(Materials, finishes, treatments and effects)
After a much-needed major overhaul in my schedule last December, here we go again with this series. In our working calendar December of course is the busiest time of the year in terms of output. Each year far more busy than the last.
So after a few weeks overdue and without any further fanfare, here it is, the third installment.
Old is New
Old could be new.
It’s just a matter of how you present it.
In scale models, how you present a material (or manipulate it) is significant.
I can use a 10-year-old material on my model and no one would ever know how old it is. I can simulate old, rustic or even weathered surfaces using just about any material I can get my hands on. It boils down to what method to use.
This is how I go about in building models. Models = face value, that’s practically true for me.
Old things like old structures, old carts, bicycles, equipment, requires quite a different approach in simulating it’s “old effect” on the material you use. For, it’s a different discipline, apart from the various techniques you have to master in making good diorama and scale models.
Vice versa
New materials can look old too.
In the world of scale models and diorama, where face value is the name of the game, the phrase “what you see is what you get” takes on quite a literal meaning. What ever the material, how you treat it with your finishes could spell success or failure in your work.
Mostly in diorama building, where we simulate ruins, old structures, machines, equipment, weathering and just about anything, observing the real scene or structures to be simulated is the first step.
The setting must be also considered. Like say for example, if you are doing an old fishing boat, knowing the area where the scene is depicted tells you how to go about the weathering. Of course generally some would say it’s just weathering. But how accurately you can do it can spell the difference in your goal of having a “real look” effect on your diorama.
I might be over emphasizing some things here, but we’re talking about how close we can get our diorama effects to the real thing.
Chameleon
A plastic component can look like an authentic metal or masonry or even wood. as mentioned earlier, the textures and colors are critical. I have used through the years, paper and made everyone think it’s metal. Or vinyl sheets painted and made to look like wood floors. Plastic sheets looking like ceramics was almost like a routine. Anything the modeler’s imagination can conceive is practically achievable.
I remember the first time I attempted to replicate a highly textured masonry finish in my model more than 10 years ago, I used the edge of a 1.5mm soft vinyl flooring sheet which we tear off without using any cutting tool. The surface achieved was spitting image of a real natural stone masonry at 1:100m scale. Again, how you perceive something in actual scale, try viewing it from about 10 meters, that’s how it should look like on your scale models.
However, there’s something I have learned making all these, you may have to exaggerate textures and sizes sometimes, but don’t overdo it. This is to emphasize impressions of textures and contrasts on simulated materials.
for all those weeks we missed, we decided to do a double header: the fourth installment. right away!
Tools of the Trade (fourth installment)
Back to Basics
Take a piece of paper, a pen or your tablet, palm top or your laptop and write down all the things you need to build a nice model or diorama.
Cutters
The first thing that comes to my mind are the good old cutters. In this business, if you can’t properly cut anything for reasons like:
a). You don’t have a nice sharp blade or
b). You simply don’t know the basic technique of cutting.
Do yourself a favor and shift to another career. A clean and accurate cutting on the components is a prerequisite to a precise scale model. Having a very sharp blade all throughout the whole process of building is key to precise component fabrication. There are a million reasons why you have to maintain optimum sharpness on your blades at all time.
Straight Edge
In my many years of building scale models, the straight edge always came in handy. Like a mother to her child, rain to the plant or (let’s go technical) thinner to the paint. You can’t go without it. “Essential” is the word we’re looking for here.
When i say straight edge, I mean straight. It could be your ordinary ruler on the table, or just any object you never thought you’d consider as a tool, like say, a piece of plastic sheet or any board. as long as it straight. How do we know it is straight? Simple.
Position your eye about a few inches from one end of the straight edge and line up your eyesight almost parallel to the “straight edge”. the principle behind this method is so basic, a first grader can do it.
The positioning of the straight edge in relation to the eyesight used for judging the straightness of the edge exaggerates the crooked segments. If the edge appears to have an abrupt curve, you are not going to use that. i need not elaborate on the outcome of having not so accurate components assembled together due to crookedness.
The Hand
The most important of all tools. The best designed tool ever. The most indispensable tool — the Hand.
Most beginners of this craft didn’t think this is true. Worse, some didn’t even know the hand is a tool they can use. The hand can pick, hold, carve, kneed, press, pat, spread, scrape, feel…we could go on here all day.
Most people didn’t realize this but, the knuckles, nails, palm are the different surfaces or tool accessories if you may, that the hand as a tool has. As people might say, (cocky or not) “it’s all in the hands”.
Now, a few might wonder why I’m discussing these “days-of-the-cavemen tools” when we are now in the age where dozens of state of the art tools are within our grasp to do the work better, easier and faster. Simple. These are the basic ones. Trust me, you couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t do away with the basics.
I’ve seen works done using these technically advanced equipment and tools, but you can see just by looking at the workmanship, that only the equipment and tools are good, but not the hands that used them. As mentioned in earlier paragraphs, the hand is still the best tool. And if you never mastered the most basic tool, how can you be in complete control of it’s accessories. To sum it all up in one word—
B A S I C S.
