Photoshop Repaint of Fiddler's Green Pedal Car

Lee Clifton

Wisdom and Kindness, A Zealot Sage
Oct 7, 2015
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I was working on a new project for myself and decided to create a little tutorial. I'm working on a recolor of Fiddler's Green Pedal Car into the Joker's Clown Car for the Joker's Gotham City Circus. I opened the first page and created a layer to repaint the light tan color into purple. I'm using layers in case I want to do another recolor of the same Pedal Car with different colors later. Photoshop has an FX filter set that will let me recolor the layers to any color with a couple of clicks. You can do the same thing without layers by using the paint brush or the fill set to "color" fill, "darken", "lighten, etc.
This is the starting image of the original Pedal Car page 01. Notice in the tool bar at left I already chosen my "purple" and "green" colors. In the "Layers" pallet at right I have created my first layer and named it "Recolor Purple".
1-Starting Window copy.jpg
Image 02 I have set the layer to "Darken" and have started painting in the purple over the original tan color. You will notice that painting over the darker black lines with purple doesn't effect the black because the brush is set to "darken" only. I am using a brush but you can use any of the selection tools in Photoshop and just use the "fill". Since the "layer" is set to "Darken" the brush or fill can be set to "normal". If you are working on the original image or "background" you can work without layers and just paint or fill using the brush set to "darken" or use "Edit-fill-mode-darken". Either way will work.

2-Painting on a darken-layer copy.jpg
Image 03 I have finished painting the hood purple.
3-Hood Recolored Purple copy.jpg
Image 04 I decided to paint the dash and the center of the steering wheel purple. Since the dash was gray I could set the layer fill to "overlay" and recolor it, but the "red" in the steering wheel wouldn't fill right so I set that layer to "normal". I could have converted the whole page to "grayscale" under mode and then converted it back to "rgb". Gray images are easier to recolor but some times harder to keep up with what needs to be colored since the whole page is shades of gray.4-Purple Finished copy.jpg
Image 05 and its time to repaint the "orange" to "forest green". I had the same problem that I faced with the "red" steering wheel center where it wouldn't recolor correctly with the layer fill so I set it to "normal" again and when I painted the green it covered the orange completely. That finishes page 01 of parts for now. I'll be coming back to it later to add Joker logos to the hood and overing up the green louvers on each side.5-Finished Page 01 copy.jpg
Image 06 I've moved on to page 02 of parts and recolored the green and purple as I did for page 01. On this page I wanted to use another Joker color and recolored the seat to "orange". This layer was set to "color". So we have now used three different layer fill modes, "darken", "normal", and "color". There are a lot of other settings that you can try. Each has a different use. This completes the "recolor" of pages 01 and 02.6-Finished Page 02 copy.jpg
Image 07 I have gone back to page 01 and added two layers for each side of the hood for the Joker's Gotham City Circus logos. You create a new layer and paste in the logo. Select the layer and go to "edit-transform-scale". You can also go to "edit-transform-rotate". Since all we have done has been using layers you can move anything individually.
7-JokerCircusLogosAdded copy.jpg
Image 08 I wanted the logos to show up a little more so I clicked on the logo to select it and then clicked the "fx" button at the bottom of the layers pallet. I then chose "drop shadow" and changed the settings until I liked them. After it looked the way I wanted it, click "OK" and the "fx" window will close. You will see an "fx" appear to the right of the name of your layer telling you that a custom filter set has been applied. I next held down the "alt" key PC or the "option" key MAC clicked on the "fx" on the first logo layer and drag a copy of it onto the second logo layer. That copies the custom filter set to the second logo. Double click on the "fx" on that layer to open the "fx" window, click on "drop shadow" and find the box that is checked for "use global light" and uncheck it. That will make your drop shadows go in the direction it should on each side of the hood since they are on opposite sides. I also made an extra "cover up" layer under the logos and added to purple boxes to cover up the "green louvers" on each side since I didn't need them from the original design.
8B-VentCoverup and shadows.jpg
Image 09 I also made a front facing Joker Jester to match the side views used on each side of the hood. This one has been sized to fit over the grille. I cut the image apart and made several layers so I could "layer" the face up by gluing it one piece over another to make a fake 3D grille. The original model is too small for that but I will be enlarging the model after I build the first test build. I will post my build photos next week.

9-GrilleHeadSizing copy.jpg

This is my first attempt at a tutorial for Photoshop so if theres something you don't understand feel free to ask questions and I'll try my best to explain any steps you might need.
 
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Here's an addition to the Joker's Clown Car. I opened the first recolor page and checked the size and it was 8 inches wide, so I went to "Image--Canvas Size", clicked the arrow on the left so that changes to the canvas size will go to the right, changed the width to 24 inches. That will give me the room on the right of the page one image to paste in pages 02 and 03. Click OK and the canvas size will change to 24 inches wide. Then I opened Page 02, "Select All", and "Copy". Click on the tab at the top for the canvas you resized and "paste". A Page 02 copy will appear in the window. Use the "Move" tool (the top right tool in the tool bar". You can click on the Page 02 image and drag it to the right into the center of your canvas or use the arrow key to move it. Repeat this process to add Page 03 of the recolored pages. You notice that you have 3 layers in the layer pallet. In the "layers pallet" you will notice a small arrow at the top right which is the Layers drop down menu. Click on it and scroll down to select "Flatten Image". This will make your image one layer. I saved the file as "AllSheetsForEnlargement" in JPEG format. My new page looks like this.

10-resize.png
After measuring the model I found that it was too small to use with a 6 inch action figure of the Joker and Harley Quinn. I checked an action figure and the "thigh" measures close to 1 1/2 inches long. Next I will use a free "action" that I downloaded free from the internet. An action is like a Macro for a PC but it runs inside Photoshop. There are tons of them that you can download for free. They do everything from making your text into logo like illustrations that look like fire, ice, smoke, etc. or in this case will resize your images without loosing quality.
 

