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Though commercially available 1/96 figures are available I, of course, elected to make my own from scratch. Unlike so many of
you, I'm loath to take the simple and lazy path of reaching into a parts bin or raiding a discarded kit parts tree for model parts, slapping them onto my work and then proudly proclaiming the effort a
'scratch-build'. You're either a model builder, or a common kit assembler/basher.
(In order to rationalize the above rant, we'll exercise the expedient of assuming that the 'model' in question is
my scratch-built Observation Compartment, not the entire SEAVIEW model kit in which the OC fits).
So, I elected to build generic 1/96 figure masters. From those I would make a rubber spin casting
tool, and from that produce the needed number of cast white metal Officer figures to dress out the SEAVIEW's OC interior. I would have the option of breaking arms, legs and heads and repositioning them
to achieved desired poses. However, as it turned out, there was no need to exercise that option - four of the five different figures I made were adequate to fill out the OC scene. Too many figures in
there would have made the display too 'busy' looking.
I took care, during fabrication of each figure master, to insure that each was carefully posed to integrate well with the station in which
that figure stood/sat within the OC model. As work progressed on each figure master, it was placed within the OC model to check for continuity. Thus, I saw to it that the Navigator figure would rest its
hands convincingly on the Navigator's table; the seated Officer at the wardroom table would fill his chair convincingly with his arms lazily outstretched with one grasping a cup of hot coffee. One guy I
had advancing, with long strides, towards the wardroom table, one hand grasping the top of the FLYING-SUB access hatch guard railing as he readied to turn and address the seated figure.
Though
this is a static display - you should endeavor to give 'life', a sense of the dynamic, to your figures as they stand or sit within the model/diorama.
This periodic checking of the figure masters
within the OC went on through out their fabrication.
But, first things first. How to best create the figure masters? What method would afford me the flexibility to impose personal character to
each piece as I went about the work?
Hmmm ... how to make the figure masters? And what materials to make them from?
I could have carved them from wood or dense model building foam - but
that stuff tends to break around shoulders, neck, and crotch at this small size.
Working a self-hardening clay, Super Sculpy, or one of the thick exothermic curing epoxy compounds would have been
the best method of master figure fabrication. However, sculpting in malleable mediums is not my strong suite (but I'm honing that skill - more on my sculpting efforts in a later Cult article).
I
can assure you that had I been, at the time of this job, a more accomplished sculptor, it indeed would have been the method used to achieve the desired figure masters.
What I settled on was a
technique learned years ago from an old professional pattern maker: Solder build-up. It's rather easy, and gives you the ability to instantly lay on a low temperature melting metal alloy or remove it -
making it change state from solid-to-liquid-to-solid again in only seconds.
To sculpt in solder.
Of course the solder had to cling to a mandrel that gives initial shape to the structure.
My figure mandrels were built from solid brass rod and copper wire. The solder selected was a low temperature alloy, good old 60/40 Tin/Lead solder.
Lead bearing solder is getting harder and
harder to find at the stores. One of these days you won't be able to find any, anywhere!
The basic process of making a solid solder figure goes like this: First, a mandrel is constructed to the
basic human form (torso, legs, arms) from stiff brass rod. Around the rod I wrap small gauge copper wire to build up the basic shape of the figure - the head is not rendered at this point; it's added
after most of the body sculpting is done.
Before feeding in the Solder, the wire wrapped figure is positioned in the scene and its arms and legs are positioned into a desired pose. The portion of
mandrel rod projecting from the 'neck' serves as a handle during body contouring. The figures head is worked up later from a blob of solder.
Filling out the wire bound mandrel with solder builds
it up to the basic shape of the figure. Fleshing the figure out, if you will.
Solder work begins by coating the entire brass and copper mandrel with an acid type flux/rosin. Using a small torch,
the mandrel is heated and solder applied. As the solder makes contact with the hot wire, it melts and flows quickly to saturate the gaps between wire and rod. The figure is filled out with solder one
area at a time. Working first the torso, dipping into water to cool and solidify the work, then building up the arms and legs with more solder, dipping in water between each operation. This work goes
quickly. What results is a massive figure of blobbed on solder - not pretty.
