MOONBASE CENTRAL

Tuesday, 7 November 2023

LOOEY'S FENDER SHOP: PART 7 - DISPLAY BACKING CARD

Here are the before and after images I was mucking around with.

Looey

Oz Base

Finished display coming very soon!

2000 COBRAS

I quite like these Greek space planes, Cobra 2000.

Its a design I've seen before in the old Gay Toys Laser Force 2000 range, which were soft plastic hollow vehicles.

Is it a design you know?

Looey's Fender Shop 6: Holy Pinstriping, Batman!

And the fourth of my Husky 66 toys, a Batmobile that was in pretty good shape apart from missing it's drivers.

1) I love the fluoro red bat symbols on the doors, so I'll save them for later by removing them gently with lighter fluid.

2) I've cleaned up the paint chips with steel wool and I've masked off everything else with Play D... "Looey, we're on Blue Peter, you can't use brand names here!" Um, that Dough... that you... play with. By the way, where's Peter Purvis? I met him at one of my dad's Sunday morning coffee soirees... "Yeah, he left in 1978, why are you still stuck in the 60's?"

3) After spray painting with gloss black enamel that P... stuff removes quite nicely, but you have to be careful of cleaning yp any fragments left behind.

I next tried adding some very thin strips of red vinyl sheet for pinstripes, but I gave it up as a bad idea.

4) Next up it's time to tackle the occupant situation. I found photos of Husky figures and sculpted and scanned Robin, then broadened his shoulders and turned him into Batman. I'd learnt by this time that I could be fairly broad because these figures end up so ridiculously small.

5) I revisited the pinstripes by painting them on by brush, which because they were all on sharp edges turned out to be easier than I thought! Painting the Dynamic Duo was a real headache. I had one of those head mounted magnifiers Dr. Smith used in Lost in Space, but I still nearly went blind painting in Batman's white eyes! A 3D modelled steering wheel and they boys were almost ready to roll.

I love the fluoro red beacon on the larger Corgi version, but this one was moulded in clear blue plastic, so as expected it didn't look particularly cool when I painted it clear Orange. Biting the bullet, I painted it flat white with a clear pink topcoat which is as good as it's ever going to be. Then a bit of chrome work on the canopy and the hubcaps, restuck the door stickers and more P... that stuff, so I could tie it all together with another clear overcoat. I printed Robin just a bit smaller and he almost looks like he needs a seat booster, but then he is the BOY wonder!

By the way, after that recent Moonbase post about the Matchbox Muir Hill Hiway Site Dumper, I think those knobbly tyres were copied for the Husky range and ended up being fitted to 007's and Batman's cars! Some chrome hubcap work smartened them up a bit, but they are nowhere near as classy as the Monkeemobile and the Piranha!

Hope you like it.

Now to celebrate my own 66, maybe with a faux Husky Gift set header card!

DRIVING YOU UP THE WALL

I so recall these as a kid, Wall Walkers, those little suckered plastic frames that walked down windows. Like a slinky for glass, there were great fun and a fun highlight one Christmas in the late Sixties.

This is the Kletter Maxe, the Wall Walker for the German market.

Did you walk the walls?

Looey's Fender Shop Part 5: Now pay attention, 007. This is a DB6, not your DB5.....

After my "rivetting" experience with the UNCLE Piranha (just one rivet!) I was dreading 007's Aston Martin -four tiny rivets driven into 50 year old vacuum metallised styrene!

1) I found the flat topped steel grinder worked much better as it didn't tend to wander off as the ball shape did. Even so, I was left with a few gouges in the plastic that would alert any expert examiners. Levering out the aged plastic with a butter knife was nerve wracking, but in the end the aged plastic stood up to this abuse...

2) After disassembly, I cleaned everything up. I was a bit disappointed that Mr Bond and his missing gunman were unpainted brown plastic, unlike Napoleon and Ilya. So James got a coat of Civil Service grey while his car was resprayed with silver auto lacquer.

3) Here's the bit where the purists shriek and cross me off their Christmas card list. The interior of the film car was black leather which wouldn't show up well at such a small scale. The larger Corgi version had a Crimson interior as did some Huskys, along with a lemon yellow version Ugh! I decided on a grey green interior to show up my driver. Notice the front grille? Half is the original vacuum metallised finish, the other is Green Stuff World Chrome, just to show you how really good it is!

4) Goldfinger's Goon was missing, so I sculpted up one in Kleenclay at about 1/16 scale, scanned it and 3D printed it. The photos on the monitor are eBay replacements and the multicoloured figure is three separate scans merged in my scan program.

5) It turns out the head was a little too large so I "fixed it in post" and went again. I ended up printing a lot of different sized figures to get one that looked right. So some paint in the Corgi style and after the chassis was glued back into place and the hubcaps painted chrome I could call this one done!

"Holy Government Sanctioned Killer, Batman! Whatever's next?"

"Funny. you. should. ask. that, Robin...

What do you think?

Looey

Oz Base

Looey's Fender Shop 4: Hey, Hey, Now We're Mobile!

With the UNCLE Piranha out of the way, I'm moving on to the Monkees' overpowered custom Pontiac GTO (true story! They had to put a weaker engine in to help with the road handling!)

Having got a larger Corgi version on a previous trip to Blighty, it seemed a perfect opportunity to fix up both at once.

1) The white rag top on both models was only painted in the center panel, so first up was cutting some thin strips to mask them. The open panel at the rear was especially tricky as I didn't want any paint on the interior upholstery or passengers!

2) It took a couple of passes to build up a solid enough flat white coating.

3) Touching up the red colour was also difficult as it is neither Crimson or Scarlet. After a lot of messing around, I mixed up the two and applied it by brush. Although the colour match was pretty good, the finish was flatter than the original paint which created a rather patchy effect.

4) More masking to allow a gloss overcoat and again not as plain sailing as I'd hoped. The final effect is adequate, but not the showroom shine I'd been dreaming of.

5) Some touch up work on the chrome and hubcaps and white parachute packs finally brings this song to a harmonious ending.

6) SEPARATED AT BIRTH?

Until it got heavily into research, I'd never noticed this similarity between the Monkeemobile and Captain Scarlet's SPC. The Monkeemobile is 1966, so just maybe, it might have played some influence in Mike Trim's design process? I'd love to meet him in person and ask a whole bunch of questions, modelmaker to modelmaker!