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The Builder
About Builder
Builder Last Online: Jun 2022
Model Scale: 1/8
Rating: 
(4 votes - 4.00 average)
Thanks: 3
(4 votes - 4.00 average)
Thanks: 3
Started: 10-11-09
Build Revisions: Never
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[B][U]The Fully Upholstered and Detailed
Model Car Interior
In All Scales[/U][/B]
As we all know, when working in the large scale arena nowadays, a builder is faced with a greater and greater potential for increased detail and realism in his/her models. One area where such detail can be added without a whole lot of difficulty or specialized equipment is in a model's interior. Traditionally, we've been using paints, adhesives, sticky backed paper and different types of flocking
to produce some nice "beyond the
box stock
" results, but we tend to find it's still not close enough to the real thing as we might like. With the techniques I'll show here, any modeler with a bit of experience, patience and the desire to produce something extraordinary can wind up with a unique, first class automotive reproduction well beyond the norm and with just the basic hobby tools and materials. This tutorial will be presented as a series rather than a single entity because of the large amount of information involved. This will allow me to keep the techniques organized as well as avoiding turning the tutorial into a longer version of War and Peace.
[B][U]Table of Contents[/U][/B]
So that we can keep things organized, and so everyone will know where things are headed, I've organized this series into a number of related tutorials. This will go a long way toward keeping this overall tutorial from turning into a modeler's version of War and Peace. We'll take things one bit at a time rather than all at once. The material will be broken up into the following individual topics
1) Materials and Basic Tools For Interior Upholstery
2) Seat Choice and Design
3) The Bucket Seat - forward folding mechanism included
4) The Adjustable Seat Mechanism
5) The Bench Seat - forward folding mechanism included
6) The Rear Seat
7) Side Paneling
8) Floor Coverings
9) The Dash Board- Using the kit dash vs. scratch building a dash
10 ) The Carson Top and the Headliner
Look for these in the next few weeks as my schedule permits.
Please note that I will be eliminating some of the comments to keep the tutorial "pure" so to speak. Questions about the procedure will be kept.
Topic 1
Materials and Basic Tools for Interior Upholstery
Below is a list and photos of the tools and materials you're going to need to make pretty much all of the detail involved in your model's interior. There are a few items that may be left out, but they'll be put back in when we get to the specific procedures where they're used. The photo numbers generally coincide with the list numbers.
1) 2 hobby knives, one with a #10 X-acto blade for skiving, the other for cutting foam padding. A good sharp pair of scissors for cutting larger pieces of leather and foam, paper, thin sheet styrene
, etc.
2) and 2a) Sharpening stones to keep skiving blades razor sharp.
3) A Dremel
tool with a drum sander (located all the way to the right) for contouring the foam padding once it's glued to its base. The other burs will be needed at one point or another.
4) Styrene
sheet for seat bases. This should be about 1-2mm thick for good rigidity. You don't want your seats distorting on you. Thicker
styrene
can be used if needed depending on scale.
5)An assortment of sanding
sticks for smoothing your plastic and final smoothing your foam padding if necessary.
6) A good rubber adhesive. I personally use "Goo" but any adhesive good for leather, plastic, fabric etc is fine. I tend to stay away from CA because if it's not flexible, it may dry too stiff for a good result.
7) A glue spreader which when cleaned off can double as a heated instrument. The photo shows a number of different types you can use. You can usually find them at your LHS
.
8) A clean flame or heat source you can use to melt plastic.
9) and 9a) A dust mask or respirator- self explanatory
10 ) Pin vise
with an assortment of drills and a thick straight pin or sewing needle. This is used to make holes in your leather when you insert the buttons for the diamond tufted pattern.
11) Good leather or vinyl. The leather and vinyl must be pliable enough to be able to be pulled over corners without distorting them.
12) Razor saw, scroll saw, coping saw or whatever you have that can cut out styrene
pieces. Personally I use a scroll saw from Sears. It makes fast work out of cutting my stock plastic but it's not mandatory for good results. If your plastic is thin enough, you can even cut out
styrene
patterns.
13) and 13 a) Hobby Foam. This is a relatively dense foam rubber similar to the type they make the foam letters out of. It carves well and holds its shape under your covering while still being pliable giving it that extra bit of realism.
14) Bare-Metal Foil or a good substitute.
15) and 15a) Hair brushes?? Yes, hair brushes. Believe it or not, the bristles with the colored tips make excellent buttons for the diamond tufted seat. They can be bought in one of the dollar stores really cheap. They can also be painted to match your color scheme.
16) An assortment of rulers and other measuring tools.
