tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3350015163049077342024-03-13T12:27:26.178-07:00MiniModelPaint StudiosPainting and Modelling Tips & TechniquesMiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.comBlogger98125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-2875815093578283652018-03-03T08:23:00.000-08:002018-03-03T08:23:03.057-08:00Using Cricut cutting machines to create masks (sponsored)Hey ho - here's something a bit different. Just so you're aware upfront, this is an unpaid sponsored post with some affiliate links.<br />
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Towards the end of last year I was contacted by the UK reps from Cricut. They asked if I was interested in trying out an <a href="http://amzn.to/2olLYuL" target="_blank">Explore Air cutting machine</a> for some modelling work. You'd normally find Cricut machines in papercraft studios - for making cards and decorating gift wrapping etc. I don't want to sell that hobby short at all. There's a lot of amazing projects that come out of that hobby barn, but it's not a common thing to see one being used for scale models or wargaming.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cricut Explore Air, plus a bunch of tools I won't need.</td></tr>
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And that's what Cricut wanted me to figure out - how can I do something cool with this fancy tool that isn't standard or run-of-the-mill.<br />
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I'm in the middle of an X-Wing fighter build for a Facebook group build, and I thought I'd get the Cricut involved with creating some masks to help speed along the difficult bits.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pro Painted 1:72 figure. eBay quality.</td></tr>
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The first thing I'm going to use the Explore Air with is the canopy. Ban Dai provide stickers in the box as alternatives for the decals - not everyone building these snap kits is comfortable with working with decals - but some are also useful for masking.<br />
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This is perfect for testing the viability of the Cricut for the job. I already have vinyl masks in the form of the canopy stickers, so I can copy those and learn to use the cloud-based Cricut Design Space software.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ban Dai stickers, ready to be scanned</td></tr>
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I scanned the canopy frame sticker, tweaked it in Photoshop, imported it to Cricut Design Space, and double-checked the actual size for cutting.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photoshopped masks x2 for safety</td></tr>
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Once I had the cutting file ready, I went and found some self-adhesive vinyl sheet on <a href="http://amzn.to/2ESWX9d" target="_blank">Amazon</a> - it doesn't matter which colour you get (it's getting painted over) - and <a href="http://amzn.to/2Gux3pN" target="_blank">loaded it</a> into the Explore Air.<br />
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Take a look at the video - I've filmed the whole cutting process, as well as the preamble and painting.<br />
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So that's vinyl cutting using the Cricut Explore Air. I have other plans for masks, too, including some complex aztec patterns for the AMT Enterprise-D. I'm figuring out how to share the files, so that other Cricut users can benefit from this test as well.</div>
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Thanks for stopping by - there's more to come, as well as an interesting team-up that's on the horizon.</div>
<br />MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-68479298307041826222017-12-14T04:00:00.002-08:002017-12-29T13:15:59.953-08:00The slowest year in living memory<div dir="auto">
I'd like to think that I'm nearing completion on this Gremlin project. I haven't taken on any other commissions since starting it, and I've been really feeling the project fatigue.</div>
Not that I've been working on it 24/7 for any of it. The beginning was, as always, exciting, daunting and full steam ahead. New tools, new methods of accomplishing difficult tasks, and then a whole load of unforeseen events reared their ugly heads and hindered progress.<br />
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I’ve learned about mixing expanding foam; about large wire skeleton structures; about not taking on a giant project when you’ve just moved house.</div>
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I think maybe that’s been the biggest issue - there hasn’t been the space to work properly. My workbench has often been ‘wherever I lay my brush’, but when you’re dealing with a 28” tall gargoyle, yout can’t easily stash him on the shelf while you set the table for dinner.</div>
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The house move has had added timesinks - laying new floors (I’m pleased to have learned to fit carpet <strong>and</strong> lay wood-laminate floors), building a workshop/shed/studio (I learned some intermediate electrical skills, as well as ‘simple’ construction work), and we added a dog to the family, which might be a blessing or a curse - a year on, I’m not convinced either way. Incidentally, a massive project for next year is to sort the landscaping in the garden that the dog has helped reshape. The Gremlin, too had a few accidents: a couple of nasty falls, which broke strong joints, and ripped the internal foam holding it together.</div>
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I’m basically a Gremlin surgeon now.</div>
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There have been personal ups and downs too - family bereavement, redundancy, marriage wibbles, mental health issues - but with 2017 about to close, I think I’m back on track. And I don’t want to out too much importance on the Gremlin, but if I can deliver it to the client before Christmas, then I can start 2018 afresh - no baggage (well, less baggage)</div>
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Things I’m looking forward to? I’m in the final stages of setting up a Patreon page, and planning new content for my sleepy YouTube channel. The shed/studio is up and running, so I’m keen to share project builds with the world. I may stick to smaller, more easily attainable subjects, though - perhaps the 1:1 Brontosaurus will stay in its box for a little while<br />longer.</div>
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MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-2817864928435094012017-07-13T01:15:00.004-07:002017-07-13T03:52:09.519-07:00Alien Escape at Madame Tussaud's<p dir="auto">In my former existence as Video Editor at Stuff.tv, I would be invited to attend/film a great many events - a fair number of these weren't relevant to the magazine or website, so it would either be a jolly, or we usually wouldn't even go.</p><div class="embed-wrapper" data-url="youtu.be/nQuv_Bv9ywA" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nQuv_Bv9ywA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><p dir="ltr">When I received the email about <em>Alien Escape</em>, however, I jumped at the chance. Who cares if they're covering it at my (now) old job...? You might have noticed a bit of Alien coverage here at MiniModelPaint.com over the years. I'm a tad obsessed.</p><p dir="ltr"><em>Alien Escape</em> is a micro interactive installation, contained within the classic Madame Tussaud's attraction, and puts you in the universe of xenomorphs onboard the USSC Covenant.</p><div class="embed-wrapper" data-url="youtu.be/SX2_slto7No" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SX2_slto7No" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><p dir="ltr">After a photo op with Walter - one of the more lifelike waxworks I've seen at Tussaud's (android irony withstanding) - you're led through a series of spaceship corridors, encountering eggs, facehuggers, dead crewmembers and just enough shock-scares to get you through to safety.</p><p><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jpkTQV5le0c/WWdPOJUP6EI/AAAAAAAAxT4/peVjKooK6qguvYs1wknlVe8NuAl8MDKVgCHMYCw/s9999/IMG_3821.jpg" width="3023" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr"><br>If there's a criticism, it's that it's too short and too fast - I found that there wasn't anywhere near enough time to look at the exquisite modelling work that has gone into the installation. Just look at this:</p><div class="embed-wrapper" data-url="youtu.be/0z6GE3r47Pw" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe width="480" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0z6GE3r47Pw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><p dir="ltr"><br>In my mind, that's living the dream - getting paid to build full-size monster models full-time. Nice that some of us can do it part time - even if it's mostly to a smaller scale...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-vTh_0siSxQY/WWdPNx_xD3I/AAAAAAAAxT0/JSlIS6YT3jYQL_m9jRGK0tyyqsagLNfxwCHMYCw/s9999/IMG_3824.jpg" width="2166" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr"><br><em>Alien Escape </em>is open from July 15 at Madame Tussaud's, and is included in the price of entry to the whole attraction.</p><p><br></p><p><br>Disclaimer: I didn't get paid to write this, but I did drink a lot of their booze...</p>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-62981508570956171842017-07-09T14:34:00.001-07:002017-07-10T03:58:29.831-07:00End of an era; gateway to the future<p>So it finally happened.</p><p><br>After nearly ten years in the most slowly-progressing McJob ever, the company decided that there actually <em>wasn't</em> anywhere for me to go, career-wise, so they made my post redundant.</p><p>No doubt it'll be refilled in a few months' time by a cheaper junior with a completely different title, and slightly tweaked job spec, but put a fork in me, I'm done!</p><p dir="ltr">But it's not doom and gloom in any way. It means I'm now able to offer my video services on a freelance basis; I can spend more time with my kids, and I can spend some proper time with this here hobby.<br><br>I've been progressing slowly on the Gremlin - it's been 2 steps forwars, 1 back a lot of the time. This weekend I repaired the wrist and arm breaks that happened (thanks go to the dog), but in doing so, I broke the join on one of the ears. <br><br>I'm going to have to build a simple jig to hold the Gremlin in various positions - without resting his weight on anything but his feet.<br><br>Next on the to-do list is reshaping and fitting the mohawk spines to the head and down his back. They're an awful fit, so I have some filling and blending work to sort there, too.<br><br>Then it's just a case of finishing the paint. Match up the torso and the head for contrast and tonality, fix the chips that happened wheb he fell, and get the details dotted in.<br><br>But can I do this before the kids finish school for the summer? Here's hoping. My poor client must be fuming by now... sorry chap.<br><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-oe1JGWhnqoQ/WWNd1CQYKQI/AAAAAAAAxTc/vXT9yS5TXpIAx8puWUvfYEhc9ouIS8onACHMYCw/s9999/IMG_3687.jpg" width="3024" style="max-width: 100%;"></div>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-26892594065315540892017-05-22T13:41:00.000-07:002017-05-23T02:14:35.418-07:00If you build it, they will come.Greetings, people of blog land.<br />
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I sit typing this, rocking on my garden chair, my dog asleep on a patch of soil in front of me, and my lovely wife clattering in the kitchen behind me. Maybe I should be helping her.<br />
As I swing, however, I'm distracted by the large blue structure in front of me - and also the wasteland that used to be a nice, well-manicured lawn - but mostly the blue structure. Some would call it a shed; others a money-sink. To me, though, it is the promise of something good: a blue wooden box with infinite interior space for ideas and creativity.<br />
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The build went a little something like this:<br />
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Dig hole, lay sand, gravel, scrape and level, drop flagstone on foot.<br />
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REPEAT until nearly dead.<br />
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Place flooring down and test for see-saw action</div>
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Add the walls and roof, and test stability with child and dog. Helmet, because it's a building site.</div>
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Wait for a week, remove the lot. Realise that the floor has settled and not as level as before.</div>
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REPEAT first step. Swear at the floor a lot (it doesn't actually do anything to help the build, but it's cathartic, therefore, important).</div>
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Read instructions, and, using a dad-type with power tools and a working hammer, build the outside.</div>
