Deckard's Sedan from Blade Runner build thread - Fujimi 1/24 model kit

[Neon Nautilus]

Thank you! I ordered the blaze red from zero and I can understand what you mean, wherever we see the car in the final cut it's giving the appearance of being maroon. Then there is the occasional time when a searchlight hits it from above (like when Deckard exits the car to go inside the Bradbury building) where it gives off that orange tone. I think a lot of it will depend on how and where you intend to display it in terms of the lighting conditions. When we see the car in darkness it almost reminds me of this colour: C. Leclerc Ferrari SF1000 #16 1000th GP Ferrari Toskana GP F1 2020 - LSF1031, EAN 9580006141781

Will be great to see what the zero paint looks like. I've used a few of their colours before and they are a joy to use.
I see what you mean on that Ferrari F1 colour, it's got that really deep red hue you see in the shadows.

At the moment I'm leaning towards doing a two tone scheme with a coppery orange and deep red. I've seen some builds like this in the past and it's feeling more and more right to me. Especially when the following images are taken into account.

This is a cropped screen grab (sourced from Blade Runner (1982) - Movie- Screencaps.com) taken from the scene you mentioned outside the Bradbury. It looks very much like a deep red on that frame around the back of the car with the circle pattern. It looks like it extends round the side as well and remains that colour. Then there is a clear separation into a coppery colour.

It matches the below on set image pretty well too.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

I've decided that seeing as there isn't really a correct interior for Deckard's ride, I'm going to use a bit of artistic license. That sits fine with me because:

• The actual car interior is so basic and completely off to the aesthetic of the film that I've no interest in replicating it like the kit does.
• The police spinner used for the shots when Deckard is in the car feels right but does not really fit in the space of the ground car.

So for the most part I'll use the consoles and details from the Paragrafix brass. I'll colour it mostly like the police spinner but bring the tan colours in as well. That way I'll be filling in the gaps left by the movie magic.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

The first part of the interior I've worked on is the dashboard.
I've removed the steering wheel mount underneath the screens and hollowed this whole piece out with my rotary tool.
Next I lined it with aluminium ducting tape to act as a light blocker.

Then the brass fascia pieces were glued with CA to the frame of the screens.
I tend to put a few drops of CA onto a bit of scrap card, then apply with a bit of wire.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

To light the screens and probably all the interior panels I'm using something I discovered last year.

They're called micropanels. I purchased from a guy called 'NK Guy' who also goes by the name 'Age of Plastic' and curates the website 3dsf.info

There's an SMD LED at one end and then an acrylic diffuser panel that pipes the light so you get a glowing panel.
I've been using them in my Bandai PG Millennium Falcon cockpit (I should really share that on here too). They come in a few different sizes and are only about 1.5mm thick. Saves a huge amount of time wiring multiple LEDs or routing fibres and gives a much better scale of light than a bare LED.

In the pic starting at the top is a 10x20mm, then an 18x30mm then a custom one that I've cut down from an 18x30mm one.
I've also modified it further by adding aluminium tape to the reverse side as light block.

The panel is not fitted yet but I'll definitely share an image once it is.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

To fill the gaps on the bottom of the dash screens I first cut some pieces of 0.5mm styrene sheet to shape. These were then glued in place with EMA Plastic Weld.

I did a piece for each of the two screens which left a gap. That was bridged from the inside with a strip of styrene. This meant the groove between the two screens carried on underneath as well. I then used a bit of CA glue to blend everything together along the edges. This will be sanded once dry and covered with paint helping to fill any small gaps that might of let light out.

The images on the screens will be reproduced using the film from the Paragrafix set. I made sure that I could insert these from the back after assembly. That way I can paint the dash as one piece rather than having to paint the brass facias separately and stick them on at the end. Hoping that will mean I'm less likely to get light leak around the edges of the facias. We'll see!

 

[Neon Nautilus]

I had a break from the interior parts to work on some extra detailing. This time focusing on the windscreen wiper (a very important part in the world of Blade Runner!)

The kit part is like all car model wipers, thick and out of scale. But you can't expect too much from injection molding!

I've got a Photoetch upgrade set for wipers in my stash. I've had this for years, it was made by a company calling themselves Crazy Modeler.

I kept the arm part pretty much as is but replaced the blade with a suitably sized PE part.
Also added an actuator arm (trimmed from one of the PE wipers) to the side and reduced the mounting point to make it look more realistic.
Sprayed with primer and semi-gloss black and job done!

 

[Neon Nautilus]

Thanks joberg, that's definitely the volume I'm aiming for!

 

[Analyzer]

All those details really make a big difference in this scale

 

[Neon Nautilus]

Cheers for all the encouraging comments guys, very much appreciated!

 

[Neon Nautilus]

Will be following this thread intently! On colour, another thread mentioned Rover Orange Blaze - it seems quite close to me, and a quick Google search shows it being a colour for MG/Allegros, which would have been pretty popular in the early 80s (in the UK anyway) so would seem to make sense.

I'll be getting my kit out of the loft along with the paragrafix pe set and just ordered an led kit. I might order the orange from zero paints. I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to building so this thread will give me plenty of inspiration!

