It's a Small World - the modelling thread.

Pyan

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If your hobby is modelling, from starships in miniature to Warhammer to historical land, sea or air machines, etc, this is the thread for you.

Archive photos are scattered through the closed Ploughing on... thread
 
To start us off, I make 1/350 scale models of warships from the era 1895-1915 - Dreadnoughts and Pre-Dreadnoughts.

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Very nice!

I built detailed models as a teen, but now and then as an adult I modify or restore older toys: 12" GI Joe/Action Man, Microman (Micronauts), Macross Valkyries, Tron Lightcycles, etc. I'm slowly building a custom fighter plane for a Gatchaman/Battle of the Planets action figure. All the kinds of stuff I didn't quite have as a kid because it was never made and I didn't acquire the skills until later.
 
Yes! Very cool and well done!
When I was younger I built many WW1 and WW2 tanks, planes, and ships. I did a number of space models too. I even drew, planned and built a Star Trek Larson class destroyer from scratch from an original series Enterprise model kit, based on a scaled-up drawing of a lead playing piece from the old board game. I don't have the model anymore, but I still have the lead playing piece.

But! From our original post, I am working on a Metal Earth, 'Queen Anne's Revenge.' Nice choice m'lads!
 
Hello! Since I was about 14, I've been making Warhammer-type models and terrain. My introduction was an old copy of White Dwarf, which contained instructions as to how to make a Tudor-style house out of card and balsa wood. Since then, I've always wanted a little Warhammer town and, thanks to disposable income and a lot of time, I now have one on my kitchen table.

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I also have a smaller sci-fi setup, which is currently in storage. Most of the models are scratch-built or are modified MDF shells:

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At the moment, I'm repainting some very old Eldar (Warhammer space elves) models that I bought when I was much younger. I've been quite inspired by old SF paintings, especially those by Roger Dean and Chris Foss.


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Hi,

I've wanted a scale model of the Elizabeth Dane from John Carpenter's The Fog (1980, not the horrendous remake) for years now but all that I can get from that franchise is a Captain Blake figure.

I've had a look online and can see quite a few models (I might go to the Greenwich Maritime Museum as they have one for a tenner, but I can find slightly more expensive ones online), and was going to buy a cheaper one as I'm not much of a modeler.

The lucky thing is the Elizabeth Dane is a derelict ship and I want to recreate it as it is in The Fog as opposed to, say, a beautifully rendered Cutty Sark. This means I can buy one without the sails or make the tattered sails myself out of the canvas that comes in the kit.

But how do I paint and weather a ship that is essentially rotten and black without it all looking the same? Any tips? Here's the ship from the film.

Thanks for any help.

promo pic
E Dane.jpg


And Youtube clip

 
Hi,

I've wanted a scale model of the Elizabeth Dane from John Carpenter's The Fog (1980, not the horrendous remake) for years now but all that I can get from that franchise is a Captain Blake figure.

I've had a look online and can see quite a few models (I might go to the Greenwich Maritime Museum as they have one for a tenner, but I can find slightly more expensive ones online), and was going to buy a cheaper one as I'm not much of a modeler.

The lucky thing is the Elizabeth Dane is a derelict ship and I want to recreate it as it is in The Fog as opposed to, say, a beautifully rendered Cutty Sark. This means I can buy one without the sails or make the tattered sails myself out of the canvas that comes in the kit.

But how do I paint and weather a ship that is essentially rotten and black without it all looking the same? Any tips? Here's the ship from the film.

Thanks for any help.

promo pic
View attachment 92870

And Youtube clip

You might try visiting the Britmodeller forum. I don't know if they have any tutorials but they have 'work in progress' sections where members post photos of the steps in building their latest models. Some of the more advanced model builders do a bit of weathering so you might get a few tips.

Edit: there are also tutorials on youtube that you could look at. Here’s an example
 
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Hello, I couldn't find another thread on this subject and I thought I'd start one. (Apologies in advance if there is already, or if this is the wrong section.)

Back when the world was young, I used to paint the little metal figurines from RPG's. Some of the FASA Star Trek ships, Warhammer 40k, Judge Dredd and WEG Star Wars figures. I was truly awful, but I've a yen to get back into it. I'll probably get some older figures from eBay, but any advice on what sort of tools would be good for a beginner to the hobby, etc, etc.

I've been following inaworldofpaint, which I believe is Toby Frost's blog.
 
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I would say:

A collection of brushes:
- Varying in thickness, right down to the finer details brushes.
- Some old thick brushes.
- I personally prefer Sable Hair brushes for fine detailing.

A collection of paints:
- Lots of good paints out there from GW or Vallejo.
- Some washes and inks to add a bit of liquid talent.

A fine crafts set:
- Sharp snips
- A good stanley knife to clean up mould lines (god i hate mould lines)

A fine hand drill bit: good for hollowing out muzzles, nozels etc.

A selection of different size and shape bases (circular ones became popular but they don't lock together well).

Some base materials, flock, sand, rock etc (i like using things I find and painting them, I had some blue slate stone in my garden and smashed a piece up and had dozens of smaller rocks - these looked great with a wash and some light highlighting.)

A decent wet/dry pallet.

A good and comfortable area to paint in, with solid all around lighting (its hard to paint in an evening without a really good lighting environment)

A crafting magnifier to help with detailing (like with irises)

Hope that helps.
 
ill dig out some of my old paintwork over the weekend and try to post some.
I would say an important thing is mastering the following:

Neat basing,
Washes,
Drybrushing.

I'm probably a below average painter but practicing the above has left me with some nice pieces.
 
Today I finally found the time to apply the lacquer coating to my Cutty Sark. The masts might look slightly askew because they have not been cemented into place yet. I thought it would be easier to apply the lacquer with them removed and then lacquer the masts seperately.

Now, I need to start hunting down material for the rigging (not looking forward to this part of the build). I've always had a problem in this area because it needs to be tight enough to look good but thin plastic masts tend to bend with the slightest tension. I'm starting to understand why good model builders use stiffer third party brass versions for structures like masts. I've made many mistakes along the way to get to this point and this is definitely the hardest model I've tried to build. The sails that came with the kit look awful (plastic) and I'm not skilled enough to make them out of canvas so I might just leave them off.

This could still all end in disaster...
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Today I finally found the time to apply the lacquer coating to my Cutty Sark. The masts might look slightly askew because they have not been cemented into place yet. I thought it would be easier to apply the lacquer with them removed and then lacquer the masts seperately.

Now, I need to start hunting down material for the rigging (not looking forward to this part of the build). I've always had a problem in this area because it needs to be tight enough to look good but thin plastic masts tend to bend with the slightest tension. I'm starting to understand why good model builders use stiffer third party brass versions for structures like masts. I've made many mistakes along the way to get to this point and this is definitely the hardest model I've tried to build. The sails that came with the kit look awful (plastic) and I'm not skilled enough to make them out of canvas so I might just leave them off.

This could still all end in disaster...
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Re the rigging: don't know if you missed this, FB...
https://www.sffchronicles.com/threads/579125/page-38#post-2576070
 

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