Hagoth
Sr Member
Wow Mysta2, this is awesome work! Goggles on the seat would be a fitting touch.
All the tools you have available to work with... Cool stuff.
Would a Calvin and Hobbes model be welcome here?
- Thread starter Mysta2
- Start date
Wow Mysta2, this is awesome work! Goggles on the seat would be a fitting touch.
All the tools you have available to work with... Cool stuff.
Mike J.
Master Member
Maybe a little sign that says "Back in 5 mins," for when it's on display.
I guess we are at the opposite of the spectrum on that one Mysta2. If I had a toy without a driver/pilot, etc, I would simply take on figure from another toy and try to cram it into a cockpit or a car or...you get my drift (even if it meant cutting its legs off)
Yeah. I have a co worker that lives and breathes 6th scale action figures, so I kind of understand that interest. I know of course this isn't universal, but for me putting a figure in the cockpit kills the realism, because it freezes time since people never stand still. I can't really explain it but to me a static model without a person just has more motion or (ironically) life to it because it could be sitting out on a runway somewhere ready to fly at any moment or just back from a mission, it's less frozen.
Ravenville
New Member
Love Calvin and Hobbes and loved following this thread.One question,what type of plastic did you use to vacuum form the canopy.Thanks.
rbeach84
Sr Member
Yup, that sounds like acrylic w/ the blue film... I wonder if the 'too big' dome buck could be used directly on a saucer body instead of a clear one? It turned out so nice... seems a waste to not display it! ;^)
RE: figures, I like 'em in small doses (unless for a diorama) just to show scale in an easily understood form. In some cases, simply a 'gray painted' figure is enough to do the trick. Most folks can readily relate to a human figure when looking at miniatures.
Regards, Robert
RE: figures, I like 'em in small doses (unless for a diorama) just to show scale in an easily understood form. In some cases, simply a 'gray painted' figure is enough to do the trick. Most folks can readily relate to a human figure when looking at miniatures.
Regards, Robert
Made some steering wheels today.
I must admit that I was really tempted to make a yoke instead of a steering wheel because there is at least one strip where the control for the ship is clearly a two handed yoke, and who would steer a space ship with a steering wheel?! But really, a steering wheel is funnier, and is much more often used in the strip, so steering wheel it is.
My little chunk of black ABS, the steering wheels are in there. Just need to cut away all the other junk.
First side cut
After cutting that first side, I use a jewelers wax to fill in all the voids and face mill it back to the top surface so that I can flip it over using those four pin holes drilled on the ends.
Like this:
Second side in progress
With the wax in there, at the end of the second cut you are left with a part essentially floating in the cooled wax (unless it popped out and went flying across the machine, as it’s apt to do)
Half an hour in Heptane and the wax will all be dissolved
I must admit that I was really tempted to make a yoke instead of a steering wheel because there is at least one strip where the control for the ship is clearly a two handed yoke, and who would steer a space ship with a steering wheel?! But really, a steering wheel is funnier, and is much more often used in the strip, so steering wheel it is.
My little chunk of black ABS, the steering wheels are in there. Just need to cut away all the other junk.
First side cut
After cutting that first side, I use a jewelers wax to fill in all the voids and face mill it back to the top surface so that I can flip it over using those four pin holes drilled on the ends.
Like this:
Second side in progress
With the wax in there, at the end of the second cut you are left with a part essentially floating in the cooled wax (unless it popped out and went flying across the machine, as it’s apt to do)
Half an hour in Heptane and the wax will all be dissolved
MKWJTC
Active Member
SmilingOtter
Master Member
Even if I didn't care about the subject matter, I'd be following this just to see how well it's being made.
Every time Calvin tries to fire a weapon (we never see the ship fire a single shot in all the strips) he has yokes or joysticks in his hands. I came up with the idea that maybe these stowed away when not in use, so I thought up some simple method to make something like that.
I came up with a cool way to make the grips too. I folded the wire over on itself to make it thicker, and wrapped it in heat shrink. The dimensions looked good but it was too smooth so I experimented with some strips of electrical tape and I think it worked out really well.
The texture and finish of the heat shrink couldn't be more perfect.
The whole assembly so far:
Obviously I still have some work to do to figure out the seat. I like the frame, but I don't know yet how I'm going to handle the padding.
I came up with a cool way to make the grips too. I folded the wire over on itself to make it thicker, and wrapped it in heat shrink. The dimensions looked good but it was too smooth so I experimented with some strips of electrical tape and I think it worked out really well.
The texture and finish of the heat shrink couldn't be more perfect.
The whole assembly so far:
Obviously I still have some work to do to figure out the seat. I like the frame, but I don't know yet how I'm going to handle the padding.
I think I finished off the first pair of tanks this morning.
