We're Off

Okay, last post before tomorrow, when go up to Nottingham for the Dronearama modelling convention. And here's what i'm taking.

And our 10-year old has decided he'd like to make something to put in the show. So he's come up with "W.A.L.L. F":




Its been totally his idea, the parts, the construction, the colours and the decals. All i've done is spray on the basecoat and bolt the wheels and head on. He's had a rummage through my bits boxes and came up with;
Bionicle box for the body,
yougurt pot for the head,
two wheel halves for the eyes,
ladder for the mouth,
three Kinder Egg containers for the wheels.

Well done Samuel.

B7 Hairdryer Ship - all done

Meant to have put these up for ages. She's all done as you can see and, though i've taken some liberties with some of the parts, the colour scheme is pretty much exact - although looks far too orangey in these shots due to the bright sunlight.

Producing 2 - bit more progress

Okay, i'm keeping the halves apart for now.
The "tug" is pretty gappy, so i've started here to fill some of the open spaces in. You can also see i've added one of the R2 feet as a joining piece between this and the main part. I've also used a coplue of the chrome R2 pieces as thrusters.
The main part has a few things i've got to address, namely there's some pieces missing, so will have to cover them up with Plasticard. As the tug has the propulsion, the rear here i'm having as some sort of access/docking unit thingy.

Judge Death - finished

Here he is then. Pretty happy with the paintjob - but not the face. Thought i'd do a better job on it than last time and think i did. But its still not right - the original face is SO distorted that reposing just does'nt work. The teeth are far too long this way and the jaw, even though cut down, is still wrong.
Figure the only way to do a proper job is to cut the teeth by about half and sculpt a whole new lower jaw.

Build a 'Bot

Its Dronearama next week, and i'm doing one of the events - folk will be presented with a donor toy robot and the centre of the table will have boxes of kit parts and interesting shapes. They'll then have the weekend to come up with a robot of their own design, then paint and decal it.
I wanted a piece of art to go with the magazine ad and Dave Taylor, top bloke top artist, stepped in.
He's already a proven master of robot design and, boy, did he come up with a doozy. Cheers Dave.

Producing - 2 - kicking off

With my first attempt at producing something to sell not even going for its 99p starting bid, decided to change tack and go another route for my second one.
Its been bugging me for a while now that i've two MPC R2D2 kits just sitting there minus their domes used for my Hairdryer ship.
Feel i should really use them so they will be the basis of my next build.
But what to build?
Toyed with some sort of satelitte affair, or maybe a bigger robot but, in the ned, thought i'd join the bodies together to form an extended version and have that as the start of a ship.
But what do i use for the front?
Had a good rummage and came up with this - a whole bunch of Bionicle parts that i'd jammed together and painted as the lower section of a WOTW Tripod years back.
Thought the curvy part would make a neat front of the ship and the rest of it looks really busy compared to the roundness of the R2 parts, so thinking its some sort of tug pulling freight a la the Nostromo, or maybe something like something from the "ragtag fleet" of Battlestar Galactica"

Judge Death - dirtied down and metals based

Judge Death - yellow and green

All the yellow on and most of the green. Easy to panic at this stage as he's far too bright and looks like a toy - but the washes'll take care of that.

SHAKARA! - progress

Here he is with another 7 (!) metres of chain on. Don't think it'll need much more now as i'm on the neck, which is thinner by quite a bit.
Will be a while before an upadte though as i've used up all of my B&Q's stock of the chain...

Judge Death - fleshy bits all done

Here we are with skin and mouth all done.
Thoughts turned quite a bit to the colour scheme for the outfit now. Before, i went with matt black for the uniform, to suggest he'd been dead and buried maybe, and the oft used bone colour for the shoulder and elbow pads.
Don't want to do that this time round as i'm kind of bored of seeing it done that way.
So thinking to go for a literal copy of the regular Judge's clobber, albeit dark and filthy. So, yellow for the shoulder pads, badge and belt buckle, green for elbow and knee pads, along with the belt.
Thought, if it'd be as filthy as i intend to make it, it wouldn't make sense to have him with a shiny helmet (so to speak). But there's SO many classic images of him where there's those little circles of light up top, that i can't not do it.

Nurgle Octopus finished

Didn't take long to finish him off. Came out quite well.

Judge Death - assembled

Well, after the cutting of the head, the next job is to do something about the arms. That was pretty simple - move them down and around into the position i want them and cut off the area of shoulder that gets in the way. That leaves still plenty of arm to glue it to the body and, once set, i could pack the gaps with Green Stuff. Not too bothered how that part would look as the whacking great shoulder pads would cover them up.
The rest of him is a complete doddle, going together very, very fastand here he is in Grey Primer - the basis for his skin tone.

