Custom Sculpts & Homebrew minis

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:02 am

I've done a few kitbashes recently. In doing them I've gotten some practice using Tamiya 2-part epoxy putty (pretty much the same as Kneadatite/'Greenstuff").

I used that putty to build up the secondary hull of my Fed CS modification I did a few weeks back (pic1, pic2).

I'd been trying to think of something I could do as a "start from nothing" project, something that I hadn't seen anyplace (or at least hadn't seen often).

What I settled on was the Federation Express Courier Boat. Simple(ish) shape, not a lot of protruding details.
Here's my custom sculpt of it.

The panel lines are my first real attempts with my scribing tool, so they're not perfect, but acceptable. The phaser bumps are steel pins. The engines and the lower hull bump are pinned to the main hull with the same kind of steel pins (clipped "t-pins") for extra strength.

I had fun doing this. I'm finding I'm more comfortable sculpting and filling gaps, etc. than I am painting. I struggle with painting.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 3:20 am

Will, the two-part epoxy is what several of John Schneider, Jessica Orsini, and Mike Rapers masters have been created with. If it;s not already too late - don't prime it yet. Email photos to SVC - he might be willign to use it as a castable master and then all of us can have a Fed Ex Courier Boat of our very own.

And as they say in the A-1 commercials, "Yeah, it's that good!

I'm suitably impressed with your abilities. I can putty, patch, fill, and even modify - but everything I'd tried to do from scratch looks like it's been run too close to the event horizon of a black hole... all stretched out and deformed.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:17 am

Tony -

Thanks for the praise!

I tried to model it such that it could be used for a master. I'll send SVC an email to see if he would be interested, when he gets back from honeymooning.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:24 am

Good job. I look forward to purchasing a few for my "small" fleet!

John Schneder II · Post by **John Schneder II** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:23 pm

Will,
It looks very nice!! You will need to contact SVC about the compatability of Tamiya epoxy. I do remember that I can't work in plumber's epoxy or Milliput either (not enough heat resistance), but don't know about Tamiya.
Of course, if the Tamiya isn't suitable, I hope you will remake it in something that is

It just looks too nice not to have it on the shopping cart.
If you indeed need to make it out of Kneadatite, don't hesitate to contact me direct for tips about where to get it, and how best to use it.

--John

Mazza · Post by **Mazza** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 2:48 pm

Just wanted to say that your sculpt was very nifty looking. I wish I could do that!

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 4:36 pm

Once again, nicely done Will.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 5:50 pm

John -

Coming from a master-sculpter like you, that is high praise. Thank you very much!

Based on your and Tony's input, I did indeed send an email to SVC. It will be interesting to see where things go (or don't). Either way, I'm learning, which is cool.

Mazza & OGOptimus -
Thanks. I appreciate the kind words!

Starfury · Post by **Starfury** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 9:02 pm

Many many years back I wanted a Gorn BDD miniature. These were not (yet) made by ADB. I took some epoxy putty and made a disk shaped bit. I then sanded it down to the size I wanted to match a DD front hull. I used a pin vice and drilled a hole in the rear hull and into the back of the DD. and with a piece of paper clip superglued the parts together. A little more putty and shaping and I had a BDD.

I'll have to post a picture of it; turned out very nice for a first attempt at doing my own sculpt.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Mon Sep 10, 2007 11:07 pm

Sounds a lot like how I ended up doing my Fed CS mod - it was a desire for something that didn't exist (at least not in the form I wanted).

I was surprised at how well doing kitbashes, etc. has gone for me. I'm enjoying that more than painting.

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 6:39 am

I forgot to mention it here, but my FedEx Courier sculpt was accepted by ADB for mastering. It's off at Reaper right now to (hopefully) become a real SFU mini.

After I found out, I gave it a very slight tweaking to make it better. I ended up re-doing the phasers to get them more on-centerline, and filled a couple of scribing slips (this all happened after the pictures were taken).

Needless to say, I'm pretty stoked. What started out as a "what do I do with this leftover epoxy" is getting some real use.

Mazza · Post by **Mazza** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 3:09 pm

Excellent! I'll pick one up when they actually make it to the online store!

djdood · Post by **djdood** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 9:40 pm

The FedEx survived the molding process:

I'm stoked!

OGOPTIMUS · Post by **OGOPTIMUS** » Thu Oct 18, 2007 10:52 pm

AWESOME! Gotta get some of those to put out on the table to spice up the convoys.

Scoutdad · Post by **Scoutdad** » Fri Oct 19, 2007 12:25 am

djdood wrote:The FedEx survived the molding process

Hurray! Now to order a few of them to paint up for Federaiton Commander: Courier Wars!

What's next on the to do list, Will? Any ideas?