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To use the "TLR Image Resizer.atn" in the previous post, download it to your desktop or where you would like to store it. Open Photoshop, go to the "actions pallet", click on the little arrow at the top right of the pallet for the dropdown menu, scroll down and select "load actions". Navigate the where you stored the download, click on it to select it, now click OK. It will load into your "actions pallet". Open the image you want to enlarge and select the section of this action you want to use. I selected the one called "Step Wise Upsize--width 110%--height 110%"(theres also one that will double the size of your image each time you click on it called 100% Upsize). This will increase the size of the image to 110% each time you click the play button at the bottom of the Actions Pallet. I clicked it several times and selected the "ruler" tool (third tool down on the right, hidden behind the eyedropper tool, click on the small triangle at the lower right of the eyedropper tool and hold down the mouse to show other tools, scroll down to the third tool and release to select it). For my use I was measuring the depth of the model's seat. I clicked at the bend of the seat, held down the mouse button and dragged down until it was at the front edge of the seat and released. Above the name of the file at the top of the screen just below the menu bar will be a readout that will give you the measurement distance in "width, "height", or it will measure an angle in degrees. After I got the image resized so that the seat was the size I wanted I saved a new image named "AllSheetsEnlargedFor6Inch" in JPEG format. Now that the model is resized I can make new 8 inch x 10 inch blank pages and then cut and paste the new parts to fit. I ended up with 6 new pages including the instructions and a 9 piece Joker Jester face in layer parts. I cut out what I didn't need so I could keep the page count down. I'll save the new pages into a new 6 page PDF and take it to my local printer on Monday.
(Changed the final pages to replace with "sample" watermarks added.)

Page01Joker.jpg Page02Joker.jpg Page03Joker copy.jpg Page04Joker.jpg Page05Joker.jpg Page06Joker-Instructions.jpg
 
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You did a GREAT JOB on the repaint of this model. I like that you also added addition detailed parts.
I am looking forward to seeing you build it!

Thanks Rhaven Black. I'm heading to the printer Monday morning. They are good quality with color laser and 6 pages will cost me like $3.00. I'm hoping that my Joker idea in layers for the grille will work.
 
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I consider this a new model and would appreciate seeing it moved to the "Resource" section, in any event, it cannot be left here to download, a watermark should be placed over it. Thanks.
 
Now, a reply to what I have seen in this thread:

Outstanding. To say impressed is an understatement. Lee, I have a feeling that the dimension and scope of expertise you have added to this forum is immeasurable. :)
 
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I consider this a new model and would appreciate seeing it moved to the "Resource" section, in any event, it cannot be left here to download, a watermark should be placed over it. Thanks.
I finally managed to change the final low rez pages and replace them with "sample" watermarks. For some reason when I tried to replace them, the images kept going to the first of the post instead of the end. It finally worked.
 
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Now, a reply to what I have seen in this thread:

Outstanding. To say impressed is an understatement. Lee, I have a feeling that the dimension and scope of expertise you have added to this forum is immeasurable. :)
Thanks Zathros. I was working on it just for myself to use in one of my action figure displays. Was never meant to be anything for download or mass production. I had the original model for several years and decided to make something I could use. Since I was doing the work anyway I thought some of the techniques might show others what Photoshop could be used for in the realm of paper models. I'm planning several P-51 Mustang models that I want to re-paint and add custom made nose-art too.
 
This is a new model, as far as I am concerned. Nobody can copyright a pedal car. :)
 
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This is a new model, as far as I am concerned. :)
Thanks Zathros! I'm glad to make any changes that need to be done. Enjoyed working on this one. I've got a lot of ideas for new action figure displays that I can customize paper model props for. Hope the redesign was helpful to the members. Photoshop is a powerful program as is Photoshop Elements, but it can be intimidating to casual and new users. I tried to explain what I did as best and simply as I could. I have used both programs but I don't currently own a copy of Photoshop Elements and things are a little different in it with tools and menus located a little differently. They still work very much alike.
 
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Hey Guys! And Gals! I was working on another repaint of the "clown car" this weekend. I found a few things I didn't like about the Joker car and made a few changes. Working with a "mutual friend" on redesigning it into a completely new and unique model. More news to come on that. I did have an idea for a Harley Quinn version of the car. Heres a Photoshop simulation of what they will look like when built. I'm getting my versions printed on Monday so I can start building them this week. Since they are both basically the same build I'll just create a build post on just the Joker car.Custom Clown Cars.jpg
 
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Thanks Rhaven! I had different hubcaps on the Joker car but the Harley wheels looked so good I went back and changed the first car. The heads on the grilles will be layered and bent in a curve side to side to give it a more 3D look. I wonder now if I should have painted the windshield frame on the Joker car green to match the fenders.
 
Hey Guys! And Gals! I was working on another repaint of the "clown car" this weekend. I found a few things I didn't like about the Joker car and made a few changes. Working with a "mutual friend" on redesigning it into a completely new and unique model. More news to come on that. I did have an idea for a Harley Quinn version of the car. Heres a Photoshop simulation of what they will look like when built. I'm getting my versions printed on Monday so I can start building them this week. Since they are both basically the same build I'll just create a build post on just the Joker car.View attachment 154871


These are so gorgeous. If they were edible, I'd eat them!! :)
 
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These are so gorgeous. If they were edible, I'd eat them!! :)
Thanks Z!
If I do the Joker's Circus the Penguin and Ridder might be good too!

I got both of these printed on Monday and they look great. My Mom has been in the hospital so I haven't had any time to start building. She got out today and is back home at assisted living so maybe I'll get started this weekend on a build thread.