tributesinwood

A Quieter Ride

You can look back a few posts earlier where I cut the two mufflers and tail pipes out of basswood and them shaped them with a carving knife.  Today, I did a little extra detailing and painted them up.  I also carved a little gear shift lever that’s at the driver’s right paw.

I actually carved a couple of heat shields into the tailpipe.  These were simply there so that the passengers in the open cockpit didn’t inadvertently touch an elbow on a hot pipe.  They were typically perforated for better cooling, so I used the rounded tip of a Foredom tool to quickly put some dimples into the shields.

I also added a couple of small dowels to each pipe to locate it properly along and under the car.  Once I’ve applied the final sealing coat of urethane, I’ll epoxy these dowels and the general area around the dowel to the car.

The mufflers got several washes of mixtures of asphaltum brown and carbon black.  This was followed with some blotches of asphaltum, raw sienna and yellow ochre.  When this was all done, it started to look like a pipe that had gone through a few heating cycles and a few mud puddles!  I topped it off with a dry brushing of silver…a little heavier on the heat shield sections and a bit lighter on the rest of the pipe.

I still need to add a steering wheel, radiator cap, starter crank and some wheel hub nuts and then I think it’ll be ready for it’s seal coat of urethane.

Just click on the photos to make them bigger.