51 replies to this topic

[David G.]

Excellent work! Very convincing!

David G.

[torinobradley]

This backdrop looks terrific! That door is a work of art!

Can you describe to us your "mortar" tecnique? Someday, I am planning on a creating some backdrops that fit inside a shelf to give my cars a more naturalistic place to be displayed. I would love to recreate your brick texture for one (or more) of those, thats for sure...

[crazyrichard]

awsome work !!! this looks stunning

[Gluhead]

Thanks, guys. Glad you like it.

Andrew, you're going to laugh at the simplicity. I shook flour onto the walls and rubbed it in...then tapped on the back to get rid of the excess. I also whisked more away in some places with an old brush, but it really was just that simple.

Richard, your shop build is really cool, too. I may have to rob a few of your ideas on my next one.

[Gluhead]

Moving slow this week...anyone have any bets on when those 3d printers will be high tech enough to just print us out a new body? I could use one...or at least a replacement spine. Heheh. Anyway, finally felt well enough to make some progress overnight. I may be able to keep going and get the basic electrical stuff knocked out, with some luck.

I'd asked elsewhere on the forum about weathering the wood door, and was offered some great examples. However, I really wanted to keep it subtle on this piece - used but not forgotten...something like that anyway. The whole thing already being stained helped that a good bit. The alky/ink bath didn't penetrate all that much...but just enough, I think. I wanted a little more in the lower parts, so I rubbed cig ashes into it then pulled the whole thing together with another wash. Finally, I dirtied them up where workin' hands and boots would have been grabbin' and kickin' at them day in and day out.

Then I went to work on the hardware, that I'd been picking away at over the last couple days. It's all shaped out of aluminum printing plate, drilled for rivets and attached with stretched sprue heated on each end to form a rivet head.

Edited by Gluhead, 17 November 2012 - 06:31 AM.

[charlie8575]

This looks great Chris. What did you use to paint/tint/annodize the aluminum?

All these brick scenes are inspiring me. I'm seriously considering doing something of this nature myself.

Charlie Larkin

[Gluhead]

The door hardware was just painted with acrylic black, shook up in a bag of real rust dust while still a bit wet, then given a blackwash to knock back the bright orange. I'm working on the electrical stuff now, on which I'm pretty sure I'll use oven cleaner and a wash or two.

Give it a go...they're really fun. The techniques are pretty easy once you get your head around them...although some steps are time consuming. I'd recommend going just a little bigger than this one, which is 12x7.5. A couple more inches each way would allow for a lot more flexibility with the photo angles. Once I go back and wrap up a couple vehicle projects, I'm going to do another one of these for an exterior setting.

[gasser59]

Glu - this is really progressing nicely and I look forward to your continuing progress. You'll need an overhead Reznor heater. Here's a pic of mine for inspiration.

[Gluhead]

No doubt, Brad...I definitely need to build one. Probably not for this display, but absolutely for the big build. I grew up in a small auto body shop, so the ticks and purrs of these suckers is firmly embedded.

Is there a thread for your shop that I can dig up? The search can be a bit on the funky side here.

[Gluhead]

Some progress on the electrical stuff. The switch was pretty fun to figure out and make.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Chris, dude, you are going to have to PM with a little more detail on the brick painting/staining technique you used. That just looks fantastic!

[Gluhead]

Thanks, Mark!

I'm using Jo-Ann Fabrics brand craft acrylics. I was skeptical as they are only .59, but they've proven to be pretty decent, both on the brush and airbrush. I used their burgundy with just a couple drops of brown for the base color, then once that was dry I set up a palette of half a dozen other colors (red, purple, yellow, green and more burgundy and brown) and just mixed up random shades as I went over the walls hitting random bricks. Some bricks got wetter, thicker coats but for most of them I just kinda grazed over the brick enough to color the whole thing. Finally, I went over the whole of it all with a pretty dry brush of the brown. The flour mortar treatment also helped give some variety.

Play around with it...I bet you can get some great looks going within just a few minutes.

[Hollywood Jim]

The brick work looks great !!

The electrical looks great too.

[Gluhead]

Thanks, Jim. I appreciate it.

Let there be light! Okay, well...at least something for light to shine from...





I took a bunch of pics while I was making the shade, but managed to do so with the memory card sitting in the computer instead of the camera. Doh! I annealed aluminum printing plate and mini-metal-worked it out. It's got a good many slight imperfections...which are fine with me. Gives it a nice worn-in look. Next I'm at the lhs, I'll pick up a bulb for it.

[Modelbuilder Mark]

Flour treatment? Also, this is like the 2nd or 3rd time in the last couple days someone has mentioned using printing plate. Where you picking that up?

[Gluhead]

Yep. Flour mortar. Just shake flour over the whole thing and rub it in, knock off excess and blow/brush off whatever else is left that you don't want. Beautifully inconsistent...which is of course just what we want. If it won't stick where you want it, running a little glass cleaner into the lines gives it something to hold on to. Plaster of Paris is another way to do it...same application techniques.

The printing plate is exactly what it sounds like...offcuts from plates for a printing press. Check around for printer who will give you their scraps. The stuff is great! Brad (gasser59) turned me on to it, and I keep stumbling into new ways to put it to use.

[gasser59]

Glu - your electrical stuff is over the top. I'd like to hear more about this annealing process you did with the printing plate because your light shade looks amazing!!

Here's a link to my dio thread. Keep in mind I did the bulk of it over 20 years ago. I think another one is in my future.

http://www.modelcars...opic=42060&st=0

Keep posting your progress.

[Gluhead]

Great...thanks, Brad. I'll check it out after the belly stuffing this afternoon.

Annealing this stuff takes very little. I waved it over my soldering torch for about 30 seconds per side, just making even passes back and forth to get it all. It gets pretty soft. The thinner stuff was too thin and tore under the stress of working it into a dome, but the thicker material was good. I'm pretty sure I could have gotten a deeper dome if I'd tried. I may yet.

[charlie8575]

Looking good, Chris. Question: how do you find those cheap-o craft paints airbrush, and what do you do to thin them for it- water, Windex, alcohol?

Charlie Larkin

[Gluhead]

Brad, that garage rocks! Being started 20 years ago doesn't seem to have had any ill-effects on it at all. Great vibe and tons of cool details. Love it.

I've only airbrushed it onto foam core so far, Charlie, but it did seem to flow pretty well out of the brush, for the most part. It did get a little spitty at times but that was more my own fault than the paints. I thinned it with rubbing alcohol on this piece, not being sure how much of a factor soak-up would be...but it turned out to be a non-issue. Next time I run it through the airbrush I'll cut it with window cleaner. Should flow a little smoother.