first ... never figured that one out). This is from the double set that Revell reissued several years ago. Paint is just plain ol' Tamiya yellow.



Slowly working on the Big T as well ... decided to make some homemade spark plugs for it, rather than just sticking the black tubing into little holes on the block.



In the next picture it looks like I stuck miniature cigarettes into it! All I did was buy super-tiny nuts (don't remember the size) and stuck a small piece of carbon rod into them, and painted the rod white. I'm looking to make some caps for the ends for the plug wires to go into.



Nope, its not the Granny Hot Rod, or Jethro's Rod, but hey -- its the same chassis. This is for the Jolly Rodger, the weird pirate ship / show rod MPC released that looks like they were inspired by the Tom Daniel skeleton-driver cars and their own "Pirates of the Carribean" kits, but at this time no licensing fees to Disney!

Most of the paintjob here is Alclad -- magnesium for the frame, chrome for the exhaust pipes, pale gold for the springs, driveshaft, and mufflers, stainless steel for the tranny and rear axle, polished aluminum for the brakes. Tamiya clear yellow under the stacks on the engine.



The paint on the body now needs to be polished up. Its with the 2-part Testors stuff, GM Maroon. The ship body that you can see in the back will be partially painted the same color.



Picked up the Jolly Rodger at the Stewartville, MN show a few weeks ago ... kind of a strange one for AMT to reissue, but I'm glad they did, since I never built it when it was first out. Goofy kit to be sure, but fun as well ... and to keep it fun, I'm not spending TOO much time on it, or dwelling on every little detail -- just do the job, if it looks good enough, fine, move on! It feels kinda nice to build one up this way occasionally.

[fredmellini]

Geez they all look great!!!!!........................Stop typing and got those beautys done so we can see 'em!!!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D..........................Fred

[ShowRodFreak Don V.]

Is that Yellow?? Rattle can or airbrush....cause thats a sweet yellow.

don v

[gwangiboy]

showrodfreak said:

Is that Yellow?? Rattle can or airbrush....cause thats a sweet yellow.

don v

Yep, Tamiya Yellow, and rattlecan ... warmed up the paint first by having it sit in a bowl of warm water, and the paint came out very smooth. If you think it looks nice in the photo, you should see it in person!

[A.J.]

Very very nice work! As Fred says, Git em' done! We're anxious.

Just curious but why did you have a tough time with the Snake body? Was it because of bleed through or something?

A.J.

[gwangiboy]

volksrods said:

Very very nice work! As Fred says, Git em' done! We're anxious.

Just curious but why did you have a tough time with the Snake body? Was it because of bleed through or something?

A.J.

Thanks! The Jolly Rodger may actually get finished in a couple of weeks or so. The Big T maybe longer ... I don't know, maybe a kit that size is TOO big?? Anyone else put one of these together and feel that way? I've built a Monogram 1/12th Camaro Z28 and that might be the biggest I want to go ... I love 1/16th and 1/20th, but that could be because they're easier on my eyes now! ha!

As for the painting on the Snake, I was using Tamiya Camel Yellow (this time its just 'straight' Tamiya Yellow). The first coat had a lot of dirt & grime get into the paint, which I don't know if it was the surroundings or what -- I've read about problems with Testors rattlecans having 'dirty' paint, if that's really true, but it may have been the air was just dirtier than I realized. Wasn't just a hair here & there, it looked REALLY bad. I also discovered a seam that I had missed smoothing down.

Next attempt the first coat went on fine, but then after the 2nd coat this weird splotching occured, big darker areas on the paint. Almost like the car had birthmarks!

3rd attempt, same thing, different places. The car got put away for a while. Finally took the body out, soaked it in Dawn Power Dissolver and got the paint off and ready for another go.

This is the 4th attempt, different color, warmed the paint up, doing all mist coats at first (around 5) and then two wet coats ... and its turned out beautiful. I've used Camel Yellow before with great results (I put a thin coat of it over the Ice-T -- that REALLY makes the car pop!!! -- I'll be using that on the S'Cool Bus as well when I revive that project).

[barten]

WOW the builds are so clean. . and I love the lay down of paint! ! ! It makes me want to paint something. . . I might have to prime nad paint something. . ..


GREAT JOB ON ALL THE DETAILS. . .wow!

Now lets see them done!
God bless
Dan

[gwangiboy]

barten said:

WOW the builds are so clean. . and I love the lay down of paint! ! ! It makes me want to paint something. . . I might have to prime nad paint something. . ..


GREAT JOB ON ALL THE DETAILS. . .wow!

Now lets see them done!
God bless
Dan

Thanks!! I'm really happy with the Snake body, because I still suffer from Body Painting Anxiety! Maybe there's a support group I can join for that! I love painting the frame, engine, and chassis type of stuff ... interior is OK ... but when it comes to the body, yikes! Funny thing is, I met someone at last year's GMO NNL who said the same thing!

I'm just having fun with the painting for the Jolly Rodger. For the frame, I was thinking about mostly strong metal colors, thinking old ships would mostly have metal pieces like iron. The gold color is to represent Pirate Booty (the treasure type, not the Beyonce type). The chrome & silver could represent treasure as well, and the chrome sets off the rest of the colors to a nice effect.

I like the maroon color, although its showing up with a strong red look in these photos (its not quite so red in person). I think the car looks a lot stronger in that color ... a lot more so than in MPC's original box art (not to mention the horrid job on the Ertl/AMT reissue, which even has the skeleton's arm glued on wrong on the cover shot!!!!!). MPC's bright red car with yellow running boards looks more playful ... I'm going with the idea that the maroon will make it look like this pirate ship car means business.

(if you can get a pirate ship showcar to LOOK menacing!! haha!)

This might sound like I'm putting a huge amount of effort, thinking, and planning into it, but its not really that -- I'm just letting ideas run loose with this one, not trying to go into 'rivet counter' territory at all, and the creative stuff just comes without trying that hard at all!

[davea]

Some good looking stuff, there!

[Tim Nolan]

WOW! You've got some really nice stuff going on there! You guys building this large scale stuff are really giving me the itch to do one! Awesome! The Jolly Rodger is a blast to build! You've got that thing shining like a mirror! Beautiful work!