Auricom Griffon completed

Aaaand we're done.

After adding another light brown oil wash, some pigment and some grass coming out of the cracks in the concrete slab on the deck, I declared the base 'done'.

I painted the little metal rod that connect the craft to the base a matt black.

And put it all together.

Check it out below (and let me know what you think in the comments).

Cheers!
Martijn

Auricom Griffon Base

Just a quick update on the base...

I added the finish line markings, a wash of black/blue/green oil paint and some rust streaking.

Not much else to add. 

Next up a couple of more washes and streaking, then pigments. And some details.

Auricom Griffon base

So... I've been making some more progress on that base. It's slow going, but going.

I filled up the whole thing using acrylic filler mixed with sand and rubbed some chalk on it to change up the texture here and there. I want the track to look quite rough... in the game this thing is based on there's a lot of exploding vehicles and stuff. I want to show some of that violence. I'll working on bit of debris and wreckage from some of the losers...

Also scratched some reinforced concrete slabs for the deck bit at the top. 

Then I painted the sides black and masked them off after a couple of clear coats.. put primer on the rest and masked off the track's stripe pattern.

Painted on some Tamiya flat yellow with a brush and that's about it...

It still looks kind of dinky right now... but it will get some washes and pigments and I'm hoping this will pull it all together somewhat. Fingers crossed.

Auricom Griffon Base Restart...

After looking at this thing for a while I realized, I needed to soalve the problem of the model twisting on the base...

I got a tip on one of the forums I frequent about using square tube to attach the model to the base (feeling stupid for not thinking of that myself)... I decided to double back a little bit and ready some of the base. 

I ripped out most of the polystyrene sheets and put in a square bit of styrene tube. I found some metal bar (i think it's pyrite) that fits it perfectly. I attached the tube into the base exactly like I had done with the round tube (using poly clay and plaster)..

In building up the further layers of polystyrene I glued in bits of plastic card that fit around the tube. So bits of card with square holes in them, glued to the tube with SG and to the polystyrene with wood glue (about the same as white glue I think).

This was done to make sure it wouldn't move under the weight of the model.

The bottom of the Griffon now had a gaping 4mm hole in it... so I made it bigger. Put in a piece of the same square tube that went all the way to the 'ceiling' inside the Griffon. Then I fixed it in place at the hole with SG and green stuff and on the inside by using a thin wooden stick to push a ball of GreenStuff all the way up into the tube and stick it to the ceiling on the inside of the tube... hope that makes sense. Anyway it's in there solid.

I put a little weld seem and some bolts on the tube end sticking out and painted it (also put some greebly on the top of previously failed attempts at fixing the model to the base)...

With that done I started putting some filler on the base. I used acrylic filler (which I think is basically thick unpigmented acrylic paint) and mixed it with cat litter.... a total experiment as I had never worked with the stuff. 

Well the cat litter absorbed a lot of moisture from the filler quite fast, making it quite difficult to spread out... it also shrank quite a bit as it dried. 

So, not really what I expected but really good to know (if I ever want to make a rocky dried up desert base..). 

I'll just cake on another layer of the filler mixed with something non-absorbent. Something that will give it a more asphalt structure too.

Then I did a quick dry-fit of the model on the base.. it looks like it just might work. 

Thanks for looking, let me know what you think!

Auricom Griffon Base Build

Been working on the base. I had a design and based on that I drew a template, printed it out and used that to build a cardboard model... I had a pic of that but the SD card got corrupted (yes it does corrupt data when you just rip it out of your machine ahah).

Anyway here the template:

When I saw how that worked I used the cardboard to cut some 1.5 mm thick styrene sheet to size and built the walls around a pressed wood base (not sure what the english is for this type of wood product).

After this I started thinking about how I was going to fix the model to the base... I want it to hover over the base under an angle and that turned out to be a bit of a ball ache. The model is quite a bit heavier than I thought.

the first attempt was to drill and glue in two 2mm pieces of copper rod into the bottom, but that wasnt' strong enough and I couldn't secure them into the mainly styrofoam base... the second attempt was to get a long bit of threaded bar (4 mm thick) but that the nut I glued into the bottom of the model didn't hold. I used green stuff and SG but to no avail. beside it woul dhave cause problems when putting the model on the base I there most likely would not have been enough room for the thing to turn enough times to get it close enough to the base...

Anyway nou I've put in a piece of styrene tube (inner circumference of 4mm) and I'm going to glue in a piece transparent styrene rod into the model and then when the base is finished but glue the rod into the tube... fingers crossed.

Cut out a square block out of the base layer of styrofoam. stuck it in place with a lump of milliput and filled in the hole with plaster. I will further secure it later by glueing a pieve of styrene sheet with a hole in it over the square hole (havein the tube stick through). 

Then I'll build up the rest of the base with more layers of styrofoam and fill up all the holes with that acrylic filler stuff

Lot of talk, not much to see.

More exciting posts later.

Auricom Griffon Washes and Weathering

So with base paints and decals done it's time for the first wash. As ever I went with a sludge wash as I like to call them.

Anyway I gave the whole thing a couple of layers of clear coat. I used Vajelo Glossy acrylic out of a can. And I will never do this again. 