Now for a very important point. One of the biggest problems I had when I was a young modeler reading all of those great articles in the model magazines was that the materials and tools they often recommended were very difficult or too expensive for me to get. They never suggested any suitable substitutes in case you couldn't find them. It made it very difficult to complete a model the way it was in the book since they never seemed to come out right no matter what you used. During all of the parts of this tutorial, if any of you have trouble getting what I've recommended, let me know. I can provide sources if your hobby shop, craft store, Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby hasn't got them or any suitable substitute. If you find a better substitute tool or material that isn't mentioned, please let me know that also. Next installment will be Seat choice and Design
Model Car Interior
In All Scales[/U][/B]
As we all know, when working in the large scale arena nowadays, a builder is faced with a greater and greater potential for increased detail and realism in his/her models. One area where such detail can be added without a whole lot of difficulty or specialized equipment is in a model's interior. Traditionally, we've been using paints, adhesives, sticky backed paper and different types of flocking
to produce some nice "beyond the
box stock
" results, but we tend to find it's still not close enough to the real thing as we might like. With the techniques I'll show here, any modeler with a bit of experience, patience and the desire to produce something extraordinary can wind up with a unique, first class automotive reproduction well beyond the norm and with just the basic hobby tools and materials. This tutorial will be presented as a series rather than a single entity because of the large amount of information involved. This will allow me to keep the techniques organized as well as avoiding turning the tutorial into a longer version of War and Peace. [B][U]Table of Contents[/U][/B]
So that we can keep things organized, and so everyone will know where things are headed, I've organized this series into a number of related tutorials. This will go a long way toward keeping this overall tutorial from turning into a modeler's version of War and Peace. We'll take things one bit at a time rather than all at once. The material will be broken up into the following individual topics
1) Materials and Basic Tools For Interior Upholstery
2) Seat Choice and Design
3) The Bucket Seat - forward folding mechanism included
4) The Adjustable Seat Mechanism
5) The Bench Seat - forward folding mechanism included
6) The Rear Seat
7) Side Paneling
8) Floor Coverings
9) The Dash Board- Using the kit dash vs. scratch building a dash
10 ) The Carson Top and the Headliner
Look for these in the next few weeks as my schedule permits.
Please note that I will be eliminating some of the comments to keep the tutorial "pure" so to speak. Questions about the procedure will be kept.
Topic 1
Materials and Basic Tools for Interior Upholstery
Below is a list and photos of the tools and materials you're going to need to make pretty much all of the detail involved in your model's interior. There are a few items that may be left out, but they'll be put back in when we get to the specific procedures where they're used. The photo numbers generally coincide with the list numbers.
1) 2 hobby knives, one with a #10 X-acto blade for skiving, the other for cutting foam padding. A good sharp pair of scissors for cutting larger pieces of leather and foam, paper, thin sheet styrene
, etc.2) and 2a) Sharpening stones to keep skiving blades razor sharp.
3) A Dremel
tool with a drum sander (located all the way to the right) for contouring the foam padding once it's glued to its base. The other burs will be needed at one point or another.4) Styrene
sheet for seat bases. This should be about 1-2mm thick for good rigidity. You don't want your seats distorting on you. Thicker
styrene
can be used if needed depending on scale.5)An assortment of sanding
sticks for smoothing your plastic and final smoothing your foam padding if necessary.6) A good rubber adhesive. I personally use "Goo" but any adhesive good for leather, plastic, fabric etc is fine. I tend to stay away from CA because if it's not flexible, it may dry too stiff for a good result.
7) A glue spreader which when cleaned off can double as a heated instrument. The photo shows a number of different types you can use. You can usually find them at your LHS
. 8) A clean flame or heat source you can use to melt plastic.
9) and 9a) A dust mask or respirator- self explanatory
10 ) Pin vise
with an assortment of drills and a thick straight pin or sewing needle. This is used to make holes in your leather when you insert the buttons for the diamond tufted pattern. 11) Good leather or vinyl. The leather and vinyl must be pliable enough to be able to be pulled over corners without distorting them.
12) Razor saw, scroll saw, coping saw or whatever you have that can cut out styrene
pieces. Personally I use a scroll saw from Sears. It makes fast work out of cutting my stock plastic but it's not mandatory for good results. If your plastic is thin enough, you can even cut out
styrene
patterns.13) and 13 a) Hobby Foam. This is a relatively dense foam rubber similar to the type they make the foam letters out of. It carves well and holds its shape under your covering while still being pliable giving it that extra bit of realism.
14) Bare-Metal Foil or a good substitute.
15) and 15a) Hair brushes?? Yes, hair brushes. Believe it or not, the bristles with the colored tips make excellent buttons for the diamond tufted seat. They can be bought in one of the dollar stores really cheap. They can also be painted to match your color scheme.
16) An assortment of rulers and other measuring tools.
Now for a very important point. One of the biggest problems I had when I was a young modeler reading all of those great articles in the model magazines was that the materials and tools they often recommended were very difficult or too expensive for me to get. They never suggested any suitable substitutes in case you couldn't find them. It made it very difficult to complete a model the way it was in the book since they never seemed to come out right no matter what you used. During all of the parts of this tutorial, if any of you have trouble getting what I've recommended, let me know. I can provide sources if your hobby shop, craft store, Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby hasn't got them or any suitable substitute. If you find a better substitute tool or material that isn't mentioned, please let me know that also. Next installment will be Seat choice and Design
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