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General Photos |
Lifeboat Model Page |
Speedline Trent 14-14 Commission Build |
scale lifeboats |
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General Photos |
Lifeboat Model Page |
Speedline Trent 14-14 Commission Build |
scale lifeboats |
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;void(0)) This crewman was painted for me by Mr Kim Belcher, I will be adding his write up on how he set about it, what I can tell you is it took 40hrs of work. Thanks Kim.  ;void(0)) The Conversion of ‘Splash Gordon’ [from RNLI – man overboard!] Introduction When Phil asked me to ‘paint’ his figure for the RNLI Open Day at Newhaven I said ‘Yes’, even though it was just a week away. However, when I collected it I then realised it still had to be put together. Out of his five figures we decided on this one as the first, as it could be constructed to stand alone, unlike, say, the coxswain who would need to be ‘married’ to the height and position of the fly bridge wheel, to make him look natural and at work. This is where I spent a little of the 48 hours to complete him. By cutting, drilling, gluing and filling with P38, giving me the position you see in the photos. Source – ‘Speedline’ Resin Cast Model Adrian Gosling has, through his firm ‘Speedline Models’, produced some excellent 1/12th scale lifeboats, detailed windows, etched brass fittings, stanchions and crew figures. It’s the latter that I now have three of for my Arun class lifeboat and Phil five for his Severn class lifeboat – Newhaven 17-21. The kit comprises the figure’s body legs and boots as one piece - standing or seated pose; a choice of arm types / positions. A choice of three head types, including one with helmet off. Acetate visor and brass locating pins, along with a full self-adhesive, pre-cut vinyl decal sheet. A very comprehensive figure and the best on the market, in my view. For those of us that are a little ‘picky’ and like to count rivets, an excellent starting point for conversion! However, the early production batch had these figures a little taller than us more normal height fellows. So I have reduced my two standing figures to around 6’ including their boot soles and helmet heights. Adrian has now changed this, so the figure in front of me did not require this work to be done. Whilst doing this I noticed the figures should have had jackets on, so tucked away in my memory the task of researching this in the future - when my boat was on the water! That date came a little earlier than expected – thanks Phil! Helmet and Head The helmet in the kit is fully enclosed around the rear, so, with the use of my Dremel drill and a diamond chip miniature disc cutter, I removed the sides and rear to give the shape shown, but leaving some depth to the rear area of resin where I used a very thin ‘V’ shaped diamond chip drill to convert it into hair [zoom into the 3rd photo to see the detail]. I noticed that the model bears just one indentation between the crown of the helmet and the side section, where in actual fact there should be two, but I did not alter it on this conversion [will try on subsequent ones]. It also became apparent that the visor attachment point was incorrect. These holes are for the slotted visor hole that allows the travel limit. Behind this should be the real attachment point. Hence in my figure, my photos show the positions, but the rear one is ‘obsolete’. This brings me to the point of the visor. I broke the original kit one when trying to heat and bend to shape. I, therefore, scribed around the original shape onto a piece of .45mm / .018" acetate, cut it out and drilled the attachment holes. This was fractionally thinner than the original and both moulded easier and looked more realistic. I also gave it the shaped side sections. If you really want to get it right, the top should be formed back over the helmet. This I will make a mould for and use on subsequent conversions. Next I drilled the hole in the helmet and tapped to a 14 BA thread. This then accepted two brass 14 BA cheese head bolts and I discarded the brass pins into my ‘spares’ box! You can see from the photos that I added the extra pivot for the chin-strap and press studs to the side. The former was a turned down 12 BA brass round-head screw and the others were thin polystyrene tube, cut and sprayed chrome [‘plasti-kote’ chrome effect paint] and CNA glued into the correctly sized drilled holes. Jacket Using .40mm / .015" styrene card I cut out two jacket bottoms [left and right sides] with the cutaway fronts. I attached each of these as a separate procedure. I started by adding a spot of CNA glue to the rear waist belt top corner. When this was firm I then proceeded down and around to the front with about four or five spots, each time pressing the card down into the fold on the original figure, but making sure that the edges still stood away from the figure underneath. When this was completed it gave the correct effect of a jacket being worn. To each of these, in the front, I added similar card pockets and flaps, to which I sculpted folds. I subsequently noticed these should have had ‘cut-off’ corners adjacent to the front harness and also side entry access for the hands. Yes, I shall make sure these are added to future conversions. I blended the edges into the original resin by using the long flat edge of a medium grade cylindrical burr on my Dremel drill. It was not that hard. I think that for a little basic work these really do update the figure and make it look realistic. At this point I thought a few of the folds did not look quite right so finished them off to my liking, a couple of them I also made a little less sharp / deep. On subsequent versions I shall change these, so that each figure does not look the