Battlestar Wreck

[chris1984_99_99]

Hi guys, this was a bit of an experiment ive been wanting to do for some time. Below is a screen grab from the Battlestar Galactica Mini Series, it shows a Battlestar similar to the Galactica hit and adrift, and it gave me an idea. I thought to myself, hmmmmm

...so, rather than posting all the photos, here is the end product, and a link to the folder with all the WIP photos for your viewing pleasure.

http://s181.photobucket.com/user/chris1984_99_99/library/Battlestar%20Titanic?sort=3&page=4

I still need to get a base made for it, but I think im finished with the kit itself. Its my first time doing an explosion this way, so any words of advice or how to improve would greatly be appreciated!
Thanks!

Enjoy!

[James G]

Very good that, I like the 'explosion' effect!

[whitestar12chris]

HI Chris, to be honest I think you've cracked it, the explosion that is, looks great.

On the flip side don't follow the original series explosions, there was always a steam train in the middle of the fireballs, this was because it was a cut from the film, operation crossbow, used over and over again for massive explosions.

All the best Chris

[Madhatter]

I had a look through your WIP and I must say - that was a great way to spend 20 minutes or so (I like to take my time)

I have a couple of questions

I didn't see how you made the stand to support the 2 halves of the ship - how did you secure them like that?

How did you secure the shape of the wool? Hairspray? It's very effective and something I am dying to do myself one day

Love the paint work to and the damaged internals. Absolutely awesome! Thanks for sharing

MH

[batcode]

nice work and great idea looks great, any chance seeing more completed pics???

[chris1984_99_99]

Thanks for the comments guys! Theres loads of pics on the photobucket link, i'll be taking some more against a black background and maybe photoshopping some when I get the base fully made up.

As for the build of it and attaching the 2 seperate parts, it was done with difficulity, great difficulity...and some trial and error. I had 2 long prongs of thick plastic strips that connected the 2 parts, but they just didnt cut it, so I ended up sticking a metal plate on the bottom between the 2 and using about half a bottle of super glue over the course of 2 days to connect the parts. I'd like to think I would have eventually come up with the metal plate idea myself, but it was actually the wife who suggested it. It was also her hair spray that i used on the cotton wool. Firstly I took just the 1 cotton wool ball and opened it as much as possible then lightly coated it with black spray paint, then ripping it apart into tiny pieces I put them into place with tweezers, then when it was all in place, hair spray and another light coating of black spray paint.

[Despy]

Hi Chris,

A splendid work. Especially the explosion. I've gone through your WIP pictures. You concluded most of it in your last post but would you consider making a step by step tutorial for catching that explosion effect?

Thanks

Edited January 27, 2015 by Despy

[chris1984_99_99]

Certainly Despy,

To be honest I did a little google search a while back and found a few pages (most warhammer and the likes) that showed how the cotten wool explosion effect was done. To be honest most people just went and bought a set of flickering candle effect LED's and put a ball of cotton wool ontop of it (which you can by the way get a 4 pack of flickering effect LED candles for £1 in poundland, I couldnt believe it and had to double check the price with the girl working there, much to her dismay!)

I bought a packet of these and experimented with them by ripping them apart and stuffing a ball of cotton wool on top. It could almost be left at that, it works, but it looks like, well, just a ball of cotton wool when there is no light going through it. So obviously this wasnt going to do.

Next I looked online, mostly on ebay and found a seller who did flickering LED's in a 10 pack, just the LED's themselves. So I ordered a pack of these, wire and a switch, a few days later it came in the post and I soldered a basic circuit together. I always find fitting lights into models to be more tricky than building the model itself, it takes a lot of fore thought to plan ahead.

Anyway, that was done and the model assembled and all was working, the last thing to do now was the cotton wool. In the above photos I simply opened a cotton wool ball slightly and put it roughly into place. No hair spray or paint, just the pure cotton wool. It actually gives a nice effect on its own. Obviously the LED colour is a yellow.

