Tintin Project - the Vehicles

[strobez]

So... as my Studio Ghibli mini projects progress, I noticed my Tintin shelf seems a bit bare by comparison.  So, in the hopes of rectifying that situation relatively quickly, I decided to build a 1/72 Willis Jeep more or less OOB.

I had a a hard time deciding if I wanted to do the red one that Thompson and Thomson drive aimlessly around in the desert in The Land of Black Gold, or the blue one that Calculus uses to ferry Tintin and Haddock out to see the Rocket Ship for the first time in Destination Moon.  So, in the end, I decided to do both! Yay!

First off, the box.  I seem to love taking pictures of this one...


And here's the all-in-one sprue for the jeep.


A very quick piece together.  About the only real scratch building I'm going to attempt is drilling out the headlines and replacing them with a bit of files down clear sprue.

[zenrat]

Looks good.  Fit & detail OK?
I've got Airfix (old and new) and Hasegawa 1/72 Jeeps but not an Academy one.

[strobez]

Thanks.  The fit seems okay and the detail level is about what you can expect from Academy's modern mouldings.  I don't have either the Airfix or Hasegawa ones, so it's hard to give an accurate assessment.

Let's just go with "go enough for me".   

[strobez]

Ok... so I finally got back around to working on this little project.

I know I said I wasn't going to do any scratchbuilding, but I couldn't resist making the back end a bit more in tune with the Tintin depiction.



Some Red bits...


Some Blue bits...

[zenrat]

Hmmm.  Imgur is reeeeeeeaaaaaallllllllyyyyyyy sssssssslllllllllllloooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww again tonight.

[strobez]

Ok... I've just about got fed up with the slow Imgur load times on my posts.  If this one doesn't work I'm switching to Photobucket... URL... something else!

Anyway, here's an update.

The red Tintin Jeep from "The Land of Black Gold" is coming along.  Only one slight setback.  While trying to carefully use the heat from a small candle to gently create an impact bend in the front bumper, I accidentally had the front windscreen folded down.  This resulted in severely warping the thin upper part of the frame.  Luckily I have a couple of spares lying around.  Paint a new one red and we're good to go.



Next up is to repainted the bumper a little more rusty brownish red.  I'm also planning to scratch up a bit of luggage to go in the back seat cargo area.



The Blue Jeep from "Destination Moon" is coming along. I drilled a little hole to get the spare tire side-mounted like that.



I'm debating about the seat colour.  In the book the entire seat is dark grey, but it's a light brown on the cover.  I painted the seat backs light brown, but the cushions black.  It's a bit of a starker contrast than I thought.  So I might tone them down a bit by reprinting the cushions dark brown instead.



I also decided to add in a little project from King Ottokar's Sceptre... the 1931 Gillet-Herstal motorcycle.  First I sanded down some of the ejection marks...



Then some blue paint on the gas tank and rubber black on the wheels.  I also modified the engine because the Gillet-Herstal was only a single piston engine, so I cut off half of the V.



Finally, some satin black for the rest of the frame.  Next up is a bit of chrome for the engine and a scratched up bit of exhaust pipe.

[Old Wombat]

smugmug is working well for me (thanks, Jon, for recommending them).

It is pay-to-use but it's pretty cheap.



Those builds are coming along nicely, too!

[zenrat]

Imgur is having another sloooooooooooooow day.

<impatiently drums fingers on laptop case>

[NARSES2]

smugmug is working well for me (thanks, Jon, for recommending them).

Thinking of using them simply because of the name 

[zenrat]

Imgur is having another sloooooooooooooow day.

<impatiently drums fingers on laptop case>

And today, instant.

The bike looks good.  Do you have unnaturally small fingers, a small child assistant or maybe even a trained monkey to help you?

[strobez]

The bike looks good.  Do you have unnaturally small fingers, a small child assistant or maybe even a trained monkey to help you?

Unfortunately, I have large, brutish sausage fingers... but Ooooh... a trained monkey! Now THAT would be helpful... but I'd need a little hand organ to grind as well...

I'm glad you like the bike. A pleasantly small little side-project that is easy to put together.  I got the rest of the paint on it and cut off the molded exhaust manifold and used a bit of wire and chrome paint to give it a bit of an upgrade.  I still have a few fiddling bits to add, like a head light and some tail lights.  Then it's a little bit of a stand and it's all done. Yay!



Let's celebrate with a wheelie!



Also getting near the finish line with the Blue Tintin jeep. I changed the seat colours and I'm happy I did it.  Basically just a pair of headlines and taillights left to install and paint.  I've also got a little bit of a diorama-ette base in mind reflective of the rocket launchpad tarmac.




Also just about done with the Red Tintin jeep.  Besides the headlights, I'm also going to scratch up some luggage to go in the back.  I've already got the base done.  I'm glad I saved that Pringle's lid. 



I had this base in mind, right from the start.  For those that don't know, it's reminiscent of the Thom(p)son twins unwittingly driving through the desert in circles until they find "some poor soul's" lost gas/petrol can... only to discover it's a lucky replacement for their own missing one.

It was SUPER easy to make as well.  Paint a Pringle's lid black... and then stuff it full of "cookie dough" coloured "Angel Clay".  Then I took a bit of wire, cut it to the same length as the axels and then glued on a spare set of jeep tires.  It made a beautiful little roller to lay down the multiple tracks in no time.  The best part was that since I wasn't satisfied with the first (or sixth) attempt, I could just ball up the clay and try again.  It's super light (hence the Angel part) and will air dry and hold it's shape permanently so long as it doesn't get wet.  Once it's fully dry, my plan is to give it a coat of Future "just in case".  I'm considering maybe giving the tracks a light spray of a slightly darker sand colour to highlight the texture... or maybe a very light dark colour wash... might have to test that out first....

[philp]

I like them.

Was looking at some pics and was thinking of the armored car or tank that the Mosquito takes out.

[strobez]

I've got plans for an armoured car too... not that one though... the one from The Blue Lotus.  I've got to do a bit of homework... so more on that later.

Anyway, these little guys are just about done.  The Blue jeep and the motorcycle are only missing their license plates and they're all done.  The red one needs a license plate, but also a little bit of cargo.

I was pretty pleased with my own work on the headlights.  I THOUGHT it was going to work, so I drilled them out, but you never really know until you know, right? First I stretched a bit of clear sprue to roughly fit the hole.  Then I VERY quickly passed the ends over the flame to soften them into a half sphere, slightly larger than the diameter of the stretched sprue.  Then I cut them off, leaving just enough to sit in the hole comfortably, and painted the backs with metallic silver. A small dab of glue in the hole... and voila! Lightbulbs in the headlight.  The trickiest part was making sure both "bulbs" were the same size.

[Old Wombat]

Well done, mate, especially the headlights!

[strobez]

Well done, mate, especially the headlights!

Did I mention I was proud of the headlights? Well, I am...