C6 convertible with LEDs

[blackf40]

After a 2 year absence, I'm back!

During a summer vacation to Vegas, my wife and I rented a beautiful red '07 Corvette, so I want to make a replica. To make things interesting, I'm lighting it up with LEDs.

Here's the subject matter:



I've gotten a little bit of a start with Revell's coupe and Snaptite convertible:


And some stuff to get this thing well lit


I got the coupe primarily because of this:


I wanted engine and suspension detail, and the easiest way I've figured is to remove the convertible's rear deck and use it to replace the coupe's B-pillar and rear deck/backlight:


I wanted to use a 9V battery for the circuit (voltage for everybody!), but it won't fit in either body, so I'll try AAAs. As far as I can tell, the coupe will have enough room for everything I'm planning. Fitting everything correctly will probably be the biggest obstacle: damn these short overhangs

Hope you guys enjoy what follows--wish me luck!

[Ferrari TR]

Cool project.
Batterys for garage door openers or alarm remotes can help with the space issue. Some greeting cards (with sound) come with a suitable battery pack too.

[ponchonutty]

Get a 123a battery. It's actually 12v. but with your resistors you should be able to get the voltage where you need it. DO NOT PUT MORE POWER TO THE LED's THAN THEY ARE RATED FOR. Otherwise you'll just burn them up.

[blackf40]

Well, I'm back again after getting into a different job with way more free time. I got a couple 12V remote batteries which are smaller than AA's.


The coupe kit has the 4 spoke steering wheel, but the subject matter had the 3 spoke with controls. The snap-tite kit has a 3 spoke, but it's terrible and will need some work.


This model has been a huge amount of planning work, what with figuring out how much I could/should light, and how (LEDs/fiber optics). I'm using plastic fibers for all signal/markers and I'm even going to try lighting the license plate (wish me luck).




The grille and marker light mounts needed opening up.

[Dingo1]

BlackF40, I'm using Luxeon LED's for a WRC WRX that I'm building. I'm using these because they throw light out in front of the car instead of just nearby and looking good as for the taillights U'r on the right track and as for powering the LED's Y not place the car into a dio and use the base of the dio to hide the power supply or even a building this way U don't have to work out how to or where to put the power for the LED's.

Dingo

[KevHw]

Looking forward to seeing how this progresses. I'm fiddling around with fibre optics to light my own model too, but you seem to have twice the width of the strands I'm using, with good results too. Best of luck for the license plate. That'll be quite a challenge!

[carl63_99]

something else that works well when adding light is to use aluminum tubing as a light housing. Select a diameter tubing that will sit behind the opening and the get an LED that will slide inside the tube. Might take some fiddling, but when its done, you won't have the light shining through the body.

Carl

[Dingo1]

Carl, that's not a problem with LED's as they don't throw light sideways, this is Y I've gone this way and with a wife as a retired electronic tech she knows wots best for me with this stuff, I'll be placing LED's into my Cityliner Motorhome when I build it.

Dingo

[carl63_99]

I've got an electronics degree also. The pic posted shows a lot of light shining through the body of the car. I'm using aluminum tubes to focus the light for the interior of my RV.

[blackf40]

Dingo1, I have some good cool white LEDs which put out some 2500 lumens, which I'll use for headlights. We'll see how they work out. I've thought of making the display base a power pack, but I know I can fit it all in the back, and I've really enjoyed the challenge. I'm making this kit a real skill-builder, for lighting/weathering/detailing. Thanks for the dio idea...I might make something so the car looks like it's sitting just off the road like in my first picture.

KevHw, the strands I'm using for the marker lights are .50 and .75 mm. I'm still figuring out the license plate, since there's very little room for a vertical bend, unless I want the plate lights to be illuminating the road behind my model.

The aluminum tubing is a good idea...for lack of that, I've just cut some Evergreen tubing for the 3mm LEDs and a pen casing for the 5mms and coated the inside with chrome paint. Where I'll have trouble with light leakage will be the headlights and with the plastic optic fibre itself...I'm thinking that gluing things tight and painting the fibre and back of the the LEDs black may help.

[blackf40]

Well, this is my first attempt at flocking, and it's even a redo after having put the glue on too thick.



I'm hoping that since it's grey flocking over black, airbrushing the correct dark grey colour overtop will cover a multitude of sins.

The engine has an annoying gap between the air plenum and the throttle body, which I fixed with some spare plastic and a decent amount of sanding.





It's not perfect, but it'll do.

I also made an oil dipstick from spare wire and insulation, and drilled a hole with a pin vise just above the oil pan. I couldn't find reference for exact location, but the exhaust header will hide it.



I'll also have to build a different oil pan, since the kit piece is terribly inaccurate...maybe it was a C5 oil pan? I'm frustrated by how far off Revell's painting instructions are from the 1:1. Yay for Google image search.

[blackf40]

Some more progress after a busy week. I apologize if the pics are uneven in quality: I'm experimenting with backgrounds and lighting so I don't have to say "well, it looks great in person!"

I had trouble with the flocking: I removed the masking tape after the glue had dried, and it lifted some of the flocking from just between the seats.



There's no hiding that, so I had to redo the whole flat area. Even after I redid it and lifted the tape before the glue dried, lots of flocking wanted to come with! I had luck when I waited until the glue was dry and then scored the edge of the tape with an Xacto. Any suggestions?

Apparently, I was in too much of a rush to get going on the airbrushing, since I didn't prime anything under the semi-gloss black (MM acryl). Stupid For my lack of effort, I got lots of paint peeled off by masking tape (either the green stuff or Tamiya!).



I did a lot of searching for images of the C6 Corvette's chassis for painting, since Revell's instructions are extremely rudimentary. They suggest painting the whole underside semi-gloss black, but the floorboards are a silvery grey and two large/two small sections of the underside are bare aluminum, as is the fuel tank (which Revell didn't even bother to suggest in the moldings!). I did the same for the engine and exhaust, and although there seems to be some variation in exhaust pipe color, I painted what I saw the most in my references.

Two new skills I've tried are exhaust staining and washing. So far, I've given the entire powertrain and chassis a black wash--it's a bit uneven, but definitely ages the car a bit. Next I'll drybrush the underside and maybe try airbrushing on a little road grime/desert dust.



C&C sorely needed.

[KevHw]

For flocking, I use a wide and fairly soft brush to brush PVA glue to where ever. Since PVA is water soluble, it's not too hard to clean up the brush after use.

[HebeDave]

I think you're doing great! Those one piece chassis/engine/tranny/exhaust moldings can be a real pain in the you know where. It looks like you've done a superb job with that. I've always wondered how the pros on here do it. Care to share your technique? Thanks!

[blackf40]

Actually, HebeDave, it's not a one-piece chassis, since I'm using only the rear deck from the Snaptite C6 convertible kit. However, the secret would be judicious masking and painting. Lighter colours are traditionally the ones to go on first, since dark paint covers better, but I did the opposite in this case. Satin black went down first, then the floorboards and the areas (guards?) just ahead of the rear wheels were masked and primed with grey. Alclad White Aluminum was used to depict the aluminum guards, and misted over the floorboards for a slight silvery sheen. Don't be stingy or careless with the tape, either: overspray can get everywhere, and tape can easily lift paint underneath or beside if you remove it too late or use tape that's too sticky.