Tuesday, 28 June 2011

Stacked Stairs Method part 1; Making 3D and 2D shapes by Stacking

Hello, guys. This is my very very first tutorial so please bare with me if I made mistake or sounded like a douche :P. Anyway, as you all know, the world of modelling is now filled with great many masters, people who can literally Scratch Build a Mobile Suit out of plywood ( bit exaggerated). The greatest newest innovation to modeling in the Gunpla community was the usage of plexiglass. It was made first and foremost by one of us, which I am so proud to present, a modeler by the name of Gravewolf of MAC. Now, scratch building has taken a tremendous leap, and I know ( as I myself evolved from a lurker in forums and an admirer of the great works of MatX, Juju, Don and etc.) that more and more people are taking up this hobby which we treasure above all other hobby. And those ''juniors'' will be wanting to mod, inspired by those great models out there, but they will be discouraged by the hardness of scratch building. I write this tutorial for their sake, to help the juniors as much as possible and to share my techniques to the world. Alright, that's enough intro.. lets get on it.

I name this ''Stacked Stairs'' method as it involves stacking plate and making a stair with those plates. Imagine a 4 or 3 sided pyramid, and imaging trying to scratch build one. Your option is pretty much using putty cos making such shape with plates is hard, as you need to measure carefully the exact size, the exact angles, and duplicate up to 4,5 plates to achieved a perfect symmetry pyramid. But the problems doesn't stop as when you glue those pieces, the inside will be hollow; I guess this picture should help explain things - 

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And trust me, you don't want a hollow object with low structural integrity, you literally can't do anything with it as it will keep breaking with force. Now, with stacking plates together, both shape and integrity can be achieved.

I will, firstly, be explaining on a simple 2D slope..
Picture any slope you want to do... simple slope, (inclined surfaces)... if you got it then cut to desire shapes
Me, i will be working with this ..
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make sure to cut the pieces progressively smaller.. the actual length on how much to cut is of course, up to you.
And don't forget that depending on the angle you want, you might want to watch out how much you want to make them progressively shorter.
For example, you start with say, 10 mm, then you make the 2nd 9mm, and progressively cutting off 1mm with each plate, you will get a pretty steep slope.
Again, say you start with 10mm, and you take off 2-3 mm with each plates,, you will get a pretty inclined plate.
Precise measurement is preferable but not really crucial.

Ok, once you are happy with the size and length, stack them like so
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this is a simple Slope if you can stack with the other side uniforn, you will get a pretty nice slope...
next, sanding...
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besure to sand it down according to the angle you stacked...
and sand it .. and you will get something like this
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of cos, being humans, we will have errors.
But those can be easily fixed by filling with puttin and sanded down for the putty to blend it should be fine.
that's how i got the shoulders of my Nataku..
Pictured here
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right that's the simple slope covered.. next, i want to talk about a pyramid shape..
same steps... but you might want to be more precise with the measurement..
i started off with 1x1 cm
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now since this is a pyramid, you would want the smaller pieces to sit directly in the middle of the bigger one
Pictured here like so .
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right the usual, sand
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and after sanding you will get this ..
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again, check for error and filll with putty if needed....

well, that's that... I don't know how effective this will be with other but this works wonder for me. This is part 1 and I have covered simple slope and a basic 4 sided pyramid and in part 2, I will be covering more faceted shapes. Thanks for reading and Stay Tuned. 
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Sunday, 26 June 2011

1/100 Nataku Ver. H-Bird; Improvement of the old HG

Hello Dear readers ....

This is the hummingbird... PRESENTING his 2nd finsihed Gunpla kit.... It was a been a long 9months;.. but finally, i have finished it... and I have learned alot from this build...

FYI, I didn't put in panel line because i hate weird black lines going all around..... 

My thanks to all my friends and fans who supported me throught happy times, and hectic times.... I am very very greatful.. to all of you.. without your supports, i might have just give up.. Thank you

I will make a full credit list later on...

Before & After-
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My most favourite pose -
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General View-
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Some poses -
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Show down with the WZC
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And here is a little video I made of this kit... nothing special, just tweaking around on a website.. LOL but I enjoyed it.. :P 




If you want to see more or read the discussion, feel free to jump over to the thread at MAC 
If you want to see more - just jump over to my photobucket album, here 
Thank you all for your support..... really really appreciate you guys' supports..Stay Tuned for more


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Friday, 24 June 2011

Build Off!! Strike Noir Raven - Part 7

Hello dear readers.... .. another very very small update on the Raven,

i guess for the first part of the  update... pictures will speak a thousand word, eh??

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I had to do what will you see in the following picture as it was too bloody ugly..
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The adapter you will see in this photo is make by stackign three plates together ...
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this is test fit and showing you what it can do ... it can swivel up and down and left to right.. consider that a multi-directional booster...
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and this is a overalll look ( front and back ) that i have acheived now .....
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well that's that ...

Right ... the 2nd part of the  update I will be making this time is about the Beam Shield Generator ( lets keep it B.S.G for short )

here's the process

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right - Step 1 is where I cut off a shape that i want to the B.S.G to have ... these shapes are clearly and heavily influenced by the B.S.G on the Strike Freedom forearms , the destiny and legend's wrist...

