Stephen Hopkins

Some photos from the 2017 4-link nationals

Day 1:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/99772360@N02/010h0i
Day 2:
https://www.flickr.com/gp/99772360@N02/hu39jy

Back at it for another Summer Jam

Was a fun week! 

Last rc event for awhile. 

On 4/22/2017 at 6:42 AM, TheRetroStyle said:

MonsterJamFilms got all of his Monster Jam videos taken down, so because of that he is losing subscribers fast.

Considering he spent the entire first quarter working with/for Feld I cant understand why they suddenly disappeared. /endsarcasm 

On 4/15/2017 at 11:45 PM, Mr. Self Destruct said:

I was wondering when I'd see an Inferno R/C. Awesome!

Bar none my favorite body I've had painted. Always loved the truck as a kid, just the truck sucked. Body still looks crazy good even though its close to 5 years old now. Battle scared and battle tested, still my favorite. 

Some race pictures, then two 'studio' shots of my trucks

Some pictures from some of the past events

Chrome grill is a solid choice. I'd save the charcoal for when you change the name fill color as we mentioned before, and even then the chrome may look the part better as the chrome as it is currently seems to match the light greys very very well. 

1 hour ago, steiale said:

The driver names are solid red from what I can see. There's no white inside

You're right, however what he did is 10x cooler and should be adopted for the real trucks (diggers at least). 

16 hours ago, Hagan Moskau said:

 

Got bored and decided to play with Top Gunner, when: the headers were uneven, the body was so wide it covered 3/4 of the tires and it needed a little update. Updated the truck with some of Fern's new props (Thank you, Mr. Fernando. As usual, you're the best), shortened the width of the body to the appropriate length, made the Zoomies headers Zoomies, and just for the hell of it I added a cover over the back of the chassis. And I don't know if I told anyone, but I accidentally released the truck with the wrong shock set up. So I apologize for the confusion.

Looks very good. Paint work is very clear and flows very well. Curious have you tried any other colors for the logo?  Some contrasting color for that logo might make the name "pop" rather than blend in with the background. Like with other parts of the truck you used a white letter with a black outline. Not sure about white but maybe a light grey like the planes look to be with a subtle black outline? Something to just make it stand out. If you use the light grey you could do the fade thing thats going on with a darker more black grey for the same effect, obviously with the black outline I wouldn't go black but a charcoal ish color may not be bad for a similar effect. Also with the bits of grey you currently have it may tie the entire scheme together and be the cherry on top. Of course it may not but just something to consider. 

On 1/22/2017 at 6:09 PM, Outlawed said:

Vegas going back to 16 trucks? That is literally one of the worst ideas I have ever heard. As for Krysten or Jared, you guys seem to forget that most of the drivers that are getting hired have atleast some sort of motorsports experience (rock crawling, ATV/Dirtbike racing, etc) as far as I recall, Krysten, Jared, Armando, Bernard do not. There is going to be a learning curve for them and in terms of progression, they have all been getting better.

To be fair some of their recent hires motorsports experience is pretty exaggerated. 

Action is another solid choice. 

That Cat car though...... mmmmmmmm, God I was such a huge Ward Burton fan. 

No full size stuff yet this year

Next truck you do can you atleast try to spend more than 10 minutes on the paint? Please. (and the tires are still backwards as somebody pointed out above)

Keep in mind Damon was from a background of legit top level racing. Only the absolute very best mx riders make it to the top and are as competitive as he was riding for factory teams and eventually owning and operating his own team in his time. A vast majority of race stars be it NHRA, Nascar, F1, MX, or any other top level series, have the "acts pooty to everyone" mantra about them. They are there to race, they are paid to win and take no prisoners, everything else comes 2nd.  Also you dont think talking to monster truck fans cant get a bit annoying? Most days I cant stand to look at the FB groups, let alone sit through a like 3hr autograph session. 

Either way Bradshaw is a super competitive person, and I'm glad he gave Monster trucks the run he did, never once did I walk into a facility when he was competing and question if he was giving 110% in racing or freestyle. Cant say that for 75% of the current crop of drivers. 

1 hour ago, TheBostonRag said:

I redid the Maximum Destruction paint job to look more like the 2005-ish paint.

 

 

 

 

I would suggest you get rid of the advance auto Monster Jam logo on the roof, or at a bare minimum cut the red bar off the top of the logo. 

Proof that the trucks are not capable of sustaining a hit like that. A backflop will kill somebody some day, maybe then somebody will realize we have an issue. 

No but they should now that everyone pretty much tours together all winter again. 

47 minutes ago, Goldberg6734 said:

 

Cam just pulled off Save of 2017 so far 

Save? The truck was shut off for over half of the flip/crash. Next time I see the loader flip a truck back over I'm giving that driver save of the year. 

Wouldn't be the start of the year without the save/crash discussion starting

@ChaoticMayhem If you change the internal mesh xml names files make sure you also edit that mesh's material file. Also make sure both the mesh and material files are named identically (mesh xml files also need to be converted back to just mesh's as well) 

There are people who never get it and then there are people like GDFAN14 who it just all clicks for right off the bat. Stellar work to start off, even if it is a digger. More important you listen/listened to pears to improve your projects. Nice work!  Looking forward to what lies in your future content wise! 

Content looks well done, screen shots are of good quality, positioned the truck in a fashion that highlights his work, top to bottom he nailed it. (we'll look past the wrote screen shot overlay) 

1 hour ago, Garrett Hanson said: