Yesterday my laser-cut foliage (thanks to Jason Eaton) arrived and I immediately set everything else aside to finish Adrian Smith’s Frankenstein up. Like the other plants, I sponged acrylics onto both sides of the paper and embossed them with dental tools. For the daisies, I used stretched sprue for the stems. Pics are below and you can order Frankenstein while supplies last here!

It’s amazing what you can do with some old green sprue and paper scraps. I’m waiting on some laser-cut plants to finish this up, but meanwhile I’ve been making some saplings and such. For these I first stretches some green sprue over a flame, then used the portions near the ends with the thicker base. I crinkled the sprue a bit because nature abhors a straight line. I used leaves that I cut using wavy design scissors then sponge-painted with acrylics.

I painted the stems with a sponge using the same green as the leaves all over, then using brown near the bottom to simulate a woody stalk. I glued the leaves to the stalks with a mixture of white glue and the leaf-green paint. I also dabbed this on in spots to simulate buds.

Next up will be the laser-cut plants once they arrive.

I love doing groundwork and scenery. Of course I love modeling in general, but this is one of the areas where experimentation and ingenuity really pays off. Case in point, leaf litter, moss, and fallen leaves.

First up, the leaf litter. This is basically plain dead leaves that I scavenged from my yard. It’s the end of summer so a few of the trees are starting to yellow and I always have leaves saved from past autumns for things such as this. Get a good variety of colors, but mostly brown for simulating prior years dead fall. Crush these (when dry, otherwise dry in 250 degree oven for 5-10 minutes if needed) with the back of a screwdriver as fine as you need. What I did in this case was to sponge on a mixture of Burnt Umber acrylic and Matte Acrylic Paste (a mud color similar to the basework) and sprinkled the leaves onto that. Then after a few moments I shook off the excess and repeated as needed.

Now for the moss. Moss at this scale is really fun and you can get some nice effects with only 4 materials. Fine Green Turf, Fine “Earth” Turf, White Glue and Water. That’s it! You’ll need to make two batches, the first is a mixture of mostly green with a little earth turf, plus enough glue and water (40:60 glue:water) to make it into a light squishy dough. Scoop out small bits of this and place as needed, then sprinkle a little of the green on top for the “fuzz” growth.Blow a little earth turf underneath for the roots/dead moss.

Next mix up another batch that’s mostly the Earth turf with a little green. This is for the deader portions. Add this next to the green the sprinkle green closer to the fresh moss and earth onto the dead to make for nice transitional blends between the two areas.

Finally the leaves. This part is fun and you can get some great effects. Takes some time to do, but well worth the trouble. For these I sponged some yellows and tan acrylics onto some gold copy paper. Make the back lighter than the front. Then I lightly sponged on some tan and greens for mottled portions. Use a leaf punch from the scrapbook section of your local craft store (in a close scale to your project) and punch out what you need. Next you’ll want to sponge some brown/tan acrylics around the edges for more dead leaf effects. Lastly you place the leaves onto a layer of 4 paper towels (or 1 folded into 4) and using implements emboss the front of the leaves veins and crinkles. Add some stems if you want from jute fibers. Glue onto the base with white glue as naturally and randomly as possible.

Check out this Edmontosaurus base work I did for more paper plant ideas.

Next up » More paper greenery.

First off, not too many Frankies left so click here to order Adrian Smith’s Frankenstein!

Lots to go through as I posted a shot of the feet on Facebook today and got a lot of SBS requests. Metal, rust, dust, then finally the mud.

Metal: I posted this before, but once again so it’s all in one place… For the metal I first hand-painted the parts with water-thinned Tamiya Flat Black. Then I drybrushed Mr. Metal Color Iron. When dry I buffed it with a toothbrush. Then I drybrushed on a layer of Mr. Metal Color Aluminum (little goes a long way) and buffed that in with a soft toothbrush as well.

