Mad Max “The Road Warrior” Interceptor
1/24 scale Model kit by Aoshima
(http://www.aoshima-bk.co.jp)
My local Hobby Lobby was having a 50% off all models so I decided to see if they had anything good. Looking though and not finding anything I wanted/liked I started to walk out and I noticed “The Road Warrior” laying flat on the end of the shelf, looked at the price and did the math and thought “Sweet, 14 bucks for a cool model ” so I happily purchased the model and took it home. Honestly I didn’t need a new model I have a few stacked up waiting in the queue to be built. This one quickly rose to the top of the queue.
I plan on documenting how I build and paint this model just because there is not a lot of stuff out on the net about it. Plus it is cool to see the progress and read how to do something.
The Road Warrior is just about done. Need to dirty it up a bit to make it look just right.
Open Box Review
A bit of a background, I don’t usually build car models. I am more into sci-fi, mecha, and miniatures. In fact I haven’t built a car since I was like 8 years old. The model looks well made, and the instructions are easy to follow. The English directions are not real good but understandable. The Detail looks quite well on the dashboard, not supper detailed but dry brushing should bring out most of the detail. The only thing that bugs me is the covers for the head lights, they are a decal, I figure they should have been made as a separate piece so they would look more 3D. I plan on cutting some plastic sheeting to make the covers, it should not be that hard to do.
Click Here to view the Instructions to the model
Planning
The box art the car looks all new and shinny. This simply will not do. The Road Warrior should be a dirty nasty car ready to run over the nearest road gang to steal their juice. I looked on the net for pictures of the car. Surprising there are very few pictures of it on internet, so I broke down and took screen shots off of my DVD. I decided I would share them to anyone who wants a copy. Just click the link at the bottom of the page to view them all. I put the "best" ones on this page. Now how to make it dirty, I don’t have an air brush so doing it that way is not an option. I did some thinking and came up with chalk pastels. Again I went to Hobby Lobby and lucky that had pastels on 25% off, I picked up the earth tones box set.
I have never tried wreathing with pastel till now, I used them to finish up my AT-ST, and they are great. I will do a tutorial on them later. To paint the model I am going to do a partial assembly prime it all black. I figure the main parts will be the Chassis/Interior, Windows, Gas Tanks, and Body. The interior will have a little color for the parts, and a good dusting of chalk to make it look dirty. The windows will be clear coated with future floor wax, then glued into the body, finishing the touch ups on the interior, and all will be glued to place. Then time for chalk, I am not planning on using any paint on the exterior other than the black primer. The rest will all be done with chalk. I think it will give a more realist look because basically you just have chalk dust/dirt all over the model.
These are my plans so far. I hope to update this page as often as I can but I tend to work pretty slow. Just check back every so often to see if there have been updates.
Work In progress Shots
I have finished most of the building part. I have competed the interior of the interceptor. I will paint the dash board and seats, and other bits. Then I will completely assemble the model and do all the weathering. I have primed the model flat black, the little yellow bits are poster tack, this where some chrome parts will go later, and I didn’t want to have to scrape paint to be able to get the clement to make contact. Also the kit came with the windows “rolled” up and it didn’t look right to me so I cut them out. This is was when I figured out a Dremel with a cutting disk really just melts the plastic more than cut it. So remember that the cut will “grow” if you are not very careful. Hopeful more pictures soon.
5-08-2008
I dusted the interior of the car pretty well. I later found out that when you clear coat it pastel dust may disappear. I went back and re-dusted a few spots where dust would collect.
5-16-08
Once the interior was clear coated, I inserted it into the body and glued it together and added the tanks and gas cans. I had a very heavy layer of pastel chalk, but the clear coating seemed to make it disappear again. It still looks pretty good, but I am going to dust the model again and see how it looks. But for now I will leave it this way.
Conclusion
this was a very fun model to build. I really used no paint on the model other than the black primer and a few dots of red on the interior. I found out the pastel chalk may disappear with clear coat on darker paints. They did not seem to disappear on my scout walker at all when I clear coated it. Also the darker the pastel the less it seemed to disappear. I did mess up on the window and scratched it, but I thought a wet sand with 1000 grit, would help. It didn’t so I just made the windows a bit dirty and grimy than I wanted to cover the fact I missed up. It was a lot of fun if you are in to car models (I am not) you would probably like it. But if you are like me mainly being a sci-fi/figure modeler then this is a great one off kit to do something different for a while.
Contact me at josborn@happinessismandatory.com |
