I started a Countach painting

 

I attended the Art Center College of Design’s Invitational car show at the end of May. It was an amazing show, showcasing classic and modern cars designed by Art Center alumni. I saw lots of rare cars, like the Lancia Stratos, Lamborghini Miura, Espada and the Alfa Romeo Montreal. What car that really stood out was the 1974 Lamborghini Countach. It was very striking in person. It looked like a spaceship, with its angular form, and bold, but functional ventilation details. Bright red paint with a tan interior was a great classic color combination.

 

The owner was very nice enough to allow visitors to sit in his car. I was a little hesitant at first, but my inner child told me that this was a rare opportunity to sit in a very special car. As an adult industrial designer, it was a good looking interior, but very dated and impractical by today’s standards. The leather was top notch, but there were a lot of loose panel gaps and quality issues. It’s very expected of a hand built car built by a small company.

 

The ergonomics were very weird. I’m 5’8 wearing 9.5 Jordans. My feet couldn’t access the pedals. The only way I could drive this car, would be either barefoot or wearing slim loafers. The front wheel wells has to accommodate really wide tires, which means that my legs have to veer to right. Theres also a super tiny rear window, so if you need to reverse the car, you would have to sit on the door sill, while still keeping your feet on the pedals and hands on the steering wheel. It seems like that driving this car would be difficult. Overall, I could see people putting up with this, because this car is so cool!

 

I was thinking about painting another childhood icon, which is why I chose this Lamborghini for my next painting.

After the last painting, I wanted to try a different method. Rather than penciling in a loose sketch and filling in the color, I’m creating a sketch with my paint strokes. I put in a rough fill to better see how the car will fill the canvas.

 

I refined the sketch to the point where all the general details are looking good. After the basic layout was set, I added a general background. There will be a lot of tweaks, but the combination of a red car against a green background will make for a very vibrant painting.

 

I finished my Porsche 911 Turbo painting!

 

I lost track on how much time I spent on this, but its finally finished! I wanted this painting to leap at you, as it’s racing down PCH on a sunny day.
This was a fun challenge to portray a shiny red car reflecting sky and ground.

 

The painting took longer, because I really wanted to nail down the proportions. The roofline could be a little lower. Overall, I’m satisfied with the end result.

 

The painting has gone though an interesting evolution. It was definitely a great learning experience!

Gundam Gouf MG

After finishing the Zaku, I was now ready to work on the model kits that I bought while I was in Japan. I decided to work on the Gouf before tackling the giant Sazabi kit. I’m a big fan of the Gundam series, and one of my favorite mobile suits was the Gouf. The Gouf is a newer, improved design over the general use Zaku mobile suit.
This Gouf was piloted by Captain Ramba Ral, who was a great adversary to Amuro Ray.

 

The assembly process went by very smoothly, and seemed a little easier to assemble than the Zaku. The pieces felt very robust, and everything fit very well.

 
 

This kit turned out great. The colors are very vibrant, and the mobile suit design looks very aggressive. I like that this kit comes with a lot of accessories and is very easy to pose. I already added decals and may add a little weathering in the near future. I would reccomend this kit to anyone who is a Gundam fan who has patience.

 

Some 3D prints

 

Since the first Prusa nameplate print, I’ve been dabbling in a lot experiments. There has been a lot of headache, tweaking and failures.
Through these experiences, I’m now more comfortable using my Prusa MK3S+.

I bought and tested a variety of different filaments. I experimented with both PLA and PETG.

 

The Lucky 13 model was a bit tricky. It required more precision to print the smaller parts and make them fit to form a posable action figure.
I learned that PETG is a better material, due to its flexibility vs the brittleness of PLA.

 

After figuring out the smaller Lucky13 figure, I decided to print a larger version. The larger version was very successful, with the parts fitting together correctly and feeling robust. I think it may have taken around 4 days to print out all the parts.