Here’s the second part of my video series in which I finish my mech model, paint it up and add a diorama base. I’ve been watching quite a lot of diorama videos on YouTube recently and I’ve become very struck by the people who do this kind of thing cos there’s some amazing stuff out there. So in this video I add some clear resin to the base to serve as some water and I also add some vegetation and various other bits to create, hopefully, a realistic looking diorama scene.
Scout Mech Build
Following on from my previous mech build, I became a little obsessed with robots (not that I wasn’t already) and launched straight into my next build, this time of a scout type robot. I’m imagining this one is designed for hunting targets in bogs and marshes. In this video I construct the model. I’ll be painting it and sorting out a diorama base in the next part.
I also got hold of some inspiration from these two artists, both of whom are amazing.
Scratchbuilding a Mech Part 2 – painting, base and lights
I’ve finished my mech build. In this second and final part of the video series I paint the model, add some detail to the base and add some LED lights. I’ve gotta say I really enjoyed doing this and am already thinking about ideas for another robot build. I’ve also been watching diorama building videos on YouTube and want to include some of those techniques in the build.
Just to note that I’ve not made this video live on Youtube at the time of posting it here. I’m just curious as to whether anyone actually looks at my blog 😉
I also took a load of pics so here’s a selection.
Scratchbuilding a Mech Part 1
Here’s the first part of mech building series which looks at building the piece. The next part will cover painting.
Mech Painting
I’ve now finished my scratch build mech and am now moving on to paint.
It’s amazing how much a layer of undercoat really pulls all the disparate pieces together.
Here’s the first painted piece. I’m trying to strike the right balance of weathering – I want it to look used but not totally beaten up.
Scratchbuild Mech
This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, so I started collecting parts to use in this some time ago. I’m going to be putting together a full video on building this so I won’t go into it in too much detail. The sculpture is largely made from resin casts of things like lighters, yoghurt pots and deodorant bottles.
1950s-esque Robot
Here’s a video of a 1950s-esque robot that I made recently. This is actually a cast of my bioshock mask which went abit wrong, but had a really nice texture to it that looks a little like rusted and pitted metal. So I used it to create this sculpture.
Making a Retro Sci-fi Ray Gun
This is a ray gun that I made out of some cast resin pieces. It was one of those occasions where a few bits and pieces made for different projects just happen to fit together perfectly and just beg to be made into something. I’ve built up abit of a library of cast bits and pieces now so I’m increasingly finding myself using them to build projects.
David ‘Zeb’ Cook
This might not mean much to you if you’re not a nerd like me, however it looks like one of my Lady of Pain sculptures has made it all the way to David ‘Zeb’ Cook, the lead designer of the Dungeons & Dragons Planescape setting. He tweeted the below and also posted on facebook. I made a bunch of these for ‘DND Collecting‘ on twitter a while back and he said he intended to try to get one to him and it looks like he succeeded.
I was able to exchange a few words with him on facebook and I took the opportunity to ask him whether the original Lady of Pain logo was a physical model or some digital art as it’s difficult to tell just by looking at it. It looks like a physical model and I’m not sure how likely it would be to be digital art given that the books were originally published in the early 90s.
He said; ‘The original was line art by Dana Knutson when he was creating faction symbol designs. Seeing it, I created the Lady of Pain to match the image and from there we decided she should be the logo. I’m pretty sure that Robh Ruppel’s wife sculpted her to use for the box logo. Not 100% on that, but Robh would know‘.
So not confirmation one way or the other exactly, but interesting nonetheless. It was nice to be able to speak to one of the people who created one of the most iconic D&D settings ever made. Aside from the various Lady of Pain sculptures that I’ve made over the years, it’s no coincidence that the logo for my website uses the Exocet font – that’s the font used extensively in the Planescape setting. So it had a major impact on me. Even the website name ‘The Dark Power’ is from a D&D game, specifically referencing The Dark Powers that rule the Ravenloft campaign setting. So D&D had a major influence on me growing up and it’s really nice to have some contact with one of the people responsible for developing it. Kinda brings things full circle somehow.
Edit – Robh Ruppel subsequently confirmed that his wife Cindy sculpted the face, the blades were created by ‘the guys in mapping’ (maybe a separate department?) and he gave it a patina. So it was an actual sculpture at one point which is really interesting. I wonder where it ended up? 😉
Steampunks in Space 2018
I recently attended Steampunks in Space, an event held in the National Space Center in Leicester. I’ve attended several times previously, but it’s always really nice to be able exhibit my models, sculptures, costumes pieces and props. Here’s a video and some pics.
