Tutorial: Pimp my Hot Wheel

[TheWolfhound]

This tutorial covers the repainting of a Hot Wheels 2010 series Volkswagen SP2.

Step 1: Drill out the Rivets
Take a drill and drill bit roughly the same size or larger than the rivet head on the underside of your Hot Wheel. Drill the rivet until you start to see plastic shavings. Most Hot Wheels have two rivets. If the plastic bottom doesn't come off easily, drill some more. I use a 3/16th drill bit.

Different model in this picture, but this is basically what it looks like

Step 2: Paint Stripping Soak
I use Simple Green (non-toxic since I have small children) but there are lots of options to strip the paint. Once the rivets are out, set the plastic parts aside and drop the die-cast metal component in your paint stripping soak.

Sp2 and a Dodge Charger soaking

When using Simple Green, I soak 48 hours for non-metallic paint and 96 for metallic paint. Then use a toothbrush to scrub off the rest of the paint. If any lingering paint exists in cracks/seams, I use a hobby razor blade to pick it out. The goal is bare metal.

Bare metal

Step 3: Add Weapons
Add whatever weapons you like or have. I have provided images showing where I found weapons for mine.

Hood Mounted Vulcan Gun

Rear Mounted Oil Jet

Nozzle made from a piece of bent solder, inserted into a hole drilled with a drill bit and pin-vise drill

Also, Stan Johansen Miniatures in Florida produces a fantastic line of weapon add-ons as part of his Road Warrior 20mm line. Simply buy one of the packs and glue them on. Good times. (Part number RW008 "Light weapons" which is $8.00 is a personal favorite).

Step 4: Airbrushing
I'm going for a Brazilian flag theme (the SP2 was produced in Brazil only from '72 to '76).

First color, the yellow

Masking off the yellow "diamond" in the center of the flag so I can paint around it.

Second color, the green

Masking tape removed

Step 5: Hand Painting
I cut a circle in a piece of masking tape and used that to help me paint the "night sky" blue globe, when I was done I removed the masking tape

Anything you missed and anything you feel needs to be painted you do it now. I painted gun barrels, the oil dispenser, head lights, tail lights, touched up the green, yellow, interior of the wheel wells, and things of that sort.

Hand painting also includes "clean up" (touching up paint spots, areas you missed, places you painted outside the lines, etc. etc.)

Step 6 and 7: Blacklining and Gloss Coat
The blacklining was done with a Sakura 005 (0.2mm) Micron Pen (black ink). I simply traced over all the panel lines. It took very little time.

I also sprayed a couple of coats of gloss on top of the paint job to seal it all in and protect the paint. In my case, I used Pledge with Future (an acrylic based floor wax) because I can airbrush it and it's cheap. However any spray gloss will work fine.

Step 8, 9, and 10: Reassembly, Magnet, and Base
Reassembly is done with superglue. The picture below has a green circle that shows where I simply pooled the superglue after I just snapped the model back together. Easy. Repeat for both rivets.

Red circles show where I placed two strong Neodymium magnets from www.KJMagnetics.com. I did this because I want to still be able to roll my Hot Wheel along and play with my children with it as a Hot Wheel. However, I don't want it rolling around when I am playing Car Wars and end a turn on a sloped surface (hill, ramp, incline, etc.).

The base is created with a 1mm piece of styrene plastic but cardstock (an old index card or cereal box cardboard) will work just as well. I cut it into a 1.5" by 3" rectangle (standard token size in 3x scale IIRC). I spraypainted it black. Then spread a bunch of Elmer's Glue (PVA Glue) on it with my finger. I then dusted it with Corn Meal (finest grind I found in the store). Once it dried, I resprayed it black again. It's the best 1:64 scale "asphalt" surface (for penny pinchers anyway) I've yet found.

