American Muscle

Ok, so you’ve probably clocked that these aren’t real cars. Yes, I’m sorry, it’s yet another scale model commission, this time from a diecast collector who wanted me to create posters of some of his collection to hang above his display cabinet. Once again he allowed me to present smaller samples here.

I picked the vehicles that I felt were the most photogenic, namely the primary coloured muscle cars, all 1/18 scale.

Since most collectors of the real versions spend an inordinate amount of time tinkering with them in a garage I decided to build a scale garage for them and shoot them inside it.

Basically sprayed some sheets of cardboard with concrete texture paint and cut a window out of one of them to allow a lamp to shine through. I furnished the space with a makeshift black cardboard table, cabinet and small prints of some of my car show photos to act as posters. Springs from a couple of clothes pegs acted as suspension springs and a black drinking straw doubled for an exhaust pipe. A vaping device and a small lamp with a yellow bulb outside the window created the musty, smokey atmosphere that I wanted, giving the cars presence, vintage and mystery.

The larger scale and greater details on these models, especially the better wheels and tighter shut lines, helped to sell the illusion of the overall scene.





The client also wanted some action shots (naturally) but with a strict caveat: do not cause any damage to the cars. Understandable, as these were (presumably) costly collectibles, and thus the hardest part of the set-ups was ensuring the cars were in mint condition before and after. And they were.

I figured these makes and models were a throwback to 70s and 80s action so using cardboard and coffee stirrers I quickly knocked up the typical balsa wood crates that they would always crash into. Wires stuck inside a couple of them had bits of polystyrene stuffing impaled on them to give the appearance of flying packaging. The flying lids were also attached with wires. All wires and fishing lines were removed in post. The police cruiser had some 1/18 scale figures inside, which didn’t hurt the illusion so I left them in.

Black bars were added to the top and bottom of the images to provide a ‘cinematic’ look.





















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Nicely done!! Could easily pass for the real thing. The garage set up and the action shots are well thought out and executed!! Im sure your clients are more than satisfied with the results.

Very nice work!! Thanks for posting... HAGD

Beautiful images all. You sure went to a lot of work for these shots. I hope you were well compensated. I like the static images the best.

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These are incredible! I love the bottom two especially.