Hi Silverstar189, how's it going with your kit? Have you managed to find some time to make a start?

 

[Neon Nautilus]

I have made some more progress with the interior.

First step with the Paragrafix etch kit is to remove a bit of plastic from the tub. There are a couple of raised pieces on the inside of the doors that need to be shaved back.

I experimented in my usual way of making things way more complicated than they need to be!

I've got this rotary tool drill press attachment which I envisaged I could use a little like a mill. I chucked in a milling bit and set the height so it was in line with the bottom of the area to be removed.

Then I moved the interior tub back and forth along the tools guide bar whilst running the rotary tool to carve the area away.
It worked but was a bit of a faff and not the cleanest result. I ended up having to put a strip of styrene over the area to neaten it up.
Maybe I shouldn't be watching so many YouTube videos featuring milling!

For the driver side I just used a curved (No.10) scalpel blade to carve away the majority of the raised area, then a file to finish it off.
WAY EASIER! and a better result!

You can also see here that I've opened up the centre console ready for some photo etch.
I'm planning to install a micropanel in here to backlight the etch part. I may also do this for the etch parts on the driver side door trims.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

So the next step was to make up the photoetch pieces for the driver side door panel and centre console.
I decided to braise these together with solder rather than CA glue. It's much stronger, better at preventing light leak and I really wanted to get better at it after some very poor attempts several years ago.

Seems really obvious now, and I've got to admit I'm a little embarrassed to say, but the reason I failed had been that I wasn't using any FLUX!
I was using a solder with a flux core so assumed I didn't need more.

The penny dropped whilst watching one of David Damek's (PLASMO - plastic models) tutorial videos on YouTube. Highly recommended by the way, I've learnt a lot from these. Really like his approach to the hobby. Here's a link to his tutorial if you're interested

I just use a soldering iron as I don't have a torch, brush the joints with a little liquid flux. Press the iron against the brass to heat for a few seconds then touch the solder to it. It works like a dream now.

For anyone as clueless as me, the flux helps the heat spread and the solder to flow into and stick to the joints. It's painful if you don't use it as the solder won't melt as easily and blobs on the surface rather than flowing. Liquid Rosin Flux seems like the best way to go. The parts just need a bit of clean up from the flux and filing of excess solder.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

I did a little test with one of the micropanels in the dash screens.

 

[Neon Nautilus]

Next up was adding the detail panels to the centre and door console etch parts.

First they are cut from the photo etch fret. I use a scalpel or razor blade pushing down on the part against a solid surface like an acrylic sheet.
You get a nice clean cut this way.

The nub that is left on the part is then carefully filed away. As with plastic, it's better to leave a bit to file than cut into the part in error.

I then lightly coat the back with CA glue applied with a bit of thin wire before attaching the part.
I'm holding the part with tweezers as it just ends up stuck to my finger otherwise!

Here's the centre console with it's detail panels glued in place (the darker pieces on the raised box part).

 

[Neon Nautilus]

For the drivers side door console I wanted to add a little more detail than is present in the paragrafix set.
I've circled the area I'm referring to in this screen grab.

The Paragrafix part is just smooth in this area so I wanted to find something to go there with the right look.

There is a part supplied in the etch set to model the centre console of the prop car. It has similar detailing so I decided to try this.
Here you can see the part I'm referring to and the pre-details door console.

The area from the donor part is very thin so cuts easily with a few light passes of a scalpel against a metal rule.
I cut three panels and then glued them with CA to the console.

Looks pretty messy at the moment so hoping they'll look better when painted!

 

[Neon Nautilus]

Looking at the screen grabs got me thinking about how to recreate the lit panels in the door console (circled below).

They look like rows of digits or characters. I'll be backlighting these consoles with a micropanel so I'm thinking I can sandwich a piece of film between that and the etch part.

I've done a little experiment with a piece of thin acetate taken from some food packaging. This piece came from the window on a box of Tunnock's Teacakes.... oh, how I love their marshmallowy centre!

I spayed one side with some semi-gloss black Tamiya Acrylic. Then scratched a similar pattern of marks into the paint with an old airbrush needle.
The shot below shows the result with a micropanel as a backlight.

And here it is with the etch part over the top.

I think this should work nicely with slightly smaller marks and a second spray over the etched black paint with some clear blue/green!

 

[Analyzer]

Looking good

I always wondered about soldering photo etch

Most use glue, but I kind of like the idea of something a bit more permanent or drop/vibration proof

 

[joberg]

Fantastic and the tuto + the one on YouTube is F.A.B. Eager to see your next update!

 

[Neon Nautilus]

Looking good

I always wondered about soldering photo etch

Most use glue, but I kind of like the idea of something a bit more permanent or drop/vibration proof

Thanks Analyzer, it's definitely useful for larger more solid pieces but you can't use it for everything. Plus multiple joins on the same piece get tricky as you could reheat solder that's already cooled leading to pieces moving about

 

[Neon Nautilus]

Fantastic and the tuto + the one on YouTube is F.A.B. Eager to see your next update!

Cheers, Joberg!