Geronimooo

In theory my camera rig should work brilliant on the little hopper. In real life it didn't. As people told me the Grashopper is a bit too bouncy for this kind of camera action. On tarmac it worked ok but on sand it's a no-go. At least not the bumpy sand pits around my city. Well, at least I had fun painting the car and 'building' the rig. I guess I will keep the rig for an onroad car, maybe a rally chassis... If anyone is interested in a rusty GrassHopper, just sent a pm.

Too bad I have the slightly bigger Kodak PlaySport. I guess my solution works OK for filming other cars, which was my first goal. Hopefully I have an extra driver this week to give it a go because my camera rig is ready! I bought a very cheap tripod head and some screws and attached it to the chassis. Now I can shoot several angles (front, back and side) without too much hassle. The Grashopper has lost it's looks but hopefully it can make it up with some nice video's

Ha ha, I know excactly what you mean. I repainted the drivers head several times. The hardest part are the eyes. When you get them right the rest will follow. I have two wheels left to be painted but the rest is done. It has become a real piece of junk Now I have to figure out a way to attach the videocamera. The grasshopper doesn't have the best shocks so I hope all the effort wasn't for nothing. At least I have one of the old school cars from Tamiya (although it's a re-re).... BTW, I found some amazing pics of a real off-road camera car. It's for rent so if you want some nice footage from your own car, visit their site: pursuitsystems

Today I started with the chassis which was black. I tried to gave it a rusty look by painting it brown. With a sponge I put on some orange to give some it more depth. To soften the brownish colour I sprayed the chassis with black from a long distance. Ready for some decals (from a Scorcher and Alpine) Next step: washes. With some orange/brown paint and a lot of water I washed the whole body. These rims needs some tlc. The perfect condition for my Grasshopper! I decided to use my Scorcher driver for this project. Hopefully Beetlelover creates some nice detailed body because I already have the 'Albert' head waiting First some pink... Some shadow and highlighting… Next time I'll try oil paint. Normal Tamiya paint doesn't blend very well. Vroooom! Ready for some driving… at least he is. The headlights arrived as well today. Hopefully I have the car finished tomorrow.

Double thread/post? It wasn't me

The idea was to buy a cheap car and convert it into an off-road camera car. But when my re-re Grasshopper arrived I couldn't resist to give it a little makeover first... There is nothing wrong with gold, as long as it's not the paint on my Grasshopper ;-) Back to basics: white It's not my intention to turn this car into a brandnew Grasshopper. So I needed a layer of rust under the topcoat. After the brown followed a color I had laying around, Corsa grey Now the fun part started! When the top layer was drying I quickly started to peel off some of the paint. I have never seen a car rust so fast! The next step will be the chassis which is way to clean for a body like this!

Double thread/post. This may be removed.... Mea Culpa!

Thanks! Allready working on a better camera rig so the onboard footage will be less bumpy. @gti mad man: it's not that hard. Just pick a colour you like and paint the whole figure. That's youre base colour. When it's dry you mix a bit of black with some new base color and a lot of water and repaint the figure. When it's almost dry, gently wipe most of the paint of the figure. The deeper parts will stay on so now you have created the shadowparts! For the highlights you will have to use a technique that's called "drybrushing". Just mix a bit of white with the base colour (no water!) Put some of the paint on a (short) brush and wipe of most of the paint on a tissue. With this brush you gently touch the higher parts of the figure. Tadaaa, you have created the highlights! Now walk to the fridge and get yourself a beer, you've deserved it

Here is another Syntax error victim I have tried uploading from YouTube and 2 different servers but still got the next error message: Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers error '80040e14' [MySQL][ODBC 3.51 Driver][mysqld-5.1.34-community]You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ''71Xswzn4WEc.youtube',' ',' ',' ',' ','After several errors uploading from my ow' at line 1 /movie_process.asp, line 68 From YouTube I use the "71Xswzn4WEc.youtube" code, from my own server I don't use http://, nothing seems to work. Any ideas?

Nice job Swarm. Congrats!

Thanks! Some white paper, glossy perspex and indirect sunlight. The Scorcher went out for a spin yesterday and this is how it went... click

Thanks all! Well, this build has (almost) come to an end. Only thing left is the driver which I'll add after this weekend. It's driving time! I had a few things left to do. The easy part was the tire painting. I bought a fineliner with white ink. Works great and really gives the tire a new happy face The most challenging part was painting the window rubbers. I have tried maskingtape but this worked only for the long straights. The rest was just freehand painting (which was hard!) I messed up the indicators with glue but after some TLC and paint on the outside they don't look too bad. What's a racecar without an extinguisher? Well, here you go. I made this one from some spareparts I had laying around. It may not be the smartest place to keep an extinguisher but I thought it looked good up there! I really enjoyed this build. The Scorcher was a boy's dream back in the days and now I actually built one. Can't wait to take it out to the beach! So take a good look at the final pics, he won't be that clean the next time!

After another can of clear coat and some polishing I finally achieved (some) gloss. The two tone body is getting in shape ;-) One of the last (body) steps will be the window rubbers and mirrors. They will be black (mat). Btw, made a rookie mistake with the indicators. The glue started to eat the paint and glasses Have to figure out what to do with them.

Next stop is the not-so-handsome-driver. I ordered an more realistic head but decided to paint the body anyway. Started with a base of light grey: After that some dark grey for the shadowparts: A little wash to blend the colors and I gave the bloke some gloves: Finally a highlight brush and some more washes. He is ready for a head!

Today, I started with clear coating the body. I used TS-13 from Tamiya because the underlaying paint was TS paint as well. Although I used several thin layers it's not that glossy I hoped it would turn out. Do I have to buy myself an extra can for some more layers or do I have to wet sand it? Btw, the clear coat did NOT eat my decals...phew!