Fishy trees

Diorama accessories in any modelling scale are a must, but in 1/6 scale there are few and those are expensive, but there are alternatives to those manufactured for the scale.

Remember my fish tank cavern walls?

Well, I have once again dived into the murky waters of the fish-keeping world... and found tree trunks!

Cast in resin the tree trunks are hollow and well detailed, although swarming with pin holes.  Since the cast bark texture is very coarse (realistically so) these are nearly all unnoticeable.

I shall repaint them and add the likes of moss and other plant growth on them, but for £2.99 each I really can't complain.

They work well with 1/6 figures as smallish fallen logs... perfect for rural, forest or jungle dioramas/photo set-ups.

I shall be diving back into the fish tank soon to see what else I can find...

From junk...

You know how it is... you're feeling below par, feeling sorry for yourself and just lying down hoping to sleep the sickness off... lying there staring into space wishing the churning in your guts would stop... I was like that on Thursday evening, just lying on my bed staring into space and my eyes lighted on an old air freshener like one of these:

With the label peeled off you are left with three or four leaf-shaped holes.
So what? you may ask... well, the model maker in me saw something else...

I added a couple of knobs I was sent by my mate Bob Aucutt and instant retro style radio.

All I need to do is paint it a nice bakelite tortoise shell pattern, add some screening material behind the cut-outs, paint the knobs and add a frequency dial and hey presto nice little diorama accessory :)

Always pays to look at something you would normally discard with a fresh perspective... sometimes junk is junk, but other times...

More head painting

The title of this post is a little misleading as this time I was asked to paint eyes.

My previous Tom Baker head repaint was well received but I was asked to redo the eyes as I made them look a bit bloodshot...

Hmm...may have a point... so anyway, I repainted the eyes and took the opportunity to lighten the skin a shade too as there seemed to be some damage in the form of white crusts in a few places.

Might need to add a bit more colour before I post it back, but it looks better already.

The same chap also asked me to repaint his Clara Oswald figure's eyes.
The original head has rather khaki brown eyes whereas Jenna Coleman has very warm dark amber eyes.  So, out with the Tamiya clear orange and a couple of coats later they were looking lovely, even if I do say so myself.

Makes a world of difference.

Kitbashing gadgets 2

You may recall that I was working on this item of equipment for my science lab diorama model:

I have since added more knobs and toggle switches (thanks to good egg Bob Aucutt - lovely chap, produces a range of action figures in retro spacesuits and other screen-inspired costumes: Bobs Toy Box Studios LLC)

I still have some small details to add, but decided to spray the wireless set as these extra details are small and won't be painted green anyway.

I opted for Tamiya's British Green over Humbrol Grass Green to give a fairly non-descript colour which looks sort of military.  It'll be aged and scuffed up a bit with several areas repainted or covered in Bare Metal Foil for variety.

Looks a bit like a glutinous mass of green at the moment but it'll take shape as more details are painted in.

I added 'YUTANI' from vinyl lettering and will pick it out with wear and tear... why Yutani?  I just like the idea of visual references to random SF concepts...

More to come :) 

Painting a Head

A few years ago I repainted a Big Chief Studios 4th Doctor head for myself as I felt it was a very poor representation of the Doctor as played by Tom Baker.  The eyes boggled too much and they gave him rather clownish 'hobo' stubble/five o'clock shadow... why?  Bit strange.
Anyway, I repainted the head (my first) and it turned out okay.  I'm no Darren Carnall (Facebook page) but it looked fine to me.
I painted a couple of others with varying degrees of success.
I was later asked to repaint a smiling head for the same figure which seemed okay, although it received some criticism from some quarters.
I don't fool myself, when it comes to painting heads I am strictly a hobby painter and that's it... even so I still have the odd person asking for a repaint.  I normally say no as I can't guarantee it'll turn out okay, but recently I buckled and agreed to repaint another 4th Doctor head.

The head as is comes like this:

This image is from Michael Crawford's review of the figure... I don't have a 'before' photo sadly.

http://www.mwctoys.com/images2/review_drwho_3.jpg

So, biting the bullet I mixed up a basic skin tone and covered the head (minus the hair).

As you can see the underlying sculpt is clearly very good and captures Tom Baker's likeness to a T.

I then applied another layer in a mix of colours with some general shading - I did this to allow for some skin texture as PVC heads seem rather smooth... I may have overdone it but the final results look okay.

Next came the final skin tone... more shading and some lighter tones to add a bit more life.  At this point I also painted in Tom's 1970s Noddy Holder style sideburns...

Finally I touched in the lips, added some more colour to the skin and painted the eyes... the latter could have been neater but my eyes aren't what they used to be...

I also tried it out with my own figure's hair to see how it looked... and it looks okay to me.

All I need to do now is touch in the eyebrows and that's it.  The chap I painted it for seems happy enough with it, and that's good enough for me.

If I can do it I think any competent model maker with experience in painting larger figures could do it... with a likeness this good painting it is a pleasurable experience.

Caverns and Tunnels

My aim is to try and recreate in miniature what I saw on TV and in films when I was a lad: budgets were low and imagination was paramount.  Up to now it's mostly been about building retro technology and a multi-use corridor section... however sometimes you come across something that just shouts YES!! at you.
Such was the case when I came across something by accident - fish tank environment backgrounds... these are Chinese made moulded polystyrene sheets with rock texture and basic weathering with a dry brush.  I took a punt and ordered a couple of dark rock walls.

The sheets arrived from a UK seller within a week and I was bowled over by the size - they're roughly A2 size (about the size of a flip-chart sheet)... but as light as a feather.

The surface texture is nice and deep, but there are annoying ejector pin marks all over the place - these can be removed in Photoshop or GIMP (I bought these for photos rather than permanent display).

These two photos show the texture and ejector pin marks...

When used for photography they can produce spectacular results...

I'm happy that my habit of thinking outside the box paid off as I don't think I could have taken photos like these with a home made section of cavern or tunnel wall.

I shall be checking out more fish tank/aquarium stuff in the future...