And here's why...

I started on the bottom of the craft. I figured that was going to be the dirtiest so I'd start there. But some of the goop went to the side of the craft and onto the decals... no problem I thought. The clear coat will protect it all, as always (that's why I put in on obviously).

Anyway, as I was cleaning off the goop I noticed the decals were getting damaged. It wasn't too bad as it looked nicely weathered (I did swear my head off)... it just wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to keep the custom decals more or less untouched, apart from the panel lines going through them.

I thought it weird, as I did think I put on a good coat of clear.. but I figured maybe I missed a spot...?

So I let this wash dry and just to be sure I gave it anoth couple of coats... I didn't want to make the clear coat too thick of course, but I didn't want to lose anymore decals. Anyway I soldiered on. 

The wash, by the way, was one consisting of a mix of lamp black, prussian blue, and sea green. I did the whole thing on parts starting with the bottom, then the cockpit and the the top of the arms (wings?)

 

BUT when working on one of the arms I damaged another of the decals (lots more swearing ensued), again damage was minor, sort of ok looking, but unwanted none the less... So two cans of Valejo clear coat (matt and gloss) in the bin. I should have known as I've also once had to bin a almost full can of Valejo primer for being useless... maybe it's me but I don't have any luck with many of their products it seems.

The thing that annoys me most is when you can't trust a product. I don't like these kinds of surprises, minor though they may be.

I've used Humbrol varnishes before, they were great. Guess I'm back to them.

How to procede... I think I might finish this one using more conventional techniques. I don't want to rub it to much more. 

I think I'll put a dark brown pin wash in the panel and rivet lines. And finish it off with a couple of lighter washes, at least one of which being a light brown/tan one. This thing shouldn't become too dirty anyway, only very minor rust marks here and there and some oils staining. 

That's the plan until something else goes wrong anyway ha.

Auricom Griffon Base Design

This thing will be going onto a base. I want it in flight, so I don't really have any other option that to build it a base.
This will my first ever base, so the build will most likely be a nightmare.

Anyway this is the design for it. Modeled after a WipeOut racetrack... a segment thereof.

Auricom Griffon Paint, Decals and Weathering

Finished the base painting and some minor scratching / weathering.

I planned on doing most of them using steel wool (by layering shades of the base and top coat of the craft with clear coats in between and then going back down into them with the steel wool...) This didn't really work, so I also added some painted on chips. Not as naturally random, but fun to do. They still look a little 'cartoony' in places now, but some thick washes will help push that back.

I managed to find a guy on the Maschinen Krueger forums, how was friendly enough to print me some custom decals for a small fee.

So those went on beautifully. They responded really well to the MicroSet en MicroSol I used to put them on.

They can have a couple more coats of MicroSol, but then it's good to go for a clear coat and on to washing and more weathering!

thanks for looking!

Auricom Griffon Paint Progress

The base layer is done and I put on the first colour layer. 

This layer has a lighter shade of the final colour which will (hopefully) come through when I do the chipping and scratches later on.

The pink is a mix of Tamiya Flat Red and Flat White

The blue is Sky Blue, Flat white and a little Medium Blue (all Tamiya).

This is now drying and will get a thin coat of clear before I'll put on the final colour.

Auricom Griffon Color Scheme

So... base coat is just about done, but I'm still researching the colour scheme.

This whole WhipeOut thing kind of feels like a risk. It's just uncharted territory I guess... anyway I decided to test some schemes out in photoshop.

This is what I came up with. 

I'm looking for someplace to get custom white decals made, which will be pretty essential to this design...

Auricom Griffon base paints

started putting base paints on. 

Already regret one thing: glueing in the gun and bomb shaped gas tank (or bomb..?). They are going to make painting the insides of the 'arms' a nightmare... oh well. We'll cross that bridge when we get there....

Anyway pre-shaded and base painted. 

The main hull a dull dark grey (thinned Tamiya Black Green) and the engine and antigravity spheres a mix of Tamiya Chrome Silver and Tamiya German Grey.

Auricom Griffon Build Complete

It's about done. Thare are some part that I will glue on after primer and I've decided to leave the steering flaps off until after paints. I know I'll break them off otherwise.

Anyway not much to report really. I replaced some plates at the back that got a little lost in sanding and I finally got hold of some mr. Surfacer (mr. hobby products are very hard to come by in stores here in the Netherlands) and I use that to add some cast steal texture to the bolted on front panel of the center part of the vehicle.

That's all for now. Next up: primer and base paints.

Auricom Griffon Cockpit Done

It's all painted and assembled. 

As covered on the earlier posts I added some (soon to be invisible) details and spurred on by Grendel and Dragline I decided to add some decals to those details too. Might as well...

The control panel has a bunch of decals too... one tip for anyone building in the future: there's a decal that goes over the button on the righthand side of the thing (a red/white striped square). To have this fit properly you have to cut away all excess material from the decal, otherwise it won't and tear when you force in on.... which is what I did (like an idiot).

Also added some decals to the inside of the hatch and on the little screen (that what that is right?) that came form a sheet of optional decals from Wave.