HexNutRacing

Now I am just finishing up the steering wheel



Then to make the interior more rustic I apply a thin wash of acrylic tan watered down



It really gave it a dirt vibe even though black can be very hard to weather and still look like fabric. Metal is easy because you can use silver

HexNutRacing

Ok now onto the decals. this will really make the model pop and start to make it look like out actual modeling subject. The decals I created using adobe illustratr which you saw in the first parts of this build. Sizing was done by using the mockup drawings that I made and then superimposing them inside of Illustrator. I thne use a laser printer to print them on clear Laserprinter Sheets from decalpaper.com

The one that will catch everyone's attention is the Libyan flag. The bruiser roof is not flat, and the decal is very large, so after soaking it in water I transfer it over to the body, then blot it. Finally I begin to brush on Micro-Sol onto the decal



Micro-sol is a light acid, sort of like Vinegar but without the smell and residue. This causes the lacquer in the decal to slightly separate and then allow the decal to sit into the grooves of the roof.



You then need to let the decal dry for a while. To speed up all of my drying times I use a very small for your desk size space heater to slightly speed up the process.

Once the decal is completely dry and I mean COMPLETELY, I grab a super fine grit sand paper and begin to lightly sand it.



This will make the dull white underneath begin to show through and age the decal as if it was spray paint beginning to where off of the Toyota Hilux. This is exactly the look that I am going for.



After you may have to wipe it down with a cotton ball to get rid of the white residue and some die that comes off of the decal.

HexNutRacing

A few more pics



This one shows the rest of the decals added



Looks like our boys spray painted the good old USA on there!

HexNutRacing

Obviously our body is just way to clean at the moment, even though we have sanded down the decals we still do not have the look that we are looking for. So first I want to give the truck a good dark black wash



Not only does it help with the panel lines but it also brings down the overall white color of the body.



Next we have to add some texture. Not exactly the easiest thing with a material like sand. But I did find some photo references on youtube that had a bit more of caked on mud. To create a texture that will stick I take spackling paste and blend in the brown/tan paint.



Then using a hard brissled brush I begin to fleck the paste that we made across the body, keep in mind common places that mud may collect. Splattered up along the wheel wells, on the grill and so on



As long as we don't get to large of a glob we will not have to worry about the spackle coming off of the plastic

HexNutRacing

Ok back in business weekend is over so now more pics and more progress. Plaster/ Paint combo has completely dried so we can now enjoy the full effect of our weathering.



You have to make sure that you have the right combo of parts already on the model or else you won't get the realistic splattering and mud build up that we are looking for . But I think this came out rather well and the Hilux body is starting to actually look like something from the desert.



The white body washes out some of the details because the camera is slightly over exposing it, but it still looks great and in person even better.



With the pictures you also miss the finer detail of the black wash.



I really fell in love with how the windshield came out.

So next we stick the interior in and begin lighting this guy up. I know everyone wants to see the machine gun build but that is going to be towards the end. ;-)

HexNutRacing

So we have to color in those lights now. This is going to be a quick post. If you need more details you can check out my Tamiya Bruiser Build



I ask out the edges using Plain Masking tape for the airbrush

Then to fill in the color I use Acrylic paint mixed into future floor polish to make sure the lights are translucent.



I am spending way more time masking these because the light set I am putting in includes reverse lights. So I want to make sure that they actually show up and hopefully don't catch to much of the red brake lights



Final installation is going to be a bit different because I want to experiment isolating the light color too

HexNutRacing

If you remember I talked about how this build had an extra set of lights. So I want to make sure that they do not bleed into each other. I have never really done this so we are going to try a new idea. I am going to use some styrene to seperate the reverse and brake lights



First I measure it out a bit to see if I can get most of the space filled in with a divider. Then I cut it down with the Table saw mount I built for my dremel. I love this thing I post the link for the instructions if you want.



After glueing them together I add a bit of green putty to finish off the last gap. Now we are ready to mount them up

sliding_josh

iTrader: (21)

Very Awesome Build, I stumbled across this thread looking for on road Tamiya cars, Im gunna take some of your Ideas and Put them to use on some onroad bodies!

HexNutRacing

Sorry for the delay on my posts guys, just had a project I had to work on techy related.

