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Darth Bug - my 2014 R-Line Convertible

15K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  TrappedOnEarth 
#1 ·
I've been reading this forum for a while, so I figure it's time to start posting my own pics.

Darth Bug started out a very nice Reef Blue Metallic color, with beige interior/top, and the fake carbon-fiber dash. I wasn't a big fan of the black dash, so asked my friend Kris Ziegler if he could come up with some sort of landspeeder-themed painting for the dash. Next thing I knew, Kris had convinced me to have him paint the exterior instead. Kris had painted two boats for our high school's crew team, so I knew he would do a bang-up job. I wasn't allowed to see any plans or work-in-progress photos, so the day I came to pick it up was the first I saw of the fantastic job he had done.

Needless to say, I get a lot of comments when I'm out driving. For some reason, especially any time I stop at a Wawa. I had no idea there were so many SW fans out there, of all ages, and just as many women as men.

I'll start with a set of photos I took last April, about a month after the painting and clearcoating were done. As you can see, I'm still learning how to take good car photos.

Darth Vader and a couple stormtroopers on the hood. There's also a Death Star behind Vader, I'll need to see if I have a photo that shows that better. Check out how the red from Vader's chest is worked into the VW logo, and how the color from the light reflects off the stormtroopers and Vader's arms.
It's nice living in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, where we don't need a front license plate.
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Boba Fett looks very 3-D in person, almost as if the patch on his shoulder is about to peel off.
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Millenium Falcon and X-Wing / Tie fighter battle scene.
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For the back, Kris used the rounded shape for R2-D2's dome. It looks really good from a distance.
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We wanted the driver's side to look like a landspeeder. I think Kris did a nice job working with the fender shapes of the Beetle, rather than trying to force it to look more like the movie. The wood grain and blaster damage came out really nice.
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#6 ·
Demo: Circular Polarizing Filter

Thanks everyone for the encouragement! It's such a blast driving around, hearing the positive comments from all kinds of people.

I picked quite a month to enter the ROTM polling, all the entries are amazing! I have to admit I can see people voting for the cars that are modded and/or lowered. I drive regularly on gravel and dirt lots, volunteering for a local high school Crew team. So, it's not practical for me lower Darth Bug; I'm afraid he'll continue to have that stock look.

Here's an interesting set of 3 photos, to demonstrate the effects of a circular polarizing filter. I took these at the same time, with the same settings (albeit auto), but with the filter rotated differently. The camera did step down to ISO 200 in the first shot due to the glare, so that difference is more than just the filter.

Nevertheless, it shows how much better a photo I was able to get by rotating the filter so there was no glare on the hood, and very little on the windshield.

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