An early pic of the shop

Here's a pic of the shop early on before I enlarged the parking area, added a wooden privacy fence and the chain link fence enclosure for storage. I'll try to get some better pics posted tomorrow afternoon.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/mitchum/post/shop2.jpg

MAN,THAT'S AWESOME! It's hard to believe that those are models...
Awesome!!

OK, listen up. I looked at this post and then didnt put anything because i thought to myself "why is this guy putting up pictures of his car shop???" Then i Just realised (afyter seeing the above post) that those are models!!!!

AMAZING!!!

I love the speed smear on the truck! was that done by photoshop, or was it actually moving along while you snapped the pic? this is one fabulous diorama!

100% Bombastic!

The blurring effect on the car passing on the street is a masterpiece of trompe l'oeil that totally decieves the mind and makes the whole thing even more believable!

:worshippy

I love the speed smear on the truck! was that done by photoshop, or was it actually moving along while you snapped the pic? this is one fabulous diorama!

Same question... that's the first thing I noticed as well! :thumbsup:

Scott

.... speachless, as Steve said the blur effect for the truck is terrific..

How much crew you need actually? LOL I remember a pict you posted with the big diorama on the roof.. pure fun :D

Now thats friggin cool.....very well thought out and built!

Do I see a Charger there? The purple one. :P

wow! :eek: that looks so realistic. its unbeliveable:sunglasse

That's just fantastic. It's so spot on perfect; it reminds me of one of many of the little speed shops you'd drive by on the two-line highways all around Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee.... anywhere in the south and probably anywhere else. Just awesome work!

You guys had better quit talking about me like that. I have a hard enough time getting a hat that fits like it is without ya'll swelling up my head like that. LOL That purple car is a model of a friend of mine's '65 Impala Grand National (now Nextel Cup") that my brother did for me for Christmas or my birthday a few years back.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/mitchum/C7CHEVY65_9.jpg

He usually builds the local dirt track cars for the drivers here but does an old Nascar ride for me every so often. We both got into hand lettering and serious modification as a neccessity building replicas of local race cars many many years ago. He now not only builds cars with handletting but with hand cast wheels and tires and has built a two stage vacuform to make the outlaw type and discontinued street stock bodies needed for his creations. Truth be known, he has seriously overshadowed his big brother in the modeling arena. Here's one of his Freddie Smith late model "models" in 1/25 scale along with a pretty good approximation of a southern dirt track to set it on.

http://users.virtual1.net/~gator/gallery/albums/Latemodels/SMITH_TRACK_SHOT.jpg

:iceslolan Pronounced "Trump Loy," it is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects really exist, instead of being just two-dimensional paintings. The name is derived from (French for "trick the eye", from tromper - to deceive and l'œil - the eye; IPA pronunciation [tʁɔ̃plœj]).

Thank god for those boring architecture classes where we actually had to learn this stuff...

On another note, that diorama IS AWESOME !:iceslolan

Dude, that is amazingly amazing!
THe only thing that gives it away is the road (a bit too smoothe).

Everything else is realy nicely done!!

I cheated, and found another picture!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/mitchum/post/shoplatest.jpg

Now that's not cheating. From one modeler to another, that's just superior research. LOL

Stunning!!
Very realistic.

That shop is awesome, I really need to build a cool diorama to display my cars. So what all did you use to build the shop?

About the only thing bought, except for the glue and paint, was a couple of sheets of Midwest Products clapboard siding that I glued to a piece of styrofoam that a recorder or something was shipped in. If you can get something like that to serve as the basis for a building it makes getting it square very simple. The rest was a mixture of things around the house and stuff I picked up along my way. The roof is some plastic sheet like they use on the new small political and advertising signs that has a square cross section in the corrogations and the chain link fence is the metal mesh from an old auto air cleaner with some pieces of steel rod for the posts and bracing. The wooden privacy fence is just some popsicle sticks with the smaller diagonals made from corn dog sticks. I still have to stain them. I've got a bad habit of walking through the world looking at full size stuff but seeing it in 1/25 scale. The gravel on the parking lot is three or four colors of model railroad track ballast leftovers that I got from a friend.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/mitchum/post/67pearson3.jpg

I cheated, and found another picture!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/mitchum/post/shoplatest.jpg

Arghhhh!:eek2: A giant stealing the cars!!!:lol: :lol2:

Fantastic looking garage diorama!

Awesome! It looks realistic and it really has a cool atmosphere to it. Good job!

I cheated, and found another picture!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/mitchum/post/shoplatest.jpg

^still looks to realistic to me!:sunglasse

ok i didnt read this whole thread, but, i saw the first pic and totally thought it was a real shop...after i scrolled down it blew my mind to see it was a model...good freakin job my man!!!

Thanks ya'll. Wait until you see the two story combination movie theater and museum I'm working on, big parking lot surrounded by a concrete wall and maybe some shrubbery thrown in for good measure.

AWESOME!!! Here is a link to my diorama.
http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=658471

that two story sounds very interesting.

Hey wrexink, that shop is pretty tough. Looks like a good place to built just about anything you'd want to race or ride in.

Hey wrexink, that shop is pretty tough. Looks like a good place to built just about anything you'd want to race or ride in.

thanks! i just put biger better lit pics on it

Its like one of thoes shops you see on the power block special on spike tv. lol

Awesome stuff, Luke!:sunglasse

wwwooowww That Is Absolutely Freakin Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aawweessoommeee Talent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Luke I gotta know, is there anywhere to find those old Freddie Smith Late Models?

Aw shucks ChevyRidinLow, that ain't nothing. You should see my racetracks.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v69/mitchum/a%20pic/track.jpg

Luke I gotta know, is there anywhere to find those old Freddie Smith Late Models?

If you mean the few older diecast then E-bay is your best bet. But if you mean something like this..........

http://users.virtual1.net/~gator/gallery/albums/Latemodels/SMITH_TRACK_SHOT.jpg

.......then my kid brother is the only way to go. And yes, that is a model.

If you haven't already, you may want to take a stroll around his website.

http://users.virtual1.net/~gator/gallery/

Fantastic. Does he offer kits at all? Resin transkits perhaps? I've been dying to (and my custmers as well) build some of these, and I know of another guy looking for kits too....

Brilliant! Can I park my car at your garage??? :)

Winston

Sure, I'm offering a tuneup special this week. I need the business to finish a couple of cars in the works. Special price is just five hours of good model building time. I need some really good building time to finish a couple of race cars I've been meaning to finish for a very long time. LOL
Seriously, I've kicked around the idea of offering a photo service that moders could send me their cars for a photo shoot at the shop, and have done a few for locals but the fragility of most builds keeps this from being practical for long distances.

Tigeraid, he vacuforms his bodys on a two stage vacuform that he built, casts his own wheels and tires together as one piece and hand letters the cars. He does, sometimes, sell a few bodies here and there but it is a labor intesive process and he doesn't really like to do just body forming because he gets his satisfaction from seeing the drivers and owners receive the builtups.

Understood :frown: