I have not been idle this evening. I spent it in the company of a very nice young couple who I have now glued to their seats and drilled holes in their faces.
I know, there are some out there (especially the ones who read one of the books) thinking “So? He probably does that every evening.” Not so. This is a special occasion.
Here. then, is the progress so far on Smoking Man’s Ride -
The ‘ride’ refers to the car, not the woman. Honestly, you people have filthy minds. The car now has wheels, all that’s left is the bodyshell which might take a couple of days because it has to be sprayed, then there’s a lot of chrome parts.
Here’s a closer look:
It’s not the original Smoking Head. That one would be better suited to a truck or motorbike rather than this car. As it is, I’m glad I decided to make this a rush job because I now know where the difficult parts will be.
Gluing them into the seats before drilling was a bad idea. I can’t get a straight drill at them because parts of the car get in the way. I couldn’t get an accurate purchase on their faces so the drill didn’t hit the mouth perfectly and the woman’s face-hole grew too large (No! Don’t even think it!)
Also, the paintwork gets damaged while drilling and while it can be touched up, skin always looks touched-up. So in future I’ll drill the head before starting.
In this case there’s no point touching it up. I’ll just complete the model and fit the light in the boot. I’ll take much more time over the next one so the paintwork will be a lot better. Eventually I’ll have enough to model a beachfront scene with a whole row of cars full of smokers, VW campers full of hippies passing fibre-optic around, bikes and trucks parked up…
I’m wondering about how I could use an atomiser from an Electrofag to simulate smoke. It would really have nicotine in it too.
The fibre-optic isn’t fixed in place yet. The cigarettes will be shorter than that. If there are any mechanical geniuses reading, how could I make the cigarette gradually pull back towards the face, then spring out again to become a new one?
For a rush job, I think it’s turned out not too terrible so far. Some things should have been filed, some things should have been adjusted, some things should have been done differently but it has worked. A laser lights both fags at once, but this one will get a simple red LED with a resistor and a diode so I don’t blow it by connecting it the wrong way round. I do have two laser diodes I can fit into models and they run on 3V so a couple of AAAs will sort that out.
Anyway, back to normal for a while. I am enjoying all this face-drilling enormously, which might be a cause for some concern. Nah. I’m sure it won’t escalate.
I’m more concerned about Son of Smoking Man’s eyes. What is he staring at?
Smoking man is obviously checking out the modern GPS mapping display on his dashboard. As a 21st Century idol, he most certainly has such a device and is probably using it to check for the nearest smoke-friendly hotel to take his young lady to. :>
I think the man model is perfect! I’d ditch the gal’s smoke though: having both of them with smokes tucked in their lips is a bit of overkill. If you want her with a smoke I’d recommend a non-LED one tucked petitely between her fingers in her down hand.
This is going to remain an open top sports car, right? Your comment about the body shell has me worried that you might try to hide all this wonderful work under a top!
MJM
I think he’s checking whether his companion is packing silicone.
If her arm had been straight, it would have been perfect to drill down through it and have the cigarette between her curled-over fingers. My 1 mm drill wouldn’t have been long enough though. With drills that small, make them too long and they snap.
Love it Leggy. Just a thought – have you got a miniature wine glass or bottle of booze you could stick in her hand?
Coincidentally, that thought also occurred to me
I don’t have them but they probably exist. Maybe for something like Barbie (I am not buying Barbie in the current climate, I don’t want to come over all Jimmy Savile).
I think I can make a decent beer can out of plastic tubing, available in all sizes from the local model shop. Might even be able to print a label. Red Stripe, Special Brew or Gold Label would be the most sophisticated for a young smoking car passenger. Or Driver. Hell, break one law, might as well break them all.
That’s how the nationwide 20 mph speed limit was defeated. It was a law so ludicrous that nobody saw any point in obeying any other laws. It is happening again.
The “D” in LED stands for “diode”. As long as you’re powering the LED from less than about 5v, you don’t need any extra reverse protection.
I suspect that a 470R resistor will pass sufficient current for enough light for your purposes when run from 3v.
There are also flashing LEDs available that run from 5v (3xAAA would do), but they typically run at 3Hz which is too fast not to look odd.
I have some LEDS that have built-in resistors so they run from 3V. The other diode was to remove the risk of wrecking the LED with reverse voltage because the bodyshell is a real fiddle to get on and off. Little rectifiers are very cheap and can save a lot of hassle later.
Great model though it looks like your couple are chonging on a couple of spliffs rather than fags.
Btw I studied robotics at school and seem to remember using these things called muscle wires which would contract when a current was passed through them. Maybe a bit of that coupled with a spring for the return action could simulate your burning down cigarette.
I’ll shorten them before fixing them in place.
muscle wires would be too fast, I think. I need a barely perceptible shortening over about five minutes followed by a rapid return to ‘new smoke’. I have no idea how to do that but I’m sure the mechanism in those grabbing-hand type moneyboxes holds the clues.
Fibre optic ‘wire’ is nothing more than a long, thin strand of glass. If you can get hold of some woven strand mat you will be able to unpick it and extract some very thin and quite long glass fibres. Flash the light pick-up end with a fag lighter (the fibre will shrivel FAST if you’re not quick) and then do the same to the ‘fag end’. This action makes a rudimentary lens on each end of the fibre. Paint the length if the fibre leaving the ends untouched.
Should make nice thin fags. If too thin, combine strands and simply melt their ends together to achieve the required thickness.
I’m going to do the same to a lot of my own OO-gauge model figures!
In 1/24, I paint the cigarette and when dry, use a very, very sharp blade to cut the end. Leaves me with a clean cut end on a white stick.
For OO, I was thinking of a light rub with a razor saw along the side of the head, insert prepared fibre and fill the slot. I don’t have drills below 1 mm (actually I’m sure I do but when you put something that tiny away, it’s hard to remember where).
I should have mentioned that woven strand mat is used in fibreglass construction and can often be found in car body repair kits.
Apologies.
I used to have a Mk 2 Cortina. I have extensive experience with fibreglass mats, aluminium mesh and Plastic Padding.
Oh. And Hammerite.
” and the woman’s face-hole grew too large”
I could have let the “ride” comment past, but this one had me rolling!
You could get your – no. No. Begone, filthy thoughts.