Hot Wheels and Matchbox Customizing Thread

[AOS-]

You can't make a short axle longer, goofball. I go these nice rubber tires I want to install in another base except its axle is stupidly short.

I looked it up and correct me if I'm wrong, are the factory axles 1/32" rods?

 

[Cano]

You can't make a short axle longer, goofball. I go these nice rubber tires I want to install in another base except its axle is stupidly short.

I looked it up and correct me if I'm wrong, are the factory axles 1/32" rods?

Dude wtf. Haven't you really read ANY of the advice posts in this thread or the other? Heck, I think 1600 even posted pictures of the process a while aback. We talked about resizing the axles a few pages ago when I posted the Matchbox Camaro, portraying JUST THE ANSWER to your troubles.

Really, read a bit.

 

[AOS-]

That's rich coming from the person who admitted being too lazy to go back some pages themself.

 

[Cano]

That doesn't have a thing to do with the topic at discussion. But your loss, I guess.

 

[AOS-]

What you said falls flat on me because it can be applied to you. Therefore, getting upset with me doing it is the last thing you should be doing.

In any case, I found out what I needed and going to try contacting a hobby store tomorrow.

 

[M-POWER_FTW]

I looked it up and correct me if I'm wrong, are the factory axles 1/32" rods?

That's what I use. I get five .032 brass rods for $1.80.

Or you could do it Jason's way by getting brass tubing and use the old axle to slide in place on each side, then crimp it.

 

[AOS-]

I'll have to see which options are available and then whichever one is less expensive. I'd settled with the 1/32" because it's much less work in the end.

Anyway, had a busy day. Stripped some paint on a few cars today, well, almost all of it...

Not in the photo are a Pontiac GTO boulevard and an Ultra Hot '41 Woody's. The latter probably needs another dunk because the paint used isn't coming off too easily.

Pulled out a few cars in my collection including duplicates and ripped all their wheels out for future use.

I was planning to put the Cragars in the GT-500 after I painted the body black, but then I found out the back wheels won't fit in its tiny wheel well. I'm still determined to make it happen so I'm going to have to shop around for more donor cars.

And for the wheels swaps I did so far (2 more in queue currently)

swapped with:

took these off the Smart car.

 

[Doog]

That Thunderbird looks gangsta now.
I'm interested in swapping some wheels around in my collection as well. Do you just unscrew the bottom and take the wheels off from there?

 

[CodeRedR51]

You can't make a short axle longer, goofball. I go these nice rubber tires I want to install in another base except its axle is stupidly short.

I looked it up and correct me if I'm wrong, are the factory axles 1/32" rods?

Using the 1/16 tubing IMO is cleaner, and certainly not hard at all.

 

[AOS-]

If only all castings were fastened by screws. Sadly, they are almost alwys riveted together and you'll need something like a dremel to grind the bit off to take the diecast body off the chassis plate. THEN, you'll need either the same grinder (for metal plates), or wire cutters or whatever to cut off the little nibs that fasten the axles to the chassis.

And to save you trouble, make sure you check that the wheels you're planning to swap in fit in the chassis plate you're fitting them in, or else you have to do some extra work.

 

[M-POWER_FTW]

THEN, you'll need either the same grinder (for metal plates), or wire cutters or whatever to cut off the little nibs that fasten the axles to the chassis.

Believe it or not, but I use a drill bit to grind off the little metal hooks that hold the axle in. I DO NOT recommend this method though, unless you have some experience with a drill. A dremel would be ideal.

 

[AOS-]

I just went ahead and hand painted the cracks and crevices in the GTO and Woody and will be putting down the first coat of spray paint now. Going to head down to that hobby store I found and going to buy a lot of brass tubing. 3pk 1/16" x 12" for $2. Guess how much I'm going to be buying?

I also went and made list of cars I want a wheelswap on and put it on my iPod so I can refer to it whenever I'm at a store now.

 

[Apok]

So I picked up a Matchbox Mitsubishi Triton the other day. Have a look.

