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Let's scratchbuild a DeLorean!; Scratchbuilding tutorial
Topic Started: Jun 8 2012, 06:23 PM (2,681 Views)
Carrakon
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Since I showed my humble scratchbuilt vehicles in my vehicle thread, people here asked me to do a thorough tutorial on the process. Now after seeing the post apoc back to the future artwork over here I knew what my next project was gonna be: The DeLorean Time machine!

However, a quick search for a model proved futile, because they're damn expensive, which brings us back to scratchbuilding: The DeLorean's boxy shape makes it a perfect candidate for scratchbuilding.

Before we can start building, we need to obtain certain things. Here's our necessary material:
-Plasticcard with 1mm and 0.5mm thickness
-Scissors
-hobby knive
-rasps
-superglue
-plastic glue
-glue stick
-metal ruler
-printer
-sticky tape

Got all that? Great.

The other thing we need before we get started is a set of plans. Remember: We do this because we need a DeLorean model without having to pay our first born for it, this isn't actually our hobby. So how do we start constructing?

Why by looking at the people whos hobby actually IS making the kind of plans we need of course! To the papermodelers it is!
A quick search turns up various results, most of them unsuitable for our needs:
On the lower end we get stuff like this:
Posted Image
This would be ok if we actually planned to build a papermodel of the car, where the printed textures do much of the work for us when it comes to looks - and I highly recommend simply putting together a papermodel if you're just gonna use it for shits 'n giggles as a terrain piece in one game.

The problem we have is, we can't really use the textures as during the building process, the paper will need to be removed in order to assist glueing and even if not, it would get dirty and may very well be damaged. We are gonna use the paper plans ONLY as templates for cutting out our parts.

In short: Using this as a basis would result in a very, very boxy model - but we want it to look good next to our die-cast cars.

On the other end of the spectrum, we get this:
Posted Image
Now this looks Awesome, doesn't it? The problem? There's two of them:
a) This is done for people who build paper models for fun. And who are good at it. Very good. And they use paper, which is easier to work with.
b) Scale. these plans are for a larger scale vehicle. If we scaled it down, it would get ridiculously fiddly.

Do not - I repeat: DO NOT - use plans like these if you value your sanity!

As a good middle ground, I found this site:
Linky
Now the ones on top are too boxy, but if we scroll down, at the very bottom, we find a nice and still simple plan. We'll use that as basis.

"Awesome, Carrakon, I'm off to the copy shop now!"
Whoa! Wait a second!
Just printing it out, sticking it on plastic card and starting to glue is not gonna turn out as good as it can. You see there's 2 issues we need to tackle first:

a) Unlike paper, Plastic card can't just be folded as easily. Using a papermodel plan as-is will result in a horribly mismatched model, as the plans obviously don't cover the peculiarities of the material WE are going to work with.

b) Paper models often don't work too much in all 3 dimensions and instead use textures. Using plastic card, we don't have that luxury, as - even if we kept the textures - our folding lines would be bright white lines with a width of about 0.5-1mm.

The upside is that we can rather easily add structure to the surfaces of our models.

Using photoshop, I converted the plans we found above to our needs. I'll attach the file to this post for your usage. It's scaled so the model will be roughly 4cm wide. Glue it to plastic card sheets using the glue stick and let it dry for a couple of hours at least. Use 0.5mm thickness for all the parts except the ones I marked with '1mm'.

If you think you can do it from here, be warned: The basic plan was a non-converted stock DeLorean: It will need conversion work to the back, which we'll do on the fly.

In the next installment we're gonna get our pieces ready for assembly and start glueing.
Attached to this post:
Attachments: DeLorean_fuer_plastic_card.jpg (83.23 KB)
Edited by Carrakon, Jun 10 2012, 01:38 PM.
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mattblackgod
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Cool stuff. I look forward to reading the next parts.
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Mr. Clean
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:worship:
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RustBucket
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YES! more of this! you sir deserve a medal!
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tinker
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Carrakon...

Wow!

Sweet beginnings!
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Carrakon
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Ok, so we glued the parts on the Plastic Card with the gluestick and let it dry for a couple of hours. Time to start cutting out our parts!

For the most part this obviously is a pretty straight forward thing. Feel free to use scissors in easily accessable parts, but I advise against doing so with the 1mm card, as that stuff is rather sturdy and it makes ugly cuts.

Here are some cuts which are not obvious - these are not necessary for the model, but add structure:

In the rear cut out the lights and license plate. Do this with the 0.5mm thick variant of this part. It is obviously possible to use the other one with 1mm, but cutting gets significantly more exhausting for your fingers.
Posted Image

As you noticed, we have 3 front parts. Use the one with a 1mm thickness and cut out the headlights:
Posted Image

Use the 0.5mm version and cut out everything, except the bumper:
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For the headlight part, it is advisable to keep a little extra at the bottom:
Posted Image

Also, make cuts along the doors. Don't - DON'T! - cut too deep, we do NOT want to cut all the way through.
Posted Image

Also keep the cutout in the back, where the rear window would be - it might come in handy later, as its dimensions are similar to the windshield.

