well after seeing Doc's work on the CORPS! hovercraft I just had to get one too... the vehicle is a realy nice looking toy to begin with. I'm realy impressed actually at the construction on this thing. and at 10.00 from wal-mart it's hard to pass up!
the construction lends itself to customizing like no other vehicle I've worked with. This hovercraft doesn't have a single screw in it! everything is tab and socket clips. Some of the clips were dificult to get unattached, like the engine rings, so a flathead screwdriver came in handy. The ability to just pop off the parts is going to make painting a sinch!
anyway, enough talking about it here is what I have done so far... just like doc I got carried away and started this project before I got a picture of the stock toy! DOH!... but this is pretty close:
as you can see I've added a couple things already. The large "gatlin gun" cannon on the front was added by drilling a groove in the "hood" and then laying it down into that. I'll glue it on after I paint everything, right now it's just in there by friction. There is also a small gun on top that is an old plastic boat model part, I have no idea where it came from, it was in a fodder box of old model parts...
I've added parts to the engine housing alot like how Doc did his. I used the same film canister caps for the front, I realy liked the look of that... and the back part is a couple PVC pipe fittings I had left over from my old spud gunning material bins... My plan is to leave the very center of the film canister lids unpainted and clear and put a red LED inside the engine ring so that the light will shine out from the lid....
ok, here we have the inside and bottom of the hovercraft. I've cut a hold in the bottom and slid in a battery compartment for two AA batteries. This battery compartment came from a christmas light DISPLAY at walgreens. if you've ever been in there around this time of year you'll notice that most of the cardboard light displays have a "try me" light string built into the box... When the display box becomes empty of product they throw these displays away... When I worked there I would rip open the displays and take out the battery packs, wires, and lights. I used to use them as battery packs for spud gun projects, but they have come in handy for alot of things! If you have a walgreens local to you I would ask to see if they would let you have the empty display cases....
anyway, the battery pack will eventually power several LED lights I plan on adding to the vehicle. I plan on putting two Red LED's inside the engines, a red LED light in the "vents" there infront of the engines, two white LED's in the front as headlights, and I MIGHT put some in the cockpit.... I still don't know if I'm going to tackle trying to make the cockpit see through, if I don't there'd be no point in puting lights in there....
well... what do you guys think!? I'm torn between making this a "speeder" or trying to add wings to it and making it a space fighter... what do you all think I should do? I know doc's is going to be a speeder so I may decide to do the fighter just because I don't want to be a coppy cat! lol
