KoolWheelz Mystery Machine Group Build & Tutorial

[Amccombs3]

This morning, I started to come around to Dave's outlook on cats. I was all set up at my workbench, drop of fresh glue on the scrap card, toothpick in hand, when the cat jumped up and got into everything. I had to suspend operations and go sit down and do something else while he sacked out on my lap. Some time later, he lost interest and I was able to resume gluing. Had a little trouble with glue squeezing out here and there, but nothing major. I find that removing the droplet with the end of a new toothpick works for me. Anyhow, everything seems to line up pretty well. My poor Renault FT tank can be seen languishing in the back of the second picture. Weekends can be busy so I'm fine with waiting until Sunday for the next lesson.

[ViperPilot]

The side, ft. & r. panels are glued to the roof:


A couple of small seam wrinkles on the top, but I think it looks OK!

Trying to figure out which glue I like the best... I have a bottle of Elmer's glue-all that's about 15 yrs. old; it seems thin to me (even after I stirred and re-mixed it), but sets up just fine. I also have some School Glue Gel that I just bought; it appears 'wetter' to me, takes longer to dry, and seems to affect the card stock.

Love airdave's paintbrush idea; it's much easier for me to apply the right amount of glue in the right spot than using a toothpick.

The 'pen' looking thing at the bottom is the infamous "PDA Stylus"... I got it from an old Apple tablet that went south years ago. It makes a nice score line, and fits in my hand nicely.

Thanks to airdave for taking the time to 'teach' the Class. I've learned a lot from everyone in such a short time, and I hope it turns into a regular sort of thing. Maybe next time a class on rolling Tubes, edge gluing, making cones & circles?

Alan

[Amccombs3]

BTW, I got curious as to the scale of this model. It scales to a real 1965 Chevy van at about 1:67, but since it's a cartoon, it looks like it's foreshortened a bit, so my guess is it's supposed to a more standard 1:64. How'd I do, Dave?

[Vermin_King]

Even though I haven't started on this yet, I'm still learning a lot. I was of the school of placing glue on the tabs and positioning to the connection point. I tried lightly gluing the connection point and pressing in the tabs last night, and it works much better. I need to make that a habit. It feels a little awkward for now, but there is much more control this way

[Psychohillbilly]

Had to work overtime yesterday. Time to catch up. Cut check, Bend check, Fold check, Glue check and done, whew! I always have used a tooth pick to glue so I thought I would give the paintbrush a try. Worked great don't know why I hadn't done that a long time ago.

[airdave]

LOL ...No scale Anne...its a cartoon.
And as cartoon art goes, the shape and look varies from cel to cel, frame to frame, show to show.
Trying to really connect it to an actual vehicle is a stretch
and then expecting dimensions to correlate would be an even bigger stretch.

I just assumed, being a late 60s, early 70s American cartoon,
the inspirations would be things familiar at that time.
Thats why I imagine seeing the 66 Chevy Van.

........................
There are already quite a few paper Mystery Machine models so I knew I wasn't doing anything original.
I definitely wanted to avoid any plagiurism (if thats possible with a subject like this)
so I deliberately did not download and look at any of the other paper models before I started.
This is 100% my design, from scratch.

The colours and artwork of the Mystery Machine were a bit of a confusing "mystery".
With all the real life copies, on all kinds of Vans and so many scale models and toys...it was difficult to settle on a look.
It looked Black & White to me, when I was a kid.

So, I just pulled up a bunch of pictures from the original cartoons (the earliest looks).
I mulled over the various blue/green/teal base-colour variations
and picked one that I thought best represented the original 60s Saturday morning cartoon.

One thing I have noticed is the variations in the Blue colouring from everyone's printouts.
Assuming I am looking at photo/camera differences, monitor settings and printer variations,
its amazing how many variants we have here.

My model is definitely a teal (green-blue)
...fairly light (lighter than 50% Gray in tonal value)
and hints of a sky blue colour under darker lighting.

The complimentary colour on my model is more yellow-orange than green.
As best I can see with my colourblindness.

I couldn't decide. JPEG colour saturation made it difficult to pick a colour.
I ended up sampling a colour from an actual cartoon frame.
I liked the look so I went with it.
But according to Scoobypedia, it is definitely supposed to be green.
A fairly bright yellow-green I think
How green is your printout?

[paperengineer]

Lol I totally forgot about this until a half hour ago so I had a lot of catchup to do. I kinda rushed so the top is warped but there isn't any white showing for once my model doesn't have green mixed with the yellow or blue but theres a green blotch between the two Ms in Mystery Machine

[airdave]

Originally Posted by paperengineer

my model doesn't have green mixed with the yellow or blue but theres a green blotch between the two Ms in Mystery Machine

haha, so there is!
I pulled the logo off my original MM model.
It must have had a more green background.
I guess I didn't clean it up enough.

Oh well, it is what it is.

And where ever you go...there you are.

Buckaroo Scooby Doo!?

[Lighter]

Originally Posted by airdave

And where ever you go...there you are.

Buckaroo Scooby Doo!?

Bonsai kemosabe

John
Grover's Mill, New Jersey

[airdave]

I just had some fun modifying the Mystery Machine model!!
LOL
I decided to refer back to the original colours I used (on the first MM I created)
and change the paint on the model.

No major changes to the model itself...
I have just adjusted the complimentary colour to be closer to the green it should be.

It started to bother me that I didn't get it right.
I know everything can't always be exactly perfect,
but I try to be accurate as possible (even with cartoon vehicles!).

I've already updated the download file
so if you are picky about the colours and want the more accurate version
then you can download the updated model
and maybe rebuild it after we are done!?
Consider this build to be your practice build.

But for now...forget what I just said..
and lets continue with build!
New build step tomorrow morning!