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<br />MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-2824509751467605272017-04-28T22:40:00.001-07:002017-04-29T00:06:51.423-07:00Learning to say 'no'<p dir="auto">One of the most important things to learn as a commission painter (or freelancer in general) is how to, and when to, say 'no'.</p><p dir="auto">Not 'no problem - I can finish that custom Battlesuit diorama by the end of the week', but '<strong>no. I can't take that on right now</strong>'</p><p dir="auto">Sometimes you need to employ the same methodology with yourself. This week I had the usual newsletter from Wonderland Models, telling me about their massive discounts on stashable plastic. I usually scroll through and hit delete.</p><p dir="auto">In this missive, however, something caught my eye: <a href="https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/products/dragon-135-us-mim-104f-patriot-sam-system/?gclid=Cj0KEQjw0IvIBRDF0Yzq4qGE4IwBEiQATMQlMVVMX7AZdfkNHeZiPJcAiCkZWBomlpuinCWSCMo2R3UaAp_j8P8HAQ" target="_blank" title="Buy the kit. BUY THE KIT!">Dragon's 1:35 Patriot SAM Launching Station (PAC-3)</a> - down from £84.99 to £29.99</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cB47xEJwV3w/WQQnMM018rI/AAAAAAAAwGc/c4uqQVsp0nsuoUgPsqGjuJBi3CmZmsEzQCHM/FA23CA81-ED96-44D3-AB3E-B923DF29F027-5991-00000973D7D13808.jpg" width="1000" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="auto">I did some extra digging to figure out just why this would be a near-£100 kit. I'm not an armour expert, and the only previous experience I have of this price range is Games Workshop's medium-sized robot-suits, like the £90 Tau Stormsurge.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lI9vW9Q3Ou8/WQQnMIfNdjI/AAAAAAAAwGU/n-Ud93OIFewgC76oHSnAwos99jjfGkQrACHM/10252121-313E-464B-B1C9-6D5B798E3485-5991-0000096F43CAABF6.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="600" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="auto"><br>Look at this! Detail, size, poseability! £90!</p><p dir="auto">Now look at this:<br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LkNdGS55Hxo/WQQnMNUyM8I/AAAAAAAAwGg/jI20RAN3LYUQb33ORcnDthO1it0FcXNmwCHM/A537CE21-5532-4AF9-A00C-BAA5611999BA-5991-00000973124F2DF4.jpg" width="800" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RejReSRJt1g/WQQnMADoBSI/AAAAAAAAwGY/lXcljFInTosHsSX1BbQs1SeK84RG88fSQCHM/6BDAEDDD-216F-490B-8CAE-BF609ACE34BA-5991-00000973CBBEF3CD.jpg" width="256" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p><br></p><p dir="auto">Detail. Size. Poseability. £90. No - now it's £30.</p><p dir="auto">I</p><p dir="auto">MUST</p><p dir="auto">HAVE</p><p dir="auto">THIS</p><p dir="auto">KIT</p><p dir="auto"><br>(To be fair, I'm not trying to belittle GW's product - it's made for playing a game, and is way more durable than Dragon's display model. But it <strong>is </strong>pricey)</p><p dir="auto">My internet trawling tripped me up a few times, as Dragon has a larger kit with the tractor vehicle as well as the missile launching trailer. Trumpeter has a similar giant kit for about £80, but has photoetch parts as well as plastic sprues.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nTIW32LuvAM/WQQ7h8nzR8I/AAAAAAAAwGw/QFTQBz8M4bY8dN2lN0NWFB-sOaMiP0R8QCHM/9072F4A1-FBAE-4A3C-BA7F-8A9EE683CA82-5991-0000096DE5BAD5A0.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="1024" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="auto">Fancy.</p><p dir="auto">This kit, though is <em>just</em> the trailer. Still a lot of kit for £30. Very tempting.</p><p dir="auto">But I must resist. It's taken me a good day away from a computer or phone to get some perspective. Shortage of funds, limited storage, other projects - all of this is saying I have to spend my money elsewhere.<br><br>Like finishing my new workshop/shed - that £30 will go a long way to buy gravel and sand, so the ground and the shed are level!<br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nlKDvmdKeAY/WQQ7iQIl9TI/AAAAAAAAwG0/3gimdxEZDEE9YH0n9ifruKbnAzSryqe5QCHM/IMG_2885.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="4032" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="auto">And this is where I realise that I need to say 'no' to myself, too. I can't take on this project at the moment, and even if it looks like a great deal, the model isnt something I'm desperate to have in my stash.</p><p dir="auto">When Wonderland has another sale on a big kit, I'll consider it - but only if my shed is done...</p>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-13078861550307944092017-02-14T05:39:00.010-08:002017-02-20T15:10:33.217-08:00Gremlins 2: A New Batch of Glue<p dir="auto">This here monster takes a lot of sticking.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-khBaS01Hx6g/WKt26DqHkJI/AAAAAAAAvN0/mvFAr5bbZjs/IMG_2193.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="4032" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p><br></p><p dir="auto">I'm using 2-part epoxy for long-term stick, CA for quick adhesion, and Milliput to fill and strengthen the gaps.</p><p dir="auto">I've already talked about filling the inside with expanding foam, and the importance of making sure the holes are properly sealed.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Pe9Ku9vZWAI/WKt25K7IMfI/AAAAAAAAvNw/dHxYfaeV4jA/IMG_2115.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3024" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="auto">Thankfully I caught this before mixing up the foam. Nothing like wasting expensive chemicals and having them pour all over the kitchen counter! The cleanup on the model detail would also be a pain. Foam is fluffy and sticky, and not great for cutting. It <em>is</em> good for keeping things structurally sound, though.</p><p dir="auto">This vinyl kit, as mentioned before, has a few issues. It's a repop (yuk) and certain aspects haven't translated well in the copying process. The mouth, for instance, has some weirdness between the lips, which needs heating and cutting, and maybe resculpting.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-UZQQMZpDogk/WKt24xrx_TI/AAAAAAAAvNs/ixStfxgSokI/IMG_1451.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3024" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="auto">Likewise, the elbow joints are unwieldy. Either one side fits well, or the other. I'm not exactly new to reshaping vinyl under heat, but this kit has not been quality controlled like the original Kaiyodo would have been. Shame, but then that's what separates us from the snap kitters.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DdgIVodFsRY/WKt243qY1PI/AAAAAAAAvNk/I3MtwYApI2s/IMG_2194.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="4032" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="auto">Here you can see what used to be a massive gap, filled with Milliput. In addition to the standard filler work, however, I've added some scales to match the surrounding details, and textured the 'smoother' areas by pressing the other arm into the Milliput to match the surface detail. I'm not a sculpter by any definition of the word, but blending in these failures in the repop kit will help sell the idea of realism to the eventual audience.</p><p dir="auto">And that's what we do, right? Try and sell the idea of realism in a medium that's not realistic?<br>How many times have we looked at spaceship kits, or 40k minis, and said 'how can I make this more <em>realistic</em>'?</p><p dir="auto">So the kit isn't exactly as planned, but it'll be structurally solid, and it won't fall over when it's done. It looks good, and even on close inspection it looks consistent within the world it's set in.</p><p dir="auto">And that's the compromise. Do we make it work, regardless, or try and stick to the original <em>intention</em> of the kit designer?</p><p dir="auto">Hopefully both, but if there's wiggle room, I think it has to be in favour of the builder, and artistic interpretation.</p><p dir="auto">The other arm didn't have as many issues. Who knows why? I didn't have to sculpt scales - only some textured filling.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cZSxoqbpFiE/WKt25MW9fMI/AAAAAAAAvNo/-KJlzMVJ3U0/IMG_2271.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3024" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr">But that, I guess, is the nature of vinyl.</p><p dir="ltr">Sometimes it works perfectly, and sometimes you cut the wrong bit and it doesn't fit at all. Sometimes, of course, it's not your fault at all.</p><p dir="ltr">And that's the story I'm sticking to.</p>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-31372378211194054402017-02-01T16:42:00.012-08:002017-02-14T05:33:57.053-08:00Another commission. And a house move.<p>Things have been a tad quiet on the blog front lately. It looks like I last posted in September 2016.</p><p>It's February 2017 now, and the world has changed a fair bit: America has reverted to an older, scarier, time, PETA thinks that Warhammer figures should stop wearing fur, and Britain's MPs have just voted to get its citizens on the coastline, armed with paddles, ready to row away from the 'evil European Empire', right into a dystopian future that sci-fi authors have been predicting for the last 100 years.</p><p dir="ltr"><br>Also, I moved house,</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-AgofsVosQAI/WKMF4IDT2jI/AAAAAAAAvK4/aafB-dgx_MI/IMG_1129.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="4032" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p><br></p><p dir="ltr">acquired a dog,</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-she-9oNFitQ/WKMF5k1bfVI/AAAAAAAAvLA/2z-IK7YPWVE/IMG_2235.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3023" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr">and took on another commission.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Fk0MZ_2buvo/WKMF20CPmGI/AAAAAAAAvKw/3qikrQD91LA/IMG_1955.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3023" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p><br></p><p>The house is bigger than our flat was, but it lacks a garage for storage and workspace. The puppy is unnecessarily huge, is teething, and always hungry. The commission is scarily mahoosive, creatively exciting, but ethically a smidgen grey. Hang on. We'll get there.</p><p dir="ltr"><br>Over the last couple of months, I've turned my hand to a number of new skills: I've learned to lay carpet and laminate flooring, as well as some plumbing basics, I really wish I didn't need to know.</p><p>I now have the skeleton of a shed that will act as my new hobby zone - a 6x10ft with asymmetric pitched-roof, which I plan to insulate and electrify, so I can film and livestream - and also build and paint in the old-fashioned 'get on with it' way.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZP_SfB5dMeM/WKMF4wyCvvI/AAAAAAAAvK8/QN4S1wYmoww/IMG_2188.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="4032" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p><br></p><p>I wasn't planning on the weather turning so foul, though - the garden is consistently wet and muddy, so getting the groundwork even started is next to impossible at the minute. Hobby work will have to continue in the kitchen...</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BUCSCtqaNpo/WKMF3WheYDI/AAAAAAAAvK0/Vfujgq3lLho/IMG_2178.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3024" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr"><br>I also wasn't planning on the dog. My stepson reminded me that my wife and I had promised that if we lived in a house, rather than a flat, that we could have a dog. Good logic, I guess. So, a couple of days before Christmas he turned up with a shivering, stinky dark mess he'd just bought from a random guy on Gumtree. No paperwork, so we had him checked out at the vet on Christmas eve, and then chipped and vaccinated. Teddy, as we named him, is a gorgeous mutt of questionable origin, with a taste for socks, slippers and my arms. A DNA test will sort out his breed(s), but it can wait a while. He's also older than we were told, and if he's not snoring, he's tearing around the place or chewing on our new sofa. There's an op that he needs soon that would make most men wince, so right now, quiet afternoons of fine-detail assembly in the dining room are highly unlikely. Bring on the good weather! Bring on the shed!</p><p dir="ltr">Just to rub it in, my mum just had this built for her paper crafting hobby<br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jiB1olEBdco/WKMF17mEUiI/AAAAAAAAvKo/2qSUQTDWVio/IMG_1214.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="1590" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr">Yeah. Not envious.</p><p>So then, the commission - and the real reason you're reading this post. It's a Gremlin. A lifesize Mohawk from Gremlins 2. And it's from a repeat customer! The chap who now owns the Aliens Chestburster that I made last summer emailed me and asked me to take on this project.</p><p>The original vinyl kit was made by Kaiyodo a long time ago, and was beautifully detailed. I realised, late on in discussions with my client, that he bought the kit from a site that deals in rare and OOP kits. I emailed the owner of the store, who unashamedly confirmed that most of his stock is recast resin and vinyl.</p><p>Damn.</p><p>If you follow this blog at all, you'll know how I feel about recasts - they're bad for the hobby.</p><p>Full stop.<br>Bad.</p><p>Forget about the copyright infringement issues for a minute, and that the right money doesn't go to the artists who created these models - repops tend to be of inferior quality to keep the prices down, and because of this, details can be soft, parts might not fit well etc, etc. I'm sure I'm repeating myself, but they're a blight to our little niche industry.</p><p>My client didn't realise he'd bought a recast kit, and as we'd already agreed a rough timescale and price, I decided to build the beasty for him. I did let him know that the kit wasn't an original Kaiyodo, and he was properly disappointed. I doubt he'll buy anything from that particular web store again.</p><p dir="ltr">If you can put up with my own hypocrisy for this project, it's a rather exciting build.<br>There are definitely issues with it. We can overcome these with the old techniques of building things well. Scratch building, reinforcing, and a PhD in glue management and expanding foam will be needed here.</p><p dir="ltr">So let's begin.</p><p dir="ltr">It's vinyl. It's 2ft+ tall, and it has massive ears. Top-heavy? You bet. Better learn about foam filling.<br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fH9JL8mI-JQ/WKMF28XvsWI/AAAAAAAAvKs/jQlPI2MFMIQ/IMG_1613.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3024" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr">This is a 2-part, expanding foam which grows up to 8x the component volume. At the right temperature.<br>it should look like this when cured.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R9GHQgy7Wn4/WKMF1E20r8I/AAAAAAAAvKc/BNsCA10gqws/IMG_1612.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="2795" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr">So I filled all the parts with water, and measured them so I could work out how much foam I'll need.</p><p dir="ltr">The legs come in two sections - and annoyingly join at the bridge of the foot. This is where all the model's weight will be resting, so along with the foam, I'll be attaching some reinforcing metal bar.<br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tOu6swGZ3BU/WKMF0ndsNmI/AAAAAAAAvKY/j2nufsmWx8g/IMG_2098.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3023" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr">At this point, the foot has been glued with epoxy, and has a bent metal bar inside. Gotta fill the seam before I fill the leg with foam.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Mb3ZOD9Lf4o/WKMF1TG34kI/AAAAAAAAvKk/dJ79EiFE2kI/IMG_2109.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3024" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BEjKVHgfcXk/WKMF1NrCsrI/AAAAAAAAvKg/dyUJ3_j4c4A/IMG_2116.jpg?imgmax=9999" width="3595" style="max-width: 100%;"></div><p dir="ltr">With both legs glued and filled, it's on to the next step...</p><p dir="ltr">...and that's for next time!</p><div style="top:5026px; width: 44px; height:89px;"></div><div style="top: 5026px; left:44px; height:89px; width:326px;"></div>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-22356203771577587662016-09-18T08:17:00.005-07:002016-09-18T08:17:50.390-07:00A commission is good for the soul. And the ego.I've built and painted lots of models over the years, and often for other people. These have usually been favours, repairs or charity paintups. Occasionally I've managed to sell a finished kit on eBay, and the first time that happened is pretty much when MiniModelPaint Studios was launched.<br />
