{"id":1655,"date":"2008-01-18T16:56:01","date_gmt":"2008-01-19T00:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/?p=1655"},"modified":"2009-02-11T17:36:04","modified_gmt":"2009-02-12T01:36:04","slug":"in-progress-%c2%bb-patrol-in-the-debris-field","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fichtenfoo.net\/blog\/in-progress-%c2%bb-patrol-in-the-debris-field\/","title":{"rendered":"In Progress \u00c2\u00bb Patrol in the Debris Field"},"content":{"rendered":"

01.06.08 \u00c2\u00bb Source, Concepts &
\nInitial Scratchbuilding<\/p>\n

The Dunehopper was starting to burn me out and
\nChristmas business left me with a few weeks without modeling.
\nInstead of going back to the DH, while almost done but close
\nto burning me out, I decided to start on something new and
\n“easy” to regain my modeling mental health. The
\nMaK suit kits are fairly small simple builds once you do a
\nfew and realize what parts will cause you trouble. I started
\nthis on 12.30.07 so what you see below is about 8 days of
\nwork.<\/p>\n

First up is a large piece of space debris from
\na destroyed ship which will support the two Fireball SG suits.
\nIt is constructed from some styrene I-beams and metal tubes
\nand rods. To the exterior, rivets were added made by placing
\ncut pin-heads into drilled holes. Dents and holes were added
\nby heating portions with a candle and pressing the soft plastic
\nwith various implements. The larger panels were curved by
\nheating them with a heat-gun and forming them over a large
\nbucket. The base is a nice heavy block of marble I liberated
\nfrom an old bowling-type trophy. Other miscellaneous torn
\nup panels and space scrap will be added later supported by
\nwire, tubing, and other items to make it look as if it is
\nfloating.<\/p>\n

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Next up are the two Fireball SGs. One is a Stock
\nFBSG while the other has some Raccoon parts to make it a recon
\nunit. I’ll be using the MechaSkunk FB-Bells which have a clear
\nplastic baffle to allow for lighting the bells up. In order
\nto facilitate this, each FBSG needed a small battery. I found
\na package of small 3 volt lithium batteries on clearance at
\nBig Lots which are PERFECT for this. They’re about the thickness
\nof a AA battery, but not quite as tall. Plus at 3 volts they
\nhave just enough power to run the 3.3 volt LEDs without the
\nneed for resistors. Below are pics of the batteries and the
\ninner holders I constructed for them. The holders sit on a
\nbrass tube that goes from arm-hole to arm-hole…<\/p>\n

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In order to give maximum support to the suspended
\nfireballs via their arms, I decided to really overenginneer
\nthe are supports. First is a single length of brass tubing
\nthat is mounted inside of the body. Inside of this, both arms
\nwill fit. For the arms a single piece of aluminum tubing (1
\nfor each limb) was bent into the desired pose. I decided to
\nuse a single tube instead of just pinning the subsections
\nfor added support. Over this aluminum tubing, cloth joint
\ncovers will be sculpted using Aves Apoxie Sculpt.<\/p>\n

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The legs don’t need as much support since they
\nwon’t be holding any weight. Therefore I just pinned them
\nusing copper wire. The leg and arm cavities were also taped
\non one end and filled with resin. This gives the pins and
\nsupport tubing extra support and also gives some nice rigidity
\nto the pieces.<\/p>\n

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As mentioned before, I’ll be using the MechaSkunk
\nFB-Bells to replace those that come with the kit. The kit
\nsupplied bells have a nasty seam down each side. Quite a pain
\nto clean-up nicely due to the raised ridges. Another added
\nbenefit of the MechaSkunk bells are the clear baffles which
\nhave an opening for a 3mm LED. To use these just glue the
\nbells as normal, then cut off the bell heads and glue on the
\nnew MS bells.<\/p>\n

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Lastly is the final poses for the Fireball SGs
\non the piece of debris. A piece of brass rod runs through
\nthe hand and into the wrist on one side and through the aluminum
\nsupport posts\/debris on the other giving it fantastic support.
\nWhat you see here uses no glue to hold it up! Whew! You can
\nalso see the sculpted joint covers and the start of my suit
\narmor texturing. To do the texturing I dabbed Un-thinned Tamiya
\nbasic gray putty on with a make-up sponge until it dried creating
\na textured and pitted surface. Then the roughness was smoothed
\ndown with some sanding film. I like this method better than
\nmy usual Mr. Surfacer texture. The texture is finer and I
\nfeel like I had more control.<\/p>\n

