Had some time to work on a car today, and I put it to use on what might be the most important car I've done so far.
About a year ago, I saw a picture of a black car with a skull painted on it and the front fender missing. I thought it was a customised model kit, and it looked amazing. It got me into this game, ultimately.
I would later find out, however, that it was a Hot Wheels car!
Project Speeder (I thought it was Speedster for the longest time.) This thing's a pretty cool car on its own, and a really neat idea for a Hot Wheels, but, more importantly, it looks like it was custom-made for Dark Future. And, considering that seeing one done up for the game what started me on my path to 1995, I had to pick one up for myself.
I found a green one, seen here with some other new metal and my first DF car in the back.
It's been a while since then, and I worked on Detachment 41 instead of these muscle cars. But I had free time today, and have been itching to work on more cars. So rather than going out and wasting money on new chassis to ignore, I looked at my backlog, and dragged the Speeder up for some work.
First, as usual, came sanding to get it down to (mostly) bare metal. Lot of nooks and crannies on this car. If I did another one, I'd definitely strip it instead of sanding. However, I'm not too worried about there being some paint left in the gaps on this one. I also took some care to not mess up the windows too bad, and they wound up in good enough shape that they'll stay clear once all is said and done.
(I'm missing most of the progress pics, unfortunately.)
Then the fun work began!
I set out wanting to give it a ridiculous wing and a front bumper. I'm still going to work on the wing, or maybe just make a smaller spoiler, but the bumper came together nicely, in a way I didn't expect.
It turned out to be more of a cage than a fender or bumper, but I like the look. There was a natural curve in the hunk of sprue I used for it, so I might try and tack on some kind of hood ornament there. A skull, perhaps?
Next up was some armour. I don't want the entire thing covered in big plates, but thin ones, with sharp edges, mostly maintain the lines of the vehicle. I probably should have trimmed the window piece down a bit more.
Driver's side is a bit more heavily protected. I want to find some good mesh to use to cover the window.
I still want to add some bits and pieces to it. Possibly more armour, wire screen on the driver's side window, maybe something over the windshield. And if I can find or make something appropriate, then a wing or spoiler. I think some kind of gun is going to get mounted on the passenger door, and I have a few things I test-fitted on the roof and trunk lid. Something that looks like it could work as a radio, another that looks like a big honking battery or fuel cell; there's a number of things I might yet add.
Once assembly is done, I just need a nice day where I can give the whole a spray. I'll tape the windows off, and maybe the wheels. I at least want the wheels to still be spinning, and while they shouldn't be so shiny, I can deal with that with a brush. I might try and cover up the engine, too, or if I don't then I may go back and paint it something else/silver again.
The car's going to be black, because I'm not sure what else to paint it. I don't know what gang this car will belong to, or if it even will be part of a gang. It might wind up a star sanc-op or other independent. I had originally purchased the Project Speeder with the Alberta Rangers in mind, but now I'm not so sure it's right for them. I figure having it black will help me decided on further paint scheme/faction.
Made a small gun out of toothpicks and epoxy putty. I'm not much of a sculptor, but I just made a little box and stuck sticks in it. How hard can that be?
It doesn't look amazing, but it more or less looks like some kind of tacked-on fantasy gun, I guess. I'm not a huge fan of guns on cars, but this kind of fits with the lines, and at SOME point I need an armed car. I played around with adding more armour today, but couldn't find anything I liked. I still want to add some window screen or something on the driver's window, but that can be tacked on later.
You'll also notice a generous amount of blu-tac. I don't want to paint the windows, and I don't want spray getting inside - because yes, definitely spraying this. I hate painting and I'm terrible at it, so spray will always look better, if I'm the painter in question. Anyway, tape wasn't gonna cut it. Well, I could literally have cut it, I suppose. But there's a big package of blu-tac sitting right there, so why not squish it into the needed spaces? The driver's window is also filled in with it, to prevent the inside from getting blasted. Now all I need is a good day outside to introduce Mr Car and Mr Spraycan.
There's a parachute under the back that I hated the look of and always planned to cover up. I had intended to just slap some flat plastic on and call it... I dunno. Something. But then I found a piece of sprue with two little nubs that fit perfectly.
The top bar has two small pieces that connect it to the underside of the car, giving the illusion of the giant ram-bar being attached to the frame. The one on the bottom is just stuck there, but whatever. It covers up the parachute and adds some much-needed protection to the back.
You can also see a little patch behind the gascap where I had added more armour, but it was just a little piece and looked out of place, so I sanded it away. It looks pretty smooth, but I imagine the paint will pick it up. That should still work, though, as it will look like some body work or repairs.
I hope to get the painting done this weekend. Well, the spraying, anyway. I'm going to try some weathering effects, too, but it's the black spray I really want done.
So the big project is sidelined in the paintshop while the spray-slaves try and figure out where they went wrong.
Here's a hint: I didn't read labels.
Confidently strutting outside, spraycan rattling in one hand, car in the other, I took advantage of a gorgeous day and started painting the car.
And immediately realised something was wrong. The paint, which I have always used when spray painting something, was not coming out right, or going on right. It was shiny, and runny, and it smelled much stronger than I remembered.
Turns out, I had grabbed the wrong can. It wasn't black spray paint, it was black Tremclad rust paint. The spray can I THOUGHT I had grabbed turned out not to have even been unpacked yet, and was still sitting comfortably in a box.
The car isn't ruined, but it was a waste of time and paint, and I lost interest in fixing it.
Also.
Also.
Do not use blu-tac to mask; not if there's crevices. THAT might actually be bad enough to consider the car ruined.
No pics of this failure. Will post when it's fixed up, if I fix it up.
In the meantime!
It's been wet out and I haven't had had the interest in working on Dark Future since the spwhat-up, so not much news to report. 40k's been drawing me back in slowly, with audio dramas, and mostly, because Chapter Master was released. Oh, my god. Chapter Master. You done good, /tg/. You done real good.
Anyway, yesterday I dug out the very first car I ever worked on for DF, a 240z, and gave it another look. I never did anything to it other than sanding down the tampos, I didn't even take much paint off. Yesterday I slapped some armour on it, and started adding other bits. It's actually got guns - my first DF car to sport them. I added a spoiler and a random piece to the back that can serve as luggage or a fuel cell, and some other odds and ends here and there. Tau grenades for oil slick/smoke dispenser. The spoiler needs a bit of sanding, to "blend" it in, and I'm considering adding a few more pieces, if I can find small detail things. Pics tomorrow, of that project.
Ultimately, I did get Project Speeder finished, in black and rust, and gave it to my father on Father's Day. I'll add a pic later.
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