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Actual paid commissions are few and far between - my hat's off to anyone who makes a living doing commission work - but recently an opportunity arose that mixed three of my ideals: to build and paint a sci-fi monster - for a complete stranger - and get paid for doing it!</div>
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The model in question was the 1:1 Halcyon Movie Classics <i>Aliens</i> Chestburster from the very early 90s. As with many of that Aliens range, the kit is PVC - or just 'vinyl'. It's a great medium, and I've covered it before - even on YouTube - but it <i>is</i> fraught with pitfalls. If it's not prepped well, it's completely unforgiving.</div>
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/02057EAE-A0AA-4B0A-A266-FAA257622EBC_zpspbdszkql.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/FF8D51EB-567F-4490-AD98-2970C26542B5_zpsup4sj6z9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/FF8D51EB-567F-4490-AD98-2970C26542B5_zpsup4sj6z9.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/02057EAE-A0AA-4B0A-A266-FAA257622EBC_zpspbdszkql.jpg" height="320" width="240" /> </div>
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Choosing the wrong primer, for instance, will stop subsequent layers of paint drying and curing properly, leaving you with a tacky finish (even if you varnish it).</div>
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But let's start earlier than that. The kit needs washing and scrubbing to remove mould release agents and whatever else has grown on it. Handling should be kept to a minimum.</div>
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/F4D19ABE-19CF-42AD-AE12-CFBA9C9227AA_zpsk9luqrbi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/F4D19ABE-19CF-42AD-AE12-CFBA9C9227AA_zpsk9luqrbi.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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Heating and cutting the excess material is easy. This kit is quite soft, and only needs softening under the hot tap to trim away the flash and pour hole spludges. Stuffing it full of scrunched up newspaper is a good way to stop it sagging when it gets warm in the central heating, but the paper won't provide ballast weight. You'll eventually need something heavier.<br />
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/0F5ACF19-F93C-4754-B2D2-7B211C03F405_zpsx6d5tv1k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/0F5ACF19-F93C-4754-B2D2-7B211C03F405_zpsx6d5tv1k.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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The Chestburster is also about 3 feet long, and has a tail that is a recast from the earlier Halcyon Movie Classics Alien Facehugger kit. Not a complaint - they are related, after all!<br />
Without reinforcement, though, this tail is a nightmare to shape. If you're building your burster with a completely straight tail, it'll be fine without rebar inside, but won't it look dull? I prefer to have a model on display that looks like it's mid-action. I want this little beast to look like it's on its way somewhere to feed and grow, so I need wires. Thick wires.<br />
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/F76EFC70-7886-438F-9D1B-5D0306394150_zpsbpiueiyo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/F76EFC70-7886-438F-9D1B-5D0306394150_zpsbpiueiyo.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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These wires strengthen the shape, and act as an armature for the tail. I can warm up the vinyl, shape the piece, cool it, and it'll <i>definitely</i> stay in place if the wires are fitted. Vinyl has amazing plastic memory. Even after you reprogramme it to a new form, it could still revert to the original position if it warms up under the heat of the sun coming in through a window.<br />
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Finding a practical and dynamic shape for the tail proved to be a lot of trial and error. I always planned for the model to stand on its own, without the need for external support. However, the tail had other ideas. It would not act as a counterbalance to the body. Even with the wire and paper, the tail wouldn't keep certain shapes, and was not solid enough to support the weight of the top-heavy body section.<br />
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I kept the body and the tail separate for a while, until I had a firmer plan in place for pose and ballast. It still needed painting, so I decided to crack on and sort out the technical problems later. Some seam filling and it was ready for priming.<br />
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From here, it was a case of many layers and tones of preshade (greys and burnt umber, mostly), and intermediate layers of VGA Elf Skintone. Shade again, main coat again. I found this to give a rich depth of colour, which is needed for an organic figure like this.<br />
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This summer has been unseasonably warm for the UK, so I had a few airbrush issues - paint drying on the needle too quickly (even with flow improver), and I suffered a few spits from time to time. Easily fixed, if a bit time consuming (soak and scrub the airbrush clean after every couple of coats)<br />
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/AD79BDC2-1591-4B95-B8BE-B8F1D0B9940B_zpskm8os9sg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/AD79BDC2-1591-4B95-B8BE-B8F1D0B9940B_zpskm8os9sg.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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I love a good preshade. You can go absolutely nuts with related tones and you'll get a really natural feeling result on the top coat.<br />
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Of course, before the teeth went in, I painted the inside of the mouth. It looks waaay too OSL-y here, but there's a reason for it.<br />
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And while everything on the body is drying, it's time to sort out the teeth. Primed in grey, sprayed in VGA purples, and finished (teeth only) with Citadel Mithril Silver. They'll have more done once they're in place, but there's no point trying to get silver around the back of spiky things once they're glued in.<br />
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A test fit, just to be sure.<br />
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/A017144C-C144-4A30-8769-3AD754534BCC_zpsmrxhnnyh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/A017144C-C144-4A30-8769-3AD754534BCC_zpsmrxhnnyh.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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But how do we solve the problem of ballast, without filling the whole tail with plaster or resin. There's no one 'right' way (loads of wrong ways, though), and what I ended up doing was using the spindle from a roll of Mod-Rock, and wrapping it in paper and Mod-Rock. This fitted across the joint from the body and the tail.<br />
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I also reshaped the tail into a loop-the-loop coil, which solved 2 problems: it made the model shorter and easier to position on a diorama, and secondly it gave the model 2 points of contact on the base. This was surely going to make it easier to stand up, right? The wire helped, and any splits in the putty joins were easily fixed.<br />
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It was about this time I started on the diorama base. I knew I wanted something grungy and industrial, with some Weyland-Yutani 'company' logos, and blood. Plenty of blood. This isn't a friendly alien beastie, after all.<br />
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Ikea to the rescue! A shelf from a CD unit was the right size to stand the Chestburster on. Some plasticard, wire and Starbucks coffee stirrers, and we had a start. Yes, at this point it looks like a shelf with a bunch of crap stuck to it. My wife even squinted at it and asked "is that it?"<br />
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No. We don't stop there. That's just the skeleton. I guess this is why you should never show anyone who doesn't do the same kind of work any early WIP stages! Here's a quick test fit.</div>
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/C30CA890-F35E-4BFA-9C83-A806100799D7_zpsqs55y2f4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/C30CA890-F35E-4BFA-9C83-A806100799D7_zpsqs55y2f4.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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I primed the base in grey and then got the Alclads out. Black basecoat, and the last of my Magnesium lacquer to cover. Washes, metal drybrushing, GW Typhus Corrosion (amazing paint) and Ryza Rust gave the base its first major look of filthy tone. Seal it with all the lacquers and varnishes. Leave to dry.</div>
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/ABE265E2-5357-4CA1-88F4-521ABFA60935_zpssco9cqtz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/ABE265E2-5357-4CA1-88F4-521ABFA60935_zpssco9cqtz.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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At this point, it's worth seeing the beastie in situ - we've seen that it fits, and checked that the curled tail is appropriate for the scene. This test fit will determine if the colour palettes are compatible in a practical way, what needs highlighting, and what areas need more detail.<br />
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/67884608-5D30-4BCE-9FCC-4032788008E0_zpsdak6juyg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/67884608-5D30-4BCE-9FCC-4032788008E0_zpsdak6juyg.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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It could still do with some more 'pop'. Let's drybrush highlights on the body and deepen the wash tones here and there...<br />
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Repeat where needed, and get a really wide contrast between the shadows and highlights. Spray, drybrush - whatever it take - and seal with Future. A matte or satin coat will dull down the shine.<br />
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<a href="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/454DE34C-CCA8-4300-ABF1-A7E430420155_zpsls4qseqm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/Chestburster/454DE34C-CCA8-4300-ABF1-A7E430420155_zpsls4qseqm.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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Bloody up the mouth. <i>Blood for the Blood God</i> is a great technical paint for this job. It's thick, sloppy and glossy. You could probably make your own with other paint medium, but realistic red gloop, you can't get any better.<br />
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Back to the base, then. I washed large portions of the thing with Army Painter Quickshade (Strong Tone), and allowed it to dry. It took a couple of days, but gave a really good oil spill. Just to make sure, I recoated matte and satin over areas I didn't want shiny. Then, I mixed up some Woodland Scenics Water Effects with various shades of red, brown and purple and dripped over the base in areas where the Chest Burster would have been. Gore and oil: great textures.<br />
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Last bit on the base - the logos. Using the same technique as on my Alien3 xeno, I glued some Weyland Yutani logos onto metal foil and cut them out. Sealed with matte varnish.<br />
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Yes. That was a coffee tin vacuum foil. Anything goes in the world of scratch building.<br />
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Once glued into place, I applied Typhus Corrosion and Ryza Rust, Nuln Oil, and the sealed with gloss and matte varnishes. I stuck a sheet of felt to the bottom of the base, and black-glossed the edges<br />
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And the final bit on the bug - blood spatter. A great technique, but you'll need your wits about you: dip a flat brush (an old toothbrush works, too) in Blood for the Blood God, and using a wooden stick, spray the model's surface with the paint. It goes mostly where you want it to, but also all over your clothes and face.<br />
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I'm imagining that after exiting the host body, the burster will have lost the initial smear of 'afterbirth' quite quickly, running around the air-ducts and tunnels of wherever it now lives. It still needs to feed, so there are probably rats and other small mammals it can eat, and they'd spray blood directly at it. Good thing I used to watch <i>Dexter</i>, eh?<br />
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I sprayed other blood over the whole body and tail, for consistency, and then checked it over to see what I missed.<br />
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Then photos.<br />
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And that's all folks! I got to build an awesome kit, got paid for it, and had a lot of fun doing it.<br />
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Comments and questions are always welcome - either on here or on <a href="https://twitter.com/minimodelpaint" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.<br />
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Until next time...<br />
