Ultrawerke

Manticore missile system update

2009-11-08T23:05:00.004+01:00

I managed to make some progress on the Manticore during last weeks. I finally chose to use the 1:48 Phoenix from the Hasegawa kit to represent the manticore missile.

Now it seem more menacing, although it has an A/A feeling. I will try to fix this during painting stages adding some camo scheme to the missiles, instead of the white color we tend to see on A/A units.

Manticore missile system

2009-08-19T22:52:00.003+01:00

Well, I suppose I should update my work on the Malcador, which in fact is progressing steadily. However, as I am currently enjoying some free days, I immediately switched to another project I had in mind (you know how it is, fellow modelers...), during the few spare minutes that the Stalker game is leaving me those days, leaving the Malcador temporally aside.

The Manticore missile system is a very interesting vehicle I wanted to make for a long time. In any case, I wanted to build something different to the canonic FW Manticore (I mean, not using that chimera hull again and again), so I glued a spare set of tracks I had lying around to a Ragnarok hull and started working on the antenna set.

I tried to obtain a russian-flavoured vehicle, sporting a huge antenna array to direct those Manticore rockets to their unaverted targets, so I scratchbuilt a large receiver antenna with some evergreen strips and placed an emitter dome at the front.

Rockets will be added later from the Hasegawa 1:48 weapon set (probably the Phoenix missile system, although I am hesitating to use a lower tech-like candidate from the same kit, like the GBU-24 Paveway III).

I added some pics from the progress so far…

Shot down Malcador

2009-06-22T00:11:00.001+01:00

The Malcador is a vehicle which fascinated me from the very moment Forgeworld released it. It’s lines are so WWI that I immediately imagined it on a mud-and-razor-wire trench scenario.

I wanted to scratch build one of them, but this time I though about a little vignette in which I could display the tank pondering though razor wire and concrete defenses.

I finally decided to display it shot down (this is the good thing about scratchbuilding things, you do not need to put any constraint on your model). This Malcador was shot down by enemy fire, ammo exploded making the riveted joints to break away.

I have progressed on the right side so far… More to come.

Snow tutorial

2009-06-06T01:00:00.001+01:00

Once I finished my entry last week I noticed that I could have made a little tutorial about working with snow.

As the diorama was far from being complete, I took advantage of next stages to take some pictures (I also used my wife’s brand new camera, which is actually so complex that it only lets you to push the big button and does everything by itself).

I use the traditional snow recipe used for ages by many modelers: bicarbonate and PVA.

You will need water, PVA glue, bicarbonate and gloss acrylic varnish (I used Future here, but you can use the one you prefer).

I mixed equal parts of PVA and water, added a generous quantity of gloss varnish and then added more and more bicarbonate until the mix gets a slurry consistence.

I also water down some of the original mix in another container.

Once I get the right consistency, I carefully pour the thicker mix on the diorama.

The bicarbonate mix will naturally adopt shapes similar to those formed by real snow.

Even though, you will need to shape it with a flat tool.

I used the watered down mix to soften the edges with a large brush.

I prepared a even more watered mix –adding a bit more of gloss varnish- to represent snow and ice which got into recesses (like the thread marks on the ground).

I start applying it to the tank (you need to do this in many stages, allowing the mix to dry between them in order to not overdo it).

And this is the result for the moment being. As you see is quite easy to do and a lot of fun. Once it is dry, you need to seal the bicarbonate with gloss varnish. This will give it the right satin finish and seal it to avoid it to get yellow tones over time.

WWII Stug III Aus G

2009-05-24T01:06:00.005+01:00

Even as my job leaves me not too much spare time, I sometime manage to get some work done on my different projects.

This is a 1:48 Sturmgeschütz III kit from Tamiya I had liying around half-painted for some years. Once I moved to my new home, I decided to finish it, adding some kind of snow terrain. At the last minute I decided to represent it crushing a wooden fence just to add some drama.

The vignette is half finished, though, and still need a lot of work to be complete, but I wanted to share it with you.

The stug is painted in a battered winter camo scheme. As you see, the crew has added wooden logs to try to compensate for the loss of the left schurzen. The general look want to represent a battered vehicle badly in need of some maintenance.

The dirt is done mixing plaster, MIG pigments, PVA and some sand. Snow is done by mixing bicarbonate, PVA, water and gloss varnish until the mix is quite slushy. I poured it and flattened it with the help of a palette.

The vignette is far from being finished. Next steps include completing the snow (I run out of bicarbonate), adding some of it to the tracks and over the stug, finish the tree, completing the road... All the little details that unite the diorama as a whole.

Modelling tip: Filling resin defects

2008-12-14T19:29:00.018+01:00

No matter how careful you are, or how much do you spend in pressure chambers or vibrating trays, it is difficult to avoid having some bubbles in your cast pieces. The same is also true with Forgewold kits.

I normally used two component putty (as A+B or Duro) to fill imperfections, but I found a product that is far more efficient for filling small bubbles and defects. It is a hard wax typically used to fill scratches in wood furniture.

The wax is soft enough to be easily worked with a modeling tool.

You just fill the hole and its done. Once painted you would not notice anything.

The same is evidently true for this Forgeworld mortar. I will later put a drop of cyaonoacrilate on top to harden the wax and glue a new rivet in place to substitute the missing one.

The wax technique is very useful for those bubbles appearing in rivets and pother ointy places.

You just rub softly the wax stick over the defect...

And it's easily filled.

You just need to remove the excess wax.

This is most convenient for all those rivets in imperial tanks (a.k.a.: "bubble magnets").

You can fill dozens of defective rivets in seconds.

Once the excess is removed, it's hard to notice it.

After all those months... I am finally back

2008-12-05T01:06:00.004+01:00

Dear friends:

Many months has passed from my last update. They have been very busy months indeed! Changing to a new job, moving back to my birthplace, living during many months at a rented flat, finding a place to live and finally get back to what can be considered as "normal life".

You know what? I am finally back!

I had not too much time lately for my models (mainly as they where locked away in a warehouse), but I did find some hours to continue weathering my bombard and ammo carrier... Let me show you some new pics:

I am not yet happy with this rusted effect, but I think am am very close to complete it...

The models some hours before! Please note the clean look of the ammo carrier on the back.

Let's see how much I can progress in the following days... I promise to update the blog often!

Modelling Tip : How to fit Chimera and Leman Russ tracks

2007-11-25T18:06:00.002+01:00

(versión en Español)

A lot of modelers have the same problem when facing a Chimera or Leman Russ kit: The tracks does not fit. No matter how much you try or how much you read the instructions, those tracks will not fit properly.

Of course, this is a well known problem, but until Games Workshop develops an alternative track sprue we need to find some solution. There are people that simply leave some missing links in the lower part, where they would not be seen, or that leave them in the upper part, covered by track guards.

As a fellow modeler asked me what I did to solve the problem, I did this quick walkthrough.

First of all, I use polystyrene cement. It allows the pieces to be adjusted after being glued. Cyanoacrylate (superglue) sets too fast for that.

I only add six road wheels, preferring to save the rest and glue the tracks to the sides.

I use the handy sanding pads from Rhino for removing sprue marks. This is important if you want the tracks to be glued to the sides.

Let's start with those links.

I start from the upper front of the track set. As I said before, I glue the tracks mainly to the sides. If a link lies on a wheel, I obviously apply glue to it. But I want the track to be parallel to the sides (If you look closely at the pic below, you would see that the end of the long track section is not in contact with the wheel, but parallel to the side).

We continue adding links with the same idea in mind.

Now it's nearly complete, we only need one of those big tracks sections.

Well, we knew it would not fit, isn't it?

And this is the trick, it is most probable that there are a lot of people already doing it, but some other would probably find it useful

Just cut the end of the track section like this:

You will end with a reduced track link.

Sand the end a little to give it a rounded shape.

And that is. A shorter link at the bottom part of your tracks. Once painted, I assure you that even if you flip your model upside down, you'll need to closely inspect the link to notice that something is wrong.

Death Korps of Krieg Trench Digger

2007-11-17T11:41:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

That was to be my entry at the Lt. Walke's WIP contest. Unfortunately, Real Life issues prevented me to finish on time. Not that this represents a problem for me, as I can now concentrate on the kind of detailing I prefer.

