Skyline Hot Wheels Racing
SKYLINE RACING — HOT WHEELS!
For those of you who are unfamiliar, in the JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) and beyond, the Skyline carries the same weight as Corvette in the US market. The legendary Skyline, first introduced in 1957, was originally built by Japan’s Prince Motor Company. Production of the Prince Skyline lasted from 1957 until 1966, when Prince and Nissan merged. With humble origins as a rather modest 4-door luxury car, the Skyline began to evolve into a performance-bred sports car following the merger. Today the Skyline is most recognized as the influential predecessor to the modern GT-R.
I wanted to create a photo where it looked like two JDM cars were racing. I spent a lot of time building the set (SEE BTS) and the goal is to add things to the background that your eye EXPECTS to see without having them be specifically noticeable. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but it is what it is.
Here I added traffic cones and tires in the outside of the turn. There is some space between the tire “barriers” and the naturally formed rock wall (which is just a 3D printed stone wall.)
The race “track” is just a giant mouse pad with a race track design printed on it. It makes a nice surface for rolling the cars into position.
The next challenge is to create a race-day look using atmosphere. I added sparks, smoke and dust using Boris FX Optics 2022.5.
I absolutely love photographing these little cars and coming up with settings like this to make the image seem more realistic.
If you have an old Hot Wheels car laying around, give this a try.
Remember, toys are joy.