same, including some of those that are OK on the original. ‘D’ Rings Using the Dremel and a small burr I removed the original ‘D’ rings at the rear and the complete belt and ‘D’ rings in the front. I then fabricated four new ‘D’ rings from .60mm / .024" wire and then using them as a guide drilled away slots to accepted them in each of their original locations. At the rear I overlaid styrene card ‘belt’ pieces, CNA glue fixing them in place and blending the joints. This allows the ‘D’ rings to swivel in their locations. At the front I made a small brass sheet buckle and threaded / looped two sections of styrene sheet belt through each, CNA glued them in place and where required feathered into the lifebelt under-cut. Front Belt Buckle I scribed the shape onto .53mm / .021" sheet brass, chain drilled and then with a dentist drill cylindrical burr reamed out the unwanted material between, rounded off the corners and fitted as mentioned above. However, note that you need to take out three slots, this is not apparent in the photo. As you look at the figure the loop on the left goes around an upright, hardly visible, and that on the right around the edge of the buckle. Harness I drilled out the two rear harness loops [just visible on photo 2] and the front loop using a .80mm / .030" drill. Using a very thin ‘V’ drill I blended the holes to the point that the two pieces of webbing would have been stitched together. Velcro Closings These were made of the same styrene card as the jacket pieces, but the yellow painted pieces were of double thickness, giving the effect of being overlaid on the blue section beneath it. Note: They are different handed on the jacket and the ankle gaiters. This I spotted in photos of the RNLI Member’s magazine [as were the two pocket points, but too late for inclusion]. Hands These needed a little work. I thinned some fingers and the thumbs down with 600 Wet and Dry paper and rounded the finger ends off. I also filled some of the pinholes from the moulding process [very small amount of P38, but Araldite or similar would do]. At this point I made sure the binoculars fitted the hands. A little work with the drill and a burr helped get the exact fit so the eye- pieces went onto the eye-lids. Binoculars All I did here was to turn down, on my Dremel, two brass 14BA hexagonal bolts so that they may still be attached using a ‘hex’ open ended box spanner, but that they appeared round to the viewer. I drilled and tapped 14 BA holes front and rear and fitted them. It then gave the impression of a central pivot found on the casing of binoculars. Painting § H&S – make sure you wear a face mask when spraying, the spray does not go well with your lung lining tissue! Warnings are on the cans. At this point I attached the head / helmet using ‘bluetack’ and the binoculars to make sure all looked correct prior to painting. It did. I sprayed the whole [headless] body with white acrylic plastic primer. This showed up some faults with folds I had not spotted on the body and lifebelt. It also exposed a couple of areas on the shoulders where you could see the glue joints. Once rectified I sprayed a coat of acrylic filler primer all over and this did then look a lot better and ready for hand painting. While all of this dried [24hours] I sprayed the helmet gloss white and painted the edge rim black. I masked the top area for the black stripe [in reality a ‘velcro’ type felt pad and a slightly thinner area than I have produced]. I then painted the base colour flesh on the neck and face and set aside to dry. A couple of observations first: § I had not painted figures with acrylic paints before, I normally use Humbrol enamels which take longer to dry and therefore a larger area can be dealt with and they are easier to blend colours for shading fabric folds and skin indentations. I took smaller areas with the acrylics, sometimes just one or two folds at a time. § Having put the acrylic filler primer on I did not have the luxury of time to let it fully dry hard. If I had I might have given it another coat of white primer to allow the yellow coat to be ‘bright’. However, as it turned out I think the end colour looked realistic in modelling terms. It also just happened, by sheer coincidence, that this filler colour was the same as the ‘bubonic brown’ colour I had got to use as the ‘shadow’ for the yellows – do not add black, it does not give the right colour finish for shadows in this situation. § As touched on above, when dealing with models ‘actual’ colours [or tones white / black] do not always produce the correct model effect. Therefore I used ‘Nato black’, which is a very dark grey really, instead of black. The only areas where there was straight black was the helmet trim, inside the drilled out loop areas of the harness and the rubber boot soles. § You will need to fix in your mind where you want the light source to come from when painting your figure. For me I chose 12 o’clock mid-day sun! Remembering that as the boat moves about so will the shadows, but at least this would fix where the main shadow and highlight areas should be. § The Lemon yellow [Tamiya X-8] was gloss, however, I was going to give the body / legs an overcoat of Purity Seal Satin varnish. This would give the same overall ‘Musto / Goretex’ sheen to the clothing. So, for the main body areas I first picked out the harness in Nato black, adding black to those drilled out loops and highlighting the tops of folds with lighter greys by mixing white to the Nato black. I then moved to the yellow waterproof clothing, starting on one of the newly added front jacket areas. Bubonic brown into the edges and under recesses of folds, then adding the Lemon yellow to where I felt the sun would be giving the biggest normal colour areas, then using the flat yellow + flat yellow