When Lt. Walke asked for support vehicles, I immediately thought on the DKOK and their bias to large maze-like trench systems. I thought that being this the future, and with all those techpriests and engineseers to help, they would have probably developed an autonomous trench-digging engine.

As it was to be set on 40K, it's clear that it would have to had some characteristics like hugeness, "clankyness", armor and firepower (being 40K I imagine that the grim Korps would dig their trenches in the middle of heavy assaults from hordes of xenos, making some last stands on their way and so)(and THIS is exactly what I really like of Warhammer 40000, mates...).

Having said that, I picked a really old and bad industrial scraper kit a bought for 5€ ages ago (I knew I would someday use it, BWAHAHAHA!) and recycled the bucket for my sacred and revered engine of construction.

I used chimera sides for the digging part and resin sides for my Ragnarok-like set. The hulls are scratchbuilt from plasticard, throwing some styrene parts from bargain 1/35 kits I hunted on eBay. As some fellow WIP pointed me, the chimera tracks looked too small and close to the sides of the freshly dug trench, so I added some extra pieces to add a winterketten-like feeling to the rear part.

The most interesting thing is that, incidentally, the front part works really well by itself, so I am planning to make some magnetized add-ons to use it as an independent engineers vehicle.

This is still a WIP, thought, a lot of work remains to be done on the rear part.

Ultrawerke is now in Spanish!

2007-11-16T20:46:00.000+01:00

Not a lot of work to show lately (although the DKOK trench digger is taking shape), but I have some important news (from my point of view).

After many mails asking me to do it, I finally decided to translate the blog to my mother tonge: Spanish.

So, if you feel more comfortable reading in Spanish just visit Ultrawerke Spanish. I hope I can translate everything in about 30 days, then the two blogs will run in parallel.

Hope you enjoy it:

Ultrawerke

Scratchbuilding tip: Barrel Rifling

2007-09-27T22:52:00.002+01:00

(versión en Español)

This scratchbuilding tip is intended for those people owning large 40K siege guns (medusa, bombard or even the most extreme example ever: Dora).

If you are real treadheads like me, you would look at your models and feel that something is missing... Yes, those huge barrels of yours are lacking any kind of inner detail. Something very upsetting (if you are like me), but you will see that this can be easily fixed !

I saw this technique on a hobby magazine. The author used it on a sturmtiger, but it can be applied to any large-barreled model.

I am going to add rifling detail to my (still unpainted) bombard.

I first take a thin polystyrene strip.

I cut a curved shape on a thick piece of polystyrene (to use it as a pattern) and paint evenly spaced marks on the thin strip.

I used the pattern to make light grooves with my scriber.

This is the finished piece, although I should have cut the ends following the grooves... Now there is going to be a line where the ends met (next time I'll do it right).

The finished piece once it is glued on place.

There is a nasty line where the ends met... I'll fix it with some putty, although I strongly recommend you to cut the ends folloving the curved grooves shape.

Now, you artillery will shine :)

Finished Forgeworld Centaur

2007-08-31T19:43:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

I finally completed my Forgeworld Centaur. Just in time for the WIP Lt Walke Challenge. I wanted to enter a scratchbuilt vehicle too (something a bit crazy: a DKOK armoured trench-maker) but real life issues prevented me from finishing it on time. Maybe for the next contest...

The great thing about these contests is that they give you that extra motivation you need to finish your works. Something that I need from time to time.

Those last weeks, I added the crew, dirtied everything a little more and changed the front light for something more realistic.

This is the result. Hope you like it! Now it's time to decide what I do next...

Rust weathering tutorial (With MIG Pigments)

2007-08-18T20:18:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

Today we are going to talk about rust effects on scale models. We are going to do a quick approach to rusting techniques using pigments and a little oil paint.

Rust is an important part of a weathered model, but as with any weathering technique it is easy to overdo it. We should be always very careful when applying it, understanding how rust develops, under what kind of ambient conditions and checking continously against reference material.

In nature, rust appears as a reaction of the metallic elements of a vehicle (for example) and oxigen. This reaction will be accelerated by the presence of water, specially salt water, and damped in dry ambient. Having said that, a vehicle abandoned on a beach will not rust in the same way as a vehicle operating on a desert. Weathering on your model should always be consistent with the conditions it is supposed to suffer.

We are try to quickly replicate four types of rust. It is going to be a little too quick, so the results will be certainly overkill, but this is just to see some easy techniques that produce very good rust finishes with little effort.

Moderate rust over painted surface: The paint will have some rust points. This happens when water gets into a scratch and rust start to develop.
Serious rust over painted surface : The rusted points have developed a lot over time, making a sort of craters on the paint. This kind of rust only develops on unattended vehicles on very wet conditions (or the ones belonging to a Chaos Army, of course...)
Bare metal rusted away : Just a bare metal surface with some serious rust.
Extremely rusted surface : This only happen when you have something rusting away during ages on a very wet ambient (like a beach).

Enough talk for the moment! Let's start working on it.

I have a resin miscast lying around that will serve for our purposes:

I do a quick priming job with some grey Vallejo paint and divide it in four regions. As this is going to be something really quick, I will not use an airbrush at all. Dry times will be sped up with a hairdryer.

I will need some texture for effects 2 and 4, so I start preparing some dilluted PVA.

I apply it over area #4.

And then I sprinckle bicarbonate over it, eliminating the excess.

I apply some PVA in area #2, on the places where I want a rust "crater" to break the paint and add more bicarbonate.

Now I paint the rust craters on #2 and the entire #3 and #4 areas with a dark rust colour. In our case, I used Vallejo Panzer Aces 302 "Dark Rust". Once it is dry we have the undercoat ready.

Now I protect the rust craters with some liquid mask. I used Vallejo Liquid Mask, but you could use Maskol or any similar product.

Better apply it with a toothpick, because this stuff literally stucks to the paintbrushes, leaving them unusable. I also put little drops elsewhere for further weathering.

Now we apply some paint coats. I do a 50/50 mix of acrylic paint and gloss varnish. I used Tamiya's X22 Clear and XF55 Deck Tan in our example.

The reason for the gloss varnish it's that it makes the paint much harder once dry, giving also a satin finish that is ideal for further weathering techniques. The only problem is that the paint will have less coverage, but as you normally use an airbrush to apply it this doesn't matter a lot. We also looked for a harder finish to develop the craters in #2.

As in this example we are not using an airbrush, I applied thin coats, drying them with a hairdryer. This had an unexpected and very interesting effect, as the varnish/paint mix will develop some cracks (exposing the undercoat) and texture when forced to dry. Something that we are going to use in our favor! (Although something to use very carefully in a plastic model, as you can literally melt the plastic!).

Now we are going to carefully remove liquid mask with a cutter and a pair of tweezers. Don't worry if you leave some liquid mask on the borders, this is exactly the effect we want.

This is the result.

Now, we are going to develop a bare metal finish for #3. Just rub a pure graphite stick over the undercoat and then burnish the graphite with your finger. You can add some reflects in silver, but it's not really neccesary.

Time for your trusty pigments. I use MIG pigments for many reasons. They have the right colours, they come in small quantities (lasting years of normal use) and I find they have a fair quality/price relationship.

MIG produces three rust shades atthe moment (and copper rust), but you can also use other pigments to gain chromatic variety. I normally use P230 Old Rust, P025 Standard Rust, P024 Light Rust, P033 Dark Mud and P031 Vietnam earth. But you can play with other shades... You never know when you are going to discover something new (as seen with the paint and the hairdryer before).

Now we do a wash using odourless turpentine (Talens 089) and a little P230 Dark Rust. You could also use alcohol instead of turpentine, but as the paint is not cured overnight I would ruin everything in a matter of seconds. Better stick to the turpentine for now.

I apply the wash to the rusted areas, I dillute it even more and give an irregular glaze over the painted areas.

