The Weekend in 100 words..... or more, LOL
Posted by Dr Diecast at 12/17/2007 6:52 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
Actually....... im going to try and do it in less than that. Its the mad dash to the finish line with the last couple of remaining cars that are Xmas presents.
Well..... that being said/typed/conveyed whatever ya want to call it, its whacky shit anyway. Heck.... I spent Friday doing some of the little things that I had to get done so I could blast some clear on a couple cars Sunday.
Ok...... so since Friday was like 3 days ago I cant reflect on that as I don't remember what I did, LOL. My mind is kinda scrambled this time of year with all that im trying to do. Its normal for me and about Wednesday I will be able to relax a little again, hopefully, LOL.
So yesterday was interesting...... I basically had/have 4 cars that needed clearcoating. Three of them needed emblems/decals. One a 06 Corvette.... no biggie, 2 flags and its done. The next..... 93 Camaro... couple fender Z28's and a Red bowtie for the back and its done. Last was a little Nascar car with a auto repair shops name and a couple numbers and parts/tool sponsor logos. Its a present and not a real car so thats simple, HA!.
Well I look things over and think these (decals) will take all of about an hour to create then I can get them cleacoated and boom done. This is now noon my time, all is good I can then move on to a couple other things and actually get ahead of today, again HA!.
First off the get the flags for the Vette...... no problem, thats done, its like 12:15. Then I move to the Camaro, bowtie, done...... Z28 emblems.... ok ..... I need a couple of those so its off to the internet for me.
See when I don't have good pictures of emblems I have to search online for them, save them, upload them into my file folder then open them in my photoshop program and clean or shade them, save them, then upload them into a different print program for sizing. Simple huh ? Well it is simple when all goes right..... but oh course this is Xmas and my mad rush and...... nothing can be easy, LOL. First off if you do a search for 93 Camaro Z28 fender emblems you get nothing but 81 emblems and one link to a 91-02 emblem shown on a car at an angle that cannot be used. Then after opening the 15 links it posted I go to search images and get a whole lotta nothing. UGH !!!! So now I go back and do some more searching thinking I can come up with something. Nope all crap and nothing I can use. Ok...... I can go to plan "C". Plan C is shooting a picture of the picture of the emblem they sent me. That of course is grainy and at a slight angle so I have to play some trick photography here which im not great at. I set the photo up, then at an angle get the emblem to look straight in my viewfinder and shoot it. I shoot a couple just to make sure as you really cant tell on those little screens today but hey its better then it used to be right ?
Sidebar; I think back about 15 years ago and how far technology has come. What I do now I couldn't have then..... heck I was doing this 10 years ago but even so it was pretty limited. Hell the amount of new mold diecast cars has opened this door even further then before but without the internet, digital cameras, high end printers and such there is really no way you could have done this 15 years ago as a living. Guess I found a nitch at the right time but then again, we don't know how long this diecast collectibles industry is going to live so who knows how long I will continue to do this. Maybe its time to find a different way to be involved in diecast but in my own way, Hmmmm......... just imagining, thats all, LOL.
OK......... so back to the Camaro. Well I have now secured the Z28 emblems in my computer. I wont open those up for a bit as I need to create the ones for the Nascar car. This is pretty simple I figure. She wants this business name, Complete Car Care, O Reilly's auto parts, Snap On and NAPA logos, plus the #20 on each side. So I again search the internet for Jpegs of the logos, find them and save them. I go into my Printshop program and recreate the name in the correct font and color, save that and then create the #20's the same way. Now as simple as this seems there are like 100 fonts to choose from so I have to test each one to find the correct one. The numbers are the same way as I want something large, bold and clear. Anyway...... that being done I have everything saved so I can go get printing,
First up is are the Nascar logos..... yeah.... well once I start pasting to the print page I realize the 3 sponsor logos are grainy pieces of shit and need to be cleaned up in the photoshop program. Ok..... well that will take a little more time no problem, right ?
So I decide I will do the Camaro and Vette emblems. See the process is different for these .. its part of my "secret" process and they are printed different on a different backing paper. Well I open up the Z28 emblems and there crap too. So....... now its 2pm.. and I don't have a fricken thing done yet.
So......its off to photoshop to clean images. First is the Camaro one.... clean it, delete the background color, define the lighter color in the logo and its finally done. Now its off to the sponsor logos. They basically all need to be recolored and defined. This is something I hate doing but has to be done. Its tedious, time consuming and stressful, especially since I am not a graphic arts, photoshop expert. Well....... now its done..... and now its 4pm. Yep..... took 2 hours.... mind you I did walk away a couple times for a few minutes but it wasn't like I went and watched football. I have to get these cars clearcoated...... and ASAP.