and a touch of white to add the few highlight areas. I did not want to over play this as I wanted the RNLI yellow look to succeed. However, what I did do was to add a coat of Yellow Ink over the whole surface of each yellow area at this stage to enhance and give vibrancy to the colour. I was well pleased with the result – it worked. The lifebelt was painted into the recesses and shadow folds with Red Gore and then the main areas painted with Blood Red. A touch of white could have been added to this to use on extreme highlights, but I did not feel it warranted it on this type of figure and material effect – your choice. Boots were a straight Lemon yellow from the bottle with soles added in Chaos black once the yellow was dry and I could mask off with Tamiya masking tape – what else! Again, on the next conversions I might well add the five or six horizontal ridges across the bridge of the boot, as per the actual items. Hands and Face / Neck were base coated in Dwarf Flesh, shadows were the same, but with a little black added, whilst Bronzed Flesh was used for the highlight areas of tops of fingers / thumbs, cheeks and nose ridge. I had already painted in the white of the eye, with a hint of blue added, then when dry added the iris / pupil [in which ever toned down colour you wish]. I added a slightly darken Bronzed Flesh to create a ‘stubble’ effect on the jaw / chin and top lip. Finger-nails were painted in by adding white with a touch of flesh and red. At this point I overlaid a coat of Flesh Wash over the face, , allowing it to creep into the indentations – try it, it works wonders. Some techniques and tips, such as these, can be found in the Games Workshop book – ‘How to Paint Citadel Miniatures’ – I have no connection with the firm! The hair was just highlighted after adding the flesh colours and the darker shading. ‘Velcro-loop’ tab areas were painted using Regal blue mixed with a little black, to form a ‘navy’ blue. The buckle on the front belt was painted with Mithril silver. The reflective knee pads were painted with a mix of Mithril silver and white. I feel this is quite effective and was a tip from Adrian Gosling [Speedline Models] many months ago in a distant ‘phone call. However, for the helmet sides, side jacket cuffs and lifebelt I used actual self-adhesive reflective strip, which I moulded into the indentations and fold of the model. The source roll was not wide enough to try on the knee pads, and I did have a doubt over how long they would stay in place, hence the painted approach which you can judge for yourself. Transfers and Reflective Patches There is an excellent set of decals / transfers with the figure kit by Speedline Models, which are lifted on the end of a scalpel blade, placed appropriately and then pushed home using your finger end, finally pushing into any crease or undulation with a blunted wooden cocktail stick to make sure they were firmly affixed. The body decals of course had a final coat of satin varnish over them for protection. The reflective patches, as mentioned above, appear on the top of the helmet [either side of the central black strip, but a little to the rear], also the helmet sides and on the jacket cuffs and lifebelt. These have to be fixed prior to the other transfers, obviously. The satin varnish did not seem to take away the reflective properties when I shone a small powerful torch on the figure in the dark – so the figures can be used in night events under H&S! Completion I masked the boots off and gave the body section several light coats of the Purity Seal Satin Varnish. If used too close or too heavy handedly the finish will end up gloss – at this point breath heavily on it and it will dull back down again. If used too sparingly I found it gave a white patina / bloom to the area. I then quickly added another fine coat to make it look uniformly correct. I then just glued the head on to the hole at the top of the jacket, making sure the chinstrap would fit into place and the binoculars would align and look correct. I then fixed those too. Finished. I hope this helps add some detail to why it took so long, inspires others to have a go and look forward to any comments, especially if I have got something wrong, we are always learning! Have fun. Paints and materials used: RNLI Crewman from :- Speedline Models Windsor-End Cottage Burbage Leicestershire LE10 2EE Telephone: 01455 637658 or 07787 112136 Enquiries@Speedlinemodels.co.uk Halfords Spray Acrylic paint - White Plastic Primer Primer Filler [sludge yellow / brown] Appliance Gloss White Citadel Colour Paints by Games Workshop [www.games-workshop.com] – Chaos Black – 61-51 Skull White – 61-54 Mithril Silver – 61-55 Regal Blue – 61-32 Bubonic Brown – 61-15 Dwarf Flesh – 61-21 Bronzed Flesh – 61-22 Flesh Wash – 61-76 Red Gore – 61-05 Blood red – 61-06 Yellow Ink – 61-67 Skull White Spray 400ml Can Purity Seal Satin Varnish Spray 400ml Can Tamiya Color Paints - Lemon Yellow – X-8 Flat Yellow – XF-3 Nato Black – XF-69 Plasti-kote [from Homebase] - Chrome Effect fast dry enamel paint – E5408 Summit [from Halfords] Self-adhesive Safety Reflective Tape 5 feet of ¾" [1524mm of 19mm]. ‘Zap’ Medium Superglue [CAN] Small fine pointed scissors [found in Squires Model and Craft Tools Catalogue 100, London Road Bognor Regis West Sussex PO21 1DD Telephone 01243 842424] 12 and 14 BA bolts and screws [from EKP Supplies, The Old Workshop Bratton Fleming Near Barnstaple North Devon EX31 4SA Telephone: 01598 710892 www.ekp.supplies.btinternet.co.uk] Scalpel and chisel bladed craft knife White Styrene Card Sheet .40mm / .015" Clear Acetate Sheet .45mm / .018" Brass Sheet .53mm / .021" ‘Dremel’ Miniature Modellers drill or similar Paint brushes [pure sable] – sizes 1 and 4 ;void(0))
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