Your part collection should now look like this:
0.5mm thickness:
Posted Image
Note: We don't cut out the windows, except the triangular ones in the back. Normally, we could cut them out and glue another piece of plastic behind the 'hole' for the windows, but with this model, we have to bend the plastic in some places and the added stress of that would make the building WAY harder and more frustrating. The windows will come out alright, trust me!

1mm thickness:
Posted Image

Now that we have our parts cut out, the most tedious part is over!
Edited by Carrakon, Jun 9 2012, 03:28 PM.
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Carrakon
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Ok so before we can finally start to glue, theres some simple tasks ahead of us.

First, we have to bend the cars body in some places while there's still no glued parts we have to be careful about.

As you will have noticed, theres a bend at the headlights - our car's body obviously will have to fit that one!
We thus make a bend along the thick black line in the middle of the body. Now there's two ways to do it:

1) We could make a shallow cut along the line and bend it there, basically snapping the plastic. The advantage of this technique is, that it is very accurate with the bend being exactly where you want it. The downside is that you get a small crack along the line, which you will have to fill later. Also the plastic may very well break, making the building process a wee bit harder.

2) We can just bend the plastic. The downside here is that it's less accurate, that the above. The big advantage is, that the bend will not break and we'll get a nice, round edge. I'm gonna go with that technique, because I like the smoother finish it gives and because I'm a lazy bugger who doesn't want to fill the gaps resulting from option 1) later. Also this is the less obvious technique, so I figured to show it here.

To do this is very simple: Get an elevated working space. I'll use a wooden board. Align the line along which we'll bend it with the edge of the board:
Posted Image

Take a ruler and align it with the board edge and the bending line, sandwiching the plastic between ruler and board:
Posted Image

Press the ruler down - we don't want the plastic card to escape! then carefully bend the plastic along the line. Don't worry about the exact angle, this process weakens the plastic along the line and we can adjust the angle without any tools later on.

The second bend we have to make is at the edges of the roof, giving the wing doors a nice, smooth edge, instead of a sharp one (This is one of the primary reasons for choosing this set of plans, btw):
Posted Image
Here we can be less of a ruler-nazi - here we do it just to weaken the plastic and make it bendy, so we can fit it to the windscreen later.

Next we have to prepare the top of the windscreen to bend it 'downwards'. Now again we could simply make a cut along the edge and snap the plastic, but this will result in the ugly crack.
I'll take the opportunity to show yet another technique:

Turn the part around and get a small rasp. A triangular-shaped one is perfect (a Dremel would work, too, obviously). If you don't have one, you can do it with a hobby knife, but you need to be very careful. Our goal is to file/cut a V-shaped crack into the back, so we can easily bend the windshield.
I just took my triangular rasp and scratched out the shape:
Posted Image

We now no longer need the paper on the parts [Exception: The paper on the car's floor - that is the rectangle with the 4 crossing lines - leave the paper on here!], as all the lines we needed to cut and bend have been used. Remove the paper, to facilitate glueing and in order to give the model a better surface for painting later. Ask a female friend of relative if your fingernails aren't up to the task :)


Addendum: I normally would have put this in earlier to the cutting section, but it's something I realized late and i figured it's good to show how I make adjustments 'on the fly' all the time.
After bending the car's body in shape as a test, I realized that the roof's middle would bend together with the edges. But we want a flat roof, damnit! I also realized that the cutout I had intended for the back didn't have quite the right shape - but we can re-utilize it to strengthen the roof!
Cut off the lower part of this part like so:
Posted Image
The exact position of the cut is irrelevant.

Our cut, cleaned and bended parts colelction should now look like this:
Posted Image

In the next step, we finally start glueing!
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mattblackgod
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Big boss warlord dude!
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Great stuff. Keep them coming!
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Carrakon
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Ok with all the preliminaries out of the way, let's start glueing!

First we glue the parts of the back onto each other like so:
Posted Image

We then glue the front bumperon the 1mm thick front section:
Posted Image

And add the 'headlights', which we glue onto the back:
Posted Image

Due to a failing camera battery, I can't provide a picture of the last step. Take the leftover part we cut down in the last step and glue if across the inside of the roof somewhere in the middle to stabilize it later:
Posted Image

This concludes our first steps. Remember: This is not a model kit, manufactured to fit perfectly. The various parts are under some stress here, so let it dry thoroughly. If you have trouble with waiting, I suggest doing a parallel side-project to keep you occupied while you wait.
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Mr. Clean
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I love this!