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01.11.08 \u00c2\u00bb Painting and Decaling<\/p>\n

First up for this update is the large hull section.
\nThis has been primed and painted with German Gray. Afterwards
\na gloss coat of Future Floor Acrylic was added to gloss it
\nup for the next step which will be the application of hair
\nspray and a lighter coat of gray to create a chipped surface.
\nMore on that, step-by-step later.<\/p>\n

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The Fireballs were given a camo scheme based
\non a drawing in a MaK book. I started with airbrushing on
\na light greenish beige to all the parts. Then a slightly darker
\ngreen was applied in spots to build-up the effect. After that
\na light blue was applied randomly. Finally the darkest green
\ncamo was applied. The result is a nice mottled and discolored
\nlooking camouflage.<\/p>\n

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A gloss coat of Future was applied then the
\nparts were decaled. Before painting the white highlights some
\nliquid mask was applied with a sponge to leave base-camo chips
\nthrough the white paint.<\/p>\n

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Next is the MechaSkunk bells which have been
\npainted. The process is as follows: First I polished the bare
\naluminum bells by spinning them on my drill and buffing with
\nsome fine steel wool. Next I gave them a thin coat of Alclad
\n2 Jet Exhaust. This was applied right over the bare aluminum
\nwith no primer. I’ve done this before and it works out great
\nleaving the shine of the aluminum intact. Over that I added
\na thin coat of Alclad 2 steel and pale burnt metal in spots
\nto make for some random blotching and heat tarnishing. More
\neffects will be added later with some blue oil paint and smoke
\npigments.<\/p>\n

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Last up is the exhaust pipes. First off I have
\nno clue why a space unit would have these, but whatever…
\nthey look cool and that’s what matters. After priming these
\nI used the Sophisticated Finishes Rust kit to texture and
\nrust them. Over the rust I rubbed powdered graphite from a
\n#2 pencil with my finger. Another coating of the rust solution
\nwas applied which blended in the graphite and gave it a little
\nmore rust. After a coat of prepared Matte Medium to seal it
\nI added a touch more graphite is a few raised spots then added
\nsome Mig Black Smoke pigment inside the exhausts.<\/p>\n

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01.12.08 \u00c2\u00bb Hair Spray Technique<\/p>\n

So a while back I got an issue of Tamiya Model
\nMilitary International magazine featuring an Euro winning
\nmodel by Phil Stutcinskas. Phil used hairspray in order to
\nachieve a realistic and fairly simple to do whitewash effect.
\nI wanted a smoother and easier way to do the massive amount
\nof chips and missing patches of paint on my debris so I decided
\nto borrow that technique. Here’s how it works:<\/p>\n

First I primed and basecoated my debris with
\ngerman gray Tamiya acrylic. This is a color I often use for
\nchips. Afterwards I coated it with a few layers of Future
\nFloor Acrylic using my airbrush.<\/p>\n

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The next day when that layer had cured I sprayed
\nthe outside of the piece with some Tresemme hairspray. Two
\ncaots worked well enough and it doesn’t leave a texture when
\ndried.<\/p>\n

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After the hairspray dried I sprayed the outter
\nhull with a light battleship gray I mixed up. I also sprayed
\nwhat would be part of a ship number in white over top of the
\nbattleship gray.<\/p>\n

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A few hours later I took a small bowl of warm
\nwater and a semi-stiff brush and began to rub the paint off.
\nThe water dissolves the water-based hairspray underneath and
\nloosens the top layers of paint. The paint comes off, but
\nnot easily so you have great control. toothpicks can be used
\non the wet surface to make scratches. I found that brushing
\na large section with water and letting it sit for a bit helped
\nto loosen the upper paint layers before rubbing.<\/p>\n

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Next up I’ll give it another coat of Future
\nto seal it all down before additional weathering.<\/p>\n

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01.14.08 \u00c2\u00bb More Chips<\/p>\n

Continuing with the hairspray and chipping process,
\nI’ve added several coats of gloss FFA and a coat of Satin
\nFFA to the debris. Seen below is after the gloss coats and
\nbefore the satin. You can also see the interior chipping.
\nFor the interior I used a different gray than the exterior.
\nBoth the interior and exterior have the same German Gray as
\nthe base however. The slightly darker interior gray is used
\nto depict primer where the exterior paint is the ships body
\ncolor. I also wanted the interior a little darker to make
\nthe fireballs pop more without getting lost.<\/p>\n