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MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-27502058785352973532016-02-08T14:34:00.001-08:002016-02-08T14:34:49.059-08:00Falcon build: Not that one - it's garbage! Pt 1I suppose it's time I started writing about my latest painting project (let's pretend for a minute that I've completed <i>anything</i> in the last 12 months).<div><br></div><div>Anyone who follows me on Twitter will be aware that I've got a little obsessed with AMT/ERTL's Cutaway Millennium Falcon model.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MbCqPTblgqQ/VrkX_a4QBHI/AAAAAAAAocw/_B5ctMTvpXs/s640/blogger-image-1866462961.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MbCqPTblgqQ/VrkX_a4QBHI/AAAAAAAAocw/_B5ctMTvpXs/s640/blogger-image-1866462961.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>It's flimsy, not exactly screen-accurate, and the parts don't fit particularly well. It's also a retooling of the non-cutaway version of the same model model made by MPC from at least as long ago as 1988. (I could do with digging out the history of MPC and AMT/ERTL)</div><div><br></div><div>There are plenty of online reviews that will tell you that the Fine Molds kit is the one to go for. I haven't seen one up close, but the pictures certainty make it look like an amazing kit.</div><div><br></div><div>That said, and even with all its flaws, the AMT is still a really compelling kit to build. And it's one to go nuts with, too.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nYq3m8SjAtU/VrkYCBaAxNI/AAAAAAAAoc0/5smg8NyGdKE/s640/blogger-image--1138128490.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nYq3m8SjAtU/VrkYCBaAxNI/AAAAAAAAoc0/5smg8NyGdKE/s640/blogger-image--1138128490.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div>I won't go into major detail yet, as this is merely an intro to the project, but there will be lights. Lots of lights. I'm probably going to have to find my old Bernard Babani electronics project books to get this done. Fun times ahead!</div><div><br></div>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-60172821242121934332016-01-09T03:49:00.001-08:002016-01-09T14:33:22.618-08:00Spruecutters' Union: The Fine Art of ProcrastinationAt what point during a build do you usually stall?<div><br></div><div>It's a new year again. Those arbitrary resolutions have been uttered again, and may be upheld for a few weeks. How many of us resolve to complete our stash of part-finished models? It's a simple concept: don't start a new kit until the current one is completed.</div><div><br></div><div>Yeah. Simple.</div><div><br></div><div>I remember last May I started my Predator for the BritModeller group build. I didn't finish in time, and that's where the figure has languished. He's out of sight (out of mind) now, having been moved to the garage for safekeeping over Christmas. I have no idea when I'll pick up again.</div><div><br></div><div>The same thing happened with the Alien3 kit I've written about. 8 years between finishing the figure and making a decent scenic base was a bit too long.</div><div><br></div><div>The problem is the dreaded Hobby ADD", which isn't currently recognised by the WHO as a real affliction, but is something a lot of us have. We're quickly bored by the thing we have, and as soon as the new shiny comes along, our eyes broaden, and we move on.</div><div><br></div><div>The Millennium Falcon kit I started around Christmas will be the 3rd spaceship I've started in 20 years. Hopefully it won't be the third stalled one. I have a TNG Enterprise that I began in 1994, with flashing circuits and other lighting ideas I had. It's mostly painted, too - by hand, and with enamels. I doubt I'll ever finish that one, as its way past the point of repair, but I've kept it to kitbash other projects and learn from mistakes.</div><div><br></div><div>I gave up on it partly because it got too complicated to light, and partly because the Voyager kit came along. I recently undid the only work I managed on the Voyager - thankfully the thick paint I can-sprayed on the hull came off easily. I'll definitely finish that one. One day. With lights.</div><div><br></div><div>I have a Spitfire Mk1 that I started 7 years ago. I spent ages researching what made the Mk1 different to subsequent versions, and bought superdetailing aftermarket parts. Then, after not getting anything done with the model, I forgot what I'd researched, and it's been boxes ever since - resin, PE and vacuform canopies and all.</div><div><br></div><div>Time is definitely a factor in stalling a project. Committing to a long-term build is like a marriage. Time, effort, compromise. And if you have one of those marriages already, there will be some extra compromise to work with. </div><div><br></div><div>Another stalling factor for me is the diorama. I prefer to show my kits on more than a plain base. I definitely don't like to show them on the kit base - that would be too easy, right? But scenic bases need to be creative, and need to tell a story. The Predator will be on the kit base, but customised extensively. The Falcon, though, is huge. I'm still making decisions and researching colours and details to worry about the base.</div><div><br></div><div>For personal projects, I guess I overcommit; I make massive plans that I want to achieve, but deep down I know I can't handle. Then the Hobby ADD kicks in and I move on to the next overblown plan, and repeat the cycle. I'm better behaved with commissions, though. I'm rarely late with a project for a client.</div><div><br></div><div>As soon as the WHO recognises Hobby ADD as a true and debilitating affliction I'll get on and finish those 3 Batmobiles in the cupboard. And those Warhammer armies. And those military vehicles.</div><div><br></div><div>Oh dear.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-82977330212403826502015-09-30T01:07:00.001-07:002015-09-30T01:07:40.884-07:00Cheap Repops and the Ethical Dilemma<div>There's an industry that's been around for a long time. It's an industry that sticks a middle finger up at 'the man', and provides us with unofficial versions of things we want: that Ralph Lauren shirt that you can't really afford; that Hermes handbag that you wouldn't dream of spending 5 grand on; that Narin Predator sculpt that you've been dreaming of for a decade, but don't have £700 to throw at an a garage resin kit. <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">That industry is based on illegal reproductions - knockoffs, or repops, and they're slowly killing our hobby, driving costs of production higher and higher until it's not viable to manufacture a garage kit.</span></div><div><br></div><div>Repops are a great way to get hold of out-of-production kits, and affordable versions of short-run resin masterpieces. The quality of the products coming out of the Far East has improved over the years. I'm not sure if I'd be able to spot the difference between a vinyl knockoff of an old vinyl kit any more. I have in my stash a repopped Geometric Ripley from <i>Aliens, </i>a Predator of some description, and a Jango Fett from <i>Star Wars Episode 2</i>. In my defence, the repops I have were bought before I understood the subject and I haven't bought any more. It doesn't excuse me, and I should have binned the lot when I learned what they were. I haven't. That's on me, and that's what I want to talk about here.</div><div><br></div><div>It's copyright theft. Plain and simple. Somebody, somewhere owns the rights to a product, and may or may not license that to certain distributors or manufacturers. When we buy a knockoff, we're adding to that cycle of theft. When we then sell that finished work on eBay, we're then breaking the law - we're distributing and profiting from infringed material.</div><div><br></div><div>If the copyright holder goes out of business, the moulds languish, and the product becomes OOP. The copyright is still held by the owner, even if it's not in production. Only the copywriter owner and licensees have the right to make money (or not!) from the product. Look at the Halcyon/Aoshima/Dragon story for 'how to do licensing properly'.</div><div><br></div><div>At some point during the life of the product, an original will be bought and copied. Moulds will be made from the copy and sold <i>en masse</i> at a discount. eBay doesn't really police it like it should, and you can find a lot of knockoffs coming out of Thailand and China.</div><div><br></div><div>Usually the knockoffs have an obvious tell. The price difference is the first sign - I saw a Narin knockoff for £40 years ago, where the originals were £700+. That's a fair indicator that it's a fake. Other things to look out for are packaging and colour of material. My Geometric Ripley came bagged, not boxed, and is mounded in white vinyl. The original is mounded in a pinky-brown colour. It used to be that a 1st-gen copy was softer in detail than the original - you can do this at home with a press mould. Once you've made a negative impression (the mould), and then create a positive (the copy), you'll see it's not perfect. Make a neg of the copy, and the 2nd gen will be even worse in quality.</div><div><br></div>This is a debate that has raged for ages. I remember discussing it 10+ years ago on a modelling forum. "Is it okay to use your own repopped pieces to beef up a model?" There's no 'fair use' policy in the law that I know of, so officially the answer would be NO!<div><br></div><div>I used to collect AEF Designs' 1:35 <span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Aliens kits. They were perfectly scaled to go with the Halcyon APC, and were great little models. The Eggs packs had 4-6 eggs in the bag. The kits were long OOP. I needed an egg field, so I popped my own copies to fill up the diorama. Illegal? Yes. Unethical? Yes. Did I finish it and sell it? No. No real harm done, then.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">I just the other day finished the repopped Jango Fett resin figure. I've sent it to a Twitter follower, who at random hit a milestone subscriber number for my account. I'm justifying this as "it's a gift". "I'm not profiting from it." and all the other excuses you make when you've made an ethical/legal boo boo, but don't want to be judged for your actions. "It's a practice piece that I've rehomed"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">To be fair, I've learned a few things building that kit - the quality was poor, the resin was a pig to clean up, and I've learned kinda where I stand in my ethical grey zone.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">What are your opinions? What would you like to see changed in the law? Do you care about IP and copyright? I'd love to hear your views. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NFOzJlBcdNY/VguYRmn-v-I/AAAAAAAAmTo/1BhcYuFuYd8/s640/blogger-image--1103090549.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NFOzJlBcdNY/VguYRmn-v-I/AAAAAAAAmTo/1BhcYuFuYd8/s640/blogger-image--1103090549.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BChGrDWW7B8/VguYS8VvPjI/AAAAAAAAmTw/AhQHqPmUhoU/s640/blogger-image--500655300.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-BChGrDWW7B8/VguYS8VvPjI/AAAAAAAAmTw/AhQHqPmUhoU/s640/blogger-image--500655300.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Text and photography copyright 2015 MiniModelPaint Studios. All rights reserved.</div><br></div><br></span></div><div>*disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer. Anything stated above is my understanding of the law, and is subject to being totally wrong</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-26055433373439691332015-09-24T00:13:00.001-07:002015-09-24T00:13:08.270-07:00Spruecutters Union - a balanced view on scales.We're all talking about scale this month. Which is the best compromise between available detail and storage/display requirement? Which do I feel the most comfortable painting? Even the wargaming POV: how large a space do I need to field the right army?<div><br></div><div>For me it's 1/9 for figures, 1/48 for planes, 1/24-25 for cars and 25/28mm for wargaming.</div><div><br></div><div>But that's a bit simplistic.</div><div><br></div><div>For diorama building, sometimes you have to pull some tricks. To give a sense of altitude, a 1/48 Spitfire looks great above a base with 1/72-1/76 figures and buildings.</div><div><br></div><div>Forced perspective is the name of the game, and it's usually employed in set-building for movies (Gandalf and Bilbo were not having tea at the same end of the kitchen table in 'Fellowship'), but it's also useful for photographing your models - a half-sized background object will give the impression of double the distance between it and the foreground subject. Light it right, and use a shallow depth of field, and you'll have a great shot.</div><div><br></div><div>Wargaming dioramas have their own challenges, though, and even at 'heroic' 28mm scale, there isn't really a sense of difference in individual size. For instance, an 8ft Space Marine is the same tabletop size as a 6ft Imperial Guard, and although you can transport 10 loaded Marines in a Drop Pod, not a single one fits within the harnesses inside the vehicle.</div><div><br></div><div>This is compounded by True Scale figures - either through conversion or with 3rd-party components, you can make your marines more realistic - longer limbs and better weapons are a good start. However, these guys have NO chance to be modelled inside a troop transport, so would you even <i>want</i> to try?</div><div><br></div><div>To be fair, the compromise is logical - playing a battle on a 6x4ft mat, and using Line of Sight shooting rules, means not having scale scenery or vehicles: hills would be ridiculously large, tree coverage would make moving troops impossible, and buildings would rise through the roof of your house. For years we've pretended that we're sniping from the roof of a highrise ruined administrator's office block, except it's only 4 levels up, each at 1-2 inches apart, which equates to a 30-40ft high suburban home. Not quite as epic a concept as the game wants us to buy into.</div><div><br></div><div>Still, it's just another minor compromise to deal with (or ignore) - and thankfully, any water, sand and fire we have to depict will never have to <i>move</i> in scale. Gerry Anderson certainly had that problem with Thunderbirds and related shows. He compromised on scale, and we didn't mind at all.</div><div><br></div><div>Thanks for reading! </div><div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-23435203837981458262015-08-27T01:31:00.001-07:002015-09-01T13:02:09.154-07:00Painting realistic fire is hard. Painting magic fire is harder.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Holy Mother of all that is Glossy and Reflective! I think I bit off more than I can chew his time.</span></div><div><br></div><div>I volunteered to paint a mini for Dave (@docbungle)'s #waac Guild Ball charity event supporting Macmillan nurses. I'm occasionally charitable like that. He sent me a little metal chap who is, after a bit of online research, called 'Mercury'.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mf_S8MYg-Yw/VeXkckeTcWI/AAAAAAAAlv0/UvBfVXiMpbk/s640/blogger-image--1601267577.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mf_S8MYg-Yw/VeXkckeTcWI/AAAAAAAAlv0/UvBfVXiMpbk/s640/blogger-image--1601267577.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Part of the Alchemist's Guild, he is depicted in illustrations as a Lederhosen-clad, steampunk master of fireballs.</div><div><br></div><div>My instructions from Dave were simple: Paint Scheme is Macmillan Green. Don't do the base.</div><div><br></div><div>A bit more online digging gave me some indicators as to the Macmillan colours and style - no more than 2 of the 3 approved greens on a poster. Okay - a mini.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TNP_kib9Cts/VeXkeAyIynI/AAAAAAAAlv8/25cDnwqY3Ws/s640/blogger-image--730598548.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-TNP_kib9Cts/VeXkeAyIynI/AAAAAAAAlv8/25cDnwqY3Ws/s640/blogger-image--730598548.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Standard prep - pinning and mould line removal, and mounting on a temporary base to hold while painting. Assembly will wait until the main body is done.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OO82FLbel_M/VeXlo6x-AZI/AAAAAAAAlwE/F1xuo6WAkHQ/s640/blogger-image-1771411321.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-OO82FLbel_M/VeXlo6x-AZI/AAAAAAAAlwE/F1xuo6WAkHQ/s640/blogger-image-1771411321.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Primer and a tone wash to see what I've missed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RZVZ1hHBkYo/VeXlqRltFiI/AAAAAAAAlwM/fLuECb2AZZw/s640/blogger-image--758814605.