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Mimetic Gloss
INDEX - ARTICLES
BINKY'S
BEGINNER CRAFT/HOBBY MATERIAL GUIDE
This material is presented only as advice to other
enthusiasts. None of the material presented here is meant to infringe on
the copyright of any of the respective companies named or mentioned below, but
solely as commentary on my individual experience with their products.
YMMV. Here are some thoughts on the
following subjects:
Pictorials:
TOOLS
Most of the tools I use I buy just because I need
them for a specific job--things like router bits, epoxy putty, varnishes and
paints, fabrics, threads, etc. But there are some tools that I really need
to keep handy at all times: sandpaper in grits from 100 to 500, metal files,
epoxy glue, super glue, clamps, cheap brushes, fine brushes, plastic mixing
cups, sharp scissors, needles, and tape. Here is a picture of some of
these smaller items:
Items with an asterisk (*) link to a larger picture
of that item.
*pin vise: a single or double-ended vise that holds pin-like bits such as drill
bits and nails. The double-ended version holds a greater variety of
different-diameter bits. Pin vises are useful for hand-drilling small
holes.
*nail-nailer: a tool for pushing small tacks and brads (as in those used in
wood-ship building) into soft material like woods. The nailer
consists of a tube that slides over a solid rod. You place the nail inside
the tip of the tube, position it, then push the nailer. The tube holds the
nail straight while the internal rod pushes or "hammers" it into the
wood.
*calipers: Useful for measuring or comparing the dimensions of 2 or more
objects.
Other tools I use extensively include:
X-ACTO KNIVES: These come in a variety of sizes but
I find I only use the standard #11 blade. Extremely sharp so be careful when
using. I have sliced open pretty much all my fingers by now, being
careless while using an X-Acto.
DREMEL MOTO-TOOL: An indispensable tool for a hobbyist is the Dremel
Moto-tool. If you can't get the full-blown MultiPro kit, I'd recommend
getting the cordless 7.2 volt or at the very least the Mini-Mite 4.8 volt.
In fact, if you're buying one solely for hobbying miniatures, the cordless ones
are easier to use because their lowest setting isn't as high as the MultiPro's
lowest setting, and this is one tool where speed can kill (or at least maim). If you go with a
MultiPro, you'll probably need the Flex-Shaft attachment, which improves
maneuverability and control. The bits can be expensive
but a lot of them are specialized to the material you're working with, so you
don't necessarily need to buy a $7.00 carbide tipped bit to shape a piece of
wood when a regular $2.00 sanding drum or carving bit will do. Probably
the most useful and versatile bits to me are the sanding drums and cutting
wheels. Drilling is pretty difficult with a Dremel, unless you invest in a
small vise that can hold your piece steady while you work it--a good vise is
handy to have around, regardless. When working
with the Dremel, make sure to wear eye protection. Cutting wheels are
especially prone to breaking and flying--very hazardous--but little pieces and
dust from the piece you're working inevitably fly through the air when Dremeling
and can do significant damage, too. As with any power tool, never force
the tool into your part. Doing so will wear the tool prematurely, as well
as increase the possibility of "bucking."
AIRBRUSH w/ COMPRESSOR: Hand painting with a brush
is fine and is still the only way to go when doing detailing, but if you want
some really nice, smooth finishes on large surfaces or are painting multiple
colors and/or blending shades, you might want to get an
airbrush instead of paying $2 for a single can of spray paint. I have used the
same airbrush for over 14 years now, my trusty Badger 150 double-action brush
with F, M, and L heads ($60 when I bought it, and the price hasn't gone up
significantly). It comes apart so I can clean it and maintain it
myself. Other name brands for airbrushes are Paasche and Aztek.