Anyway.......... finally I can go in the start printing things. First off is laying out all the Nascar decals. This process take a few trial prints so I can get the sizing correct. Print, cut the decal out of the paper, test fit to the car and resize. This actually took 3 times before I was satisfied with there size. Then I get to max print quality and color and away we go. Away we go to the garbage, LOL........ apparently clear ink jet decals sheets can go bad. After printing all the decals have lines in them. Not a print head cleaning line but a crappy old decal paper line. Off to the garbage with you..... and ill just pop another sheet in the printer and.......... oh no......... I don't have any more paper, LOL. Wait....... yes I do but where...... see I don't use this paper alot and the last time was the big nascar project I did back in OR so........ I know I have some but where. Well the search issues until I find it in a box I had yet to unpack. Whew, that could have been a nightmare.
See I can hear some of you saying , geeze John why did you wait till the last minute but in reality 2 of these 4 were projects I took after my cut off knowing I would be running down to the wire but hey I work well under pressure, LOL.
OK......... reprint the logos, numbers, headlights and tailights (had those saved from the last Nascar project) and were done. Well almost done, see printing on inkjet paper means you have to seal the decals with clear over the top. So its off to the spray booth...... no problem, rattle can of clear and a few passes the sheet is covered and set to dry in my 300 watt heated spray booth.
Now its off to print the Camaro and Vette decals......... again, upload, test print, cut for size, resize, reprint, final print. At this point I go back to the Nascar decals to check for dryness and they are ready to be put on. Well, cut out, soaked in water then put on. See this has to be done now so I can get the Nascar car back under the booth lights to dry the water under the decals (I do get 95% of it out while applying) so I can clear the car ASAP.
Back to the other 2 cars....... I go through the rest of my process which does take some time but cant go into and they are pretty ready to go. I then head back to the workbench with them to check them over for anything that might need a touchup before clearcoating. I also attached the hood, doors, trunk and any other body colored part for the clear process. See I don't clear parts individually. When I shoot my cars I use single stage binders in the mix. This gets me glossy door, trunk and hood jams. Plus the underside of hood and trunk also. This eliminates a step and allows me to shoot the clear evenly over the whole car. So now we have those 2 ready, the Nascar car ready and the other Corvette with no emblems ready and it off to the booth.
First things first......... I clean the booth and change the filter. Then I get the car situated on there stands so I can set them on the turn table which allows for even spraying. Once this is done I mix my clear and thin it a little allowing for the clear to flow like water over glass. By this time it is now 6:10 and im finally ready to clear. I precede to do what I do and thats lay 3 coats of clear on each car......one at a time and get them all finished. Its finally time to go sit down, whew..... what a day..... oh look, the Simpsons are on, LOL, it must be 7 pm.
Oh well............ just another day in the world of diecast modding.
OK....... im out.
Well..... that being said/typed/conveyed whatever ya want to call it, its whacky shit anyway. Heck.... I spent Friday doing some of the little things that I had to get done so I could blast some clear on a couple cars Sunday.
Ok...... so since Friday was like 3 days ago I cant reflect on that as I don't remember what I did, LOL. My mind is kinda scrambled this time of year with all that im trying to do. Its normal for me and about Wednesday I will be able to relax a little again, hopefully, LOL.
So yesterday was interesting...... I basically had/have 4 cars that needed clearcoating. Three of them needed emblems/decals. One a 06 Corvette.... no biggie, 2 flags and its done. The next..... 93 Camaro... couple fender Z28's and a Red bowtie for the back and its done. Last was a little Nascar car with a auto repair shops name and a couple numbers and parts/tool sponsor logos. Its a present and not a real car so thats simple, HA!.
Well I look things over and think these (decals) will take all of about an hour to create then I can get them cleacoated and boom done. This is now noon my time, all is good I can then move on to a couple other things and actually get ahead of today, again HA!.
First off the get the flags for the Vette...... no problem, thats done, its like 12:15. Then I move to the Camaro, bowtie, done...... Z28 emblems.... ok ..... I need a couple of those so its off to the internet for me.
See when I don't have good pictures of emblems I have to search online for them, save them, upload them into my file folder then open them in my photoshop program and clean or shade them, save them, then upload them into a different print program for sizing. Simple huh ? Well it is simple when all goes right..... but oh course this is Xmas and my mad rush and...... nothing can be easy, LOL. First off if you do a search for 93 Camaro Z28 fender emblems you get nothing but 81 emblems and one link to a 91-02 emblem shown on a car at an angle that cannot be used. Then after opening the 15 links it posted I go to search images and get a whole lotta nothing. UGH !!!! So now I go back and do some more searching thinking I can come up with something. Nope all crap and nothing I can use. Ok...... I can go to plan "C". Plan C is shooting a picture of the picture of the emblem they sent me. That of course is grainy and at a slight angle so I have to play some trick photography here which im not great at. I set the photo up, then at an angle get the emblem to look straight in my viewfinder and shoot it. I shoot a couple just to make sure as you really cant tell on those little screens today but hey its better then it used to be right ?