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RZVZ1hHBkYo/VeXlqRltFiI/AAAAAAAAlwM/fLuECb2AZZw/s640/blogger-image--758814605.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And then the start of the greens. Traditional, but with a twist.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ds_RbTn25ak/VeYDqKj4cUI/AAAAAAAAlxc/3-wiiUSUyto/s640/blogger-image--799537708.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ds_RbTn25ak/VeYDqKj4cUI/AAAAAAAAlxc/3-wiiUSUyto/s640/blogger-image--799537708.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">I've decided to go with blue fire. Blue fire is magical, or alchemical. Regular fire isn't exciting enough. Also, the blue will streak nicely, making the greens pop.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0rkHSS7IrlM/VeYD70XNRXI/AAAAAAAAlyM/_hfThc-p-wI/s640/blogger-image--1399989786.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0rkHSS7IrlM/VeYD70XNRXI/AAAAAAAAlyM/_hfThc-p-wI/s640/blogger-image--1399989786.jpg"></a></div><br></div>Here's the twist on the traditional. These greens will look like Macmillan colours once blended. Also, the face is now more or less done. Trying to figure out the tones in the hair.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ir7NH14gEnY/VeYD2HcIRCI/AAAAAAAAlx8/n2NnTxBcZS8/s640/blogger-image-1178375079.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ir7NH14gEnY/VeYD2HcIRCI/AAAAAAAAlx8/n2NnTxBcZS8/s640/blogger-image-1178375079.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Shading is coming along. Steampunk goggles and some light emanating from the fire.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gajKoOPDAx4/VeYD-wN_sHI/AAAAAAAAlyU/7DxTAHalM-Y/s640/blogger-image--848433733.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-gajKoOPDAx4/VeYD-wN_sHI/AAAAAAAAlyU/7DxTAHalM-Y/s640/blogger-image--848433733.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Of course, OSL glows across materials and skin. The blue streak down the shirt is in anticipation of the flame swoosh.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_j5E4ZMC7cc/VeYEIbIl9HI/AAAAAAAAlys/9E-e4NmnW_w/s640/blogger-image-1316782276.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_j5E4ZMC7cc/VeYEIbIl9HI/AAAAAAAAlys/9E-e4NmnW_w/s640/blogger-image-1316782276.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The flasks and phials are different colours. I assume Mercury has more than one fire in his skillset.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kNAYCIfRdus/VeYELbjZO5I/AAAAAAAAly0/a_KumFMM2oA/s640/blogger-image-1262262865.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kNAYCIfRdus/VeYELbjZO5I/AAAAAAAAly0/a_KumFMM2oA/s640/blogger-image-1262262865.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Here's the hard bit. Blue fire doesn't usually swoosh. How can I make it feel deep and powerful with a contrasting brightness and sharpness, without it looking like paint?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IYkQeVwz10g/VeYDvim6OdI/AAAAAAAAlxs/dJVaZDONIGI/s640/blogger-image-192194638.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-IYkQeVwz10g/VeYDvim6OdI/AAAAAAAAlxs/dJVaZDONIGI/s640/blogger-image-192194638.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">After several passes, I've settled on this. Not 100% happy with the flame swoosh, but I've run out of time! Very happy with the rest. Dave needs his figure finished, so time for proper photos and then in the post.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hWdyF7c4xKg/VeYEOrvWYVI/AAAAAAAAly8/Zax6VXMgawk/s640/blogger-image-1166698535.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hWdyF7c4xKg/VeYEOrvWYVI/AAAAAAAAly8/Zax6VXMgawk/s640/blogger-image-1166698535.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Here's the studio montage of snaps and some solos.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hZTO6kidH7A/VeYD5RbeRcI/AAAAAAAAlyE/iLxda--TrI4/s640/blogger-image--945407721.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hZTO6kidH7A/VeYD5RbeRcI/AAAAAAAAlyE/iLxda--TrI4/s640/blogger-image--945407721.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><font color="#000000" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NrKT0n4TOzg/VeYDsszdTBI/AAAAAAAAlxk/TxRPZ2ECCnw/s640/blogger-image-610699159.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-NrKT0n4TOzg/VeYDsszdTBI/AAAAAAAAlxk/TxRPZ2ECCnw/s640/blogger-image-610699159.jpg"></a></font></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nwhu9wqzFJY/VeYEB-3ZyoI/AAAAAAAAlyc/dqbphyOHCyk/s640/blogger-image-235513637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-nwhu9wqzFJY/VeYEB-3ZyoI/AAAAAAAAlyc/dqbphyOHCyk/s640/blogger-image-235513637.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lbJb0ljeQIQ/VeYDy2GuTUI/AAAAAAAAlx0/ZbzCSXCCagc/s640/blogger-image--476049877.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-lbJb0ljeQIQ/VeYDy2GuTUI/AAAAAAAAlx0/ZbzCSXCCagc/s640/blogger-image--476049877.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkLm9W84ZsE/VeYEFN3M1yI/AAAAAAAAlyk/zoMjuQNP72g/s640/blogger-image--1094625628.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-tkLm9W84ZsE/VeYEFN3M1yI/AAAAAAAAlyk/zoMjuQNP72g/s640/blogger-image--1094625628.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Dave is doing the bases for the squad. I'm looking forward to seeing them all together!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Please support #waac if you can. Here's the info:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://www.justgiving.com/waac2015/">https://www.justgiving.com/waac2015/</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">And grab a T-Shirt!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="http://www.wargamernation.com/waac-t-shirt/">http://www.wargamernation.com/waac-t-shirt/</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><br></div><br></div>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-69647668753862126152015-08-24T22:18:00.001-07:002015-08-24T22:18:48.196-07:00Spruecutters Union - Hidden Details<b>Do you bother with details of you know they're not going to be seen?</b><div><b><br></b></div><div>That's this month's question, and I think the 'across-the-board', unanimous answer is <b>Nooooooo!</b></div><div><b><br></b></div><div>And I think it's mostly true for me, too. When painting miniatures, especially rank and file models for 40k, there are plenty of hidden areas. Sometimes I might paint a detail before I decide on the accessory to attach - for instance, the Space Marine backpacks, which have grilles and other markings in the space between the figure's back and his pack.</div><div><br></div><div>Is there any point in painting the detail? Not really- it's a dark, obscured area, but it could be good practice for new techniques, or other markings you would place elsewhere. If no one can see it, it's yours for the taking.</div><div><br></div><div>Other times, for instance when I'm building a diorama, and haven't planned it (60% of the time, every time), I'll detail something only to stick foliage around it.</div><div><br></div><div>But usually <b>No</b>. Life's too short.</div>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-53619905035422508432015-08-06T00:35:00.001-07:002015-08-06T00:58:51.508-07:00Black Widow build pt1There's been a lot of rumbling online, since the 2nd Avengers movie was released, that Scarlett Johansson's Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, hasn't had the merchandising treatment that her male Avenger friends have had the fortune of enjoying.<div><br></div><div>Thankfully that wasn't always the case. Moebius Models released a slew of Iron Man 2 models back in 2010-12, one of which was Black Widow.</div><div><br></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B6noQDEOUUU/VcMOLjJtmCI/AAAAAAAAlEs/TPDBwyPCSL8/s640/blogger-image--1969026899.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B6noQDEOUUU/VcMOLjJtmCI/AAAAAAAAlEs/TPDBwyPCSL8/s640/blogger-image--1969026899.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">That's a great photo on the front. Designed to grab your attention, don't you think? I like that it's 'age 15 and up'. It's a simple plastic kit - 11 year olds could glue this together. Painting is another thing, but 15? That's a marketing ploy.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Anyway, check out the rear. Of the box.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hn6PjP0K2qs/VcMOKIjmLXI/AAAAAAAAlEk/ne4xoCTVEQg/s640/blogger-image-2056030171.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-hn6PjP0K2qs/VcMOKIjmLXI/AAAAAAAAlEk/ne4xoCTVEQg/s640/blogger-image-2056030171.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Spot the difference? The model in the box is looking forwards, rather than head down, looking up - as a superspy temptress might actually look at you.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Some conversion work to be done, then.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Let's begin.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">In the box you get a few flesh-coloured sprues. Everything is more or less halved, and has good locator pins for glueing.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0A70WxTmXWk/VcMTsFmOIFI/AAAAAAAAlFE/w7ZppBizgL8/s640/blogger-image-365849445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-0A70WxTmXWk/VcMTsFmOIFI/AAAAAAAAlFE/w7ZppBizgL8/s640/blogger-image-365849445.jpg"></a></div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The base is mahoosive, though. Start thinking about scenery now...</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The detail is good, and the face looks enough like ScarJo that painting won't turn her into Arnie. One thing I'm not impressed with is that she has two right feet.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p1867nIoalE/VcMTupbAPSI/AAAAAAAAlFU/qT5_VBinpHU/s640/blogger-image--2117145869.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-p1867nIoalE/VcMTupbAPSI/AAAAAAAAlFU/qT5_VBinpHU/s640/blogger-image--2117145869.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">No, I didn't fit them the wrong way around - n<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">othing I can do about this, so</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> I won't draw attention to it too much...</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">Dry fitting the arms and head, I can see what needs to be done to tweak the pose.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-95NbGR0gKjE/VcMTtM0U3dI/AAAAAAAAlFM/vCBEBL53v-Y/s640/blogger-image--2098098126.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-95NbGR0gKjE/VcMTtM0U3dI/AAAAAAAAlFM/vCBEBL53v-Y/s640/blogger-image--2098098126.jpg"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">The hand doesn't sit close enough to the belt, and then there's the head. Cut the head off at the neck, turn, tilt, fill and sand. Easy, right? At least that'll eliminate the centre-parting in the hair.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EHAJ-bvOP_A/VcMTqiSH6MI/AAAAAAAAlE8/uTia3UWjqJY/s640/blogger-image-1847536509.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-EHAJ-bvOP_A/VcMTqiSH6MI/AAAAAAAAlE8/uTia3UWjqJY/s640/blogger-image-1847536509.jpg"></a></div><br></div><br></div>Now to start adjusting how the head sits.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;">But that's for part 2...</div><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div><br></div><br></div><br></div>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-71273948511634179752015-08-05T21:58:00.002-07:002017-12-03T22:13:22.543-08:00Take a Hobby Sabbatical!<p>Talk to most scale modellers, and they'll likely confess to being terrified of painting figures. They love building and painting armour, aircraft, and sports cars. Many even love placing them on dioramas. Suggest to then that their scene will have more life with some figures, and you'll probably get some kind of excuse as to why it won't work.</p><p><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Kfp0qgx-wTM/VcLpi9gzjWI/AAAAAAAAlEU/45HhdezTRN8/s640/blogger-image--1618882476.jpg"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Kfp0qgx-wTM/VcLpi9gzjWI/AAAAAAAAlEU/45HhdezTRN8/s640/blogger-image--1618882476.jpg"></a></div><p><br></p><p>I've always had an arrogance about me - there's no reason I can't achieve something if I really want to. Doesn't matter what it is. If I'm not naturally talented at it, I can work hard and learn it. Plenty of room in that spare 85% of grey storage upstairs after all!</p><p><br></p><p>Turns out there are a few things I just <em>can't </em>do. I suck at car maintenance, and am unable to keep a cool head while shopping for clothes.</p><p><br></p><p>What I have managed, though - and it was quite by accident - was to learn more than just the basics of miniature painting.</p><p><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LjjrfS33wO4/VcLpgJiRUXI/AAAAAAAAlEE/0gPN-EFW9qU/s640/blogger-image--585943134.jpg"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-LjjrfS33wO4/VcLpgJiRUXI/AAAAAAAAlEE/0gPN-EFW9qU/s640/blogger-image--585943134.jpg"></a></div><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>I have a <a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0">1</a>:48 Spitfire in my stash. It's part finished, as it was my contribution to an abandoned office model-off (or group build depending on how competitive you are).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Pn5-qGypRMs/VcLped4dU0I/AAAAAAAAlD8/ZATK2i9HZOo/s640/blogger-image-2019499090.jpg"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Pn5-qGypRMs/VcLped4dU0I/AAAAAAAAlD8/ZATK2i9HZOo/s640/blogger-image-2019499090.jpg"></a></div><p><br></p><p>Definitely not out of the box, I upgraded bits to resin and PE, and bought a flight crew. And there it stayed. I tried a couple of figures, but they looked like a lot of attempts I've seen from casual figure painters. Truly, truly awful. Block colours, thick, blotchy faces with no features. No hope, then, but to make the excuses. "I don't do figures. I like 'accurizing' vehicles".</p><p>What a load of old bollocks.</p><p><br></p><p>My kid turned ten. He discovered 40k. I dug out my old miniatures collection, and we set out to revamp, expand, and learn new things. He liked the game, and I like to paint - so I taught him the basics of painting, and he taught me the basics of hitting on 3s. By the time he quit (he had enough of getting stick at school for being a nerd, and also being fed up of his 40k friends' lack of conversational range), my obsession with miniature detail had really grabbed hold.</p><p><br></p><p>I'm <em>not</em> naturally talented with a brush - past a certain level. I practice wet blending and NMM, because it's bloody hard! I've learned OSL and diorama composition, new basing techniques and airbrush methods. Lining, edge highlighting and the rest.