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Modeller Build Logs
Firefly IC Diorama |
| By James Wechsler | | Started: | Jul 15, 2007 | | Updated: | Aug 31, 2007 |
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This blog is intended to be a bit different than most in that a big focus will be on the diorama aspects. The focal point will be a Firefly IC (a welded hull M4 based Firefly). This will be built using the new Dragon Sherman III kit and the following Formations sets:
F079 M4 Conversion for the Dragon Sherman III
F022 Low Bustle Firefly Turrret
F018 Sherman Pioneer Tools
F050 Sherman Headlights
F046 Sherman Siren Assortment
F047 Sherman VVSS Track Skids
F013 US Cables and Clamps
The diorama is going to show the Firefly driving over a temporary bridge with a wrecked Panzer I command tank partly submerged in the river below.
I intend to include a number of chapters on making the ground work and also on how to make the water.
Up next: The M4 Conversion |
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| Pouring the water – part way | Aug 26, 2007 |
Pouring the water – part way
Well I thought this was going to be a short chapter that simply showed how the Envirotek looked about half way through the pouring process. But I had a pretty big disaster, actually the worst one I’ve ever had, and it nearly killed this project. So I’ll use this chapter to explain it and the fix I made.
As I mentioned in the previous chapter, you can usually pour Envirotek to a depth of about ½ inch without it getting too hot. The river I’m making is about 3.5 inches deep so that means I’ll need to make roughly 7 pours or so.
Envirotek is a two part product that you mix together in equal amounts Think of it like using 2 part epoxy but a little thinner in consistency. One nice feature is that you can tint it by adding a little acrylic paint. I’ve been adding about 4 drops of Tamiya brown per pour. That adds a very slight tint that isn’t strong enough to fog the river too much.
Without a doubt the most important aspect of pouring Envirotek is making sure that you get out all of the air bubbles. Of course you get a ton of air bubbles when you mix the two parts together but with Envirotek you simply breathe on it and the bubbles disappear! The CO2 in your breath reacts with the Envirotek and ta da, no bubbles. So you can pour it into the diorama, give it a minute or two so the bubbles rise to the surface and breathe on it a few times. Usually this works great. But not this time.
Yes my big disaster was a large swath of bubbles that appeared long after I made the pour. Usually Envirotek is pretty liquid for a good 6 hours but this time it solidified much quicker, probably because I’d set it next to a halogen lamp I use on my work bench and the heat accelerated the drying process. Murphy’s law.
So what happened was I made the first pour over the river bed to a depth of about 3/8 of an inch. All seemed well and there were no bubbles after I breathed on it. I checked it for about 30 minutes and it seemed fine. Then I ate dinner and checked again after another 1 ½ hours. And to my shock and dismay there was a huge swath of bubbles approximately ¾ inch long by 1/2 inch wide! Worse, the Envirotek was nearly solid. Upon looking more closely, I noticed that there were a couple of other areas of bubbles that were noticeable but not as large. Crisis. I think what happened was that the Envirotek seeped through the river bed and contacted the polyfoam base below it, releasing some of the air in the foam. In the future I’ll seal the foam first before putting down the river bed.
There was no way I could continue without some type of fix. One choice was to lay a new river bed over the water which would partially bury the tank. This is a viable option but a major time sucker since I’d have to remove the dam, sand the side wall smooth, repaint, and then lay the new river bed.
The other choice was to find some way to get rid of the bubbles. I figured that I had little to lose by attempting this since I could always lay a new river bed anyway. So I got out my Xacto knife and carved away the Envirotek where the air bubbles had emerged. Thankfully the Envirotek still had a consistency similar to a rubber tire so I could cut it. After I carved out the bubble area, it looked terrible with all kinds of jagged edges and that frosted look. I thought I’d blown it for sure. But I waited until it dried and then I painted the area with a product called Acrylic Varnish that you can get at an art supply store. I added a few leaves to hide the really nasty parts and held my breath. Then I made another pour. To my surprise and relief, the problem area faded into the water nicely and after a few more pours it became very hard to see. The photo shows the project after 5 pours and it is looking directly at the problem area.
So can you see where I made my huge mistake?
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