Airbrushes come in "single-action" and "double-action"
models. The difference is that the double-action brushes have a trigger
that lets you control paint flow on the fly, while the single-action has to be
adjusted with a screw. Cheap single-action brushes (which I don't
recommend) can be had for as little as $15 from companies such as Testor's. To use your brush, you'll need
an air supply which can be as simple as a spare tire you fill with air or as
complex as a full-blown, $1000+ specialized compressor that can run a dozen
brushes at a time, with moisture traps, electronic pressure gauge/controller,
and all the other bells and whistles imaginable. Many beginners start with
the canned air ($7-$10 for a large can) and the thin hose/adapter ($5). If
you find you like airbrushing, you'll learn that this is not the most
cost-effective way to paint. Those cans don't last very long and are
inconsistent with their pressure, so in the long run you'll probably want to get
yourself an electric compressor. You can adapt one of those tire air
compressors from the hardware store for $30 + cost of adapting the hose and
adding a pressure regulator (since as is, those tire air compressors are just
too powerful and inconsistent), or
there are simple compressors that handle just one brush in the $90-$125 range,
usually with a manual pressure controller. A gauge, more sophisticated
pressure controller and a moisture trap are
good accessories for this machine, usually for $30-$50 more.
CLICK
HERE FOR A PICTORIAL ON ADDING A PRESSURE REGULATOR TO AN AIR COMPRESSOR.
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CHOOSING
THE RIGHT PAINT FOR ME
Which paint to use (acrylic versus enamel) and how I apply it depends a lot
on the material and what effect I'm going for. Some materials simply won't
take a specific kind of paint. Generally, wood, fabric, clay--porous materials almost
always require acrylic cause it flexes and can cover porous surfaces, while
enamels are best for hard, non-flexing, non-porous materials like hard plastic
or metal. There are primers available for
each kind of paint that, depending on application, you might want to prep the
surface with prior to the paint job. I've only recently gotten
into painting softer plastics and latexes that many action figures are made out of (the
rubbery latex of a 12" GI Joe head for example), and usually just stick
with acrylics: Pactra, Model Master Acryl, Tamiya, Polly Scale, even the huge
bottles at craft stores like Liquitex. The difference between these
various lines? Each tends to focus on
one general category, like military (Model Master), Pactra (auto), etc., so
naturally you buy the color you need or mix it using bases and tints. I
haven't noticed THAT big a difference from one line to another in terms of
workability, a lot of that depends a lot on how well the company seals the jars,
but of course in general the hobby specialist paints use finer dyes and
generally do better than the craft paints on detail work. I
have noticed that Liquitex and similarly cheaply priced paints offer fewer options in finish (gloss, semi-, flat);
most are just flat. One downside of latex/acrylic paint is that
it's sometimes difficult to get a nice consistency to your finish. When working with acrylic backgrounds (like skin),
I prefer washes, just making sure each wash is thoroughly dry so I don't pick it
up when I apply my second/third/fourth coat. For foreground/details, a
regular coat thinly applied is adequate. CLICK HERE
FOR A PICTORIAL ON PAINTING FIGURINE HEADS WITH ACRYLIC WASHES.
OTOH, I do a lot of airbrushing and acrylics can be
a real pain to use because since they dry through evaporation, the air that
carries the paint actually speeds the drying and clogs up the airbrush after
just a few strokes. The solution to this problem is to regulate your air
pressure to as low a pressure as possible, say, 20 PSI. Or, you can try
watering the paint down a lot in which case it easily becomes
too weak to cover, so getting the right consistency usually takes some adjusting
(especially since the acrylic starts to clog up your brush the second you stop
using it--very frustrating, unless you keep a vat of thinner/cleaner or water at
your workstation that you can simply dunk your airbrush tip in between uses). Whenever possible,
I use enamels for airbrushing (Model Master enamels, the classic Testor 1/4 oz
paints work fine, too, thin them with enamel thinner). I used to do mostly static plastic and the
occasional die-cast metal models, and enamels are still best for these kinds of
jobs. You may notice that enamels take quite a bit longer time to dry than
latex or acrylic paint. This is because most enamel paints are oil-based
and don't work through evaporation like water-based acrylics, but oxidation of
the oil that the pigment is suspended in. In fact, some porous materials such as
latex and claylike compounds (like Sculpey) can absorb the oil, making it
virtually impossible for those surfaces to take enamel paint at all because they
never dry. Use acrylic for these materials. Dry-brushing is a very useful
technique to develop with either acrylic or enamel. This is when you pick
up some paint on your brush then wipe off most of it on a piece of paper or
non-lint cloth, then paint your surface with just the bare amount of paint--very
good for a weathering effect. CLICK
HERE FOR A PICTORIAL ON ADDING A PRESSURE REGULATOR TO AN AIR COMPRESSOR.
