Resin plinths

Hi fellow painters and hobbyists!

I needed some new plinths and I decided to pick up some resin ones from Model Display Products. I usually use wooden plinths but the price and nice looks won me over to try them out!

The plinths are cast in the white/creme colored resin. There is a sticker on the packages warning buyers of the potential damage resin can do to your health. It is important to wear gloves, protective goggles, and more importantly a respirator mask when sanding, drilling and cutting resin products.

The plinths are textured as if they are wooden plinths so if you are a good painter, you can make them look like actual wooden plinths. If you are not that confident about your painting skills, a simple gloss, satin or matte black coat will get a long way.

So don't these resin plinths have any downsides? Then why are people still buying wooden plinths? Well, they do. First and most obvious is that you need to paint them yourself. Some people would also see the lack of individuality as a downside. For me, the downside is the fact that they need some work before you can use them as a plinth for your projects. They sometimes have airbubbles that need to be filled and sanded down, occasionally they bottom needs to be sanded flush, and you need to prime and paint them.

Conclusion:
All and all I think they are very good for what you have to pay for them. I do think it would be better if the foot would be sanded a little better after casting, but other than that, I think I will enjoy using resin plinths.

What kind of plinths do you use and why? Feel free to discuss it in the comment section.

Until next time!

SMC'17 experiences and... LOOT!

Hello fellow painters, builders, and other hobbyists,

In this article, I wanted to share my experiences at the Scale Model Challenge 2017. I could only attend one day so I didn't enter into the competition. I arrived around 10AM when the convention just opened its doors, but it was already very crowded with people! There were 138 exhibitors divided over 122 stands and 575 people from 40 different countries participating in the contest with 1987 entries!

I quickly entered the contest area to get a peek of what people had entered but there were already so many people there that I only managed to get a couple of photos. (you can see them in my experimental slideshow, frames 2 and 29 are my favorite!)

It was a lot of fun to meet some of my old friends and to create new ones. I also met up with some people that I know from facebook but who I have never had the pleasure to meet in person.

At the stand of Mr. Lee's mini's, where I spent a lot of my time, I found my friends Dennis, Kyle, and Kris. I also met Fancagne, Drew, and Norm. I recently won a model from Kaha miniatures, Fancagne's model company that I could pick up at their stand. This is where I picked up my first piece of SMC loot... the Megaprimatipus Kong!

Kong! Based on the recent movie.

My friend Dennis from Savageforged Mini's also had a 75mm model that I wanted! C-48 Roy is a post-apoc styled android or cyborg. I love cyberpunk almost as much as I love orcs, so this was a must-have for me!

Also at this stand, there was a demo area where renowned painters like Roman Lappat, Roman Gruba and Drew Palies demonstrated their painting techniques and skills. I attended to Roman's demonstration on how to paint eyes and skin on a 1/10 ogre bust. For me, it was very interesting to see his method of painting. I will be using what I've seen on future projects for sure!

Me watching Roman explain how to paint eyes

My friend Kris from Broken Toad also had a lot of goodness for sale. Next to his awesome brushes he also brought his busts to the scale model challenge. I've had his "Rage" bust on my radar for a while, but only now learned that it represents a character from the world of Guildball.

"Rage" by Broken Toad, a Guildball character

Finally, I brought some of my busts to find them a good plinth. I've heard many people speaking very positively about Dino Pivato's plinths. Now I must say that I do find them a little pricey at between €15 and €20 per plinth, but they do look very nice and Dino does try his best to find the perfect match for your project.

That pretty much sums up my day with all my experiences at the Scale Model Challenge. I hope you enjoyed reading this little article.

QUESTION:
What do you think about the slideshows? Do you like them? Do you have any suggestions on how to improve them? Please leave your answers in the comments!

Thank you for reading and I will see you next time!

Scale Model Challenge 2017

Hi guys and girls!

I will be visiting the Scale Model Challenge 2017 this Sunday, October 22nd, 2017! I'm hoping to meet up with friends, make new ones, and to bring back some loot, so stay tuned!

I hope to see you there! 

Sneak-peak, Crashed Star Destroyer

Hey everybody!

Sorry for not posting anything in a while but I didn't have much to post about lately.

I am working on a project, a crashed Imperial Star Destroyer in either a desert or a snowy glacier.
I was halfway working on the model when I found a model that was far superior in details so I ordered a new model halfway the project.

I won't leave you all hanging, I will share some pictures of the old project.

That's all I can tell and show you all about this now. I guess you can kind of see this as a sneak preview of an upcoming article.

Hope you don't mind the short article.

Cya next time! Happy painting! 

How to turn a picture frame into a display plinth

Hello and welcome if you are new and welcome back if you are a regular reader! 😊

Today I will show you how to create a very simple and very cheap display plinth for scale model tanks (Example 1), airplanes ships or dioramas. You could even turn it into a squad display (Example 2) if you are into wargamers.

The very long list of requirements for this is:
A dollar store beveled picture frame.
That's it.

10*15cm beveled picture frame 

For this specific display, I picked a 10cm x 15cm frame, but you can pick whatever fits your project.

So first remove the back of the frame and the glass that is supposed to cover your picture.

removing the back of the frame

Get rid of the stand and any other bits they might have added to hang it on your wall or anything.

Place the back of the picture frame in front of the frame like shown in the picture.

