[Customs] Quick Work pt.7

I had quite a tough time picking between two set of wheels, but ultimately settled for white-line tires.
Regardless, I will definitely do another one of these with the other set of wheels too eventually.

















The results are getting better. Creating a good mix between the polish and thinner is no longer
as difficult as it was with the Diablo. This new diorama has pre-made diorama props for once.
Normally, I'm against it, but I wanted to give it a try. Lighting still needs a lot of work though.
It's looking more and more artificial.












Being one who wanted to reduce his collection, I had scrapped the Firebird Formula off the list,
despite how some part of me could not let go of this one with such an appropriate set of tampos.
About a year later, I pull it back out and fit different wheels on it. Simple change, still pretty as ever.















Being unsatisfied with how the Wild Thing turned out with the anodized metallic paint,
I wanted to give it a second try while holding the hypothesis of why the supposed colour-tint
metallic finish didn't show up last time I used that paint. Rest assured, I guessed right.
The silicone film that the Blue Magic leaves behind was likely the cause. This time,
I had washed the car down with water after using the polish and rubbed it dry with a dish cloth.
That should've gotten rid of most of it as the paint doesn't seem to react well with it.
The results are much closer to the colour-tinted chrome I expected, though like most people with
bad lighting skills, I myself have to borrow the excuse that the car looks a lot better in person!

[Customs] Round 2: Summer Cruising With The Thunderbird

New diorama props and materials arrived recently and I was anxious to make a new diorama.
Like I have done traditionally, every new diorama will be paired up with a new cruiser.
Well, I partially broke the rule this time. Have a look:



It's the same one as before, but I added loose gravel. It was getting late, so I stopped at that.
I plan on distributing more gravel for a greater coverage and that little mound of dirt will be scraped.
It has inhibited me from taking shots at many angles just because of it being in the way.



What did I do differently this time around? I busted out a paintbrush. No toothpick this time!
I'm using a Tamiya High-Grade Fine Modeling Brush. It works as expected and it certainly
works well with the Tamiya acrylics and Testors enamels. Got the silver trim running the length
of the body, something I failed miserably at with the Illustrious '59 Cadillac.



Those wheels were painted in as well. I felt the extra white was needed to go with the bright
orange. The chrome bonnet duct as well as the emblem were carefully done in too. Normally I
wouldn't have bothered, but I have a brush that does finer detail than a toothpick, so why not!?



Was having such a blast I even did up the gauges.



While it's still not quite convincing, I used the flashlight instead of the desk lamp. This meant the WB
was changed, as well as the colours of my backdrop. I would say this setup is more preferable
because the raw has significantly less over-exposure so correcting everything is so much easier.



Enjoying that view.





Awfully similar scheme- wheels even! What a coincidence.

Next dream Cruiser to be worked on may just be the Furai, one I'm also excited to work one whenever I think about it.
Now I just need the will power to get to it. To end off this post, here's a batch of Illustrious cars that are nearly finished.



I have yet to reveal the past batch I finished ages ago though. Stay tuned!

[Customs] Back To Summer - BMW Z4 Dream Cruisers

After the horrid time spraying the nail polish on the Diablo for days, I reckoned my airbrushing session wouldn't be so bad
for the Dream Cruisers. I'd be working on drastically smaller cars, so less time is needed. I'm also using a professional
nail polish thinner, not the "drop of nail polish remover" trick. It works out in a more favourable condition when shooting
this stuff out the airbrush nozzle. It's a shame the polish came out gritty and dull like the Diablo. I'm unsure if that's a result
of having too much thinner, PSI being too low or too high. I can't tell yet, I'd have to experiment more. In any case, I was able
to overcome that dull finish once again by spraying down a load of clear coat. The gloss brings the nail polish back to life.
It looks just like cured polish, except the saturation seems to have been lost through the spraying process.













Again, I've never had to mess around with so much colour correction as well as dodge/burn, levels and curves with any other photos. I am pleased to know I'm getting the hang of correcting the output to look a tad closer to daylight lighting.

[Customs] Making Quick Work pt.1

There are several WIPs that have found its way on my desk cutting in "line" in front of hundreds other cars that have been waiting patiently in a box for their turn.

However in an attempt to clean up my desk, these will need to make its way out as well, thus completing them is one of the ideal solution.












With the casting already blacklisted, this was not one I could simply throw into the collection. It needed something different. The result was fabricated on the spot. The wheels were taken off a 2013 Retro Entertainment Footloose VW Beetle. I was expecting size-2 wheels in the back since previous models were like that. Since it didn't, I pulled tires off a Greenlight Sarah Fisher Indy race car and stuck them on this. Something other than Firestone would've worked better with the other brands stuck on the body in my opinion, but that's as good as it gets. Skinny tires in front would've been great too, but again, I'm limited on high-end variety.







Shiniest finish yet. Shinier than the Dream Cruisers Porsche Boxster. I got myself a can of acrylic enamel (whatever that implies), and the paint has not given me any trouble. It cured into a hard finish in a few days, lightly sanded with 1000 grit, applied polishing compound, spray detailer and spray wax to finish it. The procedure for a better finish is being worked on and this project helped me develop it even further.

Wheels were done in with the Sharpies because they portray a more accurate finish of the stock alloys found on real cars than the chrome finish of Hot Wheels. The headlights were done in with the Gundam marker after a layer of silver Testors enamel.













As for the diorama photos, I played with the camera's colour balance. Instead of doing shade, I tried tungsten. The tungsten setting gives off a more blue-bias filter, and miraculously enough it countered the strong yellow light from the same lamp I used previously. Tweaking it further on Photoshop turned out to be less of a hassle, though I can still see improvements can be made.

[Customs] Summer isn't Quite Over Yet

It almost is over, but luckily I've snuck in time to photograph this guy that's been completely about a month ago.

I can't say I'm entirely pleased with the car itself, but I am confident enough to say the lighting was captured really well this time.







That is not a new piece this time around. It's the same rocky cliff I had before, but the colour balance was teetered off towards yellow a tad much and trying to correct that in Photoshop was pain-stakingly tricky.