Flotsam and Jetsam

[Sam]

Jan 10, 2017 7:59:51 GMT tauster said:

Not sure what I do wrong; maybe I twist them too quickly, or use the wrong wire. I got the cheapes option for wire, which was a 2kg roll of MIG/MAG welding wire with 0.6mm diameter:

Any tips & tricks are welcome!

Your problem is the wire. Welding wire is pretty brittle. Copper wire would probably work best. And if not coated it would develop its own patina. Not sure what diameter would work best.

[bluecloud2k2]

Jewellery wire is best. It is less brittle.

[tauster]

Not really crafting related, but anyways: We have lots of snow at the moment and yesterday the temperature was perfect for building a snowman. My boy had tons of fun and as you might guess, I was quite happy with the result.

[dragon722]

SNOWMAN takes the WIN!!! and half the body lol

[tauster]

I think I posted this in the past, but if, then it was already one or two years ago:

If you want heavy bases for your standard miniatures, take a look at these round mosaic stones.

www.ebay.de/itm/250807984887



They're 2 cm in diameter (i.e. a bit smaller than a regular base) and due to the material much heavier (approx. 3 gr) than a regular plastic or wood disc. Sure, they're a bit higher (5 mm) , but that shouldn't be a problem.

Just rediscovered that article in a bookmark and thought I'd re-share it...

[tauster]

The company I work for uses a material called Alucore, and I might be able to get some of the scrap material from time to time. Aluminum-based composite honeycombed panels that are 1 cm thick, very light and super strong. It is used by architects for large facades, and is probably the most durable lightweight material I could ever find.








Perfect for bases of large terrain tiles! Of course I'll have to hide the 'corrugation', but that's easily done. Can't wait to try it out! 

[tauster]

jennifer 's giant stalagmite centerpiece inspired me to make my own. Probably more than one, as this immediately started out as a very fun project.

One the weekend I quickly carved out two styrofoam forms, and a few minutes ago I fished a sturdy cardstock roll out of my still mostly boxed-in junk pile a bit sub-optimally organised heap of boxes full of crafting ressources to work as a lightweight but sturdy column linking the upper and lower base.

Pressing the cardstock roll deep into the styrofoam base already makes a surprisingly sturdy connection, and I guess the hotglue will give it a very strong bond.




Modelling the aluminum foil around the roll was a matter of less than five minutes. It's exactly as I had feared when I used kitchen foil with the anglerfish project: It is ridiculously easy to sculpt and you get great results very fast.




It is a perfect crafting material, or would be, if it's production wouldn't be so energy-intensive. So I have lead myself down a slippery road, and quickly gain momentum... Paper maché isn't a real alternative because it takes simply too long to dry and makes a huge mess. And if I'm honest with myself, right after from money, time is my most scarce ressource. *sigh*

Next steps, probably:
- adding a few skewers for the secondary stalagm/tites
- hotgluing the roll and the foil
- adding lightweight modelling mass over the whole thing
- glue a few metal scraps here and there for magnets
- decoration
- painting
- then go into mass production.

[tauster]

I needed a whole package of modelling paste, but it was well worth it:

 

I'm not sure it will stick to the aluminum foil, as is isn't really 'tacky'. But when it is hardened, it shouldn't be able to move much, at least I hope so... The texture was made with a piece of bark (shown on the lower right corner in the first pic; the sticks/dowels behind the bark will be the cores of the smaller stalagmites). I modelled some air root -like structures in, they almost made themselves and look very natural/realistic. This could also be a tree...

I'll let that dry for a day and if it's stabel tomorrow evening, I'll continue with the outer rim of the base, and the smaller 'mites. If that goes well, I'm going for the ceiling part and the 'tites.

Can't wait to see that one painted up!

[sgtslag]

Have you ever tried making your own modelling paste? There are numerous recipes and videos on the Internet. I made a few batches up for a terrain project, and I estimate I saved around $50 using the home-made stuff, versus the commercial product. For my project, the Liquitex product would have been a complete waste of money. The home-made stuff is not flexible, but if that is not necessary, it can save quite a few crafting Dollars/Euro's/Pounds/etc. for you. Cheers!

[tauster]

Sounds interesting...

If there's a homebrew alternative for lightweight modelling paste, I really could save a lot. For the regular (non-flexible) stuff, I still have quite a lot from an ultra-cheap ebay deal.

