This week I finished sprucing up the last three of four Hot Wheels redlines kindly given to me by my friend Paul V for my Birthday.
Its been great fun! I had a lot of redlines as a kid and its been a nostalgic reunion.
The initial project was to replace the tyres and axles on one end of a redline baseplate.
With spare Kinder-type wheels supplied by Paul and using tools from my new Christmas modelling toolset presented by the Missus I fashioned two replacement axles from metal pins. The original single shaped Mattel axle is at the bottom.
I then set about cleaning up the McLaren M6A from 1968, a really lovely racing car in a forest green with some paint wear overall.
After a failed patch job with a green sharpie and a streaky paint job with a new metallic paint pen, I opted for a full brushed repaint with a pot of metallic Christmas Green paint.
I glued in the detached black plastic seating and glued on the baseplate with its two spare tyres,
The only thing missing is a curved windshield but I'm happy with this nice new car as it is.
Next on the bench was this gorgeous Custom Corvette from 1967 in its fabulous but freckled red colour.
Again a dodgy Sharpie patch-up failed and a metallic paint pen was more pink than red. I opted once more for a full brush repaint with some new metallic red.
I finagled a somewhat crude bonnet from a milk bottle to complete the look.
To be honest this metallic red was pinker than I'd hoped but the end isn't too bad,
The engine retains some of its original factory spray reddening so I've left it alone. All part of the story.
Last but not least and the easiest of the three was this gold Beatnik Bandit from 1968 [no before shot sorry].
My gold paint pen worked fine and created a decent lustre. I re-attached and re-chromed the engine and glued on the baseplate
The only thing missing is the plastic dome over the cockpit but I'll leave it as is with the simple black 'seat' I glued in position.
All in all a great trio and I thoroughly enjoyed doing them up. I've not attempted to re-create the red line on the tyres. I like the worn look and again all part of the history of these old Mattels.
Hope you like them!
[thanks again Paul!]
Another great batch of restorations. The paint finishes are excellent. It is good to see these old models brought back to life.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul. Yep, the metallic paint worked well in the end.
DeleteYou're very very welcome Woodsy! Glad you're enjoying them and fabulous to see them back from the dead! :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you like what I've done Paul! Cheers!
DeleteNice jobs, Woodsy. I think the time has come when you need to start teaching yourself how to plunge mould clear windscreens, like I did for my Piranha Uncle car!
ReplyDelete