It's not a bad casting. Neat colour and I like the wheels. It would look so much nicer without those damn tampos though, wouldn't it?
Well that's what I thought anyway.

So I did that and removed the tampos (apart from the mitsubishi badges on both sides. Those look alright).

And it looks pretty good right?

WRONG!

Detailing is much needed, oh yes indeed. We can't have a bed full of grey coloured objects can we? I find that some headlights and tail lights are generally a good thing on cars as well.
And with that in mind I went on the internet where I found this!

'Ooh, what is that roll bar thingy on the rear? I want that!'
So detailing had to wait for a bit as it was time for the unexpected scratchbuilding phase!

There it is while I was dry-fitting it. Numerous small dabs of glue and lots of patience was required to finally get a good bond between the three parts it's made from.
It's made from styrene meant for all kinds of model building needs. Made by Evergreen Models. It's great stuff as you can bend it and it won't break (quickly) nor will it bend back when you're done with it. It also sticks to glue very well.

There's a picture of the three parts I made the roll cage from as well as two of the styrene sticks I didn't use yet so you can see what it looks like.
Oh and some ex-Slovenian money (We've used euros for a while now).


With that it was time for some nice detailing. I painted the headlights, tail lights, front grille, badges on both sides of the car, rims, the roof rail thingies and of course the bed and objects inside of said bed.

And here it is!
It looks quite nice. Certainly much nicer than the original.

Other side of the car.


Hope you enjoyed the write-up and I hope you like the end result. I must say I am quite happy with how it ended up.

 

[CodeRedR51]

I'll have a simple one to post just as soon as I get moved this weekend.

 

[Cano]

So I picked up a Matchbox Mitsubishi Triton the other day.

Oh yeah dude, that is quite cool. I would have left the "L200" tampos en the bed, but it still looks great. I need some of that Evergreen stuff. The rollbar came out great. Also, black/crome mirrors, black windshield wipers, black door posts? (:

 

[Apok]

Oh yeah dude, that is quite cool. I would have left the "L200" tampos en the bed, but it still looks great. I need some of that Evergreen stuff. The rollbar came out great. Also, black/crome mirrors, black windshield wipers, black door posts? (:

You know, I actually thought of what it would look like with the L200 tampos.
After I already removed them, so that didn't really have much of an effect.

I'll paint those as well. I honestly forgot about the mirrors as I wanted to paint those.
Windshield wipers and door posts are just a pain to me for some reason though, but I'll try my best.

 

[M-POWER_FTW]

Very creative. Turned out great too!

 

[AOS-]

Oh and some ex-Slovenian money

Would buy that off you. I didn't tell anyone about this, but I collect coins and I don't have anything Slovenian.

 

[VspecZR1GT2RS89]

So I picked up a Matchbox Mitsubishi Triton the other day. Have a look.

It's not a bad casting. Neat colour and I like the wheels. It would look so much nicer without those damn tampos though, wouldn't it?
Well that's what I thought anyway.

So I did that and removed the tampos (apart from the mitsubishi badges on both sides. Those look alright).

And it looks pretty good right?

WRONG!

Detailing is much needed, oh yes indeed. We can't have a bed full of grey coloured objects can we? I find that some headlights and tail lights are generally a good thing on cars as well.
And with that in mind I went on the internet where I found this!

'Ooh, what is that roll bar thingy on the rear? I want that!'
So detailing had to wait for a bit as it was time for the unexpected scratchbuilding phase!

There it is while I was dry-fitting it. Numerous small dabs of glue and lots of patience was required to finally get a good bond between the three parts it's made from.
It's made from styrene meant for all kinds of model building needs. Made by Evergreen Models. It's great stuff as you can bend it and it won't break (quickly) nor will it bend back when you're done with it. It also sticks to glue very well.

There's a picture of the three parts I made the roll cage from as well as two of the styrene sticks I didn't use yet so you can see what it looks like.
Oh and some ex-Slovenian money (We've used euros for a while now).

With that it was time for some nice detailing. I painted the headlights, tail lights, front grille, badges on both sides of the car, rims, the roof rail thingies and of course the bed and objects inside of said bed.

