In the earlier articles, I have shown how the model has been prepared to be mounted onto a CCTV stand. Now, in this article, I will show you how I came up with the base for that very stand. My original intention was to have the CCTV stand mounted on top of a rusting metal sheet, with four feet bumpers high enough to hide a power bank beneath it.
However, the help I sought could not align the three mounting holes exactly and so, for the last time, I went searching for either a hollow wooden base or a plastic case. And as luck would have it, on the third attempt, I found the solution in the form of a Japanese serving tray. Just to let you know, I am in a rush to return Home for The New Year and so, this base was done within a span of two days.
This is the tray, a Japanese serving tray which has the correct height for a slim power bank. After I drilled out the three holes, I carefully widened it with the Widow maker (left). OK, plastic reamer to accept the hex bolts.
PREPARING THE BASE
After my flight back home, I approached the tray like any other model kit since I have a feeling that its plastic would be easier to work with. This is my backup-idea where the metal sheet failed.
The tools for making the base are: 1. Krylon Fusion Satin Grey, 2. Rust-oleum’s Hammered Brown, 3. My Late Mom’s Hairspray, 4. Large crystal Brown Sugar and as backup, 5. Milo Cocoa Powder.
I began by spraying the tray with Krylon Fusion (which has plastic primer) Satin Grey and waited for a day. I like to use Krylon Fusions for large area priming but if there are a lot of sharp details, then this is a no-no. Because of the primer inside the spray, I am very confident that whatever paints I use would not be easily scratched off. (I wished I bough the can of mek from ACE Hardware so long ago before they were phased out). A coat of Rust-oleum’s Hammered Brown was then sprayed over from a distance to represent rust spots.
I should have done this earlier before the coat of Rust-oleum but here we are. The Krylon Metallics Dull Aluminum was sprayed to indicate where the rusts and scratches would be.I then gave a very light mist of Mr. Colour #7 Brown using about 5psi. This is to represent even smaller rust spots. I then sprayed thick coats of hairspray over the silver and sprinkled the big brown sugar granules when it started to cure. The reason I am using brown sugar is because we ran out of normal small granule sugar. After much thinking, I stopped at using the Milo (cocoa) powder since it would have dissolved with the hairspray (but it would be interesting to find the results)I sprayed layers of Gaia Notes #12 Flat Black on areas around the sugar and other random areas, but not so much as to cover all the small rusts completely.This is how the tray looked once the sugar granules have been removed using a hardened tool (and not water).Again, the thick hairspray caused some pockmarks. The mixture of Dull Aluminum, Hammered Brown, Flat Black and Brown mists looked very nice. But IMHO, the large sugar granules made this look very artificial. No they looked more like rust glitter.
WEATHERING THE BASE
With the tray’s basic patterns completed, now is the time I start to make this look as realistic if I can. The problem with the tray is that I am not sure how to rust it according to scale; 1:1 or 1/20 as per the Falke?
Tools of the trade: 1. MIG Standard Rust Effects 2. AK’s AK-043 Medium Rust Pigments 3. My favorite Abteilung 502’s which accompanied me during the flight (ABT060 Light Rust and ABT070 Dark Rust) 4. Zippo Lighter Fluid, allows for fast drying for the pigments and Abteilung OilsTo build texture, I added the MIG Rust powder first onto the Aluminum area. Then I added the Zippo lighter fluid over them, causing some kind of pooling where the pigments would flow and spread all over the place. When that has dried, there was some kind of brownish haze left on the surface. I mixed more of the Rust powder with the Zippo on a palette and stippled the area again with the now gungked brushResults of the MIG PigmentAnd now, for my beloved Abteilung 502s; ABT060 Light Rust and ABT070 Dark RustThe Dark Rust was used on the rust craters while the Light Rust was for the exposed Dull Aluminum. As finale, I mixed the two leftover oils together and dry-stippled the tray randomly. A top gloss coat by Gaia Notes #30 Semi-gloss clear sealed the whole tray. This not only sharply enhances the look of the rust but also removes the brownish ‘haze’ as caused by the earlier Zippo/MIG pigment mix.
DID IT WORK?
Let’s compare to a real-life rust from a kitchen stove burner rack. Looks OK to me but I kinda want to dry brush some silver and white to the edges. I also want to shave off some edges to make it look really metal. But let’s just stop here as my Wife needs the rack back to make dinner…Not bad for two day’s work!And now, with the Base completed, the Falke is officially done! Here, it is laid next to my 2015 lighted up Softshell Pilot (which was sculpted by Takaaki Saito).
