Driver detailing - too much time at home!

[RvE]

This pandemic is giving us all lots of time for our hobbies.......but I am spending way too much time indoors and I think I am "losing it", haha. I am at the point of opening up some of my cars and detailing the drivers.
Here is my recent example. These cars are Scalextric VW Polo rally cars from a few years ago. This is not a form of racing I follow, but the slot cars are very sharp looking and were on sale at my local hobby shop, so I got them. The driver and navigator have great detail, but Scalextric left them in their molded plastic colour, except for the faces. So these figures were entirely dark blue for the #1 car and all white for the #9 car. I dismantled the cars and removed the interior tray (its just pops out from the front and is not glued in place). With the figures in place in the tray, I painted the helmets, gloves, seat belt buckles, navigator sheet, and mic trim! Here is a close up of the painted figures.



Now these figures really appear much more realistic in the cars - here they are reinstalled in the slot cars. Cheers RvE

[4424ever]

kudos a vast improvement

[chrisguyw]

Well done,......since we all seem to have more than a bit of indoor time these days,.....a quick brush of flat clear will make them look even more realistic !!

Cheers
Chris Walker

[RvE]

The insanity continues with more driver detailing projects. Here is my Fly Lola driver. The original driver with an open face helmet just looked out of place to me on these highly scale cars. The helmet is oversized for the body, but I did the best I could with it. I added goggles to the driver, highlighted the seat belt buckles in silver, added pinstriping to the suit and gave the suit a dark wash. I also painted the dashboard switches and steering wheel arms silver. Here are the BEFORE and AFTER photos, along with some DURING shots to show what details I added.

BEFORE and AFTER - front view


BEFORE and AFTER - rear view


DURING the detailing stage: I added the goggles using regular construction "spackling compound". It is pink until dry so you can see what you are doing. The head just pulls off the body and I glued it to a toothpick to aid in painting. One note of caution, I added the driver suit pinstripes using a fine "sharpie" marker and that gave a nice crisp line. When I sealed the driver figure with a shot of clear coat, the clear coat made the marker lines "bleed" a bit. I will use very fine clear coats next time.

Overall, I am happy with the results, and the large Lola cockpit windows do make the driver details nice and visible.


I hope you enjoy this small detailing project, cheers RvE

[Billy boy]

nice work.takes a steady hand to do that kind of detail work.

[slothead]

My shaky hands could never do anything like that so I applaud your work. When we look back on this 'down' period it'll be good to have some projects to show we got some stuff done.

[chrisguyw]

Good work RvE,.........!!

I hate painting drivers faces, so whenever it looks appropriate , I use full face helmets,....you still need to paint the face, but, it does get hidden a bit by the face shield.

These were made for a couple of F1 cars, and the faces will be glued in from the inside.....these were a royal PITA.

Cheers
Chris Walker

[32lbking]

Those are great looking helmets, Chris. If I didn't know better, I'd think they were 1-1 scale.
Randy

[RvE]

Wow, that is taking it to whole different level.....well done.

[docdoom]

His second hobby is headhunter/ witch doctor.

[RvE]

I am at it again.....this time trying to improve "Mr Bobblehead" that Scalextric put in their early Trans Am cars. I started with my convertible Corvette, since the driver is very visible. I built up the plaster goggles under the sun visor and painted them black. Then I added the thin black vinyl strip around the helmet to simulate the strap. I repainted the drivers face a brighter "flesh" tone and highlighted the lips. IMO, He does not look too bad now. Enjoy the pics. RvE