Thanks!
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tinker
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Increasingly informative and impressive!
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Carrakon
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Alrighty: After letting our first steps dry, it's time to start some serious assembling!

First, we're gonna bend the windshield and glue it in place, giving the body some form!
Before we do that, you might wanna use your hobby knife to carefully chamfer the edges:
Posted Image

be very carefull, otherwise bad things happen, like this:
Posted Image
..obviously I did that on purpose, as I wanna show you guys how to repair accidents like that. I'd never make a mistake like that... I swear... ^o)

Anyway. We then glue it in place. Keep some tape ready, as otherwise you're going to hold the pieces in place for a long time!
Posted Image

Use some additional tape to 'tie' the edges of the body together as well - this will help with our further assembly:
Posted Image

Then put the hood in place. Use some tape to make sure it sits perfectly on the egdes:
Posted Image

Remember the purely educational hickup I added absolutely on purpose?
Put some tape over it from the inside. This will later help with filling the hole.
Posted Image

Next we take the front part and put it in place. use tape to make it stay in place.
Posted Image

Now it's time for the rear. We'll simply...Oh crap, i totally forgot about the little angle there:
Posted Image

Not we have a 1.5mm thick piece of plastic we need to bend. Damn.
Get out our old buddy, the triangular rasp and start filing away on the inside. It helps to first make a little cut along the line we need to bend it. A Dremel can work, too, obviously. If you have neither, make a cut and then use the knife to carefully broaden it. In the end we need a rather deep V-shaped gap on the back.
Posted Image

Glue it in place using our good ol' tape to keep it there:
Posted Image

Lastly we'll add the rear of the driver's compartment. Due to a brainfart on my part, the part I originally planned to use wasn't nearly the right shape, so we have to improvise. After some measuring of both the width of the roof and the width of the lower end of the windshield, we need a piece like this:
Posted Image

It's roughly 1cm high. the bottom is 3.5cm wide, the top is 3cm wide. Use 1mm plastic card. When you got it, file the edges round. then place it in the back.
Posted Image
Use tape to secure it (do I even have to say that anymore?)
Fits well enough.

Posted Image
Then again, maybe we want to give it additional security by applying super glue. Occasions like tis are the reason I added it to the materials list: Sometimes it's hard to get a piece in place and secure it, so a drop of superglue helps a great deal. Don't use superglue exclusively but combine it with regular plastic glue.

As due to all the tape our model now looks like the victim of a prank, we'll let it dry over the night and continue tomorrow.
Edited by Carrakon, Jun 9 2012, 07:38 PM.
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Carrakon
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Alrighty! Now that our glue had time to dry, we carefully remove all the tape. Our Wip now looks like this:
Posted Image
Posted Image

Not too bad, eh?
Next we have to close that giant hole in the back. This is nothing too fancy, just measure the necessary dimensions and cut out a suitable piece of plasticcard. You may have to do some filing here and there.
Posted Image
Posted Image

It does't have to be perfect as this space will later be cluttred with electronics and time-machine-y stuff - we just need something to later glue all that gadgetry to.

Now we take the floor section. Hold it next to the body to determine which is the front as the wheel archs aren't equally wide in the front and back.
Posted Image

Posted Image

When checking the fitting, we see that it's a bit too long as I didn't account for the width if the plastic card:
Posted Image

Posted Image

This is no problem - we just have to shorten it accordingly (1.5mm in the back, 1mm in the front). Also it's time to make room for the wheels. I'll cut out a width of 1cm - if you plan on using ready-made wheels salvaged from some toy, you just have to adjust it. I'ts better to make it a bit too wide.
Here you see it with all the parts to be removed marked:
Posted Image

Also we need to bend the front and rear to fit to the body. As the looks are entirely unimportant at the bottom, we just mak a shallow cut and bend it off:
Posted Image

Posted Image

Check the fitting before proceeding - some filing here and there may be required.
Posted Image

Now we need the back of the wheelhouse:
Posted Image

Cut them out - no need to work too thoroughly here. important is only that the bottom is perfectly straight as we need to glue here.
Posted Image

Glue them in place:
Posted Image

While we let this dry, we'll do some minor adjustments to the body.

We look through our steadily growing pile o'rubbish and...what's that?
Posted Image
Rubbish? No sir! I'ts a bumper, don't you see?

For the rear:
Posted Image

Posted Image

And also the sides of the front:
Posted Image

Also we can now fill some gaps in the body and the little windscreen hick-up I totally intentionally added for educational purposes. Use whatever you got handy and feel comfortable with: Liquid green stuff of what have you. I like to use white glue for it as that's dirt cheap :)

Apply it liberally:
Posted Image

And use your finger to smoothen it:
Posted Image
Here we see the problem of using white glue on a white surface when trying to make a tutorial.... sorry about that.

