Aoshima Gigant

[Pete in Lincs]

On 11/16/2017 at 2:21 PM, AndyRM101 said:

but it stops the surface looking boring

Not a chance of boring at all. It looks amazing.

Rather like a huge metal moth.

I wonder what one would look like with the deaths head on the underside.

That should frighten the peasants!

On 11/16/2017 at 2:21 PM, AndyRM101 said:

going to have to wait for next year now

Good job that's not too far off then.

[Portaler]

Awesome ! The Metal Moth lives !! Only disappointing thing is that cheap plastic jointed stand thing. Any thoughts of replacing that with the base job next year ?

 

Just tp ask another painter newbie question :-) : I'm assuming you just used a cut off stipple brush for that stipple effect ? I find it's always so hard to judge whats enough and when to stop with stippling. And to avoid putting too much on. I guess wiping off the brush is the key, and applying little by little.

[Andy Moore]

13 hours ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Good job that's not too far off then.

Ah, you see that's why I cleverly neglected to say when next year Pete. 12 months is a long time in modelling 

Oh, and I did think of putting some kind of design on the underside, but since it would have strayed from the original anime version, I forgot about it. Now that it's strayed anyway, with the green panels and such, I might revisit the idea. A death's head sounds like the way to go.

 

8 hours ago, Portaler said:

Awesome ! The Metal Moth lives !! Only disappointing thing is that cheap plastic jointed stand thing. Any thoughts of replacing that with the base job next year ?

 

Just tp ask another painter newbie question :-) : I'm assuming you just used a cut off stipple brush for that stipple effect ? I find it's always so hard to judge whats enough and when to stop with stippling. And to avoid putting too much on. I guess wiping off the brush is the key, and applying little by little.

Yes, the stand's pretty shoddy. When I first saw it in the box, with all the screw joints and everything, I made the assumption it was going to look classy and hold the model securely. It doesn't do either of those things though, so it'll be replaced with a new base and some clear acrylic rod to support the Gigant.

 

The stippling was done with an enamel wash applied with a bit of sponge. I wiped most of it off the sponge first, then built up the effect slowly until it looked okay. It looks a bit stronger in the photos due to the wash being matte over a reflective base tone, but in person, it looks a little more restrained.

 

Andy

[Will Vale]

Very pretty. I love the purple accents from the heat stains 

 

On the new stand, a nice thing about the existing one that could be worth preserving is that it angles into the model from the back. It has more of a leaping forward stance as opposed to the look of the "big vertical rod up its bottom" technique. Mind you, if it's clear rod that probably doesn't matter.

 

Cheers,

 

Will

 

 

[Bigdave22014]

Well, this just keeps on improving.

I'll second comments about a better stand for this behemoth, but not a "deaths head". I feel that will take this too far out of its original genre.

[Gimme Shelter]

looks amazing - stunning metallic work

[Andy Moore]

There's not been any real progress on this for a while. It's essentially done anyway (barring the base), but I'm still pondering over some kind of deco on the wings, such as the death's head that Pete suggested.

 

There were a couple of small details that needed finishing though, and they've now been done. One was to paint the glazing on the tail fin gondola, and the other was to deal with the portholes at the front.

They'd originally just been small shallow depressions on the cockpit. I'd previously drilled them a bit deeper, and painted them black. I was then going to glaze over them with Kristal Klear, however I came up with a better solution.

 

I'd been assembling a resin figure, and needed to fill a few small gaps on the joints. I'd normally use greenstuff for this, but I'd got a 5 second fix pen knocking about on the bench, so I thought I'd see if that could be used for gap filling. It turned out that it works really well for that purpose, leaving a perfectly smooth blended seam

 

 

What's any of this got to do with the Gigant, you may be wondering? Well, that was sitting at the back of the bench while I was working on the figure. After I'd finished the seam filling, it occurred to me that if I put small blobs of the 5 second fix resin in the portholes, It might reproduce the domed 'goldfish bowl' glazing quite well.

Now, any normal person would test the idea on an old model or a piece of scrap plastic first, but where's the fun in that, so I just squirted some of the resin straight into the portholes

 

 

Fortunately, it seems to have worked quite well. The glazing is domed, which would have been harder to reproduce with Kristal Klear, and although a few are slightly misshapen, at this scale they look okay to me. The resin also sets quite hard and glossy, so hopefully it should be fairly resilient over time

 

 

With that, I'm going to say the Gigant's effectively done, at least for now. I'll ponder more over the wing deco, and if I do add anything, I'll do it next year when I do the base.

 

Andy

 

 

[ScanmanDan]

Interesting technique with great results.  Any idea/limits to the amount you can apply in one go and get it to set?  Could you do larger windows?

