Power Wheels Jurassic Park Jeep #18 & Movie Theater Display (Possibly Pic Heavy)

Tieyourwheels

New Member
First off Hello! :D I have been creeping around on TheRPF for quite some time mainly admiring everyone's fantastic work and great attitudes.

Anywho, since I'm nearing the final stretch of this project, I figured I would go ahead and post my progression thus far and obstacles and other fun that has happened during this really fun project. :) Lets begin! (sorry if I have a bad thread presentation in advanced)

It all started On May 16th when I was in the office talking to my co-worker about Jurassic World and how excited I am for its release. She teased and asked what I was going to do its premiere as all of us management staff had dressed up as The Avengers for the premiere for Age Of Ultron. Although I lacked the time and funds to actually complete my costume I still wore what I had done. Everyone else looked awesome and the kids loved it! :D

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After much contemplation I went back to the idea I had originally wanted to do before I plunged thousands of dollars in on a real Jurassic Park Jeep. That was to make a miniature version that Ive since had just leaning up in the corner gathering dust. As you see this is a far as I got on that. :( (August 2014)

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As that jeep has started to warp, has many inaccurate measurements, and was just all sorts of frustrating not having anything other than a hacksaw to cut. I really didn't want to dive into another project that with a release so soon that it would be near impossible working fulltime to finish. So I came up with a great alternative use something already existing. Power Wheels Barbie Jeep to the rescue! I found a few locally. The one I settled on was the lowest priced and when I arrived it was actually offered to me for free!
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After disassembling the sunburnt, stained, and dirty jeep to force it into my police interceptor trunk it was off to cleaning!!
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Oh boy was there alot of cleaning and sanding and more cleaning. This was defiantly the longest part of the process so far and the least fun.... (well almost, we will get there)
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After 4 days of cleaning and sanding most of the body was ready for primer. And then it flooded in Texas for days. :facepalm

After the rain cleared it was painting for 3 days straight. 3 coats of primer for everything as I was overly cautious that the plastic wouldn't take to the paint very well. (Krylon Max)
The first can of color I went with was too tan for my liking so I switched over to a Khaki color and was pleased with the look.
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While working on painting the main body I was scouting theRPF and found Andrewshaddox and his great Barbie Jeep to Jurassic Park Jeep conversion and was super excited to see someone else who had done the same and did a darn good job! You should check it out if you havent seen it yet! Link to his thread - http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=238464
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After seeing Andrews and talking to my boss I thought it would be really cool if we could have a place set up as a display for the jeep. Annnddddd then things get complicated. From just a Jeep this project turned into a full on display above our entrance doors complete with a T-Rex, foreground/background elements, lights, and a matte painting for the background. I tend to get overly ambitious on projects. What can I say?? :D
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So while continuing progress on the jeep throughout the month of May and into June I also started figuring out the game plan and some things to add. 2 big things I wanted was the T-Rex Head to scale if the jeep was actual size and a scaled version of the East Dock sign from the movie.
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I created several images to use in the jeep and also used existing reference images and files from thejurassicparkjeep forums. I wanted to keep cost low so having decals cut in vinyl was out of the picture so I went a cheap but quick route. I used full sized sheet shipping labels to print my decals and some stencils on. This method while being effective also has the downfall of the adhesive not holding very well under the Texas heat so when I take it to the theater im most defiantly have to cover it from the heat and sun.
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Shortly after finishing the decals and printing them out painting was nearing completion so I slapped on as many decals as I could at once :p
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After getting overly excited after I slapped the decals on I went into full on work mode for many hours without to many progression photos. Sorry I got really into it :p
I started figuring out how to mount a roll cage on the jeep because I didnt like the look of the standard barbie jeep ones. So I made one using 3 pieces of CPVC, a heat gun and pipe insulation (the nice rubbery kind) Also added the semi painted windshield to early.
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Shortly afterwards took the windshield back out and painted it fully and then made a seat. Ive never done any uplhostry work before so please take it easy on me :p Its just 2 pieces of MDF, a pillow for the bottom seat, 2 thick pieces of interlocking foam used in shipping ice cream cones for the back, and all wrapped in a nice comfy cloth. What you cant see is a bajillion staples that I had to hide! :p
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AND I MOUNTED THE WHEELS!!! (The most frustrating part)
These wheels..... so much hassle the internal tooth lock washers that are used on these power wheels are a nightmare to get off but even worse trying to put on after you take them off.... I broke them..... all of them. So I had to go to the hardware....errrhuuummm all the hardware stores (except the horrible one in my small town) and no one carries the size used. So I went online and ordered 7/16th lock washers.... nope. But Alas! I went to my local extremely overpriced and never stocked up hardware store that I cant stand going to and guess what I found. Yup the perfect sized lock washers. I grabbed me a hammer and a socket and popped them on and had a couple of beers afterwards. :p
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(next post)
 

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And now! Finally.... Today's progress :p 6/8/2015

I cut out all the templates in thin wood for my East Dock Sign, the T-Rex Head, added the stripes (but I forgot to put the number stencil before I painted :cry), primed, painted, and bolted the East Dock sign (with spinning arrow :D), started the expanding foam adventure and continued construction on the roll cage.
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Thanks for checking out my progress! I'm hoping to get a lot done over the next few days before the premiere!! Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it!! :D
 
Hadn't seen a power wheels conversion before, but what a brilliant idea! The road sign is looking great too! Keep up the good work, can't wait to see it finished.
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement guys! Got a little progressive post not much spent most of the day yesterday sculpting and sanding.

