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I've been thinking of making a skimmer base with stuff "floating up" from the ground under the vehicle and had the idea of making columns of water rising up from the ground supporting rocks and the like (since it'll look silly if the rocks are supported by skimmer pylons or somesuch).

Anyone has any idea if and how this can be done (without absurd expenses)?

How are you at sculpting/painting? I would imagine with scuply premo you could carve/sculpt water columns then just paint them to look like water. If you want it to be clear...

Vacuum form? Find your local maker space and see if they have a vacuum table?

 thegrav wrote:
How are you at sculpting/painting? I would imagine with scuply premo you could carve/sculpt water columns then just paint them to look like water. If you want it to be clear...

Vacuum form? Find your local maker space and see if they have a vacuum table?

I'm relatively new to modeling so I'm afraid I didn't get at least half of the terms you were using here...

I paint using regular brushes and a single action airbrush (mostly using GW paints). I haven't really made any serious attempts at sculpting yet and one of the things I'm looking for is suggestions for materials to work with.

I've seen some nice things at the Woodland Scenics website but shipment costs from there to Israel start at 50$ which is absurd.

What's a vacuum table (or a local maker place, or a Vacuum form for that matter)?

Vacuuform tables are basically a way to make quick molds of stuff. At it's simplest you place something you want to make a mold of on top of a table with holes in it, there's a vacuum attached to said table. You then clam a piece of hot plastic,not melted, over it and turn the vacuum on. That draws the plastic down around whatever you're molding and creates a plastic form when it cools. There are quite literally hundreds of tutorials on google as to how to make them.

As for water effects, Slavetopainting has some nice terrain stuff imo.

http://www.slavetopainting.com/products/basing-terrain-conversions/basing/basing-water-effects/

you could try hot glue guns or something, just hang the base upside down so the hot glue hangs instead of lumping, then glue what you want on top of the little spike.

Usually with sculpting water you'll either have to add consecutive layers over and over or learn how to use putty to create the pillar you're looking for then paint it like it's water.

 Bobaram wrote:
Vacuuform tables are basically a way to make quick molds of stuff. At it's simplest you place something you want to make a mold of on top of a table with holes in it, there's a vacuum attached to said table. You then clam a piece of hot plastic,not melted, over it and turn the vacuum on. That draws the plastic down around whatever you're molding and creates a plastic form when it cools. There are quite literally hundreds of tutorials on google as to how to make them.

As for water effects, Slavetopainting has some nice terrain stuff imo.

http://www.slavetopainting.com/products/basing-terrain-conversions/basing/basing-water-effects/

you could try hot glue guns or something, just hang the base upside down so the hot glue hangs instead of lumping, then glue what you want on top of the little spike.

Usually with sculpting water you'll either have to add consecutive layers over and over or learn how to use putty to create the pillar you're looking for then paint it like it's water.

I do have a hot glue gun so that might indeed be the best option, maybe using one of my leftover skimmer pylons as a hard base around which to let it solidify. I heard that it doesn't take on paint so I might need to place a wide rock on top of it afterwards to "block" the lighting from the Tessaract Vault.

I plan on shooting a green shade via airbrush down on the base once it's finished to give it an "under a green light" look. Would that work or do I need a more refined technique for such an effect?

Thanks for the link by the way, saved it for later use in hopes it has non-insane international shipping costs (seriously, Woodland Scenics charges 50$ for shipping a couple of 20$ items ).

No problem, good luck!

Sorry man! I make lots of stuff so I get all nerdy about it sometimes. A Maker Space is a place a group of designers or builders get together to work on projects. They are great for people who don't have there own space, like a garage or workshop to work in.

On the airbrushing, I would say try a "transparent" paint - they give very subtle affects. Also, if you like using your current airbrush, try a double action brush - you will find it will give you a lot more control and options than a single action brush. A good cheap double action gravity feed brush is the iwata neo, if you want a somewhat better one, but that is not super details - go with a badger patriot 105.

Regarding the suspended affect...that is an interesting idea.
You could also just have the rocks only slightly off the base, and support them with small sections of paperclips or other small sticks...with a small enough gap and a big enough rock, they would look like they are floating.

best of luck!

Thanks!

Figured lower floating rocks could also be supported by torn up ground rising alongside them (Lots'a greenstuff! ) but the paperclips idea sounds good too.

Might combine the two and use paperclips as supports around which to sculpt the greenstuff.