 

I also like that you need to know when to stop adding bits to a model and call it done.  So easy to have a zillion other 'just one more' fix, do-dad or modification/ improvement.  Especially when you are as talented and inventive as you are.  I look forward to seeing this one on the base in the new year.  Inspired as always

[Andy Moore]

1 hour ago, ScanmanDan said:

Interesting technique with great results.  Any idea/limits to the amount you can apply in one go and get it to set?  Could you do larger windows?

 

Thanks Dan,

 

The liquid resin is quite viscous and tends to hold it's shape until set, so you could probably build it up to a reasonable thickness. When you expose it to the UV light on the end of the pen it sets solid instantly (well, in about 5 seconds to be exact, hence the name). It's pretty much crystal clear when dry too, so you could probably apply more than one layer without it affecting the finish that much

 

I'm not sure how good it would be at spanning wide gaps though, and due to its viscosity, it would be hard to get it to be perfectly flat, so probably no use for things like airliner windows. I guess you could sand and polish it, but I've not tried yet.

 

I've only really used it as an adhesive before now, so I'm still experimenting with it.

 

Andy

[Nigel Heath]

Nice result with the portholes, the domed effect achieved matches well with the actual subject.

[Will Vale]

That's a neat trick, the sharp reflections help with the scale too.

 

Is the resin "wet" enough that you can remove it and reapply before setting, or is it more like 5-minute epoxy?

 

Will

[Andy Moore]

6 hours ago, Will Vale said:

Is the resin "wet" enough that you can remove it and reapply before setting, or is it more like 5-minute epoxy?

 

It's not as sticky or viscous as epoxy so I'd imagine you could wipe it away, although I haven't actually tried. One of the porthole domes ended up quite misshapen, possibly due to an air bubble in the resin, but after I'd cured it, I was able to chip the resin off without damaging the kit or paintwork.

When I was using it for seam filling on the figure, I put a blob of it on the bench and used a needle to apply it to the seams, then fixed it once I was happy with the blending.

 

Andy

[Gimme Shelter]

this is just so cool

 

[Portaler]

Agree this is cool. Well, the model and anything Andy seems to touch goes without saying :-)  But this 5sec epoxy with UV light seems very cool too. Must be similar to the stuff they use at the dentist perhaps ??

 

So Andy you can use it to glue and/or build up missing “landmass” on a model i assume. Then paint over it. 

 

I’ll have to do some online research. Sounds like handy stuff. 

[spaddad]

tasty

[Sgt.Squarehead]

Man's a genius I tell ya! 

[Andy Moore]

On 11/12/2017 at 12:54, Portaler said:

So Andy you can use it to glue and/or build up missing “landmass” on a model i assume. Then paint over it. 

 

It's sold as a glue and the pen only has a small reservoir of resin, so you couldn't use it for large areas of ground. It's great for filling and small areas of texture though and, yes, you can paint over it like normal styrene.

The only downside to it as a glue is that the joint needs to be exposed so the resin can be cured with the UV light. I have been toying with the idea of using it to stick aircraft canopies in place though, as I'd imagine the UV light would penetrate through the clear styrene to set the resin.

 

Andy

 

 

[tacocat]

Hey Andy!

This came out so beautiful, i really love it. I was wondering if you had any problem masking on top of alclad? I've had issues with it getting messed up w/ tape in the past and was wondering if you'd found a solution to dodge this. 

-Robb

[Carts]

An absolute  triumph and a work of art.

[Andy Moore]

45 minutes ago, tacocat said:

I was wondering if you had any problem masking on top of alclad? I've had issues with it getting messed up w/ tape in the past and was wondering if you'd found a solution to dodge this.

I didn't have any problems here. I have in the past had some issues with tape either lifting alclad or leaving residue on the surface, but only when I've used cheap tape. I only use Tamiya tape on alclad (and other delicate surfaces) these days, and I always de-tack the tape slightly on the back of my hand before applying it.

 

Andy

 

[tacocat]

18 minutes ago, AndyRM101 said:

I didn't have any problems here. I have in the past had some issues with tape either lifting alclad or leaving residue on the surface, but only when I've used cheap tape. I only use Tamiya tape on alclad (and other delicate surfaces) these days, and I always de-tack the tape slightly on the back of my hand before applying it.

Thanks, Andy. Did you lay down any Future or other varnish after initial alclad layers to protect them?

[Andy Moore]

13 minutes ago, tacocat said:

Thanks, Andy. Did you lay down any Future or other varnish after initial alclad layers to protect them?

No, I masked straight onto the alclad on this build. It certainly wouldn't hurt to put a clear coat on first though. If I use any of the more delicate alclad finishes, like the high shine ones, I would put a clear coat on first before doing any masking.

 

Andy

[tacocat]

^{Cool. Thanks, Andy!}