I turned and beveled a piece of styrene rod on
the lathe to make the cylindrical nose. I milled a
flat-bottom hole in the body with a ⁄" end mill
and CA’ed the nose in place (Figure
K
)
.
4. FINISH AND PAINT
Once the form is well defined, seal it with fast-
hardening glazing putty. Using a tiny spatula cut
from a plastic lid, trowel on a skim layer of putty.
Immediately scrape it off, leaving putty in just the
pores of the foam texture.
Paint the body with white primer (Figure
L
) to
see the shape better and identify areas to re-putty
and sand (Figure
M
). It will take a few iterations
of layers of primer and putty to get a smooth,
finished surface (Figure
N
).
After a final coat of primer on the body, bubble
trim ring, and hood, spray on the color: a medium
blue metal flake lacquer (Figure
O
). Oh, how
I wish I could get some 1960s Testor’s Ed “Big
Daddy” Roth Custom Finish in Orbitron Blue!
The last step is the trickiest: pin striping. Real
pin striping is hard enough, but in ⁄ scale? Yikes!
You’ll need a miniature pin striper’s brush. Get
a 20/0 “rigger” brush with extra long bristles
(Figure
P
) to hold more paint for brushing l-o-
n-g lines in one pass. Just as in full-size pin
striping, stroke the brush across the palette to
load up some paint, then drag the brush held at a
shallow angle (Figures
Q
and
R
). Use a smooth,
continuous motion and don’t swivel your wrist.
A ONE-OF-A-KIND CUSTOM!
Here’s the assembled Orbitron with some other
Roth Hot Wheels: Mysterion, Road Agent, Outlaw,
and Beatnik Bandit (Figure
S
).
To display this vintage “toy-that-never-was,” I
created a blister card package with retro graphics
(Figure
T
). Swell!
TIP: Practice pin striping first on some other
old Hot Wheels cars until you can make thin, even
lines. Good luck!
What ever happened to the real Orbitron? It was sold to someone in Texas
and lost for over 20 years. Beau Boeckmann of Galpin Auto Sports heard a
rumor it was spotted in Juarez, Mexico, stripped to a hulk, and left on the
street. It was rescued and longingly restored by a team of craftsmen, many
of whom worked on the car originally. (GAS now has a show, Car Kings, on
Discovery Channel.) I saw the restored Orbitron, along with Roth’s Rotar,
Mysterion, and Tweedy Pie, on display at Galpin Ford in Van Nuys, California.
» Orbitron Rides Again! youtube.com/watch?v=5TS-o2TLpMA
» Orbitron at the GAS collection: galpinautosports.com/collection-home
RESTORED TO GLORY
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