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Ever evolvin dio. ft. 'THE INDESTRUCTIBLE TREE' as ft. on youtube.


Badder

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A spare bit of wall from the MiniArt kit.  The 'form' flipped over to show the reverse side of the wall.

24vy5Tl.jpg

I only have one pair of hands so I couldn't hold the form, the scalpel and take the photo, so my wife pressed the button.

Here I am about to start scraping along the angle formed between the wall and the excess plastic, with the scalpel held at 45 degrees. By scraping back and forth following the contours, the plastic is gradually thinned right on that edge. Continue to scrape and the excess plastic will split away, but it's possible to over-do it and scrape away at the wall itself so it's probably best to stop before a hole or split of any sort develops.

N3iVoYL.jpg

 

Here's a shot of the wall with the plastic scraped back all round the 'rim' and some preliminary bending of the excess plastic has caused it to split away nicely.

Xg4zdsn.jpg

And just a few seconds bending all around the wall separates it from the excess plastic. Note how clean the broken brickwork is.

 

Lni96oQ.jpg

 

I timed the whole process from start to finish. I went as fast as I could and it took 19 seconds! I challenge anyone to propose a quicker and tidier method!

 

TFL

Badder

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Anyone who has built this MiniArt kit (and others like it) will know that the contact points for adhesives are extremely thin. It is common practice to add plastic 'tabs' along the inside edges of the forms so that they can bridge the joins and make gluing easier and more effective. The alternative is to create islands within the hollow spaces between the two forms and use these as adhesion points.

 

In the photo below, I've fixed the kit exterior to a plaster interior. I used 3 layers of corrugated cardboard (fixed with CA) to fill the internal spaces in the kit part so as to provide a large contact area for adhesion to the plaster part . I then fixed both parts together with PVA. (cardboard visible at bottom of photo)

 

 

A lot more work is required, including a reduction in the height of the doorway which I feel is way too high. I will be replacing the kit door with a more 'agricultural' door. The ground-floor window will be 'bricked-in'.

 

Below: the kit's damaged 'side wall' dry-fitted. The plaster still requires some scraping to tidy up join.  I will be making more side wall from plaster.

I've cut away at the top edge of the doorway in anticipation of making the doorway smaller. Yeah, the irony.:blink:VHtagHp.jpg

 

 

 

bPMCctB.jpg

TFL

Badder

 

 

 

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Hi Badder, hope you don't mind me butting in with a variation on your method,

To remove the backing plastic from the moulded sheet use a bradawl, Olfa P-Cutter or a knife to score around the edge of the moulding.
410983390.jpg

Do not try to cut right through the plastic, therein lies catastrophe; simply run around the edges.
410983391.jpg

The blade may separate the plastic, or the waste can be removed by bending the sheet away from the moulding, causing the score to break.
410983393.jpg

As always, this should be done with care and not in a reckless fashion. I find it best to use all these tools and methods. Some work better than others depending upon the situation, so it’s well worth experimenting to find the methods that work for you.
410983394.jpg
A nail file or sanding stick can be used to tidy up the edges.

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I just caught up with this.

 

Great stuff, thanks for sharing and showing the step-by-step approach.

 

I have found a MiniArt 1/35 'Ruined Hungarian Shop' (or words to that effect) in the stash. It's bruised and battered, beyond selling, so I had best learn how to build it :D !

 

Way outside my comfort zone, which makes it all the more fun :) 

 

All the best

TonyT

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1 hour ago, Ratch said:

 

 


410983394.jpg
A nail file or sanding stick can be used to tidy up the edges.

Hi Ratch, no I don't mind at all. The more methods the merrier!

Some may prefer your method.

 

Personally though, I like the speed and ease of my method. I reckon I could remove the excess plastic from the wall pictured above AND leave a very clean edge with no need to nip away at all those little bits left, in around 30 seconds.

 

I assume you have a diorama featuring the 'wall' above? I am a big fan of dioramas, so I'd be interested to see your work.

Rearguards,

Badder

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5 hours ago, TonyTiger66 said:

I just caught up with this.

