[Customs] Retail Buffs pt.2

With the a growing trend of quick changes, I find it hard to complete any overhauls! Let's get right to it.





Liked the casting, didn't like the Corgi wheels. Solving that could not have been any easier.




Like the other HW40, I have an abundance of these guys and didn't want them to feel left out.





Found the remaining M3s to complete the set. Like the Bonneville, the M3 is what I call a
Retailer Buff Exclusive. With these two, I went for two images. One keeps a luxury
appeal, the other a street performance aesthetic.





Adding the Lincoln into the collection solely because it was a TH was a grave mistake.
The blue wheels and windows were the lowest points of the car and no one wanted it
even as a TH. I had this occupy desk space for several months until I found another one
with more desireable parts to swap in.






Nothing fancy here. Sport car with cool tampo design, but wheels I'm not fond of
and the lack of detailing were troubling me. So I've fixed that up a bit.






Honestly, this Monte Carlo didn't need a change that badly. 5SPs were fairly appropriate for its image,
but I've been on the brink of getting rid of it for a while, and I definitely did not want to go with black wheels.






Leaves much to be desired the more I look at it. The orange-lipped OH5 weren't very attractive,
but these don't seem to be doing any better. Perhaps a few more changes are in order.





I've managed to avoid the white one until they disappeared from store pegs, but I finally caved
with the red. The stock MC5 looked matching of the Trans-Am Cougars in old photos I found,
but I just couldn't escape the generic-toy image MC5s give off. These look much more fitting!





Wasn't planning on modding this one, but since I cleared out the rest of my 240Z other than the TH,
I figured I made as well have taken this out of the collection too. With these black 10SPs,
I'm grateful I did. The lowered height in combination of a contrasting silver rim do wonders.
I have to admit the original casting wasn't all too appeal, but lowering looks like a must for future customs.

[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!