Epic Collage : [Customs] Bburago 1/18

While a 1/18 beetle wasn't on the buy list, it just so happened that Quebec seller who sold the Diablo also had this gold Bburago model. And shipping was free for this one. Can't say no to that.

Here are pictures of what this supposedly rare item looked like before I went to town with it.

But now it's time to get started. There's a dude by the name of Luke who owned this two-tone slammed Beetle I spoke with in summer 2014, and I was taken by the beauty and coolness of his ride. Slammed beetles are nothing new, but this was the very first that was highly-ornate I've seen in real life. Here are photos he has shared with me:

I don't know who the photographers are, but kudos to you! Anyway, this is what I'm basing most of the work on. I decided there are some elements I'm not crazy about to replicate, such as the flag, license plate nor matching the interior exactly. I will be looking into lowering (obviously), white wheels, two-tone paintjob, chrome racks on back and top, red interior, etc.

	Took over 4 years to get started on this project, but alas it is disassembled. Also am not taking chances on memorizing everything like I did with the Diablo, so I video captured the disassembly so I have a reference in case I forget where a particular screw went. I was surprised to learn that this Bburago was much easier to take apart than the Maisto. That said, I'm surprised Maistos are more affordable than this brand.
	People like to scratch-build engines. I don't really care too much at this time, but I will paint certain parts like the tubing, and giving the chrome parts a bit of dirt to look less like a show car.
	Initial lowering. Shaved away at the metal rod where the hub fit into so that it can slide further up, but it's still not enough. I partly blame the fact that Bburago uses gigantic wheels. I'm tempted to purchase low-profile tires which will get this significantly lower and match the source material even better, but I was charged $50 from CBSA so I'm hesitant on any international shopping for the next 2 months. Let's explore some camber options to lower this further.
	I had shaved off about 2.5mm at the top of the rod that acted as a stopper for the hub. I shave off more, and the tire sits fairly deep in the front fender, but it's the ground clearance that isn't low enough for me.
	This is what the front wheel hub looks like. Circular disk + tube that connects to the rod. If I angle this tube, this should provide the camber I seek.
	Cut out the piece joining the hub and tube.
	Eye-balling the camber angle. This is a tiny wedge made of 1/16" acrylic.
	Not much of a test fit at this time.
	Let's glue it on; give it a try. I went steeper than ideal, as I can always test the waters and reduce if the camber appears to be too much.
	This... seems like it might be a bit much...
	Doesn't look too bad from this angle actually.
	Still looks okay...
	Wait. There we go. Definite no!
	Process not shown; reduced camber.
	Sits slightly higher now as a result. Not ideal, but I cannot find anyone making smoothie wheels in this scale.
	At the very least the car looks like it can bear its own weight.
	With the front wheels installed, I can go ahead and find the correct height for the back end. To do this, I stacked various coins which I sit the tail of the body on until the rocker panel line is parallel to the table.
	After cutting off the rear hubs, there doesn't appear to be an easy way to get the right measurements to line up the back wheels.
	Thought of using plastic stabs with a grid on it to give myself a large canvas to work on, with a large margin for error.
	Glue those into place.
	High-level craftsmenship. Ha!
	Glued on two wedges per hub.
	Next I glue a rectangular piece on the backboard. This will serve to act as a rail for the two wedges on the hub. While the car is still sitting on the coins, I can slide the hub up and down along this rail to find the ideal height without altering toe-angles and whatnot.
	Once content and no further adjustments are needed, I commit with the epoxy again. Now the "suspension" setup portion is complete.
	Starting the rack. This is one of the most difficult pieces to put together. Trying to grab measurements of the car and ensuring that the mounting points are symmetrical is not an easy task for me. Even ensuring the tubes here are bent at the same angle is tricky. I laid down the profile of what it would look like through calculated lines on paper, and I would constantly compare the final result to the line-work, re-adjusting the bends until the lines on paper were covered entirely.
	It's not symmetrical, but at least the copy is the same shape (save for a few micro-meter differences).