We let it dry, and repeat the operation with P025 Standard Rust, letting dry again and then with P024 Light Rust. I dilluted the wash a bit more at each step. This is the result once everything is dry:

Now we get a little Dark Umber oil paint. I used Van Gogh oils, but you can use any oil brand available. Do not try to substitute it with acrylics or gouaches. Water based products will not interact with the mineral spirits we are using here. And water do not have the right surface tension to do this effects (once you try a turpentine-based wash, there is no way back!).

I paint some Dark Umber points over the painted areas.

In theory, I should use my airbrush to pump turpentine at low psi over the oil paint. This will make the points fade and develop a nice rust point effect. As I am not going to use an airbrush, I just put some turpentine drops over the painted areas with an eyedropper and then I blended the point very carefully with a pointed brush.

This is the result once dry. It lacks some shadows and variety, as there are only rust effects everywhere. The light rust it's a bit excesive on this area, so I should have darkened it a bit with a dark wash. A last thing, if those rust points were on a vertical surface, I would have done rust streaks running down instead of letting them accumulate around the rust point.

This is the metal area. Nothing to say here, although at this state it's a bit boring. I would probably had put some dust and more rust tones to make it more interesting.

The Extra-Rusted surface is really easy to do. A bit monochrome... Maybe it still needs some light coloured washes to break monotony.

And last, but not least... My favourite one. I would still darken the rust a bit, make some shadows and dust the area a little, but if you zoom on the image, you'll see that this technique gives a very realistic chipped paint texture effect. If the craters where more naturally placed and with just a bit more of work, the effect would be very realistic in deed.

DIY Punch and Die set (Rivets, Bolts and Nuts tutorial)

2007-08-02T11:18:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

As I feel too lazy to do a proper post (weather it's too hot in Spain at this time of the year), I will revamp an earlier one I did on WIP about riveting techniques. Hope you like it :)

In fact, I have been asked many times how do I produce all those rivets I use on my scratch built models (about 500 hundred for a medium tank).

Having the right tool at hand helps a lot. However, the tools available at stores are pretty expensive (check this excellent tool from Historex Agents):

Historex's Punch and Die set

If we want to produce simple flat, round rivets (there is also one set for hex nuts and bolts, but it is outside of the scope of this tutorial), there is a simple way to build a homemade punch and die set... This is how I made mine:

We will need the following tools:

Low-speed/High-torque drill/screwdriver. You can use a normal drill, but avoid high-speed settings. The one shown here simply excels at making small diameter holes in hard materials.
Drill bits. One for each rivet diameter desired. Those ones are already prepared for electric screwdrivers.
For diameters under 1 millimeter, you will need normal bits and:
Finger chuck for screwdrivers. It is is used to adapt the bits to the screwdriver (you can substitute the screwdriver for another power tool, but I recommend you to use always low rpm's if you don't want to snap bit after bit).
Center punch. For marking the start of the hole in the metal.
Hammer (same as above).
Oil. Used to lubricate bits while drilling metal. Just place some drops from time to time or the bit could get stuck and break.

This image shows the materials I used:

You will need:

A piece of steel. I bought it at a hardware store.
A piece of clear plastic of the same size. I obtained it from one discarded bay cover of my PC.
2 small brass (or plastic, wood, whatever...) rods with top screws. The screws are nice, but not really needed, I took those from my office.
You can not see it, but there are four adhesive pads on the bottom to separate it from the working surface.

I put together the metal and plastic plates, securing them with strong adhesive tape, I drilled the holes for the brass rods at both ends of the metal piece, starting to drill from metal to the plastic (this is important) and trying to dril the hole as perpendicular as possible (if you have a drill press, use it).

Then I glued the brass rods to the metal piece. What we have now is a metal base with a clear plastic cover that can be raised. Now, what we have to do is to drill other holes anywhere you like for each rivet size desired.

We have finished our die. To use it, slide a plasticard sheet inside, trap it with the clear lid, put a punch in its hole (as shown above) and use the hammer.

You wil probably not find punches for the smaller rivet sizes (1 mm or less). However, I found a solution in the page of a german guy (Unfortunately, that page no longer works).

He simply used the same drills used to drill the holes as punches (the flat part gets in contact with the plasticard). I have reserved some cheap or broken drills for this.

Time to start riveting our models!

RIVETS

You well need the punch and die set, suitable punches, a small hammer, some glue, a hobby knife and a little (rather thin) plasticard.

You can see that I have made many small plasticard disks, now I will put then in place.

First, I put a small drop of glue in place.

Then I hold a rivet using the point of a hobby knife (if you use a new blade, this is much better than using tweezers, believe me) and put it in place.

The final result:

BOLTS AND NUTS

There are punch and die sets capable of making hex pieces, but for our purposes we will suppose we do not have one of them.

In order to do the nuts we will need hex poliestirene rods of different measurements:

I select the desired width and cut regular slices with my hobby knife.

I put a drop of styrene cement in place

And put the bolt on.

If I wanted to do a nut and bolt, I would then do some rivets, smaller than the nut I have just did.

Then I put a drop of cement in place...

And proceed exactly as I did above with the rivets:

And that is. As you can see it is not very difficult, it just requires a little patience to be done. You can also use those tiny styrene disks as other things instead of rivets: coins, lids, lenses, etc.

Forgeworld Centaur

2007-07-20T18:41:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

All my friends know my opinion about Forgeworld... I had always maintained that quality-price relationship was not good enough.. That you could scratchbuild better models on a fraction of the cost, and so on... you know that I mean.

Well, at least it was until they released their Death Korps of Krieg Range. Then I had to admit that the figures were in fact... very interesting... German-like gas-masked troops? count me in... Even worse, Forgeworld continued releasing more Krieg tanks, support weapons, infantry... Real-looking trenches... Wow! Those guys must have been somehow reading our collective-gamer mind.

Then, I finally cracked and bought some DKOK stuff from Forgeworld. It was expensive, but I was not dissapointed when I got it on my hands.

I am going to talk here about the little Centaur gun carrier... It is my first experience with Forgeworld resin range (not my first experience with resin, as you know) and I had learnt some things on the way.

The kit is presented in a bag, with an instructions leaflet wich is very clear. Some pieces had a little warpage. some had casting defects and all of them were covered in that resilient demoulding agent everybody knows about.

Casting quality of the vehicle is not too bad, although not to the moderns standards of some aftermarket brands on 1:35. Compared to other older Forgeworld kits I ordered in the same batch it is clear that they have improved a lot, but you should expect some nasty moulding lines and other defects requiring filling, sanding and sometimes reconstructing rivet detail and so. That might sound bad, but this is in fact something normal in most resin kits on the market.

On the other hand, casting quality of the troopers is simply astounding. Nearly invisible moulding lines, practically no defects or bubbles and an incredible level of detail (I DO know I am going to enjoy painting them).

Those are the pieces presented in the kit:

I did some colour testing before even thinking about cleaning the pieces. I prefer to see the actual coulours in a piece of white paper instead of comparing them on the jars. For this model I am going to use the Vallejo Model Air range. It is like the standard vallejo paint, but already dilluted for airbrush use.

Well, I also did as everyone recommends in the forums around. Wash the pieces in hot water, using soap and a toothbrush. I really tried to remove the demoulding agent, but you'll see later that this stuff is really horrible! Next time I'll test some lacquer thinner... let's see who is the winner (I hope not to melt the resin with it, this is why I call it a test).

As you see, there are some imperfections that I am going to remove with those burrs and my trusty Dremel tool.

I had to practically redo this slot, something easy with a Dremel in hand.

This is the nasty moulding line I talked before. I simply flattened the area with a diamond coated file and reconstructed missing details with plasticard rivets.

The model is already primed and basecoated. I used Vallejo's primer and then a mix of Model Air paint and X22 Tamiya Clear varnish. Adding gloss varnish to the base coat gives it further adherance and strength. It also gives it a satin finish wich is useful when weathering the model.

I masked it with Tamiya's Masking Tape and gave it the next colour coat.

Like this.

I masked it again, giving it the third coulour coat.

I removed the masking tape to show the camo pattern (did I mentioned I did not like it at all?). You can also see that the demoulding agent is still there (look to the right part of the model). I really don't know what kind of demoulder Forgeworld is using, maybe something from the Chaos Lords. But I can assure you that it is really a pain to work with it.

