Custom modifications: Tips & Resources

[AkulA1996]

Any tips on how to create a good "Blood on the ground" effect on the snow battlescape? Last time I tried i just wasn't happy with it, it just never really looked right. Primarily looking for advice on how to get a decent shape for a pool of blood around a body effect my typical just colour in an area and don't put in any straight lines just doesn't work for me. And no I'm not looking for paints because I wanna wipe it off when I want to change my display to maybe show a peaceful "before the storm" type scene.

[Jason-101]

I'm very experienced in air brush painting on autobody, plastics, and wood products. J5; let me know how air brushing these figures turn out for you. I'm gonna try some myself after the new year. Today, On some of my figures I use a regular permanent marker.

I do have an air brush but I haven't used it on any of my custom figures and builds.

My current process is to wash the figure or parts in warm water and dish soap.
Apparently there is often some residue from the plastic mold that may prevent the paint from adhering correctly.

Once dry. I use a colored primer, usually white or grey.
Using the rattle can for larger surfaces eliminates any chance of visible brush strokes.
For details and smaller surfaces I use acrylic paint.

You could replace the use of a rattle can with an air brush, it should work perfectly.
The airbrush won't give off that smell that rattle cans do.
You'll just have to deal with the noise from the compressor.

When painting the details make sure the acrylic paint has been thinned, you can simply add water.
Most of the time you won't want to use the paint straight from the bottle. Thick paint will burry the details of the figure.

Happy to answer any questions. Keep them coming :)

Might you tell me the ratio of water to paint is good to thin out the paint. ? (2:4) x volume. ? What is your tipical mixture?

[Jason-101]

Any tips on how to create a good "Blood on the ground" effect on the snow battlescape? Last time I tried i just wasn't happy with it, it just never really looked right.

This may be a little more work, but it's effectis pretty realistic. 1. Take a RED CRAYON and shave it into a confetti like texture. 2. Sprinkle the Red Confetti in the areas you want to have the illusion of blood. 3. Take a heat gun and melt it onto the terrain. BOOM!
when removing the dried crayon,. Do it with a small scraper or knife. Tip: don't hold the heat gun to long over the confetti. It may burn up the other part of your diorama. And change colors to the crayon confetti. Good luck.

[jonnyfiyve]

Might you tell me the ratio of water to paint is good to thin out the paint. ? (2:4) x volume. ? What is your tipical mixture?

Thats a really good question. It all depends on what I'm doing.
I usually make sure its a little thicker than water.

In the case of the figure below, I made the paint as runny as water.
I primered white then used a large brush to apply a LOT of very watery paint.

The water caries the paint into the deeper parts of the plastic.
I then use a dry brush to soak up where the paint has pooled too much.

Hope this helps.

[Jason-101]

Helps a lot. Thank you, Master, Jedi, Painter, guy.

[STan94]

The short version is: The Motorbike breakout is a good solution if you are ok with making modifications to the bike frame. I have the bike in front of me right now and I can see that it would be possible to add a larger wheel on the front. However the rear is another story.

I have no ideas on how you would do that front wheel well. Maybe a few angle pieces would do the trick.

Thanks for the tips, although it left me more confused because I'm not very knowledgeable of the names of different bricks or parts of a motorcycle so it's really my bad. It seems like the only way I'm gonna add the big wheels is if I cut off some parts of the motorcycle chassis. I'm gonna buy that motorcycle breakout soon and do my own experimenting.

[Jason-101]

The short version is: The Motorbike breakout is a good solution if you are ok with making modifications to the bike frame. I have the bike in front of me right now and I can see that it would be possible to add a larger wheel on the front. However the rear is another story.

I have no ideas on how you would do that front wheel well. Maybe a few angle pieces would do the trick.

Thanks for the tips, although it left me more confused because I'm not very knowledgeable of the names of different bricks or parts of a motorcycle so it's really my bad. It seems like the only way I'm gonna add the big wheels is if I cut off some parts of the motorcycle chassis. I'm gonna buy that motorcycle breakout soon and do my own experimenting.

That what I did brah. Have fun.

[jonnyfiyve]

Thanks for the tips, although it left me more confused because I'm not very knowledgeable of the names of different bricks or parts of a motorcycle so it's really my bad. It seems like the only way I'm gonna add the big wheels is if I cut off some parts of the motorcycle chassis. I'm gonna buy that motorcycle breakout soon and do my own experimenting.

I'm not sure of the names I used for the parts so it might be totally normal that you didn't recongnize them.
Parts don't have names they have part numbers. Which I don't really know. I suppose I could look them up in the instruction books.

For your particular build. You could probably use what I called a double angle peg.
Which is basically a solid bent pipe. Its shaped like the letter Z

You can use two of those to make your front forks wider.
The fork is the part of the bike that holds the wheel (in case you did not know or its called something else where you live)

As for the back, I think the only way to use that bike frame is to cut the end of it.
For both front and back you will need to find some larger wheels.

Finding the wheels will probably be the most difficult part (assuming you stay with MB parts). You need to find a large wheel that has a hole on both sides of it. If you don't then you will have to drill the hole yourself.

One thing to keep in mind about MB wheels is that even if you do find a wheel (rim) with holes on both sides, the distance from the inner to outer rim on each side tends to be slightly different.

I hope this clarified a few things rather than adding to the confusion ;p

Can't wait to see your build. Good luck.

[jonnyfiyve]

Helps a lot. Thank you, Master, Jedi, Painter, guy.

Not sure I've reached that status yet. I'm still a painter noob.

[STan94]

Can't wait to see your build. Good luck.

Thanks bro, I'm working on the Judge Dredd figure first, it's going to have a lot of intricate details. It should be a fun sculpt, I'll once again use my trusty Super Sculpey to do the head and shoulder plates.