 

Great stuff, thanks for sharing and showing the step-by-step approach.

 

I have found a MiniArt 1/35 'Ruined Hungarian Shop' (or words to that effect) in the stash. It's bruised and battered, beyond selling, so I had best learn how to build it :D !

 

Way outside my comfort zone, which makes it all the more fun :) 

 

All the best

TonyT

Thanks Tony. Shouldn't that be 'Grrrrrrrrrrreat stuff!' ?

 

Good luck with the shop. Try both methods for removing the plastic and let us know which best suits you! As with Ratch, I'd like to see the finished article.

Rearguards,

Badder

 

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8 hours ago, Badder said:

I assume you have a diorama featuring the 'wall' above? I am a big fan of dioramas, so I'd be interested to see your work.

Rearguards,

Badder

Cheers, yes, you commented on it.

 

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4 hours ago, Ratch said:

Cheers, yes, you commented on it.

 

Oh yes, I remember now. Very nice work!  Did you manage to get hold of microscope cover slides?

Badder

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No internet for most of yesterday. Pile of cack.

I've continued working on the front wall of the building, strengthening the whole thing with more PVA applied inside, filling the gaps and tidying up around the edges. I've cleaned up the upper window aperture and doorway, added the door frame and fixed the section of damaged wall at the corner.

 

TFL

Badder

 

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Today I used the exterior mould to cast another section of wall which will fit opposite the kit part.  l only wanted to reproduce the lower section with the window aperture in it so rather than use the entire mould I sectioned off the lower right corner with plasticard strips held together with blu-tac.

With the cast made, adequately dried and removed from the mould, I cut and chipped away at the top row of stonework with a scalpel.

Fitting this new section of wall to the already constructed wall will be made easier because the two parts to be joined are plaster casts. I've cut and carved a slot along the rear edge of the first wall so that the new section of wall can fit flush against it.

 

 

Below: Left, the first wall with the kit part fitted on the left edge and the corresponding section opposite cut away to form a slot for the adjoining wall. Bottom right, the new section of wall to be fitted into the slot... this is the rear of the cast and thus has no detail. The detail will be present on the inner cast. Top right, another section of wall from the test pieces. I may or may not use this.

NUGHu3a.jpg

Once the new section of wall has been fitted I will have to skim over the join at the corner and carve the stonework with a scalpel. Unfortunately the match between the two sets of stonework won't be perfect in places, but I can easily hide any mismatches behind ivy, moss, etc.

TFL

Badder

 

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2 hours ago, Ozzy said:

Your casting looks fantastic, nice job.

Thanks Ozzy.

I saw someone else casting buildings on BM... I can't remember who it was, but the results looked really good so I thought I'd give it a try.  He was worried about the fragility of the castings so reinforced his with a wire mesh. I was worried about mine too. I wasn't too confident that a mesh would provide adequate reinforcement (unless it was a very rigid mesh) so I decided to use the kit parts as a 'backing' for the casts. IF the plaster is knocked accidentally and cracks, the plastic backing itself won't. In other words, only one face will need repairing. I suspect a mesh reinforced cast will crack both sides.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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Here's some clarification on the construction of this building. Firstly, the MiniArt kit is supposed to represent a village house. I am constructing a ruined farm building. Secondly, the kit only represents the front wall, or façade of the house, and a tiny bit of side wall. I wanted to construct more.

However, I do not want to construct something so large as to take up a large section of the base, or something that is consistently tall over its area. So the building won't have a roof, or full-height side or end walls. The apex of the front façade will be the one high point, although I may add a chimney stack which will be another high point. Everything else will be much lower in height.

StuG's were designed to have a low profile and I simply don't want to 'lose' the StuG amongst a load of tall scenery.

Returning to the building, this was ONCE a farmhouse, but it fell into disrepair. Presumably the farmer built a new abode somewhere 'out of shot', but he did convert the old ruin into a sheltered yard area, with a pig sty and storage sheds... so expect a lot more scratchbuilding!

