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Post by Leon on Mar 29, 2015 19:10:55 GMT -5
Excellent work on the figures Bill!  |
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Post by TRM on Mar 29, 2015 20:37:30 GMT -5
Very nice Bill!! Moved right along on these little guys!!  |
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 29, 2015 22:08:18 GMT -5
Thanks Leon and Todd! I'm sure these guys will be happy to get off those toothpicks once and for all.  |
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afvfan
Senior Member
Member since: December 2012
Bob
Posts: 1,772
Dec 10, 2012 17:32:38 GMT -5
Dec 10, 2012 17:32:38 GMT -5
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Post by afvfan on Mar 30, 2015 0:25:11 GMT -5
So I did my best to replicate him with the styrene lizard. Sorry Bob, no BBQ! Poor little guy looks like he's got club feet! |
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 30, 2015 9:21:20 GMT -5
So I did my best to replicate him with the styrene lizard. Sorry Bob, no BBQ! Poor little guy looks like he's got club feet! Limits of the mold and scale I guess! He's tiny to begin with. Each foot is maybe 1mm wide. That's why he's so colorful, he can't count on speed but gets good sand traction! |
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Post by deafpanzer on Mar 30, 2015 12:32:26 GMT -5
I can't believe you haven't been doing figures for long time. They are looking great! I hope you will do them again... they simply bring life to all builds in my opinion. To help you celebrate, I filled the guy's canteen with some Italian wine... |
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 30, 2015 12:41:17 GMT -5
I can't believe you haven't been doing figures for long time. They are looking great! I hope you will do them again... they simply bring life to all builds in my opinion. To help you celebrate, I filled the guy's canteen with some Italian wine... Thanks Andy! Sitting Guy appreciates your generosity! |
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Post by wing_nut on Mar 30, 2015 13:57:08 GMT -5
Those figgies look great Bill.
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 30, 2015 15:18:39 GMT -5
Thanks Marc! Now I just have to settle in my mind how the base is going to look...I keep changing my mind on the rock placement because I keep finding better/different rock candidates in my daily walk around the neighborhood! |
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 30, 2015 17:07:14 GMT -5
Today's effort was all about the base...yes, I know...couldn't resist. I used some Woodland Scenics Mold-A-Scene Plaster to create the base on the wood platform. I'd stained the wood platform previously but didn't take a pic of it because it's largely going to disappear except for the edges, but for the stain I used Rustoleum American Chestnut because it was about $5 for a small can and dries in an hour...perfect for a quick little job like this one. Anyhow, I mixed about one and a half cups of the plaster with enough water to make it workable but not too soupy. It's only got a work time of about 30 minutes so you have to be quick before it starts to firm up. I chose the rocks I wanted for the scene and embedded them in the plaster and shaped the plaster with some water and my finger tips to get it to blend together.  Blue painter's tape protects the edges and prevents any staining/overlap from the plaster. It's going to take 24 hours for it to fully set up and be rock hard, but it will mate perfectly with the wood base in the process. Once it fully dries it will be a white color and will get some additional attention and additions to get it where it needs to be for a desert terrain.  Quick check with the vehicle shows everything playing nice together as intended so far!  |
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DeafStuG
Full Member
Member since: May 2013
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Posts: 1,283 
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Post by DeafStuG on Mar 30, 2015 17:14:37 GMT -5
Looking good, love the lizard colourful.
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 30, 2015 17:54:44 GMT -5
Thanks Jeremy!
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Post by bbd468 on Mar 30, 2015 18:25:35 GMT -5
Lookin mighty fine there Bill! |
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 30, 2015 18:52:02 GMT -5
Lookin mighty fine there Bill! Thanks Gary! Looks like the desert bug bit us both at the same time. |
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Post by dupes on Mar 30, 2015 18:59:23 GMT -5
This build reminds me of "The NeverEnding Story" for some reason.  Throw some paint on there! |
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 30, 2015 19:21:23 GMT -5
This build reminds me of "The NeverEnding Story" for some reason. Throw some paint on there! All in good time Dupes! Still a ways to go before paint happens on the exterior of the 222. I still need to build the gun and mount and test it with the interior...that's coming up next though so you won't have to wait too long to get your wish. Remember this is a multi-phase type build...and some things are happening out of the 'usual' order as a result. |
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Post by Leon on Mar 30, 2015 19:40:36 GMT -5
Nice start on the base Bill ! The 222 looks perfect on it. |
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Post by wing_nut on Mar 31, 2015 5:53:20 GMT -5
Figures? bases? Rocks from the neighborhood? Who are you?
