Hot Wheels and Matchbox Customizing Thread
- Thread starter CodeRedR51
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- 647
- Zagreb
- johnwalter1044
Damn Nessy, that is beautiful!
Cano
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- 20,758
- Cephiro
This is the kind of thing I had planned in my mind for the (as @Cano likes to put it) hipster-mobile.
Maybe it's a bit too ambitious, but you get the idea.
You and your amazing wheels can go to hell as usual. I'd pay to have those done. I know I've said it before but it's never enough, if you just drew wheels all would be ok with the world.
- 878
- Los Angeles
- Speed_Racer8218
My 1st attempt at painting, well the hood at least 
- 907
- Australia
You want to paint the hood without leaving those masking lines? Here's a tip I use and works well, you need two sharpy markers, one the finest tip you can get but make sure it's still perminant and then a large tip perminant marker. Use the fine one to fill the hood lines in and the larger one to simply Colour the rest of the hood, turns out looking real good.
- 878
- Los Angeles
- Speed_Racer8218
I actually used the outdoor furniture spray paint on the hood. I did a crappy job with the masking tape and the paint bled through. I need thinner tape and tweezers so I can be more precise masking the car.
I'm slowly trying out painting the cars but as someone who never dealt with paint it's intimidating, hence I only remove tampos for now. I don't want to end up with a stripped car wishing I left the paint alone
Appreciate the tips, once I get better materials I'll work on my detailing skills. Any tips on dealing with shaky hands?
I'm slowly trying out painting the cars but as someone who never dealt with paint it's intimidating, hence I only remove tampos for now. I don't want to end up with a stripped car wishing I left the paint alone
Appreciate the tips, once I get better materials I'll work on my detailing skills. Any tips on dealing with shaky hands?
- 907
- Australia
Lol no, I am a shocker at trying to keep my hands still.
@AOS- someone needs to create a matte black marker. Then all you need is some chequered paint and you could paint carbon fibre lol.
- 3,461
- Melbourne
Put me down as shocking hands too. Too much drinking a long time ago.
Sucks given I'm into photography as well as small toy cars..
Sucks given I'm into photography as well as small toy cars..
CodeRedR51
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You can try paint markers...
AOS-
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- 28,798
- 'Sauga, ON
I try not to hold up the entire weight of my hand with my arm alone. I try to use something else to support my hand if I need to make precise movement. Usually, the pinky finger is extremely helpful with stabilizing the hand.
Artists who do pinstriping on cars do this too.
What's nice about this is that you can focus less on avoiding human error (hand causing the the brush's distance from the surface to vary), and focus more on accurate movement.
Of course at a tiny scale such as this, we don't have the luxury of running our fingers down a large surface. If I'm detailing anything, I try to grip the car in such a way the car (or the grip itself) won't shift around. My left hand will most often be stationed on something so the entire hand/arm won't move around when I'm pushing the brush into the car's body.
What I also take into consideration is how well my hand (that's holding the brush) can execute the desired stroke without deviance. Based on the structure of your hand as well as muscle memory, you may find it is easier to draw a straight line from left-to-right as opposed to right-to-left. So before I go right into it, I mimic the desired action to see/feel if the brush stroke is stable enough that I feel comfortable going forward with it. If not I can reposition the car or I will rest my pinky on one of my left fingers to get very comfortable with committing to putting down the paint.
You'll need to be careful you're not getting your fingers on any wet paint/fresh detailing you laid down elsewhere. If the paint has not fully cured, your grip may leave fingerprints and nasty smudges.
- 878
- Los Angeles
- Speed_Racer8218
A lot of good advice @AOS- will definelty apply those techniques next time 👍
I'm using these markers for detailing, the extra fine tip gives me trouble because it doesn't dispense the paint smoothly where as the fine tip is just to thick for some spots. I'm thinking about sharpening the tips on the fine point makers for more accuracy
I guess I need to slow down and focus on hitting the spots more acturately
Hopefully these thinner masking tapes will do a better job than the one I was using before
I'm using these markers for detailing, the extra fine tip gives me trouble because it doesn't dispense the paint smoothly where as the fine tip is just to thick for some spots. I'm thinking about sharpening the tips on the fine point makers for more accuracy
I guess I need to slow down and focus on hitting the spots more acturately
Hopefully these thinner masking tapes will do a better job than the one I was using before
CodeRedR51
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I try to rest both of my hands on a table, etc. Left hand holding the car resting on the table, right hand resting on the table holding a marker, toothpick with paint on it, etc.
