Yellow eyes look a bit evil... I like!

Yeah the yellow eyes do look evil. They havent been painted yet. Thats just the color the ball was when I bought them.  The grille and the spacing of the eyes gives that effect as well. Dont know what I'll do about that.  They looked alot cuter closer together like in the mockup.

Make it a mean car that breaks down on purpose? ;-)

In the scene she's supposed to be afraid and a little mischievous .  Kinda like a kid in the dentist chair. ...  When he leans over to clean the carburetor she closes the hood on him trapping him.  The Dad character never sees the eyes open. It's a surprise for the audience. Like in Toy Story only the audience knows she's alive.

Hmmm. Maybe you could change the expression by taking of a bit covering from the headlights, as to make the headlights more like wide open, scared eyes. The more you put on top of them (expessialy towards the middle), the more angry/ evil it will look. Also the mean look comes from the grill looking like a frown. Instead of making it half a circle that opens downwards you might try an oval. For getting a more childlike, innocent look I think I would try to put half a cylinder beneath the headlights (to hind puffy, kidlike cheeks), of course to be finished into the car, but I am sure you can do that (if you wish). Also when painting the "eyes" make sure the pupils are not too small (if they are relativly small it gives a hunterlike, focussed expression), maybe even adding a (baby) blue iris.

Still working on Dad's truck. Posted a few more pics in my gallery.  and also a short video clip of the eye /headlight controls on my facebook page if you want to check that out. Thanks Rikka for your advice/comments. I did a test version with larger pupils and that seems to help alot.  I do plan to put turn signals beneath the headlights. I'm using alot of newspaper and toilet tissue along with a papier mache recipe I found online to sculpt with. It seems to be working pretty well. Takes awhile to dry though.

This is fascinating.  Did you say you got a paper mache recipe on the web? Can you share that link?

Wow!!  This looks awesome!!!!!

Hey thanks Laura. I've still got alot of work to do on it. I found the recipe at
http://www.papiermache.co.uk/tutorials/some-advanced-papier-mache-recipes/
I'm using the one for FINISHING PAPER MACHE (PORCELAIN FINISH). 

Looks great! Yeah, tell me about drying time... Though we have a very dry season: now I have to worry about getting cracks!
b2t: can't wait to see it finished!