In any case, I solve it doing a mix of the missing colour, X22 and applying it by brush.

Anyway, I do not like my coulour choice, even after adding some filters.

Time to start again. I always say that it's better to start again than trying to correct a mistake. I mask the model again.

And use different coulours this time.

Now, that is different.

Third coulour is a) too similar to the one I used on the habitacle and b) I used too much varnish (can you see the seams?).

No problem at all, I am going to weather heavily this little fella. So I'll use those seams to my advantage.

Of course, what we get now is a boring, monochrome, and uninteresting model. Weathering is supposed to tell us a story. I want to give the viewer the impression that this Centaur is operating in the harsh conditions of trench war scenario. There is plenty of mud, and the crew had not the time to properly clean it after a while. There is going to be a mix of new, fresh mud over dry mud layers. Some rust and many scratches are going to be present too.

I used the same techniques I shown you in the Painting and Weathering Tutorial. It is still WIP, as I have to work to do in the mud (doing mud properly can take you longer than the model itself, mud is a world in its own) but you can see how the Centaur is going to look.

Next time I'll finish the vehicle and start working on the crew.

Death Korps of Krieg Earthshaker

2007-06-23T21:32:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

Some busy weeks have passed on real life, meaning that I did not have the spare time or energy to properly update this blog.

I hope to change things a little in the future and add new tutorials... For the moment being, I am going to talk about my Death Korps of Krieg Earthshaker project.

I started this project as I leaved on Easter Holydays. As I was not to be at at home, having limited resources then, I wanted to start something that was simple to build.

I thought that I could buy a 1:35 kit and convert it to W40K standards instead of building everything from scratch. I finally chose the M115 Howitzer from AFV Club as the base for the earthshaker.

The  model's  detail  is  very  fine,  sporting  an aluminum barrel (with rifling detail inside) rubber wheels and many tiny pieces. After building so  many  GW  models,  I  even  found  challenging  to  mount  some parts correctly.

I  thought  that  the  way  of  turning  this model to a 40k one, included building DKOK wheels and a gun shield from scratch.

I built the first wheel prototype, which I did not completely liked. Then did a second one, avoiding the mistakes I did on the first one. I find it is  faster  to  sometimes  start again from zero than trying to fix early mistakes.

Once it was finished, the good wheel was resin cast to make ten copies.

The smaller wheels are intended for my future superheavy tank projects.

Once I had added all custom pieces on the model, I started to think about the leg ends. After checking a lot of references in www.tanxheaven.com I built the ends from scratch. I also added some working detail for making the link to the towing cart.

The result is way bigger than its Forgeworld counterpart, but well, this is 40K after all!

I first thought to use a trojan to tow the gun, but I think I'll build a custom carrier in the near (I hope) future...

Painting and Weathering Tutorial: Part IV (and last)

2007-05-27T12:21:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV

Today, we are going to finish this tutorial. I have also edited previous entries to put the exact paint I used on each stage, so feel free to check them again.

You'll notice that I painted some small areas, like the storm bolter and so. Those are not important enough to enter on details, just put a coat or two of Vallejo Model Color or Humbrol Enamels..

We are going to continue painting all optics (periscope lenses, etc.) on Humbrol Silver #11. Once the enamel is dry, I cover it with Tamiya Clear Blue X23. This is a transparent paint that gives the lenses a natural finish. I let everything dry before going to the next step. I put a drop of Microscale Micro Krystal Klear in a the concave fitting I let express in the model to accommodate a light.

I use again my graphite stick on the tow cable, then I rub it with my finger to burnish it a little.

Once finished, it's time to give a nice gloss coat to the optics. I use Humbrol Gloss Vanirsh (the best gloss varnish IMO).

This is the concave fitting I told you before. Once the Micro Krystal Klear is dry it becomes transparent, it just needs a little varnish coat to look very nice!

You'll notice that I not use the common technique used by W40K modelers of painting by hand gemlike reflects. I thought about it and decided that being this model a mix of "traditional" modeling techniques applied to 40K, I would use something different for the optics.

Now we are going to use another technique based on pigments. I do a very diluted mix of MIG pigments Copper Rust P26 and Ashes White P22 on alcohol.

I lightly apply this pigment suspension on alcohol to some selected areas. Once dry, the pigments will show, giving some interesting effects. Look at the rusted area up to the center and the tow cable.

As you can imagine, putting alcohol over acrylics is risky, so pay attention to not add too much. The paint will soft under the effect of the alcohol, so be careful on where do you place your fingers! See below to see what happened to me...

No problem, we'll fix it later adding mud and dust. I add now some rust coloured pigment mix I had laying around to give the problematic area a darker shade.

Another view of the (good) effects of the pigment suspension.

As the tank is nearly finished, I am going to paint the ammunition boxes. I fix them on a temporary base and paint them by brush with enamels. I used Humbrol #34, #94 and Revell #65.

Once they are dry (2 hours at least), I give them an oil wash of Burnt sienna

Once the wash is dry (overnight), I add MIG pigment P230, Old Rust diluted in alcohol to further weather them.

I will use Faber Castell coloured pencils to do some scratches to the boxes.

I glue them on place...

...and prepare to move on.

The effect is too exaggerated, but we are going to blend it adding dust.

Time to dust the model! We prepare a very diluted mix of Tamiya XF57 Buff and XF52 Flat Earth.

We start pre-dusting the model adding a very irregular layer of acrylics where we want to add dust.

The effect is very subtle, but it will help to fix the dust in next stage.

I now choose MIG Pigments P28 Europe Dust and P33 Dark Mud.

I add them dry, with the help of a brush, forcing them to the recesses. I put the darker shade in the parts that are hidden. The lighter shade will be placed in the open areas. It is important to not put dust in the areas used by the crew to access the vehicle.

Once the pigment is in place, we add some drops of turpentine (I strongly recommend you odourless turpentine. I used Talens 089 Odourless White Spirit) to fix it in place.

We can use a brush to move the pigments around.

Now we let the turpentine dry.

Once dry, I used my finger to remove dust from some areas. This is how it looks now.

Now, we recover the mud mix we did in PART III and add a little water.

Using a hard bristle brush, we can blow compressed air with the help of an airbrush to do some mud splashes (you better try it before in a piece of card!).

Time to add some dry P23 Black Smoke pigment to the engine exhausts...

...and to the muzzle brake.

Finally! The last stage!

I do a mix of Humbrol Gloss Varnish, Black oil colour and white spirit. I'll use this mix to carefully paint oil and gas (promethium, of course) spills.

I also added to the turret ring.

And sparingly to some points on the tracks.

Now it's time to look at you model and eliminate excess dusting with a little cotton and turpentine.

Officially finished!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I did.

See you next soon with more ideas!

Generic modular Fortification Line

2007-05-09T19:39:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

After many delays, I have finally finished my first modular scenery parts.

For the moment being there are just three different pieces. I plan to start selling them on eBay on a few days, using the brand name "Ultrawerke" (original, isn't it?:)). If they work, I might continue adding new scenery pieces to the range: dragon's teeth, bunkers and craters are some of the ideas I have on mind. What it is sure, anyway, is that they'll definitively have a look that would fit in any techno-gothic siege warfare gameboard...

Once I have some samples painted, I'll update the post.

THE reference book about Model Building, Painting and Weathering

2007-04-12T21:38:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

Some people asked me where I did learn all the techniques I shown in the Painting and Weathering Tutorial. There is also some interest about good written material on the subject (AKA: books on paper).

Well, those people are lucky because in fact, there is THE perfect book for them. I mean, I have learn a lot browsing the Internet and reading modelling magazines during years. By doing this, you'll finish learning a lot of tricks and techniques that slowly add to you trick bag, but... What if someone just did all that work for you? Even more, what if this particular guy belongs to this very exclusive handful of people we call "The best modellers of the World"?

This guy is Miguel "MIG" Jimenez, one of the artists that daily contribute to push military modelling toward goals not seen before (just check some of his work below and you'll undoubtely agree with me).

gallery 1 gallery 2 gallery 3 gallery 4

"F.A.Q.: Frecuently Asked Questions on AFV Painting Techniques", is a somewhat particular book. You won't find many text there, you'll "just" find 250 pages literally filled by hundreds and hundreds of colour photos depicting detailed step by step tutorials. Those pages cover in a very efficient way, all the tecniques the author uses to create his wondrous works.

