DUEL of the DIAS!

[oteebzo]

I think it would be a kool idea.
When I used to do Graffitti we use to do this all the time ( they where called Battles not Duels) same thing.

It helps you get better , no dought in my mind.
But I don't think people would duel other people if they didn't know them. So a whole area to it might be much

[gamerabaenre]

I think the last time I saw soemthing from Phil was when I first got back into serious model building and joined various modeling forums...  About 4 or 5 years ago now?

more building always = more gooder!

[pu_rplecow]

This is crazy... crazy crazy...  Pretty entertaining for someone not in the loop from the beginning. Its interesting to s ee how people bond over the net. I don't know who to root for! haha..

[zerobxu]

As promised, I'm getting a couple in-progress pictures up. Unfortunately, I misplaced the can of vienna sausage, so it's absent from the pictures (sorry Major Blah). I can guarantee it wasn't mistakenly eaten, so expect it to show up in the pictures eventually...

The first step for this was last night, trying to figure out what colors to go with and--more importantly, since this is OOB--what type of display base to use. I came up with a rough idea, based on the box art, and grabbed some styrene sheets, angles, and square rods from HobbyTown over my lunch break. Once I got home, it was time to locate the kit:

DUEL of the DIAS!

I need to clean out the space above the closet more often--or start cranking out models faster. Either way, I'm running out of room up there.  :?

I'm still not sure what kind of color scheme I'm going with, but I'm leaning towards the "standard" red color scheme. With a clearer idea of how the base is going to look--and after getting some advice from FichtenFoo--I started messing with a sheet of styrene. Once I really get going on this, it'll be easy to see what I'm doing. For now, I'll leave it up to speculation. At any rate, I needed to warp a sheet of styrene, which I am then going to cut into lengthwise strips. To start that out, I marked and then scribed lines into a sheet of 030 styrene and started boiling some water on the oven using the biggest pot I had--which turned out to not be tall enough. Because of that, I ended up getting the pot of water to a rapid boil, and then placing it on top of a smaller saucepan in order to get the necessary "ground clearance" above the top of the stove to wrap the sheet of styrene around. This is a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants adaptation of the technique that FichtenFoo used to produce his hull "sheets" for his "Vorflugkontrolle" project two years ago (click here for details). Unfortunately, I found that this same technique most definitely doesn't work with girder ("H") shaped styrene. It was worth a shot.

DUEL of the DIAS!

As you can see, the results were pretty good--about what I expected. The pieces on the ends are trashed, as they warped at the corners, but I can still get what I need out of the sheet. The next trick is going to be to cut the entire thing at the desired angle, so it rests on the display base at an angle.

Positive progress, and I feel a lot more confident screwing around with this now than I did a year ago when I was building my own Fliege display base. Onward and upward!

And so ends my "Round One" report.

[FichtenFoo]

Your closet looks as bad as my "stash".

Looks like the curve toruned out great. Looking forward to seeing the base finished to see where you're goijg with it. I know we chatted about it, but I'm still confused!

Hopefully Phil's done more than looked in the box. c'mon Phil! Post some progress!

Rah rah shish boom bah! Phil's gonna model yah yah yah!!!!!!

[FichtenFoo]

Phil Goodwin Pep Rally!!!

DUEL of the DIAS!

[zerobxu]

Well, today didn't start so well. I realized that the curve on the styrene needed to be tighter (smaller diameter) in order to fit on the wooden base I'm going to use. So, I tried a smaller pot of boiling water, and that didn't really work. I tried just gently bending it while applying heat from a lighter. That didn't work either. Eventually, because I had already scribed lines on the piece (lengthwise), it snapped along one of those lines. Back to square one.

Learning from that, I took another sheet of styrene and didn't scribe this one. I went ahead and marked where I was going to scribe with a pencil, but I left the actual scribing until after it was shaped. And since I wanted a tighter curve, I needed a smaller saucepan to shape it around--or so I first thought. It just didn't work. Eventually, I came up with the following set-up that did work. I did the same thing as last night (minus the scribing), boiled water, and gently bent the styrene around the large pot. From there, I put an empty coffee can in the sink, placed the sheet of styrene in it, and then poured the boiling water into the coffee can--thus, nearly completely submerging the styrene in near-boiling water. This instantly softened the styrene. From there, I wrapped the styrene sheet around a wine bottle as best I could, and re-submerged the styrene and wine bottle in the coffee can of very hot water. And it worked!

