Model Making Workshop with Jack Pratt
“If you paint it right, nobody will know”
Model Making Workshop with Jack Pratt
Stop motion - see The Little Prince
Anomalisa - realistic model making
Balsa wood: Easy to stain. Use wet’n’dry sandpaper to take fibre away from the surface. Coarser paper to take 2mm of surface off, to take away any resin residue etc. so it’s stained evenly. It warps, so be careful, build braces and layer it. Large grain.
Obeche wood: nice alternative. Smaller grain. Better for scale furniture. Takes stain well. Doesn’t warp as much. It’s denser.
Wood panelling making: stain wood, cut up, then jumble up.
Styrene: Big architectural models. Score surface and snap it. Real cheap for sheets. Use Plastic weld or Tamiya Cement. Glue flows underneath and melts the surface, essentially welding it together. There are no blobs of glue left behind, clean finish. Re-use the same brush, it’ll go soft again when you dip it back in the plastic weld. You can make moulds from it, it’s fine with silicone etc. Sand paper for fine wood texture. If sanding, you’ll get fibres, use steel wool to get rid of them.
Kapa foam: Peel off the paper (BUT keep it for slate or stonework - creased paper makes a great texture for that and can be cut to shape). Make larger scale wood texture with a wire brush. Cover with a layer of PVA or sealer before painting, otherwise, it will just eat your paint as it’s very absorbent. Use wood glue with it.
Large scale brickwork - use filler, use thin tape to mark grooves, slap on the filler, then peel the tape away while the filler is still wet so it doesn’t chip away.
Filler and toothbrush - make terrain with
smear filler onto the base, sand down = cement
Corrugated metal - double up tinfoil, glue down cocktail sticks to your material, place tinfoil over it and brush along the sticks with a toothbrush
Water waves - use gloss varnish for small, silicone sealant for large waves. hot glue can be used and shaped with the glue gun’s hot nozzle
Kit Bashing: Always consider using junk first
Always prime styrene before painting
Airbrush (a mini airbrush cleaning station with paint thinner makes life much easier. that way you only need to take it apart to clean at the end of the day but not between jobs)
Use cinnamon to make rust - cinnamon + pva, the more cinnamon the more grained the texture
Peeling/Chipping paint effect: Apply hairspray on top of the model, let dry, airbrush on top, let dry. Get a cotton bud (use cloth for a bigger surface) with thinner and lift it.
OR sprinkle salt over, apply water, let dry. Airbrush over. Chip salt away.
Washes emphasise the shadows in the model. Vallejo Washes are a good brand. Round tip brush is ideal. Apply thinner on clothe and go over the paint, this will leave the paint in the deep areas.
Dry Brushing - flat end brush. Brings out highlight. Remove as much paint as you can from the brush.
Weathering powders - you can use chalk pastels instead. Apply with a cotton bud. Seal with varnish.
Scribing tool - it takes the material away, rather than creating an edge
Small hand drill that doesn’t require power
PLA material, ice, 2.85 mm width
Always prime a 3d print before painting
xtc-3d resin can be used to smooth all the layer strips out. But it will get rid of very fine detail. But you can sand them.
Alternatively, you can make a silicone mould of the print and cast it in resin, this will smooth it out too
perhaps don’t use acetone, because it eats away at your model
smooth on 20T silicone is good for small moulds, goes off in half an hr