How I make my model bases (Pics!) EDIT: DO NOT USE THIS INFO-PROJECT FAILED

    Well, for this base it's time to start putting the paving on it.  This one will be representing an airport helicopter landing area.  I started by experimenting yesterday with a piece of scrap wood and some drywall joint compound. 

    It seemed to work out okay, so I masked off my base and laid a coat of the compound across the top of it.  It seems a shame to hide all that nicely stained wood finish on top, but sometimes ya gotta break eggs to make an omelette, right?

   I'll wait overnight for this to cure, then I can sand 'er down and start detailing it.  More pics to come!

I do not know anything about woodworking so this is a very informatif thread for me. Thanks for sharing!

Chris, you're right about a router table being ideal, but a couple tips that apply to hand-held or table routing will help to reduce the burn marks. They come from "lingering" on one spot, so that heat from the cutter builds up. The best way to get rid of them is to remove smaller amounts of material, kind of sneaking up on the shape and then doing a final cleanup pass which removes the last whisker.

It also helps to moisten the wood before the cleanup cut so that the bit stays cooler, not sopping wet just damp. When you're finished the last pass and the wood is dry, a fine grit foam sanding block with angled sides is handy to knock down any  "fuzzies" - they are lot easier to use than sandpaper and last a long time. I get mine at a professional paint store, but a well stocked hardware store might also carry them.

Finally, it's handy to have a foam mat under the wood to keep it from moving without clamps in the way. The pebbly foam carpet underlay, usually gray in color, works great. It's sold by woodworking supply houses but is cheaper if you get it from a home center or carpet store. For modeling purposes a sq. yd. remnant would be more than enough.

Hope this helps - I've enjoyed learning from your modeling posts while lurking around the forums!

mike

learned something today.

Ron

Chris- thanks for posting your process. I know it's something I'll learn from as I haven't yet tackled bases.

mrmike

Chris, you're right about a router table being ideal, but a couple tips that apply to hand-held or table routing will help to reduce the burn marks. They come from "lingering" on one spot, so that heat from the cutter builds up. The best way to get rid of them is to remove smaller amounts of material, kind of sneaking up on the shape and then doing a final cleanup pass which removes the last whisker.

It also helps to moisten the wood before the cleanup cut so that the bit stays cooler, not sopping wet just damp. When you're finished the last pass and the wood is dry, a fine grit foam sanding block with angled sides is handy to knock down any  "fuzzies" - they are lot easier to use than sandpaper and last a long time. I get mine at a professional paint store, but a well stocked hardware store might also carry them.

Finally, it's handy to have a foam mat under the wood to keep it from moving without clamps in the way. The pebbly foam carpet underlay, usually gray in color, works great. It's sold by woodworking supply houses but is cheaper if you get it from a home center or carpet store. For modeling purposes a sq. yd. remnant would be more than enough.

Hope this helps - I've enjoyed learning from your modeling posts while lurking around the forums!

mike

Good stuff Mike.....I have the router but not the table so this info is definitely useful to me.

All I can say is: Thank you! This is very helpful indeed.

It's interesting to see a new topic with info rather than a question, once in awhile

Also, I've been thinking of making a base for awhile. I'll need the right model, though. However, I plan on just staining a base, which is already in a shape I desire. By the way, have you used those sample stain packs? How much area do you think that will cover?

  I honestly haven't seen those sample packs so it'd be tough for me to guess what they cover.

   This is just my own process that I basically put together from my own garage.  I'm sure everyone has different ways of doing it-heck, I think you can even get basic wood bases at Hobby Lobby and save yourself some woodworking.  To me though, this is more satisfying and a bit more "custom" if you will.

  MrMike, thanks so much for the tips.  That will definitely help me refine my router skills! 

   Today I sanded down the joint compound and used a large flat-blade screwdriver with a straightedge  to etch concrete shapes into it.  Then I hit it with a first coat of MM Neutral Gray.  Unfortunately I did get some chips and cracks, so during the weathering process I'll have to get creative with those and make some weeds popping through or crumbled concrete to fill in or something.  Not sure I'll get to post up pics tonight, so hang in there and maybe tomorrow.  Thanks for all the compliments, guys!

Hello again and thanks for the kind words. One thing I should have said is that the easiest way to sneak up on a router cut is to gradually lower the bit into the work. I've used the stain samplers from minwax and find they are adequate for a few square feet of material - much better than buying a pint or more for a small project!

best regards;

mike

   Ok, gonna try and squeeze a few more pics in tonight.  Here you can see the beginnings of paint as well as the concrete pad seams I etched in:

And here's a shot of the base with the first coat of paint on it.  I almost forgot that I would need to paint a big "H" on there somehow, so I went to work on that as well.  I used Microsoft Word to type a big, block letter "H" and printed it out.  Then I went to town with my trusty #11 and a straightedge to cut it out, leaving  a nice temporary stencil. 

