Again another Marui project : Super Wheelie and Big Bear!

[silvertriple]

And sometime later...


Then later again... I used Metallic blue (TS-19)


I'll let that cure for 24 hours at least before going for the details...

[silvertriple]

Super wheelie bodies are very much detailed.... And they take forever to paint... I've used some tape to mask around the seats on both white cars to apply brown and it's difficult for many reasons, with a risk of overspray somewhere where it was not properly masked. I could have gone the pencil route, but I do not have much paint for this... At least the seats are done... Not sure what I will do with the rest.

In the meantime, I've set a mask to ease the work on the Mitsubishi body, and launched a print. I know this works as this is approach I took to mask a part of the body I did not want to paint earlier on with the Nylon PA12 MJF body...


The print is in progress, and I should be in situation to do the paint tomorrow...

[silvertriple]

While I was printing the masks for the Mitsubishi and the Big Bear body is curing, I've done some work on the CJ-7 dashboard, with some masking for the brown part and with some paint markers for the rest... It's difficult to get it right are marking are very small...


Then the masks were printed and it was time to deal with the Mitsubishi body...





And here is the result following this approach...

[Dadio]

That all came out really well ! I love the dashboard

[silvertriple]

That all came out really well ! I love the dashboard

Those Super Wheelie molds probably cost a fortune... The details are definitely incredible...

[silvertriple]

The work continues...
Details added to the Mitsubishi at front and rear end...



The plan is to let this cure, apply the stickers and then the clear coat...

While it cures, I moved a bit on the CJ-7... I applied details here and there earlier... And applied the stickers. While the bodyshell is an original one, the stickers are not, they have been supplied by my friend Johann, and the gold is great. His trick is to print on a Gold vinyle, which is much better. But it turns difficult to apply the Golden Eagle are each letter is a separate sticker... I used a transfer sheet, but the L are really difficult to get right...


And once I applied the stickers, I noticed that I forgot to take care of the extensions... I masked using liner, and used a paint marker. I still need to do the left side, and then glue the dahsboard in place before applying the clear coat... But it already looks great...

[silvertriple]

Progress update...

Here is the Toyota bodyshell... I don't have the stickers yet, so the clear coat will have to wait... (for those curious about it, this is the body which is on the pictures when I started this project/thread). Beside the stickers, everything is ready for the clear coat...


I also started to detail the Big Bear body... I will need to find some paint markers of specific colors to finish it (I decided to limit the masking, as the I'm running out of large tape).
I will post pictures when there will be more progress on it...

Here is the current state on the 4 Super Wheelie bodies :


- CJ-7 : ready for clear coat
- Toyota : stickers are missing, but will be ready for clear coat right when I get them
- CJ-7 Barbamama : clear coat is applied. The driver figure is on the way, probably later this week
- Mitsubishi Jeep : added black on the extensions at the rear, and it is ready for sticker application, I'll do it tonight or tomorrow morning, and clear coat will follow...

Next set of activities : driver figure. I know that I have 2 complete ones and an incomplete one, worst case scenario, I may have to reprint another one...

[silvertriple]

The bodyshells being now ready to be completed, I'm moving to driver figures and accessories

First topic is the Roll cages: they won't be a problem as I got some spare, in addition to one full original set and the possiblity to reuse some of the parts coming on complete car. I'll probably make use of a full printed roll cage on one of the cars ( my daughter's car will get this for the single reason this car is meant to run).


Second topic is the driver figures : I have one complete driver I removed the paint and ready to paint. Another one new unassembled and complete. Beside this I have 2 driver missing their heads and a unassembled one missing the rear part of the head... I was ready to print a few driver figures from the scan but resin is dead and I'll have to wait the new bottle of resin... At least for the time being, I can do 2 cars (the Golden Eagle White and the Toyota), and a Barbamama figure will get in my daughter's car. For the Mitsubishi, i'm going to try to complete the unassembled driver with modelling the rear part of the helmet : it may be doable let's see...

On the chassis side, I have normally everything to complete 3 chassis, and I have one already assembled. However, I do have the intention of doing something special with at least one chassis : I ordered SLS white printed arms and wheelie bar and some pink dye for Barbamama

[silvertriple]

I started to work out a CAD model of the driver head rear part... It's fairly simple to do. I used some arcs and a revolve and boom, it's done.



This means I can make use of the unassembled driver figure where the rear part of the head was missing...

[silvertriple]

Some time later...

Helmet front worked out...


I was thinking about using the scan to do the magic, but it won't work, as the definition is really to bad, so there is still hard work to finish a driver figure head look alike...

I opted for the total cheat option, right now and made a visor to hide the empty helmet

[silvertriple]

And here is some helmets...


Someone on another forum said that with the visor, that looks like The Stig


All of this needs to go for paint next before I put the helmets in place...

[silvertriple]

While woring on the Super Wheelies, the Big Bear body progress by small touches...


The front face is completed, the logo on the side as well. Remains to do : the rear Dastun on the bed, and the windows surrounds...

[silvertriple]

There is a lot of work, but there is a bit of fun as well...

Here is the new helmet on a driver figure... I can already imagine what it will look like when painted (one remark here : not much sanding is done, as I intend to keep the layers visible, just to highlight it is printed - obviously, one willing to have a perfect finish could work it out)...


I finished the paintjob part for the Big Bear bodyshell, after this, there will be the other elements remaining... I don't think I have any single pictures of that one before I started to work on it : the initial paint was awfully thick and with a lot of dust. Maybe I should have taken one...




I'll take care of the rest in the afternoon or tomorrow... In the meantime, the work started on the Super wheelie driver figures, minus one which has just gone thru primer and will be kept like this until I can get a proper scan (ordered a revopoint pop3 this morning after months of reflexion).

The Stig's helmet was fairly simple to do and is in its final form already...



For the other one, I masked the face of the driver figure and apply the color of the helmet. That said, it becomes much more complex when the head is still on the body of the driver figure... One driver went for the haircut mode and request for a dye (nb : again, the head is not perfect, rational is to keep the history of the driver figure which came from a car which was own by the former president of a rc club nearby since he was a kid, back in the eighties : i'll apply a new paintjob, but some traces of the past will remain)...


More work is ongoing...

[silvertriple]

There is some progress, although very small, but those small finishing touches are taking a lot of time... No question why so many cars were never finished back in the eighties, as when we were kids, we were all eager to run...

On the Super Wheelie drivers, I still need to work out the safety belt and the eyes, and may want to add some black lines inside the helmet (at least on the orange one, as on the one attached to the body, the access might be too difficult to make it safely...


I have two insides for two of my Big Bears... One was coming with the bodyshell that I painted this week.


The driver is very well glued on his seat... I'm not sure I'll find a way to get him out of his seat... And if I can't do this, there is no way I take the risk of removing the paint as there would be probably no way to paint it properly... I added the black and the face, and will add the eyes at the same time than the Super Wheelie drivers...

The other Big Bear driver is painted as well... And it's not that bad actually ( have just to add eyes and maybe small touches here and there)... But I may still go for a paint removal attempt for this one, in order to have a chance to get a proper scan (I have a 3rd Big Bear body with the interior but without the driver figure)...


Scanner is supposed to arrive tomorrow, I'll have some test to do for sure, and one of the first test will be to scan a painted pilot (the black may not help, but I may have a solution in mind)...

[Dadio]

Those look good , nice weathered looking race suits ! What I've found with the scanning I've done is they don't like shiny surfaces or hair can also be problematic.