</p><p><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--F2Tn4ip2Kg/VcLphmcZqSI/AAAAAAAAlEM/Y8BfdqoEs5k/s640/blogger-image-1314251672.jpg"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--F2Tn4ip2Kg/VcLphmcZqSI/AAAAAAAAlEM/Y8BfdqoEs5k/s640/blogger-image-1314251672.jpg"></a></div><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>I found that I hadn't built a scale model in about 3 years, but in the meantime my skillset had grown considerably.</p><p><br></p><p>OSL on a spaceship? Yes please! It saves on wiring potentially unnecessary lights, when the illusion of light works just as well.</p><p>Edge highlights on engine parts? Thank you very much! Makes the dark areas really pop.</p><p>Hand blending small transitions? Saves getting the airbrush out and starting all over again.</p><p><br></p><p>Conversely, scale modellers have a lot to teach warpainters. Ever heard of dot filtering or bare-metal foil? I'm yet to try dot filtering properly as a weathering technique, but oil stains will look great on the Imperial Guard Chimera I have started.</p><p><br></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FYUFTmqPNeY/VcLpcql-F9I/AAAAAAAAlD0/wgrtkMe5q9E/s640/blogger-image-1490192096.jpg"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-FYUFTmqPNeY/VcLpcql-F9I/AAAAAAAAlD0/wgrtkMe5q9E/s640/blogger-image-1490192096.jpg"></a></div><p><br></p><p><br></p><p>So here's my point - if you're a scale modeller who is scared of figure painting, pick up a pack of imperial guard and a white dwarf mag (both nice and cheap on eBay) and get stuck in. Take a break from your Hurricane or Sherman and practice your skintones - zombies, vampires and dwarves all have different requirements - and they're all transferable skills. Check the forums, and follow YouTube tutorials. Totally worth it. If you can detail 28mm, you're onto a winner when you're back working in 1:6 scale!</p><p><br></p><p>If you're a warpainter, take a break from Orks and Orcs and build a clean sports car, a beat-up 1950s jet, or an Elizabethan ship. Pick up FineScale Modeller magazine. You'll find your skills being pushed to new levels. Source new ways to make the model special, and you'll find inspiration to up the quality of your wargaming pieces.</p><p><br></p><p>You never know, you may fall in love with new things you can do...</p>MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-19834219905138808402015-07-24T06:33:00.000-07:002015-07-24T06:33:25.223-07:00Spruecutters reunite!Nice to see that Jon's carnival of <a href="http://spruecuttersunion.blogspot.be/" target="_blank">bloggers</a> is battling on regardless. It's a great team, with varied insights across myriad aspects of a hobby with such a massive scope.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-of8prn2_KXQ/VbI78-OEcTI/AAAAAAAAlCA/DNsUcLgIP78/s1600/sprue%2Bcutters%2Bunion.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-of8prn2_KXQ/VbI78-OEcTI/AAAAAAAAlCA/DNsUcLgIP78/s320/sprue%2Bcutters%2Bunion.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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This month, we're revisiting an old topic - <b>The Stash: Why <i>so</i> <i>many</i> kits?</b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A small corner of my garage</td></tr>
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To be honest, looking at my Twitter colleagues across the world, my stash is poor. I only have 20-40 'ordinary' kits at most (maybe a load more in the way of Warhammer minis, but they're obviously separate, conceptually), and about 5 on the go at once. My wife doesn't get why I have 'so many' that I haven't built, or even that I have some that I won't ever build (and yet she occasionally buys me a new kit for the pile!)<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More.</td></tr>
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If anyone reading this knows the work of Brad Hair (Twitter user <a href="http://twitter.com/bhp99" target="_blank">@bhp99</a>), you may know he has recently been posting regular weekend photos of a multi-trip move from a rented lockup to a new shed he's built in his yard. Literally thousands of boxes of plastic have been transported in the back of his pickup truck. Brad is a much more prolific builder and painter than me - he seems to have the commission thing sewn up - and I reckon he'll get through a bigger percentage of his giant stash that I ever will of mine.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you can spot 3 WIPs here, you</td></tr>
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There are a few kits I have in my pile that I have for sentimental reasons. The ERTL/AMT Batmobile from the 1989 Tim Burton movie is a clear winner - I picked my first one up with I was 12ish in Lancaster (The Rocking Horse toyshop), while on my way to a family trip to Plymouth to see my Nan. It cost a fiver (50% off at the time - win!). I remember dry-assembling it in my Nan's spare room, where I had a foldaway bed. I now have 2, and a couple of the send-away vaccu-formed cocoon shields. I'll definitely build one, but keep the other in the box. Just opening the box brings back memories of the smell of that room, and the excitement and anticipation of building it 'properly'.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">No.stal.gia.</td></tr>
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The Halcyon Movie Classics Kits, for anyone who's ever read this blog, have massive nostalgia for me. As a teen, I hankered after all of the Alien sets - I wasn't allowed to buy them, or they were too expensive - but I did get the Back To The Future Delorean when I was 15. I built that as the flying Mr Fusion version at the end of the first film. And now I have 3 or 4 more. And a few 'too many' Aliens kits. I will <i>always</i> be tempted by mid-90s Halcyon kits. Thanks, eBay...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Aoshima re-released the Halcyon moulds - so these do count...</td></tr>
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The Warhammer stash is, as I mentioned, an entirely different thing. It's a mild obsession, based on my habit of collecting things and needing to complete collections (see <a href="http://www.collectorsden.co.uk/profiles/?e76c65662833fef9b231ee4341bd6b02&ID=85&cld=all" target="_blank">here</a> for a cataloguing project for an 'investment' habit I managed to kick years ago). I don't play the game any more- I nearly got the wife into Lord of the Rings, but that was a non-starter. My stepson quit playing a few years ago, to pursue more interesting things like video games and girls. Fair enough, but who will I skirmish with now? More to the point, I'm stuck with armies and armies of part-started, and still-sealed models that are worth only a fraction of what I paid for them. Of course, they might pull in more money once they're all painted to decent standard, so I should keep them for <i>that</i> purpose.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Those Lock n Locks hold forgotten surprises</td></tr>
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Excuses, eh? We all use them. Maybe it's easier to find BS excuses for our obsessions than to delve into 'real' self-analysis.<br />
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Boiled down, I think these things all represent bits of <i>me:</i> my past; my future. Things that a 'Kodak moment' can't always express.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Predator WIP is not a permanent fixture in front of the wedding pic.<br />Honest.</td></tr>
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BTW, if anyone want to come over and help me tidy my garage, I won't mind.<br />
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<br />MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-18765620541712086502015-06-13T11:47:00.000-07:002015-06-13T11:47:04.273-07:00Oooh - first post in ages, and a commission!<div style="background-color: white; color: #282828; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; padding: 0px;">
I've been pretty busy of late - busy being an overtired dad, an overworked corporate puppet, and, from time-to-time, a modelly hobbyist. Too busy, to post here, although I have joined the Britmodeller.com forum for a specific group build, and force my hand to keep to a deadline.</div>
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I'm still working on the burnt-out Mk1 Esort, Halcyon Predator and resin (repop) Jango Fett - albeit slowly, and I recently painted a Space Wolf piece for Dave (@docbungle)'s #waac charity drive. I'll post separate builds for all of those soon.</div>
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So, because I'm too busy to be actively creative with my writing, I'll share here a post I wrote on <a href="http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234983344-scratchbuilding-a-star-wars-inspired-heavy-blaster-pistol-finished/" target="_blank">Britmodeller</a>. It's a verbatim copy and paste, but I don't think many people are following my threads over there. Quite proud of this build - more for the turnaround time than the quality, but it's definitely "fit for purpose".</div>
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I was asked last week to build a blaster prop for a friend. He's off to <a href="http://secretcinema.seetickets.com/tour/secret-cinema-presents-star-wars/list/1/100" target="_blank">Secret Cinema's</a> showing of Empire Strikes Back this weekend, and has been told he has to dress as a 'mercenary' - basically a Han Solo-type. He's got enough clothing to pull of the general look, but doesn't want to spend silly money on a prop on Etsy or eBay.</div>
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"Pete, can you finish it in 10 days?" he asked me.</div>
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Challenge accepted. A DL-44 Heavy Blaster Pistol. Not screen accurate, but more 'look and feel'.</div>
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First job - I told him to order a toy Mauser from eBay. £4.99 and quick delivery It arrived last weekend, so I only got it Monday.</div>
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Han Solo's gun came from a Mauser C96, and is quite distinctive. </div>
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This thing makes a clicky noise when you pull the trigger. Cheap, plasticky rubbish.</div>
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Let me give you a quick rundown of my schedule. 10 day turnaround was a pipedream. By the time this arrived, it was already 5 days after the initial conversation. He's going Sunday. I work from home on Fridays, which meant bringing in a finished prop on Thursday. Which means finishing it Wednesday.</div>
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3 day turnaround.</div>
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First job on Monday night. Assemble the gun.</div>
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On my way out of the office, I asked the IT department if they had a PC graveyard I could defile. I got a couple of heatsinks and a knackered <acronym class="bbc ipSeoAcronym" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-width: 0px 0px 1px;" title="Ground Power Unit">GPU</acronym>filled with capacitors and microchips. Win.</div>
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I also found a toy sniper scope - my stepson broke the scope off his toy rifle, and it had been sitting around for 6 months. He said I could have it</div>
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The batteries are flat, but I think there's a laser pointer (red light) in there.</div>
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Next - shave the unnecessary bits off the pistol</div>
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Glue the scope in place. JB Weld is strong, but takes a long time to set. Gaffa tape will help, and hide unwanted gaps. It's a prop, not a showpiece. 3 days, people - gimme some slack. I know, I know - gaffa tape.</div>
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Add some capacitors and other greeblies to hide the tape, and give some visual interest, and we're nearly there.</div>
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I even got some Warhammer on it.</div>
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The problem was the muzzle - although not a replica/facsimile of Solo's weapon, I wanted it to look as part of the same custom-built family. There are at least 5 different versions used in the films - some of the early production photos don't even have a scope! What they all have in common, though, is the flared muzzle-end - a drilled</div>
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I found the answer in the supermarket. A bottle of mouthwash had the perfect shape lid. Worth 65p, I think.</div>
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I drilled the muzzle holes and found a couple of other bottle lids to glue it to, cut the main barrel and attached. This was Tuesday night. I ran out of JB Weld as well, so Araldite was found in the garage recesses.</div>
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I gave it 24hrs to cure, and then set about painting. Mixed materials on the gun, so Alclad II lacquer primer and gloss black, and metals, and acrylic brown for the handle.</div>
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<span rel="lightbox"><img alt="43C054E0-D530-4053-8A0E-F45C25BFE863_zps" class="bbc_img" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/DL44/43C054E0-D530-4053-8A0E-F45C25BFE863_zpshv99bsix.jpg" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></span></div>
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<span rel="lightbox"><img alt="30D1EED7-4AD4-4BEA-8C24-8D327454B523_zps" class="bbc_img" src="http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww225/MiniModelPaint/DL44/30D1EED7-4AD4-4BEA-8C24-8D327454B523_zpsaknkjd27.jpg" style="border: 0px; cursor: pointer; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" /></span></div>
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A few touchups here and there where the silver oversprayed, and it's done. 1am tidy up, but 3 days from start to finish.</div>
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Not quite up to <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCMQtwIwAGoVChMIw7q97amNxgIVIY7bCh36fwC_&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D4sCReGjfZ_A&ei=Enp8VcPpKKGc7gb6_4H4Cw&usg=AFQjCNGulv1YC6AX5GlNhKazH6qc2l6QGQ&sig2=avjWvMQ4AAnCNvXh133EZw&bvm=bv.95515949,d.bGg" target="_blank">Adam Savage's DL44</a>, but it's was a f<span style="line-height: 22.3999996185303px;">un little build. Next one will be tidier, I reckon.</span></div>
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MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-31535668630920180002015-03-22T08:44:00.002-07:002015-03-22T08:44:22.231-07:00Sprue Cutters' Union 32: Has the Aftermarket Taken All the Hard Work Out of Modelling?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEvLWlLRjkQ/VQ63UvBoYGI/AAAAAAAAAo4/dGoy3J2c2I4/s1600/p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZEvLWlLRjkQ/VQ63UvBoYGI/AAAAAAAAAo4/dGoy3J2c2I4/s1600/p.jpg" height="99" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