In the above photo you can see the exposed mid section break and LED's used. I used 3 LED's in total for the explosion, 2 were left untouched and the 3rd was used for the fibre optic cable. The idea behind that is the ends when they glow are supposed to be red hot fragments being thrown out from the explosion. To be honest if doing it again I would leave this out. I actually painted the fibre optic cable black (its now white/grey to blend in better) in hindsight it might have been better left unpainted, or not included at all.

After playing around with a few balls......OF COTTON WOOL.. I figured opening up one and much as possible and stuffing it in in one piece was not going to work, you just dont have the control you need to shape it, and it looks just.....wrong, not explosion like at all. So with that in mind, I took another cotton wool ball and opened it up as much as I could, then lightly coated it with black spray paint, let it dry, and repeated a few times, not too much, but you can actually put quite a bit on, once you start ripping it apart you will be surprised how much white will expose itself.

So taking that piece of cotton wool I began tearing it apart into tiny pieces and bit by bit using tweezers put it into place. You dont need to worry about glue, it gets snagged on anything and everything and will pretty much stay in place.

So adding bit by bit allows you to shape the explosion as you want and build it up in layers, much more realistic eventually ending up looking something like this when the lights are switched on.

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Once your happy with the shape, then take some hair spray and apply over the cotton. I have to admit I dont have a lot of experience of using this stuff (shock horror!) so like most sprays I just applied several thin coats and it seemed to do the trick!

Anyway, I hope that helps! My advice is just give it a try if you are thinking of doing it, its surprisingly easy and really brings a model to life. Oh and post pics!!

Edited January 27, 2015 by chris1984_99_99

[SeanM]

Fracking awesome!

[theanorak73]

gotta say i've not seen anything like this before. very original, very cool and very well done !!!

[chris1984_99_99]

..and a little bit of photoshopping for your viewing pleasure!

Edited January 30, 2015 by chris1984_99_99

[Steve27752]

The Battlestar Titanic, I thought she had managed to jumped away like the Pegasus.

As a fan of BSG I like it a lot, I love the 'Explosion'.

[Dan]

Absolutely 10/10! What a model!

[F-32]

That is a lovely build (so say we all), even if it does kick this Battlestar fan right in the feels lol!

[Despy]

Thanks for the explications. I used cotton for my submarine dio and it never came close to the tutorial I followed

The scars in the body are perfect. The more I check the more I like them. What have you used for those round flakes?

[chris1984_99_99]

Here are a few more photos taken with my better camera, plus one in total darkness which really helps bring out the explosion effect. What round flakes is it you are referring to Despy? If its the bright lights in the explosion then they are fibre optic cables that have been painted to blend into the explosion but leaving their tips exposed to represent red hot fragments being blasted out. If its the shattered ends of the hull, well that effect was done almost accidently! When cutting through the plastic with my dremel I found that along the cuts the plastic started to melt and formed random shapes which I then added to by cutting into the plastic and adding girders and strips of plastic bent to shape.

[spruecutter96]

This is a great way to show a kit off! It works very well and looks really convincing.

Thank you for sharing the explosion technique with us.

Cheers.

Chris.

[Alan 47]

Fantastic, it really does look cool

[Despy]

Here are a few more photos taken with my better camera, plus one in total darkness which really helps bring out the explosion effect. What round flakes is it you are referring to Despy? If its the bright lights in the explosion then they are fibre optic cables that have been painted to blend into the explosion but leaving their tips exposed to represent red hot fragments being blasted out. If its the shattered ends of the hull, well that effect was done almost accidently! When cutting through the plastic with my dremel I found that along the cuts the plastic started to melt and formed random shapes which I then added to by cutting into the plastic and adding girders and strips of plastic bent to shape.

Hi Chris,

I'm talking about this, the flakes that looks curled phone cable which fits nicely:

Probably it is the accidental Dremel result.

Thanks again for the explications.

[chris1984_99_99]

Ah that!! Nope thats actually steel scourers! The idea just came to me and when in the local shop I bought a pack of scouring pads and cut one up , roughly shaped it and super glued it into place, then gave it a coat of a titanium colour paint. It worked out really well, simple to do and allows light to pass through from the LED's below aswell as simulating mangled damaged sections.

[thomastmcc]

excellent work..