Tamiya Toyota Hilux Libyan Technical Pickup

[HobbyGuyMod]

Obviously our body is just way to clean at the moment, even though we have sanded down the decals we still do not have the look that we are looking for. So first I want to give the truck a good dark black wash

Not only does it help with the panel lines but it also brings down the overall white color of the body.

Next we have to add some texture. Not exactly the easiest thing with a material like sand. But I did find some photo references on youtube that had a bit more of caked on mud. To create a texture that will stick I take spackling paste and blend in the brown/tan paint.

Then using a hard brissled brush I begin to fleck the paste that we made across the body, keep in mind common places that mud may collect. Splattered up along the wheel wells, on the grill and so on

As long as we don't get to large of a glob we will not have to worry about the spackle coming off of the plastic

 

[slowngreen]

keep it up, coming along great!

 

[SchrodeMode]

I will have to live my "scaler" life through you, I don't have the patience for something like this, maybe one day. I only have about 10 1/2 years until I retire, lol. With me being military though, when I retire, I'll have to grow up and get a "real" job.

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

I will have to live my "scaler" life through you, I don't have the patience for something like this, maybe one day. I only have about 10 1/2 years until I retire, lol. With me being military though, when I retire, I'll have to grow up and get a "real" job.

Ha ha glad I can help you out. Well I know alot of people don't have the patience for this stuff. But I think people love seeing the scale stuff. It has a die hard fan base and I am sure that many more people would get in on it now that there are so many more production items. Most people don't have the time to waste making all the scratch stuff. I am probably going to start putting up more of my templates and stuff online in hi res. That way people can just print them out. Most of the work is in the planning part. The masking and decals took me 10 minutes to apply but 2 hours to find the right graphics and then match the blades to the pattern. So that part would help out a lot of people

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

Ok back in business weekend is over so now more pics and more progress. Plaster/ Paint combo has completely dried so we can now enjoy the full effect of our weathering.

You have to make sure that you have the right combo of parts already on the model or else you won't get the realistic splattering and mud build up that we are looking for . But I think this came out rather well and the Hilux body is starting to actually look like something from the desert.

The white body washes out some of the details because the camera is slightly over exposing it, but it still looks great and in person even better.

With the pictures you also miss the finer detail of the black wash.

I really fell in love with how the windshield came out.

So next we stick the interior in and begin lighting this guy up. I know everyone wants to see the machine gun build but that is going to be towards the end. ;-)

 

[slowngreen]

yep, windshield came out perfect bro!

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

So we have to color in those lights now. This is going to be a quick post. If you need more details you can check out my Tamiya Bruiser Build

I ask out the edges using Plain Masking tape for the airbrush

Then to fill in the color I use Acrylic paint mixed into future floor polish to make sure the lights are translucent.

I am spending way more time masking these because the light set I am putting in includes reverse lights. So I want to make sure that they actually show up and hopefully don't catch to much of the red brake lights

Final installation is going to be a bit different because I want to experiment isolating the light color too

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

If you remember I talked about how this build had an extra set of lights. So I want to make sure that they do not bleed into each other. I have never really done this so we are going to try a new idea. I am going to use some styrene to seperate the reverse and brake lights

First I measure it out a bit to see if I can get most of the space filled in with a divider. Then I cut it down with the Table saw mount I built for my dremel. I love this thing I post the link for the instructions if you want.

After glueing them together I add a bit of green putty to finish off the last gap. Now we are ready to mount them up

 

[HPI-Killer]

Haha awesome stuff! Is that a Dremel tablesaw? I MUST HAVE ONE!!!

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

Sorry for the delay on my posts guys, just had a project I had to work on techy related.

The the Dremel Table saw is awesome you can find out instruction on how to build it here from instructables, the guy who did it did it did an awesome job. It works great. http://bit.ly/X9cjaT

Just got my self an actual mini table saw because Micromark had a sale so I will convert the table into a shaper.

---------- Post added at 11:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:26 AM ----------

yep, windshield came out perfect bro!

By the way just noticed you are friend East End Machining! Love your guys parts

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

So now I am working on the final portions of the lights.To mount in the lights from the kits I have to install some light buckets to hold them in securely. One issue that I had is some of the light fixtures stuck through the back so I had to grind them off.

Then similar to the same way that I built the light wells in the others I had to measure out the size.

Like before I knew that it was going to take two pieces of styrene that I had to then glue together and clamp.

Then I drill the holes for the lights.You have to measure them just right so that you can get the LED's in there pretty tight but not crack them.

You may be asking why did you drill the holes after?Well I had to because it was just to hard to get everything to line up.Better take your time if you use this method because the opportunity is high for you to break something.

 

[slowngreen]

You have some handy tools! I'll need to get one of those table saws before my next build.

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

Thanks man, my tool collection has built up over the years. Usually to keep costs down I first build something on my own. If I wind up using it alot I will purchase a real one. Which I just did for the table saw. Building it yourself is great but sometimes a manufactured item really keeps the cuts more consistent

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

Ok time to put the lights down for a second. Now we are going to start the build part that everyone has been waiting for. The machine gun. This is where it was so important for us to have proper drawings so that we don't struggle with the scale. If you are off scale buy a hair things can quickly start to look ridiculous.

First we grab a strip of Styrene. Surprisingly I couldn't find a styrene block or something similar in size to the body of the machine gun.

To bad I wish evergreen made them it would have made my life a lot easier. So instead we are going to have to cut the lengths then stack them together

To get the proper width it is going to take a about 3 pieces. This time I am going to bond them together using MicroMark Same Stuff, this solvent type is known by a bunch of other names as well.

Then we start the tedius process of sanding the thing down. I lock it into a vice and then us a Dremel detail sander to start slowly bringing it down to the right size. Make sure that you keep measuring it up to the drawing to maintain the proper width.

Ok don't bust on me to hard about those edges. I really spazzed in the cutting. I had my daughter bumping into me. I just got a small miniature rip saw so that should make life alot easier going forward.

 

[HPI-Killer]

WOOO, the MG part, hell yeah thats awesome!!

 

[slowngreen]

How quick is that plastic cement? I've had some trouble with the stuff I used before and want to try something else.

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

Solvent is quick as all hell, nothing I know of is faster or with a better bond

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

Ok so to clean up the edges on the machine gun I add some putty which makes them smooth.

Oh yea jumping around for a sec I forgot to add a pic of the wiring almost complete

Now with my completed and smooth main body I start to add the top plastic components to keep adding to the shape.

Basically this is making a ton of sanding!

And measuring the smaller parts is tedious

 

[hamz9561]

Looking good so far....

 

[HobbyGuyMod]

Thanks

---------- Post added at 6:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:52 PM ----------

Ok so now I have to cut out more pieces to match the size of the drawing. I used to do this by hand but luckily I just got a new saw. Makes pretty short work and cleaner edges than what I did before.

Everything that I used on the machine gun had to be 2 pieces thick to make it fit properly. A major pain and meant lots of solvent and lots of sanding to make it seamless

I am cutting the front muzzle flare/break out of a larger pieve of styrene evergreen rod. But I don't have a lathe so to give it the cone shape I am using the drill

Then spinnning the drill while using sandpaper and sometimes a file to slowly shave the rod down till I have a cone.