Steve Godinez built a little clip coupe to fit an AFX chassis. I was fortunate enough to buy a couple from him before he past away unexpectedly. I don't see them re-sold anymore and I would like some more. I have one of the bodies left but out of respect for Steve, a fellow resin caster, I refuse to copy his car directly. So I will make my own mold master and cast some of my own. A picture of his body is to the right and hopefully we will get there from here.
After studying the body a little, I realized that he had started with an Atlas coupe body. Well those things are pretty scarce and when one does pop up it is usually a pretty penny. Well here is where Dash Motorsports comes into the picture. They finally re-poped that Atlas body. So... I found one of the Dash bodies and that is what we will start with. If you look close you can see the similarities.
Rough cuts made... removed the bumpers and fenders... it's shaping up.
Now we have to transfer the curvature of the front from the original to my version. I will do this by making a pattern to draw the line. I then cut the pattern out of the card stock. In the process of making the pattern have matched up a couple of reference points on the car with the pattern. One reference point that is easily seen is the front door seam.
Then I take a fine point sharpie and make my marks. I will then flip the pattern and draw the same line on the other side.
Now with the use of a Dremel, Palm Sander, some filing and sanding it's really starting to shape up.
Now its time to rebuild the sides so that the tabs on the AFX chassis will hold the body in place. I used a little styrene to take care of this. There is more to this styrene than meets the eye. There are three different types of AFX chassis, the Aurora Magna-Traction and Non-Magnet chassis and the Auto World X-Traction.
The design under the styrene allow the body to be used with the three different chassis with out any modifications to the chassis.
You will also notice I sanded the rear tire cover off. I then used some Milliput to help fill and shape the back and the sides.
Here is a comparison the original on the left and my version on the right.
Once the body is filed, sanded and smoothed it now time for a little primer. For me, primer is more than a prep for the finish coat. It is a way to bring out any places on the body that need additional work. I have a couple of places on this one that need some more work. If you look closely you will see them.
First one out of the mold...
RSS Feed