Mini Cooper-A surprise gift for Dad.

[tuned.by.twenty]

Another project, yes. But this one has a back-story to it. Let me explain:
A few months ago my father started to notice that almost every day during his commute he would pass a red Mini Cooper. After a while he started seeing them even more. My mother and I also took notice, because it seemed like wherever we went, there would be a red Mini. It started off as a joke, but then we took it more seriously-they were EVERYWHERE. Seriously-we couldn't run to the mall, go to work, or visit friends or family without seeing one. Then we went on vacation, and again, red Minis were abundant. It still goes on today. Red Minis are a dime-a-dozen and we can never get away from them.
This has evolved into a joke with my father that the army of red Minis in town are stalking him, and my mother found the perfect opportunity to have some fun with this.
The two of us were in a local hobby shop last week getting supplies, and I found a Mini Cooper model kit (With the box art depicting a red Mini). We decided that it would be the perfect 'decoration' for my father's desk at work, so that he could always have a Mini stalking, I mean accompanying, him.

So that's how this started. I've now dove into the kit and primered most of the parts. The upper half of the dash has to undergo some bodywork (dashwork?) before it can be painted, but the rest of the kit seems to be good. It's by no means Tamiya quality, but I'll be focusing on basic techniques like washes and weathering to bring it alive-after all, his friends, co-workers, and former CEO who shares his office, will see it. It will be painted as the box shows it, with a red/white exterior and grey/silver interior.
Updates will follow as painting begins. I hope to have the rest of the parts (sans dash) in primer by tomorrow, and then mid-week paint can fly.

[KevHw]

What a lovely story and a great gift idea. Will be interesting to see what weathering you do on it.

[voyageur]

Interesting story indeed

I'm curious how it will look in the end? Are you in a country where custom license plates are legal? If so you could put "STLKR", hehe!

[tuned.by.twenty]

Originally Posted by voyageur

Interesting story indeed

I'm curious how it will look in the end? Are you in a country where custom license plates are legal? If so you could put "STLKR", hehe!

Yes I am-in fact, all of our cars have personalized plates. Thanks for the idea!

[MidMazar]

[tuned.by.twenty]

Pictures tomorrow. Just a verbal update for now.
I primed all of the remaining parts and painted the main part of the dashboard and the wheel backs. The rest of the parts will be painted in a couple of days.

[tuned.by.twenty]

Originally Posted by KevHw

What a lovely story and a great gift idea. Will be interesting to see what weathering you do on it.

I'll be sticking to basic weathering, to replicate a fairly new car.
Update numero uno. Almost every part that should be is in primer, leaving just the upper dash and mirrors. Hopefully tomorrow I can get to more painting-the dash front and wheel backs are already in silver. Here's a couple of pictures to tide you all over until the colour comes.
The dash, with fresh putty.

And the parts, on my model railroad turned painted parts storage.

With my father gone for a couple of days on a business trip it's the perfect chance to work on the Mini-as soon as he's back I have to hide the body and any other recognizable parts.

[tuned.by.twenty]

I could have sworn I had more matte black and german gray spray cans, but I guess I didn't...Safe to say I didn't get to paint much. Also, my father got back earlier than expected so I couldn't get the body in white primer.

Hopefully more soon.

[tuned.by.twenty]

Some mini progress on the Mini. I have more german gray paint now, so I can work on the interior. The paint seems darker than the last cans I had...strange.
Anywho, the interior is painted. The dash is a two-tone silver/gray combo, should look pretty good once the tape is off. The interior, like the rest of the model, is simple and to the point.
Pictures:



As with the other parts of the model, washes will be used to highlight the details and hopefully bring it all to life.

[tuned.by.twenty]

Very small update for today. The dash is now two colours-German gray and gloss aluminum. The panel lines will be washed to make the whole piece look more realistic.
The wheels are also coming along-The insides of the back halves have been painted matte black to give the appearance of them being hollow. This is one area where the kit can be improved-not only are the wheels closed, but there are no brakes at all (Runaway Mini! )!

[Mojo_stevo]

I hope revell and amt knock off this "closed wheel" trend that they are on. It sucks.

[tuned.by.twenty]

Now for some progress.
The rest of the black parts were painted today since I finally got a hold of more paint. They're drying now, so I can get to work with them in the next day or two.
The chassis has had the exhaust painted, along with a few bolts. Once everything is assembled, the whole chassis assembly will be lightly weathered.

I've also worked on the wheels a bit. This is a mock-up to show how they will look when done. I still have to sand the tires, wash the spokes, decal them, and assemble it all.


More when something happens.

[tuned.by.twenty]

Here's the latest. I've started assembling the chassis and done some weathering. The front suspension has to wait until the interior tub is installed, which is next on my 'to-finish' list.
I rounded up a few parts and got to work last night.

It all went together pretty easily, so after letting the glue dry overnight, I grabbed a few paints today.

Note that the 'gold leaf' is all I had, which meant that I had to be very careful when drybrushing it on-real dirt doesn't sparkle like this paint does. The white and black were mixed for a standard grey, while the aluminum was carefully applied with emphasis on areas where there would be more chips, like in and around the wheel wells. A lot of our roads are construction sites, so I gave the front of the chassis a slightly heavier drybrushing of aluminum as if rocks were kicked up in such an area by the car ahead.

In real life the weathering is a bit more subtle and thus more realistic-it really shows up in the pictures.

[jano11]

It's coming along nicely! I like the weathering!

[tuned.by.twenty]

Time to show you all what I did this past little while-which isn't much.
First up, the wheels. The one on the left is how they look right after paint. You can still see the mounting tab remains, which have to be sanded down and maybe touched up a tad with white paint. Decals were applied, and then given a coat of Micro-sol to help them settle down. Once everything is good and dry the wheels will be cleared to seal in the decals-TS13 will do the job nicely.

Since the front wheel wells are part of the interior tub, they had to be masked and painted matte black to match the rest of the chassis. The underside of the tub, as you can partially see, isn't exactly show-worthy, but who cares?

Next, I taped the tub to the chassis and weathered the front wells, being sure to try and blend it all together.

A couple of days ago I was browsing the paint rack at the local hobby shop and came across this-I grabbed it with the Mini in mind, and today gave the chassis a light drybrushing of 'dirt'. (You can see it in the previous and following photos)

This is where the assembly sits now. Next up the front suspension has to be weathered and put in place, so that the tub can be glued in place. The camera always seems to make the weathering stand out. To the naked eye, it all looks very natural.

More sometime...hopefully sooner rather than later.