FINISHED! Pictures
Right side

Head on

Backside

Left side

Other tools I used not explicitly mentioned above (lots of other options, this just happens to be what I have)
- Reaper Master Series Paints
- Winsor Newton Series 7 "Kolinsky Sable" paint brush (Size 0)
- Badger 150 Airbrush
- Paasche D200R Airbrush Compressor
- Hobby knife/razor
- Self healing cutting board
- Film can with pennies in it and hobby-tack/poster tack on top of it to act as a "handle"
- Pin vice drill
- Needle files and ultra fine sandpaper

Thanks: Closing
I hope this gives you ideas on things you can do to pimp your own Hot Wheels. I will most likely continue to post pictures to this thread (if that's ok with the Mods) of other conversions I do to continue to give ideas.

EDIT: We also discovered that due to the Neodyne magnets... the car makes a GREAT fridge magnet and storage on the side of various metal things is easy. :)

[Alan Hume]

AWESOME'

I shall check this out properly when I get home from work guys

thanks for putting this up

[Alan Hume]

I donb't suppose I could be a pain and ask for your advice regarding a list of tools that I would need to do this work

I have no tools (or spray gun anymore) as my buddies threw them all out when they were 'helping' me sort out my flat (It was a real mess though to be honest) so I need to try and find some second hand replacements

(do I really need a spray gun for the painting though or can I get away without it as they are pretty pricey??)

[PatG]

A great article and a great end product - well done!

[Alan Hume]

Originally Posted by Alan Hume

I donb't suppose I could be a pain and ask for your advice regarding a list of tools that I would need to do this work

I have no tools (or spray gun anymore) as my buddies threw them all out when they were 'helping' me sort out my flat (It was a real mess though to be honest) so I need to try and find some second hand replacements

(do I really need a spray gun for the painting though or can I get away without it as they are pretty pricey??)

That's embarrasing, I just re read the post and saw that you do in fact list the tools needed:.)

[TheWolfhound]

I've been painting for years so my tools represents almost two decades of accumulating "stuff" ... it's a significant chunk of cash to drop all at once :) tell ya what, I'll do a list of just essentials in phases.

Core List
--------
1) Some kind of chemical to strip paint with (I use Simple Green, but I don't know if that's available across the pond, probably your hardware store or auto supply should have something... I bet nail polish remover would even work).

2) A paintbrush (art supply store, size 0 or smaller. Might as well get an inexpensive one, as Hot Wheels don't demand the high levels of detail that 28mm miniatures might. Synthetic hair "Golden Taklon" is a good compromise between price and performance, lots of makers make synthetic Golden Taklon hair).

3) Acrylic paint (I think in the UK you'll find Games Workshop and Vallejo much easier than Reaper Master Series)

4) Masking Tape (if the store is selling "detail" or "extra delicate" masking tape, with the weakest adhesive get that one).

5) Primer (I use Tamiya Fine Surface Primer, which should be in the UK, sold wherever plastic model kits are. I use white.)

6) Gloss coat (just a can of the spray gloss will do fine, sold usually where spray paint is sold)

7) Some poster tack/hobby tack adhesive putty and a stick (like a wooden dowel or something). You'll use this to hold on to while you're painting the car (the poster tack is usually sold with school supplies). Just blob it on the end of the stick and shove the car on the end of it.

8) Things to use for weapons. I'd just buy them from the guy in Florida mentioned in the article really. Cheap and you save tons of time and tools as you won't need all the needle files, sandpaper, etc. etc.

9) Superglue

10) Hand drill with a 3/16th drill bit (I think 5mm metric will do fine)

11) Optional - Black ink Sakura 005 size (0.2mm) Micron Technical pen. I say it's optional because you don't "have" to blackline your cars. But really, I think it's such an awesome effect I don't do cars without it. Sold where higher end art supplies are sold. A pen is usually less than $3 and does dozens of cars.

Caveat:
When using a paintbrush, you have to decide if you want to have visible brush strokes or not. If you leave the paint as is out of the bottle, it will "coat" very nicely in one go. However you run the risk of having visible brush strokes. If you don't want the brush strokes (something similar to what an airbrush might do) you'll need to thin the paint with water (say a drop of water per drop of paint or 50:50). It may take more coats, but you'll see far fewer brush strokes.

