BHPian sleeperwagon recently shared this with other enthusiasts: I’m assuming most of us have grown up collecting everything from the plastic pull-back Centy toys that mimicked our parents’ cars, to the tiny Hotwheels and Matchbox cars, and maybe once we had enough disposable income, we probably graduated to expensive and extremely detailed 1:18 models. While there are threads on here with general discussions on scale models, custom/modified models are still a niche subject. It would be great if we could show off models that we’ve worked on or customized. It can be as miniscule as painting details such as lights on Hotwheels cars to stripping larger models completely and repainting them. Maybe we could share our techniques and processes, after all we’re all here to learn something everyday! When I was young, way before YouTube was around to teach me things, I used to try my hand at making custom Hotwheels cars. I would sand the paint down to bare metal with extremely rough emery paper and then ‘repaint’ the car using my mom’s nail polish I can proudly say that they looked like rubbish (although back then I thought they looked awesome)! Now that I’m older, I’ve at least developed a set of skills to do some of these jobs the right way Nowadays I enjoy modifying the “Queen 70’s” model from Centy Toys to resemble real Fiat 1100s and Premier Padminis, especially since it takes people back to the days when they owned the actual cars. The first car I worked on was a gift for my father-in-law, whose parents had a green Padmini. Although they didn’t have any documented evidence of the car, I managed to pry some info about the registration number. This is how I got the car from the pack. It was then dismantled and the paint was sanded down, and then I had given it to a local painter since I had no experience in painting. And finally, post re-assembly and detailing, the car was delivered to my father-in-law who was extremely happy with the gift. I caught him looking at it closely many times, he was probably taken right back to his childhood! Since then I had modified almost 20 Padmini models for friends and acquaintences, and I was getting better at detailing them with every new order! Eventually a friend of mine asked if I could repaint a 1:18 model of a Lamborghini Murcielago. I’ll let the pictures do the talking this time, although I must admit I made many mistakes and learnt quite a lot in the process. A harsh paint stripping acid was used to get rid of the original paint. It’s so satisfying to watch the paint bubble up and simply wash away! It’s safe to say that I now know how to safely remove the wheels and calipers from most of these models without breaking them. Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