The process of 'wicking' does the initial refinement of the figures form. A wick is simply braded copper wire coated
with rosin to insure quick flow of the excess solder from the work into the tight weav of the wicks copper wires. The wick is used here to draw off excess solder, through capillary action, as the work is
locally heated with the tip of a forty-Watt soldering iron. The trick is in determining where solder has to be removed and to then do so by placing the end of the wick (available from most electronic
supply houses) against the work, then to apply heat with the iron, and draw off the required amount of solder from the work.
The first phase of refining the contouring and texturing of the figures
clothing and flesh is done by shifting to a smaller, twenty-Watt soldering iron, where its localized, pin-point application is used to melt and move around solder on the surface of the figure. As this
work moves along, the figure in mass begins to get hot. So, periodically, the figure is dunked into water to cool it. The trick of fine solder contouring is to insure that only those areas under the tip
of the iron are flashed to liquid, moved as desired, and then left to quickly freeze back to the solid state. It's surprising how much initial detail work can be done this way - even to the point of
building up such features as pockets, shirt sleeves, collars, belts, and even rudimentary facial features.
I elected to 'dress' each figure master as an Officer, with shirt, tie, belt and collar
styles indicative of the US Navy's winter kaki uniform. My rational for this? Well ... the OC of the SEAVIEW is the undeclared wardroom of the boat - it's the nicest place aboard the boat to be when one
is in an off-duty status, and so would be regarded as an extension of the boats, Officer's Country. So, at any one time, you would see few enlisted men, dressed in their distinctive solid color one-piece
coverall's (poopy-suits to the initiated), walking the deck of the OC unless performing specific duties. You would not see Able Seaman Paterson or Kowalski lounging in the OC - they would be there only
as aircrew while entering/exiting the FS-1 hangar bay via the deck hatch at the extreme bow of the OC. Other than such exceptions, the OC is 'Officer's only'.
After all possible work had been done
with the small iron, I shifted to knife and files as I cut and smoothed each figures torso, legs and arms to final shape.
With the bodywork done, I directed my attentions to each figures head.
The long brass rod, which to that point had served as a handle, was snipped back to the height of the head and solder built up and contoured with the iron to form a head.
As I prepared to work in
facial features on the tiny figure masters I grabbed a fist full of modeling clay and quickly sculpted a 'study model' bust. This served as a reference as I set about the very exacting work of digging
out and adding putty to put a face to each figure master.
Referring to the clay model I set to work will files, knife, filler, and sandpaper to gouge out eye sockets, cheek hollows, and to build
up brow, ears, mouth and nose - nothing fancy, these little figures were only 1/96 scale, after all!
Once the figure masters were hammered out, it came time to prim the pieces to uncover hidden
flaws and to form a substrate upon which to lay on the final detailing.
Now, sticking primer or paint to raw metal is problematic - most systems will not bond well to non-ferrous metals, and such
is the case with Tin, Lead, Antimony and Alloy's of same. The best means of preparing such substrates for primer adhesion is the process of 'pickling', described in a previous section of this article.
It's just enough for you to know here that an acid is used to produce microscopic pits to the metals surface that produce the mechanical 'tooth' needed to grab the primer.
Want more information on how to pickle and prim? You do? Good...
...Look it up!
I'm not going to spoon-feed you this crap! Show some initiative...
... Get up and sign out of that
chat-room... stop it with those dumb, 'Just what precise shade of duck-blue to paint my Ultimate 1700A?' posts...
spend that otherwise wasted time reading my articles! Spend more time at school and less time ducking classes! You are interested in learning more about the craft of model building, aren't you?
Once pickled and primed I continued to work the gray colored figure masters to further refine anatomy and clothing. Previous to priming I inserted a wire into a foot of each figure to support them for
priming and to later serve as anchor points as the figures were test fit into the OC.
Finally, happy (I'm never truly happy, but one has to be pragmatic about this game if anything is every to
reach completion) with the figure masters, I set about the task of integrating those masters with other masters into a single spin casting type tool. That tool later used to produce the many white metal
model parts that represented the Officers situated about the furnished OC.
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