	Cut out the bottom rod that fits inside the arch, but now need to ensure they don't move when I glue them together. I lay down tape to hold it in place, then touch the connecting surfaces with super glue for a quick bond temporarily until I've finalized the rest. Because this rack is not being measured out with reliable precision, I'm making sure I don't permanently fix any joints yet until other pieces that depend on this arch's correct placement are lining up where I want them to be.
	Using the model's mold for points of measuring reference, I marked the edge of each door's window frame, and connecting those two with a line. Because the roof isn't a flat surface, I attempted to keep this as straight as possible by running a strip of tape that goes over both these points. Of course this is subject to error, but a laser guide was drawing too thick of a blurry line to make things any easier.
	Using the previous line drawn, I find the center line down the length of the body. Establishing this is crucial for determining symmetry of the roof rack.
	Finding the arches angle is one challenge, but to position both at the same angle is another. I'm putting together a support piece that each side of the frame can lean on to determine its angle and will lend an extra hand in propping it up before I temporarily glue it into place.
	Classic trick I nearly forgot about to get a curve size that circle-maker guides can't accommodate.
	Made two of these foam arches and used pieces to fix the spacing between each other as well as fixing the 90-degree angle between the arches and the spacer piece. Next I tape it down so it doesn't move.
	This is all the foundation work to ensure the main rack parts are angled the same on both sides.
	Because the roof angle slopes slightly, I felt it looked best to angle the rack to match that angle.
	Dropped the super glue dabs in place, and now we have ground to measure the cross member pieces.
	Laying out the spacing of each cross-piece.
	On second thought, that idea was still susceptible to error. I kept on breaking off pieces. Plus, I should've been handling it like this to begin with. Even the angle of the racks were measured out from here.
	The angle the racks leaned in on was determined by how far the foam pieces were spaced from the arch legs.
	The foam also served as a means to hold up the cross-members. This makes it tremendously easier to produce accurate results both in consistency and execution.
	Once all pieces are on, I finish it off by dabbing epoxy on the ends.
	Niiiiice. Only a few pieces left are needed, such as the cross members on each end that serve as a wall for the things that go on top, as well as feet for each leg.
	As I continually broke pieces off from the super glue's bond, I have learned that super glue does reaches a viscous or coagulated state before it hardens entirely. I used that to my advantage to determine the angle of each foot. Once you dab the glue on the pieces and hold the pieces together just long enough that it can hold together without your support, that's when I put all feet on and pressed the rack down against the contour of the car body to get it to take on the appropriate angle.
	It does seem like it could slip off immediately. This baffled me about real-world beetle roof racks. Apparently a middle piece pulling on the frame is sufficient for keeping the 4 legs stable, even if that means each leg sitting on the edge of the roof.
	Realizing the original idea has no way to resist rotational flex, I've installed a diagonal piece that is glued to each cross-member to help with that. We'll come back to the locking piece in a bit. I haven't yet figured out how to do this part yet.
	Moving onto the deck lid. This is going to be much more fun to make. Again I started drawing out the calculated shape on paper and bent another brass tubes according to the angles defined.
	According to different deck lid versions I've found, the horizontal portion does not exceed the rear window's lower edge.
	The "deck lid" part of the name comes from the fact the rack covers the visibility of the rear deck (or boot). What's fun is that this lid is collapsible to allow access to the engine bay. I replicate this feature using plastic tubing to create hinges. I chose plastic over metal as it is much easier to work with.
	Cutting another set of tubes for the deck piece and bonding them with super glue was a breeze.
	Process not shown: drilled shallow holes into the body to give the ends a place to sit in. Covered it up with flat pieces to look like feet.
	Time for the plug. I'm using K&S Precision Metals brass tubing and Evergreen Scale Model styrene to make these components.
	Installed the cross beams, now we're onto the wooden planks. Execution is simple.