That makes me happy! Spreading the RC Gospel lol

Some people have been asking about the Dremel Table saw you can find out instruction on how to build it here from instructables, the guy who did it did it did an awesome job. It works great. http://bit.ly/X9cjaT

Just got my self an actual mini table saw because Micromark had a sale so I will convert the table into a shaper.

HexNutRacing

So now I am working on the final portions of the lights.To mount in the lights from the kits I have to install some light buckets to hold them in securely. One issue that I had is some of the light fixtures stuck through the back so I had to grind them off.



Then similar to the same way that I built the light wells in the others I had to measure out the size.



Like before I knew that it was going to take two pieces of styrene that I had to then glue together and clamp.



Then I drill the holes for the lights.You have to measure them just right so that you can get the LED's in there pretty tight but not crack them.



You may be asking why did you drill the holes after?Well I had to because it was just to hard to get everything to line up.Better take your time if you use this method because the opportunity is high for you to break something.

HexNutRacing

Ok time to put the lights down for a second. Now we are going to start the build part that everyone has been waiting for. The machine gun. This is where it was so important for us to have proper drawings so that we don't struggle with the scale. If you are off scale buy a hair things can quickly start to look ridiculous.

First we grab a strip of Styrene. Surprisingly I couldn't find a styrene block or something similar in size to the body of the machine gun.



To bad I wish evergreen made them it would have made my life a lot easier. So instead we are going to have to cut the lengths then stack them together

To get the proper width it is going to take a about 3 pieces. This time I am going to bond them together using MicroMark Same Stuff, this solvent type is known by a bunch of other names as well.



Then we start the tedius process of sanding the thing down. I lock it into a vice and then us a Dremel detail sander to start slowly bringing it down to the right size. Make sure that you keep measuring it up to the drawing to maintain the proper width.



Ok don't bust on me to hard about those edges. I really spazzed in the cutting. I had my daughter bumping into me. I just got a small miniature rip saw so that should make life alot easier going forward.

HexNutRacing

Ok so to clean up the edges on the machine gun I add some putty which makes them smooth.



Oh yea jumping around for a sec I forgot to add a pic of the wiring almost complete



Now with my completed and smooth main body I start to add the top plastic components to keep adding to the shape.



Basically this is making a ton of sanding!

And measuring the smaller parts is tedious

HexNutRacing

Ok so now I have to cut out more pieces to match the size of the drawing. I used to do this by hand but luckily I just got a new saw. Makes pretty short work and cleaner edges than what I did before.



Everything that I used on the machine gun had to be 2 pieces thick to make it fit properly. A major pain and meant lots of solvent and lots of sanding to make it seamless





I am cutting the front muzzle flare/break out of a larger pieve of styrene evergreen rod. But I don't have a lathe so to give it the cone shape I am using the drill



Then spinnning the drill while using sandpaper and sometimes a file to slowly shave the rod down till I have a cone.

HexNutRacing

Ok so after running the barrel flare with the drill and sanding it I was able to get a pretty uniform cone end that I could mount onto the barrel.



Because of the design for the barrel I thought it was best for barrel pieces to be split into three parts. To increase the strength though I am drill into the main part of the machine gun and recessing the barrel into it



After using my dremel drill press attachement (which isnt exactly the most accurate) I was happy to see that the first segment of the barrel was pretty square.



I did the same thing with the lower gas piping. Incase you didnt realize that this is a gas cycled machine gun.



Doing this portion reminded me how small this thing is

HexNutRacing

Guys sorry for the lack of updates but hurricane sandy messed me up good. I just got power on last night thank god. I am in NJ close to the coast so it was a bit like the stone age with people fighting for gas and crap. I had a generator but there was no cell service and no internet. Thank god I am a bit of a survival nut so no major damage.

So lets get back to assembling this gun.

Next part up is for me to create the handle assembly. I start off by measuring and gluing together two pieces of styrene to create the rough shape.



Just to make it even edges I use the mini table saw to start really shaving it down



Then I use the dremel to cut some guide holes to begin cutting out the center portion and create the top assembly



Then I use a micro chisel to knock out the center piece



And now we have the finished top assembly!