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SCULPTING
USING SCULPEY
What the heck is Sculpey? It's a sculpting clay that stays soft until you bake it in an oven.
After that, you can sand it, carve it, drill it, etc. etc. It comes in 3
different lines: Sculpey, Super Sculpey, and Sculpey III. Sculpey is a
greyish clay that's good for economical work and larger pieces. Super
Sculpey is flesh/pinkish in color and is a natural for doing headsculpting.
Sculpey III comes in a wide variety of colors that you can mix and blend
together to create your own custom color. I work mostly with Super Sculpey.
It accepts additional pieces well and is kind of springy in
feel. Thus, shaping it mainly involves adding clay in excess and removing
it to get to the desired shape. You can't do much beyond basic shapes with just your fingers, so the first thing
I learned the first time I used it (to make a headsculpt) was I needed some shaping tools. I used a variety of things,
from aluminum tube to rounded rods, but the very best tool I found was one I
picked up by accident: a large carpet needle with a fairly large eye.
The eye works very well as a scraper/knife. Its end is flat and
blunt. Of course, there's the pointy end, and the shaft "rubs"
too. A very versatile tool. After you get your sculpture in decent
shape, you bake the Sculpey in your oven. FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS ON THE
BOX! When it comes out of the oven, you may be tempted to put it back in
because it can come out still a little soft--I know I was! However, this
softness is normal. Once it cools, it becomes very hard and strong.
Overbaking Sculpey will result in it becoming brittle and very fragile, so don't
do it! Wait for it to cool before sanding, drilling, cutting, carving,
etc. An alternative to baking Sculpey to cure it is to boil it in hot
water. This is one way around curing Sculpey applied to an existing object that
would otherwise melt in a hot oven. However, I would still recommend finishing
the cure by giving the boiled piece a few minutes in the oven after the base
object is removed. You can finish it with acrylic paint. I've also used Sculpey
pieces as originals for both latex and RTV silicone rubber molds with no
problem--just don't let it get too wet, since it is a porous compound, or seal it
with a primer or lacquer first. CLICK
HERE FOR A HEADSCULPTS PROJECT PAGE INCORPORATING THE USE OF SUPER SCULPEY.
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MAKING
MOLDS: LATEX RUBBER VS RTV SILICONE
Because of price considerations, my first few molds
were made using a latex
mold-maker (ETI Mold Builder). The advantages of latex molds is that they
are much less expensive than RTV molds and are fairly easy to use.
Basically, you slowly build up a mold by painting on the molding liquid directly
over your original with a paintbrush, waiting for that layer to dry, then
painting on another layer directly on top of the last one. With the
mold-maker, you also slowly build up a lip around your pattern from which you
will suspend the mold while you cast with it.
You paint on 12-15 layers of the stuff, wait 24 hours after the last layer, then just peel the
cured mold off, inverting it as you do so. Dusting both the original
before you start the mold and the finished mold after it's cured make it easier
to demold. When you're ready to cast, you make a cardboard collar for your
mold and suspend it over a container. Then you pour your casting material
into it.