I have bought mine about six months ago, and I can say that there is not a day that I do not open it, and read some chapter at random :)

You can find it at Amazon and other online libraries:

Truly recommended for any serious threadhead around!

Painting and Weathering Tutorial: Part III

2007-04-09T22:50:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV

Now we are going to complete rust effects using pigments (you also have a more detailed rust tutorial here). I first select some suitable rust colours: P230 Old Rust, P25 Standard Rust and P24 Light Rust.

I do a pigment mix and add turpentine to make a wash. If the base colour were enamels instead of acrylics I would have used alcohol instead of turpentine.

This is the surface I pre-rusted with the airbrush in Part II.

I now apply the pigment wash and let it dry.

I'll start working on the tracks while the "rust" dries. I will go for a dry mud finish with leaves shiny metal on the exposed areas. There are many different techniques, but I'll cover them on further tutorials.

I start applying dry earth-coloured pigments (P28 Europe Dust) with an old brush.

I then carefully add some turpentine drops to fix the pigments.

I let now everything dry.

This is the aspect once the pigment is dry. This will serve only as a base for the dry mud that comes next.

I will prepare a dry mud mixture. I select some earth-coloured pigments (P28 Europe Dust, P38 African Earth and P31 Vietman Earth), plaster and a special acrylic resin for making mud adding some water.

I made some test and trial before finding the amount of plaster/resin to obtain dry mud. The more resin you add gives the mixture a gloss wet finish, as you can see in both mud samples over the tissue (both are completely dry, but the one on the right has more acrylic resin added).

I liberally apply the dilluted mix over the tracks.

I remove the excess "mud" with a tissue before it is dry.

This is how the tracks look once the "mud" is dry.

Now I will drybrush the tracks using metallic colours in order to give the impression that the bare metal is showing due to the friction with the terrain.

As usual, I drybrush using a flat ox hair brush and enamels.

This is the final effect. I am not fully satisfied with it yet, so I will complete it later using more graphite.

Next time we'l move on finishing small details and dusting the tank.

NEXT

Scratchbuilding tip: Tow Cable

2007-03-29T13:45:00.001+01:00

(versión en Español)

If there is a piece from GW I do not like at all, it's the tow cable from the Imperial vehicle accesory sprue.

Here it is a simple way to do your own realistic tow cables, and in nearly no time.

You'll need copper or other metallic wire. I have been so lucky to have access to a power cable with fairly thick copper strands.

I take five copper strands from the cable.

I twist one end with a plier.

I'll use a chuck to clamp the other end.

I will use my trusty low speed IXO to twist the copper wires.

I firmly hold the free end with the pliers.

And start twisting the wires.

I stop once I feel the cable is twisted enough.

I cut the ends...

Now I make a loop at the ends.

Like this:

Now I take a lenght of cable plastic cover.

And cut it lenghtwise by half.

I put one half inside the loop, cutting the excess.

Now I glue it with cyanocrilate.

I use more copper wire to close the loop.

The finished loop. You can wrap the wire we have added now with a tin strip if you want a better finishing.

The finished cable.

This is how it looks once it is glued on the model.

Painting and Weathering Tutorial: Part II

2007-03-25T15:47:00.002+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV

Well, time to start working again on the rusty Vanquisher!

I was looking for very big numbers on the turret, but as I did not have any suitable decals in my spare box, I decided to use a mask to paint them on.

After choosing the font I liked (Niagara), I printed it backwards using Corel Draw and a laser printer. If you don't have access to a laser printer, just use an inkjet and then do a photocopy. The trick here is using toner, ink will not work for our purposes.

I then put some Tamiya Masking Tape on the table and using more masking tape, fixed the number "207" over it.

I press the number now with a bit of paper soaked in a little acetone.

The toner is inmediately transferred to the masking tape.

I put a new blade in my cutter and carefully cut away the numbers. I do this twice.

Note that I leaved some bits to hold the inside of the "0".

I fix the mask to the turret, pressing with a blunt tool.

And prepare a mix of Tamiya XF7 Flat Red paint for my airbrush.

I airbrush red paint at low pressure, allowing it to dry between layers.

Finished.

Now I'll retouch the numbers with a brush and red and white paint.

The model has a lot more of character now.

Time for an oil wash. I'll normally use a mix of dark brown and black, but being the model is white I feel that the dark brown will be enough. I do a mix of about 80% thinner, 20% Burnt Umber oil paint.

You'll notice that it is enough to apply the point of the brush on a crack for the mix to freely flow by capillary action. Washes based on mineral spirits (both oils and enamels) are way better than their acrylic counterpart. Just remember that the wash must be controlled, overflowing the entire model with the tinted thinner will not give you a good result.

We let the oil dry for some minutes.

And then we'll remove the excess with a soft brush and a little clean thinner..

We are going to give another weathering touch to the model drybrushing it. However, the drybrushing here is not used to make lighter areas, it's just to show more tear and wear.

Enamels are great for drybrushing, they give you a lot of working time before drying. I prepare a dark gray-green mix for this part. I use here Revell #66 and a little of Humbrol #33.

Dry the brush a little with some tissue.

And start softly drybrushing the model.

I look for the effect of older paint showing on worn areas.

I concentrate on rivets, corners and places where the crew would stand when accessing the vehicle.

I am now going to add some depth to the model. I'll use Vallejo Model Color White paint for this.

I am going to paint a fine white line below any chipped paint areas to give them more volume. I also make some mapping* areas on places that I find they are too dark. I just put some paint in a random way, showing the colour below. The effect is very exaggerated, but I'll disguise it later on.

*Mapping is a technique I'll show you in other tutorial.

This is the area before the white lining.

And after. At this distance the effect is too evident, but we'll soft it a little later on the final stages.

I did use here some mapping and some lining.

The idea is to make the area visually interesting.

Another view...

I am now going to do some rust in the sides. As this Ragnarok-Vanquisher had lost its track covers, those two areas should be rusted as it happens in real life after some time.

I mask the area...

...And do a rust coloured mix done vith Vallejo Panzer Aces 301 Light Rust and 302 Dark Rust.

I also do a crude mask ripping a piece of cardboard (Notice the mapped surface showing)

I airbrush the rust base, moving a little the cardboard mask during the process.

This is a pure graphite stick.

I use it to paint over those surfaces that are so worn out that the bare metal is showing. I use also my finger to blend it a little. I find that graphite gives a very subtle metal finish.

Now I am going to add more rust with Humbrol #62.

I paint the enamel on some recesses (it it's important not to overdo it).

You could also make some rust marks.

Once you are done, you let the enamel paint dry for a few minutes.

And then you use a soft brush and thinner to blend it over the surroundings.

Now the tank has more chromatic depth.

Next time we'll finish the rusted areas and start working on the threads.

NEXT

Scratchbuilding Tutorial: Part V (and last)

2007-03-20T20:17:00.000+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

Today we'll finish the turret by adding some details and casting it in resin.

To start detailing it, I take some tin foil (as you can see, I took it from wine bottles)...

And cut some straigh strips from it.

You'll need to flatten them with some tool (the ruler, your cutter's rod, etc.).

I apply a small drop of cyanocrilate (superglue, krazy glue or similar) on the cannon.

Glue one end of the strip and carefully wrap it around the cannon, adding some small cyanocrylate drops now and them.

I cut the strip once I see that the width is enoungh.

Once the glue is dry, I sand the ending to make a smooth ring around the cannon body.

And that's it, you can easily add volume to any tube in this way.

Now we are going to do some riveting. I am going to do just a small quantity, but for a complete 40K tank I could make up to 500! You could develop a Zen-like state of mind once you finish 100 of them in a single run, if not, try do do more... :)

I have here my handy and cheap homemade punch-and-die tool. I am going to make a tutorial later about it but, for the time being, I'll just tell you that you put a thin styrene sheet between the steel and the acrylic parts, put a punch in the hole and hit it with the hammer.

