Mad Max Interceptor (paperinside.com)

[jaffro]

Ever since I can remember wanting to own my first car, this is the car I wanted to own.



Mad Max 1 and 2 are classics, as is this car. I still don't own a real one, and now that it's all but a collectors item I doubt i'll be building a real replica of this in my lifetime, so thanks to Claudio, I can still build it and own one... sortof.

The model itself looks great. It's not too basic but it's also not too simple for my liking, all the recognisable details are in the model, but I plan to add extra detail thanks to some very good pictures I found of a replica prop.





After finding the above pics, I considered obtaining permission to alter the model and give it opening/closing doors and hood (and add the rest of the engine) just so I could show more of the details I'll be adding.

Most of the detail I'll be adding will be to the interior, as for the outside, i'll be adding to the existing detail if i'm not happy with the way the parts look, i'll also be emphasizing some existing details if I can (ie: clear plastic lights etc).



Without a doubt, the main "standout" feature on this car is the engine and in the case of this model, the blower. I have had this model on hold for weeks, waiting till I could find a suitable silver/chrome paper or cardstock... needless to say I found it, so there's a good chance the engine will look a lot more like the real thing now.



So without further ado... here comes one of the coolest cars of all time... in paper n stuff....

to be continued....

 

[jaffro]

First bit... the interior.

I printed the whole model onto 220gsm matte photo card, my favourite for modeling, until I find something cheaper. I laminated 3 sheets of parts onto a thicker cardstock (about 600gsm) namely the parts that make up most of the "structure" of the car, as there are no real formers or frames to speak of.

Here's the basic interior, cut, edged and glued... I love (hate) how a half decent camera (my phone) in macro mode can show up the tiniest details... including stuff the human eye just can't see! ( in normal light, you can't see the bits where I slipped with the marker while coloring the edges ). This basically results in me taking about 40 megabytes worth of pics before i end up with one I'm happy to show people.





While reading ahead in the instructions, I noticed there's a roll cage made up of a bunch of little tubes... tubes I'm not a huge fan of (he says after downloading that space1999 eagle model and intending to build it) so I decided to try my hand at a "real" roll cage using coat-hanger wire and epoxy glue. Most of my inspiration to add the extra detail has come from build threads both here and on kartonbau, by those nutters amongst us who insist on adding every little bolt and rivet the kit maker neglected to include. This was my first chance to try something like this and it didn't take long for it to get out of hand...



The roll cage in the kit was a pretty simple crossbar with vertical supports... I recreated it in about 5 seconds with 2 bends of the wire... obviously I couldn't just leave it like this, and continued on with the rest of the roll cage thanks to my interior pics that showed the rest of the bars I needed to add.



I have to say I'm pretty impressed with the results even before painting (and have 400+ pics to prove it!).



It wasn't much later that I realised I had jumped a bit to far ahead and hadn't even checked to see if it fit around the existing interior... it didn't, but that's the real reason scalpels were invented (don't let a doctor try to suggest otherwise).



So with a bit of a cut here and there and some gentle pushing and squeezing, it fits quite well. But... Now that the roll cage is more like the real thing, I've noticed a small issue... there's a centre console in the model... but there wasn't in this version of the actual movie car (The car was seen in 2 different setups, the "stock" setup for Mad Max 1 and the "post apocalyptic road warrior" look of the second movie. The model is based on the second movie.

So, the console is coming out, and the interior is on hold until I find a way to recreate the curves of the floor pan thingy without having to model it in 3D and without straying too far from using paper. I'm thinking papier mache will do it.

So, what next...

 

[cgutzmer]

looking awesome! Thanks for the pics and waiting eagerly for more
Chris

 

[dansls1]

Cool! Interesting subject and a nice start to the build!

 

[elf]

about how big do u expext the model to be when ur done

 

[jaffro]

thanks for the comments...

It's going to be about 24cm when finished, I'm also thinking of making a small diorama to sit it on

 

[gippolot]

Way to go Jaffro. That's a great roll cage you've made there.

Looking forward to the rest of the build.

 

[Cláudio Dias]

Jaffro,

You're doing very well to this model!

Of course, you have all permission you need to modify my model! I've considered adding some interior stuff, however, I've decided to keep the model simple.

You're welcome to add/modify whatever you want.

Can't wait to see more pics!

 

[jaffro]

I recently saw a site (linked from a post here somewhere) that showed the building of a 1:6 scale Dora railway gun... the guy who built it said "I started with the barrel, that was the hard part... if I could pull that off the rest would be easy". Smart man that one... Personally, I'm scared of wheels.

