"Midnight Raid in Mosul" Dio & Write-up....

Sounds like a great deal!

Hey- how about this- is there anyway to shave down one whole side of the acryl-rod so that you can get a smooth face? I think the problem might be the fact that it's curved- so if you could do something like this:

I mean hey- I know they make styrene rod in like.. half circle shapes right? Maybe? If you could find some clear acryl that has the same shap- the flat edge might let the light show through??

First off, let me comment on the Mighty Putty before I scream for help ... I'm diggin' this stuff. It's fast to cure, you've got about 5 minutes to work with it, and really ... how much more do you need than that. I just make sure to use just a little piece at a time, and it's perfect. Best of all, if I run short, I just have to run down to my neighborhood Walgreens or CVS and get some more. Just that simple. But with the package coming with 3x tubes of the stuff, and I'm only using an 1/8th of a slice about ... an 1/8" thick ... this package will last me awhile.

Ok, here we go ..........HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLPPPPPPP!!!!! (ok, it's not that bad ....)

So I've been working on the weapons and little things as I'm waiting for molds to set. I've been testing FO workings and scratching the PEQ4's for the rifles. Now the problem ...

So my original thought was that I was going to run FO out to the weapon and PEQ4, then attach a piece of about 4-5" of clear acrylic rod to show the "laser" coming out of the aiming device .... problem is, acrylic rod as just the same as FO does. The light only comes out the end and not the "glowing laser" effect that I was looking for. I've also tried moving this set up into a "shadow box" (under the desk ... hehe) to try it there. No dice. This is a HUGE piece to this dio so I need to figure out how to make it work.

What, out there, is going to give me that glowing look, BUT still be stiff enough to stick straight out for 4-5", representing a straight laser beam.

I've milled over this one for a good minunte now and nothing, so I thought I'd throw it to the gallery.

PLS let me know ... I'll be online for most of the evening ... Thanks in advance.

(psstoff .... see what problems you bring on when you instigate!?!)

Hmmm... well 1st off let me say very cool with the mighty putty! That stuff looked pretty crazy on the comercials- if it can hold 300 LBS!! of crap on TV I guess it makes sense that it can stand up to a 1/12 figure- and it's workable and sandable and everything? How is it with sculpting?

The blinky question sounds like it should be a pretty easy one for a guy at Radio Shack to help you out with- I'm sure they can help, I've seen a lot of scale cars that have whole lightbars and "wig-wag" headlights all built in to look like police cars and ambulances so it can be done and it can fit in scale- I just have no idea what kind of hardware that would require... 

???

Thanks for the sites, Walker. I've my basic wiring down for the FOs already. I'm trying to go back and figure out how to add in blinking lights to a few of the lighted spots. I'm needing four different blinking times, so that they will all look random, and I need them all to be at 1 -1 1/2 seconds. I've found a few places on the web that talk about using delay chips, but it might as well be French as far as I'm concerned!

666Irish wrote:

camo junkie wrote: hey, while i got you here, take a good look at my "sidewalk". what would you do with that. i was going to throw some debry (?) and paper etc. on it, besides the "food etc"...but im curious what you think i should do. i'm kinda saving that for last until i start the figs. What kind of struck me right away was the fact that you have the table out with items from the store on sale, yet the shutter is closed on the store (it's 'midnight', right)?.  Maybe knock the table over, and spill the contents of it and the bag on the sidewalk and give the fruit a rotted look. Some good grafitti on the wall in Arabic would be a nice touch too.

Irish ... I know that it doesn't seem like it cause "camo" is a thread-stealing junkie (HAHA!) but my build is actually to one "at midnight".

Read the full post from th 1st page and I think that you'll get the idea. Thanks for the suggestions though ... .that was actually a good catch!