AOS-
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- 28,798
- 'Sauga, ON
While you're welcome to try things out yourself, I've tried that before and found the results to be unsatisfying. When you shave down the felt tip, the rigidity of the felt tip decreases, and the amount of pores the ink can travel through the felt is greatly reduced. If the point of contact is reduced, the rate of ink dispensing (due to surface tension) also goes down. This is especially bad if you have a tendency to brush your marker over a surface that previously had marker ink on it. That stuff can clog the surface of the felt which results in a marker that doesn't dispense any ink later.
If you want a good upgrade to be free of the marker's restrictions, get yourself a very fine-tip brush and some thin paints (that you can easily wash off) and you can comfortably work with. The fine-tip brush allows flexibility of how you want to paint, and the range of colours is much bigger.
I still use Tamiya acrylics, Testors enamels, a HG brush for Gundam model kits (look for the very fine tips), and I clean up using a bottle of acetone (make sure it's 100% acetone).
Of course the one downside to brushing by hand is the visibility of strokes (which is influenced by how you work).
Here I handbrushed the black, gold and tail lights.
Markers aren't all bad though. If you need linework with consistent lineweights, fine-tips are a good option.
Here I detailed the Civic's headlights. First I coloured in the base black with acrylic paint. Next I try my best to paint in the white, orange and whatever without making a mess. Inevitably there is a mess, but I try to keep it tidy to make the final step a little of a headache as possible. Here I used a Gundam black marker (for gundam model kits) to fix up any rough edges- say I tried to do a circular lamp and screwed up. Like I mentioned about felt tips clogging, in this step I apply little pressure to let the ink run on its own without jabbing the tip into the paint.
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CodeRedR51
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Am I the only one that uses toothpicks? 
AOS-
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- 28,798
- 'Sauga, ON
I still use toothpicks for quick jobs. If the area I need to cover is easy, I'll use a toothpick.
When I work with toohpicks though, it usually means I have to deal with a blob sitting at the tip. Otherwise I often find none of the paint on the toothpick runs off onto the work surface. This usually means the area I'm cover is compose of simple surfaces like protruding headlamps, and not finer grooves, grills with narrow passages or low-detail ducts on the side.
When I work with toohpicks though, it usually means I have to deal with a blob sitting at the tip. Otherwise I often find none of the paint on the toothpick runs off onto the work surface. This usually means the area I'm cover is compose of simple surfaces like protruding headlamps, and not finer grooves, grills with narrow passages or low-detail ducts on the side.
- 907
- Australia
Am I the only one that uses toothpicks?
Nope, that's all I use, I find you can get a much more even coat of paint and can "spread" the paint without any discrepancies. I've came up with a technique that I can get a blon on the tooth pick and place it for example a red blob for a tail lights and smooth it out over the entire light without making any mistakes. I like them 100x more than a brush tbh.
Cano
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- 20,758
- Cephiro
Am I the only one that uses toothpicks?
It really depends on what I want to detail, I mainly use them to put blobs of paint on stuff and spread it around,but most of the time it's almost always on very small places.
Anyway people, some of you might remember, from the last Custom Diecast México post I shared here, that we're hosting our first-ever custom contest. The theme is drag racing, and I wanted to show yousome of the stuff I'mworking on:
First there's this Straight Pipes that looked like this when I started with it:
Here it is a little cut up:
and here all refined now and with a mock up of the engine it's gonna use.
Next up is this Pontiac by Johny Lightning, which looked like this when I started with it:
I love that this tjhing hjas had it's wheelbase alteted already. The plan for this thing is a late-60s style repaint with a name and a theme and stuff. Unfortunately I haven't had any time to blow into designing stuff for it:
We now have this Hot Wheels 240Z, which I've drilled up good:
This is what I'm aiming for:
Then, this Hot Whjeels redline Grinder Gremlin, which was pretty screwed up:
The plan with this one is a psychedelic street freak:
And this is my entry for the Basic (original paint) class:
There are more cars I'm working on of which I don't have pics yet, but I'll post them around when Ido.
Cano
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- 20,758
- Cephiro
Thanks dude, I'll update as possible with progress on the cars. For example, the Z's glass piece has now been butchered in order to cage it, and the Straight Pipes has gained headers, an engine block and a grille shell. I also got me some rear chutes. Still a ton of stuff to do to most of them.
CodeRedR51
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- 55,287
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CodeRedR51
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- 55,287
- United States
- 878
- Los Angeles
- Speed_Racer8218
I'm sure you can find someone that will make one for you on Instagram, just search #hotwheelscustoms
Getting some thin masking tape made detailing at lot easier. I replaced the plastic chassis for a metal one because the chin spoiler was crooked. Crimping has gotten a lot better as well as the car now rolls straight
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