1/25 ‘09 Dodge Challenger

This model kit was a birthday present from my brother. It has taken me quite a long time to get it looking like this!

This is the exact kit that I built.

I painted it using Humbrol Red 19 Gloss Acrylic spray can paint over Humbrol Grey Primer 1. I wish I’d used white primer as I think it would have made the car a bit brighter.

The model is clear coated using Pledge Multi-surface Wax from the supermarket, polished with Tamiya Polishing Compounds, then given a quick rub over with the same Meguiars Cleaner Wax that I would use on my real car. If I ever washed it, that is!

I took these photographs with a Nikon D5000 with the standard kit lens. With hindsight, I’d probably switch to using my 50mm prime lens, but results should be roughly the same. They’re taken in daylight with a couple of reflecting sheets of paper just out of shot to help stop some of the shadows.

I used f-22 aperture in aperture priority mode, requiring long exposure times of ten seconds, or so. Obviously this needs a tripod to work. Also, some exposure compensation to allow for the bright white background.

The narrow aperture is needed in order to keep the whole car in focus. However, I took a couple of shots with a more open aperture, and this can give quite a nice depth of field effect.

I also experimented with using a different background colour, although I couldn’t get the black to come out the right colour without also underexposing the car. Some time spent removing the fluff from the tshirt I used as a backdrop wouldn’t have hurt, either.