[tauster]

Looks like it takes more than 24 hrs for that lightweight modelling paste to completely harden...

I glued the top on, closed the gaps first with foil and then with modelling paste. I also made two large stalagmites for the bottom part.

[tauster]

More stuff done. The top part is complete, more or less, and all the major stalagmites/'tites are standing/hanging. They still have to be covered with modelling paste, and textured.




I ran into a problem with the modelling paste on the upper rim of the top piece: It simply wouldn't stick to the styrofoam, plus, it was much too thinly spread out and therefore was too flexible. I waited a few hours until it was at least a little harder, then hotglued it to the foam.




I don't want to run into the same problem with the much larger base, so I covered it in PVA glue. I hope that will make the modelling paste to stick better.

[tauster]

Just stumbled over this cave diorama tutorial...




Haven't watched all of the five parts as yet. Seems to be a bit goofy sometimes (yes I'm looking at you Miss Kelly *snigger*) but it worth looking I guess. There's a few nice techniques to steal.

[tauster]

Finished with modelling & texturizing the piece:

 


As mentioned before, I 'primed' the styrofoam with PVA because the lightweight modelling paste didn't want to stick to it. The PVA was hardened now as was the paste that I had applied a few days backl, and it turned out that the modelling paste wouldn't stick neither to the PVA coat nor to itself when hardened. After quite a bit of frustration I tried to wet the underground with water, which didn't work as well as hoped. Then I tried 50/50 PVA glue & water and - víola - it worked like a charm. At least much better than before. Can't say I've mastered this material, but I can at least work with it now without getting grey hairs.

It is still far from perfect; the main pillar has lots of cracks where the paste didn't stick to itself. They don't threaten the stability, but it looks like they do. If I can keep those cracks throughout the layer(s) of PVA and then color, I might even turn them into something cool: What's better than a giant stalagmite that goes all the way to the cavern ceiling? Right: A giant stalagmite that goes all the way to the cavern ceiling and shows lots of large cracks. That will definitely see some tactical use in underdark battles!

Not sure what I'll do with the underside and the top. I don't feel like covering the top with paste but I can't keep the artificial structure of the foam either, so I'll probably use the rest of the paste and apply it anyways. The bottom... perhaps some felt.

[margaret]

Thanks for sharing your struggles. Learning what doesn't work from someone else's efforts is almost as helpful as learning what does work.

[tauster]

Yep, that's why I share my mistakes.

Commissar Gamza did the same recently with his styrofoam crater, btw.

[tauster]

I had to re-model the central pillar of the stalagmite.

I had decided to close those large gaps because the whole thing was a bit too bobbly, and had hoped that once painted, the difference of the textures wouldn't be too visible. To test that, I painted a small section with modelling paste besides hotglue... and it looked terribly visible. So I used the remains of my modelling paste to cover up as much as I could, with all the 'modelling paste doesn't want to stick without making a huge whiteglue mess' problems. There's still some hotglue areas visible, but I have run out of modelling paste and patience.

Any future, smaller pieces will be made with hotglue for texture, or aluminum foil, or both - but not with lightweight modelling paste. One reason is the mess it causes and the difficulties when you don't do all the work in one go. Another is cost: I used up three packages of this stuff and half of a large 1 litre bucket. Total cost about 20€. Cheap is different... I might explore other cheap ways to make those pieces (and I already have some ideas), but that one didn't live up to my expectations.

[tauster]

Some painting done... Most of it, actually. What's left is probably onthe the washing(s).

The pics were taken sometimes with and sometimes without flash, which is a bit less-than-optimal if you want to show WIP stages. Next time...

Based in raw umber,...
 



...then drybrushed with burned umber, toffee and finally a mix of approx. 90% white and 10% toffee for the highlights.


 

[bluecloud2k2]

I think it needs fungi. And if anyone can handle fungi, it's tauster

[tauster]

You're right, probably. But I want to keep it as neutral as possible so that I could use it in regular caves as well as in, say, lava or ice caverns. So adding funghi isn't a real option.

During the sculpting, I had decided against adding metal scraps for magnet features because the sculpting mass was already a pain to work with, so now it's not as flexible as I wanted. I can live with that - it's the first piece I made, and I learned some stuff that will be useful when making other pieces. They will have magnet features, so funghi here we come!