So that's a "core" list. Easily attained and found anywhere.

Basing Materials
----------------
This list is if you like the idea of adding a magnetic base so your car won't roll around while playing. If you don't care, just drop a spot of superglue on the wheel/axles and it won't roll anymore.

1) Base material (1mm styrene plastic sheet, index card, cereal box)
2) Corn meal (from the grocery store, used for baking bread or cornbread etc. easily found here in the states... never tried to make cornbread in the UK so dunno about over there. :) )
3) White glue (aka Elmer's Glue, PVA glue) from the school supplies
4) 2 Neodymium magnets, 1/16th inch thick, any diameter should do. I used 3/8th diameter because that's what I had. I get them from KJ Magnetics: Link Here
5) Black spray paint

Airbrushing
----------
Now there's a LOT of debate on what to do here. This is my experience teaching and doing it for the past 8 years. This is a significant investment so I don't recommend it if all you're ever going to paint is Car Wars cars. I paint armies for 40K so the time savings for me were worth it.

1) Get a good brush as your first brush. Do NOT buy a cheap airbrush to "try it out" ... I've found that 3 out of 5 times the experience is so bad it puts people off airbrushes forever. Get a good brush and if you decide to not do it, you can sell it on ebay and get most of your money back. A cheap brush just goes in the trash. Good hobby airbrush means: Badger, Paasche, or Iwata as the maker. It must say "double-action" somewhere. You can choose either Gravity feed (paint cup on top) or Siphon feed (paint cup on bottom). Mine is a Badger 150 because it was fairly cheap. It's double-action siphon feed. Get a kit that comes with an air hose.

2) Air supply.
Option A) Cheapest option to start with is canned air. However if you buy more than 2 cans of air, see option b.
Option B) Buy an air tank at the hardware supply. Fill it up at the gas station or a buddy's air compressor (assuming you don't have one yourself in your garage).
Option C) Cheap garage compressor...LOUD but it'll do the job.
Option D) Dedicated Airbrushing compressor Paasche makes good ones around the $150-$200 range.

3) Cleaning the airflow - (for any air supply options other than A) buy a moisture trap/filter combo sold wherever your airbrush is sold. This goes on the air hose, usually between the tank/compressor and the hose so that the air is cleaned before it goes to the airbrush. Many dedicated airbrushing compressors are sold with these already attached.

4) Airbrush medium - this is what you use to thin the acrylic paint so you can shoot it through the airbrush. You'll have to experiment with your paints, but usually 2:1 (two parts paint, 1 part thinning) works as a default. I prefer 3:2 (3 parts paint, 2 parts thinning).
Option a) Common Windex (the original blue formulation)
Option b) Winsor Newton, Vallejo, or Liquitex Airbrush medium sold usually where art supplies are found.

Hope that helps!

[LokRobster]

Yeehaw, Wolfhound, you go all out! I was thinking about getting a pic of drilling the rivets out and stuff - making a tutorial that would have been about 10% of what you did there.

Nice presentation, did you even go to work last week?

See ya, bro - :D

[TheWolfhound]

Hee hee. After the dip/stripping paint it only took 3 hours, maybe only 2 and 2 hours waiting around for paint to dry.

[Alan Hume]

Thanks Wolfy, that list is very,v ery useful

yep, I'm not quite sure the best way to go about getting tools together
(and if I really need to cough up for an airbrush)

[TheWolfhound]

A quick run to Wal-Mart (I think it's called ASDA in the UK???) should get you most of the things on the core list. #2, #3, and #11 might need an actual art supply store (I live in a university town so it's easy for me, or get stuff online).

#11 is a matter of personal ingenuity/kitbashing or use of resources like that merchant in Florida.

....

of course the ABSOLUTE basic is something to make weapons from, superglue, black primer. Primer whatever you make the weapons from black (i.e. "parkerized gunmetal") and superglue them to your Hot Wheels. Leave the car's original paint-job alone. Poof. Done. :)