HAHA .. yeah, this one's a cruise ship buddy!! .... where the drinks are included !!!!!HAHAHAHAHA

So here's something interesting that I thought I'd share. I've been messing around with clays and putties this morning trying to fix my figures and get them ready for casting. (I'm out of my magic-scuplt ... booo!) In digging through my things, I found some of that mighty-putty stuff that my wife got me once as a gag. As long as you use it in very small amounts, the stuff works pretty well. Dries and cures fast too ... and cures really hard so it's easy to work it and doesn't flake off. I've been slicing off a small disc shape from th tube, then dividing it up like a pie ... using 1/8th if it at a time. I'll have some pics in a bit.

Just thought I'd share ....

And here's another idea ... in thinking, I realized that the MF figure helmets have covers on them. SF guys do not wear helmet covers, hence there's no IR tabs on the helmets. But what some of them do is they attach the IR strobes to their helmets with velcro swatches. This would be very easy for me to do .... HOWEVER ... I have no idea how to make the dang things blink!!?!?!?!?!?!

I've tried to look it up online, but I get confused ...

Got any ideas, or know where I can find a simple build write-up for it?

Awesome hackjob!!! Cant wait to see how that FO turns out, looks like it's workin so far!

haha and that's how my magic sculpt ends up turning out half the time, I usually justgo over it a second (maybe 3rd) time. Sanding sticks are my friends..

irish 666...no offense...but ya missed the boat buddy...check #3 .

looking good model....looking good.

**UPDATE**

Ok, here we go. I've had a hard time lining out my time-line and my sequence of events for this build, so there's a lot of random pieces going on here. Some of it's testing, others ... well, I'm not sure. But here's what I've got to date.

Here's my vague idea of the stack team.

I didn't like the drastic motion of the #1 guy, so yea ... I chopped him up and gave hime a new stance. You can see that I first put him back together using pins. Then, once I got the pose I wanted, I put in the alum tubing for the "bones" which will give me a channel to run the FO through. And you can also see the putty that wasn't quite working out for me.

Here's another figures legs that I'm already running the FO with. I'm not going to have to change too much here, so I though I'd test my FO "theory".

Doing a little weapon work. I'm not sure that I'm going to be able to drill out the weapons for FO as I first thought. So, I think that I'm going to do my best to hide them on the side of the weapon opposite of the viewer. We'll see how well that works .... Here I'm straightening the barrel and adding pins for strength.

I'm going to be setting up some casts/ molds this afternoon. As those are setting I'm going to be turning back to my OIF build IOT get it finished up.

Stay tuned for more...

camo junkie wrote:

hey, while i got you here, take a good look at my "sidewalk". what would you do with that. i was going to throw some debry (?) and paper etc. on it, besides the "food etc"...but im curious what you think i should do. i'm kinda saving that for last until i start the figs.

What kind of struck me right away was the fact that you have the table out with items from the store on sale, yet the shutter is closed on the store (it's 'midnight', right)?.  Maybe knock the table over, and spill the contents of it and the bag on the sidewalk and give the fruit a rotted look. Some good grafitti on the wall in Arabic would be a nice touch too.

I agree about the mix and match with the tiles, I also think the 90 degree angles with the posters and graffiti can be easily fixed as stated about- it didn't even jump out at me at first, but yeah, after modelchasm mentioned it I did pick up on it.

Now that I think about it, another way to help blend it all together would be to add some bullet scars and chips/dings etc. all around the walls on the lower portion, maybe more down at street level and then less as you move up the building- maybe add in some more heavy damaged areas around roof tops or windows perhaps? Not sure how easy that'd be to pull off, but the buildings a little flat for my taste. Really do like the paint work though, and I agree, the figures are very nicely done.

Your choise of that greenish grayish tan color for the tri-desert patern looks spot on, I don't think I've ever been able to nail that

Hey that tile looks good! I wouldn't really change much except to maybe pull up a couple of piece to help break it up a little. Just keep in mind that everything there is build out of what they have at hand. Most people, even business owners, don't have the time or money to order things and have them "installed". Maybe throw in a few pieces of tile that don't match!?! Or maybe have different colored tile out in front of the shop door ... to kind-of make a small porch for the door. Does that make since?

