Big Box Project - Part 3 - Happy belated Aliens Day!

Can you believe that it's 34 years since the release of the movie Aliens!!  Man I feel old.

The Bugs Won

Unfortunately due to the current lockdown all non-essential stores are closed which meant I couldn't purchase the black paintpen needed to complete my UD-4L Cheyenne Dropship noseart and I missed publishing this on #AlienDay.

However, it has come on leaps and bounds in the last few days and I am on the homestretch.

Cutting out the Stencil

This was a bear of a job and makes me yearn for a stencil cutting machine or a laser cutter.  Being a complete idiot I didn't think about printing the stencil on my 3D Printer.  Once this is over I will design one and put it on thingiverse and save everyone the tedium of hand cutting a stencil.

Airbrushing the Graphics

The original artwork is a bit flat and I wanted the elements to have a bit of a 3D feel to them.  Once each base coat was dry I shot the eagle with a lighter brown in the middle, then both text ribbons got a darker bottom shade of blue and red respectively and the beak got a light yellow highlight.  I did not highlight the boots, soles or the bullet casings as these were relatively small areas of colour and could not be masked easily.

Peeling off the masking

I asked one of my similarly aged work colleagues "What is the most fun you can have with a bottle of Copydex glue?".  I was not dissapointed when they responded with the answer "peeling it off your hand like it's rotting skin".  This was a a rite of passage in the 80s.

The act of peeling off the masking gave me the exact same satisfying feeling mixed with the rush you get when you open a mystery present or solve a really hard puzzle.  The results exceeded my expectations.

Blacklining 

As I mentioned above the blacklining needed a thin black marker and all the shops are shut due to the lockdown, so this had to wait until I made an "essential" shopping trip a few days later.  I managed to get two sharpies a fine and ultra fine twin tip and a fine tip for just £2.  The process of lining was pretty simple and I'm sure you will agree it makes the world of difference.

Panel Lines & Rivets

The piece de resistance in this artwork is of course adding the panel lines and rivets, after all this is supposed to be painted on the side of a USCMC Dropship.  I followed the excellent Youtube tutorial from Airbrush Asylum and I think it turned out okay.

Video

For those interested (probably not very many) I did put together a little montage of the stenciling part of this project.  Enjoy...

Jessie's Prints Episode 4 - Rick and Morty Flying Car

This week, I are mostly been printing... 

Rick Sanchez's Flying Car - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3407058 

Another bucket list model for me.  The designer OneIdMONstr has put a lot of thought and consideration into how anyone downloading this model is going to actually print and build it.  

Start by measuring your own dome (mine came from a string of cheap Xmas lights) which you can then use to dimension the test dome file.  This will give you your scaling factor (mine was 58.05%) which you then apply to all the other files. Parts of this model are so tiny at that scale that it is approaching the limit of how small my printer go.  Sadly Rick and Morty are a bit wonky donkey and some parts like the steering wheel, well just don't go there.

Unfortunately I did not have any transparent filament to print the filler segments that fit in the slits in the top and bottom saucer parts.  However, I used an old modelling trick.  I taped over the slits and then mixed up some 5 minute epoxy (Araldite) with a bit of yellow paint.  This was then buttered into the slit from the underside.  

In hindsight I should have thinned down the yellow with water as the Scale 75 Paint I used is incredibly heavily pigmented specifically to counteract the tendency of yellow to be translucent. 

There are a few things I need to add to this model like the beer bottles and cans which litter the interior.  The model is designed to be lit, so when I find an appropriate string of bright white LEDs I will update this post.

Reaper Bones #14 - More Monsters

It's Monday Miniatures time again and here is the latest installment of the Reaper Bones Painting Marathon where we edge closer to 20% completion!

Ape-X, Super Villain (Jason Wiebe SKU:50031)

I'm fast becoming a fan of Jason Wiebe's sculpts and this steampunk cyborg homage to Gorilla Grodd is one of those odd but must have minis.  As you can see my airbrush work is getting a bit better by this time.  Shame we can't say the same for the photography.

Flesh Golem (James Van Schaik SKU:77169)

Another fantastic cross genre miniature which could easily double as Frankenstein's Monster or some other horrible experiment gone wrong in your Doctor Who, Victoriana or Steampunk game.

Oxidation Beast (Kevin Williams SKU:77032)

An homage to the bane of every paladin the classic Rust Monster.  A surprisingly rare miniature to find at the time of this kickstarter so this went straight to the top of the pile despite its late entry on this list.

