Well i've made a start over the past few days on my "Pimp My Ride" Mini Cooper. Sorry, it won't be a superdetailed or modified entry from me for this campaign. My aim is to experiment with some ideas i've had for doing custom paint schemes.

So i'm definately going for the tacky custom paintjob for this ride. Hence the Lavender overall colour. It's a strange colour..looks completely different under diferrent lighting. Still haven't decided on the interior colours yet...

Like usual, for an auto subject, i'm concentrating on the body first. If that fails then there's no point to the rest really is there? I'm currently up to applying the second clear top coat, it may need more top coats than usual with sanding inbetween to remove the steps caused by the home made declas- which was the aim of this exercise really (to see how they work out).

I'm happy with the decals themselves, done on my inkjet printer...the detail is excellent. Of course the artwork is not mine. The roof is by Luis Royo and the sides by Hajime Sorayama- well know fantasy and pinup airbrush artists.







Andrew

The decal work is really cool, take away the subject mater and they are still really cool. I even 'dig' the color scheme; right up the Pimp my ride alley.

That is way to cool. The quality of the decals are amazing. Love the way you have blended the decals and the bodycolor.

The chassis and interior is now pretty much done. Just some Tamiya Smoke as a wash around some of the engine parts, polish all the body pieces, paint the window surrounds and the final assembly stuff to go. I think it's looking like something some 17 year old would be amazingly proud to own! Very tacky looking and tasteless. And be careful not to drop your car keys in the 2 ft deep lilac shag pile carpet...

As for the Tamiya kit, it's done to their usual high engineering standard. But it's not like their past great 1/12 scale kits. I still believe their 1/12 Martini Porsche 935 from the late 70's is the model kit of all time- even after all these years. The newer Mini is only a shadow of the great Tamiya 1/12th kits of the past, it is more like simply an upscaled 1/24 kit really. Plus i'm not really a fan of the Mini. I just got it cheap!






Andrew

Man, how rich is that? That is great, its an Austin Powers mobile!

This is great.

Andrew,

That is looking sooooooo good! The decals are awesome! That shag carpet is totally nuts....heheheheh!

Veddy, veddy nice indeed.

Mike

Totaly pimped.

Here's my finished entry for the "Pimp my Ride" campaign. Tamiya 1/12 Mini Cooper with custom paint job. All body colour is Tamiya TS37 Lavender and TS13 Clear after decals. Polished with Tamiya polishing compounds. All other paints form either Gunze or Tamiya acrylic range.

Is there a folder where we upload a couple of completed pics like the aeroscale campaigns? I looked but didn't notice any, but maybe i'm just looking in the wrong place?

Anyway thanks for running the campaign, it was fun to build for- and got a kit out of my stash that i always wondered what to do with!










Andrew

Awesome piece of work Andrew. The decals are superb.

The final things you need to do is stick on the road tax & insurance discs on the wind screen & hang up a couple of Aussie licence plates.
Fantastic pimp job.

just wondered who's decal paper you used...Some are good and frankly some are more trouble than they are worth.far too thick and no adhesion...

The graphics are done real fine!
Great work!

I think your exercise was a success-nice job.

Ah yes, i've also tried a few that don't work very well at all. The decal film used here is "Experts-Choice Decal Film" from Bare-Metal. Same company as the Bare-Metal Foil. The packs come in either white or clear and are intended for use with inkjet printers.. Obviously regular ink printers don't do white, so you either use clear over a painted white background or use white film and carefully trim the graphics out- i chose the first option.

The graphics need to be clear coated to water proof the inks. I simply used Tamiya TS13. Of course that makes the decals thicker which can be a problem and is why i needed so many clear coats on the final model- trying to even out the step.

And it takes a bit of trial and error to arrive at the best setting for your inkjet printer. For mine (Canon Pixma iP4200) the "matt photo paper" setting worked perfect. All printers will be different though of course, and some brands may not even work at all- all their inks are different.

Thanks for the comments everyone, appreciated.

Andrew

Incredible... This is one beautiful car. (The model is just awesome.)