Bluestone 42 - part 2

In the meantime I cut the jersey barrier from the polyurethane foam (leftover piece of insulation from somewhere).

With the scalpel I cut all the indentations and some chippings. Surface was brush-painted with Surfacer 500.

One of the lads was supposed to carry the shield. Bin lid would be a perfect for the purpose, but where to get 1/20 scale bin lid? I created a master for moulding out of the PET bottle cap and two rings of styrene...

...Then heated a sheet of ring binder cover over a candle and pulled it over the master. Worked OK at the 3rd try.

Quick spray with the primer to see if all is good.

I thought that it would be nice to have the zinc galvanized surface. I used variety of mixes of AK True Metal Silver, Aluminium and Gun Metal to recreate specs of zinc coating.

Just a little of buffing to get the slight sheen of the surface. It turned out nicely with different shines depending on the viewing anlge. Matte primer woked well as well allowing for not too deep of a shine.

Jersey barrier was sprayed with few shades of grey and then weathered with selection of diluted oils to get the different stains and weathering streaks.

Thin stips of aluminium foil (I sacrificed myself for this project with a generous serving of garlic chips) glued together with CA were used to create the net. Metal foils is nice and stiff, but allows for easy forming to required shape.

Bluestone 42 - part 1

This was a diorama that was sitting on my bench for over a year. The idea was born after watching British sitcom 'Bluestone 42', which was about a bomb disposal squad based in Afghanistan. 

My favourite characters are two Scottish gits Mac & Rocket. Always up to no good, and the most diorama worthy were their gladiator fights in episode 5 of the 3rd season.

I started with printing the skeletons scaled to the approximate heights in 1/20 scale, and rigged a simple copper wire frames for the figures.

Main non-movable parts (long bones, pelvis, skull and chest were sculpted from Magic Sculp. 

Once the initial frame was set, I could realistically pose my figures, as the body joints were in the right places. Then I added knees, elbows and other joints to set the poses.

 Next to sculpt were headsm hands and feet. Tools of trade are visible on the photo. I use dental tools to work the Magic Sculpt while it's still workable. Then, once set I use file, pointy scalpel and steel wool to sculp the details.

 The figures are almost 'engineered' rather than sculpted, with layers of clothing being added on top of the basic body shape..

To make the figures less boring - one is wearing a T-shirt and the other UBACS shirt. Shoe laces were made from the elastic rigging thread fixed with superglue.

Another Falklands diorama

Recently I came up with an idea for a Falklands War themed diorama. No figures, just a lot of hardware. For this I would need a heap of FN rifles.
Initial thought was to make the master from bits of plasticard, but then someone mentioned 3D printing service Shapeways. This would be a perfect excuse to try to use contemporary technology with potential use for future project.
I settled with 1:20 scale (I like metric scales...) which will allow for a bit more detail than typical 1:35th.

The rifle was modelled in CAD together with sprues, so it will be ready for casting straight out of the box:

Model was exported to STL format, and uploaded directly to Shapeways. This service allows for immediate feedback, depending on the material chosen. One or two minor tweaks were required, and the order was sent for processing.

About a week later a bix cardboard box landed at my doorstep. Inside - a very carefully packed my miniature FN FAL. I'm really impressed with the print quality.

Now I need to get some silicone, and resin.

Aerospatialle SA365N Dauphin 2 – Gallery

Probably the quickest build in my modelling career. Just over a month.

This is strict 'out of the box' build. Even the stand is made of the actual model's box. Since there was no scope for any detailing - I focused completely on the paint job. Red and white are a nightmare to work with. To make things worse - I tried to use the colour modulation technique to emphasize the natural shadows by varying brightness and hue of the paint. This, in theory, cheats the vision making the reception of the scaled object more realistic. It's barely visible on the finished model, but when turned upside down becomes very prominent.

This is the model of Icelandic Coast Guard Aerospatialle SA365N Dauphin 2 during its operational time, before the engine failure in 2007 resulting in ditching in the water during exercise flight.

Model itself is of reasonably good quality, but some sanding and filling is required. Canopy fit wasn't great, and I've worked on more detailed 1/72nd scale Trumpeter's models in the past than this 1/48th scale.