DUEL of the DIAS!

EDIT: Yes, tomorrow I'm planning on cleaning the kitchen.

I achieved the curve I needed in the styrene. From there, it was a matter of trying to figure out where to cut it to achieve the desired (weird) angle coming out of the wooden base. I think a laser-leveler would've come in really handy here, but hardly worth the investment. Instead, I went back to the sink and filled the sink itself partially with water. After that, I merely put the curved styrene in the water at an angle, and roughly marked off the water line with a pencil. From there, I cut the line out and then just carefully trimmed it until it sat level on the wooden base.

DUEL of the DIAS!

(note the vienna sausage, Major Blah)

After all of that, I scribed in the lengthwise lines, and added some other lines to give it the appearance of panels. Although the original plan had been to actually cut all these strips out and place them on a skeleton frame, that was a ridiculous and unnecessary step. Keeping the sheet intact and merely scribing panel lines into it is going to be much better (and easier) in the end.

Are you getting an idea what the base is going to look like now?

[Major Blah]

zero, nice informative in-prog post there.  I like how you improve upon and existing technique (the coffee can) and also the smart use of waterline to make a level mark around the piece. I also appreciate the Vienna sausage!

Is it some space debris?  Looks too small to be the colony laser!

[Doctor Seleski]

Is this Battle of the Bases or Duel of the Dias?  
Seriosuly, I haven't even thought about a base.  And that is one sweet base, Zero, my friend.

So far all I have done is to test fit everything.  I haven't even thought about my paint scheme yet.  Probably going to have to look for some inspiration over the next few days.  I don't think my paint scheme will have much of an impact on the internals, so I can probably get to work on that.  Not sure if you have done any of this yet, Zero, but the lower legs and the rear skirt have internal elements.  That is about it though.

DUEL of the DIAS!

[Whale Gamer]

All your base are belong to us.  That is win.

[zerobxu]

PHIL SNAPPED A NEW KIT! GO PHIL!!!

I'll be posting an in-progress shortly, but Phil and I were just discussing that we both need a set of the B-Club hands for the Rick Dias. I only need one particular open-palm right hand--and I'm not sure what he needs, but if anyone can help, please let us know!!!

[zerobxu]

Spent the entire day working on the base (again). The first thing I did was measure, cut, and glue the pieces for the four square-based tower frames coming out of the end of it. From there, I detailed up the end of it (which isn't really visible in the pictures). From there, it was a matter of priming, painting, clear-coating, and decaling. There wasn't much of a trick to it. Just time-consuming. The base should be done within a few days, I hope.

The look I was going for with this thing was some sort of unfinished cylindrical colony support module. I haven't quite decided how much weathering I'm going to apply to it yet (if any). I may keep the look of this one fairly unweathered. We'll see. Famous last words.

The big lettering ("Adrianna" and "0072") came from some transfer lettering I picked up at the art supply store years ago, and the rest of the markings were just from the ol' pile o' decals. Oh, and the name "Adrianna" comes from the fact that I watched "Porco Rosso" right before putting the markings on it.

Here's the end-results of my base efforts for the day.

DUEL of the DIAS!

DUEL of the DIAS!

(click to enlarge)

DAMMIT! I forgot to put the can in the pictures!

[Major Blah]

LOL phil, your animated gif rocks!  

Zero, the base looks really good, your very quick.  I can't say anything bad about the Porco-inspired base.  What kind of weathering are you going for?  light?

I don't have any 1/144 HDM, but I think the Rick Dias hands are a bit larger than the "normal" size HGUC's.  I think I might have an open palm or some other poses from my Gelgoog marines (the open palm one is actually pretty good).  If you're interested let me know.