There are a few strange arguments in our hobby, aren't there? Rivet-counters love to point out that your antennas are 0.5mm too short for the military force you've chosen to depict, that that *that* model of jerry can wasn't used until 20 years later. While I understand that accuracy is key - if you're making a museum piece or working on a period movie - but really for the rest of us the most important part of the hobby is expression, creativity and fun.<br />
<br />
I'm not an active forum member at the minute, and wasn't even aware that there's any question about the use of aftermarket parts. Jon's posed this to us:<br />
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<h2 style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; font-family: Cantarell; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; margin: 0px -15px; padding: 0.6em 15px 0.5em; position: relative;">
"Has the Aftermarket Taken All the Hard Work Out of Modeling?"</h2>
<br />
If you're only happy building an Airfix kit from the box without adding anything, are you only an assembler, and not a 'true' scale modeller?<br />
<br />
If you choose to add resin parts, or photoetched extras to your out-of-the-box plastic kit, are you just an assembler and not a 'true' scale modeller?<br />
<br />
How about this: if you use <i>any</i> prefabricated parts at all, you're JUST an assembler. The only truly 'true' scale modellers are those who scratchbuild from the ground up.<br />
<br />
Nonsense.<br />
<br />
We all work at various levels of ability - from the beginner who lacks experience and won't consider anything other than an out-of-the-box build to the ultimate <a href="http://modelshipworld.com/index.php/gallery/album/808-1180-scale-hms-victory/" target="_blank">scratchbuilders</a>, who frankly, blow my mind. I think most of us here live somewhere in the myriad in-between levels.<br />
<br />
My particular (hopefully ever-increasing) level of ability mixes out-of-the-box models, aftermarket bits, and scratchbuilding techniques to achieve the <b>wondrous works of art</b> you see on this blog. </self deprecating sarcasm>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zu7GQhA6feg/VQ7gG5exglI/AAAAAAAAApQ/ihazCC2spsU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-22%2Bat%2B15.27.12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Zu7GQhA6feg/VQ7gG5exglI/AAAAAAAAApQ/ihazCC2spsU/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-22%2Bat%2B15.27.12.png" height="320" width="294" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Disappointing result</td></tr>
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Many of my WIPs get stuck for ages because of aftermarket parts or diorama scratchbuilds - you may remember the <a href="http://www.minimodelpaint.com/2014/11/how-to-make-scary-alien-diorama.html" target="_blank">Alien</a> I finished last year that I originally started a decade before. I didn't have the inspiration or technique needed to realise the end product. What changed? Apart from a desire to finish something for a change, Games Workshop released their technical paint range. This made corrosion and patinas easy to achieve, without having to mix my own grit-washes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yfVMHYIWvmY/VF4FHO1lW-I/AAAAAAAAAlk/kzUvtkqq_sY/s1600/IMG_3623.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yfVMHYIWvmY/VF4FHO1lW-I/AAAAAAAAAlk/kzUvtkqq_sY/s1600/IMG_3623.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Love this mess!</td></tr>
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I have another project on the go - a Tamiya 1/48th Citroën Light 16 Traction Avant staff car - which I'm painting to look like my wedding car. I bought a load of resin and photoetch parts to upgrade it.<br />
<br />
And I wish I hadn't.<br />
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The parts are brilliantly detailed, don't get me wrong, but when I started cutting and grinding plastic away from the original model, I didn't realise quite how accurate I needed to be. Cutting, bending and annealing the PE is an entirely different kettle of fish. Just getting the grille to fit without having to putty-fill the gaps is a talent that I don't have, and a learned skill that will come with time. It's not a scratchbuild, but I am having to employ scratch techniques to fix 'mere assembly' issues that have arisen. I'm not even attempting to fit an open door on this model - cutting the moulded shell to fit a better-looking resin lump scares the hell out of me.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6y53TDKL3Ag/VQ7f3Ivbl1I/AAAAAAAAApI/1zZkO0WF9l8/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-22%2Bat%2B15.29.22.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6y53TDKL3Ag/VQ7f3Ivbl1I/AAAAAAAAApI/1zZkO0WF9l8/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2015-03-22%2Bat%2B15.29.22.png" height="195" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What a mess!</td></tr>
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My current "<i>I WILL finish soon</i>" project has no aftermarket parts. It's an out-of-the-box mk1 Ford Escort, which I've destroyed. On purpose, of course.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8rPz6Z-AlvE/VQ7gr_QWqTI/AAAAAAAAApY/pQKnI4hT7is/s1600/B_bApRnWwAEslt4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8rPz6Z-AlvE/VQ7gr_QWqTI/AAAAAAAAApY/pQKnI4hT7is/s1600/B_bApRnWwAEslt4.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Recent test fit</td></tr>
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<br />I've melted bits, rusted bits, snapped other bits, and fitted it to a DIY resin base, with a baked tree branch (100˚C for an hour to dry out), chilli flakes and mushrooms made from putty. The car insides haven't been started yet, but will include plenty of scratchbuilt detail - beer cans, newspaper, broken glass etc<div>
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Again, I'm not cutting the door out - I haven't moved up to that level yet. Not in my mind at least.<br /><div>
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I chose to go this route because the model itself needed so much work to build 'straight up', I may as well spend the time doing something silly with it (beware the Airfix beginner's kits if you want an easy build).<br /><br />
So back to the original question:<br />
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<h2 style="background-color: white; border-bottom-color: transparent; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; color: #222222; font-family: Cantarell; font-size: 20px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: italic; margin: 0px -15px; padding: 0.6em 15px 0.5em; position: relative;">
"Has the Aftermarket Taken All the Hard Work Out of Modeling?"</h2>
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No.</div>
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And using an airbrush isn't cheating, either. Stupid internet.</div>
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MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-43523545102401751432015-01-16T06:08:00.001-08:002015-01-16T06:08:30.408-08:00Opinion: Politics, Plastic Models and Inferior Chocolate - how we're happy being fed rubbish.<span style="font-family: inherit;">It's not often I go off and rant about things - well, not here on this blog, at least, but something happened in the last week that has sparked me off in a way that even my wife and stepkids can't understand.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit;">There's something rotten going on in our world. I have a strong feeling that it's going to hit the fan soon. One of those gut feelings you don't get often. I can't explain it particularly well, and I certainly don't have all the facts to back things up, but please stick with me as I attempt use a really, really, small issue to explain a worldwide problem:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Cadbury's Creme Egg</span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></b>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">This iconic, flagship product from the now-American-owned British chocolate firm is changing for 2015, and not in a good way. Last week, Mondelez (a part of the Kraft food giant) released a statement informing us that Creme Eggs will no longer be made with Dairy Milk chocolate. Instead, the shell will now be made of "a standard, traditional Cadbury milk chocolate".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18.9871444702148px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"It’s no longer Dairy Milk. It is similar, but not exactly Dairy Milk", said a Cadbury spokesman, before telling us that the new recipe has been tested on consumers and was "found to be the best one for Creme Egg".</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18.9871444702148px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18.9871444702148px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If Cadbury had led this change with "New Improved Recipe!", I'd be more inclined to buy into the rhetoric, but the company is unapologetic about this new direction. Read the statements more closely, and you might understand this: "we are having to cut back production costs, and will be changing the Creme Egg's shell to a thinner, cheaper and inferior product - you won't know the difference, and if you do, you'll buy it anyway". Add to this the old 6-pack is now a 5-pack, and yet only 20p cheaper.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18.9871444702148px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.9871444702148px;">Now, we consumers have got used to getting less and paying more, but why? It surely isn't our responsibility to pad the profit margins of the big companies that serve <i>us</i>.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.9871444702148px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.9871444702148px;">BUT WE WILL ANYWAY.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.9871444702148px;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 18.9871444702148px;"><b>Finecast</b></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We bought into Finecast for a couple of years while GW told us how great it was (New Improved Recipe!) and sold us extra tools to fix the inherent problems with it (Liquid Green Stuff). Those of us who didn't have much of a choice but use it (LoTR, Hobbit especially) pretended to like it, and even made excuses for GW's inferior resin. Clearly it was a stopgap for better-detailed injection plastics, but we, the consumer bore the costs of R&D. The new plastic is more expensive than the old metal minis, and I mean more than just inflation. GW's latest take on their business model is that they make miniatures - toy soldiers to collect. That they make rules to use them in a game is purely coincidental. And they tell us this with a straight face.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">UNACCEPTABLE.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Paris</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">You may have noticed some nasty goings-on in France over the last couple of weeks. People actually killing people because they didn't like something they said, drew and published. Objectionable as that is, that's not the point here - World Leaders joined the millions of people marching to show solidarity. Or did they?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/paris-march-tv-wide-shots-reveal-a-different-perspective-on-world-leaders-at-largest-demonstration-in-frances-history-9972895.html" target="_blank">The Independent</a> </i>showed us that the 'solidarity' was limited - the road was closed off, and the World Leaders weren't in the crowd of millions, but in a group selected for a close-up photo opportunity. Propaganda, then.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Israeli newspaper <i><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-politics/11342250/Charlie-Hebdo-Women-Photoshopped-from-Paris-rally-picture.html" target="_blank">The Announcer</a></i> photoshopped out the female world leaders from their front page, which is weird, but also controlling the information to their readers. Oh, that's propaganda, too.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/1/13/paris-unity-march.html" target="_blank">Aljazeera</a>, </i>on the other hand has pointed out the hypocrisy of many of these Leaders, who showed public support for murdered journalists and free speech, while simultaneously having varied policies of incarceration and treatment of the press in their own countries.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We are fed crap from the state - constantly being told things contrary to fact. Facts that are spun in new, improved ways to make us believe the lies. Worse still, we may question the lies, but don't do <i>anything</i> about it. We buy into the concept of apathy or defeatism: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"I won't bother boycotting the new Creme Egg, because others won't, my contribution won't make a difference, and I may end up losing out - I'll try the new improved recipe, and if I don't absolutely hate it, if it's only slightly less good than what I'm used to, I'll learn to deal with it."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
INTOLERABLE.<br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />The Creme Egg situation is, in microcosm, an metaphor for the current state of our society. We care, but maybe not enough to do something about it - it might be risky, and we might jeopardise our respective freedoms (which are lessening by each cabinet reshuffle, by the way).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">We in the West are Luke Skywalker:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">"<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 17.0300006866455px;">Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate it, but there's nothing I can do about it right now... It's all such a long way from here" </span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />What will it take for us to really get it? To understand what we're giving up every day? Do we wait for our homesteads to be burned to the ground, with our own Aunt Berus' and Uncle Owens' smoking corpses on the stairs? Maybe then we'll take action.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">But maybe then will be too late.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
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MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-10892396592555853872015-01-06T08:28:00.001-08:002015-01-06T08:28:01.000-08:00Sprue Cutters Union: Old Dog, New Tricks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Y1CSlCu_fM/VKnHDSnoAhI/AAAAAAAAAoM/2j5gXn8ao9Q/s1600/sprue%2Bcutter%2Bunion%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5Y1CSlCu_fM/VKnHDSnoAhI/AAAAAAAAAoM/2j5gXn8ao9Q/s1600/sprue%2Bcutter%2Bunion%2B2.jpg" height="98" width="320" /></a></div>
