Gelfin's Cabinet: Car Models, big and small

Automotive related modelling

It's all about things with engines.

Not things that fly, so much, but rather cars, trucks, bikes and all sorts of where stuff in between.
I'll show you what I'm doing and try to showcase other modeller's work when it inspires or astounds me. I know that there are tons of compilations out there, from Pinterest to Twitter...blah blah. Yeah they are great if you can hire someone else with your brain and the time, then get them to wade through the dog turds to find the Shiny.

There are many good bloggers out there, I'll introduce you as we go along, & they do a fine job of bringing you all the new goodies. I'm not gonna try stomp on toes, just show you what I like and...maybe you like it to.

I'll start with one I've been chewing on for more than a year. I had no idea of what I was getting into. I had already dipped my toe into the automotive modelling world with one of my all time fav cars, The 1968 Dodge Charger. I hit a wall with the foil detailing and side-tracked when I found a nice '65 Mustang 2+2. I had visions of just doing a nice stock, OOB ( out of the box) build. Even went so far as to choose a colour and buy a can from my local car parts depot. Then I watched a movie, a good one, and all plans diverged from there.

If I was to say," This is Kundalini, ...and Kundalini wants his hand back" would that throw sparks for you...if not then you're either too young, or poorly educated.

I'll put you outa your misery, okay... Mad Max... Fury Road...wtf. Fantabuloso, awesomesauce, auto-erotica! Damb!
So the Pony car was gonna get ratted, but how was the question.
Now anyone who knows me, also knows that all my models, drawings, etc all have a story to them. It makes it so much easier to create stuff when you have a vision of where it's going. Almost more importantly...why?
Whenever I've imagined myself trying to survive in a dystopian future I've always pictured my vehicle as fast and armoured, but also as an extension of myself, like a mobile backpack. Everything that you'd put in a 'bug-out bag. (Huh?...check out preppers, then you'll know.)
So I began to put together a 'profile' for the car.
Fast, very Fast...and as with any decent car model, not curb-crawlers, you start with the engine.

After plenty of research, since I don't know enough about cars, I decided on a blown engine and that meant scratchbuilding the intake, blower and scoop. Then all the pulley spindles.

I was quite chuffed with it, but Gawd did it stick up.

These are the first fittings, also tried out my choice of tyres. I got them from Hiroboy, a fab car model website. Small industry with really dedicated staff, shop local I always say. The tyres are just called 70's prototype, fronts 8 inch and 11 inch rears. Look at how they freakin stick out!

The next task was to make more space for supplies and equipment, that meant cutting out the back window and trunk (boot) out. Turning it into a Ute, ha ha.

So that I could fit in the roll cage. I used hollow tube instead of rod. It did mean that I had to remake bits, but it all worked. I used heat(candle) to 'set' the tension on the rods so that they don't creep back away from the angles I wanted.

The boot floor got filled in and I folded down the rear seat and fettled it until it filled the rear seat space. Turning the car into the 2 seater config.

Here's the rear flares, made from a section of Thermos flask inner lid. I got both pieces I needed from a ruined flask. The plastic is more flexible and diidnt even sand very well, so I pinned it on to be sure.

The bonnet(hood) needed to have a section removed for the blower and scoop to stick through...A lot! Tried and true method, back of a no.11 blade dragged slowly and gently and continuously down a carefully marked line. I marked the gap I needed in various places around the two side fenders and on the front cross member and rear. Then, after removing the engine, I placed the bonnet and placed the tape using my marks to line it all up.

Success!!

This weird plated piece is for the underside to help protect the tank and pumpkin. Being a frame on chassis type car they are prone to snapping behind the front cross members, so I built a strut and brace system to protect and reinforce the underside.

Will's scenic treadplate is great as it's for a much smaller scale, so it looks industrial and complex. The rear axle was swapped to be above the springs and I lifted the ends of the spring mounts, the front-end was simply lowered a bit for a more aggressive stance.

Which gangland car would be complete without a decent man-catcher (cows are extinct)?

The two brackets were quite complex and fit through where the grill was to bolt into the front bulkhead around the radiator. The centrepiece is a metal sculpture of a horses skull that I decorated with conduits, pipes and braids.