Stone Golem (James Van Schaik SKU:77171)

There's a pseudo Egyptian feel about this miniature (it's the skirt!!) and so I had to paint it in a bronzed gold colour rather than the defacto stone that it's name suggests.  I half expect Indiana Jones to be facing up to this mechanical monstrosity in a future adventure.

Virina, Female Demon (Werner Klocke SKU:77067)

Another classic miniature with so many uses in so many genres.

I always struggle with painting red, either it doesn't cover properly or my highlights go all orangey.  This one turned out pretty good but the disaster of a matte coat has made this an arms length type of paint job.

Bones Progress

Reaper Bones: 245 - Painted: 49

Related Posts

Reaper Bones #1: The Marathon Begins - Where I paint a dozen Giant Rats.

Reaper Bones #2: Kobolds, Are They Dogs or Dragons? - Where I paint a dozen kobolds.

Reaper Bones #3: A Carcase of Skeletons - Where I paint a half dozen skeletons.

Reaper Bones #4: A Shuffle of Zombies - Where I paint five zombies.

Reaper Bones #5: Introducing Shaina Coppervein, Dwarven Orc Hunter - First PC mini.

Reaper Bones #6: Mimic, Treasure Chest and How I re-base my Bones - Where I paint furniture.

Reaper Bones #7: Fire Elemental Meets Novelty Lamp - Where I hack a mini with LEDs.

Reaper Bones #8: Flaming Sphere LED Tealight Hack - Another mini LED lighting project.

Reaper Bones #9: Elliwyn Heatherlark, Gnome Bard - Another PC mini.

Reaper Bones #10: Horace "Action" Jackson - A Baddass disco dancing Motherfucker.

Reaper Bones #11: Pirate Captain Thorin Stoneheart - A Swashbuckling Philanthropist.

Reaper Bones #12: Monstrous Menagerie - Clay Golem, Eye Beast, Griffon, Owlbear, Marsh Troll

Reaper Bones #13: Giants - Male Storm Giant and Female Cloud Giant

5 Free D&D Things I Bought on Wish.com - Part 1

Sometimes you do CRAZY things and today I ordered 5 random D&D things from Wish.com.

The Rules

Yes, there have to be rules, without rules there would be "Anarchy in your D&D".

1. I can only buy items which list for the search term "D&D"
2. I can only buy items with a list price of free, no limited availability items and shipping must cost no more than £3 per item.
3. I can only buy 1 item of a type, so no buying 5 different sets of dice.
4. No NSFW items please, we're British! 

Please wait 6 to 8 weeks for this post to conclude... 

Big Box Project - Part 2 - The Flap and Preparing to Stomp Bugs!

Work on my Mobile Painting Workstation continues

Installation of the Flap

The bottom section of the box is pretty innacessible and therfore lends itself to long term storage of the compressor, rotary sander, hot glue gun and other larger items such as brush boxes and palettes.  I also wanted a second shelf so the obvious answer is to make a flap.

Keeping the cost low, I used some sections of laminate flooring made from Medium Density Fibreboard (MDF).  This is good enough.

A little pull tab cut from an old lanyard was glued to the bottom of the flap with some 5 minute epoxy.

More Exterior Decor

As I mentioned in Part 1, Aliens Day is just around the corner (April 26th) and I wanted to get the iconic Bug Stomper noseart added to the rear of the box.  I found a suitable graphic but I didn't like the black centre so I fired up GIMP and removed it.  This is now my stencil.

The paint scheme of the UD-4L Cheyenne Dropship is a predictable military green.  However, you can't get a tester pots of emulsion in military green so I went for the nearest I could get, Wilko's Jungle Green Emulsion.

I didn't have a reference image to hand and this colour in hindsight is way too light but that can all be fixed later.

This was liberally applied to the back of the box in two coats.  Coverage was surprisingly good.  When I painted the sides of the box with automotive paint there was some kind of chemical reaction and it didn't want to stick to certain parts of the box.  No problems with the emulsion and it went on quickly.

Next job was to cut out the badge from the center of the paper giving me 2 masks.  One to paint the white circle backgound and one for the details inside the badge. 

Careful measuring and marking in pencil will ensure that the outer mask is aligned so that the hole is directly in the centre of the box.  I used some Repositionable Mounting Spray to affix the mask and the newspaper but you could use a gluestick at a push.

 This is then liberally coated in white spray paint,

Removing the mask and the newspaper leaves a neat white circle the exact same size as the badge.  Take more care than me when masking and you won't end up with annoying bits of overspray like me.  A quick touch up with some Jungle Green and all is well.

The it's time to add the noseart circle.  Same drill, spray on the adhesive and align with the white circle.

I'll be covering the hard part, cutting out all the different areas of colour, in the next gripping installment