Parker, Hasslefree miniature - Juveniles (HFA047) WIP shots

Hi everyone.

This was actually intended as a practice run for the chipping agent, but it didn't turn out well.  So jumping ahead here this is how it turns out.  See that little bit of silver near the handle, and the little scratch mark near the top, that's the Chipping medium in action.  This time around I applied too little so the effect isn't too apparent...

Photography - Camera body: Canon EOS 40D 
Photography - Lens: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Photo setting: 1/6s f/5.6 ISO:800
Hasslefree Miniature, Parker

I used a lot of the P3 formula medium for thinning.  Mixed with equal part of water it works very well and better than purely working with water.  With pure water the tiny pigments of the paint would sometimes got spread out to the edges and forms paint 'rings'.  With this medium the pigment is less spread out and therefore offering much easier thinning.

Citadel Foundation - Iyanden Darksun
Citadel Wash - mud
Formula p3 mixing medium
Secret Weapon wash

Yellow had always been hard for me, but I think this one turns out okay.  The base was painted with thinned Citadel Foundation mustard yellow, then high-light with a lighter yellow.  Shadow and recess area wasn't too painted as it was taken care of with air brush".  I did a zenith 'black' and white base coat with air brush.  That saved me a lot of time.

Photography - Camera body: Canon EOS 40D 
Photography - Lens: Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
Photo setting: 1/6s f/5.6 ISO:800
Hasslefree Miniature, Parker

Random inspirations -abandon building in Causeway Bay Hong Kong

It's pretty special to have something like this standing the in heart of a busy shopping district in Hong Kong.  The building was constructed back in the 70s as a residential building.

Vallejo - chipping medium (part 2), step by step with acrylic top coat

Hi everyone,

So it appears that product based or brand based posts attract a lot of hits, so to get more hits I will try to do more of these step by step - not that I am good enough to do instructions of how to use a product, but I think it would be useful for people who are considering getting their hands on these products.

Enjoy.

Camera specificaiton: LG G3 Rear Camera, 13mb pix

---

Step 1 : Buy it

Jumping a head here, the 17ml bottle goes for about USD5 is well worth the price.  Very easy to use and easy to control, a lot easier than salting.  One try of this could give you a very good idea on how it works.  I recommend using air-brush to apply the medium, but if you don't have an air-brush, just remember to keep it thin when you are applying it.  (Remember to use a clean brush though.)

Simple step to use this is:
- paint the surface to make it look like rusted metal
- apply medium
- paint the top coat
- apply water so that the medium will melt away
- chip the top coat with tissue paper or cotton tip

AV (Vallejo)
Chipping Medium
17m

Step 2: build your model

It's very hard to get plastic model kits to match with my 30mm miniatures: the size never really quite match.  Plus, it's very expensive to get accessories that are designed for 30mm, besides, each manufacturer made their miniatures a little different anyway.  1:35 or 1:48 is pretty much the closest, cheapest models that I can find.  This kit was meant for populating transport vehicles, and I bought it for my Zombicide game to be used as objectives.

Tamiya
Allied Vehicles Accessory Set

Step 3: prime it

Again on the topic of going cheap, the spray on primer from Mr Hobby is cheaper than the one form Tamiya.  Plus, I had some bad experience with Tamiya primer: the result is too rough, not smooth and a lot of small grins on the surface.  

Mr. Hobby
Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000
 170ml Spray 

Step 4: base rusted metal color

The idea of chipping is to chip away the top coat of paint to reveal the metal underneath. Rusting, therefore should come after the metal is revealed and after long exposure to air and moist .

http://www.corrosionist.com/what_causes_rust.htm

But to save time, I painted the whole thing brown and applied a lot of pigment to place that I think should rust easier: edges, middle of larger surfaces.  I was rushing a little so this isn't too well done.

Secret Weapon Wash

Vallejo Pigment

Step 4: apply the medium

Because I am not sure if these are easier to wash off, I used brush to apply the medium.  In hindsight, I could have used air-brush for this.

See actually I applied a lot of the medium on the surface, at some parts they are more like a droplet on the surface, forming a little pond.

Step 5: apply the top coat

I used water based acrylic paint because I fear that the alcohol based paint will melt away the medium.  I'd try alcohol based paint next time.

Anyway, after the medium is completely dry I air-brushed on the top coat.  Remember, it has to be VERY dry before applying the top coat.  Haven't done a good job at this because I don't use these paint for air brushing at all: they dry too slow...

Citadel
Foundation
Knarloc Green

Step 6: apply water

I basically just dripped water over it, but I applied very thick layer of medium so so it washed away quite a lot of the top coat.  The best thing about this is that you can get chipping with sharp edges.

And the best bit is that the chipping could happen in tiny portions, see the edge of the letters on the top of the barrel.

Vallejo - chipping medium (Part 1)

I had been wanting to try this out and wondering if it is worth it to buy it online. Lucky that today i was near to the shop and found this on shelf. This is the only kind that is available here in Hong Kong.