I wanted the skull to be a sort of totem for the car. By now you can imagine that I'm already contemplating the driver of such a car. Furiosa absolutely stole the show for me and a strong female archetype is very cool, so I began to search through the web for any and all 1/24 female figures. What do you know they are almost all draped over the body of your model car...maybe if I want a ready victim tied to the bonnet, but no...just no. Just as in Fantasy modelling, trying to find an armoured or practical female figure is like hunting for Unicorn poo.
So thank Fffff...Felix for MasterBox. They recently began releasing a futuristic set of figures based around the renegade crew of a stolen spaceship. One of them just sang out to me

She's really nicely sculpted with a slightly raggedy appearance, since she supposedly comes from a more primitive world. But look at that mother of a rifle. It's for hunting large predators...tee hee.
It's a great piece of fantasy, but it's not a functional weapon. The designer must have played a bit too much Destiny or the like. So I set about turning it into a more recognizable sniper rifle.

Firstly I shaved down the two side plates and then removed the wierd sights.

It's called '30-30', and if you don't know where...agh what's the use...go look it up. But you'll need 'eyes of the eagle'

A removable stock, 8 round clip and multi-scope...now we're talking.

A sniper/scout needs fuel, lots of it, according to my calculations she's got 470 litres worth in these tanks. To protect them you need a 'Tombstone'. 5 layers of plate, welded and rivetted, sacking in between each layer. Yeah!!

The steering wheel needed some attitude, some personalisation ...so a dog skull (anyone get the link here?) and two human forearms give it just the right 'flavour'.

I'll leave you with that, hope to pop some more up for you pretty soon. Any comments are welcome, hope you're enjoying so far.

~Gelfin.

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Custom 1968 Chevy Nova

A Hot wheels project

As most guys do, I revisited my love of die cast cars. Some go for large scale and detailed (Some less detailed than you'd think) while others enjoy the variety and space-saving of the smaller brands. Hot Wheels, of course, features strongly in most people's collections. They are inexpensive, collectable and easily available. More authentic and/or detailed cars are out there but...well there'll always be a place for Hot Wheels.
This little Chevy came in a 5 pack 'flames' kit. The transfers were slightly skew and the chrome hadnt taken properly on the driver side front. So I felt fine about converting it.
One of the more recent companies, M2 Machines, does an Auto-wheels issue where you get 4 sets of tyres with a car, and a screwdriver...yup these cars are not riveted. The company encourages you to modify the cars.
So I have tyres, 'real riders' for a few cars.

This is what we started with. Not bad, but nothing special. A mainline car.
As is the way I carefully drilled out the top of the two posts holding the body together. I don't have small screws or a tapping bit so I will reglue the car together when finished.

Here's a shot of the car with the M2 Machines Foose 69 Camaro rims and rubber tyres. Much better already. The body by now is smoothed and the moulding cleaned up. I used Nitro-mors paint stripper (in a well ventilated area; i.e. outside and don't forget your gloves. If you're a messy sort, add safety glasses to your list). Water will neutralise it so a good rinse after and all is clean. You may have to pry paint out of some stubborn corners.

This little conglomeration of bits is the beginnings of the dashboard. Bits of plasticard that i will file and shape until it fits.

It begins to look right, just a bit more work. wrap thin wire around a suitably sized rod then cut through cleanly down the coil to create small rings. If you're careful you can bend them closed so that the little join is almost invisible. The softer the wire the straighter the cut. They will become dial surrounds. Larger ones will be used, with fine mesh, to make speaker covers for the rear deck.

Here's the finished dash, with more care it could look better, but it's in a black and grey interior so I'm happy with this result

This is the body shell under my makeshift dust cover. it's also on the edge of the desk and taking advantage of the warm air coming from the radiator under the desk. Helps my drying time no end. The colour was a hard choice and I settled on a dark air force blue. It's sprayed in acrylic so that I could choose the exact tone I wanted. It's a one off mix of Aquamarine blue, navy grey-blue, purple ink, black ink and acrylic thinner. Although the mix contained material from three manufacturers it blended well thru the airbrush.

The steering wheel is plasticard and a circle of wire with its sheath intact. The join is at the bottom and I filled it with Cyano-acrylate glue (super-glue).

I cover the front and rear clip in lots of liquid latex and then used thick bleach to remove all the chrome from the bottom plate. I added exhaust pipes with nice fat cherries on the ends. Since almost no space for the pipes existed at the rear, I ran them out the sides and added the central piece of the driveshaft. After I'd finished painting the interior and underside I removed the latex.

After two coats of Simoniz Ultra high gloss I retouched the bumper chrome, the bonnet vents and the side repeaters and handles. My Molotow pen is from heaven. Best thing to happen for modelling for years. I then repainted the black areas of the grill and rear bumper and the orange reflectors and lenses.
Here she stands on the display base I'm busy with.