Here's the result of my recent work:

Aerospatialle SA365N Dauphin 2 – Part 8: last touches

Float covers got last bruch touch-ups to emphasize the fabric's minor ripples, and then sprayed with satin varnish to diffrenciate their surface from fuselage's metal gloss.

 Last pieces of masking! black areas around the exhausts, air inlets and anti-glare nose surface. Plain Tamiya XF-69 Nato Black without any modulation. For a change.

Anti-glare surface is just a coat of matte transparent varnish on the already painted nose section.

I didn't go mad on the weathering side. Just a tiny bit of exhaust stain that's visible on almost every photo of TF-SIF (except for the ones taken in the museum). I like airbrushing Tamiya's X-19 Smoke for the dark stains. It allows for good control over the intensity and area covered. X-19 is glossy by nature, so final matting around the area was done with transparent matte varnish.

One piece that's not strictly 'out of the box' is the antenna, but it's required by the model's assembly manual, so ticks the box. Another new purchase from Uschi van der Rosten - rigging line. No more damaging wife's tights. It's very thin stretchable thread that doesn't fray, and can be fixed with super glue. Isolators near the ends of the antenna were jsut small blobs of Surfacer, paintedd gloss black.

Aerospatialle SA365N Dauphin 2 – Part 7: final varnish

Last few elements left to be painted. Undercarriage assembled and painted  XF-80 Royal Light Grey. Shock pistons painted with mix of AK's True Metal mix of Silver and Gun Metal.

Float covers on the fuselage painted in XF-25 Light Sea Grey. As they are made of fabric I did some random shadows and highlights around the edges adding XF-2 White and XF-54 Dark Sea Grey to visually imitate uneven surface.

Some pin wash with oild paint Abteilung 502 Shadow Brown. I added some Buff colour to make the shadows less pronounced on the white areas.

Once the oils dried a little bit I wiped the was outside the crevices with the cosmetic buds. A lot of cosmetic buds.

Final coats of gloss varnish. I painted the upper fuselage first, let the varnish dry for 48 hours and then coated the underside, and put the whole assembly aside to cure in full.

I had some time to work on the base for the model while varnish was drying. Since it's rather strict 'out of the box' build - I didn't have much choice other than using what's in the box, or the box itself.

 I used the box art to create the plinth,

Finished base ready for the model.

Aerospatialle SA365N Dauphin 2 – Part 6: decals

Just, when I thought that sanding was a boring task. Masking again. This time for the red colour. I had to be rather precise to keep the constant distance from already painted blue colour.

Main body of red was sprayed with X-7 Red, and darkened in few places by adding few drops of X-3 Royal Blue. No need for highlights, as previously sprayed white coat showed through. Red doesn't cover very well, so preparing the undercoat is very important in achieving good, uniform finish.

 Masking for the nose was easy. XF-69 Nato Black with XF-1 Flat black for the areas where I wanted to emphasize the shadow.

Careful removal of the masks. I conveniently skipped all the overspray touch ups, as unfortunately I got the red colour getting under the mask in few spots. Reasonably easy fix - mask locally, and carefully airbrush locally to cover the overspray.

Coat of X-22 gloss varnish to prepare for the decals.

As feared. Decals turned out to be complete and utter rubbish. Decals dipped in water for few seconds merely touched, literally exploded like a sheet of glass. I managed to damage the tail flag and one of coat of arms before I gave up for the day and went for a walk to think of some sort of solution.

Tail flag was simply masked and sprayed. 0.4mm masking tape proved quite useful. I masked the shape and white areas first.

Sprayed the red cross, masked it and finally sprayed the blue areas.

This turned out rather well.

Coat of arms was painted freehand using wathmaker's loupe and 0000 brush. Turned out so-so.

To salvage the rest of the decals - I sprayed the sheet with rattle can clear gloss lacquer, and proceeded with application. The coat of varnish made the decals quite thick, so liberal application of Microscale Set/Sol decal softening fluids was essential.
I made a handy stand for the model out of the cardboard from the box to make it easier to apply the decals where I wanted them.

Once the decals dried everything was covered in yet another layer of X-22 clear varnish for protection and to build up smooth surface.