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Next is something I haven’t shown yet and that
\nis the various smaller pieces of debris that will be either
\nattached or floating with the large chunk. It’ll all be connected
\nwith wires, tubes and such and will look as if it’s floating
\nas well, caught in a dangerous webbing of wires and such.
\nI imagine this kind of mission would only be undertaken by
\nexperienced pilots as to help avoid being snagged in the debris.
\nI-beam and similar hull chunks are painted in the same primer
\ncolor as the large chunk interior. Deck-tan was used to the
\npart lining the interior of the vessle before being destroyed.
\nNon-slip diamon plated floor panels, interior siding, hatches,
\netc…<\/p>\n

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And finally I’m just about finished chipping
\nthe fireballs. For these I used the raditional fine-brush
\nmethod as well as sponges to apply the chips. I figured that
\nwading through a zero-gravity debris field with misc. scrap
\nhurtling by and sharp edges of metal would lead to a lot of
\nrandom scrape and dings to the paint. Before the chipping
\na satin coat of FFA was applied.<\/p>\n

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01.15.08 \u00c2\u00bb Discoloration<\/p>\n

Today I started the discoloration of the Fireballs
\nand wreckage using oil paints. Since I’ve described this technique
\nbefore in detail here<\/a>,
\nI’ll spare you the details and get to the pics. Here’s the
\nresults so far which is subtle and in the case of the Fireballs
\nnot very visible in the photos. I actually exagerated the
\nlook in the wreckage to make it look more aged and beat-up.
\nAgain, while the exterior would not rust, some would be able
\nto form on the interior due to humidity and oxygen.<\/p>\n

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01.16.08 \u00c2\u00bb Wash and Wear<\/p>\n

Today I finished the discoloration on the hull.
\nThe brownish color on the chipped parts is burnt umber. I
\nknow rust doesn’t form in space, but that doesn’t mean the
\nbase materials didn’t have rust before priming\/painting. Plus
\nthe brownish color looks a little like heat tarnish from the
\nexplosion and offsets\/balances the blue-gray. So really it’s
\nmore necessary from an artistic standpoint than anything else.
\nLOL!<\/p>\n

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I also gave the Fireballs a thin wash of black\/burnt
\number oils mixed with turpenoid. This left a nice thin layer
\nof grime, but isn’t so overwhelming as you’d see on a ground
\nbased unit. The FB’s also recieved a final flat-coat as they’re
\npretty much done hull-wise. Next I have to paint the joint
\ncovers using oils only since they simulate cloth and for me,
\noils are the way to go to paint cloth.<\/p>\n

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Here’s the final shots of the bells as well.
\nSince the last time I photographed these they recieved some
\nblue and black streaking on the insides and some blue heat
\ntarnish on the exteriors. They were finished up with a satin-coat
\nand are ready to be installed and lit.<\/p>\n

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01.17.08 \u00c2\u00bb Hunk of Junk<\/p>\n

Here’s some not-so-great shots of the debris
\nbeing put together so far. This part is done, but I have a
\nfew more chunks of debris that will be attached to the arm
\nof the lower Fireball as if he’s pushing it out of the way
\nto proceed. Here’s some shots and a mock-up of how the extra
\ndebris will be added.<\/p>\n

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01.18.08 \u00c2\u00bb Ignition!<\/p>\n

Let there be light! The bells and batteries
\nare all wired up now and look great. The nice part about the
\nLED being in the translucent part is that if you don’t prime\/paint
\nthe back of the translucent baffle the light can still shine
\nthrough the thin coat of primer\/paint\/weathering. I experimented
\nwith several colored LEDs but all of them were too rich in
\ncolor. I finally settled on bright white LEDs dipped in clear
\nred-orange. This gave me a great orangish glow without being
\ntoo electroniclly “amber”. Below are shots of the
\nbells lit and unlit and with the lights on and off. You can
\nalso see the exhaust covers I recasted from my Raptor to reuse
\non these. Adds a little more visual interest.<\/p>\n

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Below are the same white LEDs. One OOB and one
\ndipped in clear red-orange.<\/p>\n

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