DalaGStanator's Customs, Mods and Experiments

Kind of a disappointing End of Year....

You had fun, that's all that matters.

Took that out of context, I'm afraid. I was strictly referring to the amount of customs left for the annual group shot (or lack thereof) compared to the first three years in the thread, because the actual year has been pretty good for me.

After seeing the cardboard wheels worked fine on the Ecto-1, I revisited the Noddy Cab from 2022 and (finally) got rid of the poorly-made hot glue wheels I made for it; excluding the spare wheel, which didn't have to be replaced. Only had to make wider bearings to help it roll straight, since the hot glue wheels were thicker, inconsistent and rubbed against the shell too often. But that wasn't why I wanted to give it a "second chance".

The other major reason why I didn't like it too much was due to its hit-and-miss proportions, mainly the doors being too close together and the bonnet not being curved enough at the sides. I then remembered a famous toon taxi with a very similar design but different colours and a face, who I knew would lend himself better to these proportions - Benny the Cab from Who Framed Roger Rabbit.



A simple repaint wouldn't be enough and it had the wrong shade of yellow for him, so I started by reshaping the front using layers of cardboard, paper and superglue. The doors, headlights, grille and all other details were torn off and removed before priming, in part to allow spacing the doors out a bit further to accommodate two figures. All that time, I thought the whole body wasn't wide enough when the problem was much easier to figure out.



Painted in a specially-mixed amber and fully detailed, prior to adding the dashboard and steering wheel. The silver hubcaps were a bit tricky to get right since the wheel holes were partially off-centred, and trying to add the yellow rims only made the tyres look worse. Thin strips of paper were added to get the white trim in the middle. Because I wrote it on correction fluid, the name on the number plate faded and was later covered with a paper one to make it stay red (not pictured). For the face, I initially planned to use googly eyes but felt their pupils were too big, so the headlights are made of cardboard with the eyes painted on. The mouth is simply another piece with the teeth drawn on it, wedged between the bumper and bonnet. Noddy will be replaced with Roger Rabbit and (preferably) Eddie Valiant, who will both likely be sculpted in a combination of cardboard, PLA and wires. Until then, here he is with stand-in/"prototype" figures edited to look like Roger and Jessica:



This "Roger" is the head of an unidentified Kinder Surprise/happy meal robo-rabbit, which (for some reason) has what look to be handles on the back. While it's obviously oversized and not the exact shape for him, I still think it made a good base for a mock-up. "Jessica" (from an unknown set) is just under the size of my two firefighters and originally wears a red bikini, but a Roger in scale with her might be too small and she would look too realistic if I'd use this to make her. Hoping the actual figures will turn out as good-looking as Benny.