It feels like ages ago that I was messing about spraypainting plastic spoons, working on chipping them and comparing which chipping medium worked best. Then yesterday I received an advance copy of ModelArt Australia magazine, issue 99 Feb/March 2018, with my article in it - exciting!
If you can get out and purchase a copy, I recommend you do so. It's all good stuff throughout. For international readers, you might struggle to get your hands on a copy, but it's available throughout Australia. I don't directly financially benefit in any way if you buy a copy, but it's always good to support local model resources.
So. Many. Spoons...
And the other good news is that now that this issue is out, I can now share with you all the content I produced for my last article in the previous issue - so stay tuned for that very soon.
I'll start this off by saying up front that not every modeller will need this video. It's pretty niche. Not everyone has thought, "You know, what this diorama needs is a teeny weeny coffee mug in it." But a lot of modellers have thought, "What this vehicle or scene needs is a small touch of humanity, something to being a little something domestic to the scene." And for that, I present to you: the 5mm tall coffee mug.
Like I said, it's a pretty niche topic...
But what I love about this video is that it shows just how many different approaches there are to a problem. I thought of a number of ways I could have made this tea cup / coffee mug, before finally settling on the solution I went with. Since I posted the video on YouTube, a number of people have commented on other ways it could have been achieved as well.
That's so cool.
You read it right: 5mm tall. Brutal.
Anyways, for those of you who do find yourself one day needing to scratch build a 1/35 coffee mug - I hope this helps!
I've just completed another collaboration with Panzermeister36 on Youtube - definitely check out his channel if you haven't previously - and this time we each did a video on how to paint and weather tools on scale model tanks. A lot of modellers are intimidated by all those bits and pieces mounted to the hulls of tanks: shovels, sledgehammers, jacks, jacking blocks, gun cleaning rods, axes and wire cutters. But with a little research and a couple of basic techniques, you can tackle any of these.
The techniques are pretty simple, it's really just a matter of following a set pattern. In fact, I found myself repeating again and again as I filmed this video, "It's nothing special..."
The end result.
So if you've ever felt stumped by all those tools clipped to your Panther, your Tiger, your T-34 or your Sherman, check out my video below, and then have a look and see what Panzermeister also came up with. I'm interested to see his take on the subject as well.
A while back I found these images on English Russia (www.englishrussia.com) and I filed them away as potential weathering references. It is a ridiculous oversized, brutal and impractical Soviet jet seaplane, and surely that is reason enough to like this blog post. Aha, but I have more for you, dear reader! Let's talk about black basing and panel lines.
The ridiculous plane itself - KM Ekranoplan
This insane vehicle is the KM Ekranoplan, otherwise known as the "Caspian Sea Monster", which is as good a name as I ever saw for such a monstrosity. It was designed and tested in the mid-1960s. If you want to read more about it, check out its wikipedia page - there is also some old footage of it in flight:
I don't know about you, but I instantly like any aircraft where the closing line of its wikipedia entry states "The vehicle was too heavy to recover from its watery wreck site". Yay, Soviet Union!
So how does this relate to scale models?
I'm glad you asked. Originally, I saved these images as weathering references. This is a great example of an aircraft that hasn't moved since 1980, so almost forty years of sun and rain and snow have taken their toll.
But what really interests me is how this real item looks like a model that was black based.
For those who don't know, black basing is where a modeller paints a black base coat, and then successive random squiggles of lighter colour, before painting the final (fairly thin) coat of top paint. The idea is to give suitably random variation in the tone of the paint. For a full explanation of the technique, I can't do better than point you to this page on Doog's Models, another modelling blog.
The random blotchiness of black basing. Source: Doog's Models. Link.
Lately I have seen some online discussion criticising pre-shading, black basing and the "Spanish School" of painting. Some modellers* believe that these painting styles are unrealistic, not true to scale, and the panel lines become too pronounced.
All I will say is: check out the pronounced panel lines on the Caspian Sea Monster. Check out the random blotchiness.
Anyway, all discussion about shaded panel lines aside, I love these photos. I love how utterly crazy this plane is, and I love how it looks now after almost forty years exposure.
Making models really does change the way you view the world.
* There will always be some modellers who bitch and moan about everything. You can't please everyone. Build what makes you happy, and say "up yours" to the minority who like to rivet count.
If you've followed my blog or my YouTube channel for any length of time, you'd know that I don't just show pics of my latest work and prattle about tools. There's more to modelling than that. Today I want to discuss the topic of "When do Models become Art?" because I recently visited a collectables store which had lots of gorgeous aircraft models for sale, and they were most definitely not just mere models - they had somehow become Art.
I know discussing Art is a tricky business. Yes, yes, it's all in the eye of the beholder, Art is whatever the artist says it is, etc etc ad infinitem. There is a lot of wank about Art out there, and I am certainly:
no expert, and;
unwilling to go down that rabbit hole.
But I do know that some models somehow transcend being simply models and become something else. Collectables, objets d'art, home decor, call them what you will, there are some times when models are coveted by non-modelling people. How does this happen?
This came about because I visited a collectables store last weekend, Smith Street Bazaar in Collingwood here in Melbourne, and I noticed their range of stunning aircraft art models. This got me thinking...
I have produced a video discussing this, showing what I think are legitimate "Art Models" (yes, I just made up that term and now I'm running with it) and offering some opinions on how this occurs and why, but I'd love to have a discussion and hear your opinion on the matter. Why so many aircraft, while it seems tanks don't get to become "Art Models"? Do they have to be made of precious metals? Why is no artist attributed? So many questions.