But overall everything looks great. I really like the SAW gunner there. He's looking pretty good!

man i feel like that movie mommy dearest..."no more wire hangers...EVER!!!" those wires............those wires.....! cant even finish that one model!!
 interesting idea keeping a journal...guess it can limit your oops's. i've just started keeping a log of my painting for similiar reasons...which one's i like, which ones make good highlights, drybrushing, etc. whatever works.

hey, while i got you here, take a good look at my "sidewalk". what would you do with that. i was going to throw some debry (?) and paper etc. on it, besides the "food etc"...but im curious what you think i should do. i'm kinda saving that for last until i start the figs.

thanks.

... I wouldn't call them "wasted" hours .... maybe .... "very intently spent" hours!!!!

Upon coming up to a completion of a piece, there's always TONS of things that you would have done differently. I look at these as the learning points to the whole hobby. Sounds corny, but, that's why I keep a "modeling" journal. That way I always have a record of techniques I've tried, etc.

From my view point, there's nothing that stands out as "you shouldn't have done this" .... well, except for putting the eletrical wires in the scene (HAHAHAHA!) So, I didn't really mean "resuced" before ... that was definatly and overstatment!

i'm not giving up on this one model...lol. i've wasted far too many hours on it. i'm not discouraged or anything by what ya said. i expect straight forward answers without the sugar coat! i was agreeing with you about the build and there were a # of things i would've liked to have done differently but ya learn that way and that's important to me. i'd be in the wrong place i guess if i wanted (or expected) everyone to tell me how awesome i am and my work. blah blah blah!!! things are cool model and i will try what you are saying, thanks.

camo .... don't give up on this one ... I wouldn't have ever guessed that this is your first dio build. From my point of view you've nailed the scene. I think that it's VERY easily "rescued".

Here's my thoughts ...

1) Take your stencil of the arabic, change it up a little, and then paint it again over the group of posters, but at a crazy angle. Stay away from 45 as everything else is at 90. It'll make it look like a machine did it.

2) Then, take another poster, and glue it over a portion of one of the other graffti marks. Again at an angle, but be sure to use a different angle than the one from above ... again staying away from 45.

And that's it. I think that's all it would take to make this one PERFECT. Just my 2 cents ... you've done an outstanding job on this one .... that's why I'm looking at yours IOT build mine!

Thanks again for the inspiration! Hope that helps....

DANG camo! You made that paint job your ^*&#%!!!! Came out GREAT!

The only thing that I've got for your building is that everything ... and really step back and take a look at this .... everything is square. 90 degrees. Horizontal and vertical. Nothing is angled. It looks good, don't get me wrong. It's just that all the posters, the graffiti, the blue paint ... it's all very, VERY straight.

I'm back at the house now, so this thread is no longer yours ... HAHAHA! I'll be working like crazy on this one (and getting the OIF dio finished up) as I've got this week off. (suck on that one!)

Hopefully I'll be posting some new pics up here tonight .... that's my goal at least.

Looks awesome camo!!

Hey modelchasm I really like that idea about the FO "Bone" to thread through

Sorry about the paintjob work and the new "putty" that isnt workin out. Bet you'll be glad to get home!

 ok guys. i said i'd show my updated progress. i hope you like it. if not well...you can tell me that too. as you can still see...i need to do more work on it...but hope you like it so far!

 its a start right!!! let me know what ya think.

 i'm using enamels modelchasm. mostly humbrol. havent tried acrylics yet although i do have alot of them! stick with what you know i guess is my motto. sorry i didnt post any pics last night. red wing hockey called and i had to watch them actually lose a game! oh well. things are coming along...still have some work to do. once the building is done then i get to work on the figs!

   speaking of figures, that sounds like an interesting way to hold the lags together on your figs using metal rod to act as bone. should definately be strong. i too thought about trying modeling clay...let me know how that works for you. yep, can tell about your base. pretty awesome. like i said will post a few teaser pics tonight. although i dont think mine measures up!!

