Our local mainstreet program commissioned a bunch of local artists to paint one of two types of cars up for display downtown this summer. My brother and I decided we wanted to make a transformer. These things are made out of fiberglass, and our original plan was to cut the thing up and make a robot statue out of it, but that plan got nixed by the people who purchased the car. Then we were going to build a box out of aluminum and plywood to put around the car to make it look like it was a transformer still in the package, but that idea got canceled because of cost. The next plan was to paint the car up to look like it could transform and build an arm coming out of one of the front tires, but after a few other cars in the downtown area were damaged we decided against that. Now we are just planning on painting it up to look like it could transform. The plan is to have a photo of the potential robot mode, a short bio and some stats displayed on the interior side of the window. We have a few more details to paint, but at this point you can get a basic idea of where we are headed. Update (5-27) added new pics to the top post.
Most of them are already bolted to sidewalks in our downtown (ours is behind schedule). The hope is, people will want to check out the cars, so they will walk around downtown and take pictures of their kids sitting in the cars and while they are in the downtown hopefully they will visit a museum or buy something. Last summer we had a big mural painting event and had dogs similar to the cars displayed. It was a big success and downtown businesses (which pay a special tax for being downtown) saw an increase in in sales.
thats pretty sweet man, nice to see something different any pictures of the other events you were involved in?
I realized I don't have any photos of the front or back. On the back we still have some of the mask we applied to do the fake panel lines. Last year's event was a really big deal in our town, and brought alot of tourists into town to see the murals we painted. The hope is to keep this going and always do something new so people have a reason to come back to our town. It's a small town but they are really pushing tourism lately. The gallery of the murals we did last year and the dogs is at: pontiacmurals.com I helped on the Roszell's mural and the Rt 66 shield.
Here are some updates. We are getting close. We still have some work to do on the inside and outside of the windshield, the car's dash, and the back liscense plate, then it is off to the body shop to get a clearcote. We also made up a bio and some stats for him that will display on the interior of the car. I may post the art for these in the next day or two. Here is the bio: Grandviewimus Prime Strength: 8 Speed: 5 Rank: 9 Firepower: 4 Intelligence: 8 Endurance: 9 Courage: 10 Skill: 8 Function: Scout Leader Motto: "I can't drive 55" Bio: Grandviewimus Prime was sent to earth by the autobots to lead the search for the Decepticons on the roadways of North America. He has claimed the "Mother Road" as his home and travels the length of old Rt 66 searching for Decepticons and handing out orders to the Autobot scouts under his command. Grandviewimus Prime's dice flail can deal serious damage to even the strongest Decepticons with a single swing.
That looks really cool! Awesome job on the painted details, too. I'd like to see more stuff like that on real cars. ~Z
Here is the yet to be made decals for the interior and the liscense plate. I should mention that the art for the robot design was borrowed heavily from a sketch of Optimus by Guido Guidi in the "You Can Draw Transformers" book. Right now the graphics are printing, and we may yet today have time to put them on.
We added a bunch of details in the last two days. It's getting close, and I think our car is the last of the bunch to get done so we are motivated to finish it up. The art for the front window was heavily inspired by the inside gatefold of issue 1 of the generation 2 comic. I've started adding pics to the top post so people don't have to scroll to see the newest additions. Now it's just adding some finishing touches to the outside and a few new graphics to the inside. I know it may be hard to see from the images but this thing is not glossy at all. That should get fixed by the clearcote at the body shop.