If you do this during some time, you'll have a small pile of very small styrene discs (0,6 mm in the pic). Forget about the tweezers to hold them, the best way to manipulate those small rivets is by gently picking them with the point of a new cutter blade. Once you have it on the cutter, appply some styrene cement inthe surface to be riveted and put the rivet on it.

Once I am happy with the rivets, I declare the master model finished.

I will now do a mold to cast the turret and cannon, exactly as we discussed before in the resin casting tutorial series.

The cannon is going to be cast differently. I am going to do an open mold for it. I temporaly glue the cannon to a solid surface, build the mold box and pour the silicone, but just in a single step, I will not do another part for the mold. Once the silicone cures, I'll pour the resin by the open left by the base of the cannon piece.

The pieces are cast and sanded.

And here we have the finished turret piece. However... Do you remember those marks we left for the handles on the master model? Well, now it is time to drill some actual holes on there!

Once the holes are drilled, I cut some wire of the same gauge.

And use my pliers to bend it...

...to the desired shape.

I'll do six of them.

Now I put a drop of cyanocrilate on the holes.

And add the handles. The excess of cyanocrilate will look as a welding point once it dries.

I now use someting round to shape some more wire.

And insert it in their place. You'll notice that I use small pliers instead of tweezers to do that, they give you better grip on the piece.

And that's the finished turret.

I hope that you have enjoyed this tutorial, I wanted to make it look as simple as it really is. So... Now, fetch your tools and go convert something! :)

Painting and Weathering Tutorial: Part I

2007-03-16T20:08:00.000+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV

While the scratchbuilt turret mold is curing, I think that I am going to start another tutorial about painting and weathering.

Although I normally paint my models with an airbrush, this is just for the very first stages. In fact, more than 90% of the work is done by brush. You definitely could substitute the airbrush with a soft brush, paying attention to not leave brush marks on the model, with the exception of soft edged camo patterns, you'll absolutely need an airbrush for that.

More important even than the airbrush, it's the compressor. You'll need one than gives you stable air flow, variable pressure, filters water and oil from the air and, if you don't have a suitable working space, be silent enough to allow working anytime.

This is mine, it is not the best of the best, but does all the above in a satisfactory way:

For the airbrush, I just recommend you to go directly for double-action, it is not so expensive and you'll notice the difference. This is my Iwata HP, I am extremely happy with it, worth every dollar I payed for it.

This is my cleaning station, it doubles as airbrush holder too. It's used to keep inside the solvents you pump to clean the airbrush.

OK, let's assume that you have already assembled and primed your model... I am going to do a battered winter camo scheme, but these techniques could be easiliy adapted to other paint schemes and conditions.

I start mixing the base colour (Tamiya XF2 Flat White) with some gloss varnish (Tamiya X22 Clear) and adding about 50% of X20 Tamiya Thinner. The reason of adding varnish to the base paint is a) making it resistant to tear and wear and b) give the model a satin surface on were to apply filters and washes easily.

This is the model; a Ragnarok Vanquisher version (I don't know if GW ever thought about this, but I feel it's a very nice conversion :)). I use the airbrush to build a little preshading over the darker primer. I spray more white paint in the center of the pannels, leaving darker recesses and shadow areas.

This of course leaves us with an absolutely monocromatic resin chunk with no interest whatsoever. We are going to try to fix that.. using Filters!

Filters where developed by Miguel "MIG" Jimenez (if you don't know him, just make a quick search for his work, absolutely brilliant!!!!). They are like a kind of very subtle glazing done by oils or enamels. As oils can take up to 48 hours to dry, it is more practical to use enamels, wich dry in about two hours. Filters are prepared tinting turpentine or oher mineral spirits with enamels in about 95% solvent-5% enamels proportion. You apply them with a soft round brush (#8 or #6) but instead as is done on washes, you do not let the mix to run into recesses or crevasses. The good thing about the filters is that being based on mineral spirits, you can use them over an acrylic base as soon as it is dry.

I use the prepared filters from SIN industries. I am using here the blue filter (too strong colour, by the way, I inmediately changed my mind...). You can notice how the base coluor changes after the filter is applied.

In order to not turn your filter into a wash, you must soak the excess solvent before aplying it.

Here is the result after two tan filters are applied (I let 2 hours pass before applying the second one, by the way).

Now we are going to fade the base colour. I first put some oil coulours in a piece of card. The colours chosen may vary, I felt these were appropiate for the white base. The colours used were from Van Gogh oils (left to right):

Phtalo Blue
Titanium White
Naples yellow light
Terre-Verte
Yellow Ochre
Transparent Oxide Red

Now I make little points over the tanks.

May seem funny, but once you start fading them with the help of a clean brush with a little turpentine, the effect is subtler.

The finished panel.

In vertical panels, you should paint straigh vertical lines instead of dots.

And fade them vertically too.

The resulting tank. Now the coulour is not monocromatic at all.

The problem with the oils is that I must wait 48 hours before using thinner on the model again.

As I am now limited to the acrylics, I am going to do some work priming the tracks. To make it faster, I am going to use the airbrush, and that means masking the surrounding area with masking tape.

I use Tamiya's masking tape for that.

It's a high quality masking tape (that means that it will not scrap the paint from your model once you remove it) that comes in four sizes.

The masked Vanquisher.

I'll use 304 Track colour from Vallejo dilluted 50% on Tamiya's thinner.

I spray it very carefullly.

It's a real time saver.

Now I will start working on the base for the heavy weathered look I have in mind. I add 305 Ligh Rubber from Vallejo to the mix, as well as some drops of 597 Slow Dry to slow the driying process. The later allows you to work with acrylics as if they were oils, making possible very interesting transparence effects.

With the help of a good #1 brush, I start painting chipped or weathered paint areas.

I use also a piece of Scotch Brite to paint chipped paint areas faster...

The resulting effect is a good start for further work.

I also use a #4 brush with the bristles cut to 4mm. Now is when you notice the effect of the "slow dry" agent, as the paint is fluid, creates transparencies and does not dries up inmediately, alowing time work with it.

This is just the first phase.

There is still a lot to do, but at this point I can not use thinner nor acrylics, so it's time to leave it dry during some time.

We'll countinue working soon on this model.

NEXT

Scratchbuilding Tutorial: Part IV

2007-03-10T21:56:00.000+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

OK, time to start working in the battlecannon, so I take my tube cutter, a suitable aluminium tube and cut it to the desired lenght.

It is still very plain, but we are going do do some changes.

I first though about casting the turret as a whole and then adding a metal cannon to each resin piece I casted. I finally changed my mind, so I unglued the mantlet and start drilling it.

You must be careful when drilling wide holes. You should use a little drill bit (about 1 mm) to mark the position and then increase gradually the bit size until you have the required width.

I use my cutter to enlarge the hole a little (it's not a fine work, but we are going to cover it later).

Now the cannon fits, but the angle is too high.

I use the cutter again and find the angle I like.

I do some decorative marks on the cannon (not cutting all the way). I use a smaller tube cutter now, but the big one would do the job as well as the smaller one.

Time to do a trip to the tubes box. I look for a tube that is a bit wider than the cannon and cut a lenght.

These kind of cutters close the end of the tube a bit when cutting it. So I use the rod of my cutter to flatten it.

I also use a reamer to help me.

And finally finish it with a rounded file.

I seal the union with cyanocrilate.

Now I find a bigger tube...

... And do exactly the same.

As the cannon is going to be cast in resin, I need to close the end with some Duro (or Green Stuff) putty.

I use more Duro putty to model the union between cannon and mantlet.

Well, now it's nearly finished. I'll let the epoxy putty cure, but before doing that I'll temporary glue the cannon to the turret with some liquid mask.

I use Vallejo's, but you can use Maskol or your favourite brand. In theory, you could apply it by brush and them use household ammonia to clean it. In practise, I strongly recommend you to better use a toothpick for that.

The nearly complete turret.

Next day, we'll finish the turret's master by adding the small details.

NEXT

Scratchbuilding Tutorial: Part III

2007-03-06T23:19:00.000+01:00

(Spanish version)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

OK, lets continue working.

I will use a drill bit to make marks on the turret. I just make some superficial marks, not drilling up to the other side.

