Hey Gang!
Sorry I have not been around lately, took a small hiatus from the internets. However, I have been busy. Hopefully this will be an interesting update for you all.
When last we left our intrepid crew they were not doing much other than standing around staring into empty space. They needed walls and screens and stuff. Well, I'll let the pictures do the talking.
Okay, so they are still staring into empty spaces where screens should be but it's gettin' there. I have been in contact with, and received a nice little bundle of goodies from, Modelman Tom and will be playing with lighting this weekend. I'm a little intimidated by the idea but love a challenge.
And here is the beauty shot of the state of the bridge so far...
Now is where the poop she is getting real.
In researching the bridge I've naturally stumbled across some might impressive builds out there. It seems I'm the only one building in this scale so far. Most seem to be in either Mego or 1:10th scale. I would love to see some of those in person. One in particular I found on HobbyTalk done by a fellow called Fozzie. The stuff he did is incredible and it totally inspired me. I am experimenting with the techniques he pioneered.
I was able to find a sweet deal on a Silhouette Cameo die-cutter on amazon. If you don't know what a die-cutter is, it is basically a printer or plotter with a knife instead of pen or print head. You can cut paper, cardstock, fabric, vinyl and other thin materials very accurately. They sell them at Michael's to the scrap-booking crowd.
Anyway, my goal was to create awesome backsplash panels. So last weekend I sat down with my new machine and started the learning process. I spent the first half of the day creating my graphics in photoshop. And the second half was spent with the Cameo. When I first brought in my graphics and tried to trace them in the Silhouette software I was getting poor results. And I wasn't surprised because I was certain I was going to fail anyway. The scale I am working in is just so darn small that I didn't know if the machine could even handle it. It was a total crap shoot from the beginning. The trace feature just wasn't doing what I wanted and I ended up having to redraw the whole thing in Silhouette Studio. Thankfully it was fast and easy to do.
With the graphics done I then got to know my blade. Again the first few tries were complete messes but after some playing I found the settings that works and, voila, I was able to produce my own vinyl masks and transfer them to some clear styrene.
This thing cuts like a dream. To give you an idea of just how finely detailed it can cut bare in mind that the smallest little squares you see are 1/32" x 1/32". I hit the whole thing with a few coats of primer followed by a few coats of black paint until it was completely light blocked.
From there I just pealed the masks off where I wanted.
I glued in lighting gels from behind with spray glue for colour.
And there you have it. Still a lot to go but I am having a ball.
Thanks for looking.