Sidebar; I think back about 15 years ago and how far technology has come. What I do now I couldn't have then..... heck I was doing this 10 years ago but even so it was pretty limited. Hell the amount of new mold diecast cars has opened this door even further then before but without the internet, digital cameras, high end printers and such there is really no way you could have done this 15 years ago as a living. Guess I found a nitch at the right time but then again, we don't know how long this diecast collectibles industry is going to live so who knows how long I will continue to do this. Maybe its time to find a different way to be involved in diecast but in my own way, Hmmmm......... just imagining, thats all, LOL.
OK......... so back to the Camaro. Well I have now secured the Z28 emblems in my computer. I wont open those up for a bit as I need to create the ones for the Nascar car. This is pretty simple I figure. She wants this business name, Complete Car Care, O Reilly's auto parts, Snap On and NAPA logos, plus the #20 on each side. So I again search the internet for Jpegs of the logos, find them and save them. I go into my Printshop program and recreate the name in the correct font and color, save that and then create the #20's the same way. Now as simple as this seems there are like 100 fonts to choose from so I have to test each one to find the correct one. The numbers are the same way as I want something large, bold and clear. Anyway...... that being done I have everything saved so I can go get printing,
First up is are the Nascar logos..... yeah.... well once I start pasting to the print page I realize the 3 sponsor logos are grainy pieces of shit and need to be cleaned up in the photoshop program. Ok..... well that will take a little more time no problem, right ?
So I decide I will do the Camaro and Vette emblems. See the process is different for these .. its part of my "secret" process and they are printed different on a different backing paper. Well I open up the Z28 emblems and there crap too. So....... now its 2pm.. and I don't have a fricken thing done yet.
So......its off to photoshop to clean images. First is the Camaro one.... clean it, delete the background color, define the lighter color in the logo and its finally done. Now its off to the sponsor logos. They basically all need to be recolored and defined. This is something I hate doing but has to be done. Its tedious, time consuming and stressful, especially since I am not a graphic arts, photoshop expert. Well....... now its done..... and now its 4pm. Yep..... took 2 hours.... mind you I did walk away a couple times for a few minutes but it wasn't like I went and watched football. I have to get these cars clearcoated...... and ASAP.
Anyway.......... finally I can go in the start printing things. First off is laying out all the Nascar decals. This process take a few trial prints so I can get the sizing correct. Print, cut the decal out of the paper, test fit to the car and resize. This actually took 3 times before I was satisfied with there size. Then I get to max print quality and color and away we go. Away we go to the garbage, LOL........ apparently clear ink jet decals sheets can go bad. After printing all the decals have lines in them. Not a print head cleaning line but a crappy old decal paper line. Off to the garbage with you..... and ill just pop another sheet in the printer and.......... oh no......... I don't have any more paper, LOL. Wait....... yes I do but where...... see I don't use this paper alot and the last time was the big nascar project I did back in OR so........ I know I have some but where. Well the search issues until I find it in a box I had yet to unpack. Whew, that could have been a nightmare.
See I can hear some of you saying , geeze John why did you wait till the last minute but in reality 2 of these 4 were projects I took after my cut off knowing I would be running down to the wire but hey I work well under pressure, LOL.
OK......... reprint the logos, numbers, headlights and tailights (had those saved from the last Nascar project) and were done. Well almost done, see printing on inkjet paper means you have to seal the decals with clear over the top. So its off to the spray booth...... no problem, rattle can of clear and a few passes the sheet is covered and set to dry in my 300 watt heated spray booth.
Now its off to print the Camaro and Vette decals......... again, upload, test print, cut for size, resize, reprint, final print. At this point I go back to the Nascar decals to check for dryness and they are ready to be put on. Well, cut out, soaked in water then put on. See this has to be done now so I can get the Nascar car back under the booth lights to dry the water under the decals (I do get 95% of it out while applying) so I can clear the car ASAP.
Back to the other 2 cars....... I go through the rest of my process which does take some time but cant go into and they are pretty ready to go. I then head back to the workbench with them to check them over for anything that might need a touchup before clearcoating. I also attached the hood, doors, trunk and any other body colored part for the clear process. See I don't clear parts individually. When I shoot my cars I use single stage binders in the mix. This gets me glossy door, trunk and hood jams. Plus the underside of hood and trunk also. This eliminates a step and allows me to shoot the clear evenly over the whole car. So now we have those 2 ready, the Nascar car ready and the other Corvette with no emblems ready and it off to the booth.
First things first......... I clean the booth and change the filter. Then I get the car situated on there stands so I can set them on the turn table which allows for even spraying. Once this is done I mix my clear and thin it a little allowing for the clear to flow like water over glass. By this time it is now 6:10 and im finally ready to clear. I precede to do what I do and thats lay 3 coats of clear on each car......one at a time and get them all finished. Its finally time to go sit down, whew..... what a day..... oh look, the Simpsons are on, LOL, it must be 7 pm.
Oh well............ just another day in the world of diecast modding.
OK....... im out.
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