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Ship Showdown 2954

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July 30 to August 13

sharxbyte's avatar

sharxbyte [he|him]

@sharxbyte

Ship Showdown 2954 - Phase 1 Contest

This is the physical manifestation of my 600i, Error 404i, created through many difficult hours of careful assembly, trial and error, and meticulous painting.

5 months ago

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this is insulation foam. I cut the basic shape I wanted in with a scalpel
I used hot glue to stick the layers together then "chewed up" the clean lines with carving tools, forks, etc.
after I had the basic shape carved out, I moved on to the paint, but we'll get there in a sec
this is what you get out of an SLS printer when you knock off most of the powder. SLS is "selective laser sintering" and is a type of 3d printing where layers of powder are stacked up one at a time and welded to the previous layer with a laser.
The powder functions as support material for the subsequent layers, and can be removed from the part when the print is complete and recycled. after cleanup here's what I was left with.
To bond nylon 12 you'll want a hexane based super glue accelerator and medium viscosity
It took a lot of trial and error to get the base coat right, because the color shift paint I picked likes a black base coat. I didn't want it to be a solid color, so I mixed a dark plum. this was key to achieving the Damascus/ tiger-stripe paintjob
I started with a black coat on the diorama landscape
following the black acrylic (mainly to protect the foam from the spray paint, which will melt it) I hit the entire thing with auto primer enamel
started blocking in the color profiles of the landscape. got a base coat down and then started filling in the details
Following a good coat of dark plum/grey, I pinstriped the entire thing with the stripes in straight black to give the contrast I was looking for
I did my best to make the stripes wrap the whole thing and flow together
Prepped for the color shift
after the ground basecoats, it's time for some ground cover
this is a combination of organic and non-organic ground cover, rocks, dirt, plants, etc.
I built it up even more and added plaster bandages to the base which is a great material for adding some mass and holding together the foam to the rubber tile I am using as the base. I also added some fancy fake plants that looked pretty good.
the water base coat is now in place and SLOWLY drying
The goal here is to force perspective so the largest plants are up close and the smallest ones are far in the distance. To get the full effect I'm working on a painting that will be the permanent background.
essentially the same shot but in sunlight
mix of moss, foam, "grass effects" (super common diorama material) on twisted wire trunks and branches.
Really pleased with my little willow tree
the water is poured and mostly cured here. it's resin, but it doesn't have the surface effects yet
color shift time!
beautifullll!
Look at the full spectrum!!!!
AHHHH i'm in love
first shot of the whole thing assembled
This is the first time I had the ship over the diorama. The water wasn't finished here, but I still love how the rest of it looks!
here's the water with the effects finished. Stoked with how they turned out!
Acrylic rod to support the ship
once again, some fantastic water effects if I do say so myself!
I took this and then removed the background and erased the acrylic support :p now I can photoshop it over part of microtech or something!
In the wild! (okay just the grass around the apartment complex)
Thank you so much for looking, this took dozens of hours to complete, and I'm so happy with how it came out especially for being my first diorama. Not the last!

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