We are doing Great Gatsby and I am tasked with building the big yellow car. Now no one is expecting anything spectacular, but beyond a flat piece of plywood on a truck, I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to make a car with some sense of dimension. Anyone ever sculpt foam to do this?
It really just depends on how much time and effort you want to put into it. Foam is a good option, definitely will need to invest in a hot knife. You could also chicken wire and fiber glass it if it going to be a long term prop but if you go that route I would go full 3d with the car.
The Milwaukee Rep did Ragtime last year on a relatively small, thruststage. They created a fully operational , electricvehicle that had to U turn in a very small area.
I did a production of "Good News!" a while back and was lucky enough to work with a volunteer who happened to be a classic car nut. On top of that, he owned a sheet metal shop and had access to all kinds of machinery. He ended up making all of the body panels for me and donating all of his labor and materials. He said it was too much fun to bill me for. Unless you can make friends really quickly, that information probably isn't going to help much but maybe some of this will:
Depending on your scale and the vintage of the car you're going for, cheap trailer fenders give a really nice dimension
Go-cart parts (tie rods, etc.) are inexpensive and work pretty well
If you remove the spokes from an old bike rim (we used 20" youth rims), you can replace them with dowels giving you authentic looking pneumatic wheels. This worked well for our Model T but a trailer wheel and tire might be more appropriate for a more modern vehicle
We used an old industrial door motor to drive a belt which drove one of the rear wheels (high tech one wheel drive!)
We discovered if the belt was a little bit lose, it would slip and give us a soft start instead of a jerk
It took a little practice for the actor to be able to turn it around on our stage but we spiked a few marks for him to hit with the driver side front wheel and with a little practice he did quite well.
The best part of turning it around on stage is watching the red tail lights disappear as it drives off stage in a blackout. Don't forget to include them!
We put some time and money into this thing but we've reconfigured it several times for different shows. (limousine, pickup truck, delivery truck) Cars on stage are definitely a crowd pleaser. Best of luck! Love to see some photos of the finished product!
Completed…looked at the original yellow Rolls and slice a chunk. Key issues were, we have no wings to hold much, it had to seat three adults in the front seat and have a visible steering wheel, and had to look luxurious. Plywood shell, foam insulation sides covered with 6mill plastic sheet, primed and enabled, and a red rolled and pleated interior - $200 and had an original period wheel. See picture