All Your Base

Tuesday, near midnight)  Capillary action, that's it.  That's the phrase I've been trying to recall all day.  Bondene is an MEK-based glue, methyl ethyl ketone.  It works by capillary action:  Hold the piece tight together, brush the MEK along the seam, and it's pulled in.  What doesn't go in evaporates immediately on the surface.  It welds the two pieces together, provided the plastics are an amenable variety.  It also rocks as a paint to add surface detail.

The day never goes where I plan for it to.  Today I've been doing the base for the 1/12 - a ratty courtyard of worn paving bricks, badly laid.  Remind me never again to cut a circular disc from 2mm plastic again.  You can't use a sawblade, and I've no metal template for circles.  Results are ragged, the scribing tool will not keep to the mark.

The disc shown earlier (1mm thick, and also not a clean circle) was scratched up with sandpaper and swabbed in MEK.  Somewhere I've a brush of hard wire for cleaning metal files with, if I knew where it was I'd have pounded the shit out of the disc too with more Bondene before and after to soften the plastic and etch the results.  Next the disc was cut into bricks of 10x15mm.  These were softened at the edges with an Emery file and a round metal file, made a bit ragged, then glued to the new 2mm disc.

I'm experimenting to get the right texture.   Sanding and filing produced some finely ground styrene which I added back to the first brick.  Results were poor as the plastic simply wanted to melt back into itself.  Another brick I left bare for comparison.  You don't want each brick to look the same, after all.  But, no, wrong texture.  To another I added salt.  Forget it, grains are much too big and they won't adhere.  Nutmeg?  Hey!  That looks pretty good!  Lay it on a little thick, then carefully soak it with MEK.  Let dry a moment, push it in with my fingertip, scrape the topmost away little by little.   Try it again with ground pepper.  Wow!  This looks great!  Okay, I won't really know until I have some fresh grey primer to coat it with, and I think the nutmeg will turn out to be the best approximation.  Then again, it has to show to the naked eye no matter the scale...it's gonna be painted so the best result is whichever yields a texture that looks good when drybrushed.   That's what I do best.  The paint job, with drybrushing. 

The MEK is a good reason to use the thicker plastic as a base.  The thinner the plastic, the more it's likely to react to the MEK by warping, and you've a ruined piece.  I built a fantastic wall for a kit once, using those plastic "For Sale" signs that places like OfficeMax sell.  Looked great until the next day.  The wall had curled up.  I'd better leave this disc alone now for a while before I finish it.  I'll be adding nutmeg and pepper and frying it for breakfast and perhaps find some other trick to roughen it up a bit.  Some pitting would be good, just a little.  Then putty between the bricks. 

The figure's feet and staff have stiff wires protruding out the bottoms to pin them into the base.  Three millimeters isn't a lot, so I'll surely need to add some height to the base.  otherwise, it looks perfect the way it is. 

This is me in my element.  How I'd love to be doing this for a living!!

I think one of these bricks ought to be broken, don't you?  A good crack through one is a nice touch.  And maybe one with a corner missing.   Here, though is a lesson in planning, as I'm winging this and realize now that these should have been strategically placed.  I have yet to situate where the figure's feet will go, and where I want to place a nameplate. 



I've a 1/10 scale figure of Gozer from Ghostbusters which I stood on this, and it looked great.  Can't wait to see it painted.  I'll have to watch the movie again to determine the right color, there are few if any decent shots of that setting online.

I made a similar base once using Sculpey for paving stones.  Looks decent but I boiled the poly clay instead of baking it - a mistake, because they distorted somewhat and would not lay completely flat.  Texture was overdone too.  Still, that was meant to look much more ancient than this so it's being rougher works.  (Oh, is it here?  No?  No.  Treasure hunt later, not tonight.)

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No sign of Dana.  No dreams, nothing.  She's not there.  🙍  Have I already said I think this is what's behind the 'tormented artist' myth?  You don't have to be miserable to do great work, but it's a motivator to keep you at it.  It keeps your mind occupied for the time that you spend creating.  Too bad it doesn't last, but it can help you reach sleep a little easier.