Rust: The rust can be tricky and I tried something new here. I made a thin slurry of water and Microscale Industries “Micro Flat”. Now usually I don’t use this product as if brushed or airbrushed on, this particular bottle is more of a satin at best and at worst a semi-gloss… but it’s here and it worked for this. I took a small piece of auto sponge and dampened it with the thinned flat mixture. Then I dabbed that into some AK-Interactive Medium Rust Pigment powder and dabbed it on randomly and thinnly. Thicker in spots for effect, but thin for an overall rust. You want the metal to show through. As soon as it starts to look dry, take a stuff brush and or toothbrush and blend it in a little.

Now once you’ve done all of your rust like this it looks okay, but it’s all the same color. Next take some lighter rust pigments from AK or Mig Productions and apply them sparingly to the existing rust dry. When you’ve got the desired effect, use some thinner to set it into the initial rust layer.

Finally you need to  apply a wish. I used AK-Interactive’s “Dark Wash” and first applied it with a thin brush in lines, corners, etc to make those areas pop/recede. Then after that dried I applied a “filter”… a very thin wash of 502 Abteilung (oil paint) Shadow Brown which darkens and mottles some of the rust.

Dirt/Dust: The dust is fairly easy. Using your airbrush, first spray very thin layers, almost invisible at first, and focused more on the feet of AK-Interactive “Dark Mud” and “Light Dust” liquid effects. When done, take a deerfoot brush, dampeded with odorless turpenoid and stipple/push the dust and dirt around. This will cause it to look less airbrushed and more naturally blended and set into recesses/mottled on. (This also works great for applying their streaking products and blending with downward strokes for streaks)

Mud: In a small container, mix dry plaster, pigment powder (70/30) then moisten with the AK-Interactive liquid effects. I used Light Dust and Fresh Mud. Stir this with an old crap brush then stipple this “mud” where needed around the feet and such… wherever you think mud would go. Then for randomness and additional dampness you can use more washes and liquid effects to darken the dried mud making it look damp.

That’s pretty much it for that! Hope that helps!

Now onto the base work’s first few steps. After priming the chunk of base with black primer, I used the following sponge techniques (I already wrote this so click here) on the rocks.The difference is after I added some washes and Slime Green effects.

After that was dry I used the same mud mixtures above and applied that to the rest of the base. I first applied a dark mud, then a light mixture stippling it with a stiff brush. Next I airbrushed on some AK-Interactive Dark Wash, then Slime Green. Finally I took it to my table and stippled the surface with a deerfoot brush and odorless turpenoid to blend it together nicely.

Next up is some leaf litter.

The “base coats” are almost done. I call them base coats because they still have a few layers to go in regards to weathering and such. All I have left to base coat is the little metal studs dotted throughout the figure. After that I’ll start weathering and rusting him up and once that’s done I can start on the basework. The base itself isn’t bad at all, but I like to take things further when possible. In this case I’ll be adding much vegetation to it, but more on that when the time comes. For now here’s the latest pics.

Since yesterday I focused on some of the scabs and stitching. For the scabs/cuts I used a mixture of 502 Abteilung oil paint; Coagulated Blood and Shadow Brown thinned when needed with odorless turpenoid. The stitching is also done with the 502 A. oils which I just love… great colors, perfect for (and made for) modelers.

For the leather straps, I first hand brushed on some water-thinned Tamiya Flat Brown. Over that I applied “Wash Brown” oil paint and smoothed it on the straps. Then I shaded with Shadow Brown and highlighted with Buff.

I also started the metal… sooner than I anticipated, but really wanted to see how it looked with the rest. For the metal I first hand-painted the parts with water-thinned Tamiya Flat Black. Then I drybrushed Mr. Metal Color Iron. When dry I buffed it with a toothbrush. Then I drybrushed on a layer of Mr. Metal Color Aluminum (little goes a long way) and buffed that in with a soft toothbrush as well. I really like the look, but this is just the first of several layers. Later I’ll add rust over this (I want some shine to show through the rust) and some dirt layers for extra realism/weathering.