	We move onto the plastic equipment that will latch our roof rack onto the roof. The tapering was a failed result of heating the plastic for bending via lighter. I am now only redeeming what's left bending it into shape and then splitting it afterwards.
	Now I have to with identical hook angles.
	The exceed length of the hook is to allow for a margin of error when connecting them to the rod.
	The trick to get it with the right fit was to glue the metal rod onto the rack first. Next would be to hook the plastic to the door and then glue the plastic to the metal. Perfect fitment on each side.
	And the way to remove it is to slide it towards the front of the car, since the windows taper towards the front.
	Once comfortable with the placement, I would then finalize its position with epoxy. Super glue is not reliable with all the non-sanded surfaces I'm working with.
	Time to move onto the toppings of the rack. I will try to match source photos as much as possible, but cannot guarantee a 100% match. Items I could distinguish in the limited photos is a woven basket, a briefcase, a metal tin box, a gas can, and a wooden snowboard. I'm using the leftover floral foam from last year's Halloween Door Decoration contest at work. This stuff is definitely not suitable for epoxy glazing use. Despite the hardened surface I can create, the internal structure of this foam naturally wants to crumble.
	Verifying item sizes are roughly to scale...
	We start on the woven basket. I glue one end down and start gluing in where the intersecting weaves come in. I later realized this wasn't working out so well in keeping consistent tightness in the weave. Blots of glue was forcing bulges in the weaving plane.
	Let's try another way. Glue down all horizontal strings...
	...And then weave the gold through the greens... Wait no. This is inefficient too.
	Better idea, make the damn weave first. Tape down all the ends that no longer need to move.
	Yeah that's more like it. Tape down the crossing string as I go.
	Every so often, coat the surface with glue to prevent them from coming loose.
	Warp it around the box...
	Glue it all in place...
	And then trim it off! Much easier! Time for the lid of the basket...
	This time I try another methods. That last method took long, and also got stuck to the cutting board when the glue was applied. The idea here is to already arrange the vertical and horizontal string, and bring them in together afterwards. By already establishing the spacing between string, there should be less opportunities for the string to push itself out of position. The helping hand holds the horizontal string, and the vise holds the vertical.
	This isn't working as well as I thought. It's actually even more difficult keeping the string in place. They just keep bulging upward towards the center. This was dropped fairly quick.
	Reverted back to the previous method.
	BTW I'm coating what would be the inside of the woven basket, to keep the glue invisible on the outside. Cut size needed. Cuts like plastic at this point.
	This makes the top and bottom sections of the basket.
	Glued the two together, but because of how uneven the pieces were, I've attempted to cover up the edges, but now that accentuates the crooked edges I produced. I may just redo this.
	Moving onto the decklid props, I'm guessing it's a wide low-profile woven basket with a large towel/roll of some sort.
	This is how the towel was made. Cut off a piece of a pencil for the bulk of the piece, along with a cut-out from an old cotton t-shirt.
	glue the pencil down on one end, fold the excess edges over and glue that down. Start rolling it up.
	And we now have this. Easy.
	Onto the snowboard. Cut out a rectangular piece of acrylic.
	Round off the edges with a file.
	Scuff the surface to get wood grain texture.
	Lightly heated the lines with a lighter to get the bend. Simple. Throw this into the painting queue too now.
	Thought of another way to retry the woven basket. I was thinking of a polymer woven basket originally, but wooden woven baskets actually use stronger vertical pieces. Sticks wrapping around sticks creates noticeable gaps. I will recreate this using toothpicks and weaving with the same metallic string as before. Here I put together the foundation by gluing toothpicks to coffee stirrers.
	The rigid structure will ensure there is absolutely no slop in the weaving process.
	Starting from the bottom and working my way up.
	Quick break- Redoing the gas can too.
	Stuck a toothpick into the center as the last time I use a solid foam nub, it ripped off during sanding.
	Good bye, old can!