    Tomorrow hopefully I can spray on the "H" and get it ready for weathering.  Not sure how I'm gonna do that as I've not weathered much before, but I'm thinking a fading spray of a lighter gray over the base coat and the "H", and then a wash in the cracks using a light tan color to simulate a sandy, dirty type of pad.  Of course, oil stains will figure prominently, but those I've done before.  Thanks again for the nice comments and stay tuned! 

   Had a quick moment after the kiddos went to sleep to spray my "H".  As you can tell in the pic, the overspray monster reared its ugly head.  I had the stencil fairly weighed down, I thought, but the airbrush must've kicked up a bit of paper anyway.  So much for that idea.  Maybe next time I'll mask it instead.

   I think I'll go ahead and weather the hell out of it rather than try to go back and fix it.  I've got a busy next few days ahead of me with dinner plans and a day trip in the offing, so I'll try to post an update later this week.  Thanks again for watching!

Tuesday we took a quick trip down to Colorado Springs to drive the Pikes Peak Highway.  My wife is a CPA and it was a celebration of the end of tax season for her:

    We were forced to turn back 2/3 of the way up due to high winds and blizzard conditions.  That's my blue Jeep.  Elevation here is 12,500 feet:

     Anyway, on to modeling. Last night I spent some time on a wash.  I hate washes.  I'm not good at them and they never look good to me, at least, the ones I do.  I tried one using  MM Dark Earth to simulate some dirt in the cracks of the concrete paving.  The joint compound I used for the base soaked up a lot of the wash, and using a Q-tip to wipe off the excess resulted in taking it ALL off.  I wondered if I should have sealed the base before I tried the wash.  Luckily it  passes muster with my family and friends, so, no big loss:

  After the wash, I made up some oil stains using Grimy Black and the leftover wash with a lot of Aircraft Interior Black added to it.  This helped take attention away from the wash I did.  There are two more oil stains that don't show up in this pic.  Trust me, it looks better in person than in the pic:

  The Grimy Black came out really stark, but I'm hoping to tone it down as the weathering continues.

    That's all for now.  I'm fighting some stomach illness issues right now so I'm about to go pop some Tylenol and go to bed.  More hopefully in a day or two.  Thanks for watching!

    Ahhhh.....so depressed.   Nothing's been going right the last few days, and modeling is included in that.  The more I handled my base, the more I started having problems with the "concrete" cracking and chipping off.  Finally I decided to just leave it where it's at and wrap it up.  I sprayed a coat of Valspar Clear Flat on it, and then removed the masking tape:

    Here's a shot of the clear gloss and clear flat sealers I've been using.  I am REALLY impressed with that Rustoleum Clear Gloss.  I used it on my AMT Starship Enterprise kit with great success. The Valspar has yet to be proven, but it appears ok on the helipad I just sprayed it on.  We'll see:

    I'm going to call this model base build "DONE!"  It didn't turn out nearly as good as I thought it would.  I'm kinda disappointed in the chipping I got, which I had to cover with paint because I just don't have the patience to go back and fix it right.  Plus I have two little kids that constantly take up my time.  Overall though, when I get the helicopter and figures placed on it, I think it will look decent.  Look for those pics in the "Helicopters" subforum soon!  Thanks for all your comments and thanks for watching my build!

                                             Chris

Chris- from the pics, your base looks excellent. It may not have been exactly what you're looking for, but the cracking on the edges doesn't detract from the realism to me. I say nice job!

In-Re: "I have the router but not the table"

My suggestion: BUILD ONE.

It's no big deal to buy or build one (I have two, one for a Dremel, one that's ancillary to my Shopsmith). Hit your library and paw through a few issues of Fine Woodworking and that ilk, you'll find more than you ever wanted to know.

One "routed" base of which I am fond doesn't involve a router at all. I simply make two evenly spaced, shallow passes (Shopsmith running as a table saw) on all four sides parallel to the plane of the base. (The trick is to make the same pass four times, then flip the workpiece and repeat -- that way, irregularities are "erased" by the matching cuts.) Then angle the table 22.5 degrees and trim the board. Result: a visually interesting array, corrugated & set-back.

    Here's a link to the completed build, including helicopter:

/forums/t/137557.aspx

                                                             Chris

EDIT:   AFTER THE BASE WITH HELICOPTER MODELSAT IN MY DISPLAY CASE FOR A MONTH, THE "PAVING" WARPED, CRACKED, AND CAME LOOSE FROM THE BASE.   DO NOT USE MY TECHNIQUE FOR THE PAVING UNTIL I IRON OUT WHAT HAPPENED.  SORRY ABOUT THE BAD INFO!