Judge Death - Ch, ch, changes

So, as i say, the detail on Death's skin is stunning. Trouble is, in that pose, you just can't see it. First step then - close the mouth, which will then lower the head back down. Simple enough to hacksaw straight across the top of the lower jaw, made easier by it being solid vinyl.
That leaves me with these two pieces which when pushed together look okay. You can also see in this shot two more things that need addressing - the necks far too long now and the rear of the jaw juts out too far.
I also found when washing all the parts that the Death badge was missing. Would've been a problem but luckily i still had me old one in (many) pieces so could nick it off there.
You can see here that i really didn't have a clue sculpting wise back then - did the same cutting of the mouth but left it at that, leaving the bulging jaw, and crudely added detail, making it bulge even more. Rubbish.
Still, the paintjobs not bad. I'm sticking with the Matt Black for the uniform but may go another route for the pad colours.

My Viper

Many, many thanks to Alun for this terrific photo of my Viper. I'd passed it and the hanger on to him ready for the Crewe show and, while he's had it, he took this excellent shot, making it look far better than it actually is.
Cheers Alun.

Judge Death

Love and loath this Halcyon kit. Love it for the stunning detail Colin put into it, loath it for the AWFUL pose its in. Out of all the moments he could have chosen for the fella - and there's many iconic one's - he chose the moment he realises the games up and he's about to disintergrate.
Nice and dramatic on paper, looks blummin' awful in a sculpt - you can't see anything at all head-on and, out of context like this, it just looks like he's having a big yawn.
About 10 years ago, i bought one with a view to changing the pose more in keeping with this classic Bolland shot.
Trouble is, didn't have a clue what i was doing - and ended up with this oddity.
Thought i'd have another go, so bought an original quite cheaply of eBay and will be retracing my steps very soon.

Mean Machine - all done

Pleased with how its come out, but still a rubbish pose

SHAKARA! - progress

Have held back posting updates on this as i've been real unsure how i'd manage and, if i figured i couldn't pull it off, i could scrap it and not waste your time.
But, think it might be okay.
Top pic is what i had round me just before i started - the torch attached to the base via the neck pipe, clay, sculpting tools and plenty of reference pics.
Pic 2 is what i came up with. A whopping 2KG's of clay on there, making a very odd looking critter without all the chains.
But, lights work okay at the end of it, so that's alright.
Last pic is where i was yesterday. I've detailed the eye area with cable ties and painted it all black to stop light bleeding through - the torch is VERY bright. I've started putting the chains on, working from the bottom up and something slowly dawned on me that i'd never considered.
After a lot of looking around, i'd come to the conclusion that there's no available chain exactly like the one Henry draws.
The closest i could come up to in shape and link size was this "curb chain" from B&Q. I bought 3 meters of the stuff.
And that's it on there.
NINE FEET of the stuff - and it only gets me this far...
So, not only do i have a sculpt that weighs a ton with 2KG of clay on it, its gonna be even heavier with all that chain on.
But, come this far so can't go back now.

Mean Machine - some progress

Just a coupla real quick shots to show that i've nearly finished on the metal an' meat and have started blocking in the boring stuff.

Nurgle Octopus

Was up in the attic today and came across a long-forgotten box of partially completed projects and in there was this fella.
I started it yonks ago and the basis is a rubber octopus that came with my sons long defunct pirate playset.
Back then i had it in mind to turn him into a Games Workshop bad guy (should really have gone with Slaanesh, what with all those tentacles, but chose Nurgle as i was building an army of them at the time).
As you can see, i've added Green Stuuf/cocktail sticks armament to two of the tentacles for a bit of variety of whacking, had finished the fleshy bit, but was only half way through the green parts.
Should be easy enough to finish. Wondering if i should change the black eyes i put in and go with something with more character.

Mean Machine - skinjob

Okay, done my usual "wash with Dwarf Flesh then pastel" then sealed him. Looking forward to the next bit as i start picking out the details.

Steampunk Rodney - nearly done

All rusted up, just need to do his eyes then he's done.

Producing - 1 - finished

Here he is then all rusted up. Pretty happy with it - happier if it actually sells.

New 2000AD Modelling Blog

My good friend and fellow modeller Ian has started a new site to chronicle his building primarily the kit collection of rabid Dredd fan "Maidstone John".
Looking forward to following this but, already, the "Bugger. Wish i had one of them" chant has started.
And it can only grow.

http://modelsofdredd.blogspot.com/

SHAKARA! - step 2

I've set aside some time tomorrow for the sculpting, so have just prepped it by sealing in the wires and bulbs as i don't want any clay squishing in there.