The Castafiore Emerald (Peugeot 403)
The Peugeot 403 Taxi that finally removes Bianca Castafiore from Marlinspike Hall...
Resin casts of the shell from an old toy Peugeot 403
Chose the best one for the main body. Chassis comes from a Bandai Ultraman mini-kit.
Sanding the body smooth and scribing some panel lines for the doors.
Shell trimmed, door/trunk cut out and chassis cut and glued together.
Trunk opened up too.
Wheel alignment seems good.
The seats need to be wider... luckily I’ve got lots to work with.
A bit of sanding and voilà! Two bench seats
All still fits. Whew!
Dashboard and trunk space scratched up and assembled. Needs a bit of sanding though.
Let's pause for a moment and reflect on how far we've come... 😉
Got the trunk boxed in so it was time for a bit of paint.
Masking for the seats.
Seats painted brown, added some floor mats and gave the dash board a few highlights.
First coat of paint on the body revealed some flaws, so back to the putty and sanding we go!
Much better. I like the blue and the grill backing mesh looks good.
Trunk fits... wheels need some work though.
Ah! Much better. The chrome detailing on the doors, headlights and bumpers make the blue pop!
Now time to get some handmade luggage for the trip... also need a luggage rack to put them on.
Luggage painted, just needs some handles and we'll be ready for final assembly.
Komentáře
26 16 November 2017, 04:43
Greg BakerThere aren't a lot of options for vehicles from this Tintin album (since it's basically a "mystery in a locked room" story). However, I think the most iconic is the Peugeot 403 taxi that finally delivers the Milanese Nightengale away from Marlinspike Hall (aka Moulinsart). The base is the shell from an old Peugeot 403 plastic toy. Pretty rough, but some resin casts will give me a few swings at this one. There will be a roofrack added and the trunk will be opened, but I'm debating if I should try to open one (or more) of the doors as well. Any opinions?
16 November 2017, 04:58
Spanjaardif you have several ones to try, is worth trying to open the doors, certainly.
16 November 2017, 22:57
John ThomasHey Greg, were do you fine these little cars? Great casting job also
17 November 2017, 13:40
Greg BakerThanks John. The little cars are just old PEZ-type plastic toys that I found on eBay. It takes a bit of checking to make sure they're actually 1/72 scale since a lot of them are actually 1/87 or 1/64 scale. Once I have the shell though, I do a resin cast and then scratch build the chassis and interior details.
17 November 2017, 23:29
Greg BakerThanks Calvin and Martin! I finally got the shell to sit properly on the chassis, so it's starting to come together now.
8 December 2017, 13:55
Greg BakerWe're into the home stretch on this one now. Got the front grill made and installed. Had a little trouble with the headlights, but chances were not good that they would get better so I stopped playing with them while I was only a bit behind. Basically just finishing up the scratched up luggage/rack.
28 May 2018, 00:19
John ThomasHey Greg, Have you tried to light up your little cars? That would be cool, like your Big Bugs
28 May 2018, 12:21
Greg BakerThanks for the suggestion, John. I'm not sure I have the patience to try and light up one of these little cars. This one is now done, but the final steps to install the windows nearly destroyed the whole project. I had to repaint the shell 3 times because I kep buggering up the install and the paint around the windows was a mess. It was very difficult to get the front and rear windows to be just the right size/shape to fit snuggly and allow for the relatively serious curve.
Once they were in, everything else just came together. I suppose I should be glad since I was able to fix up some of the issues with the headlights in the process. In the end, I'm quite happy. It actually does look like a 1/72 scale Peugeot 403 to me.
6 June 2018, 22:49
Greg BakerThanks CaptGPF! If you'd like to check them ALL out, you can read more about them on my blog - strobez.ca/wp/index...1-72-scale-projects/
I'm trying not to over-spam Scalemates at the moment, but wanted to update my Collections here. There's more to come!
6 March, 20:00
RandoGreg I just have to say what you do is really unique and amazing, I looked through your planned treatment for Area 88 and it'll be really cool to see how that turns out.
7 March, 00:37
Greg BakerHope they enjoy it, CaptGPF!
Rando - Thanks. Yeah, I've neglected the Area 88 plans for a little while, but I seem to naturally bounce back and forth between them... usually when I get a bit frustrated by one for a while. 😉
7 March, 01:31
