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Just thought I'd reiterate it for anyone who missed it.




Seriously.




Or not, whatever.

LOL!

Can't believe I did it again... every time I put text on a photo I mess up the spelling. Guess my photos just want to be "pure".

I hope to pick up the white decal paper tomorrow, which means I may have some pics of the prototype dread tomorrow again.

What program are you using, PS? It has spell check.

Yep... but in that case it's not that I cant spell "mantis"... I think sometimes my keyboard doesn't register keystrokes and if I'm not really paying attention to the word I don't see the missing letter.

I hve nevr ha tat problm....
oke maybe i have
it can be really annoying if your key board doesnt register the keys. and a great way too down grade your grades in school.

and besides Mants warriors are way more awesome than Mantis warriors

LOL! Thanks my friend.

Also if you see the word misspelled sometimes the mind sets it right as some people see it.

Good point. Standard practice in editing is to set the work down for a day or two, then go back to it when your have "fresh eyes" and your mind isn't reading what you wanted to say rather than what you actually wrote. OR simply get someone else to give it a read through... Not practical in an internet sense however.

I let someone proof-read all my dakka posts.

I'm about 20 pages in and all I can say is wow. I really like how you've built this whole project. I really like the thought process and questioning of what makes the MW the MW. I really like that attention to detail. Looking forward to finishing this and more updates.

Well, last night's decal experiment failed miserably. The decal won't release from the backing making the whole thing rather pointless. I'm going to try and get some thinner plasticard and either just print the design directly on that, or print it on paper then cut out and glue it to plasticard disks.

I did however get the yellow completely masked off on one of the pods so it's ready for the green. I hope to get the other one masked off tonight.

Gitsplitta wrote:You're a brave person DTH... hope it was worth your time. Actually I just found out the Trygon can't mishap like that... it's like a drop pod in that respect. Ah well, he's happy with the battle in spite of the mess ups with the rules. Next time we'll get it right!

Yeah, I'm currently scouting for my canoness so I can get her painted up!

Next time for those rules!
This thread was definitely worth the three days on, off reading!

Unlucky about the decals.

Gits,

If you want to try printing and transfering to your models, you could print to rice paper (which is super thin), then apply with gloss varnish. Add a coat or two of varnish over it and it will smooth out the seams so it looks painted.

There's some youtube videos about airbrushing and rice paper that are worth looking at.

Thanks Heff, I'll give that some serious thought. I have several weeks to work this out so there's no rush, just frustrating that I can't call these models "done" until I sort out this last step. Any suggestions as to where rice paper might be found?

asian food stores

We have plenty of those...

Thats what my links tell me

I would think asian food stores or hobby stores such as Hobby Lobby or Michaels. If looking at HL or Michaels, check around the inks area, as rice paper would be used by people wanting to write in Kanji.

I would offer to find the youtube video for you, but I picked up Dragon Age 2 at lunch, so I don't expect to get anything done for the next week (including painting).

Well, checked two Asian food stores. They have rice paper, it's round and has a waffle pattern pressed into it. So no go.

Checked FLGS & large copy/office supply store... nothing there.

Finally went to university art store, no rice paper but found something called "marker paper". It's very smooth on the drawing surface (fine grained) and the lightest paper I could find (even lighter weight than tracing paper) but it is not translucent, which is good. It may work. I will also keep trying to make the decal paper work. The owner of our FLGS said they sell a ton of it and have never had anyone report a complete failure of the system like I have before.

I must remember to check on this post daily, other wise you just miss loads

I love the ironclad dread The pods look sweet too.

Are you making edible mantis worriors with rice paper

Also I didn't notice the spelling mistake either, only when it was pointed out as "Mants"

Edible Mantis Warriors.... LOL!

Well, my youngest son just *did* start a Tyranid army....

(crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside... yum!)

Just like the polar bear Garry Larson strip (crunchy on the outside chewy in the middle ref..)

Good god Git these guys are really coming together well you must be happy with how things are turning out the dread look excellent as I've said before
and your ability with that air gun is gaining in spades the drop pod look great!

Really wish I could see these guys in person, oh and a question do you have aguide for taking better pics of your mini's / whats the background in your shots
from and what camera settigns do you use. Everytime I take a shot it seems to depend ont he phases of the moon the tide what solar cycle we ahve entered
and if martians have landed.

Cheer and nice work!

@Santobell: Thanks! Yeah, I am generally quite satisfied with how they're turning out. Just worried about getting everything painted by the deadline.

vent actually made a great tutorial/article on photographing minis, and he gives the we addy of where to get the backgrounds in the discussion afterwards... look through his topics, is should be easy to find.

Well, I got the decals to work... more or less. Here is my first successfull test on the bottom of a Mk-1 razorback that I have yet to really paint (it's just green). The real decals have finer printing on them and the yellow is more golden brown than screaming yellow... but I think I can make this work. These decals were way too big... so the new sheet I made has about 4 sizes starting with this (3/4") and going down by 1/8" each. I'm sure I can find something that'll work. To bad I didn't have these for the razorback doors...

Looks great, keep it up!

Well, I don't think the decal thing is going to work. The decals are supposed to be on a white background, but they aren't... it's transparent which means the yellow will not cover the green enough to get good coverage. I've ordered some stuff that is supposed to allow you to make dry, rub-on decals. Should be here by the weekend. If that fails we go to plan 3.


I did tack these in place so you could see how they were supposed to look though.

Looks wicked!! Totallly worth the extra effort (love the aquilas as well()

Did you not try putting them on plasticard discs? Seems like that would work.

edit: Just saw the number as well. Nice touch

Hmm... Decals can always be difficult. Have you seen the Zinge Industries vinyl 3-d decals? The guy makes them custom.

Here's a link to his thread that has some examples:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/90/349840.page


Regardless, I admire your persistence. Keep it up!

Each pod will also have an inspirational saying or litany, written in latin, one word per door (where the number is). I found about 30 or so saying that fit, many from classic literature (homer, etc.).

I could just glue these in place, don't think I'd need the plasticard to back them, the decal material is pretty heavy. I'll also try printing on the marker paper I picked up yesterday and see how that looks. But I'll wait until the rub-on material comes to make my final decision. If I can get that to work, it would by far be my best option.


Question: should I ring each roundel in black, or leave the yellow as it is?

@samwel: Thanks, I'll check that out. The company that I ordered the rub-on kit from makes kits for that as well, but having some professionally made would be very nice... and probably more reliable.

It would make it more defined, but i would say no if you havent already done it on every other symbol.

Well, option C didn't pan out. Before I left for work this morning I quickly printed out my decal sheet on a piece of the marker paper... which apparently is very absorbent as it drew the ink all over the page.

So it's down to either D) the dry, rub-on decals or E) just gluing on these printed designs. I have some magazine paper that will probably work well and be easier to handle than the decal sheet. Luckily I know option E will work, just don't know how good it's going to look.

I will approach Zinge about their vinyl transfers, but they need to be put on before priming and I suspect he will not be able to turn them out fast enough for my needs in any case. However, I think they would work quite well with the MW symbol, so I will pursue it.

Both of the other pods are now completely masked off and I'll begin the airbrushing tonight.