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Hi all, I've been away from the forum for a while(18 months I think) and I haven't  really started a model in that time either, family stuff,work  etc...

 

But over the summer I talked the wifey into letting me get a shed as a work shop in the garden. And I'm really getting the bug again. It's so much easier not having to get all of my materials out of the kitchen cupboard.

Here's the shed for anyone who is interested:

20180803_205226

 

2018-09-29_09-52-39

 

So first off was something I have wanted to do since I saw the Rogue one promo shots. I think this image is amazing and shows off the iconic storm troopers perfectly:

Rogue one

 

I think it's the colours that work for me. So I just wanted to try my hand at a diorama and hope it looks something like this. 

I am quite a way through this and haven't taken too many photos as I've gone on but as I got to thinking about using resin I turned to the site for advice and got some great ideas, it was this that made me realise how great Britmodeller really is and I haven't been off it for the past two weeks. I thought it was best to document the build up to now and going forward. I haven't really done a WIP before so be nice and bear with!

 

So, I started off with two Bandai Troopers, built out of the box. I airbrushed the black parts using a mix of Vallejo light grey and NATO black, just to dull it down a bit and not make it look so shiny.

20180804_123850

 

Everything has been said about these kits already, awesome detail and easy to put together.  I haven't yet decided on weathering or which blasters they will be holding. On the pic they have E-11's but there is a nice Dlt-19 that comes in the kit so might swap this out nearer the end.  I really dont mind if it isnt accurate, im building this so it probably wont be 😂😂If I do weather the troopers it will be minimal.

  It was good to find I could get a good pose as the articulation is good on the kits.

20180804_123850

Next was the base. I cut a 15x15cm square of MDF. Which was big enough for the two figures.

20180804_125258

Its a bit bigger in the pic, i changed my mind and made it square before i cut it out. This shows the thickness though of the board used.

  Next was the tree trunks/twigs sticking out of the water. I intended to go out searching for the right twigs to use but as it happened my wife had done some gardening and left a root off something on the path which when cut down was perfect. I drilled holes in the MDF and sprayed them light grey and a darker grey towards the bottom where the water line will be.

20180916_154052

 

Happy with it so far so onto the gravel and Sandy base.

20180917_162437

 

Rogue one diorama WIP20180922_174935

The stones were just pea gravel from the garden and the sand was filler from wilko's which was smoothed and then I used a wooden stirer to pull it up into ripples as it dried. I then sprinkled silver sand on.

I wanted the sand to look whiterthan it did like on a tropical beach which Scarrif was, so I painted it with Vallejo white and interior yellow which did the trick. The gravel was hand painted with all sorts of colours to get the right effect, basically making it look the same as when I started 😂😂 

The small kit base which holds the feet were incorporated into the base to hold the troopers steady and I also found a snail shell from my aquarium which I painted red to add a bit of detail under the sea.

2018-09-29_01-26-53

 

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So that's where I am at right now.  I have some water clear resin on order which is something I have never used before. So this could all go great and look just how I imagined or I could screw the Resin step up completely and two models will be forever trapped in a badly made diorama 😂😂. Thanks for looking, will keep updating and will show the rest of the steps as I do them.

 

Cheers! Chris.

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Chris,

Welcome back. Nice man shed.

Is it insulated/heated? It could be a long cold Winter.

And now you've started you won't want to stop!

I hate it when It's too cold to go out to mine,

though I do have an oil filled radiator under the desk.

 

The diorama is looking very nice so far.

A great base effect & I like the figures.

I've not used the resin water so can't help, but someone 

who can should be along shortly. Or, learn from other' mistakes on here!

Cheers

Pete

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43 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Chris,

Welcome back. Nice man shed.

Is it insulated/heated? It could be a long cold Winter.

And now you've started you won't want to stop!

I hate it when It's too cold to go out to mine,

though I do have an oil filled radiator under the desk.

Thanks Pete, I have been asking a few questions in the diorama chat forum and everyone was really helpful.

I have an electric radiator in the shed and I just run an extension lead down from the house as I can't really be bothered to have wiring down there, old house, old fuse board 😡

 

Mike, I hope it turns out as you hope it will.  I have made one diorama before which turned out ok;

2018-09-29_03-23-48

 

However this is a big learning curve and I am very worried about ruining two perfectly good figures that would have been just as happy in a death star diorama😂😂

I have made two 1/4 scale test beds for the Resin so I can experiment with colour and pouring.

