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A Bride For the Weekend.

2K views 24 replies 20 participants last post by  Mark McGovern 
#1 ·
Discussion starter · #17 · (Edited)
Rebel Rocker said:
Can you give us some details...for those of us that would like to emmulate (fancy word for 'steal') your work. Wayne
"Emulate' is exactly the right word, Wayne. Nobody's stealing if I'm sharing, which is one of the reasons why we're all here in the first place, right?

In fact, although I flatter myself that I would probably have doped the techniques out for myself, the fact is that an earlier builder of the Bride (Steve Riojas or Steve Tanski, maybe?) posted his method for making the clear bottles look real. I remembered what this erstwhile builder posted, and utilized them myself. They are:

1. Remove the locators and ejector pin marks inside each transparent part. I used a small metal grinding bit in my Dremel tool (not the Magnagouger) for this. Then I sanded the insides smooth. I needed a pretty coarse grit sandpaper - 100, actually - to smooth out the Dremel marks.

2. Then smooth the sanding scratches down with successively finer grits. I find it's easiest to gauge my progress by alternating the direction in which I'm sanding. So when all the scratches from the previous grit sandpaper, which were running at a different angle from the paper I was currently using, had disappeared I knew it was time to start using the next finer grit. The processed continued until I'd gotten to 2000 grit sandpaper. At this point I polished the plastic with whitening-type toothpaste. It has a mild abrasive that removes those last sanding scratches, plus it makes my models minty fresh! When you're done polishing the glassware, it should be a little cloudy but otherwise unmarked.

3. Wash the parts and let them air dry. Then dip them in Future Acrylic Floor Polish. Make sure you have a paper towel handy in a dust-free environment for the parts to dry on. The paper towel will soak up the Future that runs off the parts, leaving them crystal clear. I did the outsides of the glassware pieces after they'd been assembled

4. This was my own idea: to show liquid inside my bottles, I cut circles from clear acetate (the cover from a grocery store package of sticky buns, actually). I held the glassware halves together, then used an artists circle template to gauge their circumference. I allowed for the thickness of the plastic - about an eight of an inch - then cut the acetate with the aid of the template. The circles didn't have to be perfect, because the inside contours of the glassware parts aren't perfect circles either. Then I used a tiny glob of 3M Tacky Putty to position an acetate circle inside one bottle half, going for the best fit the contours of the acetate disks and the bottle interiors would allow. I cemented the circles with Testors Clear Parts Cement. For the big distilling flask I added epoxy "bubbles" and acrylic gloss medium gel "waves" to the top of the acetate circle to represent boiling liquid.

5. I brushed thinned Testors oil-based enamels inside the bottles to represent the various liquids within. Chemists usually use black rubber stoppers to seal their containers, so make sure you paint the insides of the clear bottle necks where a stopper is protruding from the top. Keep the paint off the mating surfaces of the bottle halves; you can sand the edges clean if necessary. I cemented the bottle halves together with small drops of gel super glue. There was no need to worry about the super glue frosting the Future-coated plastic, plus I was only using tiny dabs, just to pin the halves together. I didn't use accellerator for this step, because it can make the glue itself turn white.

6. The bottle halves won't fit perfectly together, so how to fill gaps between clear parts? The answer is, more super glue. I ran a bead of the stuff along a seam, covering only a little bit at a time - say, half the circumference of the smaller bottles. The I hit the glue with accellerator. Then glue took a few seconds to firm up, then I statrted sanding it immediately. Otherwise it could have cured harder than the plastic and been impossible to sand without damage to the surrounding plastic. Of course, sanding the super glue-filled seams did do some damage, so I had to do the sanding-polishing-Future dipping deal I'd done on the insides of the glassware parts on the outsides. Take care to have a means of suspending the bottles while they dry! I had to wick the drops that formed under the bottles with a piece of paper towel until the Future quit dripping. But the result of all that work was bottles that looked almost like they'd been made from real glass (plus Popeye-like forearms).

7. I said the bottles looked almost like real glass; but even with the super glue filler the seams were still visible. So I used the technique that the earlier builder had mentioned, using paint to suggest old stains and spills on the outside of the bottles to cover the seams. It didn't take much to camouflage the joints, with the result that the bottles no longer looked like they'd been made from two pieces glued together.

Making the bottles look real was a lot of work. But this was one of those cases where the effort paid off with a satisfying effect.
 
Discussion starter · #20 · (Edited)
TRENDON said:
However, you made a nice nameplate and the detail on her face is far better than what I did.
That's a Posthumous Productions nameplate with the box art lettering. They also have one with movie poster letters. As for the detail, I think you're mistaking proficiency with the larger attachment file size you get as a Hobby Talk supporter!

dreamer said:
...Very nice, I never thought green could work for her. Also, nice touch with the silk wrappings! ...did you build that extra machine from scratch?
My take on the Bride's skin coloring was that, since she was manufactured by the same process that wrought the Monster, she should have the same "very pale flat green" that Aurora prescribed for his flesh tones. However, straight green doesn't look very believable to me. Nor can you make a greenish flesh color - not enough green and it will be too pink; too much green and it will be green; equal amounts produce a sort of mushroom gray - nice, but not the hue I wanted. The answer I've found is to sort of paint the normal flesh tones and green hues side by side. The deepest shadows will be the greenest tones, fading into the more normal hues as I progress to the more prominent areas. I use pure white for the hightlights, which grays the underlying colors a bit and tends to bring things full circle. It's not as cut-and-dried as I make it sound, though - I do a lot of "noodling" until I'm happy with the flesh tones.