These marks will serve as guides on the finished resin piece. I'll use them to drill the holes for the handles and other similar elements made of wire.

I make some rough pencil lines to get an idea on where to drill.

And use them as reference to drill handle marks.

Now I am going to start the mantlet. I cut a piece of styrene.

I give it an interesting shape, and add two pieces for obtaining some starting volume.

I add two other styrene pieces.

Cut them roughly and...

...add a lot of putty (remember to wet you tools in acetone when working with these kind putties).

I also put a folded piece of styrene in the center to reinforce the mantlet and add some volume.

Wile I wait for the putty to dry (could be around 30 minutes for this quantity). I cut another circle in thicker plasticard.

I them glue some random styrene chunks to add heigh.

I glue the piece to the turret and add a strip of thin styrene around.

I then discovered that I glued the new piece in the wrong place!

I moved the piece to the right position, destroying the thin styrene tire in the process. This time, I just fill the gap with more putty.

Once the mantlet is dry, I sand it to the desired shape.

I now cut another styrene piece.

Wind it up around my cutter's handle to curve it.

And glue one end to the mantlet.

Once this end is dry, I glue the rest, adapting it to the curved shape and cutting the excess.

Now I sand a little the turret side where I am going to glue the mantlet (Note that I also added an evergreen stripe to double as a visor, once it is dry, I'll cut the excess).

Well, now the styrene sheet has cracked! No problem, I was going to add more styrene on top anyvay... I seal the gaps with a little green putty dilluted in acetone...

...Glue the mantlet to the turret and cut another piece of thinner styrene.

This time I can glue the whole piece at a time.

I add more pieces, until the volume feels "right".

And I add more dilluted squadron's putty.

Next day I'll change my mind and unglue the mantlet (you'll see why)...

NEXT

Scratchbuilding Tutorial: Part II

2007-03-06T10:19:00.000+01:00

(Spanish version)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

I am going to continue working on our turret. Now I am going to cut a strip of styrene to do the turret's top.

I'll use a steel ruler and a square set in order to make a straigh cut.

I cut the strip...

Cut another piece a little bigger than needed, place it on top and mark it with a pen.

The mark is going to be a little bigger than the actual top piece size, so I compensate it by cutting a little more than really needed.

Now I use a circular cutter to open a hole for the hatch.

Fits perfectly.

I observed, hovever, that the top piece was not thick enough. To correct this, I glue the top to another styrene piece.

I now wait some minutes to let it dry and cut (no need for rulers now) out the excess.

I carefully cut the hatch hole again.

As I plan to cast the turret, I need to close this hatch hole. I'll do that with a thinner styrene sheet.

I cut another strip and wind it tighly around my cutter.

I cut it roughly to measure, put it in place and glue it.

Once some minutes have passed, I cut out the excess styrene.

It's a bit crude, but we are going to solve it.

I dillute green Squadron's putty in industrial acetone (the kind used for cleaning nail polish doesn't works). The putty should be thin enough to be painted with a brush.

Now I seal every gap and imperfection with thinned putty.

This is the result, ready for sanding.

Now I am going to do a fake welding mark. I put plastic cement in the desired zone.

And I texture the plastic with a modelling tool.

Applying more cement will make the plastic softer.

Now it's time to work harder in the steel texture.

I play with the resulting texture alternating Tamiya's and Squdron's putties. I also use a hard bristle brush with a little acetone to add more texture.

Now we take a trip to the bit box...

And integrate the bits in the ensemble with a little putty thinned down in acetone.

Next day, we'll start working in the cannon's mantlet.

NEXT

Scratchbuilding Tutorial: Part I

2007-03-04T12:25:00.000+01:00

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

Now we are going to talk about scratchbuilding techniques. In fact, there is no point in making molds if you don't have a nice master model to cast!

I am going to do a T34-like tank for use it in Warhammer 40K or other wargames. I will base it on the KV-II I made before, so I'll just made a turret and a hull, using the same tracks as the other tank.

I'll start working in the turret, so I look for reference pictures in Google. This one is particulary useful to base my model.

I make then a quick sketch on paper, looking for the actual model dimensions.

Once I am happy with the design, I transfer the corners of the drawing to a polystyrene sheet using a pin.

I transfer just one half of the drawing, this is to avoid any errors I could have made drawing freehand. Then I join the points with lines over the polystyrene.

I transfer the drawing to the other half, measuring carefully

I cut the drawing from the styrene sheet to work more comfortably.

I cut the turret base. Cutting styrene is easier than you think, just put a steel ruler on the line and mark once or twice the styrene with your cutter. It's better to not use the cutting edge for this, use the other side of the blade, you'll notice that you'll make cleaner marks. Once the styrene is marked, twist it, the styrene will snap just over the marked line.

I also sanded the piece a bit.

In order to build the sloped armor I going to make an inner structure to support it. I cut a straight tire of styrene and make marks at its side with my cutter.

I use those marls to cut the styrene with my chopper. This is a must for every scratchbuilder around. A real time saver that uses very little space at your workbench.

Those are all the pieces I need.

I glue them in place with polysterene cement.

I'll cut now some little reinforts.

And put them in place.

Once it dries it will be surprisingly strong.

I notice now that the turret is going to bee to high. This kind of things happen continuously, so don't be afraid of sometimes throwing everything and start again for the beginning.

By chance this is not going to be one of those cases.

I marked the extra heigh by placing a pen in my desk, raising the turret a little and turning it.

I cut the styrene following the line.

I sand the top a little and continue on.

I cut anoth styrene tire, this is goin to be the sloped armor. I mark it to know the angle its going to need to meet the other pieces.

I cut the angle of each new piece.

We cut another five pieces.

I have glued all pieces in place, put another piece in the base and filled everything with Tamiya's putty. When using this kint of putty you must wet your tools in acetone continuously.

I cover every imperfection with putty. I am trying to get a textured finish, so I apply the putty in a roughly way.

Once dry, I sand the turret, giving it round shaped angles. It is possible that you need to sand too much and open cracks in the angles. Don't worry, I will cover them with more putty.

It is time to add even more putty. I will use now Squadron's putty, wich I feel its a little better for filling spaces. I continue giving the turret an irregular texture.

More sanding...

And we are ready to go on the next step.

Tomorrow I'll put the top, add more texture and a fake welding line.

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Resin Casting Tutorial: Part V (and last)

2007-03-03T23:41:00.000+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

Now that we have the mold ready, we can start casting some pieces.

We'll need: Quick setting utrethane resin, plastic cups, wooden toothpicks, a tool for removing the mix, latex gloves and some polyethylene shopping bags for protecting the table below.

I cover the vibrating tray with polyethylene. The great thing about this plastic is that you can scrape the resin from it once is cured.

You can never get enough protection. This will protect you eyes or glasses in the not so very unlikely event that a resin drop gets close to your eyes.

I start measuring the same volume for components A and B. There is not an exact method to know beforehand how many resin will you use in a mold (never, NEVER, try to measure it with water. A single drop of water will ruin some some kilogrames of urethane resin by itself). So just try to get used at wasting some resin each time you make a mold...

Once the components get in contact the clock is running! You have about 120 seconds before the resin gets too viscous, more than enough. Time will vary depending on the room's temperature. Resin will set quicker at higer temps.

I normaly mix the resin during 20 seconds and then pour it, you should experiment what settings suit you better, but remember that the resing must be completely mixed for better results.

I switch on the vibration tray, put both mold's halves on it and start carefully pouring the resin.

I pour some resin on the other half to avoid bubbles when closing the mold.

Now I pick a toohpick and remove any remaining bubbles. You should be vearing eye protection when doing this. Those bubbles are very small, so you would be forcing your sight, closing to the mold while you are messing with the toothpick so an accident could happen in no time. Remember: "safety first".

The resin is starting to set. you will notice that larger volumes set faster than smaller ones.

When the resin is gooey, I close the mold in a quick motion and gently press the excess resin out. Some call it the "sandwich technique".

You should remember that your urethane resin is very sensible to humidity. It's better to recap the bottles during all those operations.

I am casting another piece here. I made a mistake in the last one. As I did not cover completely the second half with resin, I got some empty spaces to fill with putty later on.