2018-09-29_03-29-10

 

Just need to paint them up and will use a McDonalds straw as stand in legs. I have a few days before the Resin is delivered and possibly a few weeks before the dye comes so no rush.

Thanks all, I started this thread to keep me motivated and it's working, can't wait to get back in the shed 👍

 

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12 minutes ago, Tommygunn1972 said:

Mike, I hope it turns out as you hope it will.

I had to think about that sentence WAY too long before I understood! :cwl:

 

I have confidence in you.  If you manage to pull it off well, I could be tempted to have a go myself too at some point, so we're all counting on you.... no pressure then ;)

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Haha yeah just read that back didnt sound like that in my head. 

This will either be amazing or shortly after I pour the resin the thread will go very quiet and I will be asking round if anyone has any spare stormtrooper feet!

😂😂😂😂

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7 minutes ago, spaddad said:

You probably already know this but  resin can generate a lot of heat when it's curing.

If it does, you can always change it to after the Death Star hits it ;)

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36 minutes ago, spaddad said:

You probably already know this but  resin can generate a lot of heat when it's curing.

Hi, yes I have looked in to it quite a bit. I hope to pour it a little at a time, probably 5ml sections. I don't want it cracking. I think I can cope and work round a little bit of shrinkage.

Hopefully I will learn a lot when I build up the two test bases.

Well that's the plan 🤔

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  • 1 month later...

Hi, it's been a while that this has been on the shelf. I could lie and say that it has been a pain ordering the clear resin but to be honest I've had the resin for a few months and have since been procrastinating.  I have been mulling over all sorts of things that could go wrong with it and since I had the day of work today I thought he who dares!.

I started on my little test bed by taping the MDF with masking tape and then cutting some styrene sheet to hold the resin. 

Rogue one diorama

 

Then mixed 100ml of the resin and 1% catalyst sooooo 1ml. Also added some blue ink like so;

Rogue one diorama

After storing I gave it a pour, I was probably a bit ambitious and poured more than I should but it didn't crack so all good.  I stirred it a little as it dried to get some ripples too.

Rogue one diorama

 

Rogue one diorama

 

Rogue one diorama

All in all I am quite pleased with myself.  The real diorama has lighter sand colour so should look a bit more tropical.  I don't think I will use the ink for the real pour but overall it went well, no leaks and not too much stress or sticky hands.  Will take off the styrene later it is taking a while to dry so maybe a little more catalyst is needed.

Thanks for looking comments and advice welcome!

 

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44 minutes ago, Carts said:

Looks great,and nice shed btw,if insanely organisied and tidy.:)

Haha, thanks Carts. Believe me the shed doesn't always look like that it's usually insanely organised chaos 😂😂.

 

I took the styrene off tonight and the resin looks good.  I think the paint has leeched out a bit as it has an overall yellow tinge so I think I might airbrush over some future to seal the base of the diorama.  The only problem with that is, I won't have any way of knowing if the future will react. I guess it's just fingers crossed time.  

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I've just had a little Google around the web and I just read that you can use future as a mold release when casting with polyester resin 😨.

Is there anyone out there who can confirm this or advise on how to seal in the paint layers.  I used Vallejo air paint and it was done months ago so I thought nothing would budge it. There is a definite colour to the resin test though maybe it's just the colour reflecting (think that's the right word) through the resin layer? 

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Just my two pence about water pouring would be to be careful about going too thin with the walls, especially if the layer is a bit thick it will heat up and warp them as it cures.  And dont worry about the colour, it always looks darker in the cup than when you pour it.

 

And I would seal in the paint with a gloss varnish on the bits that will be submerged, just to be on the safe side more than anything else. I cant confirm about future I've never used it with resin, most of my water builds have always been self contained, but if you have any clear acrylic thats good to wall off resin and it wont stick to it.

 

Also if you want to add some ripple effects easily without disturbing the curing resin a good thing to use is reeves gloss gel medium, its white and dries clear and is great for making ripples, I used it on one of my own builds here: -

 

This is looking great by the way, cant wait to see it finished!

