^^This was a project that I had planned for years but could never get a proper kit for. It's inspiration comes directly from a user most j00 d00ds will know as Plowking but many of us know as Eric. Plowking is without a doubt one of the most customized fan characters of all time, so much so, it may as well get an official figure.......... but until then, we'll just keep making customs. This one in particular is my own take on the fan character and utilizes an exact replica of Erics own personal Jeep he once owned right down to the square headlights. ^^Some might say, "Why bother re-shelling a Jeep onto a Jeep". Well, it's never been done and I thought reversing a figures transformation might be neato. Thus, yet another re-shell tutorial is born. Here's a step by step tutorial on how to re-shell a model kit over an identical body only reversed. ^^Like all re-shells, begin by stripping off all unnecessary parts. ^^Hollow out the floor of the model kit until it just fits over the chassis. (Try not to cut away too much.) ^^To sit level, the leg sections had to be stripped down lower than the screws. To keep the structures tight, I needed to glue the sections together and clamp them in place. ^^I also reinforced the joint with a styrene strip which also cleans up the mess. I've also sanded everything down so the chassis puts no pressure on the shell. (A loose fit) ^^At this point, I sprayed everything in a black primer and painted the chrome grille. I've also cut the fenders from the rest of the shell. ^^The radiator and headlights/turn signals are in place as it'll be too tight to fit them in later. I line up my two fender sections into perfect alignment and use the hood to tape them together. ^^Now we tape the rear section of the Jeep into place where it's sitting as level as possible. Basically, it's our reference point. ^^......and glue the fender sections into place at as many contact points as possible.
^^Once dry, you can remove the hood and go in and reinforce any and all contact points. ] ^^Glue doesn't stick to paint very well so use your razor knife and scrape away any paint that's on a contact point for any and all panels. ^^We now cut the hood right down the center and glue it to the top of the fenders and grill. ^^Test fit periodically to be sure everything's lining up as you go. ^^Now, take note of your rocker panel sections and where the original chassis has it's natural hinge points. We're going to want to use these as a pivot point for our new rockers as well as the doors. ^^An go ahead and slice em off. ^^Now we tape the cowl and windshield into place for reference. ^^Square up the door with everything around it and tape into place. Now, glue the rocker panel into place. (But only on the forward section so it doesn't gum up the pivot point). ^^And test fit everything again. ^^Here we install a set of door hinges donated from an alt Tracks. The base of the hinge is glued onto the inner forward rocker section. The door end is sanded down to fit within the structure and the door attached. ^^.....and the door opens. The rear half of the jeep also gets glued into place.
^^Now we need to come up with some arms for this d00d. I wanted to have a super jacked upper body strength to this guy so the entire topper will form the upper arm sections. Begin by cutting it right down the middle and get your pins glued into place to make sure it lines up. (See "pins" in Basics of styrene section). ^^The topper is painted in it's final color (Flat black) and the windows installed. ^^I wanted a mechanical look on this thing so I designed panels that fit under the glass and painted them before installing. (See "filler panels" in the basics of styrene section) ^^ With everything in place, I used the original Swindle shoulder joints and trimmed them down as low as the would go while still holding the ball joints. The inside of the topper was sanded down and epoxied into place. ^^At this point, it's time to deal with problems. The problem being, what arms will fit inside this topper and still transform properly. I tried all kids of arms but found............... ^^...............the alt Prime arm assemblies to be the only ones that offered the articulation as well as size to work in this project. ^^ I needed to notch out the rear section of the arm to allow it to fold backwards as far as it folds forward. The top half has been cut while the bottom section shows what it looked like prior to modifcation. ^^With some sanding and smoothing of the forearms, they fit really nicely within the topper. ^^Now it's time to make the head fit. Got a nice detailed filler panel to act as a base and chose a head that's a good starting point for the legendary one-eye look that PK always sports. ^^And everything fits nicely. All it needs are some extra mechanisms installed to make everything work. (All of which can be found in the basics of scratchbuilding thread.) ^^And this is Plowkings basic form after all this. (Again, other details such as "filler panels", "Curving styrene", and "slide locks" can be found in the basics of scratchbuilding thread. ^^Once painted, it becomes a near perfect example of the original Jeep owned by Eric.
Where did my pants go, and why was my initial thought to give praise to a thread as awesome as this with a comment noting the absence of my pants?
Its a great tutorial! You got skillz! But I gotta ask..why? The mold is already a Jeep but you downgraded to a older model. Wouldn't it had been easier to just add a hardtop?
wouldn't a reverse reshell be undoing a reshell by replacing with the original shell? lol great job BTW
