Wednesday.... oh what a day
Posted by Dr Diecast at 3/19/2008 6:54 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
Actually........ the day was Tuesday not today, as it is yet to unfold. I will preface this by typing, there will be NO pictures today (of current projects) but there will be a rant. Scroll down for the rant if you don't want to read about the trial and error part of this business.
Ok..... if your reading this I want to say that learning to do flames is a PAIN IN THE ASS, lol. Since they are NOT my specialty and I have only done them twice on other cars over the years (see pic below for most current one) I am trying to figure out the best way to do these.
First off....... their is a HUGE difference between laying out flames for yourself and duplicating a customers version. Doing your own you can do whatever you want however you want and if you screw up you can hide it. The customers car is whole different story as you will understand below. The car above I did for myself.
As you know I felt the need to use this clear masking paper since these flames are more intricate. The paper/clear plastic is reasonable to work with but a little tricky. Laying it over diecast car bodies to conform to all the bends, curves, folds and seams without leaving bubbles underneath does take some tenacity.
The first car I did was a 34 that has a 3 line laser..... I guess stripe on the side. Three different stripes that start on the hood at a point and get wider at the rear wheel wheels. The stripe itself is 3-4 colors but we are not even there yet, LOL. So once the sides are masked I have to use a metal type flex ruler to mark the straight lines. Whats neat about this masking paper is the pen I used to mark the lines does leave a small indent in the paper even if the ink doesn't follow the line.
Once this is done and there was some hand drawn curves added per the car I used my trusty X-acto knife to score and cut the line..... then peeled off the excess and we have the 3 stripes, masked and waiting for paint, WHOO HOOO !!!!
This is easy, LOL........ NOT ! The next car was the other 34, the pretty Blue one I have posted pictures of. Well this car gets a Yellow flame over most of the front half of the hood and then flames in orange/red shoot out onto the fenders, top of the hood and a single long flame runs down the side of the car to the rear wheel wells. Well let me tell you masking around the bends of the fenders is a PITA. Yes I used that again and probably will again, LOL. So with that finally done I set about laying out the flame pattern and quickly realize I have plenty of photos but they are pretty much useless to me as a guide do to the angle they were shot at.
At this point I decide to move to the El Camino since I did have plenty of pictures on CD...... yeah the way I didn't want them is going to be the way I needed them, LOL. Funny how that works..... well in this case (flames) is does.
I had the Elke masked from Sunday I think and pulled up the pictures and started free hand drawing and duplicating the flames. This was rolling along pretty well though the lighting (tried several different ways of doing it) made it hard to see the overall look while drawing it. Once I got a section done (half the hood, fender or door) I would look it over and see if I thought it was acceptable.
I was rather pleased based on looking at the monitor and then hand duplicating the pattern on the car. That is until it was done........ then I noticed that the flames on the one side of the hood were off. I mean off..... by enough to bother me...... so since I did the hood in a split configuration (2 different pieces of paper split down the middle of the hood) I pulled off the one side and re masked and started over. See once you scribe your line if you really can't remove it... then if your new line runs up to or over that original it will become confusing upon cutting. This I know from that first 34.
After I re mask the hood I sat back and looked at the pictures I had and the car. I reviewed all that I had done and thought maybe there was a better way to do this. Then the light went on..... I jumped out of my chair and said HOLY CRAP BATMAN who turned on the light, LOL. I mean seriously the light on the lamp went on and I jumped, LOL. Apparently I had not turned the little switch all the way off and it kicked back a little turning the light back on, LOL. Ok... back to the flames... I did have pretty good pictures and decided to pull each section (hood, fender, door) up in my photo shop program, turn it into a negative, resize it and print it for pattern use. This after a couple test prints worked and then upon lining up on the car allowed me to cut the actual flame pattern in the copied paper thus leaving the scribed line on the masked part of the body.
Well I was so pleased with this I decided to redo the whole car. Remember I had the fender and door flames done but this would be a more accurate way to scribe the flames. That being said/typed I set about doing that...... the fenders and doors are freaking great..... the hood was a little harder to do. See the pictures provided are great except that the distorted by the angle at which they were shot. The one picture from above of the hood while clearly shows the flames and how they should be is skewed by the angle of the picture. All this meant was I had to print the negative version a couple times, actually trim the flame out of the paper and then lay it over the body part (hood) and scribe it. But, that isn't going to happen since the flame pattern is so small I cannot hold it in place to scribe around it. So the plan is to lay it on the surface and run a paint marker over the top thus leaving the outline I need to scribe.
So, thats where is stands today..... I will do that and then trim out the Elke..... but will probably have to do the Blue 34 by hand and hopefully get paint on these today. At least I should be able to get 2 of them shot. Note all that was typed above too about an hour.... but in real time I spent at least 5-6 hours on this. Again I am not complaining but learning..... if this works the way I think it will this will make replicating flames in the future a much easier process.