This is most of the stuff I used to get the job done. I think the only thing not pictured is the E6000 silicone that I used to glue the tanks down to the cockpit ring.
You can see I’ve already bent up the galvanized steel wire and assembled the lines with their ties and markings. I’m basically operating under the assumption that those two tanks in the aft of the cockpit are two differing gasses meaning they should be marked and color coded. I used a little section of heat shrink to wrap around the tank cap and put a matching smaller heat shrink marker on the corresponding line. I already drilled a hole in the tank cap when I made them, but the hole’s too big for the wire I’m now using. So the heat shrink does two thing’s, adds a little color visual interest, and allows me a gasket of sorts to poke the wire into making it nice and secure. I’ve added a dab of superglue where each line tie and color marker will sit since they are a little too big to fit snugly and have a tendency to want to slide.
This might be a good tip: very rarely while working this small will I ever apply glue directly to the parts to be glued. Always squeeze out a droplet onto a piece of tape on your work surface and use a toothpick or something to pick up just a speck at a time.
Also pictured you can see the shipping label that I’ve used to make my red strips. This works great, but when you cut a strip out of printed paper like this it always has a white edge and looks like… paper. Taking a marker and dragging it along that edge to color match it makes a world of difference. Pretty much any type of marker will work for this, this morning I could only find an Expo dry erase in the color I needed. If you have some odd color, you may have to hunt down a Prismacolor or Copic.
Since they are shipping labels, the strips I cut are adhesive already, but when going around a curve this tight it’s almost always a mistake to rely on that adhesive alone.
Glue the ends down.
I just dragged the end of the strip carefully through that bead of superglue and touched it to the tape a couple of times to get most of the excess off and placed that end on the tank. It’s important not to be in a hurry here, glue one end down and let it dry before trying to wrap it around.
The assembly so far.
I loved how those little grips turned out so much I might just add a little throttle to the mix.
Oh and for those grips, when you suck the heat shrink down on the wire you’re left seeing the wire from the top of the grip. I used to do a bit of pinstriping and I’ve got a bunch of 1Shot lettering enamels, a little drop of black on the top of the grip and it’s nice and sealed up. I highly recommend Lettering enamels for the little dots and details, it’s super opaque, beads really nice and makes perfect little round raised dots. It does take nearly forever (around a week in some cases) to dry though when not thinned, and it's shiny as hell, which can be good or bad.
This is most of the stuff I used to get the job done. I think the only thing not pictured is the E6000 silicone that I used to glue the tanks down to the cockpit ring.
You can see I’ve already bent up the galvanized steel wire and assembled the lines with their ties and markings. I’m basically operating under the assumption that those two tanks in the aft of the cockpit are two differing gasses meaning they should be marked and color coded. I used a little section of heat shrink to wrap around the tank cap and put a matching smaller heat shrink marker on the corresponding line. I already drilled a hole in the tank cap when I made them, but the hole’s too big for the wire I’m now using. So the heat shrink does two thing’s, adds a little color visual interest, and allows me a gasket of sorts to poke the wire into making it nice and secure. I’ve added a dab of superglue where each line tie and color marker will sit since they are a little too big to fit snugly and have a tendency to want to slide.
This might be a good tip: very rarely while working this small will I ever apply glue directly to the parts to be glued. Always squeeze out a droplet onto a piece of tape on your work surface and use a toothpick or something to pick up just a speck at a time.
Also pictured you can see the shipping label that I’ve used to make my red strips. This works great, but when you cut a strip out of printed paper like this it always has a white edge and looks like… paper. Taking a marker and dragging it along that edge to color match it makes a world of difference. Pretty much any type of marker will work for this, this morning I could only find an Expo dry erase in the color I needed. If you have some odd color, you may have to hunt down a Prismacolor or Copic.
Since they are shipping labels, the strips I cut are adhesive already, but when going around a curve this tight it’s almost always a mistake to rely on that adhesive alone.
Glue the ends down.
I just dragged the end of the strip carefully through that bead of superglue and touched it to the tape a couple of times to get most of the excess off and placed that end on the tank. It’s important not to be in a hurry here, glue one end down and let it dry before trying to wrap it around.
The assembly so far.
I loved how those little grips turned out so much I might just add a little throttle to the mix.
Oh and for those grips, when you suck the heat shrink down on the wire you’re left seeing the wire from the top of the grip. I used to do a bit of pinstriping and I’ve got a bunch of 1Shot lettering enamels, a little drop of black on the top of the grip and it’s nice and sealed up. I highly recommend Lettering enamels for the little dots and details, it’s super opaque, beads really nice and makes perfect little round raised dots. It does take nearly forever (around a week in some cases) to dry though when not thinned, and it's shiny as hell, which can be good or bad.
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