My first card model was a car, a 1-2 page ferrari... and it was all going well until I got to the wheels... I knew nothing about edge colouring, I had a lot less patience and cutting skill, and I basically stuffed it right up. The flinstones had better wheels than I could make... and card models hadn't even been invented back then. So I decided to take Dora guy's "advice" and start with the bit I feared the most...



At first, I had no intention of making the wheels the way the kit intended... I have seen more than enough build threads with incredibly detailed wheels and that's what i wanted to try and achieve here. I decided to make one wheel the proper way, from the kit parts, then make another custom wheel using the "stick lots of circles together and shape it with a dremel" method I've seen a lot of. Then I was going to decide which ones to go with...



This is the first model I've made where I've paid close attention to my edge colours. I've been experimenting with colours instead of just using black markers. The model has a lot of weathering, rust, dust, etc so I've been trying different shades of brown and orange to see how it turns out. I was pretty happy with how they turned out until I saw these pics... once again the macro and the flash are ganging up on me and showing me colours i didn't even use, let alone the gaps I swore weren't there before taking the pics



With all that said however, and regardless of how dodgy they look under the "microscope", I'm happy enough with the results to abandon the "lots of circles glued together" method, for now. The rusted out, post apocalyptic look of the car will let me get away with that. Not to mention, these wheels (there's 5 of them) are pretty wide... the idea of cutting out all those circles just doesn't appeal to me, unused circle cutter on desk can keep resting for now.

Next up, in keeping with my habit of not following instructions... the engine (blower).

 

[jaffro]

@gippolot Thanks, I hope to have it painted in the next day or two, just trying to find a can of matt black paint I know is at the bottom of a box somewhere.

@Claudio, thanks for the kind words and permission to alter the model... however I think it's beyond my capabilities for now, but i'll see what i can do once the sides are on. I might just hack and slash away at it and see what happens, it shouldn't be too hard to fix... but i'm starting to consider another interceptor, upscaled a bit Oh and thank YOU for making this model in the first place... I'm thinking it's going to be the first in a series of "movie cars" i'm going to build, most of them designed by you. I think your tumbler is next on my list.

 

[jaffro]

Just a minor update regarding the supercharger thingy, I forgot to take pics during the build process so only have a couple of the completed part.

My printer is starting to show signs of old age, or it could be the cheap generic inks I use, but the silver parts all come out with a yellowish tinge, this is what put me off starting the model the first time I printed it out and made me wait for silver paper / card.

I tried printing the parts sheet onto the back of the silver card, but it was a little bit too thick, or there was an issue with the silver side being too shiny and it got stuck before entering the printer, which I didn't notice till halfway through the print.The lower half of the page printed out, and not wanting to waste the sheet I turned it around and shoved it back into the printer, printing the first half then quickly hitting cancel before it wiped over the (upside down) second half... It looked bad, but it was good enough to cut the parts from.



Once again, I'm really happy with the results... It's no masterpiece, I'm not going to try and compete with guys like cristoph or fuchsjos, but Ever since i talked about upscaling this model in my last post, I can't get the idea out of my head, I'm starting to let more and more dodgy looking stuff slip through, thinking I'll save the "really good one" for the upscale.



Next I'm going back to the interior, I'll also start cutting the main body panels out because I've seen a few posts recently that have given me some ideas I want to try out. Namely to do with the lack of gloss in the card I'm using, which was intended, because I think photo gloss paper would be too shiny for a rusting dirty car like this.

 

[Master-Bruce]

Good stuff. You're doing a great job here.

I've wanted to build the Tumbler for a while now. Can't explain it but it scares the crap out of me!! I just want to get that right, it's a cool design and a great looking model. I started the 60's Batmobile a few years ago and wrecked it halfway through. Tried it again and it was beautiful. I gave that to my dad, he's loved Batman (60's).

 

[jaffro]

I've wanted to build the Tumbler for a while now. Can't explain it but it scares the crap out of me!!

I couldn't agree more... i was almost going to attempt it before this one but this is my first Claudio model, and I was a bit skeptical at first (wasn't sure if my skill level was up to it). Now that I've seen how well his models go together I can't wait to build more of them. The more I think about upscaling the interceptor, the more I think about upscaling the tumbler too. Just a side note, the guy who built the replica interceptor is currently working on a replica tumbler, if I can find the site I'll let you know cos it's looking VERY impressive so far.

Back to the interceptor...

I forget if I mentioned earlier that I screwed up the seat in royal fashion, but I did. I decided to keep going, and cover up the mess with soft paper or something to give it a leather look. Well... whoever coined the phrase "duct tape makes the world go round" wasn't joking was he?