Looking forward to try it out tonight... Perhaps I can do a step by step with it too haha.

Stone Slabs Street Showdown - building the base

It was a learning experience.
(This turns out to be a very long entry and got a lot of photos... )

I made a lot of mistakes, acted on impulse and bought a lot of material out of impulse as well.  So as it turns out I don't need a lot of the stuff I bought and I wasted a lot of material along the way as well.

I did a mock up by just putting together some stock paper and wood.

Then I just stuff the spaces with a lot of clay, really, a lot of clay. but as I realized that it was a waste I started to use more wood to set up the base first, to fill up the spaces so that I don't need so much clay.

got to love Juweela bricks.  I had been using them on a lot of my models.  This time around I learned something more about them: don't prime them, just paint on them.  I made such a mistake and it took me a lot more work to get it look real.  Also, it pays to put some space between them.  In reality they won't be so neatly packed together like that.

This is how it looks like after I filled in the tiny gaps between the bricks, primed, washed and added a lot of pigments.

Canon EOS 40D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
1/6s f/5.6 ISO:800

So when I had learned my lessons I used a lot more wood to make some framework under bigger wood panels so that I don't have to fill the spaces with expensive clay again.

And when It's done I just put a thick layer of clay on top, and start sculpting the surface to make them look like stone slabs.  I smooth out the surface by dripping a lot of water on top of it and smooth it with finger. It was quite messy actually. I sprinkled some sand on it so that it got more stone like texture.

This is how it looks like after priming an air-brushed.  Back when I was trying to smooth it out I used a lot of water, so at the end there were a lot of 'spikes' as the clay behaved like whip cream.  I ended up having to clip away the spikes to make it look more natural.

Canon EOS 40D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
1/6s f/5.6 ISO:800

I know it isn't a good thing to re-cast, but this is only for me and I am not selling it so I hope secret weapon won't mind.  I got a huge 50mm base from Secret Weapon's sack of crap, and re-casted a sewer cover (man-hole) with green stuff. It then was put near the path that cuts through the stairway.  I am hoping that it would create a sense that there is something more out there outside the boundary of the base.

This is how the path looks like.  I traced lines on the path so that it looks more like concrete road in Hong Kong.

Canon EOS 40D
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM
1/6s f/5.6 ISO:800

Stone Slabs Street Showdown - my first full size scratch built diorama, inspirations

Hi everyone, I am back :)

I had been posting these on WAMP forum but I didn't get a lot of interest,  but I'd still post it here to see if I can get some more interest here.  So at this moment the diorama is already half done and on to painting the characters already.

I always wanted to do a full scale diorama, but never really have the courage to do it.  This time around I got a lot of motivation from the Umbrella Revolution movement I got inspired and put this idea into action.

Well this is only my first stab at building something this big I made quite a lot of mistakes, one of the biggest mistake is that I haven't thought the whole thing through before going on to make it.  I did made some sketch of course but that didn't help much.

Anyway, on the the topic first.

It all started when I came to the understanding that any mini diorama basing should not only have a good base, enough stuff to support the miniature, but a good diorama base should have stuff UNDER the miniature, BEHIND the miniature and even ABOVE the miniature: ie, levels.

So I figured that there's a street here in Hong Kong that is famous for it's stone slabs that should be perfect for a good base... slowly the basing idea became a diorama idea...

To date it's still an early stage project but it's slowly coming together...

The official name of the street is Pottinger Street. It is a street in Central, Hong Kong, which better better known as the Stone Slabs Street (石板街) by the locals, named after the granite stone steps which are a rarity nowadays in Hong Kong. The street was named after Henry Pottinger, the first Governor of Hong Kong.

There is actually a Air Raid shelter under this street, but was later covered up with stone slabs. Originally I thought it would be really cool to built this into the set, but this idea haven't made it to the diorama though...

a bit more about the history of the street here
(source: http://gwulo.com/Pottinger-Street-Hong-Kong)

When it was last checked in the 1980's, it was considered to be at risk of collapsing, and so was filled in.  This tunnel, along with Hong Kong's other Air Raid Precaution Tunnels, was built around 1940-41, so it would have been finished some where very close to the street's 100th birthday. 

The single, sloping entrance to the tunnel was on the section of Pottinger St about midway between Stanley and Wellington Streets. From there the tunnel ran for appx 75m, straight back into the hill. Its only other claim to fame seems to be its ventilation system. It was one of two ARP tunnel networks in Hong Kong (the other was the the tunnel under the governor's residence) that used ducted ventilation. That would have been a necessity for this tunnel, as with only one entrance and no ventilation shaft, there was no other way to circulate fresh air.

---

and a little bit of blog admin.  Thanks to my entry on photography I got over 1,000 hits a day and a few more clicks on the ads.  and now that the blog traffic is a lot more healthy it gives me a lot more incentive to blog.