Nacho photo booth

ThunderDan19

Here Comes the Boom!!!
Founder
Mar 14, 2011
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I remember that. Love the name too! I can hear Torch from the cartoon, " Oy, DAN, get ova 'ere and groind deez Joes inta vegemoite!"
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
Given the *flourish* of most Dreadnok monikers, I thought it would be funnier if their BAT just had a normal dude name. And something short that could be an acronym made even more sense.

Mostly I like the jean jacket and copper mohawk. They're goofy and pointless, like most dreadnok decos, but I can just picture them in the Jersey swamp gas station bay fixing up this old, barely functional BAT and giving him a little biker gang flair.
 
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nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
So, a few weeks ago, I finally took the time to field strip my airbrush and fix whatever was gummed up in it so that I could do some painting in the garage airbrush booth as the weather got nicer. Having accumulated a lot of noggins for various projects, I wanted to try a technique I read about several years ago in regards to painting heads/faces.

The gist of the idea is that you primer the heads in grey, then after it dries, you go back and shoot them with black upwards from under the chin, getting the underside of the eyebrows, nose, mouth, etc. And once again after it dries, you go back and shoot them with white looking down from above the forehead, getting the cheekbones, top of the nose, top of the chin, etc. The effect is a spooky shadow/highlight combo that really accentuates the details in sculpts. And then when you shoot fleshtone over the faces, it'll give the paint more tones in exactly the right places, far more detailed looking than if you just brushed fleshtone all over it... like I normally do... like a caveman.

I haven't gotten to the flesh coat yet, but here are some pics of the black & white effect. You don't realize the dramatic effect it has until it dawns on you that the harsh shadows and highlights are not all from the actual light source. It already makes the sculpts look far better than most 1/12 noggins. Hopefully the effect continues to work as described once I add the skin tone. The trick will be to spray it on thick enough to cover without being so thick as to obscure the underlying tones.

Plus, it's not hard to figure out what customs I've got coming next :)

20250324_081447.jpg20250324_082308.jpg20250324_082516.jpg
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
custom_68_camaro_resize-137.jpg

Been doing a lot of customizing of my new favorite HW casting, a "Custom '68 Camaro" that has an awesome old-school short track / dirt track vibe. I've repainted 23 (!) of them so far into various classic and fictional liveries. Rather than post 150 photos, I'll just link to the galleries I posted up on reddit.

It's been a fun experience so far dabbling in something beyond Joe customs.

Classic Stock
Modern Stock
Classic Euro
Newcomers Group 1
Newcomers Group 2
 
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ThunderDan19

Here Comes the Boom!!!
Founder
Mar 14, 2011
11,487
1,304
113
50
VA
Love that Thunder Machine! It looks so legit that it takes me back. I used the heck out of mine as a kid. So many times I packed it full of Dreadnoks to harass Joe convoys and bases. It often got blown up by Joe vehicles just to be rebuilt for the next attack. Good times!
 

nacho

"Big Guns"
Founder
It's by far the best looking and most fun build I've done so far. The designer did an excellent job making the parts intuitive, easy to assemble (hard to screw up by putting little alignment tabs everywhere), and generally doing things in a very thoughtful way (plus good photo instructions). Exact opposite of the FANG that was super frustrating at every turn.

I still haven't posted half the stuff I've printed... such a backlog. I just need to get it all to the studio and take some real pics, not just phone shots on my desk.

And while it sounds dumb, the thunder machine "sounds" good. No there is no thunder, but it's a big heavy piece of ABS plastic, the wheels roll good, and it just feels sturdy. It's far more like a big toy than the fragile almost-like-a-model-kit builds I've done of other stuff. That's why I had to post pics right away, very pleased with how it turned out.
 
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