Ditto - First painted models in months (3 new copies added)

[fergal]

Hey folks, I lost my painting mojo in June and I literally haven't finished a model since then.  Had a few false starts, but nothing finished.  Then Fairoaks started to send me some awesome pics of stuff he'd finished, about a model a day, so it inspired me to get back to it.

Ditto is perhaps one of the two models that started Crossover Miniatures.  Flashback was my favorite comic book villain for some reason.  I can't tell you why, he was only in few issues and he's not extremely powerful by any means.  I guess I like the style and he started my fascination with multiple-man type supers.  

Here's my multiple-man, Ditto.  I'm only at the block painting stage, but the fact that I'm painting again is so significant to me that I wanted to get him out there.  Tomorrow I gloss coat him, perhaps the next few days will see them washed, dullcoted, and based.



So, I'm telling my wife about the multiple guy 'Ditto' and she's not really impressed.  She's English and I guess growing up, they didn't have dittos.  Help me out English (and other) board members.  When I was a kid in school around 1980-1985, my school didn't have a copy machine yet, but had a Spirit Duplicator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator) and we called the purple and white sheet it produced, and we were handed for worksheets, a ditto.  What'd you call them in the UK?  Or whatever county you are from?

More pics of the finished product to come!

[von Lucky]

Great start painting - glad you're back in it and enjoying it.

I remember those machines, having to rip off the sides. Can't help you with a name though as I was too young.

[Puuka]

That article you linked says they were called Banda machines in the UK. However, they did stop getting used by the 70's. It may just be an issue of lack of exposure. Its like trying explaining cassette tapes to a 9 year old in this digital age. I'm in my 40's and have only seen one and got to use it when I took shop class. Xerox copiers were being used by this point in offices.

[fairoaks024]

Excellent work rusty, glad to have been some small part in the painting engine

We had one of those machines at school in the UK but they called it a mimeograph. Not
Really much of a name to base a superhero on, even by my standards!
Ditto works much better and is a cool name for a duplicating hero.

Regards

Jim

[fergal]

Hmmm...antique collecting copier repair man with delusions of grandeur gets caught in a lightning storm while working on a Xerox machine, the Lightning gets closer and closer, until...

[leegwonfu]

Shades of high school! I totally remember the "dittos". I graduated in '84, and all of my class hand-outs and tests were made on those machines. They always had an odd smell to them - especially when they were fresh off of the machine!

PS. I naturally love the name!

[fergal]

Thanks leegwanfu

Perhaps they went out of general use in the seventies, but it was still the only source of worksheets in my tiny school to at least '85.

I had even thought of painting each duplicate in a slightly lighter shade of purple than the last?  But then that sounded like too much work.

I just finished basing them about 30 minutes ago, I'll post some quick pics later tonight, after filing taxes

[fergal]

Here are the boys finished.  Seeing them at this magnification, I can see my dullcote is not up to the job in my 55 degree basement.  I'll have to give them another coat when it warms up a bit.

Overall, I'm pretty psyched about how they turned out.  Now to paint three more copies/dittos

[fairoaks024]

Very cool!
I like your idea of fading purple tones, on the next three how about lightening fading the purple areas only?

Regards

Jim

[Legionnaire]

Hey folks, I lost my painting mojo in June and I literally haven't finished a model since then.  Had a few false starts, but nothing finished.  Then Fairoaks started to send me some awesome pics of stuff he'd finished, about a model a day, so it inspired me to get back to it.

Ditto is perhaps one of the two models that started Crossover Miniatures.  Flashback was my favorite comic book villain for some reason.  I can't tell you why, he was only in few issues and he's not extremely powerful by any means.  I guess I like the style and he started my fascination with multiple-man type supers.  

Here's my multiple-man, Ditto.  I'm only at the block painting stage, but the fact that I'm painting again is so significant to me that I wanted to get him out there.  Tomorrow I gloss coat him, perhaps the next few days will see them washed, dullcoted, and based.



So, I'm telling my wife about the multiple guy 'Ditto' and she's not really impressed.  She's English and I guess growing up, they didn't have dittos.  Help me out English (and other) board members.  When I was a kid in school around 1980-1985, my school didn't have a copy machine yet, but had a Spirit Duplicator (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator) and we called the purple and white sheet it produced, and we were handed for worksheets, a ditto.  What'd you call them in the UK?  Or whatever county you are from?

More pics of the finished product to come!

Great that you are getting your painting mojo back again!! I remember those machines with purple and white sheet from school in Sweden, used to have a specific smell and you had to hand crank the copies! Can't remember the name though.

[Argonor]

In Denmark, the machine was simply called spirit duplicator (sprit-duplikator), and the 'product' duplicates (duplikater) or simply copies.

 AB Lennartsfors mekaniska verkstad in Sweden produced a model called the 'Plentograf'

Wiki has a short article on the matter:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator

[DS615]

I had even thought of painting each duplicate in a slightly lighter shade of purple than the last?  But then that sounded like too much work.

I was going to suggest that, it would be totally worth it!
Now, if you could figure a way to give them that very distinctive smell...
 

[fergal]

Finished these guys a while ago but got busy and haven't posted them.

Here is Ditto and 5 copies to back him up. They start to loose a bit of power/color with each now copy.



I think I like them.  Something deep down in me prefers uniformity, but I liked this concept enough to step outside my comfort zone

[Vanvlak]

Very nice, I like the fading scheme.   

[von Lucky]

Together like that I'm hearing "poof, poof, poof" as each new copy is made. Loving it.