This is just another one of those things that can delay projects but sadly when your in a field that has no how too manual there is nothing that can be done but what is being done.
Ok...... so a little rant for ya.. hope you like it,LOL, I didn't.
Around lunchtime yesterday I did my normal drive into town to the post office and decided to stop at the local greasy spoon for lunch. See this used to be a Dennys and nows its J&B's Family Diner. They make a great pot roast on rye with swiss cheese sandwich and I stop by about once every 10 days and have one. Well as I am driving by (still had not decided to eat there) I notice that they are having the parking lot resealed. Basically its noon and it looks dead...or closed. I decided to stop anyway figuring if they are open they will be slow and not filled with all the retired people who normally eat there (must be a AARP card kinda place.... hey wait I have one of those too, LOL) or filled with kids, ugh. So I go in and sure enough its dead.... YEAH!!! I get my seat and the one regular waitress says hi and I say a little slow huh... she agrees and I say " well thats good I want a nice peaceful lunch anyway". Keep that line in your head..... don't forget it, LOL.
So she seats me and sadly I don't get the one waitress I really like there.... yeah another fantasy women, LOL. So.... I have my USA Today, yesterday, LOL, and I start reading....... order my sandwich and life is good. Life is good until that regular waitress seats a table of 10 next to me. Mind you the place is dead... there were 3 other people beside me in this place that had probably 50 tables. They actually pushed 2 together to seat these 10. Yes I said 10....... 3 adults and 7 kids all under 5 I bet, NEXT TO ME. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Fricking yammering little piss ants, LOL. Sorry but come on...... the WHOLE FRICKIN PLACE IS EMPTY and she seats them next to me..... UGH!. Its mommy this, mommy that..... I'm like Mommy learn to close your damn legs, LOL. See of the 3 only 2 were the parents , the other was the mother of one of the parents. So that means 7 kids, 2 mothers, OMG they are baby factories. Can ya say BIRTH CONTROL.... I don't think so. Plus they weren't even hot... I mean if at least they were hot moms I can get past the screaming little humanoids that are making my lunch like a trip to Six Flags on bring your dumbass kid for free day, LOL. Ugh......what a crappy lunch..... I did get a great sandwich and finished my paper and got out as fast as I could but still... what a joke. Hell isn't this why they created Mc Donald's....... maybe they didn't know how to get there, next time I think I will give them directions, LOL.
OK... Im out
Ok..... if your reading this I want to say that learning to do flames is a PAIN IN THE ASS, lol. Since they are NOT my specialty and I have only done them twice on other cars over the years (see pic below for most current one) I am trying to figure out the best way to do these.
First off....... their is a HUGE difference between laying out flames for yourself and duplicating a customers version. Doing your own you can do whatever you want however you want and if you screw up you can hide it. The customers car is whole different story as you will understand below. The car above I did for myself.
As you know I felt the need to use this clear masking paper since these flames are more intricate. The paper/clear plastic is reasonable to work with but a little tricky. Laying it over diecast car bodies to conform to all the bends, curves, folds and seams without leaving bubbles underneath does take some tenacity.
The first car I did was a 34 that has a 3 line laser..... I guess stripe on the side. Three different stripes that start on the hood at a point and get wider at the rear wheel wheels. The stripe itself is 3-4 colors but we are not even there yet, LOL. So once the sides are masked I have to use a metal type flex ruler to mark the straight lines. Whats neat about this masking paper is the pen I used to mark the lines does leave a small indent in the paper even if the ink doesn't follow the line.
Once this is done and there was some hand drawn curves added per the car I used my trusty X-acto knife to score and cut the line..... then peeled off the excess and we have the 3 stripes, masked and waiting for paint, WHOO HOOO !!!!
This is easy, LOL........ NOT ! The next car was the other 34, the pretty Blue one I have posted pictures of. Well this car gets a Yellow flame over most of the front half of the hood and then flames in orange/red shoot out onto the fenders, top of the hood and a single long flame runs down the side of the car to the rear wheel wells. Well let me tell you masking around the bends of the fenders is a PITA. Yes I used that again and probably will again, LOL. So with that finally done I set about laying out the flame pattern and quickly realize I have plenty of photos but they are pretty much useless to me as a guide do to the angle they were shot at.
At this point I decide to move to the El Camino since I did have plenty of pictures on CD...... yeah the way I didn't want them is going to be the way I needed them, LOL. Funny how that works..... well in this case (flames) is does.
I had the Elke masked from Sunday I think and pulled up the pictures and started free hand drawing and duplicating the flames. This was rolling along pretty well though the lighting (tried several different ways of doing it) made it hard to see the overall look while drawing it. Once I got a section done (half the hood, fender or door) I would look it over and see if I thought it was acceptable.
