Preparing For Paint Part III: Tools Of The Trade

Now that you can recognize the defects in kit plastic and know about the different types of filler materials you're probably asking yourself "how do I smooth and shape this rough blob of putty, it looks awful!?" Well, that's where tools come in to play. Anything from a toothpick to an old credit card can become a makeshift tool and in this installment of the Preparing for paint series I will discuss a variety of different tools and their uses.

Painting Eyes on Scale Figures

Introduction

Painting eyes on figures can be a nerve wracking task. Many people bemoan the fact that their figures end up with a "staring" gaze, cross eyed or wall eyed which usually happens in the smaller scales such as 1/35 which I honestly recommend not even trying in these scales, a shadow and a light dry brushing is enough to suffice here. This tutorial is intended for larger scale figures such as our test subject, Verlinden's 1/5 scale Robert E. Lee bust.

The human eye

If you take a look at a real human eye you will notice the whites of the eyes don't take up alot of space and aren't pure white, they are more of an off white. Many painters err in painting eyes pure white and leaving too much behind which will lead to the zombie stare. Next is the iris or colored part. The iris should be fairly centered  and overlapped slightly by the upper and lower eyelid with a darker ring of color around a lighter inner part. Note the iris moves off center in some cases depending which direction your character is looking. For example if your character is looking to the left the left iris will actually be slightly closer to the inside (right) side of the eye while the right side iris will be slightly toward the outside and vice versa if your figure is looking right. Pupils change size so there is really no set rule here except they should be centered in the iris.

Preparing For Paint Part II: Filler Materials

From sink marks, to sunken ejector pins, to seams fillers assist the builder in making two parts look like one or a rough surface look smooth or can manipulate two parts to look like one but which one do you choose out of the array of tubes and bottles on a hobby store shelf? The following list with pros and cons of each filler type along with their suggested uses should help shed some light on the subject.

Preparing For Paint Part I: Common Defects

 You can be the best painter on the face of the earth, however no degree of skill will compensate for defects in the plastic surface underneath if they are not repaired prior to the finishing process. In this multi part series I will discuss the different types of defects along with the materials and techniques used to deal with them starting in part one with common defects. Many of these defects are simply unavoidable as they stem from the molding process itself therefore will be a part of every build no matter what price you paid for it or who the rave manufacturer of the moment is, why that is takes a basic understanding of injection molding. A styrene injection mold consists of two aluminum or steel halves with an impression in each side for one half of the part to be produced. When the halves close a cavity is formed which liquid polystyrene plastic is pumped in to under hydraulic pressure which then cools, the mold halves are opened, and pins push the completed parts out preparing the mold for the next round. To see the molding process in further detail take a peek at the video below.

W.I.P SERIES: Jurassic Park Velociraptor Part I Introduction

2013 marks 20 years since Jurassic Park arrived in theaters and took the world by storm. Steven Spielberg's masterpiece was a trailblazer for it's time relying heavily on computer animation extensively for the first time in a feature film replacing the old time standard of clay puppets and stop motion techniques. Among the most memorable and crowd pleasing creatures aside from the Tyrannosaurus were the crafty and agile Velociraptors. Depicted as as a vicious pack hunter in the films about 6' in height capable of jumping over a car and advanced critical thinking, science has since debunked the films portrayal of these small carnivorous dinosaurs. In truth the Velociraptor was no more than 1.5' tall at the shoulder and 6' in length overall, weighed about 33lbs, was sparsely covered in primitive feathers, and fossil records show limited to no evidence of cooperative or "pack hunting" behavior. Rather than a true Velociraptor, the film's portrayal more closely resembles Dromaeosaurus or Utahraptor, both of which could reach heights of 6'-7' and may not have had feathers.

Am I loosing my patience?

As I progress in my hobby I've been noticing a trend. I'm not sure weather to be disturbed by it or just view it as the next chapter in my model building career. Years ago I could tackle a long complicated project such as my R.M.S. Titanic wreck which took two years and is about 80% scratch built or my 1972 Corvette LT-1 that has full engine plumbing among other details down to a set of keys in the ignition without an issue. As time has gone by I find myself leaning more toward simplicity. Figures, painted skill one snap kits, simple 1/72 aircraft and the like. The issue seems to be that recently as I work on longer projects that have part counts in the many hundreds, I find myself getting burned out very quickly. Add unforeseen issues such as spilling glue on an assembly, fit issues, lots of seam filling (my most hated part of building a kit), or a paint mistake and matters get compounded. My current project is Academy's M1A1 Abrams which has just reached the stage where the hull is complete and assembly on the turret has started. For the past week I've been in the garage about two hours a day and finding that I've gotten little if anything (in my mind) done, for example last nights progress only completed the headlight assembly, a mere six pieces yet it seemed like an eternity to get through. Folks would say "well if it feels like a job, take a break" but the thing is I just took one. When I moved I was away from building for over a month, reading magazines and other blogs ravenous to get back to building, yet now that I'm back I can't get motivated to do anything. It could be residual exhaustion from moving, or maybe I just have a complete and total lack of patience. Maybe I should build slow and just not care. Maybe slow progress is better than no progress. Maybe I shouldn't worry about trying to get a new progress post up ASAP. Maybe I should just sit back and let the project take me at it's pace instead of trying to force the issue. It could be that that's been the problem all along...

Kit Review: Revell 2010 Corvette ZR1

ZR1: The Ultimate Corvette

A luxury sports car carved of power, performance and prestige, ZR1 boasts a handcrafted LS9 638-horsepower supercharged V8 with titanium connecting rods and intake valves and a test track top speed of 205 mph. Experience 0-60 mph in only 3.4 seconds and 1.05g skid pad, or over 1.13g with available ZR1 High Performance Package (PDE), while nestled in a refined and luxurious interior. All while maintaining a fuel efficiency of 21 MPG highway.
ZR1 is the fastest, most powerful car Chevrolet has ever produced, and rivals the world’s best luxury sports vehicles both on and off the track, and was the overall winner of the 2010 Car and Driver Lightning Lap competition, which pitted the ZR1 against the fastest cars in the world. And because it’s Corvette, it’s the only truly American sports car in the competitive class.  -chevrolet.com