What started out as a lazy fix for bad workmanship has turned out quite well, I think. The more tape I put on the better it started looking, then I started trying to add a bit more dimension to it by padding up the edges with rolled up tape... meanwhile the sponge left over from the passenger/dog seat I made a few days ago was sitting beside me the whole time.




I like the way I got some kinks/ripples in it, just like a real seat... they weren't planned. It needs a bit of smoothing out, but it's pretty much done. If I was a 1:20 action figure, I'd love a seat like this to sit in after a long hard day in the hands of a 7 year old.

At first I wanted to recreate the seams (pattern) of the actual seat in my pics and have bits of foam sticking out of some "wear & tear" holes. Lets face it, Max only cared about where his next tank full of gas and can of dog food was coming from. I don't think he was the type to sit by a campfire sewing his seat back together.




Below are the finished seat and the passenger/dog seat. The reason for the difference in seats, for those of you not familiar with the car/movie, is because the passenger seat is bolted on to the passenger door at a 90 degree angle to the driver, and for the most part, it was sat in by a dog (and one very scared human with a gun pointed at his head, trigger held by previously mentioned dog).




I was going to add some strips of tape in such a way to recreate the seam pattern thingy mentioned earlier, but the more I put on, the worse it looked. I decided I was wasting time on something that was going to be pretty hard to see anyway, so it was time to move on, off came the extra tape.

Today I decided to take a few pics outside in the sunlight. I know this is a good way to get great shots, but most of my building is done at night and i just click away as I go... been meaning to do this for a while now.







For some reason, my wheels seem to be looking even worse than before... i was kinda joking when i said "colors I don't remember using" showing up... but i KNOW for a fact I didn't use GREEN!! Something seems to be reacting to something else... I used brown markers on the edges and tabs, and glued with an acid free white craft glue... now they're greeeeen!!

I'm not going to remake them just yet though, I have an idea or two that should fix the problem.

 

[dansls1]

Coming along very nicely!

 

[Master-Bruce]

Bucket seats!!! Looks great.

Be nice to see that Tumbler too.

 

[Ziga]

This is just amazing!
I have already printed a copy of this model, but have very little free time, so it'll have to wait for the right moment Along with Cobra's Mercury Monterey and Batman's Tumbler, this is my favourite movie car.
Keep up the good job!

 

[jaffro]

Here's that tumbler I mentioned...

took me over an hour to find it, that'll teach me not to bookmark cool stuff when I see it

The burgundy/silver car in the background of the first pic is the classic aussie coupe that the mad max interceptor was based on. A Ford Falcon XB GT.





Now, back to my fuel tanks...

 

[jaffro]

And thank you all for the comments, I had a feeling that putting the build out in public like this would help inspire me to keep going, and it's working

 

[Master-Bruce]

Tumbler looks good, real good!

Back on topic, yeah I do that. Threads help to keep you focused, so long as people take part and comment. Otherwise you tend to feel, "What's the point?".

The Interceptor's looking cool, I really like that seat idea.

 

[jaffro]

Just a few minor updates, it's a nice weekend, I've been relegated to yard duty to prepare for BBQ season

The two large fuel tanks in the back were almost as much a concern as the wheels when considering this model, I just haven't tried anything with a great deal of cylinders, circles, domes etc yet. After finishing the first 2 wheels I wasn't feeling so sceptical about the tanks, as they went together pretty much the same way and were larger and easier to work with.



I coloured all the edges with a brown marker, using a slightly lighter shade on the tabs, looking at the photos I obviously chose one just a bit too dark, but this model is becoming more of a learning process towards the upscaled high detail model I will eventually make (but not right after this one).



The first one went together very smoothly, i was more than impressed by the results, despite the edges standing out a bit. I'm considering using a bit of wood filler to smooth it out around the domed ends, then giving it a spray with some matt black enamel tank protectant ( spray paint ).

While waiting for glue to dry on tank parts, I had a bit of a play around with one of the jerrycans, wanting to add some detail, mainly to the handles.




Originally the handles weren't supposed to be cut out but seeing as they are a fairly visible feature in the rear end, I decided to see if I could enhance them a bit by cutting out the handles and blocking the white insides from view by prying (critical) eyes. I also had a go at embossing the grooves into the sides, but that needs a bit of tweaking before I'm happy with it.




As you can see from the pic above, the first thing I did wrong was to colour the inside of the handles black instead of a mustardy brown colour. I'll finish building this one, then try a new colour on the second one, and then i'll most likely reprint and rebuild them both.