Glad to hear the silk effect of the wrappings came through in the photos; I wasn't sure whether or not it did. I mixed Testors Model Master Silver with flat white to make a pale silver gray base color. Wash and drybrushing brought out the details. I'm not fond of using craft store acrylics for most model work, but I did use Ceramcoat Clear Pearlizing Finish to give the wrappings that glistening look. On the workbench it looks overdone, but under the flat lighting of model contest rooms it looks just right.

Yeah, the tall copper-wrapped thingie was scratchbuilt. It's mostly styrene strip, rod, and stock, with some oddments used to make the holder for the flashing LED inside. There are a few hardware items on it as well; for example, it's base is the spring used to keep doors from banging agaginst the walls.


roadrnr said:
I see you even had an extra hand laying around.
No, that's THE kit hand. The area to which I moved it didn't have much going on. Plus, I thought the nameplate would look good in that spot, but would block the hand. So it wasn't any great leap to move the hand to the back by the wall.
Roy Kirchoff said:
Maybe you could share some tips: Camera, lighting?
Sure thing: when it became clear that it was getting time to go to digital photography, I asked Fred DeRuvo what technical requirements he needed for publication purposes. Fred said that 3 megapixels or better was what he needed. I did a little research and settled on an Olympus Camedia C-3020; price was certainly a factor!

This camera is pretty easy to operate. The only accessories I have found absolutely necessary were a tripod (which was a hand-me-down from my brother, fortunately for me because the things can get pricey), an AC adaptor (the camera will suck the life out of batteries faster than a buxom starlet can croak "Christopher Lee"), and a larger memory card. These last are the most reasonably priced of the lot; the amount of memory they contain increases in multiples of 16, but the price for the larger memory cards doesnot.

I also purchased a USB cable which connects the camera with my computer so I can upload my photos. There are also card readers which aren't too expensive, which do the same thing. Although Microsoft Photo Editor came free with an upgrade for Winows 98, on which I'm running, the camera also comes with a photo editing program of its own. I like MS Photo Editor for resizing images to post, but use the Camedia program the rest of the time.

As for lighting, I find I can get away with the fluorescent lighting in my basement; once in a while I'll use the camera's flash (there are several settings for that) and/or a scoop light or two. I bracket my exposures as I shoot pictures, then select the best shots to keep. Instead of throwing bad negatives and prints (and money!!!) away as I once did, I can now get rid of unwanted photos with the push of a button or a mouse click.

There's much that the camera is capable of that I haven't used. And a really versatile photo editing program would probably make for more exciting pictures. But I prefer to just take the clearest shot I can with a simple felt background, since most of my photos are intended to be published here or in print.

To everybody else who's posted:

I probably should have said this first, but there were specific questions to answer, and me being the windbag that I am... Anyway, I'd like to say that everyone's compliments on my models are truly encouraging because they come from fellow modelers. It's nice when a friend or relative oohs and aahs one's models, but it's always in the back of the mind that that's their job. Plus, they may be impressed because they're not modelers themselves and really can't come to an informed opinion about the work.

But when people on this board pay a compliment, a modeler knows that the opinions expressed are coming from folks who know their stuff. Now, I've always said that I'm open to constructive criticism and I mean that. If somebody has a disagreement with the choices I made I'll be happy to discuss them - by email if they'd prefer. But the bouquets are very much appreciated and I'm grateful to have received them from all of you.

That said, there's going to be an IPMS contest in Cincinnati, OH this weekend. I'm going - anybody else?
 
Discussion starter · #25 ·
Bases

Thanks, Zombie. I've been epoxying my finshed models to wooden bases for several years now. The base makes it possible to handle the model without getting fingerprints on it while decreasing the risk of damage during handling. Also, the wood makes the model more stable when sitting on a contest table - sometimes that can be a BIG plus. And I think it just makes for a better presentation for the contest judges.

For the Bride of Frankenstein I stained and gloss-finished a pine craft plaque I'd bought from Michael's. I intended to use it for another project, but the Bride fit on the plaque so I went with that. There's a bowling trophy place nearby that sells prefinished bases for trophies dirt cheap - less than the craft plaques, with no finishing needed. I know of some guys who "recycle" award plaques from model contests as well. A couple of times I've had to just make do with an odd-shaped or oversize piece of pine shelving to fit a diorama or other large-scale model. So there a lot of choices available if you want to anchor you models on a nice wooden base.
 
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