	With the weave finished, I lather the glue on the top and bottom edges of the length of the weaving, then I snip off the toothpick from the coffee stirrer. This time, I picked up pink foam from Home Depot. I should've been shopping from Home Depot for foam to begin with. This was the stuff I used to work with in my University days. Life is so much better now. Cutting is tougher, but the cuts are cleaner and sanding is much more controllable. I wrap the finished woven section around the box. Might've been a bit to tall this time!
	Moving onto the tin can. I'm taking full advantage of the pink foam now. Coating it in epoxy like I did with the floral foam, but this time I can exert more force and finish with a hard surface, aiding in creating a metal finish.
	Drilled the holes to insert the mirrors' posts.
	The base of the mirror will start with a flat piece of styrene. It was not easy getting it circular, and I will overlook the imperfections seen here for the sake of being able to complete this project.
	Posts will be made from the same brass rods used to make the roof rack.
	Joined the pieces with super glue for the time being.
	Adding body to transition the post's lines to the edge of the mirror face using putty. It's ready for paint.
	To make the headlamp caps, I've cut out a piece of paper and guessed at the shape, taped it on and made adjustments.
	Looking good! It has good depth.
	Here I undo the tape, trace the shape twice on styrene, cut it out, apply a dash of heatgun.
	Once heated, they're bent loosely into shape, and I fasten it down with superglue. In the picture shown above, I ended up shaving down the cap as they appeared to be too deep after a second look.
	Looking good!
	Skipped a photo, but I wrapped it with bare metal foil. I forgot the foil contours to just about every nook it sits on so I couldn't disguise all the imperfections underneath.
	Starting on the rear wicker basket. I'm reusing the same method as before gluing all toothpicks onto coffee stirrers to hold them with fixed gaps, later using yarn for more fibrous textures.
	Once woven, I solidified the ends with super glue to prevent anything from coming apart.
	I think I super glued most of the surfaces except for where it will bend at the corners. I'm using the foam block as a guide as this will be wrapping around this.
	Once the bends are marked down, I remove the coffee stirrers.
	Wrapped and glued to the block now.
	I repeat this process for the top and bottom.
	Now we need to cover up the edges.
	I go with twisting two yarn strings together, super-gluing along the way to harden its shape, and bending where needed.
	I lost the progress shot, but eventually I made a top and bottom piece for the tall basket, and did the corner double-yarn twisties for both top and bottom edges for both baskets. After that I applied many layers of cheap dollar store "acrylic" paint. The ide was to start dark to get in the shadows where the wicker recesses inward, later to apply a lighter colour on the outside to accentuate depth.
	This is not even the final form. It looks fine as is, but I redid it later.
	The paint is finally stripped! This step was brutal.
	I'm going for a anodized look, so the metal polish has been brought out.
	Applied several coats and letting this cure over the next few days.
	Once the paint has cured and I've applied generous amount of clear, masking is put down for the door panels.
	Two Tone complete!
	Cut off the silly $1Million plate.
	Stained the engine with black acrylic paint. The cheap chrome plastic was unacceptable. At least now it looks like metal that has undergone use with dirt in the nooks, and enhancing the shadows.
	Despite doing nothing but glazing all the chrome with a wash of black, the shine still comes through, so I think I've hit a good balance between highlights and shadows.
	Shot of the other side.
	Applied the wash on other chrome plastics to give them a more metallic look.
	The 4 silver radio knobs have later been painted white. Put the black wash in the center HVAC vent to fill in the hole and make the grills pop.
	The racks have been painted. Wished I had a better way to get it closer to chrome, but alas that is something that is out of my reach for now.
	Painted the seat racks with flat black. Won't be visible with closed doors.
	Small detail that may be invisible largely; the back side of the inner door panel.
	Started the briefcase with rectangular piece of foam, stuck a bent brass rod in there to make the grip. Epoxied the foam to have a hardened shell. Painted the first coat a murky green, wasn't satisfied, attempted for something more brownish and ended up with this yellow.
	Again like the other chrome, blackened them. To match source photo, I've painted the shifter rod black and the shift knob white.
