Not a lot of people know that before toad was a ruthless cart driver on the sands of
a Dry Dry Desert he was earning his salt as a pod racer pilot at the Boonta Eve Classic.
You're a pilot? All my life!
So here's my attempt at recreating Toad's official podracer out of garbage and spare junk
This video is part of a collab with several other pod racers so make sure you get your fill after
this one or i'll feed you to the Sarlacc. See ya!
For my podracer engines, i'm starting with a jar and a jar because they're the right kind of cylindrical shape i'm after
i don't need the threaded part of the jar so i'll just go ahead and cut the entire head off
Even if you hate sand, it's very important to sand down all of the shiny junk plastic we'll be using
(i'll try spinning that's a good trick!)
this will give it some texture to help the super glue bind all the garbage
i really didn't have a plan for this build i just sort of jumped into it and started
cutting it apart and adding things as i went along
I'm going for an asymmetrical engine layout where one of the engines has its guts exposed
to help distract the eye from my lack of design by adding more details to look at
like these chunks of hair rollers that i'm adding as grates to help fill in the empty windows i cut out
And then to fill out this grate space, i'm using a couple pieces from this dollar store droid
These are the robo toes
Then to help the super glue bond a little quicker i'm spraying some ca glue accelerant directly onto my skin
Here's a water filter! Oh, this is getting out of hand... now there are two of them!
I'm using these in possibly the most obvious way as the propulsion part of each of my engines
Here's a piece from a jumbo shampoo pump to add a little rocket hole to the tip
And then here's a little tubular piece from that same pump
... which i'm dividing into two and then gluing a little gear charm on the end
it is a complete coincidence that it kind of fits into the space i cut out on the side of each engine because i definitely didn't plan for it
Much like how i didn't plan on fishing these plastic jar pieces out of the trash
and then gluing them back onto the jars as extra panel detail
Whoa, did you see how bad this seam line looks?
Let's hide it with a strip of plastic sheet that i'm adding rivets to with a push pin
I picked up this technique from Bill Making Stuff (youtube.com/billmakingstuff)
And he picked up this technique from a channel called Studson Studio
Hey, do you hear that?
I'm using the cord from a broken pair of headphones to not only add in some wire details
But as a way to cover up several areas of gaps between panels
Panel gaps are unsightly. I'm not afraid to deal in absolutes.
Here's a little gundam bit i'm placing over the wire as a power converter
And then speaking of gundam bits, I'm using a few of them to create...
... a big mess of an engine block that'll be exposed on one of the engines
It's also made of more shampoo pump bottle and of course you got to have a metal coil in there somewhere
That's enough details on this little mess. Time to glue it into the rest of the engine tube
For the energy binder, I'm stealing this christmas ornament plug ...
... and then gluing it into the area where the energy binder goes.
For those not versed in pod racing, the energy binder is the part that does this
To help sell the idea that the engine wires are being held on by something,
I'm gluing on a few sporadic pieces of plastic tubing as cable mounts here and there.
Then I'm using these beautiful nail rhinestones as rivets.
I won't torture you with all the rivets, just these 200,000 rivets ready with a million more on the way
Christmas is back again but it's time to cut it short...
... because we need those good mushroom boosts to send toad on a fast shroom trip
I sealed up each mushroom tip on some plastic card using super glue and got rid of the extra plastic
To spice up these domes i'm using a ping pong ball to make the spots for each of the toadstools
All right, this is where the fun begins
The engines are finally starting to look like toadstools and not a couple of spice jars
No rivets. Rivets.
To finish the engines, I'm adding a couple beads to serve as the cable connectors
And that's looking pretty good. Let's check in with Toad.
I recently dismantled a few spray bottles which are filled with some excellent junk to become the podracer cockpit
This piece from a dollar store tank goes right here because that's just where it fits
Then a nice ergonomic spray bottle trigger to become the ergonomic bucket seat
I also had this dollar store quad racer which has some choice bits for a pod racer
Such as these handlebars and this seat but i already have a seat
Take a seat. Okay, all right, maybe i can stick it on the bottom here
but i need to sand it against something round until it's attained to that perfect pod curvature
That's looking nice and flush
In a previous video, this robodog was ripped apart and now we finally get to harvest some of its face parts.
Such as the nose and ear for a few pod details on the back
This is a machine gun barrel for the cable holder
And then the front of the quad racer for the front of the podracer
And then... what's this part from?
It's a shiny chest from a Vader toy i had to rip apart to make the dashboard.
Don't cry, Anakin. ("Nooooooooo!!")
This little bit looks kind of like a mushroom antenna then I'm adding a couple bedazzled mushroom spots
And Episode 1 is complete! Time for a sequel
First I primed the pod white
Then i figured brown would be a better bet because I want it to be a bit of a rust bucket.