You demold the same way you demolded the original, by peeling the mold off,
inverting it as you do so. The disadvantages of latex molds are that they are labor and
time intensive, and perhaps more importantly, that they distort very easily when
you pour casting material in them without some kind of support to help the mold
keep its shape. There are a lot of methods customizers have come up with
to prevent this, the easiest probably being to place the mold in a container and
fill the container (not the mold) with another material, such as sand. I
have used plaster-of-Paris supports, although I'm not sure if the moisture from
the plaster adversely affects the latex. Another brand of brush-on
(non-latex) mold maker is Smooth-On (http://www.smooth-on.com/)
and they actually recommend you use plaster for supports. Plaster is somewhat
difficult to use, and takes another 24 hours to cure before you can touch
it. If you find yourself taking this much trouble just to use a latex
mold, it might be time to try something more sophisticated, if expensive: RTV
(room temperature vulcanizing) silicone rubber molds. Unlike latex, you do
not need to make a support system since this is itself a pour-mold, meaning you
make the mold by pouring the compound in a container holding your original
piece. You can make one or two or even multiple part molds with RTV silicone rubber
molds. The main drawbacks of RTV silicone molds is the price, and that
some are fairly difficult to use. Like some resin compounds, some RTV kits
require a delicate mixing ratio that you can only properly do with very sensitive
scales such as those used in the post office. In addition,
because these are RTV kits, atmosphere conditions that are difficult to control
may affect your mold. Humidity is especially important. As much as
possible, try to follow the directions that come with your kit concerning the
best conditions under which to make your mold. From my own experience, I
would recommend Micro-Mark's one-to-one 24-hour or 4-hour cure RTV Silicone Mold
Rubber or Smooth-On's Oomoo 30. Both are extremely easy to use and the
long pot life (from 30 to 7 minutes) means you can take
your time using the kit. I have yet to get unsatisfactory results with
either, and
they're not as expensive as some of the other name-brand kits. For a complete
description of how I make 2-part molds using Micro-Mark's RTV Rubber Mold kit,
CLICK
HERE.
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CASTING
WITH ALUMILITE AND SIMILAR RESIN MATERIALS
Alumilite is a 50/50 resin "super
plastic" with a low viscosity and 3 minute set up time, meaning you can
demold about 5 minutes after pouring. There are other kinds of resin
casting material, of course, one of the more common kinds being the polyurethane
resin that paperweights, fly-in-your-icecube props, certificate/plaque
treatments, etc. are made of. But since other resins work differently and
have different mixing ratios, some very difficult to measure without the use of
precise scales, Alumilite is a good casting material for the beginning
customizer to try. The Alumilite kit comes
in either black or white, meaning the end product turns up either black or
white, so be sure you pick up the right kit for your needs. The process of
using this resin in casting using a mold is very simple: you mix equal parts of
the 2-part compound in a container, then pour it into your mold. Wait for
the compound to set up (3 minutes), then demold. The first time I used Alumilite, I under-mixed the 2 parts, resulting in un-catalyzed
goo that trashed the mold I had so painstakingly made prior. This first
mistake taught me a couple valuable lessons: first, mix the
Alumilite for at least 45 seconds before pouring, and second, the weight of
the Alumilite (though less than a comparable volume of poly resin), is still
heavy enough to distort weak or thin molds, so plan your mold accordingly. I have also tried a similar
product which might be less expensive than Alumilite (depending on what kind of
deal you can get for the Alumilite), Micro-Mark's C-300 Casting Resin. Like
the name-brand Alumilite, it is a one-to-one resin compound that cures to a hard
white plastic in 3 minutes. In comparing the two brands, I prefer
Micro-Mark's because it seems a bit easier and more forgiving when it comes to
mixing the two parts (30 seconds minimum compared to Alumilite's 45). It
also has a lower viscosity, meaning any air bubbles you pour have an easier time
of escaping through air vents, resulting in less air bubbles in the cast.
Micro-Mark also offers a C-600 Casting Resin, which has a 7-minute pot life and
a 30-minute cure time. If you aren't mass producing an object and time is
not as important, this may be the way to go to give yourself more time to mix
thoroughly--probably the most important step in working with these "super
plastics." I have tried the C-600 and generally got good results with
it, though I think I got so used to the C-300 that it took me a while to adjust
to the differences. The first few casts I made with the longer-cure C-600
were incomplete because the longer cure time enabled more of the air bubbles to
rise to the top and escape, compared to the same volume of C-300. It took
me a couple tries to adjust to the fact that I had to re-top it off at least
once after the initial pour in order to get a complete cast. As for
finishing these resins, after they cure, they can be drilled, sawed, carved,
sanded, cut, etc. Like any other
plastic, they accept some paint better than others. I have had no problems
using latex paint on Alumilite, though I don't see why enamel wouldn't work as
well.
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(c) 2005 B. Nebab.