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Thanks Shas'.

Thanks Dave.
I did the "wings" and the handle with the pen.
The wings (as seen in my other blog) were first traced over a pencil drawing on a piece of paper and then I added more material with the pen to the rear of those pieces to round them out (as the side that was on the paper was flat.

I then experimented with smoothing them off with a combination of sanding, a soldering iron, and poly cement (being ABS the plastic can be dissolved with solvents much like other styrene-based plastics). The final result is still not perfect, there are ridges/gaps (that could be filled with more work).

They were glued to the stand and then I added more twirls with the pen to tie them into the structure (and strengthen the bond between wings and stand).

The handle started with two pieces of fairly thick metal wire, embedded into the sand and bent into shape. These give a solid anchor for the handle and lend their strength to supporting the stand when held. The ABS is slightly more brittle than the polystyrene we are used to from model kits and plasticard, and so can snap fairly easily if not supported. Also, if you are not careful with joins between previous and current extrusions of the plastic you can end up with weak points (it's fairly simple to ensure that the newly extruded plastic is still hot enough to melt and bond to the already cooled plastic, and pieces can be glued together with poly cement anyway).

I then started at the base and worked my way along the wires, side to side, letting the extruded plastic bend and curl before it cooled into shape. It was tricky to get it to stick to the metal wires, as the conduction of heat of the metal meant that the plastic cooled quickly and didn't stick (think of it in the same way as a hot-glue gun). But curling the plastic around the wires and extruding into gaps meant than I achieved a fairly strong structure.

Doing girders etc. would be tricky, but not impossible. It would take a lot of practice, keeping a steady hand with a steady movement that is balanced with the speed of the pen (which also depends on the temperature you set for the pen):
These will vary depending on the particular pen you use, but for this one...
The speed is set by a slider on one side and can go from "I'm bored waiting" to "Oh god please make it stop".
There's no markings or soft-stops for this slider so getting a consistent speed would be challenging from one sitting to the next.

The heat is set by a variable resistor accessed through a hole in one side.

Neither the heat or speed can really be changed as you use it, so it's not a balancing act to find the perfect settings, it's more a trial and error process; choose settings, try it out, change settings, try again...

The only other control you have is forward and backwards. You can press and hold or double-click (for constant) and the mechanism with push the filament through the pen. It's not very "instant" in it's reaction, there is a slight delay in starting to move and stop so there's another thing to take into account as you use it. Fine control is very difficult.

This also means that the plastic is extruded at the speed that is set, not the speed that you move your hand. You have to match your movement to the speed you have set.

At the moment, if I wanted something straight and regular in shape, I'd be cutting plasticard before I picked up the pen. But practice will come in time and maybe it'll change my mind one day.

Fantastic description! Thanks Man! I get it now

She is very impressive! Great work.

It's something new to play with and one day it'll find it's perfect application.

Thanks Graven.

And now it's approaching that time of the year again.

Can anyone guess what this is to become?

A box of chocolates?

Nope. The model is a solid lump. The thing it represents did/will contain something...

More will be shown on that tomorrow, but in the mean time...

I needed a wooden barrel / container / bucket thing for another item and came up with a potentially useful method to build it.
So I thought I'd share:

While you could take a solid plastic cylinder and carve the planks into it's surface, you may be in possession of a large supply of short, flat, planks and want to turn them into a cylinder of some kind.

But how many planks will it take to make a cylinder of a certain radius?
If they are all the same, you could measure one, calculate the circumference of the circle, and divide one by the other.
But if they are not all the same, you would have to measure each plank...

What angle should you glue individual planks together so that you end up with a circle and not a polyhedron?
You could just go at it and hope to come full circle before running out of planks...

Or you could try this:


Can be used for any "plank" material.
No maths involved.

Beautifully done... and a great tutorial too. Thanks for that. Very creative. Really good effect too... wow.

Thanks Gits'. Hopefully it'll help someone.

Now, surely someone will be able to spot what this is going to be.


Once I add the main feature it'll be obvious... Unless my sculpting isn't up to the job that is.

Han in Carbonite? Nice. And great tutorial. Always a joy.
BTW I finally built that crate you sent me aaaaaaaaaaaages ago, trying to get it sit right-yet-rickety was interesting

Is it a Grimdark VHS tape? Nah, not enough skulls and rivets.
You have my curiosity though. More pics, please!

inmygravenimage wrote:Han in Carbonite? Nice. And great tutorial. Always a joy.

Correct-amondo. I knew someone around here would get it without needing Han.
Glad you liked the little tutorial. There's a "part 2" coming for that item... if it works.

BTW I finally built that crate you sent me aaaaaaaaaaaages ago, trying to get it sit right-yet-rickety was interesting

Cool. Yeah, there's only so good a fit you can keep though the various stages needed for sculpting, moulding and casting... when it's all done by hand. Lots of dry-fitting required to get the best arrangement of the parts.
I'd be interested in getting your professional opinion of it (in your capacity as a model reviewer); true, there's not much to be said about a box, but any constructive feedback is useful.

Cleatus wrote:Is it a Grimdark VHS tape? Nah, not enough skulls and rivets.
You have my curiosity though. More pics, please!

Ha.
More below.

Starting to build up the shape.
As with any putty work, you can't slap it all on in one go as it'll deform as you try and work details in.
I'll probably get the body right first and then add head, hands and feet afterwards.

I even made a simple stand for it.


And you know how the carbonite block is a simple rectangle?
It's not.
From the various sources I've found online, the back is slightly larger than the front.
And the top is slightly smaller than the bottom (as you look at it above).

Maybe that's just so it looked more imposing on film, or they wanted to make life more difficult for people trying to copy it.