Here are the final images for the Hornethopter. It was a fun kit to design, build and paint and I hope the hundred of you that purchased one of the first edition releases enjoy building it up. Watch for the second edition to be on sale at Industria Mechanika.

Since the last update I’ve been painting the little brass trim details. The Mr. Metal Color Brass hand-paints beautifully and buffs up to a nice sheen. I used the same toothbrush with the other metal buffing residue on it which actually makes for a nice tarnish. ponging on a little thinned copper also helps break-up the brass color.

I painted the dashboard in brown wood-streaks and filled the gauges in with black. Then I used some 2000 grit sandpaper to remove the paint from the raised portions revealing the dash details.

Next I’ll give the parts a clear-coat and add some minor pin washes and such to pick-out details. Not going too heavy with the weathering here since it’s an aircraft of a more “civilized” age.

I’ve also been painting the figures with oil-paint which takes a while to dry. Here’s the first pass. Next I’ll add more highlights and shadows, pick-out brass details, and add black stripes to the pants.

I skipped over a few steps with the photography, but I can describe them here. When I left off it was time for additional modulation, but this time with oils. Using 502 Abteilung oil paint I highlighted and darkened areas to give them more depth. The colors I used for this were Buff, Light Mud, Dark Mud and Starship Filth. I basically just hand-painted and blended the colors into the surface to lighten and darken it. I added some very faint rust-colored areas in a discoloration technique as well then set it in a hotbox for a few days to dry.

The “hotbox” is just an old paint of speaker-boxes made from wood with one side open enough to put a lightbulb in and raise the temp to speed up oil paint’s dry time. I have a 1/35 DAK fig in it now drying to go with this vignette.

After the modulation/discoloration had dried I wen back and added darker and more defined rust areas with the 502 oil’s Dark Rust and Shadow Brown colors. Then I used thinned Shadow Brown to do light pin washes on the rivets and panel lines. Then once more into the hotbox for some drying. After that it was all hit with a flat coat of FFA. Next up is pre-dusting with the airbrush and then pigment dusting.

I also started on a small display base for this build just for my own uses as I doubt it’ll make it to the box art. I started with a leftover wood box lid from a jewelery box who’s “box” had been used elsewhere for another dio… maybe the “Taco”. Anyway, I then built up some 3/16″ basswood walls and stained it. After the stain dried I sawed off some edges to create a few levels then filled the box with green floral foam for bulk. Plaster rocks were added then it was all filled in with a gravel, ballast, tallus, sand, white glue, and Celluclay mixture. This was worked in with a wet stiff brush and then more tallus/ballast was added to simulate rockfall fixed with white glue.

I wanted to simulate a Moroccan desert scene so with the help of some reference started choosing colors to paint the groundwork. After the Celluclay dried, I hand-brushed on several coats of cheap tan/chocolate mixed acrylics with a very slight hint of red based on my refs. I added several coats until all the rocks and groundwork was a uniform color. Next I darkened the base color with a darker tan/chocolate/red mix. Once that dried I applied a wash of Mig Productions “Dark Wash and let it dry as well. When dry I drybrushed the whole base with light tan to make the rocks pop more. Once done the whole thing was dusted with African Earth, Gulf War Sand, and Dry Mud pigments and doused with Pigment Fixer.

Plants are bundles of dark shaded jute fiber, drybrushed with white glue and dipped in earth colored fine turf.

Next up is the oil paint “glazing”. A thin layer of green was applied to the flesh. Thick enough to alter the color, but thin enough to let the spots and stripes show through. This glazing was highlighted and shaded then stippled smooth with a dry deerfoot brush. After that I reapplied the strips in oils and blended them in more naturally. Lastly I glazed the scales on the shoulders and thighs to make their tones different and interesting. Now I’ve got to wait a day or two for this to dry. Bummer!