Rusting Lump of Plastic

woensdag 10 juni 2015

Robot Battle V MK44 in progress - Red Lobster Quasimodo From The Future!

After a long wait, mister MK44 finally gets some painting done. Meaning I can get some practice.

Decided to use enamel and lacquers with mr levelling thinner.

Started with the MK44 in black (spraybomb) and then roughly added a layer (or more in places) of dark brown.

Then I added some lighter brown, more or less randomly brushed on, intentionally a bit splotchy.
this should serve as a tone modulator thingy for the top colour.
I'm not making this up, though I am trying stuff I never did before ^_^

Add some red and stuff gets interesting. Obviously more coats are needed, many more. But the overal effect is quite lovely. Still just using enamels with mr levelling thinner, works a charm and dries really quickly due to the thinner.

the effect of the undercoats is really amazing, this being about the fifth model I ever painted, I'm quite amazed. Just need it a bit more red and a bit less uneven.

Of course, the thinner stuff reeks and is hardly any good for my health, let alone the asthmatics I have living in the house. therefore I work in a small paintbooth/spraybooth with quite the strong extraction fan and a very professional looking ventilation tube ^_^

I painted the undercoats with my own brushes (marterhaired) then switched to a new brush for the red. This I got from Charley of JSAN9 fame.
It's really a great brush, not sure if it's the hair type (no idea which type either) or the fact the hairs are almost twice as long as on my other brushes, but it painted way better and softer. I need more!
fame.

dinsdag 27 januari 2015

Weltenraum Nahkampf Gefechtseinheit Ausf. B 'Ollie' - part V Lucky 13

Added some decals to the beastie, numbers from a grosserhund kit, the rest from a 1/32 revell volksjager and assorted 1/48 german planes.

The orange bit at the front is meant to break up the rather boring main body. I also changed the graytones of some parts with some filters, but after weathering this might not be visible anymore.

It just needs some more warning decals and it is ready for weathering.

maandag 19 januari 2015

Weltenraum Nahkampf Gefechtseinheit Ausf. B 'Ollie' - part IV PAINT!

I was lucky enough to get a workshop of lacquer painting from the master in NYC, Jsan from http://jsan9.blogspot.com/.

So afterwards I grabbed the thinner and foul smelling laquers and just went at it!

It's way different from acrylics, and the thinner reacts with the undercoat, creating weird patterns and stuff. I wasn't able to get the smooth finish I went for, but I love the unexpected texture and mottling so can't complain really.

First layers

And a day later some more

It's drying now from addin ID marks, crappy pictures, but else I'll forget entirely.
Went for orange stripes and might add something more.
Numbers or letters a-coming to.

zaterdag 13 december 2014

Robot Battle V MK44 in progress - Weldlines are FUN

Finished up all the weldlines I planned, and some more I didn't plan but looked logical.
Almost time for paint

I also decided the smokepots should get wires atached to them, just for good looks and all that ^_^
But the wires should also fit somewhere of course,
So I added a small plate of plastic and drilled three holes in it to fit the wires.
weld lines added, of course.

Everything is ready for primer now, just waiting for the weather to clear up so I can whip out the spray bombs.
Groupshot!

I'm still debating whether to add extra detail pieces here and there, but I fear they'll get swallowed up in the texture anyway...

donderdag 4 december 2014

Robot Battle V MK44 in progress - Heavy Texture Knight

Forgot to make photos of the steps in between....

Added a heavy texture coat on about every part. I loved the effect it had on the PKA I did earlier and wished to replicate this. Just applied it with a sponge and then sanded it down a bit until it was about 0.5mm thick.

Some parts have a smoother texture (Mr.Surfacer 500) or no texture for some diversity, but mostly heavy texture.

All the armour parts yet to go.

I decided to close this model completely, and the texture was great help in smoothing the fit issues on the engine cover.

The placements for the rivets were marked by drilling them before applying the texture so I could find them after. Weld lines to be added on many parts and them it'll be boxed until I can find the will to paint it ^_^

vrijdag 14 november 2014

Darmstadt Spacedays 2014 - an impression

In october I visited Darmstadt (in Germany) to go to the Darmstadt Spacedays. This is a scifi oriented convention with quite some models on display by various modellers. It's a small show with friendly attitude and great people. A large part of the Phoxim forum visits and some friends I know of facebook, Ma.k and scifi forums go there as well. This means a lot of beer every night and loads of fun ^_^

Sadly I forgot my camera, tried some pictures with my mobile, but the camera is slightly awful.

Some links to other (better) photos at the end.

I loved this one, a u-boot XXI I think, transformed into a racer. The wheels could be done better, but the idea it great.

It came with a small glass tank on wheels with floating motorcycles, really cool concept. Later he connected the two with a hose, but apparently I didn't make a picture.

1:1 R2 unit, it was lighted and also bleeped, booped and turned it head.

A very cool spaceship in progress, made mostly with casted parts the builders designed themselves.

Another 1:1 R2 unit, this one didn't really do anything except look cool, I guess the succes of the movies went to its head.
It was build in 24 hours by a British guy and his son and they previously also built 1:1 Wall-E and Eve models.

They brought the Eve and Wall-E the next day after people kept bugging them about it

1:1 Toothless, this one was brought in from a cinema and was huge!

Spaceship by the glues brothers, these guys are brilliant at designing, redesigning and detailing spaceships. Serious studio worthy models.
On top of that they are great guys too.

This one was scratchbuild according to the owner, really looked the part.

Custom version in Bavarian army uniform (I had to be told, thought it was a french uniform ^_^)

This one is a Hasbro toy conversion, it had lights, sounds and was able to move the wings. Electronics were done by Helios Lighting, but can't find the website at teh moment. They have some great lighting kits for spaceships.

Studio scale Narcissus, really, really awesome. It was brought by Lee Stringer, who is an animator director and studio scale model builder. It's mostly done, just tons of small details needed.

Some amazing models by Stefan Hacker, the master of X-wing modelling.

The Hackermeister himself

One of the best explosion effects I've seen in this scale, and it's just cotton and glue...
Looks ugly as hell when the lights are turned off, but with the light, awesome!