Post by caucasoididiot on Apr 27, 2010 10:05:12 GMT -5
Like most boys, I did a bit of plastic modeling when I was younger. I've returned to it off and on in adulthood. It can be satisfying in that increased skill and patience can lead to much better results, but at the same time one's standards have risen. This can make it hard to be satisfied, and I have a bad habit of abandoning projects after accruing a certain number of goofs.
But sometimes I've set out to do pieces as birthdays presents, and the combination of a requirement and a deadline can be helpful in realizing Phantom's sig line (if I'm allowed to substitute "good enough" for "very good"). The one I'm presenting here was made for my wife (and if you've been around a few years you may have already seen it). It's Gromit in his airplane from "A Close Shave." Sorry the pics aren't better, but that helps hide some of the goobery bits.
There he is. Wingspan is some 6~7". Obviously there's no precise scale for something like this, but it felt like working in 1/24 or even 1/12. The aircraft was made by draw forming sheet plastic over wooden masters, and Gromit was made from epoxy putty. It's hard to see in the photo, but I got a spinning prop effect by using photoshop's radial blur function and an ALPS printer (which can print in silver metallic wax) to make a decal.
Bit more of a detail shot here. Note that the ring site is built way too heavily. I figured that sticking up that way, fine had to give way to sturdy. As an aside, at the same time I built a basswood frame that holds the model steady in a box. She was able to take it back to Japan as carry-on and it made it with no damage. There is "glass" in Gromit's goggles. I actually practiced some artistic license in painting, as in the original his helmet is black.
You can see here that I didn't quite get the gaskets of uniform size, but that doesn't show too badly. The most glaring problem when you see it "in the flesh" is with the feed hoses. They are actually the main support for the porridge shooter, as the actual "support" is fairly delicate plastic. Problem is that it's all very tight, and the final assembly involved getting huge amounts of epoxy down into the bay to hold them but without getting it anywhere that would show. In the intensity of doing that I forgot that there was a left and right hose and got them reversed. The upshot is that they don't mate up with the ball properly, and I figured trying to pull them out and swap them would risk getting epoxy everywhere. Damn.
This view illustrates the second worst gaffe: a bad case of "orange-peel" in the paint job. All I can say is that I was rushing by then. Typically, a lot of the best detail work is almost invisible. Gromit is complete. He has feet and they rest on rudder pedals (getting him in was another tricky operation). The instruments have "glass" and legible numbers, and there are screws in the bezels. I had initially planned to articulate the control surfaces, but Nick Park didn't in the original, and if it's good enough for Nick it's good enough for me. At first I had even envisioned modeling the box of porridge but came to my senses. I'd have never been able to maneuver Gromit down in if it were there.
"Tally-Ho!"
But sometimes I've set out to do pieces as birthdays presents, and the combination of a requirement and a deadline can be helpful in realizing Phantom's sig line (if I'm allowed to substitute "good enough" for "very good"). The one I'm presenting here was made for my wife (and if you've been around a few years you may have already seen it). It's Gromit in his airplane from "A Close Shave." Sorry the pics aren't better, but that helps hide some of the goobery bits.
There he is. Wingspan is some 6~7". Obviously there's no precise scale for something like this, but it felt like working in 1/24 or even 1/12. The aircraft was made by draw forming sheet plastic over wooden masters, and Gromit was made from epoxy putty. It's hard to see in the photo, but I got a spinning prop effect by using photoshop's radial blur function and an ALPS printer (which can print in silver metallic wax) to make a decal.
Bit more of a detail shot here. Note that the ring site is built way too heavily. I figured that sticking up that way, fine had to give way to sturdy. As an aside, at the same time I built a basswood frame that holds the model steady in a box. She was able to take it back to Japan as carry-on and it made it with no damage. There is "glass" in Gromit's goggles. I actually practiced some artistic license in painting, as in the original his helmet is black.
You can see here that I didn't quite get the gaskets of uniform size, but that doesn't show too badly. The most glaring problem when you see it "in the flesh" is with the feed hoses. They are actually the main support for the porridge shooter, as the actual "support" is fairly delicate plastic. Problem is that it's all very tight, and the final assembly involved getting huge amounts of epoxy down into the bay to hold them but without getting it anywhere that would show. In the intensity of doing that I forgot that there was a left and right hose and got them reversed. The upshot is that they don't mate up with the ball properly, and I figured trying to pull them out and swap them would risk getting epoxy everywhere. Damn.
This view illustrates the second worst gaffe: a bad case of "orange-peel" in the paint job. All I can say is that I was rushing by then. Typically, a lot of the best detail work is almost invisible. Gromit is complete. He has feet and they rest on rudder pedals (getting him in was another tricky operation). The instruments have "glass" and legible numbers, and there are screws in the bezels. I had initially planned to articulate the control surfaces, but Nick Park didn't in the original, and if it's good enough for Nick it's good enough for me. At first I had even envisioned modeling the box of porridge but came to my senses. I'd have never been able to maneuver Gromit down in if it were there.
"Tally-Ho!"