This time I prepared too less resin... Well, this is not a problem.

I just prepare more resin, add it to the molds and repeat the "Sandwich Technique". You'll notice that gentle slope we were talking about when making the mold. Its function is to accomodate a little excess resin wich will be expelled out when pressing the "sandwich".

Here is the completed piece. Nearly perfect! Altough there are some minor bubbles that I'll fill with putty in no time.

And that's it! Hope you find this tutorial useful.

Next time, we'll talk about scratchbuilding techniques. We'll follow a step-by-step process to do a T34-like turret for Warhammer 40K games.

Resin Casting Tutorial: Part IV

2007-03-02T22:35:00.000+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

One of the main concerns when considering resin casting is how to avoid bubbles in the resulting pieces. There are different techniques to help remove bubbles, some of them involving pressure changes. Either for degassing the resin in its liquid form and/or compressing it when is inside the mold, reducing the bubbles size.

Another method, that I personally prefer as I work with open molds (as you probably noticed, I do not build pour spout or air vents, we'll see why in the next part), is to remove bubbles with vibration.

Making something to vibrate is fairly easy. Just unbalance a rotating axle adding some excentrical weight. For doing this I just took an old computer fan, removed the case and blades and glued a nut on a side. Once the motor rotates, the small nut will make it vibrate. I then play with the amplitude of the vibration adding bolts of different lengths. Finally, I glued the fan to the tray.

To build the tray, I bought a cheap wooden frame and fixed the tray with four springs. This is to allow the tray to vibrate freely. I also built a box with polistyrene (I didn't had any wood at hand) and added a switch.

Here it is the final result. It can vibrate big molds like the one in the pic and get rid of more than 90% of the bubbles, although you'll need to remove some of them manually (this is why open molds are so convenient).

You can see below the mechanism working:

I suppose that I will someday build another table, with a more powerful motor and frequency and amplitude controls. But, for the moment being, this small tray does the job.

Next time, we'll see finaly how to cast. See you then!

NEXT

Resin Casting Tutorial: Part III

2007-03-01T21:00:00.000+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

Well, 24 hours have passed and we have now a solid white surface again.

It is time to remove the casting frame and see if the demoulding agent has worked...

Everything works fine:

I remove carefully the rest of the lid:

And that's it, the mold is ready to use:

Those are all the molds needed to do one of my Soviet-themed tanks. About 2500 grames of silicone rubber!

We'll see next about the vibrating tray.

NEXT

Resin Casting Tutorial: Part II

2007-02-28T16:05:00.000+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

Hi again:

We saw yesterday how to make the first half of our two-part mold.

Once 24 hours have passed, it is time to put the mold upside down and remove its bottom.

This is how it looks. Now I remove the excess of silicone (you can save it for later recycling) and the casting frame.

Now it looks cleaner.

I remove the plastecine used to mask the parts we did not want to include in this half (Don't use for this anything with a cutting edge or you could damage the mold).

I clean any plasticine rests with rubbing alcohol and a tissue.

Now I put the piece back to the mold and rebuild the casting frame.

I add a demolding agent to the silicone. This is to avoid that the silicone that I am about to pour reacts to the first mold half, forming a solid block with you model in the middle!.

I use 5% vaseline disolved in 95% white spirit, so I let it dry before pouring the rest of the silicone. You can also put a little blob of vaseline, heat it with a hairdrier and spread it with a brush (pay attention to not damage your model with the heat). In any case, you don't need to apply vaseline to the model, just to the mold, as it can obscure detail.

The rest goes exactly as in the other half. "Paint" the silicone.

And pour the rest.

Now we must wait for further 24 hours to let the mold cure.

In the meantime, we'll learn how to do a vibrating tray to avoid bubbles during resin casting.

NEXT

Resin Casting Tutorial: Part I

2007-02-27T15:35:00.000+01:00

(versión en Español)

PART I
PART II
PART III
PART IV
PART V

Well... Yesterday you saw a custom resin tank. But, the original model has to come from somewhere, isn't it?

The model used to make the silicone molds is called a Master Model. I did it using scratchbuilding techniques (that will be discussed here later on), divided in some basic parts and cast them separately.

Now I going to show you how to cast one of those parts, in particullar the hull piece of my KV-II like futuristic tank.

First, we must be completely sure that the piece we are going to cast is completely airtight. That mean that you must close all little gaps or cracks before starting. Once everything is ready we'll start making a mold from our original piece.

I am going to do a two-part mold, so I start making some masking with plasticine (modelling clay). I use rubbing alcohol (isopropilic alcohol) and a soft brush to clean and seal the joint betwen the model and the plasticine.

I put the plasticine covering the lower hull and making a gentle slope (you'll see why later). The mold line will be at the same level of the plasticine, so be careful when where you put it.

I also add four small stumps using more plastecine, this will serve to make the two halves fit once the molds is ready.

Then I build a box around the model and seal it with more plasticine (those are casting blocks that I got from www.hlj.com, but you could use Lego blocks, plasticard, wood, etc...).

This is the Room Temperature Vulcanizing (RTV) that I use. I get it hera, at Spain, from www.feroca.com, but you can buy similar products locally. RTV means that the silicone cures without need of heat (wich would be fatal for our litte plastic model). The small flask is the catalizer, you add it at 5% of the silicone weight (that means, you add 5 g of catalizer for each 95 g of silicone). I recommend you to have a spare bottle of catalizer around, as you normally use more than you really needed.

You can also see that there are some silicone chunks lying around. those are old molds that I am going to recycle. I will use also a handy disposable brush (those little thingies are very useful, come in great quantities and are dead cheap. What can I say?)

I weight the silicone and mix the catalizer.

Now I do some evil things to the brush. I bend the point and cut the bristles. This is to fix the bristles in place and make it easier to access to difficult places.

Then I add a little silicone to the mold and reserve the rest.

I use the brush to force the silicone into difficult places and remove superficial bubbles.

It's a bit like painting...

Now I start recycling all those old silicone chunks.

I simply push them carefully in the mold, to be later covered with more silicone. Once the silicone vulcanizes it will become a solid piece... So, just don't throw away old molds. Recicle them!

You can see all the bubbles raising to the top. Now, it's time to put it in an even surface and let it cure during 24 hours.

As this is real-time, we'll have to wait until tomorrow (or later, as I simply run out of silicone) to continue our little tutorial. Next day we'll learn some things about demolding agents and how to produce the second half.

See you...

NEXT

Soviet-themed wargame army

2007-02-26T23:26:00.000+01:00

(versión en Español)

Hi you all again.

As a crazy modeller and wargamer with not enough time to play, I tend to direct my frustration on the later subject on crazy projects. One of my recurring ideas was to create a tank that was completely mine. I mean, completely built from scratch, without any bits from vendors, and cast it to form a massive army of custom resin models wich I could trow at the heads of my would-be opponents (I have not played a game in the last ten years, so my grasp of the rules could be vage). I finally decided to do something soviet-themed... big threads, boxy shapes... and the first model would be close to a KV-II... You can take a look at the final results and whole WIP here.

Next time, You'll follow me as I cast a copy of one piece of my master scratchbuilt.

Here I am... And in the beginning was: The Baneblade

2007-02-24T22:40:00.001+01:00

(Versión en Español)

Well, it seems that finally I have decided to post my ramblings on behalf of the modelling community.

I will try to maintain here a log of all my work in progress and, from time to time, I hope to finish something, place it here and share points of view with you.

My main interests lay in Warhammer 40K and WWII modelling. Mainly in the scratchbuild part, making my own personalised vehicles (for the Imperial Guard, I am at hreadhead after all) as I find very difficult just to mount something just "out of the box"

This blog wil be hopefully full of tutorials and techniques someday, so if you just come here and find something that you like and you want an explanation, just write me a word and I'll do a little tutorial.

Enough spoken. I want to share with you my first piece of pure scratchbuilding. A Baneblade... Looking at this, I just think how much time I losed and how many mistakes I did two years ago...

I never finished this baby (you'll see that this is a classic on me), as it is not in my hands anymore. If the current owner sees this post someday, I'll wish him many happy victorious battles!

You can see the whole WIP here.