winter projects

[olsbooks]

This will likely be the last post for a while and wanted to let those interested see the projects to be tackled over winter. I like to do things in 3's and now have them far enough along to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Bits and pieces have been shared under other posts/threads recently. This is an effort to mop up those loose ends and summarize before hibernating and (likely) off the grid for the next several months. Apologies are offered for any redundancy.

“Sod Buster” is a box build Roden kit. The plow is scratch built/freelance. For the prairie grass I started out using paint brush bristles (the blueish ones) but am now using wig hair from a cheap Halloween costume. It is “planted” using Modge Podge. Once dry, diluted Modge Podge and a medicine dropper are used to flood the “ground” which gives it more adhesion and stiffness. Once completely dry, the grass is “mowed” at random with scissors and a beard trimmer. You should be able to tell some that has been mowed in the pic and some that hasn't. Once fully “planted”, a thin airbrush coating of a few earth tones and flat clear will be applied to add variety and tone things down. It's a cheap, forgiving, and easy alternative to static grass in my less than humble opinion. Placing the "stubble" between and behind the moldboards will be the biggest challenge.

“The Chase” will be the Revell PT boat kit set in rough seas at speed with the bow crashing down deep into a wave with resulting spray. The base water shape was made using a product called Fast Mache' mixed to the consistency of thick oatmeal and allowed to dry for several days. The bow spray (the clear you will see) is from a Wendy's salad container. A separate thread was started on how I do use these containers and make the water/bow roll waves cheap, forgiving, and easy.

“Night Moves” will be the most elaborate using a 90% scratch built 1/16 Chevy Bison that has some serious flaws and suffered damage due to numerous moves and reworks over the years. It remains my personal favorite. The background photo (which is not my work but not copyrighted either and therefore I'm unable to credit the photographer with surety or properly) is mounted on foam board and sprayed with flat clear to kill the gloss. The Huelett unloaders in the photo, to put in some perspective, are roughly 1/100 scale. A steel truss bridge is being constructed as you can tell. Between the truck and the photo backdrop, the other side of the bridge will be built in roughly 1/25 scale. The bridge cross beams/latticework will transition from 1/25 to 1/16 to force perspective by means of tapering each piece. The “focal point and horizon lines” are actuality about 12” behind the backdrop and a few inches above the base. Imagine a slice of pizza with the crust and the “point” cut off. That's what you will see once done.

As info, I impose a limit of 12” height and depth (and 24” width) on all builds. The bridge cross beams, therefore, will have to be “dissected” meaning lots of cantilever type construction. The bridge will be either painted red oxide or alpine green in color and weathered heavily to tone it down as much as possible. The goal is to have no single subject dominate the entire project but instead all 3 suffice.

There will be no “top” or “sides” to box everything in/aid in construction. Any shadows on the backdrop would “expose” the photo for what it is and destroy realism. To further prevent shadows between the foreground subjects and the backdrop, plans are to install (and conceal) subtle lighting in the vertical and horizontal beams of the back side of the bridge. The truck's headlights and tail lamps are bulbs (not LED's). Long ago, holes were drilled for fiber optics in the roof clearance lights though not applied. Whether anything on the truck will illuminated remains undecided. Direct lighting is one of those things that does provide a great deal of “wow” yet seldom comes across as realistic in a model or photographs of models in my opinion.

So, until next time,

Peace.

Edited October 9, 2019 by olsbooks

[Gramps46]

Thanks for the look ahead JC.  Your projects are always amazing.

[Anglia105E]

Clearly, some deep thinking going into your projects, JC....... and good luck with all three of them over the coming Winter period.

David