[flyonthewall]

I've had several Aoshima VIP car kits lying around for a few months now after picking them up in the clearance section of local TK Maxx stores for £3 each!!!

I got hold of 2x Junction Produce Celsiors 2x Tradition Cedrics and a Crown Majesta. Upon closer inspection some had missing or damaged clear sprues but at £3 a pop I figured I could replace or scratch build the missing clear parts and the kits would be ideal for kitbashing or experimenting

During my busy modeling period in the run up to the UK Nationals I sprayed up one of the Junction Produce Celsiors to test out a new airbrush. Intending to build box stock I thought I could also squeeze this one out before show but it turned out that idea was far too ambitious.

As it sat on the shelf all painted up in Mini Midnight Black I thought it had quite a menacing appearance and a few ideas started to float around my head . After having purchased several new airbrushes recently I figured this would also be a good test bed to try out some airbrushing skills.

The name for the project is loosely inspired by this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAplLdU_TMo - A real life UK superhero i.e. a slightly eccentric nerd who reads too many comics and likes to dress up in a fancy costume. The name seemed to fit and I suppose every superhero requires a cool car yet I imagine my Dark Spartan to be prowling the highways of Tokyo and not the one way system around Torbay in England.

Searching the net for spartan pictures for inspiration on a design I opted for a simple helmet silhouette and I looked into airbrushing techniques for painting lightning/electricity and the Dark Spartan Celsior was born....


From the helmet image a mask was cut out and positioned on hood, Vajelo white acrylic was lightly airbrushed on building up highlights in selected areas.


Using a fade resistant fine line drawing pen shadow and detail was added


Using Vajelo paints again I added some metalic detail and shading.


With mixes of Tamiya clear acrylics (smoke, yellow, red) I airbrushed more shading and highlight effects to give the helmet a metalic gold appearance.




Masking over the helmet with the cut out set aside from the previous process I laid down the base or glow for the electricity. Lightly airbrushed streaks of white were laid down giving the appearance of emanating from behind the helmet. A heavier build up of colour was placed in areas to form 'hot spots' and glowing eyes.







A light coat of Vajelo clear blue is dusted on to give bluish hue to the glow. A small touch of other clear colours was added around the helmet.







Fine lines of white added for the streaks of electricity following the path of the glow.







All comes together with the clear coat










Preshaded the interior a la aircraft modeler style





Scratchbuilt a typical Jap tuner drinks tray/phone holder type thing from plastic card and small metal tubes.





A coke bottle was machined from a piece of clear sprue





The coke liquid is a mix of Tamiya smoke orange and red painted on



Dipped into some Johnsons Klear for a nice shiny finish and a scribble in white with a fine brush to depict the coke logo.




Some internet images resized for license plates




Incidently the 'Dark Spartan' script on the back of the spoiler is hand drawn with a technical drawing pen before the clear coat was sprayed.



Rolled down windows replicated with o.o5 clear styrene sheet



Car curtains common with the VIP scene were made from strips of thin paper. Lots of scrunching and folding required to achieve the fine folds of the curtain to give it a natural drape look.





Seatbelts made using 2mm black tape