 

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2 hours ago, Hunter Rose said:

Just my two pence about water pouring would be to be careful about going too thin with the walls, especially if the layer is a bit thick it will heat up and warp them as it cures.  And dont worry about the colour, it always looks darker in the cup than when you pour it.

 

And I would seal in the paint with a gloss varnish on the bits that will be submerged, just to be on the safe side more than anything else. I cant confirm about future I've never used it with resin, most of my water builds have always been self contained, but if you have any clear acrylic thats good to wall off resin and it wont stick to it.

 

Also if you want to add some ripple effects easily without disturbing the curing resin a good thing to use is reeves gloss gel medium, its white and dries clear and is great for making ripples, I used it on one of my own builds here: -

 

This is looking great by the way, cant wait to see it finished!

 

Hi Hunter, thanks that's really good advice, I hadn't really thought about the sides warping i will look at something thicker, i do intend to pour the resin in layers but would this show when viewed from the side?  I have never had any luck cutting acrylic but will maybe give it one last try 🤔.

Can you recommend a gloss varnish to use as I've always used future to gloss my finished kits.  I have seen a Vallejo polyurethane varnish would that do the job?

I did have in mind the gloss gel medium for the ripples as the stirring didn't give the effect i wanted.

 

Your Diorama looks amazing by the way, i saw it posted when and thought it was great then, the ripple effect is what i am after with the surface of mine.  I was going to make the water quite deep as in the reference but i like the idea now of the troopers foot leaving the water and creating a bit of turbulence with water dripping of his boot.

 

Edited by Tommygunn1972
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Thanks dude, thats still one of my favorite projects!

 

Yeah resin will be fine in layers it wont show,  and as for gloss varnish i used to use future too (until the temp in the shed got down to -15 one year and it was never the same after thawing!!) but now i use one called Gauzy which is pretty good

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24 minutes ago, Hunter Rose said:

Thanks dude, thats still one of my favorite projects!

 

Yeah resin will be fine in layers it wont show,  and as for gloss varnish i used to use future too (until the temp in the shed got down to -15 one year and it was never the same after thawing!!) but now i use one called Gauzy which is pretty good

Oh no, I store my future in my shed lol!

I will get on the internet and have a search for the Gauzy, hopefully then i can get this project finished!

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One caveat about Gauzy is that it can shred if you have need to sand it (for example, I use clear gloss to hide decal carrier film).  It's a lovely glossy clear coat, but not quite as tough and versatile as Klear (un-frozen). :)

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25 minutes ago, Mike said:

One caveat about Gauzy is that it can shred if you have need to sand it (for example, I use clear gloss to hide decal carrier film).  It's a lovely glossy clear coat, but not quite as tough and versatile as Klear (un-frozen). :)

Thanks Mike, the first thing I did was read your Gauzy review and it seemed quite positive so I have ordered a bottle.  I will most probably still reach for the Future for other projects but I think for this dio I just want to use something that has been used with resin before.  I shouldn't need to sand it, it just needs to seal the paint in before I pour the resin on.  The test piece definitely reacted with the paint so sealing it is the best thing to do I think.  

Thanks for the advice though, it's good to know the in's and out's of a bottle of something that will be lying around and will be used at some point in the future for other things.

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13 hours ago, Tommygunn1972 said:

and will be used at some point in the future for other things.

I saw what you did there :owww:

 

Gauzy is a great gloss.  It's probably easier to spray and get a shiny-shiny finish than Klear/Future, so it definitely has a place in anyone's armoury.  For what it's good at.  That's the key part :)

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23 hours ago, Tommygunn1972 said:

Oh no, I store my future in my shed lol!

I will get on the internet and have a search for the Gauzy, hopefully then i can get this project finished!

 

Look forward to that! 

 

16 hours ago, Mike said:

One caveat about Gauzy is that it can shred if you have need to sand it (for example, I use clear gloss to hide decal carrier film).  It's a lovely glossy clear coat, but not quite as tough and versatile as Klear (un-frozen). :)

 

Cheers for the info Mike, I didn't know that. 

 

And yeah warning to everyone don't freeze future! :lol:

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What an utterly inspired idea for a diorama! I too remember seeing the first shots of Scarif and thinking "WOW! This is a different Star Wars, and I like it!". It never occurred to me to try and replicate that scene in model form.

 

Brilliant!

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