It's not easy being green. It's not quick either!

I would ask: "When will these letters ever end?" But I know the answer, when they're done!

They're everywhere. They're on shelves, they're on tables, they're on the railing, the workmate, the floor. If there was one more sentence, we'd have to rent more space.
But Jody and Anna got them done by 6:30. We'll load them up in the morning and deliver them to set. The photographer Vicky, and prop stylist Christina popped in this morning to check them out, as well as do some measuring. I really like Vicky, she is always so easy going. She was the photographer on the gingerbread Christmas torture shoot we did a while back.

____________________RACE-CAR____________________

I didn't get to clear coat the spoilers for the racecar, as one of the pieces was being used on the car while Karen was sculpting the driver. But I did get the color on them. They look killer!
This whole car is completely overboard for it's purpose as a proof of concept model. They only wanted a small model, but I negotiated getting it back after, and I wanted it to be really cool. Not only to WOW them, but as a display after. It didn't ultimately add much more to the cost, but the end result is way over the top.

I machined up the helmet first thing when I got to the shop. I had to get that done before Karen could start the sculpting of the driver. It's oversized to the driver, and looks really funny! The visor will get cut from some sort of black material, and wrapped on. The helmet is quite big at 4" wide. I was able to steal it from Karen after a bit to get the primer coat applied. This will go high gloss like the car.

The car got completely taped off so epoxy covered fingers wouldn't get all over the shiny new paint job the car got the other day. The steering wheel was cut from the end of 1.5" abs pipe, and glued to the angle I wanted. The rest was up to Karen. She started with a foil armature, built around the 3" screw the helmet will fasten to. The whole sculpt will be epoxy putty. Karens a big FIMO sculptor, but baking the driver after is out of the question, as the base plate and steering wheel are all plastic.

We decided that the driver would look great if he was driving like a total "dude" cruisin' for chicks, Except in a racecar. That's funny! So he'll have one arm on the side of the car.

 He's even got a little zippered pocket to keep his racing license in I guess.

 The other hand is on the wheel, and looks great.

His little racing glove makes me laugh! Some guys get all the chicks, and this guys a chick magnet!

Karen took the car and driver home to finish tonight, and I'll pick it up tomorrow from her.
We have a busy day tomorrow, dropping off, and picking up some more material for the other jobs going on. The clear coat will be flowing tomorrow before I leave if it kills me. Once that's done, It's just final assembly left on the car.

Today was a blast at the shop! I'm not sure if it's because there were 3 stellar ladies working, or if because the day was filled with laughter and jokes, but whatever the reason, I'm glad I get to do this for a living!
8)
JWO

Painting Fairies are always handy to have!

Our letter build is well into the painting stage now. Jody and Anna made great headway, even if they are only 3 feet tall. We're doing the English and French version of the print ad, which means lots and lots of letters. I'm thinking I'll have to roll up my sleeves and pitch in tomorrow, they're coming along, but not quick enough. I would have liked to spray them, but were using a pretty heavy texture in the paint, and it doesn't like to flow through any of my paint guns!

Speaking of painting.....the rims for the toon racer got primed and painted their aluminum color. They look great. I still have to drill them out, but that'll come later.

I was bound and determined to get the spoilers done today as well! I cut all the plates out of 1/4" styrene. I thought about heat bending the airfoil on the rear of the car, but I didn't want to take the time to make any jigs to form it evenly. I opted to go for 4 ribs that would get clad in easy-bending .060" styrene. The ribs will slot into a rabbet on the sides that our Techno milled in.

The ribs will be on the underside, so it won't be a really big deal.

Here's the airdam slotted into the sides of the spoiler. This will be plenty strong once the solvent weld hardens up. I didn't get a picture of it mounted onto the car :( but it was a little intimidating drilling into the body of the car with all that super-awesome shiny it's got goin on!

The front spoiler was way more simple. I did actually heat bend the front one, as it's so big, I thought the ribs would be frustrating. I place the flat plate of 1/4" styrene over a piece of pipe, and heated it with the heat gun until it drooped over the pipe, then I quench cooled it to hold its shape. Nothing fancy with the side wings, just glued them to the ends, and put screws up through the bottom for extra strength. I shaped the angle of the mounting block by taping down some sand paper to the bent spoiler, and sanded it fairly quick. I have no idea what the angle was, so this solved the problem.

The finished piece got chem-welded and screwed with some #6 countersunk screws. You can see the clearance holes drilled for when I attach it to the car.

The final step was to add the "supports" for the fins. Just some 1/16" brass rod, bent to fit into the pre-drilled holes. A little CA glue and it was done.

I did primer spray all the parts, so tomorrow I hope to get the final paint and clear on these. I'm having my artist friend Karen Coombes come in tomorrow to sculpt the drivers upper body and arms from epoxy putty.
It's almost done, Nice!
8)
JWO

LETTERS...........yay.........

This was my day today! It did give me a chance to hang out outside the shop and chat with all of our neighbors in the warm weather while our Techno did all the work! I l-o-o-o-v-e our CNC.

This was the first out of 5 sheets! I did get them all cleaned up. Jody, along with a new helper named Anna will get them all painted tomorrow! Anna is a new hire for us, and she seems great. Hopefully we'll have lots to keep her busy.

I didn't get anything on the racecar done, but I did toolpath all the files for the t.v. show build that starts tomorrow. I'm hoping the racecar makes better headway tomorrow as well. It leaves on Monday, and I feel like the progress has been halted!

We quoted on some cool kids television commercial stuff today, and I keep hoping that there won't be an NDA with that, or I'll be bust on stuff to write about :)

8)
JWO