Gremlins Corvette

       
 
 
Corvette from the movie Gremlins
Gremlins Corvette top front Gremlins Corvette top rear Gremlins Corvette rear

 
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Before I bought or modified GreenLight's diecast VW, I had picked up a Micro Machines C3 convertible with the idea to turn it into the Barbie Corvette Gizmo uses to come to Billy's rescue in the film's final act. The VW kind of put that plan on hold, and I forgot about it entirely until I was doing some cleaning and ran across my box of unfinished "small toy" customs.

Disassembly required removing a single screw in the chassis, then I sanded off all the seams and used some Tamiya filler to smooth the sink marks in the hood. I then gave it a coat of pink primer, which worked great for a previous project but was too dark here. I was considering various pink paints when I decide to try something that had previously always been a frustration: white over a (usually molded) color. So I shot a couple of light coats of gloss white over the pink primer, and was left with a light bubblegum pink that almost perfectly matched the movie prop. Disaster for the win!

The windshield was painted chrome, the interior was painted Apple Barrel's Golden Sunset, and the front and rear fascias were painted a custom dark magenta. The myriad stripes were all drawn up based on photos of the movie prop, then modified to fit the slightly wonky proportions of the Micro Machine. The last few details were picked out in paint and marker, the underside of the body was painted black, and the wheels were glued back into place. The final detail was the luggage rack, which was made from a tiny section of CD case with the raised bits painted white and some scratch built luggage painted to match the movie prop.

While it's not an exact match to the prop, considering the whole car can park on a quarter I feel it does a pretty good job capturing the feel of Gizmo's ride.

 

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