Hot Wheels 1:64 Ghostbusters Ecto-1 Customization

I know what's going to happen first off.  I'm going to get yelled at by all the collectors out there for cutting open the card and removing the Ecto-1.  Then they'll get over that and really become irate when they see that *spoiler* I'd taken the whole car apart!

Well, breathe. It will be ok. I understand the feeling of panic though. These cars are getting harder and harder to find.  They were made in 2009 and I think that's the last time HW made an Ecto. I'm probably wrong.  I think they are coming out with one this year, but I have yet to see it. Hopefully they'll make more because I want to customize more.  For now, this is my first attempt.  Here she is still on the card:

And here is the car, set free from it's confines! It's a pretty detailed car. Just very one color when it comes to the roof rack and interior. 

You'll see here that the ladder on the side is also molded with plastic between each rung. Upon further inspection I think it will be easier to paint the negative space white than to try to carve it out.  We shall see.

Notice the missing "No Ghost" logo on the back door. I'm going to have to find a way to fix that. I'm confident in my painting skills, but not on something this small.  Why would HW leave off the rear logo!

Here we go. The good stuff. After separating the chassis from the body some more interesting things about this car start to make themselves known. It's far more detailed than I anticipated.  Good for you HWs. However why would you go through all this trouble and just paint everything black?

The first thing that really jumps out at me is that the chassis is silver. completely silver. I supposed this is because the bumpers, which were big chrome monstrosities in the 50's, are a part of it. Easier to make it all silver/chrome I suppose than to try to paint it 2 different colors.  I'll definitely be repainting the chassis a flat black after taping out the chrome bumpers.

Looking closer at the inside of the care, you'd never guess what was there.  Four tiny Proton packs. All lined up on the rack ready to go. Seriously, so much detail wasted.  This project is going to take a little longer than the Delorean because of all the detail that's molded into these pieces.  But it's a good thing. There is SO much to play with in this little car.

That's where we I am for now.  This week if I can manage I'll try to start work on this. Probably with the chassis and body first.  Those will be the easiest.  Headed into the holidays it feels like free time vanishes.

...more to come! 

Hot Wheels 2011 Delorean Customization

The Delorean! This little guy was staring at me at a CVS late one night. CVS of all places. I swear you can get everything there, milk, candy, razors and time machines. It's a pretty good scale representation of the car from the films.  However, something as a kid that always annoyed me was staring me in the face. Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars do the bare minimum to create their cars. They spend a little extra time on the outside and the body of the car. The interior however sucks. That's all I can say. It sucks. So I decided to rectify that for this car and possibly might go back and fix all my old Hot Wheels that yes-I-do-still-own-from-childhood! Don't Judge. 

So here is the initial car still in packaging.

2011 New Models Delorean from Back to the Future.

This is, from what I can tell of the rear of the car, from BTTF 1. There is no Mr. Fusion molded onto the car.

Out of the packaging. You can see the very basic and generic gray interior.

Yes, yes, I opened up the package and took it out. Sacrilege!

Just a side shot

First step was to drill out the 2 metal posts that keep most of these cars together. Here are the 5 pieces.

Not having an actual drill, but still a drill bit, I drilled by had which took longer and earned me a nifty callous on my index finger. You should all be jealous.

Side shot of the pieces.

A close up of the exhaust and the interior

The bottom of the chassis I hi-lighted sections with silver paint. Pretty straight forward. The mufflers were also painted but oddly not in this pic. Oh well.

The Exhaust tips and the plutonium chamber were painted black.

The windows have been blacked out to reduce some of the "blue" that the windows are molded out of.

The body with some black hi-lighting done with simple dry brushing black paint.

The front and back of the interior painted black to act as a good base for the detail.

And...detail! A lot of silver and red hilights. Along with a few yellow sections here and there.  And dry brushing black on the seats. Just to pick up the shadows.

Assembling the chassis to the interior.

Adding the Windows

Next the body

And lastly the exhaust!

 FINAL PICTURES! Here is the little devil all finished and looking pretty spiffy for the camera.
If I could put in a slide show I would. But I'm not sure how to do that yet.

*Update 12/3/2012

Because you asked for it @SamanthaRMason I have come through for you. Here is a side by side comparison of the car starting out and finished.

Enjoy!

Flux Capacitor Part 1

Ladies and Gentlemen!

I've mentioned it, or hinted at it. Something. But now I'm actually taking on the challenge of building a mini Flux Capacitor. I mean who wouldn't want one of those just sitting there on their desk? You never know when you're going to need one. So I'm taking it upon myself to flood the world (or my desk) with the power of the the Delorean.

Reference photos have actually been difficult to find. Not because they're scarce, but because there are so many. They Flux Capacitor (from here on known as "FC") changed a little in each film and then of course again in all the replicas being built both privately and licensed.

But here is a pretty good photo just to get some basic ideas from:

This is one of the do it yourself kind. Love this kind! Doc Brown wouldn't have it any other way.

Now begins my attempt at making a smaller version of this amazing piece of technology.

Dimensions were taking from the actual electrical box that it's housed in and just shrunk down. As far as my projects go, this one is the easiest to get measurements for because the things actually exist.

Pretty straight forward rectangle with sides ready to be assembled

I cut out the viewing port and will eventually cover this with a thin piece of plastic. 

There are no innards yet.  There is no nothing yet. Just a frame. A weird picture frame.

PRIMER!

For now this is it. As of posting these pictures I've moved on to step two which is to the the actually working pieces of the FL lit and properly aligned.  If I can I'll try to get some pics ready for upload tomorrow just so you can all see the magic of the light. oooh. Ahhh.

I know there isn't much here, but it's a start. It's very boxy. Once the FL has more structure I can start to round out the corners. While it is an electric box, it's not a perfect rectangle. That baby's got curves!

Proton Pack 9 Final!

Ladies and Gentlemen.  Here it is. At long last. Technically I started this in March of 2010.  But in reality, didn't truly begin in earnest until December of 2011.  I basically had the idea way back in the before time.  But finally sat down and created this little guy. What follows are the final images of the pack.  Some of it's fore mentioned glamour shots.

First up...a little video of the images and some live video of the pack.  Currently set to appropriate music but I can see this being muted soon by the youtube gods. 


Also a disclaimer. The pack does not run off of the external batter pack you see pictured.  It actually runs off of 4 watch batteries that fit inside so that the whole thing is self contained.  I just killed the ones I had by testing it so much throughout the build...and playing with it.  So for your benefit I used the external battery pack.

Hooray for video!

Here is some close up detail of the wand as I'm preparing the final pieces.

It's a little dark. Forgive me. But you get a good sense of the final piece.  The hardest parts to make were the tiny pieces fixed to the tip of the blaster.

And here are some photos of it lit up in various "poses."

The stand that you can see is just a simple 2 piece stand I made out of left over parts and painted gray to help the pack stand out from it.I didn't want it to just fade into the rest of the black of the pack. This might be the best shot that gives you a good idea of the whole thing and the detail.

10 points to anyone who can name this ship in the back ground.

And here we have it folks.  My child hood dreams have come true.  Some what.  Sure as a kid I wanted a full sized one. But this will have to suffice.  You try living in an NYC apartment and then fit a full sized Proton Pack in there.  Not to mention a workspace to create it.  I'm sure my neighbors are pretty high from all the pain fumes.  To you I say...you're welcome.