I was rather pleased based on looking at the monitor and then hand duplicating the pattern on the car. That is until it was done........ then I noticed that the flames on the one side of the hood were off. I mean off..... by enough to bother me...... so since I did the hood in a split configuration (2 different pieces of paper split down the middle of the hood) I pulled off the one side and re masked and started over. See once you scribe your line if you really can't remove it... then if your new line runs up to or over that original it will become confusing upon cutting. This I know from that first 34.
After I re mask the hood I sat back and looked at the pictures I had and the car. I reviewed all that I had done and thought maybe there was a better way to do this. Then the light went on..... I jumped out of my chair and said HOLY CRAP BATMAN who turned on the light, LOL. I mean seriously the light on the lamp went on and I jumped, LOL. Apparently I had not turned the little switch all the way off and it kicked back a little turning the light back on, LOL. Ok... back to the flames... I did have pretty good pictures and decided to pull each section (hood, fender, door) up in my photo shop program, turn it into a negative, resize it and print it for pattern use. This after a couple test prints worked and then upon lining up on the car allowed me to cut the actual flame pattern in the copied paper thus leaving the scribed line on the masked part of the body.
Well I was so pleased with this I decided to redo the whole car. Remember I had the fender and door flames done but this would be a more accurate way to scribe the flames. That being said/typed I set about doing that...... the fenders and doors are freaking great..... the hood was a little harder to do. See the pictures provided are great except that the distorted by the angle at which they were shot. The one picture from above of the hood while clearly shows the flames and how they should be is skewed by the angle of the picture. All this meant was I had to print the negative version a couple times, actually trim the flame out of the paper and then lay it over the body part (hood) and scribe it. But, that isn't going to happen since the flame pattern is so small I cannot hold it in place to scribe around it. So the plan is to lay it on the surface and run a paint marker over the top thus leaving the outline I need to scribe.
So, thats where is stands today..... I will do that and then trim out the Elke..... but will probably have to do the Blue 34 by hand and hopefully get paint on these today. At least I should be able to get 2 of them shot. Note all that was typed above too about an hour.... but in real time I spent at least 5-6 hours on this. Again I am not complaining but learning..... if this works the way I think it will this will make replicating flames in the future a much easier process.
This is just another one of those things that can delay projects but sadly when your in a field that has no how too manual there is nothing that can be done but what is being done.
Ok...... so a little rant for ya.. hope you like it,LOL, I didn't.
Around lunchtime yesterday I did my normal drive into town to the post office and decided to stop at the local greasy spoon for lunch. See this used to be a Dennys and nows its J&B's Family Diner. They make a great pot roast on rye with swiss cheese sandwich and I stop by about once every 10 days and have one. Well as I am driving by (still had not decided to eat there) I notice that they are having the parking lot resealed. Basically its noon and it looks dead...or closed. I decided to stop anyway figuring if they are open they will be slow and not filled with all the retired people who normally eat there (must be a AARP card kinda place.... hey wait I have one of those too, LOL) or filled with kids, ugh. So I go in and sure enough its dead.... YEAH!!! I get my seat and the one regular waitress says hi and I say a little slow huh... she agrees and I say " well thats good I want a nice peaceful lunch anyway". Keep that line in your head..... don't forget it, LOL.
So she seats me and sadly I don't get the one waitress I really like there.... yeah another fantasy women, LOL. So.... I have my USA Today, yesterday, LOL, and I start reading....... order my sandwich and life is good. Life is good until that regular waitress seats a table of 10 next to me. Mind you the place is dead... there were 3 other people beside me in this place that had probably 50 tables. They actually pushed 2 together to seat these 10. Yes I said 10....... 3 adults and 7 kids all under 5 I bet, NEXT TO ME. AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! Fricking yammering little piss ants, LOL. Sorry but come on...... the WHOLE FRICKIN PLACE IS EMPTY and she seats them next to me..... UGH!. Its mommy this, mommy that..... I'm like Mommy learn to close your damn legs, LOL. See of the 3 only 2 were the parents , the other was the mother of one of the parents. So that means 7 kids, 2 mothers, OMG they are baby factories. Can ya say BIRTH CONTROL.... I don't think so. Plus they weren't even hot... I mean if at least they were hot moms I can get past the screaming little humanoids that are making my lunch like a trip to Six Flags on bring your dumbass kid for free day, LOL. Ugh......what a crappy lunch..... I did get a great sandwich and finished my paper and got out as fast as I could but still... what a joke. Hell isn't this why they created Mc Donald's....... maybe they didn't know how to get there, next time I think I will give them directions, LOL.
OK... Im out
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