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It's back! The SCU topic this month is:<br />
<b style="color: #222222; font-family: Arimo; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; text-align: center;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #222222; font-family: Arimo; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; text-align: center;">What New Products/Techniques Will You Purchase/Attempt This Year?</b><br />
<b style="color: #222222; font-family: Arimo; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25.2000007629395px; text-align: center;"><br /></b>
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I like to think of myself as a pretty open-minded modeller. I'm not sure I've settled on any techniques that I don't tweak or improve on as I start the next project. Of course, I've started more projects than I've finished, so one 'technique' I'll try and employ this year is 'finishing'. Last year I finished 2 large old projects and 1 large new project. This year, I'll try and up that number.</div>
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<div>
<b>1. Rust</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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I have an Airfix Mk1 Ford Escort kit, which I've opened and primed. My wife bought it for me a couple of years ago for Christmas. It's a very basic kit, but it's given me a few options: build it straight from the box; upgrade it to a 'Mexico' special edition racer, or make it a rusted out barn find.</div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EmeCpQzkYSo/VKnJrFHkteI/AAAAAAAAAoY/ZA_NZVQaqaM/s1600/hornby-hobbies-ltd-airfix-a50091-ford-escort-172-scale-classic-car-gift-set-inc-pain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EmeCpQzkYSo/VKnJrFHkteI/AAAAAAAAAoY/ZA_NZVQaqaM/s1600/hornby-hobbies-ltd-airfix-a50091-ford-escort-172-scale-classic-car-gift-set-inc-pain.jpg" /></a></div>
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I haven't mastered authentic large-scale rust yet, so I think this is the project to help me graduate. Lots of dirtied-up multi-tone rust with trees, bushes and shrubs growing through the carcass. Easy concept, but quite hard to pull off effectively.</div>
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<b>2. Photoetched Brass</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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I've used PE products for years, but I can't say I've ever really become friends with them. They blunt my tools, dig holes in my fingers, refuse to stick properly and get lost in the carpet. I have a diorama on the go (yes, I know) that I started making for my wife for our wedding anniversary - of course she'll appreciate it, what do you mean? - it's our wedding car, a Citroën Light 16 Traction Avant, and I decided to upgrade it with PE and resin parts. Wow, what a faff. Tiny little bits of brass that have created more problems than they've solved. Well, no more. 2015 is the year I beat the oppressive OE regime. In 2015 I will rise up, and I will WIN!</div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>3. Airbrushing</b></div>
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I'm good with an airbrush - I know my way around - but I'm not a master of detail. This may be something to do with my below-par fine-art skills. Linked to #4, this is an ongoing education I shouldn't shy away from.</div>
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<b>4. Freehanding</b></div>
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I can sketch with a pencil, but my ability to control freehand paint is limited. I'll be spending time on YouTube and other video tutorial sites to improve. Of course, if anyone wants to come over to South London and give me some free tuition, I won't say no. I make terrible omelettes, but great coffee.</div>
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<b>5. Procrastinating</b></div>
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I've read several times that 2015 is the year of putting things off, so don't be surprised if any or all of the above gets shoved to 2016/19 or so.</div>
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Being part of the union means sharing the contributions from other members. Being a lazy member (and sneaking this post in while getting ready for a video shoot in Las Vegas), let me direct you to the wheel hub, so to speak:</div>
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<a href="http://thecombatworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/scu-response-old-dog-new-tricks.html" target="_blank">Old Dog, New Tricks at the Combat Workshop</a></div>
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Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog! Please fee free to leave comments below...</div>
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MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-15341820595252493802015-01-02T06:39:00.000-08:002015-01-03T17:43:48.427-08:00Batmobile. The plastic model car you deserve.I have been in love with model Batmobiles for a couple of decades (and a bit). I bought my first ERTL/AMT kit of the Tim Burton 'mobile around 1989/90, and made a pig's ear of it. Loved the kit though - enough that I bought some more on eBay, once that was a thing you could do. I also bought the optional cocoon, that was originally only available to Blueprinter club members. Awesome.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-njrKaKCnUeY/VKanPra49SI/AAAAAAAAAnU/Os-SOskkSrE/s1600/IMG_0102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-njrKaKCnUeY/VKanPra49SI/AAAAAAAAAnU/Os-SOskkSrE/s1600/IMG_0102.jpg" height="320" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I have a couple of these in the stash. =)</td></tr>
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I also have the same car in 1:35 from Ban Dai - it's meant to be a snap kit, but let's be serious, eh?<br />
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Christmas this year also brought me a lovely tin from Polar Lights - inside is the 1966 Batmobile, reissued from the original moulds, using the original tooling. This is exciting, and a pain in the arse all at the same time.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fjL5s32IKcw/VKaoU_3E7oI/AAAAAAAAAnc/14997QBAJ_c/s1600/IMG_0125.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fjL5s32IKcw/VKaoU_3E7oI/AAAAAAAAAnc/14997QBAJ_c/s1600/IMG_0125.jpg" height="238" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unboxed.</td></tr>
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The car, as you may or may not know, was a customised Lincoln Futura concept car, so you probably won't be able to get an authentic-enough 1:1 donor car to 'accurize'. This may have to do for now.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mytPGoWTd_0/VKapCDByZpI/AAAAAAAAAnk/FYHkzVlpHIs/s1600/IMG_0126.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mytPGoWTd_0/VKapCDByZpI/AAAAAAAAAnk/FYHkzVlpHIs/s1600/IMG_0126.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clipped from frames.</td></tr>
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This is what you get in the box - minus the chromed bits (which are currently soaking in coke/dettol/nail varnish remover to strip the nasty chrome plate - it's taking longer than I'd want.)<br />
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A bit of dry-fitting shows that the original & authentic moulds & tooling will require me to get a <b>lot</b> of filler and files out of the cupboard to keep the lines as clean as they should be.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jQwqM8u-zrg/VKap7R_D4GI/AAAAAAAAAnw/nvwigXwZUIY/s1600/IMG_0127.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jQwqM8u-zrg/VKap7R_D4GI/AAAAAAAAAnw/nvwigXwZUIY/s1600/IMG_0127.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Modern kits rule...</td></tr>
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I can't wait to find some time to work on this gorgeous car. Once the chrome is stripped, I'll get the Alclad II lacquers out. Gloss black on the whole car, and then shiny silvers and chromes on the brightwork. There are also loads of red pinstripe decals for the details (some of these may end up painted on). A deep gloss varnish with NO weathering will finish the whole thing off before the figures are added.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N2gcLDB56tI/VKasxx7mezI/AAAAAAAAAn8/TxG5QUNTLEg/s1600/IMG_0128.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-N2gcLDB56tI/VKasxx7mezI/AAAAAAAAAn8/TxG5QUNTLEg/s1600/IMG_0128.jpg" height="316" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Holy polystyrene cement, Batman!</td></tr>
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The moulding on the figures is adequate - it's not up to the standard of minis we're used to in 2015, but with some carefully applied paint, they'll look ace.<br />
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Feel free to leave comments, observations and corrections below!</div>
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More as I build... (Happy New Year!)<br />
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MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-87555941610507741992014-12-29T13:29:00.002-08:002014-12-29T13:29:49.987-08:00Christmas Toys - The 3Doodler first thoughtsChristmas has been and gone. The New Year is nearly upon us, and there is little evidence that flying cars, hoverboards and self-tying laces will be the in-thing for 2015. 3D printing <i>is</i> doing the rounds, though, and it's getting more and more accessible to us mere mortals.<br />
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One of my Christmas gifts this year was a <a href="http://the3doodler.com/" target="_blank">3Doodler</a> from my parents. At its simplest, this former kickstarter is a freehand 3D printer in a pen. At its most complicated, it's a freehand 3D printer in a pen. There may some shades of grey in-between.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">All you need to know, on the box</td></tr>
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<br />Inside, you get the pen, the power supply, instructions, cleaning tools, and 2 packs of multi-coloured ABS sticks. The 3Doodler can handle ABS plastic, and bog-standard plastic (PLA). Refills are available online for $9.99 per pack (plus shipping from the states) - I'm yet to find an affordable supplier in the UK.<div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GVOLP595VYA/VKHFHPoPXII/AAAAAAAAAm8/pFghXKzpvVM/s1600/IMG_0004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GVOLP595VYA/VKHFHPoPXII/AAAAAAAAAm8/pFghXKzpvVM/s1600/IMG_0004.jpg" height="246" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the box - no that's not Play-Doh or Fimo</td></tr>
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<br />It's quite simple to get started. Cleaning the nozzle looks tricky, but if you ever get it wrong there's plenty of helpful resource on YouTube so you can carry on throwing shapes.<div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's a boat. Honest.</td></tr>
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<br />In theory, the stuff you print is pretty durable. The first mess I created was picked up, thrown around, scrunched and dropped several times before anything snapped off it.<div>
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I can see loads of hobby potential for this tool - I don't see myself making any Eiffel Tower models, cars or company logos, but I can envisage plenty of greebly details on vehicles and dioramas - maybe even something that's mould-worthy that I could cast resin copies from. Who knows? Not me, that's for sure - I have a long way to go before I master this thing!</div>
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I'll be posting pics as I create things - both here, and on Twitter. Any comments or questions? Join in the discussion below...</div>
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MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-335001516304907734.post-81424553556873110702014-12-11T01:38:00.003-08:002014-12-11T01:38:51.346-08:00Prepping and working with Vinyl kitsI recently embarked on a rescue project. In the stash of Alien kits I bought a decade or so ago, was a rather special piece: a 1:60 scale vinyl Space Jockey (naturally, from the Halcyon range). The box art shows the scene from <i>Alien</i> when Dallas, Lambert and Kane discover the corpse of an alien being, slumped in a very phallic chair (straight out of Giger's <i>Necronomicon</i>), with a hole in its chest, seemingly created by something bursting out from the inside.<br />
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The kit itself is made up of few parts, but, as it's a vinyl kit, it's more detailed than injection plastic. There are, however, some consturction dangers to be aware of. Whoever had attempted to build this was clearly a vinyl newb. The prep wasn't thought through; mistakes had been made, and the paintwork was terrible.<br />
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Paint stripping was achieved with neat Dettol - and then scrubbing with about 3 old toothbrushes. Once the old paint was removed, and the model assembled, I primed the whole thing in Alclad II grey primer. It's lacquer-based, and dries properly and without residue. I've made the mistake in the (way-distant) past to use acrylic can-primer, and the vinyl stayed tacky for weeks - and then I binned the model.<br />
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I made a change to the scene suggested in the box art - instead of the 3 crewmen first finding the Jockey, I've posed the figures so that Kane looking down the hole to what will be the egg chamber, and Dallas and Lambert inspecting the chest cavity on the fossilised pilot. This is the pivotal moment in the film - the 'curiosity killed the cat' point of no return.<br />
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No photos on this one - but watch the video. It's a bit of an experiment for me - presenting to camera and live commentary while working.<br />
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Things to consider when working with vinyl - call them rules, if you want.<br />
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1. Heat up the parts before cutting or reshaping - soak in hot water or use a hairdryer.<br />
2. Use a brand new blade to cut with - and cut away from you!<br />
3. Cool the parts with cold water to fix your reshaped part.<br />
4. Glue using 2-part epoxy, not superglue. Elastic bands and clamps are essential.<br />
5. Prime with lacquer-based paint. Acrylic primer stays tacky/sticky on the vinyl, and is almost impossible to remove. As is a misspelled word in a video. Lacquer. Not Laquer. Duh.<br />
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As always, please leave comments below, or on the video - thanks for reading and watching!MiniPainterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02894964525879386987noreply@blogger.com0