Doug Mulle

Here are the results of the last few months. I hope you have followed along as I went through the steps to make a simple box stock kit look like a custom built model. When you look at the other entries here you are going to see some amazing creations, and I bet many will think the same things I thought when I went to my first model contest.. "That's beautiful, but I can't do anything like that". It's easy to forget that no one built their first kits looking like that, they had to learn the skills, learn the basics and practice. I didn't build this to compete against all the amazing works of art here, I built this to inspire everyone who wants to build a better model. To show that taking the time to make the parts fit correctly, paying attention, finding then fixing the little imperfections in the kit, and your own mistakes, can make a huge difference! To show that you don't need all kinds of extra parts to make a model look good. A little extra paint can make a bare interior look great. A little dust and rust on the drivetrain can bring to life a boring chassis. A little tint on the windows makes a model look a little more realistic.

These are things any model builder can do! It's a matter of practice, and trying to make each model that you build a little better than the last one. To challenge yourself to do a little better every time.

To challenge myself with this build, I wanted to capture a moment in time for a friend, when she went hiking over the summer and made some great memories that she shared with me. I would need to learn how to make some custom decals, license plates, and especially, paint the figure that resembles her to capture that moment. I have never been able to paint a figure and capture the details that I wanted, even after years of trying! The different highlights in hair. Subtle differences in skin tones like a suntan and the shadows. The way blue jeans have lighter fades in some places and darker creases in others. To make it look realistic and help bring the build to life and bring back the memories of her vacation.

I have to say that I am very pleased with the results and the challenges that I overcame to build this. I hope that you enjoyed seeing how even a simple box stock model kit can turn into a work of art by doing the basic things right and constantly trying to improve your own work, and that you are inspired to challenge yourself into making your next build the best you've ever made!

And a vote for me would be pretty nice too!

Trying to finish tonight, but at 130A I gotta take a break

I want to do a few little touch-ups to Camper Girl and her new Jimny then it will be ready for a proper photo shoot that does not include my messy workbench! ... Or should I do a video? I'll have to think about that. Which do you guys prefer, to just look at some pictures or watch a video?

Camper girl got a much better makeover! I won't call her perfect, but this is the best figure I've ever painted by far. I don't know if it will show up on your screen, but I was able to give her a tan in some places and the skin a little lighter in others. I really like how the jeans shorts turned out with the darker creases and the faded highlights and butt. And this is even pretty close to one of the top she wears in some of her videos.

Yes, I am pretty pleased with this!

Even sanding with 1000 grit, I could not get the Kaleido primer to feather out with the Kaleido color coats or the bare plastic. So maybe this primer is ok for a sealer, but it not something that I would use over any type of bodywork or filler. Water based primers are always funky that way, so I'll stay with my go-to solvent based primers.

But as you can see, the sanding scratches that showed in the basecoat are now gone and looks many times better! I know this is a previous post that got lost but will try to have some new pictures tonight!

I can't keep just posting the old stuff again, so here's a new one. In my story/build of Camper Girl, while she loves the outdoors, she doesn't get there often now that she works in the city. But with her new job at corporate H.Q. it allowed her to trade in her old college car and get this nice little 4WD for those times when she can get out to the trails and do a little hiking.

So with that, the usual cast iron and steel parts got painted a dark iron color, and then a very thin wash of rust that seems to show up after the first rain. The same for the exhaust system. She hasn't had to drive it in the snow yet, so it still looks pretty new. I used a mixture of chalks and weathering powders to combine a little bit of city grime and the gravel dust for the trail she just drove down. A little bit extra on the mud flaps, trying to make sure that they were streaked like coming for the tires instead of just blobs.

I bet she takes it to the carwash on the way back home!

Even though the glass was in a separate bag, there was still a defect in it. Many modelers are intimidated by trying to repair something like this, because either you have to make it look worse before it gets better, or they don't have the tools. The tools are simple, as Hobby Lobby sells a pack of sanding pads that goes from 3000 grit up to 12,000 and plastic polish for under $10 bucks.

All you have to do is pull up one of my YouTube videos and start sanding as you watch. By the time the video is done, your windshield will be polished!

Sorry to be posting all these same ones over again, but we're gonna hope it doesn't happen again!

I used the same grey for all the interior colors, just tinting it lighter and darker for the different colors... I don't know why I said 50 shades, it just sounded good

Since I am experiencing technical difficulties with the paint on the Suzuki, I thought I would give you guys something different and better looking than the paint being completely stripped with only 12 days to go.

Ok, it's not really a tragedy but it is a setback. After my second coat of color, I started seeing sand scratches that I either missed or the primer shrank a little. Yes I could leave it like that, but that's not what I'm trying to show. Remember, this build is about taking a box stock model and making it look as good as it can by fixing all the little imperfections!

I will consider this a lesson regarding the Kaleido primers. I know that I had given this the recommended 72 hours before it was fully dry. But this is a water based primer and that varies with temp and humidity, so you never really know. After that 72 hours, I only used 400 and 600 grit sandpaper. It appears that this primer will need a finer grit for a final sanding. This was also a test of the Kaleido primer. While it may be good for a base primer and sealer, it is not up to handling bodywork or fillers. Better to find this out on a basically stock body than something that has lots of modifications!

So this is going back to the body shop to try to get those scratches out, and it may be another test of the Kaleido paints. I haven't yet decided if I will strip the body and start all over including the original body work that it needed, or if I will just try to sand these out and respray those sections, realizing that sometimes that backfires and you still have to strip all the paint off.

One thing for sure, the deadline is getting closer!