Postapocalyptibuggy [part 4]

The ongoing chronicle and my first attempt at posting Work In Progress shots, this is my entry for the Massive Voodoo Mad Max Car Competition. I'll list them all on my Step by Step page, or you can view the current WIP series.

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Today I worked on the inside of the truck. So, mostly seats. All the seats get their backs glued on. They don't line up perfectly, but after the glue dries, just scrape or cut the mold lines away.

For the back seat, I start by creating a spring sticking through the material. This is done by hand drilling a hole then wrapping a thin wire around a second larger wire and glueing the newly created spring in place. On the passenger side, I cut holes in the head rest (using pliers) and the back of the seat (cutting and digging with a knife) and cover them with some fluff from a Q-tip.

I'm not sure how that fluff'll prime, but I'll try it and see. I'm thinking that'll be bullet damage... we'll see what happens when I paint it all up. At most maybe some stains - nothing like the pop-tart scene from Pulp Fiction.

Next up is the driver's seat.

Now, I'm a tall guy, so that headrest is going to be too low for me. By scoring it a few times with a knife (running the blade across it, cutting a little deeper each time) I can just fold the headrest off. A serrated knife would work too.

The headrest and chair have their backs glued on. To make room for the raisers, I make sure to cut holes so the wire will fit. I glue the thick wire for the head rest, then glue the actual head rest on.

These are probably old chairs and need some patching. America may have Tim the Toolman Taylor, but in Canada, we have Red Green. That means Duct Tape; lots of Duct Tape. For scale, I use masking tape cut into small strips. Now, something to realize about masking tape is that it's good at masking - obvious, I know, but I point it out because if you don't apply a little super glue after it's on, the tape will peel off after it's painted. Use a paper towel to pat down the glue and absorb the excess.

I also super glue some small paper squares to the back of the chair, and after it dries, apply more super glue, then use tweezers to fold/curve them down. (As if some books were tucked in the holder behind the chair)

I end up assembling the passenger seat relatively plainly. A tip for roughly up plastic surfaces rather quickly:

Apply some plastic glue in small drops randomly. Follow this by using your finger or a tool to rub the glue around and watch it eat/melt the plastic and drying quickly. Since plastic glue actually eats/melts plastic, this creates a rough surface. I do this to most of the inner pannelling and some spots on the chairs.

The center console's a little sparse, so I add a few things. First is a cup made from a Q-tip's wood, the top drilled in some to create a rim, and voila! a Mug. 

Second is a fold-up map. This is made by folding up some paper like a map would be, applying some super glue inside and holding it closed with tweezers for a bit. I think glue this on top of the console.

I'm planning on leaving the driver door open, so I score it a few times before folding it back and peeling the door right off.

The other section I rough up some, as if someone unloaded on it from the outside. I also melt the panel a little and push it out... bullet force is enough to at least partially pop car panels off.

(There's nothing like finding bullet-riddled cars abandoned on company property while doing the rounds to make for an interesting day)

To make things easier to paint, I'm not going to glue these larger sections together. To see what they look like though, I use white tack to make it all stick together. (blue tack is oily and should be avoided - think of it like eating chips then handling your minis) HOWEVER, the downside of gluing it together later is that when everything's nice and painted, I'll have to scrape sections and glue plastic - this means being more careful.

I meant to note in the last step that I haven't glued the steering wheel column on for a reason. The section with all the dials is provided as a decal.. I don't do decals. So, I'll leave that area open and paint it later, while a wheel would block it, making it a real pain to work in.

I also haven't decided if I'm going to fill this up with junk supplies, so I'll decide on that later.