[zerobxu]

Zero, the base looks really good, your very quick.  I can't say anything bad about the Porco-inspired base.  What kind of weathering are you going for?  light?

I thought you'd appreciate the "Adrianna" reference. I'm not sure what kind of weathering I want to do yet. Probably fairly minimal, as it's just an incomplete object in space (versus blown to itty-bitty bits). We'll see. I'm sure I won't be completely done with the base until after I'm completely done with the Rick Dias, so it all remains to be seen.

I don't have any 1/144 HDM, but I think the Rick Dias hands are a bit larger than the "normal" size HGUC's.  I think I might have an open palm or some other poses from my Gelgoog marines (the open palm one is actually pretty good).  If you're interested let me know.

From the look of it, I'd say the Rick Dias hand is comparable to the Dom/Rick Dom/Dom Tropen. I need the left hand, open palm. And I'd be willing to take a look at anything anyone has to offer. I've got a Plan B (and a Plan C), but I'd rather not have to go those routes.

[Doctor Seleski]

I think the Dias hands are fairly distinct.  I've looked everywhere and can't find them.  Best I could do is get on a waiting list at Hobbysearch, but taht could be months.  

[tetsujin]

I think the Dias hands are fairly distinct.  I've looked everywhere and can't find them.  Best I could do is get on a waiting list at Hobbysearch, but taht could be months.  

If it helps any, when I was working on my Dias and faced this problem, I was thinking of bashing some regular 1:144 resin hands with the HGUC Dias hand parts to sort of fake the "thick palm" look - it might be worth attempting as a way to get the Dias hand look, at least, if not perfect Dias hands...

[Doctor Seleski]

Worked for a bit on a color scheme tonight.  Trying to keep up some steady work on it.  This is just a first go.  Going to try to add some color with some fancy decals.

DUEL of the DIAS!

[zerobxu]

This round goes to Phil--the only "work" I got done tonight was a little bit of paint on the "interior" of the base (spent most of the night sleeping off a headache).

I'm liking this color scheme, Phil--it's almost like an variation of the Matsunaga color scheme--but without the green.
EDIT: I just now looked at the color scheme on the "good" computer monitor at work. That's not like Matsunaga at all!!! I stand humbly corrected (and color-blind).

[zerobxu]

I've had a pretty good idea what I wanted the Rick Dias, itself, to look like by the end of Day 2. I'm still not 100% positive I'm going with what I have pictured, but I've already started some painting. In short, if I'm going to change my mind, then time is quickly running out.

It's not anything spectacular or extraordinairy, but it's not the normal red or black, so it stands out--if only a little. Just the way a good little OOB build should be. Now if I can just figure out how it's going to sit on that stupid base...

Although I've had some "formal"(?) training in Photoshop, I rarely use the program, and--as a result--had no idea how to properly colorize lineart. I could do it, but the result was the kind of picture I'd draw for my grandmother's refrigerator when I was six. Thanks to FichtenFoo's tutorial on colorizing lineart, I took a stab at it today. In short, I'm hooked. I'll be using this from now on to plan out the paint schemes a little better.

And here's the end-result:

DUEL of the DIAS!

The blue isn't quite true-to-life. When I tried to match that, the lineart took a turn for the eye-sore, even though the actual paint is quite flat/dull. In short, this is pretty close, but not 100% accurate. The various power cables (arms, legs, skirt) are going to be in a chrome-silver color, with gold (not yellow) at the ends. Visible joints (knees, knuckles) will be gunmetal. And, there'll be a smattering of decals (not pictured).

I doubt I'll get much of anything done on it tonight, but when there's some progress worth talking about, you'll hear it here first. Or something.

[Chopper Dave]

There is a much simpler way that might have already been mentioned before but I dont know >.>

Anyway in PS just open your lineart image (white background, black lines...pretty standard) and make a new blank layer. Set that layer style to Multiply. Then just grab a color you want with the paint brush and paint on the new layer. if you go outside the lines you can clean it up really easily with the Polygonal Lasso tool. Then repeat; making a new layer set on Multiply for every color you use.