[Customs] Quick Work pt.5

Could've sworn I had other plans yesterday, but oh well, 4 cars it is. Would've been 7, but the other 3 aren't yet complete.



























Teaser to what's soon to come:

[Customs] Party Time - 7 Attending.

There's a lot to show off today! Working on several custom simulataneously is exhausting and flustering when trying to eliminate as much waiting time as possible. While one layer of paint is drying on one car, I'll be off working on another body. To keep a level of consistency from the lot of photos, here's a short table of contents with clickable links that will take you to any custom in this post via page jump. I've took some time into re-working my template for the documentation photos. What's always been lacking was a "before and after" shot. I'm sure most of my readers aren't familiar with what it used to look like so having it present does help get a better sense of the changes made. A signature and link would also be beneficial as I do tend to hotlink my photos to other webpages to share my work. Once my photos have enough hits and get spread further out, viewers who don't get direct feed from me personally will now know a source and name to refer to.


1) Hunter Camaro SS Replica (Need for Speed The Run)
2) Surfin' School Bus (paintjob/wheelswap)
3) Ferrari California (wheelswap)
4) Lotus Concept (wheelswap)
5) Gangster Grin (wheelswap)
6) Surf Crate TH (wheelswap/fantasy "Super TH")
7) [Renaissance Series] Jaguar XK120SE

Hunter Camaro SS Replica

(project brief)

Okay I thought the idea was cool before I started. I do like the RRPrf wheels I took off the Boulevards '64 Pontiac GTO as the skinner front tires are extremely fitting! The spoke design itself is a fairly good match to the Hunter Camaro. It's just too bad the Copo Camaro doesn't sport 4 round lamps like you can see in the screenshot.

A matte finish is exactly what I wanted, but I feel I may have scrubbed the surface too much with that polishing compound.

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Surfin' School Bus

(Project Brief)

No plans were made for this. All that was to be done was change the wheels, but then I was already on a roll with removing tampos via acetone on numerous castings and so I got rid of it on this too. Left with a plain metalflake silver body, I recalled having this unused green anodized spray paint which more or less tints a surface rather than covering it with opaque pigments. I figured this would be a good time to try it out since the work surface is already smooth, colour-less and sparkly. Needless to say, the results turned out excellent.

I wanted to slam the bus to the ground, but because the front wheels were oversized, I had no more room to cut into the interior piece unless I prepared putty for the fender. Physical constraints, really.

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Ferrari California

Can't say I love the California, yet can't leave it alone. The FTE wheels were killing me to simply put it. Lowering it was a bonus as there isn't much room for a significant change.

Silver wheels may have looked less obnoxious, but why not? The California's design is bold, so why not go all the way?

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Lotus Concept

Didn't intend to change the wheels, but red wheels can only keep me looking for so long and already I'm not looking back. OH5 wheels are usually not what I'd go for, but I think they might work better on this than PR5s actually.

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Gangster Grin

This car ended up growing on me. I bought this with the intention of taking its wheels only, but the purple scheme would've went to waste if I scrapped it. Deciding on wheels took some time surprisingly. LWs were the initial decision, but they didn't have the impact I was looking for. 5DOT was fairly good, but SK does it just right. The Custom Cadillac Fleetwood casting has my thanks for its influence.

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Surf Crate (Fantasy Super TH)

Of all the crappy Treasure Hunts I asked a friend to pick up for me, this is the only one I couldn't throw into my lots for sale. Contrary to popular opinion, I like this casting. While it lacks some finer details that make a hot rod, the stance it creates is quite catchy. The TH happened to sport a lime I'm a fan of, the tampos are fine the way they are, but the size-3 OH5s weren't cutting it. I decided all this would really need is a change of wheels. While I was playing around with the redline tires, I thought I'd try to transform it into a Super TH.... or at least make an adaptation of one. Most Super THs sport a darker colour of the same hue as the mainline variant, have a brilliant metallic finish and have real riders (rubber tires). I tried that Anodized green paint again in hopes it would darken the lime. It did, but it also altered the hue unfortunately. The glitter didn't show up as much as I hoped. I might need to replace that can soon. To match the redline RR5SP, I laid down a red ring on the SK wheels in the front.

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[Renaissance Series] Jaguar XK120SE

I'm not sure how or why, but the paint on this came out incredibly smooth! No sanding or polishing was needed. It could've been because I didn't strip the body and painted right over, or it was I lucked out with the final coat of clear.

Seeing as how I learn there are already similar existing recolours released, tan interiors may need to become a staple for the Renaissance series from now on.

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[Customs] Illustrious Debut. Series 1 Released.

After months of on/off planning, I finally bring something to the table. I have a feeling this series is going to lead to improved execution of tools used in customs through repeated practice and tackling common issues.

Huge problems were afloat when dust kept getting itself caught onto wet paint and because the colour in question is none other than white, debris is very hard to miss when observing these pieces of work. I've learned to keep coats thin, and to never make a wet coat of paint as that is already too much. On a more brighter note, the Illustrious Series focuses on quantity over quality - that's what all the specialized series and one-offs are for, thus this can be overlooked for now though I still would like to avoid getting crummy finishes if possible. I may need to invest in a pair of white lint-free cotton gloves to handle these when I'm finished painting as the paint likes to accept fingerprints or whatever comes into contact and stays there for even 2 seconds.

So to reiterate, the Illustrious features cars exclusively in white with a mix of black and gold however way I please. The general theme I aim to maintain is black wheels with a gold rim with gold accents on the body (i.e. door handles or shiny grills). Decal styles will vary but will keep the name of what it is.

The Illustrious Series will always release in groups of 5 (though this is not written in stone yet), and it is broken down into categories of 2 formats: Classic and Modern, as well as class groupings: Muscle/Rod, Concept, Sport, Super, Luxury, and Racer.

from top to bottom: Aston Martin DBS, Ferrari 599XX, Ford Gran Torino Sport, Lotus Esprit, SRT Viper GTS.

The gold on the Sharpie's is a spun gold, a little darker than ideal, but it works great on the wheels. Other than the Torino, none of the cars required axle refitting so it saved me several hours of work. Plus I don't run the chance of tilting the axle, a problem I've had when I was still a beginner. The 599 and Esprit got the most amount of dust while the Torino is dirty thanks to my fingers smearing all its dirt onto it. Hopefully I will avoid these in the future. Or maybe I should try polishing compound.

Again, you can always refer to my spreadsheet (via Google Drive) to see the whole roster which you can find on the Customs About page. Thanks for viewing.