	Although the gas tank is red, the metal tin is supposed to be a dirty orange. I suck at mixing colours now!
	Something about handcrafts has a neat character when there's imperfection. That goes for the imperfect text that was done by hand with a thin brush.
	The white brings out all the imperfect cuts in the groove!
	So close to the finish line. All the parts are just about painted now.
	Handpainted the towels with acrylic to give them a bit more life.
	While one sports a simple stripe pattern, I wanted to go opposite on the second towel.
	Clearcoated the rack props. The wooden snowboard took several layers to get that woody texture. Spoiler alert, I later fucked it up.
	The backseat has two briefcases attached to it. Painted them both different colours.
	Love that they got texture on it. These turned out great.
	Painted the wooden boards that run perpendicular to the deck lid bars.
	Glued the deck lid boards onto the metal bars.
	All props completed!
	I pat myself on the back for recording myself disassembling this a year ago, because I sure as hell did not remember how complicated it was to reassemble 3 pieces of plastic.
	Putting the window trim back into place, and am granted this surprise. the frame doesn't fit normally anymore! All the layers of paint screwed up the fitment.
	Another area where the plastic isn't sitting into the metal.
	After test-fitting a few more times, the bottom edge can be glued and pressed into the metal so that it holds a perfect seal. This now just means I can't undo this without stripping the red off the body.
	Fitting the ceiling panel that I've painted white. Clips into place.
	Re-installed the interior door handles onto the interior door panels.
	Pushed those panels into the outer door panels.
	Clicked the exterior door handles back into place.
	Reattached the chrome piece into the center console. Those white knobs are standing out now!
	Made several regrettable mistakes of applying too heavy of a clear coat. This ate at the base white, causing it to wrinkle. Unfortunately I can't acetone this to start over as the wheels are plastic. I recall lightly sanding and redoing. It's not perfect but it's not noticeable unless you're stingy about everything in life.
	This model came with 5 wheels, and the worst of the bunch is being put in the frunk where it will never be seen again! Also the VW cap I've been wondering where it came from for so long is back in its original place.
	Interior floor has been painted white, and I've installed the pedal and shifters.
	Back seat has been put into place. Thankfully there is a window to make those briefcases visible.
	Front seats are in.
	steering wheel and all of the interior is re-installed.
	Everything's assembled.... until I realized I forgot about the mirrors, again.
	Time to work on the base. This base was made by AutoART. It is narrow with the beveled top, but the case is tall. I figured this would be a great opportunity to do more than just throwing it inside a box. I've been thinking about putting this guy in a diorama to give it an environment to be in. Industrial urban rugged roads? Beach? Car show on the lawn? Anything to make the car appear lower than it really is, because the damn wheels are too big to lower the car anymore.
	I'm going with the beach. Sand has been ordered, 3lbs for 13 CAD on Amazon btw. I'm not going to do 100% sand as that would make the base weigh more than it has to, and waiting time for glue to dry will have increased. The plan here is to sculpt as much of the organic shape with styro foam alone, and then coat the surface with sand.
	With the beveling to consider, I've shoved foam strips in the areas the main block can't cover, glue it all into place, and shave away.
	Test fitting. Have to make sure I've accommodated room where the sand will add to the overall thickness.
	Frist layer of sand has gone down. I used a coarser grade of sand.... thinking it would be a good way to offset the smoother styrofoam. The glue used is white school glue.
	The coarse sand was from Dollarama, at 1.50 CAD, and the finer craft white sand was about 13 CAD.
	First layer of fine sand. Parents kept thinking I was making cake.... in my office....
	It's still awfully flat. I'm going for natural beach bumps. Not wave patterns nor untouched sand. It would be easy to dump a thick layer and to make those divets myself. Or so I thought.
	I think it's shabby, but I'll go with this arrangement of dimples in the sand. It was tripping off my trypophobia slightly when I used my fingers, but things started to look a bit more natural when I used a wide round end of a utility knife's butt.
	Had to make the ruts using the car itself. Didn't want to make it look like it was dropped into the sand.