On this scale (~1:20) it amounts to about a millimetre or two difference. But it's there, so in your face ILM.

Yes, I know, his shins are a bit too long there. That has been fixed.


The body is now a little long, but the shoulders need to come down a touch anyway, so that's fine.
This is why you bulk out the shape before adding details.

Carbonite container with a specimen inside

That it is, Shas'. It's the specimen... If I can get it to look enough like him. The body is the "easy" bit.

In the mean time:
Part 2 of what to do with the planks once you have formed them into a cylinder.

You will want to fill your barrel with something, and if that something revolves around washing clothes then quickly knock up a washboard and find yourself some clear acetate (or other similar clear sheet plastic).

Cut the acetate into a rough circle that'll fit inside the barrel.
Then cut a slot where the washboard will fit through.
Then follow this:


And done:


You could use water effects for the same thing, and probably get a better result. But it would take ages to cure. Sometimes quicker is better.
I just wanted to see if it was possible.

And then this happened...


Now I have to take a deep breath and do the face...

That barrel... good heavens man. Is there no limit to your creativity!!

 Gitsplitta wrote:
That barrel... good heavens man. Is there no limit to your creativity!!

Just a matter of trying new things; if they work, great. If not, try something else. I just wanted to see if it was possible to make a water surface without having to fill the container with water effects, but keep the depth of the container and not use a false bottom to make the water effects shallow.

There's sayings along the lines of; If you don't know that a thing is impossible, you may achieve it.

If you'd asked anyone "how would I make this container look full of water?"
They would (generally) tell you to fill it with water effects.

I thought (not having any water effects to hand) "Why don't people use clear plastic to represent the water's surface?"
I knew I had the glaze medium after using that on the CD City, so filling the gaps and adding texture could be done. But would it work together?
Don't know if you don't try.

You could even use this technique with water effects to make the false bottom and use less of the effects stuff.
Cheaper, cures quicker, and you don't need to try and paint the false bottom to represent depth, just paint the inside of the container.

I'm pleased with how it came out and will try that again in the future.

I'm also pleased with how Han's face came out. On the first attempt too.

The face was carved from the lump I already had there, the hair (as well as the feet) I've only just added with fresh putty.

I used short pins of paperclip, drilled into the surface, to anchor the feet on, and I'll do the same for the hands... something else that's just as difficult to sculpt as faces...
Another deep breath required.

Very nice - and unmistakable

Frozen Han-sicle!

Good to hear, Graven.

Thanks Shas'.

Hands. Oh how I dislike sculpting hands.

At least after going over them with my scalpel they look less like Wallace saying "Cheeeese!" (They were quite fat fingered).



With that, he's basically done. I'll put him to one side and see if there's anything I want to change when I come to painting (which thankfully, should be easy).

Putting Han to one side means I can start the 3rd project for Christmas:
Gandalf! With a load of OSL.

The second picture is roughly what the shading will be; the source of light will be the tip of his staff (re. Moria).

I'm contemplating some kind of Dwarven pillar for him to be looking at. Then it's only painting... pretty much.

I think, perhaps, we can... risk a little light
Cracking Solo, Gromit.

Han is coming along very nicely now! How soon after you finish this scale mock-up will you be starting on the life size one!

inmygravenimage wrote:I think, perhaps, we can... risk a little light

Yes, indeed.

Cracking Solo, Gromit.

You see what I mean. I might not be able to look at the "original" without thinking about it.
Thanks.

RexHavoc wrote:Han is coming along very nicely now! How soon after you finish this scale mock-up will you be starting on the life size one!

Ha. For life-sized it'd be worth buying the moulded pieces of Han and just building the frame. I have the dimensions now, so it's only a "small" leap to full-size.
Thanks.

A much quicker turnaround for Gandalf (as I'm not trying to sculpt an exact replica, at scale, of something / someone), Primed and ready for paint.
Here we find him wondering how the Dwarves knew about something called "Christmas".


Yeah, that's "Christmas" in Moria Dwarven. Although the "Ch", "R" and "I" merge into one line, but that's better than missing the "R" that I had previously. Damn that Dyslexia.

Much of the work on this model was in making the box of the sides and rear neat and even with a mixture of card, plasticard and putty.
Still the challenge is in the painting for this one.

I may break out the airbrush to give this a nice even coat of black all around (as the back and sides are just going to be solid black it may as well be neat black), as doing that with a hairy brush is more trouble than it's worth. And I could start the OSL effect with directed white while I'm at it.

One more sculpture to finish and then I can paint all 3 ready for Christmas.

That diorama will be great!

Great work. Han looking fantastic, spot on the money. And scene for Galdalf looking awesome. Recommend the air brush for the OSL.

Wow I'm not sure how I missed this one, just this page alone is rather impressive.

Thanks Shas'.

Thanks Cam'. Airbrush has given me an idea of how the light should fall, but it's going to need hairy brush to get the contrast I want.

Thanks GrimDork. Welcome.
With my model work being split between two blogs, and the way I alternate between them, neither tends to stay at the visible end of the thread-list for long.
If you have a look at the first post of this blog I have links to every finished project, this should cut down on scrolling.

As I said, I got the airbrush out yesterday and gave Gandalf (and Han) a healthy layer (or 5) of black.
I then gave the outer sides of Gandalf a couple of layers of satin black to make it blacker (if you get my meaning) and more finished look.

Now to set about the actual display with more black and various greys.

Han has had a layer of gunmetal to start with.

A dry-brush (or two) of silver, a wash of black and then the lights/buttons on the sides, and he's done.

Great work, I'm curious to see what's next!

Both Han and Gandalf are looking great!