Howdy guys ... only a short update for today ...

I only worked a LITTLE last night before my drive out this morning. I had picked up come modeling clay the other day as I was goign to start filling in the figures that I had cut up IOT prep them for casting once I got home. I've always worked with epoxy putty, but this time I picked up something different to try out ... needless to say, I don't like it much.

If I do any work tonight in my hotel, I might give it another shot ... maybe.

I did, however reach a "shump" while out on the road. Since I'm running FO up through the leg from the base, I have a channel drilled through the center of the leg. In particular, one figure has the entire fron tof his knee missing as I cut it and bent it bent back to reposition it. Since there's no physical channel running through the open space, I can't exactly fill in the knee yet. So I'm planning on using some brass tubing to make a "bone" for the FO to run through before I use the putty ... this, again, will have to wait until I get home. Basically, right now, the only thing that I can accomplish is test fitting the figures back together using straight pins as temporary frame work. Seems to be working fine for now. I still find myself a little timid working with this figures as they come to you already painted ... like I don't want to mess up the awesome paint job. (as a reminder, these things are painted in mass so they really aren't all that great!) I'm getting better though.

Well, I've got an early drive tomorrow ... especially if I want to get back with any time or energy to work on this piece.

Thanks again guys for your help.

Camo ... look forward to seeing your building. What colors are you using? Enamels/ acrylics? ... Can you tell I'm about to paint my own dio base? hehe.

hey, good hearing from you guys. my updates...hmmm....i'll put up a couple of pics later 2-night. i've spent the last 3 days doing little on the project...guess that's to be expected. personally modelchasm i'm surprised you have time with the other 120 mm project you have going. which looks fantastic btw. (unless they're part of the same or im totally confused or whatever...whouldnt be the first time!) enjoy your trip back...i know when i left texas to drive to florida then back to michigan....that drive to florida...for there only being a few states...sure seemed like i was driving out to california...took forever!!!

Hey thanks guys .... it's been pretty busy here, so I haven't gotten a lot done. But, I hope you'll like what I've got so far. Still no pics yet though, I'll be home in two days....

I got to looking at my "#1" guy and I really didn't like his pose.... so .... I cut him up. Really just the leg, but I gave him more of a "stance" postion rather than the "run" he came with. It looks a lot better now. I've pinned the leg back on and lightly glued it to get the look I wanted. I'm hoping to go back tonight and start on the putty process, but I might wait ... just to make sure that the pose is the one I want.

I also started working on the #2 guy in the stack, but I'm not able to get too much done with out casting some things first.

I'm just a little disappointed b/c I haven't gotten as much done on this as I really wanted. So much for doing something you really want to do ... especially when there's work. BLAH!!!

Oh well, I'm starting my drive back to TX tomorrow and will be stopping off in Pensacola for the night. Maybe I'l break out my stuff and work a little ... Hmmm.

Thanks again for your encouragement. I'll "reward" you w/ pics as soon as I can.

BTW ... GENTLEMEN ... Where are YOUR updates!?!?! Hmmm?

the pics can wait. no worries there...like the anticipation anyway. enjoy your time away and we'll see the pics upon your return!

mine's coming along nicely. did some washes and some rusting. was actually surprised the whole thing didnt collapse with the washes and the spackle!!. i tried the gray-ish wash p.o. 995 mentioned. looks ok. i just need to blend my lighter/darker shades together more (i think). (any ideas?) other than that its a little each day.

No worries on the lack of pictures, hey- if you do get a chance to update with some in the future though, I'd love to see a shot of your "blueprint". That sounds pretty cool- and I mean hey, measure twise cut once right?

Glad to see you could get away to a SBs and glad your havin some fun on your trip.