On with the show...
Replica Race Cars
Corvette Gran Sport
As soon as this HWs casting came out I had to get it and try to make it more accurate. I chose this
particular car to do since it matched the casting very closely. Testors Arctic Blue for the base, the white
stripe is hand painted to get the opacity I wanted. The rest of the graphics are decals I drew to match
reference photos. I doubled up the white roundels on the doors to get them almost as opaque as the
stripe. The co-mold wheels were swapped in and look close enough for this exercise.
Blue Max Mustang Funny Car (Hot Wheels)
Hawaiian Charger Funny Car (Johnny Lightning)
The Mustang and Charger were other castings I was able to utilize graphics I already drew for larger
scale model kits. Fortunately the proportions of the Hot Wheels were close enough to allow only
moderate tweaking of the art to make it fit. JL wheels were swapped in. It is painted Testors Light Blue.
The Charger was a little bit wonky in proportions, but I was still able to tweak the art to look well enough on it. Yes, I know there was a JL offering of the same car, but I wanted to make my own… The paint on it is GM Admiral Blue.
Tyrrell P34 Six Wheeler F1 (Hot Wheels)
I have long been a fan of this unique race car from when I first saw it in 1976 and have been making
replicas of it in various scales ever since. Even though the stock casting is factory decorated to reflect
the real car’s graphics, I want to make it more accurate. I had some left over Tahitian Blue I mixed from
the last one I built, the rest was done with decals I made.
Sprint Car (Hot Wheels)
This is an early one I did to see if I could successfully print small decals to semi-replicate the Steve Kinser Superman Outlaw car. The red-yellow-blue fades were airbrushed using Testors enamels and the rest was done with decals, (also reworked from art I originally drew for a larger scale model kit). I also experimented with decals for the rims. Being only two dimensional, they didn’t work as well as I hoped.
Sunoco Ferrari 512 (Hot Wheels)
Just a simple re-decoration. Another favorite subject for me. I always thought it looked cool with those
thin blue pinstripe flames in the yellow panels on the rear fenders. And I am a sucker for blue cars…
Gunze Sangyo Dark Blue looked like a close enough match to the Sunoco Blue. The wheels are the stock HW units brush painted Testors yellow.
1966 GT40 (Hot Wheels)
This is another straight out redecoration. The Ken Miles car should have been the 1966 LeMans winner, but due to team orders he slowed for a photo op finish; it was later deemed to be second place due to the starting location of the other cars. Testors mix of baby blue enamel with custom decals.
Hot Wheels SuperTruck (Racing Champions)
This was an obvious “must do”. I used a slightly tweaked Testors French Blue for the color and created
all the graphics. I made several versions of this truck using various castings, but this one is my favorite
of them.
