Models – Offroad Miata

On December 30, 2024 By stefrobrtsIn ModelsLeave a comment

Ok, back to the Offroad Miata I mentioned back on the Camaro post.

So I’ve built the suspension of the Jeep Wrangler, and the interior/body of the Miata, and they actually look like they are going to fit together ok. No engine, but I cut out a headlight cover for a little ‘winky’ action. Now, what to do about my lady driver?

Well, I was watching a diorama builder on Youtube, and they mentioned making custom characters on HeroForge. So I headed over there, and after a bit of tinkering:

Fantastic! I paid for the 3D file, and sent it to a friend with a printer, and I got back:

(Squeals with delight) LOOK AT HER!!!

I used a heat gun to soften her up enough to bend her legs and make her fit into the car better, and adjusted her arms a little bit. I had made a mistake when I created her, not having looked at the model for a while: I put her arms in a left hand drive position, forgetting the Miata model was Japanese and so it is Right Hand Drive. Well, good enough.

I gave everything a good coat of dirt overspray

I was most proud of the dirty windsheild. The pop-up headlight became an air intake. I added one of the Jeep rollbars for safety!

It’s everything I dreamed of!

Finding my driver was the biggest challenge, the car came together mostly no problem. And it’s just as cute/cool as I’d hoped!

Models – Warbird

On December 30, 2024 By stefrobrtsIn ModelsLeave a comment

After successfully completing the Camaro project, Dave wanted to build something too, so he picked up this WWII Bomber, with the intention of slapping it together the way he used to build models as a kid. However, there were a number of small fiddly bits, and he kind of lost interest. Since it was sitting right there next to my desk, I decided to slap it together.

That was just a fun quick build, not going for accuracy or anything, I know the colors/decals are not accurate. Wheels up, bomb bay doors open, we hung it up over the pinball machine in flight. Now I want to build a little Mustang escort for it.

Model car building – Scott’s Camaro

On December 30, 2024 By stefrobrtsIn cars, Models2 Comments

This year I took back up an old hobby. Back when I was a little kid I built a few models, probably because my big brother built models. When I was in college I wanted to learn more about cars so I started building models again, and I have a nice little collection of cars that I built:

But I stopped back around when I got my classic Mustang in 1:1 scale in the mid-90s. I switched to working on full size cars.

Now that I have a hobby room again, and a bit of room to work, I thought it would be fun to get back to building some of the cars I will never own. I started with a thing I have been seeing around in real life lately, offroad Miata! I bought a Jeep Wrangler kit, and a Miata kit and went at it.

My biggest setback was that I wanted a driver, specifically a lady driver, but most model accessories are made for men, so the women available look like they slipped out of a porno. I wanted a driver who looked like a real person. So that model kit got set aside for a bit while I figured out what to do about that.

Meanwhile, my friend Scott had found a kit of his Camaro, and I wanted to build that for him. The sticking point in that kit was that it was only available in a T-Top. So I was like ‘how hard can it be to glue in the T-Tops and blend them into the body?’

Just when I thought it was solid, after weeks of applying filler, sanding, drying, priming, sanding, the T-Top came loose from the body! More superglue, and keep at it!

I was finally happy with the roofline!

I found someone on Ebay selling gauge decals specifically for this Camaro

They’re so tiny!!!

I love how when you build a kit you have a box of parts, and it slowly gets assembled into sub-assemblies, and then those go together, until you are down to just a few parts, and it’s a countdown to it all becoming ONE!

But first there are all these little details. And DECALS!

At some point it starts getting a little nerve wracking as everything you want to do has the possibility of messing something else up, and you’ve come so far!