Cobra Crimson Guard Stinger Attack Jeep continued.......................

After the primer had dried, next came the main color coats. Using Regal Red spray paint, I painted the main body piece and the hood. I sprayed the vintage Stinger roof and doors with flat black. While that was drying, I started working on the interior and chasis. First up was the rollbars and dash assembly. I wanted to add some life like details on the interior and started with the gauges in the dash. I painted the centers of the gauges silver and the marking in red. Also added a rearview mirror with silver and framed it with flat black.

For the seats, I wanted them to look somewhat plush and comfortable since this Stinger is for the Crimson Guard, Cobra's elite unit. After painting the seats red, I used gloss black for the contrasting piping on them and then put a silver Cobra symbol sticker on the headrests.

Next up is the rear shelf rack just above the headrests of the seats. This area is filled with fans, hydraulics and electronics for the missile launcher.

While I was working on the interior stuff, I decided to paint the vintage Stinger rear panels too. The pegs on them had to be cut off and sanded down so they'd fit and a very small strip on one side of the panels had to be carefully sliced off with an Xacto knive so they would fit in the spaces vacated by the Vamp's rear vent panels. The vintage Stinger ones are just a bit wider than the 25th Vamp's.

After painting the interior and letting it dry, next were the wheels. I painted them silver and then added flat black to the recessed detail areas of them. Also, I painted the exhaust on the sides underneath along the door areas with silver and then black for the ends where they would be open.

To modify the vintage Stinger's front bumper/pushbar, I used the Xacto knive and carefully "carved" the hooks off of it and cut the ends of the pushbar off. The ends then were glued onto the ends of the stock Vamp pushbar and the hooks were glued onto the Vamp's pushbar as well in between the fog lights.

Now it was onto the missile launcher and how I was going to get it to fit while still retaining the full 360 degree rotation that it should have. I decided to cut the end of the vintage Stinger missile launcher off even across the bottom. This took a little bit of dremel tool work but turned out good. Then, I took the Vamp's twin cannon mount and cut it off right at the base so all that was left was the peg and the base for it. After sanding that down nice and smooth, I glued the newly cut peg onto the bottom of the vintage Stinger missile launcher. After they had dried, I did some detail painting on the missile launcher.

Now to reassemble the custom Crimson Guard Stinger! After snapping the rollbar/dash assembly into the main body piece, I carefully snapped the main body piece onto the chassis. Then glued the rear panel pieces onto the rear deck on the sides of the missile launcher. I had to cut the tabs off of th eends of the vintage Stinger's rear troop grab bar and then glue it onto the back of th eVamp where the gas can rack used to be. The Stinger's troop ledge/platform had to be modified a little to fit on the back of th e25th Anniversary Vamp and also was glued into place. I snapped th eStinger's roof panel and doors onto the rollbar and then did some detail paint to the engine compartment. After gluing the vintage Stinger's hood tank onto the 25th Vamp's modified hood and securing a piece of metal mesh for a grille behind the cutout vents on the hood with "greenstuff" around the edges underneath, snapped the hood onto the body. Then it was time to snap the newly formed missile launcher onto the back where the 25th Vamp's twin cannon setup had been. Detail paint apps on the shovel and the shovel holder on the body. Applied the stickers from cobrastickers.com (this custom Stinger as well as my Cobra Black Widows and Arctic H.I.S.S. Tank are featured on their website under the Customers Pics section).

Custom Cobra Crimson Guard Stinger Attack Jeep "recipe"

Main Basis - G.I.Joe Vamp (2008 25th Anniversary Vehicle Sets, Wave 1)

Roof, Doors, Missile Launcher, Troop Platform, Troop Grab Bar, Rear Panels, Hood Tank - Cobra Stinger (Vintage 1985 ARAH)

Missiles - G.I.Joe Pac Rat Missile Launcher (Vintage 1983 ARAH)
Mesh Grille - Mesh for gutters or also used on cars/trucks as mesh grille inserts

Stickers - Cobra Stinger set (cobrastickers.com)

- Crimson Guard Logos (cobrastickers.com)

- Small silver Cobra symbols (cobrastickers.com)

Paints used:

Flat grey Primer Spray Paint

Regal red Spray Paint

Tamiya X-7 (Red)

Tamiya XF-1 (Flat Black)

Tamiya X-1 (Gloss Black)

Tamiya X-11 (Chrome Silver)

Tamiya XF-66 (Light Grey)

Testor's Model Master Gloss Blue