How The Grinch Stole Christmas | My Custom Hotwheels & Diecast Cars

Today I’m sharing a Christmas custom that I built for a comp (but missed the deadline by like a week because I suck at time management LOL.)… Edit: The fact that I am only now publishing this in June of 2020 only serves to cement that fact LMAO.
This one went out to my customising brother (and the organiser of said comp) @cthulhu_customs aka Jade Rawson who we’ve featured before. Here’s the story of how the Grinch stole Christmas…in 1:64 scale

I-Believe In Christmas I-Believe… and a Hyper Rocker

This custom creation is part Hyper Rocker, part I-Believe, and all Christmas. The incredibly detailed engine and pipes are courtesy of Nicho Goodies via his eBay store – they are incredibly well priced (too well priced I keep telling him!) and the detail is off the charts.

…And now you know how the Grinch managed to steal Christmas (a Who can achieve anything with enough horses and traction)

Ok so let me take you through the build and share any tips on what and how I did various things.

Stage 1 – Conceptualising & Visualising & Creatilising and making up wordsalising

The hyper rocker is a fantastic casting that hides some incredibly aggressive lines under (or over rather) a hideously raised body and plastic flared guards. And don’t get me started on that hideous plastic rally light bar thingy at the front! So the first thing I did was scrap the entire lot and just stared at the casting on it’s own for a little bit (as you do right? no?! Just me then OK)
The one thing that was wrong with this casting was the front. Without those ugly lights and the flared guards it originally came with the whole thing just looked odd up the front and the proportions were all wrong. I wanted to really exaggerate how aggressive the lines at the back were so needed something that would pop. I didn’t have to look far…

I happened to have an i-Believe cover (the entire clear plastic ‘alien’ head/top comes off in one piece) and it was sitting there painted silver as I was going to do something else with it but realised that the huge curves on the alien head that went over the wheels of the i_Believe would make perfect front wheel arches for my new creation. I just had to cut like 80% of it away is all.

Definitely completes the picture, and by that I mean it brings the proportions of the car into line. Personally I think this is the most important part of any new custom creation because if the proportions are out then it never really looks right, even if it’s so small that “I just can’t put my finger on what it is” (if you know what I mean 😉 )
I also cut away more of the hood opening in order to accommodate NIcho’s engine.

I used styrene sheet to cover the gaps. I wasn’t worried about neat lines because I planned on covering the whole lot in epoxy putty. I use and recommend Epo-Putty (Thai brand I believe… I mean i-Believe) (I used to use Milliput but once I tried Epo-Putty I never went back. Milliput is still very good but the Epo is that much better. Seriously

Stage 2: Joining & Painting (plus more conceptualising and visualising and imaginising)

It’s a Christmas custom, of course it’s red! At this point I had not even thought about decals or overall design (livery) – I was just excited about how the shape had come together. I could have probably done a better job at defining where the new front fenders joined the body but if I’m being honest I kinda suck at highly detailed putty work, especially when compared to some of the amazing talent out there. (I won’t name names because there are quite a few of you guys and gals I’m directly referring to. You know who you are – Respect!)

Stage 3: It’s all in the details, I mean decals, no I meant details. Decals.

Also Wheels, yeah wheels as well. And did I mention decals?

The rear wheels were always going to sit beyond the arches because I needed this car to sit looooowwww. ‘Flat out like a lizard drinking’ low. – That’s bloody low mate! Too right mate.
These wheels were stolen from a beautiful Jada model hotrod for anyone playing along at home.

In the above and below pics I am actually gluing the exhaust pipes into place. I know I will add another thin layer underneath so to compensate and ensure the exhaust almost scraps but doesn’t actually hit I used staples to keep the height right. Staples are great because you can choose how many you need, each one representing just shy of a mm in length so you can control exactly how high something needs to sit.

I went for a candy striped racing… stripe (I didn’t think that sentence through) and also painted the ugly green window insert completely white to contrast against the red (and maybe kinda to look like snow all over the window? yeah no I didn’t think so either. Worth a try but) Couple of Grinch heads on side and on the top and also some Grinch eyes as headlights – or just as eyes. Whatever man Geeez.

Why is there a sock in the pic I hear you ask…. well actually here’s another great tip. When applying decals and generally handling the vehicle a lot it’s best to do so with your fingers inside the sock (if possible – I know sometimes it’s not) as they are thick enough to prevent your acidic and sweaty fingers from leaving marks or stains or generally stuffing up your paintwork.

Stage 4: The Showing Off Part

…And now you know how the Grinch managed to steal Christmas (a Who can achieve anything with enough horses and traction)

I used staples to cover the gaps created at the back. I also used them under the front/side holes so they would show through and look, I dunno- cool I guess 😀
*Break off as many staples as you need and before you do any cutting or bending glue them all together (I just use a light coat of superglue on the inside) – once it sets you can then do what you need with them without them coming apart on you (well most of the time anyway). I then took pliers and bent the ends in on themselves (couldn’t be arsed cutting ’cause it’s annoying) and then bent them slightly to match the curves of the Grinch-Mobile

The wing struts are @CustomDept on Instagram but I decided to make my own wing from Styrene since I needed something rather custom to match the shape of the car (and of course to ensure the overall proportions stayed on point – it’s all about proportions baby. 36 24 36? Only if she’s 5’3″)