After 4 cans of expanding foam I got the main areas of the T-rex head filled in and ready to sculpt away.
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After 1 hour and a giant foam mess later I had most of it blocked out and ready to fill in the rest of the large gaps with more expanding foam.
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Let it set up overnight and then got back to more sculpting and started sanding it smooth.
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Today I carved in some details on the neck and left it kind of rough as I wanted to see how the texture would look.
I loved how the rough area looked on the neck so I went back over the entire sculpture roughing it up and adding more gouges.
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Started priming it up for paint. Right now I am tracing out teeth on card board that I'll glue to some wooden skewers and push into the foam.
As far as painting goes, going do a base color over the whole thing with rattle cans and then paint in details with acrylic paints. Its going to be about 12- 18 foot from the closest person to it and time is running out way to fast so with all its flaws and errors I still have to keep moving on with it and the rest of the display pieces that I need to complete and put together.
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Also this is how freaking big the backdrop is going to be. Its massive!! I got some funny looks from people leaving the theaters at close when I took up most the lobby assembling this.:lol 152 inches tall and 150 inches wide! Probably way to large to cover the back wall but id rather have to much than not enough coverage. I used a giant roll of masking paper and duct tape to make a large surface to paint on. its just very fragile so when painting it I'm going to have to be very gentle walking on it, and then when it gets stapled to the wall I'm going to reinforce the staple points with some duct tape.

I want to add lights to the Jeep but I am not to savy when it comes to electronics and lights. It would have to be on constantly and stay on for long periods of time. Im thinking about faking the light source with some strategic lighting set up on the display with some clamp lights with LED bulbs to keep heat down.

Whew.. alot of work I need to get done and not enough time to do it! Always seems to be the case :D Any who back to it thanks again guys! Ill keep updating as I make progress and Ill be sure to take some better pictures of the full display when its all done with a better camera.
 
Hey guys! Sorry for the lack up updates as most of you know Jurassic World has been very successful at the box office... which means I'm always getting called in. :p Any who I got the display all done and set up at the theater on Saturday 6/13. Its been a lot of work to get it too were I could live with it but its also been a ton of fun. ON WITH THE BUILD!!!
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On the 10th I woke up to check and see how well the Trex was taking to spray paint. Needless to say spray paint doesn't hold to well on really porous surfaces so it still looked like the pic above. I needed a solution and really cheap/fast. I figured that since the velociraptors from the original JP were foam covered in latex and painted that maybe a thick layer of latex based paint would act as a good base surface and I could then paint with acrylic paints over it.
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SUCCESS! After two thick coats of Latex Acrylic Paint I was able to hand paint the T-Rex head. I wish I could have had more time to sculpt in fine details and get proportions and everything cleaner and more accurate. But from far away it passes quite well for a trex :D.

After completing the T-Rex painting I made a quick support frame for it to hold and be stable with some cheap 2x4's and mounted her up!
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Finally after completing all the large builds. I asked around and got me a couple of hardhats and slapped on a Jurassic World sticker(more shipping label stickers:D). I made me a Jurassic Park Name badge using the template found in the Paper Props section.

I had to give up on the idea of doing a mattepainting with the time restraints and also I ripped my masking paper template just by stepping on it. So I went to the party supply store and found 2 table drop cloths with a grass texture (was around a bunch of football themed things) a large deep blue table drop cloth, and a few fake grassy stems (on a side note fake plants are insanely expensive) and taped them onto a large black painting drop cloth block out some of the large windows so you could see the display and to tape the other drop cloths onto.
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And finally I brought everything up to the theater, and up the ladder and mounted it all up on pallets for a better view from below. I used my large LED work light from Lowes to light most of the area and a small florescent light to fill in some darker ones.

This has been a very fun build and Ive received a lot of local and online support during it. Which really pushed me into completing this and kept me going at times. I am happy with what I made in the amount of time I had and I cant wait to figure out whats next. Maybe this time I'll give myself more time..... but probably not :D

Thank you all for checking out my build. I am getting better pictures with a DSLR camera done today so once I get home from work I will be sure to update again. Also sorry if this felt rushly written I have like 15 minutes before I gotta be at work :p

Have a great one! :D
 
I got a few photos from my buddy today. Hes working on some more he took but hopefully this can give the display some better justice than my camera on my phone.:D
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More to come soon! :D
 
I got the images today from my buddy. I really like how they turned out. :D

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This has been a really fun project. I am looking forward to building my next project, whatever that maybe. More than likely something else to make for a upcoming movie release. :D

Anyways thanks everyone for checking out my thread. I don't think there will be much more updating after this post unless I do some modifications once we lose the movie and I bring all the things home.

Have a great one! :D
 
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