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

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.

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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.