	Time to move onto the last portion: the diorama prop. I'm going for a lifebuoy on a wooden pole. We start first with the lifebuoy which I'm making out of blue foam. This stuff is super easy to work with an has some degree of structural rigidity.
	Hacked out the shape with a knife, and will now smooth things out with a file.
	Smooth it to a shine they say. Nah, this has been coated with 5-minute epoxy and later dusted with baking soda to kill off the remaining surface tack.
	Hacked out a rectangular prism to gauge the appropriate size and approximate height I'd want to hang the buoy from.
	Put slits of varying depth to get what I feel is convincing wood grain.
	Can't forget the top face. Skipped the bottom side since that will be buried in sand.
	Knowing that the woody texture of the paint will come from dry-brushing, I wouldn't be able to get any paint in the slits. So I prepped a watered down black paint and put down a wash to exaggerate the depth of the cracks.
	While that piece of foam is still soaking wet, I've switched my attention to the buoy. Masked off an area so I' have somethign to grab it by while painting. Conveniently, the unpainted portion serves to be a easy guide to blocking in the white. I learn later I should've done this on all 4 sides, as masking around on a circular piece while keeping the lines perfectly straight all around is not as easy as doing it this way.
	While the paint on the buoy dries, we come back to the pole to dry brush in the brown. We're going for dead wood that has lost most of its moisture.
	Switch out again. The wood is left to dry, so we'll work on some kind of metal hook to hold the buoy. I've opted to use styrene which I've bent in this shape. I'll punch a finishing nail through the hole and into the wooden pole.
	Wrapped it with bare metal foil chrome. Later will be epoxied for protection and hardening this shape.
	Painted white stripes and sprayed matte clear.
	Next was to find something to use as the nylon rope that is often threaded through the buoy. It definitely had to be white, and something I didn't have to spend money on! Found cooking twine in the kitchen.
	Epoxy has cured on the hook. Applied more epoxy on the wood where the hook would go in place. Pressed the nail in there. The pole is now complete.
	Got to prep the land. Gluing down the pole to the uneven sandy surface wouldn't last in the long run. I burrow a hole so that I install some kind of foundation.
	Reused the toothpick I jab up the pole for painting, and applied more epoxy all around to get a solid hold.
	Once that's in, I'd laid down more white glue around the foot of the pole to pile up sand and to cover up the edges. I opted to run superglue through all of the twine to harden it into a twisted position for a couple reasons. One, to pull all the fibers together so they can't come apart through handling. Two, nylon rope is rigid and tends not to be compliant in forming new shapes, so stiffening it gets it to that state.
	This is how the two sit beside each other.
	I was foolish for ignoring it, but I ended up paying for it with a broken roof rack. As I was focused on clearing off the sand on the sides of the base to clear enough room for the acrylic lid to fit easier, I didn't realize I had been pressing the basket into the roof rack when I was pushing down the lid to fit on the base since I waas lazy and left the car on the base during the test fitting. I thought it was just the sand providing resistance. Noticing too late, it was actually the basket that was hitting the ceiling of the acrylic lid. So I've cut it down and reattached them together. It's for the better anyway. I've always thought the basket was way too big anyway.
	Final touch I didn't do until after all the finishing photos was to superglue sand to the tires to top everything off.
	One of my greatest values in the world of art and crafts is in observation and details. Clean tires rolling into a beach make no sense to me.

This is it all put together (with the mirrors this time). It's not slammed to the ground unfortunately due to how big the wheels are, and as mentioned in the early stages, we were not going to go crazy camber mode to make it happen either.

Time to take it out to the beach. Because I'm too cheap to buy different bulbs, I make it extremely difficult on myself to get the warm light source to match the daylight colours of the photo behind.

Again with the lighting being difficult to simulate. Overexposed this one when stacking multiple shots together.

Convincing sunsets however are much easier to pull off. Like the Toyota 2000GT in the dusk I photographed earlier in the year, this came out just as good.