This concludes this session, as our pieces need time to dry again.
Edited by Carrakon, Jun 10 2012, 01:47 PM.
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mattblackgod
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Big boss warlord dude!
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Man this tutorial is awesome!
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Carrakon
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Time for the next step.

For this we need a strip of thin plastic card. Depending on how wide your wheel house is you need to adjust this. As mine iös 1cm wide, I make it 1.5 cm.
Posted Image

We then prepare it by wrapping it around something. A pen will do:
Posted Image

Posted Image

We now put it in place to get a rough estimate of the length we're gonna need. then cut 4 stips of that:
Posted Image

Posted Image

More bending...
Posted Image

Now put in in place. Use a pencil or pen to mark where the body meets the strip:
Posted Image

Mark which part goes where:
Posted Image

Add a small arc:
Posted Image
And cut them out:
Posted Image

Before you continue: Take care of your entertainment - something you don't need your hands for - because you'll have to hold it in place while the glue dries as tape won't work. This may be an excellent situation to tell the missus that now you have all the time in the world to listen to her ridiculous complaints and imaginary traumata (warning: It may not necessarily be wise to use these exact words). Or you could just watch a movie.

Glue the strip in place. I suggest using some blobs of plastic glue next to blobs of superglue to combine the quick drying of the superglue with the sturdyness of the plastic glue.
Posted Image
This is why we need to give our work time to dry thoroughly from time to time: You'll need to apply quite some pressure and we don't want the model to fall apart now!

Posted Image

repeat on all wheel houses.
Posted Image

didn't fit perfectly...
Posted Image

..which gives me the perfect opportunity to use my favorite tool: The Dremel with the Buzzsaw of doom!
Posted Image
Sometimes I wonder when the neighbours will start to talk about that illegal dentist practice I run in my living room ;)

Anyway: We're done for the moment:
Posted Image

Again: time to let it dry!
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Carrakon
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While the body dries, There's still stuff we can do!

We'll now take care of the tires and begin with the time-machine-y gadgets.
Posted Image

First: the Time machine exhausts (?):
Glue it to plastic card and cut out the pieces.
Posted Image
Note: I Cut a long strip with the middel part on it. You'll see why in a second.

Cout out the pieces as normal AND cut the longer strip in small pieces. We now have some slall strips with the same width as the actual part.
Posted Image

Take the middel part and put some tape on it:
Posted Image

Glue the side parts in place:
Posted Image

And before the glue is dry, add in the fins:
Posted Image

And Done!
Posted Image

And the tires:
I'll use Cardboard for that one as it's easier to work with and will be sturdy enough the way I do it. The same technique obviously would work just as well with plastic card. This time we'll actually use the texture of the rim.

Glue it to Cardboard and beginn cutting. For the moment, we ONLY need the black ring, leave some extra cardboard around the others for the moment!

Posted Image

Paint the rings black now
Posted Image

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And glue 'em to the rim.

Now cout it out:
Posted Image

And repeat
Posted Image
Until the tires are wide enough for your taste.

We then paint the exposed cardboard black
Posted Image
[The bottle cap is not there because i drink while working, but because I plan on making nuka cola markers some day - so i saved them after the missus started drugging me with beer every evening in order to get me tired.]

And they're done. Store them somewhere - we won't add them until after we painted the model because a) As I said, We'll use the rim texture, so we don't want it to be basecoated and b) we absolutely don't want a bright white spot deep in the wheel house because the primer couldn't reach everything.

Of course you could just simply use wheels from toys (hell, at the dollar store you can sometimes get toy cars so cheap that buying them for the wheels only is an ok price!). I probably will do just that, but I wanted to show a decent way of making tires if you have none handy.
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Carrakon
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Ok today we're gonna revisit the mud wings. For this step we need 4 Green Stuff sausages:
Posted Image

Put it around the wings:
Posted Image

And slope it:
Posted Image

Obviously this is to be repeated 4 times:
Posted Image

Use left-over GS to fillany remaining gaps:
Posted Image

Posted Image

This concludes this short step.
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RustBucket
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:jaw: holy moly thats some hardcore scratch building!
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Carrakon
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It's by far easier than it looks, I promise! Try it out - the plastic sheets are inexpensive, so there's not much harm in doing so!
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RustBucket
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I would but plasti-card round these parts are £1.99 a sheet... in a town where a 1/43 diecast is usually no more than £1.99 each. I built a tank from scratch few months ago and loved every minute. I find I can get the look I want more often than not... scratch building is my last resort though as I become obsessed!

A muscle car however... there are NO muscle cars in 1/43 round here, I would scratch build me a rat-rod or a mustang in a heart beat if funds allow! Keep the amazing tut's going fella!
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