And here it is!
It looks quite nice. Certainly much nicer than the original.

Other side of the car.

Hope you enjoyed the write-up and I hope you like the end result. I must say I am quite happy with how it ended up.

Looks really nice, and to make it more realistic, I think that painting the side mirrors in a glossy or metallic silver paint or finding those reflective stickers (like the ones on 1:18 scale cars).

But, I still like it.

 

[Apok]

Presenting the Mitsubishi Triton Cano edition.
Now with working windscreen wipers and rear view mirrors!

 

[AOS-]

Is there working wiper fluids too?


It looks pretty damn clean.. especially the side mirrors. I can see it's actually reflecting light. Good job on that! how'd you make it?

 

[Apok]

I used Bare metal foil.
It's really thin metal foil that you can cut with a hobby knife and stick on things. Used to simulate chrome and other metals for models.
Same thing I used to make the chrome trim on the BMW 2002.

 

[AOS-]

It sounds like the aluminum tape used for duct pipes. I used to use that to tape stuff up when I was a kid.

Anyway, I bought myself a lot of 1/16" brass tubing yesterday... Assuming a car will require at most an inch of tubing, I have enough to freely make at least 180 wheelswaps... and it only cost me about $13. Finding nice wheels is what will be most expensive. I have been looking for looser cars on eBay and luckily found a seller who is sells 2 identical loose cars for a dollar, so that's 50 cents for a set of wheels right there. I considered buying a loose grab bag of random cars but I haven't looked into that yet. Been too obsessed looking for stores who sell a lot of singles lately.

 

[Cano]

Presenting the Mitsubishi Triton Cano edition.
Now with working windscreen wipers and rear view mirrors!

Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

 

[VspecZR1GT2RS89]

Presenting the Mitsubishi Triton Cano edition.
Now with working windscreen wipers and rear view mirrors!

Nice....... Real nice!!! 👍👍

 

[AOS-]

UGH! I screwed up the glossing stage again!

I must have put down too much at once it started to corrode the Krylon acrylic paint underneath. Last time I'm making this mistake. Going to grab Tamiya spray paint this time.

I remember last time I dumped Tamiya paint on a Camaro and then dumped the clear paint on top. And that came out rather smooth. This project just got delayed possibly by another 2 weeks.

 

[CodeRedR51]

I use Krylon all the time, no issues here.

 

[AOS-]

I used Krylon on the Fish'd & Chip'd, but I didn't use the gloss paint from Mr.Color. I think the Krylon can't take the corroding strength of Mr.Color or Tamiya in larger doses. I'm pretty sure that's the case. I also got the paint to crumble when I put down too much Krylon Clear spray.

Also, when I mixed Mr.Color's clear paint with Tamiya's Acrylic Thinner, it creates a white gooey substance. I think there was also the Tamiya white paint left over from the brush I used to mix it with.

TL;DR version is that I messed up a bunch of things, and I have to repeat some steps again. I wouldn't mind redoing it, but it doesn't help that the weather is significantly colder nowadays.

edit: Ugh, I am so not buying an airbrush kit for Tamiya paints...

 

[Apok]

How much clear did you use?
I find that Tamiya is usually very paint-friendly.
Well for a spray can anyway.

 

[AOS-]

Probably more than I should have, but that was because brushing it on is a dreadful experience. I read somewhere that someone uses water to thin the paint. Does that even work? Someone before told me to mix isopropyl alcohol, which indeed made the paint more runny, but now that I thought about it in the shower, I mixed Acrylic thinner, which would explain why the sprayed-on Krylon was dissolving...

Can you really thin model paint with water?


Edit: RIP Flat White PaintJob Take #1:

See, I would have left it flat white with maybe a matte clear coat to protect it from scratching any paint off, but I feel it would only work with a dull surface such as the cardstock I have laying as a backdrop. The problem is that the floor I'm using for the garage is gloss white, so for the floor to be reflective and not the objects seems rather mismatching. But yeah, that's what the stuff looked like before I screwed up. Lest we forget.