I used a sturdy sculpting tool to remove the metal bits

Now place your model(s) on it and start planning how to build your base. Thus could be an ocean, beach, landings trip, a simple road or a more elaborate scene. Whatever you want. If you want, you can paint the whole thing in a uniform color to get a better idea of how it will eventually look. 

Final result!

Example 1

Example 2

I hope you found this article helpful! What do you use for plinths? Please share any tips or questions you might have in the comments!

Good luck and happy painting!

Bandai Star Wars 1/72 X- Wing Starfighter

Hi guys and girls,

I'm sorry my articles are not as frequent as they used to be. I just had a lot of stuff going on in my life (moving house and even worse, having to move my hobby stuff!!) that took a lot of my spare time that I would otherwise had used to write this.

The box art looks very cool! 

Acquiring this model kit can be tricky. Officially, Bandai can only sell this in Japan. So if you want to buy this you need to turn to Ebay, Amazon or a so called proxy buying service. The original price is 2.592 Yen (about $23) but this might get up to near $40 for some online retailers.

To me, Bandai was best known for their Gundam kits. These rather large, detailed robot kits usually have loads of moving parts like arms, legs, torso's and head. With this in mind I expected a lot from this kit. I was not disappointed!

Inside the box are four plastic bags containing sprue's, decal- and sticker sheets. First impressions are really good! The detail on the model looks crisp and to the naked eye looks just like in the movies!

As you can see they got multiple colors on one sprue.
White, red, transparent and transparent red.
This package also included the sticker sheet.

Hull parts, details and pilot parts.

Engine- and gunparts.

Wing parts.

The decal sheet

The base and stand of the model.
It comes with 2 parts.
One of them representing the 'thermal exhaust
port' leading to the Deathstar's reactor core.

The whole model is snap-fit so no glue is required. The tools Bandai recommends are clippers and a hobby knife, although I would add some small files and fine sanding paper to that list. No glue is required!

Do keep in mind though, this model is made for the Japanese market. This means that the instructions are also in Japanese. Luckily the pictures explain everything clearly, but you might want to double check some actions before cutting or forcing two parts together.

Clear steps to follow

The model is an absolute dream to put together! I had loads of fun and it was an 'easy' build for me. I ended up having some trouble painting the model though. I did wash the model (something I rarely have to do with plastics) but the paint and primer kept rubbing off. Also masking tape from Tamiya, generally known to be one of the best masking tapes out there, pulled the primer and paint right off! That is when I decided to use the decals instead... And they have decals for everything!!!

Stickers for the little side panels in the cockpit

The whole kit comes with tons of options! You can pose the X-Wing in a flying position or in a landed position. With the ton of extra bits (and some of your own) you would be able to make a diorama of it undergoing maintenance or something. It comes with one seated and one standing rebel pilot and with an R2 and R5 astromech droid.

Check out the cute little R5 droid!

If you want to paint this kit, I suggest painting some parts before assembling the model. For example, if you'd like for the astromech unit to be removable (yes you can switch the two out if you don't glue them in) you should paint them before placing them into the hull. (or you can use the decals they provided. TINY DECALS!!) Same goes for the pilot and the cockpit.

Painted rebel pilot.

Pilot placed inside the cockpit.

For the metallics (cockpit, engines, mechanical parts on the wings) I used AK-Interactive's X-TREME Metal paint. Earlier tests have proven that this paint is supposed to be very durable. Still, I was able to peal it clean off when using masking tape. It might have something to do with the type of plastic, so handle with care!

The rest of the model was primed with Vallejo airbrush black and light grey primer. This usually gives me great result but the paint stayed very fragile! I applied several coats and let them dry for 24 hours before applying the next layer. It might have something to do with the type of plastic.

I then continued to paint the hull with Vallejo offwhite. I applied thin coats and tried to make the center of the panels more opaque and the edges (near the panel lines) more transparent, showing some of the grey primer underneath.

The hull painted white.

After applying the white paint, I applied several thin layers of gloss varnish to protect the paint and prepare the model for the decals.

I loosely assembled the model .

At first my plan was to manually scratch up the decals to create realistic weathering but seeing how easy the paint came off during the painting process I chose for a different method. I sponged on white paint matching the original basecoat so the markings would appear to be worn and damaged.

After applying and weathering the decals I proceeded with the details on the rest of the model. I did a pin wash to bring out the panel lines and details using brown enamel wash by AMMO and I cleaned up using a cotton swap.

I used black pigment powder, engine grime, engine oil and fuel stains from AMMO to weather the engines.

I used a sponge with rust colored pigments to create streaks

After sealing all the progress so far I created the final chips, scratches and cracks by freehanding them all over the model. This was a lot of work but a lot of fun to do. You can also create some paint chips using your sponge by lighting dabbing your sponge against the surface you want to be weathered. This gives a more random effect but can also be messier. For the chips I used a dark brown paint by AMMO.

Freehanded chips on the wing and engine.

The final result is something I was quite proud of! I really enjoyed building and painting this model and I am more then sure this is not my last Bandai Star Wars kit. I still have the TIE Fighter, Y-Wing and maybe even the Millennium Falcon. The kits are super detailed and you can do all sorts of cool stuff with it like creating a crashed fighter or implement lighting effects with LED's and fiber glass.

The finished result

I really hope you liked this review and walkthrough of my experiences with this kit. If you liked it and would like to see more feel free to follow this blog using this link or to leave a comment down below.

What are your thoughts about the kit? Do you like it enough to try and get one or do you prefer a different brand?

As always thank you for reading and don't lick your brushes!