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 31, 2015 13:48:17 GMT -5
Thanks Leon! Figures? bases? Rocks from the neighborhood? Who are you? I'm Batman... |
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 31, 2015 16:13:37 GMT -5
After letting the base set overnight, I checked it this morning and discovered a small disaster had struck as the plaster cured. When I first stained the base, I had used a small screw to create a handle and that hole apparently allowed the residual water in the plaster to soak through the wood overnight and caused it to warp. I hadn't used a very wet mixture, but as it settled and cured I guess it was enough with the aid of the hole. Regardless, it also resulted in the plaster suffering some earthquake-like cracking and it split almost neatly in two right down the middle as well as some smaller cracks towards the front edge where the heavier rock pieces were. On the bright side, the plaster was rock hard and fully set, so it wasn't going to be hard to rejoin them. I also had more than one piece of the craft wood on hand, so a quick round of staining had a dry and non-warped base v2 ready after about an hour for the stain to dry.  I used CA gel and some strategic placement of regular CA glue and some dry plaster powder to patch up the cracks and rejoin the halves. I also took the opportunity to airbrush the now unified base with some Testors Model Master Afrika Dunkelgrau over the white plaster. Once that had dried, I needed to secure it to the new wood base, so I picked up some JB Weld 2-part clear epoxy at Lowe's to do the job.   Patient is now in recovery while the epoxy fully sets up over the next 24 hours. The paint foundation is just that, there will be more ground work done on the base to add some sand/dirt to tie it all together and make it look more sandy vs. rocky. |
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reserve
Senior Member
Member since: July 2012
Si vis pacem para bellum
Posts: 2,372
Jul 11, 2012 9:11:45 GMT -5
Jul 11, 2012 9:11:45 GMT -5
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Post by reserve on Mar 31, 2015 18:10:51 GMT -5
Gotta hate that base warpage. Ask me how I know this. What I do these days is to get a rattlecan of poly wood sealer and douse the surfaces that will be covered with groundwork. I use the flat style, and it dries pretty quickly. Once dry, I score the base in about a 1" checkerboard pattern so whatever I'm using for groundwork will stick better. This has largely cured this problem for me.
Looking sweet brother
Regards,
Mark
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 31, 2015 18:48:15 GMT -5
Gotta hate that base warpage. Ask me how I know this. What I do these days is to get a rattlecan of poly wood sealer and douse the surfaces that will be covered with groundwork. I use the flat style, and it dries pretty quickly. Once dry, I score the base in about a 1" checkerboard pattern so whatever I'm using for groundwork will stick better. This has largely cured this problem for me. Looking sweet brother Regards, Mark Thanks Mark! Normally I would have used a thicker base but this time around it's thinner cheap wood and that also contributed to the warped base problem I think. Will keep the sealer and checkerboard idea in mind on future bases (when/if that happens of course ), thanks for the tips! |
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Post by TRM on Mar 31, 2015 19:26:08 GMT -5
nice job on the desert stuff Bill!! Sucks you had some warping but you certainly tamed the beast! |
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Post by wbill76 on Mar 31, 2015 19:29:45 GMT -5
nice job on the desert stuff Bill!! Sucks you had some warping but you certainly tamed the beast! Thanks T! The irony is that I checked the original base a few minutes ago and it seems to have flattened back down...but not after causing the seismic upheaval in the process. I suspect that freeing it from the plaster allowed it to air back out and de-warp, so at least it will be available for future use should I have need of it. |
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Post by Leon on Mar 31, 2015 19:59:08 GMT -5
Nice surgery on the ground work Bill ! Looking forward to seeing the sand and dirt. |
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Wes
Full Member
Member since: November 2011
Posts: 686
Nov 16, 2011 9:34:50 GMT -5
Nov 16, 2011 9:34:50 GMT -5
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Post by Wes on Apr 1, 2015 6:08:46 GMT -5
Great save on the base Bill. Its looking great.
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Post by wbill76 on Apr 1, 2015 10:23:53 GMT -5
Thanks Leon and Wes! Things are shaping up nicely so far, fingers crossed for the dirt stage. |
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Post by wbill76 on Apr 3, 2015 15:40:07 GMT -5
So one of the challenges of creating a desert environment is getting it to look 'right' and in scale. Fortunately my LHS stocks a good supply of stuff for model railroaders and I picked up a nice big bottle of dirt under the Scenic Express label. Sounds crazy I know...but it works perfectly for my purposes as it's pre-screened and graded for scale use. I used the standard Woodland Scenics brushable/sprayable scenic cement that dries flat matte and clear to add it to the base.  I let that dry up overnight and here's what the end result looked like.  Obviously this is too dark and a little too coarse for the desert look I'm after, so I took a small amount of local sand/dirt from my yard and used a small piece of vinyl screen from an ancient Tamiya kit to sift the dirt and get it down to a really fine level of sand grains. The container started out full before putting it through the screen twice to remove all the rocks, twigs, debris, etc. that is just a normal part of 'dirt'.  Using more of the scenic cement, I added a thin layer of the sand to the base and built it up slowly to avoid clumping. While it was still damp with the cement I used one of the vehicle wheels and a pair of boots to create wheel tracks and foot prints in the 'sand' from where the crew would've walked around the parked vehicle.  Here's where the base stands now that the glue has mostly dried. It might lighten up a bit more overnight but not a whole lot more I think. I've got the texture I wanted but now need to get the color to a more tan/buff tone for sand vs. just the reddish/brown dirt look it has at the moment. To do that, I'm going to use a combination of thinned paint through the airbrush like I did for the base sides earlier and some airbrushed pigment over that so that the vehicle and base will eventually match up down the road.  Getting closer to the 'desert' look one step at a time! |
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DeafStuG
Full Member
Member since: May 2013
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Posts: 1,283
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Post by DeafStuG on Apr 3, 2015 17:01:15 GMT -5
Looking great.
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Post by deafpanzer on Apr 4, 2015 11:44:29 GMT -5
Lovely work on the base... really looking good. I expect it to be done by time I return home from Florida in a week. OK?
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