But why stop at brown when you can make it more brown
I'm mixing up a goop of brown paint and baking soda to create a crusty rusty paste
that I am stippling over all the areas that i want to have some rust texture
This sludge also works as a pretty decent gap filler for the
areas where i was not very thorough about gluing and sanding edges
After a good slop, we're left with this lump lord
which we will now enhance with a rusty family of oranges and browns
to bring out a nice rusty appearance
Occasionally, I'd switch to a tattered chunk of sponge just to get a more random smattering of paint
I was actually really digging how the rust was turning out
but it's really just practice because it's all going to be hidden in a layer of paint
that's right i have made a fine addition to my collection of goops with some acrylic masking fluid
This is used to mask out areas you want to keep free of paint
I'll go more into this invisible juice later
but for now we're moving on to making the pod blue
The name of the painting game is a whole lot of stippling and attempting some very quick and dirty color blends
game is a whole lot of stippling and attempting some very quick and dirty color blends so forgive
So forgive me if I power slide a little quick through a lot of these paints on this Rainbow Road
i'm trying to avoid painting over the rusty edges because i want to keep some of that
delicious crust in the final product
I started with darker paints then worked my way up using lighter and lighter shades
while the paint was still wet to attempt to blend it into a gradient
The general scheme here was to mimic the classic blue white yellow of Toad's cart
Time to hit the paint blends once more for the mushroom engines which will be somewhat inspired
by the color scheme of the Starshroom in Mario Galaxy
For these color gradients, i'm using a light pink near the top of the mushrooms
where they get deliciously oven roasted by the tatooine suns
Then i did one more gradient on the toadstool spots, but this one's a little more subtle
I tried to make them kind of toffee brown near the bottom of each one
I didn't want to lose too much of the tasty rust that i built up so for the base of the
mushrooms i sponged on some silver to try to make it look really worn around the engine area
But for the body of the engine, might i suggest another resident of brown town?
Toffee is here and ready to cover up all the rust in a way that i might kind of regret later
I think i have a somewhat high threshold for acceptance of mediocrity
So even though I'm not a super huge fan of the current state of the brown color scheme
I'm kind of thinking eh good enough
We'll fix it in the weathering stage
And for the business end of the engine I wanted to keep it as sort of a
tarnished, rusty funnel so i stippled on just a little bit of bronze in a few choice spots
And now the exciting conclusion of how we're going to remove this masking fluid
Using an old toothbrush or a current toothbrush i'm vigorously rubbing away all the areas where i
think there was masking fluid but i honestly don't remember and that was a mistake
But it gives a nice paint chipping effect. And now it's time for a wash
I'm trying my hand at an oil paint wash using mineral spirits
Just pour a little bit into a
cup
Then squeeze out just a little bit of oil paint into your
...Oh... into the mineral spirits until you get a consistency that you're
...that is good. I don't really know what good is i think this is kind of good
I didn't want to go so dark that I would regret it
So I opted for a less is more approach
Don't be afraid to go a little bit extra juicy with the wash
It takes a bit of time to dry anyway so there was plenty of time to dab off the
excess using a paper towel which has the added benefit of making it look more Rando Calrissian
I also added a few streaky zoomy lines
To energy bind the engines together, it was a combo of a
straightened out paperclip with the powerful union of superglue and accelerant to lock in the bond real quick
Then i had this little lightning effect from a toy to give the podracer unlimited power
i'm gluing a few bits around the wire to try to hide it the best i can
And then to connect the engines to the pod, I'm using a clothes hanger
And this is what it looks like on the back
To make the wires just spend about an hour frustratingly bending them into the perfect shape
making sure to cut new ones every time the wires accidentally snap from over bending
I considered trying to get a thinner gauge wire but the benefits
of a clothes hanger are that it was free and it's extra sturdy for intense play time
This thing's definitely going to return to the closet later and hold at least a couple pairs of pants
The wire was looking a little too nude so i'm adding a length of red wire which is how i imagine
Toad is controlling his engines and diverting item block power ups to his podracer
Then I'm tying the bright red together with a little bit of a black wash
Then just a tiny lamb's giggle's worth of a silver dry brushing to bring out a few raised details
And lastly, weathering powders
this is another weathering technique that i've recently absorbed from Bill Making Stuff
These are homemade weathering powders made from crushing up chalk pastels to make convincing dirt
rust, angel dust, or whatever other kind of effects you want to smother on something
All right, all done, let's get a load of Toad's poadracer
Don't forget to do yourself a favor and check out the pod racer builds in the description
from Scratch Bashing, Boylei Hobby Time, Eric's Hobby Workshop and Bill Making Stuff
Each of their designs are so inspired and their videos constantly inspire me
I don't think I could have made this podracer build without all of their techniques that i have
surreptitiously lifted from their crafting arsenals
They're all super talented crafters and model makers
as always thank you to all of my patrons for helping support me in making these videos
May the Fourth be with you and i'll see you next time