 

TFL

Badder

  

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I've cast an inner surface for the side wall and have fixed that to the outer cast.  I'm now in the process of fitting the complete side wall to the façade. This requires careful scraping of the plaster with a scalpel. Thanks to my engineering apprenticeship days in my late teens I find fitting irregular shapes together fairly easy. It's a case of keeping the parts to be joined square and true to each other, and carving away at those parts which touch. Gradually, more and more parts will touch until finally all parts touch, forming a perfect join.

Having said all that, I don't require a perfect join as I require a suitable gap for the PVA adhesive, plus I will be skimming over this join anyway and carving the stonework into it.

 

ObhvqYS.jpg

 

I've also bricked-up the window aperture using small blocks of plasticard.

 

 

hv97I5b.jpg

PHOTO ABOVE.

The side wall is only dry fitted at this point. The join between it and the plaster section with the Green Putty on it is the one referred to earlier. The 'puttied' section is the edge of the cast fitted to the rear of the kit part. As you can see this inner cast is slightly indented to allow for the skim over the top.

 

That's all for now.

TFL

Badder.

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PR

 

The sharp eyed amongst you will have realised that the kit's internal wall has not been used other than to create a mould. But now it's time to incorporate it into the build.

I am going to use it as a load-bearing wall within the building. But this wall will have collapsed some time ago, bringing down the upper floor and roof with it.

 

In the photo below, you'll see that it will be very easy to fit. I've carved a vertical recess into the end of the side wall (visible between the kit part and the plaster window aperture) The end of the side wall will slide into the broken section of the wall far left, while the edge of that wall will sit nice and flush in the recessed plaster. Here, I've only dry-fitted the walls, leaving the recess visible by way of pictorial explanation.

xzlJhhL.jpg

 

 

I will be cutting away at the kit part, adding (or should that be subtracting) large amounts of damage, removing most of the upper section around the window aperture (There'd be no window there in reality anyway) and collapsing the wall down to the internal doorway.

 

Unlike the other walls, this internal wall will be just one layer of stone thick. I can therefore dispense with making another cast and simply fill in the rear of the kit part with plaster . Obviously I will fill in the lower window aperture while I'm at it. Then it will be a relatively simple case of carving the stonework into the plaster.

 

TFL

Badder

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13 hours ago, Ratch said:

This reminds me of casting Linka buildings :D

Cor blimey, I'd forgotten all about them. I remember making one. I'm pretty sure it was a castle.... maybe the tower of London. But I must have been about 6 or 7 yrs old and I don't think I finished it.

 

Thanks for making me feel old!

Badder

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I am about to embark on filling the kit's internal wall mould with plaster of Paris and at the same time fixi it to the side wall. The side wall (a plaster cast) has been worked on with a scalpel and engraving tool. I chipped away at the exposed top course to simulate the mortar and hardcore mix that was used to fill the spaces and bond the outer wall with the inner.

I will post pics later tonight.

 

TFL

Badder

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Looking good Badder, the casting has turned out really well. Looks a nice sturdy building, I to remember constructing buildings using linka moulds hours of fun.

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Unfortunately the kit's internal wall seems to have warped as the plaster dried. A bit weird that saying as it was okay beforehand and I had laid it flat. Still, not too serious. I was intending to cut away a large section of this wall anyway. I'll just have to remove a bit more than I had planned. (Only the upper section has warped noticeably)

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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Here's the internal wall dry-fitted. I haven't fixed it to the side wall because I realised that to do so would restrict access for further work. As you can see, I've removed a lot of the original kit part due to the fact that it warped when the plaster dried on the reverse. I think it looks okay though. I can always add a course or two of blocks if needs be. I still have to fill the window aperture in, carve the stonework on the plaster side, and .add a bit of wall either side of the door 'post'.

BfWH8Y7.jpg

At the very bottom of the photo is another section of broken wall (kit part) I doubt ANY wall would collapse leaving a fairly neat vertical break like this and I doubt it even more of a wall with the depicted method of construction.

So, someone must have tidied up the edge, removing loose stonework and securing the bonds. That will have been the farmer then.

And while he was at it, he converted other parts of the ruin into store sheds, animal pens etc. 

 

TFL

Badder

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