How do you make wrecks?

I'm thinking of making a wreck car. So I was wondering how do you make dented, crashed, rusted, cut etc. parts?
Heating the plastic doesn't give realistic results. Metal foil is to thin and fragile. Should I try with copper maybe or brass?
What is your preferable material and procedure?

Some pictures would be helpful.

If you want a crashed car, hit it with a hammer :iceslolan

^^^thats wat i was going to say

drop a cinderblock on it corner first over the area you want smashed. bet it'll work fine, call it roll damage.

best way I found out is to just cut out the panel you want dented , wrecked, and replace it with the aluminium stuff coke cans are made off, it takes lotsa practice, but it looks supernice (have something up my sleeve that will be finished soon)

Olivier

I'll give it a try. Also gonna avoid using a hammer :)

best way I found out is to just cut out the panel you want dented , wrecked, and replace it with the aluminium stuff coke cans are made off, it takes lotsa practice, but it looks supernice (have something up my sleeve that will be finished soon)

Olivier

hey i like that idea, just have to make it look real and not like that 1 panel is dented but to blend it in.

Before you just go and break something, it's best to figure out what you want to do, and what it would look like in real life. You're absolutely right that melting a car model doesn't look like wreck damage- it looks like a melted plastic car. But what does a smashed car look like? Decide on a particular type of damage (hit a lightpost, engine fire, head on off center collision, bullet holes, whatever), find pics of cars with that kind of damage and model the damage as it really looks. Does a fender actually bend this way? What does a smashed steel bonnet look like? What about a CF bonnet? What happened to the car to make it look like that?

http://www.realcartips.com/wreckedexotics/update/weird393.jpg

www.wreckedexotics.com is a good source of reference for this- once you can get over the pain of looking at beautiful smashed up cars.

@MPWR:
You have a VERY GOOD point there. I guess the best would be to have a photo of the wreck or crash beside you, examine it very good and than start bending the metal :)

I was more looking into an old rusted and crashed car.
http://www.masscar.com/2002Show/pics/30_1.jpg

such small bumps and holes can very easily be replicated by just using a dremel and making big scratches along the lines and using putty to make it more realistic.

But first of all I agree with the abovementioned, look for references !

Olivier