Step 2 is where i cut off two more same shape yet smaller size plates and carefully aligned them to be along a central axis, then the ''pyramid'' was sanded down at an angle and putty filled along that angled and voila..i got that nice little slopes ... ( I am sorry I couldn't show step by step as I simply forgot to take pictures of the step by step)

Step 3 - the things you see on step 2 are basically the lower portion so i had to build an upper portion, same theory, i had to build a pyramid so cut the large ones and then the smaller ones. ( pls refer to the finished product to see how they look like )

Step 4 - as you see from step 3 , i drilled two holes .. so i had to drill holes in the lower portions too ... the reason for it will be explained in step 5

Step 5 - as you can see, i put in pla-rods on the upper portions... that's why i drilled those holes on the upper portion .. they will serve as pegs .. and obviously, the holes on the lower portions of the B.S.G will serve as female part of the pegs ...

and voila.. as you can see from the photo, i have made a NG standard B.S.G.... pretty nifty.. love it ..

right, moving on... this is a huge update for me ... the first time i have successfullly done a major surgery on a MG
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Step 1 - as you can see from the picture, i cut the thigh off. .. drilled a hole and inserted a brass rod

step 2 - i made 9.6 X 9.6 mm square plates from 1mm thick plates and make a 5mm thick block

Step 3 - I drilled a hole straight through the 5mm block ... so that that brass rod can go in ...

Step 4 - I drilled a hole on the top part of the thigh, where the PC cup is ... again.. this is for the brass to go in

and as you can see from the finished photo, i just push in the block and put the PC cup part on top ... I had to use CA GLUE for the brass,PS, ABS to bond ...

And this is a comparison (sort of ) pic of the thigh extension ...
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Hope you guys love this thigh work as much as I do... me i love it.. my first successful cutting of a MG inner-frame ...

Alright, this it for today... thank you all for reading and stay tuned...
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Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Revell 1:32 Heinkel He 162

Hey you guys,, just wanna share this finished kit with you... I finished this kit about 2 years ago and ... this is as the title goes, the Heinkel He 162, it is also known as Volksjäger/Salamander/Spatz and another german name that literally means ''mating dragonfly'' in english.

The Kit is from Revell and the Scale is 1/32 and this was done in my noob days.. i didn't even have a Compressor back then... and i had to paint everything by hand.. the camo scheme is customised and i didn't put in a pilot cos i don't like having pilots ... There weathering done on the dorsal sides are done with drying brushing and the ventral sides are made with MIG production weathering washes..... Enjoy

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That is one aweful seam line ... ( don't look at me, it was like 2 years ago )
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Gun hatch and gun stains
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Landing gears ( the paint on the tyres peeled of .. i was using enemal and they peel off like crazy)
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i know.. i know.. i didn't know how to fix that, i had to live with it ..
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i have to say, i like my own works on the cock pit
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another cockpit view
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That's about it.. i hope you guys like it. Enjoy and Stay Tuned
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Tuesday, 21 June 2011

Tamiya 1/35 Merkava Main Battle Tank

Hello dear readers. 
This is my first serious build with shading and chipping and some dusting on the wheels. 
The kit is Tamiya and the scale is 1/35. This was done like 2 years ago and I am more then proud to have this in my cabinet as I really love the weathering I did myself.

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You can find out more about the discussion and stuffs here in the forum ..
http://boards.themacforums.com/topic/704572/1/#new

Hop you guys love it as much as I do. Enjoy and Stay Tuned for More.
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Build Off!! Strike Noir Raven - Part 6

again, this is not gonna be a massive wip.. so forgive me on that..

ok.. on to the update ..

I cut those identical pieces like you see in this picture ....
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those parts are to be used as girders ... as support for the skirts to take shape....
they are glued on like so ..
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which in turn... closed off with plates like so ..
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(not really my best works but it will do fine.. for now )

then i moved on to the feet ...
1st step - cut those teeny tiny pieces... ( it was hell )
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2nd step - glued them on to the front of the feet like so in the picture ...
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those things are angled.....

3rd step - glue another piece of angled plate on the side
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those were done to give the feet talons ( hence the name Raven ) :P

right moving on... last update, you guys saw the integration of the front part of the booster... this time, its the back of the booster... which you can see from here ..
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not really top notch work like the masters here but im happy with that i got... just need some clean up

and this picture -
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shows the step by step of how i used my ''shaping-by-stacking'' to make some parts for the booster to blend in with the over all kit...
in figure 1, you will see that i started with the middle section...
in figure 2, you will see that i stacked a stair case ... that will of course be sanded down .
in figure 3, you will see i stacked another stair case... the first being sanded down to give a slope..
in the finished product, you will see some green stuff as i used putty to fill in the gaps and to have a nice slope/angled parts much akin to the Mk.II

and this is more or less what i got after a day of work on this baby... apart from the side skirts being bulky. i love this ....
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i may end up making the side skirts thinner again.. but im not sure... anyway.. fingers crossed

Stay Tuned for more... and thank you very much 
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