Sidney Schwartz Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Dashboards are the bane of my existance. Or one of them, anyway. I see the incredibly detailed dashes that some of you do and I can't even imagine how you do it. Gauge decals? Ultra-fine markers? What are your secrets?
StevenGuthmiller Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 (edited) I don't normally get this carried away with a dashboard, but in this case, I'm building a '64 Bonneville convertible and wanted to upgrade the interior tub. As I was going through the trouble of completely rebuilding the door panels, and other aspects of the interior, I wanted the dashboard to exhibit the same level of detail, so I dove in pretty deep. Some parts swapping, scratch building and a fair amount of detailing went into this dashboard, as well as some gauge face decals. "Best Model Car Parts" provided the gauge decals. Otherwise, it was a lot of scratch made and repurposed parts, with plenty of foil and Alclad chrome paint. Steve Edited January 3, 2023 by StevenGuthmiller 2
Dale361 Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Nope. I'm calling BS here. That's a real dash from a real car! Just trying to figure out how that blue tarp covering that 55-gallon barrel is holding it up...... Holly Cow ! I've never seen a dash like that. Incredible!
Sidney Schwartz Posted January 3, 2023 Author Posted January 3, 2023 2 hours ago, StevenGuthmiller said: I don't normally get this carried away with a dashboard, but in this case, I'm building a '64 Bonneville convertible and wanted to upgrade the interior tub. As I was going through the trouble of completely rebuilding the door panels, and other aspects of the interior, I wanted the dashboard to exhibit the same level of detail, so I dove in pretty deep. Some parts swapping, scratch building and a fair amount of detailing went into this dashboard, as well as some gauge face decals. "Best Model Car Parts" provided the gauge decals. Otherwise, it was a lot of scratch made and repurposed parts, with plenty of foil and Alclad chrome paint. Steve Awesome. And you're able to do all that detail work with a brush?
StevenGuthmiller Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 1 hour ago, Sidney Schwartz said: Awesome. And you're able to do all that detail work with a brush? No. Very little brush painting went into this dash. Almost everything that was painted, (the dash itself, gauge pods and knobs) were separate pieces and were sprayed. Nearly everything else was foiled, a decal or silver wire. The only things that were brush painted were the wood on the dash and steering wheel, and the fine background detailing on the ribbed trim, Bonneville script, etc. Steve
Bainford Posted January 3, 2023 Posted January 3, 2023 Another example of dash detailing. Basically everything on the dashboard is scratch built. This is the dash from my current Lotus Europa project. When it comes to scratch building dash components, old sports car are more straightforward than the complex dashboard on large American cars, such as Steve’s shown above. 4
Rodent Posted January 4, 2023 Posted January 4, 2023 I have white, silver, and red-orange artists' pencils. I find them a lot easier than using paint to detail gauge faces, radios, etc. Black face, white numbers, and a reddish needle is fairly common. Put a little canopy glue over it when you are done and it can look decent. 1 1
Sidney Schwartz Posted January 4, 2023 Author Posted January 4, 2023 22 hours ago, Bainford said: Another example of dash detailing. Basically everything on the dashboard is scratch built. This is the dash from my current Lotus Europa project. When it comes to scratch building dash components, old sports car are more straightforward than the complex dashboard on large American cars, such as Steve’s shown above. You realize you're trying to explain quantum physics to a chimp, right? 1
Sidney Schwartz Posted January 4, 2023 Author Posted January 4, 2023 1 hour ago, Rodent said: I have white, silver, and red-orange artists' pencils. I find them a lot easier than using paint to detail gauge faces, radios, etc. Black face, white numbers, and a reddish needle is fairly common. Put a little canopy glue over it when you are done and it can look decent. Regular colored pencils or oil based?
Rodent Posted January 4, 2023 Posted January 4, 2023 2 hours ago, Sidney Schwartz said: Regular colored pencils or oil based? They are Prismacolor Premier colored pencils. It's just another way to do things if the kit's instrument engraving is good and it is unusual enough that Best Model Car Parts doesn't offer a set for it. It takes serious light and some magnification to highlight the numerals and pointer, but it works better for me than trying to drybrush with paint.
Sidney Schwartz Posted January 5, 2023 Author Posted January 5, 2023 Thanks, Rodent. I picked some up at the local craft store. ?
Russell C Posted January 5, 2023 Posted January 5, 2023 Tiny hand-made wire rings to put around knob bases is my not-much-of-a-secret. 1
bh1701 Posted January 6, 2023 Posted January 6, 2023 On eBay, look for "BestModelCarParts". He sells printed sheets with gauges, speedometers, and radio faces for quite a few model kits. I have bought several and have been pleased with them. I will also look on the internet for photos of dashboards. If I can find a good shot of a gauge I need, I will bring it into Photoshop to erase everything but the actual gauge, and then will do any tweaking of the image that is needed. Another good source for photos of gauges is to look on eBay for one that someone is selling. Their photos will often work, too. For both methods, I will put double-sided scotch tape behind the paper and will attach that to very thin sheet plastic. Then, I cut the gauge out and secure it to the dash with glue. I bought a leather hole punch tool that works well to punch the round ones out. The really small round gauges may need to be hand cut with a small scissors (Like a fingernail scissors). I will put a small dab of glue on the dash where the gauge needs to go and then attach the gauge. In the photos I included, the Corvette dash and Cougar dash have gauges from BestModelCarParts. (The Blue and the Green interiors) The Turbine Car has gauges from internet photos that were tweaked in Photoshop a bit. (The dash hanging below the windshield) Hope this helps! Bart
Sidney Schwartz Posted January 6, 2023 Author Posted January 6, 2023 On 1/4/2023 at 9:16 PM, Russell C said: Tiny hand-made wire rings to put around knob bases is my not-much-of-a-secret. Another good idea. I'm pretty sure I ordered some gauge decals that come with photo etched rings. Maybe they'll even show up in my mailbox someday. ?
Sidney Schwartz Posted January 6, 2023 Author Posted January 6, 2023 17 hours ago, bh1701 said: I will also look on the internet for photos of dashboards. If I can find a good shot of a gauge I need, I will bring it into Photoshop to erase everything but the actual gauge, and then will do any tweaking of the image that is needed. Another good source for photos of gauges is to look on eBay for one that someone is selling. Their photos will often work, too. I've done similar in the past...printing off gauges, floor mats, etc. It's a bit of paint in the patoot, so I'll probably stick with gauge decals, if they'll ever get here. I do use The Google quite a bit to get images of interiors, exteriors and engines.
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