Andy's Pulp misadventures...

[BillK]

Dang this is a great project.
Wonderful tutorial and can't wait to see the finished prodcut.
 

[Andy in Germany]

I’m still getting into my stride at work and I’ve been a bit short of energy for model making, which is why it took a while to  finish the cardboard rocket.

I’d mentioned that I wanted to use a variation on the “hairspray method”. This is where you paint the model, usually rusty brown but I went for silver, spray liberal amounts of hairspray over the model, let that dry and paint the ‘final’ colour on top. Then you scrub the lot with a wet brush and all the exposed corners start to show up in the undercoat leaving the impression the model is rather battered and made of metal.



This worked mostly, although I found that artist’s acrylics are remarkably good at holding onto hairspray, and in one or two cases I went straight through to the milk carton underneath and had to touch it up.



Being me I couldn’t let it lie and gave the model a going over with black and brown pastels to break up the colour. I briefly tried using water with the pastels but made such a mess I had to clean it all off, so I went back with dry.

As it stands this will be a getaway/pursuit vehicle for pulp tabletop games as soon as I get my act together making buildings and other bits and pieces. I'm not sure when that will be though as we're approaching the busy time at work and I'm already working at the speed of a geriatric sleep deprived snail...

[oabee]

I'm already working at the speed of a geriatric sleep deprived snail...

 

I can truly identify, as I am operating at the same speed on my current project   



Excellent work...keep the updates coming!

[Traveler Man]

That's a lovely bit of kit! 

Being another bicycle riding tree-hugging hippy and also generally broke, I am a firm advocate for scratch building from card and anything else that comes to hand.

I would suggest the use of Future/Pledge/whatever-the-heck-they're- calling-it-these-days acrylic floor polish on cardboard, as it soaks in nicely and stiffens the whole material.

[FramFramson]

Ah, British Racing Green...

[Elk101]

Nicely done.

[Andy in Germany]

Okay, I need a little help with this figure...

Betsy Miller is the Leader of my third and currently final league. For various reasons she should have red hair, which is causing me headaches in itself, but also in the colours of he clothes. I try and paint figures with complementary colours on the bottom and top, but so many possible colours clash with the hair, or they vanish next to it. The jacket has been brown and blue and is currently transitioning to green. This then causes more trouble with the sweater/t-shirt underneath which I'd like to be visible but not too obvious.

Finally, I can't get the face to work at all. I simply don't understand how I'm supposed to make those details come out. I've tried washes with dark orange, brown, black, and ink, but they always go muddy as seen above, and the orange made it look like her hair is over her face. The face is from this set (Top row middle) but however I try I can't bring the features out.

If I could work out how to do it, I'd love to make the eyes more detailed and pull out the details on the clothes et c but it doesn't seem to work for me. What am I missing?

[OSHIROmodels]

Can’t help with the figure I’m afraid but the car has turned out excellently 

[Andy in Germany]

Still haven't managed to improve the figure but I tried making a couple of buildings as light relief...

It didn't go according to plan:



Looks like I managed to forget the pretty obvious point that clay tends to shrink when it dries.

I ignored the problem for a while, until I had a day when the family were out and I could make a mess of the place without causing domestic contention, and made a rescue attempt, while trying to bring the other buildings up to speed as well.



Rather then get all ambitious I just filled in the cracks with fresh clay. I also remembered to make a ‘base’ around the building, which is a new experience: model railway types tend to expect buildings to stay put for the foreseeable future, whereas in tabletop games they will be moved about for every new game. The holes in the tower will be for the rungs on a ‘ladder’ in case some hero has a sudden need to climb on the roof.



I managed to sort out the mess and get the models out onto the windowsill to dry before before family members began turning up. Notice that the darker models which are still drying have cuts in the surface to allow the clay to shrink and control the cracking.

To my absolute lack of surprise this did not work. Will have to try a different type of clay next time…

[nandrin]

Is there any specific reason why you used clay as material? There are other ways to make such buildings.

[Andy in Germany]

Mostly because it's cheap and it worked before:



That said, I'm happy to try other methods. What did you have in mind?

[Gallahad]

Wow, very cool build! I don't think I've ever seen somebody do that with cardboard. Thanks for sharing!

[d phipps]

Great looking project! 

[tin shed gamer]

Andy,
Ready mixed tile grout and adhesive. It bonds to card pretty well. It also has the advantages of being able to be sanded and lightly carved.Plus it takes light washes easily rather than needing to be primed and painted.(also you can back fill any cracking with next to no effort.)
Mark

[War In 15MM]

Really like the race car.