Yūrakuchō

[Kamome442]

Thanks @kami_illy Honestly I had pretty low expectations for using glitter. I just figured it was worth trying because I already had the glitter. 

It is actually now the front runner and looking at it more closely the cellophane barrier left the resin surface with a satin finish not the usual gloss. It probably wouldn't need any additional work to complete the effect.

 

I did try sticking the glitter to sellotape, not individually with tweezers! just carefully sprinkling each colour to see if I could get a more accurate pattern. The results did not look any better than having just a mix so it wasn't really worth it.

 

The next test will be printing on waterslide transfer paper. I finished the test artwork in illustrator today. Basically I took a picture of the wall and using the eyedropper tool coloured rows or squares. Once I a 20x20 section I used copy paste create a full wall section. A little reflecting and rotating to stop the pattern looking repetitive and we are ready to go:

 

I will also grooved acrylic sheet over the top. As for metallic paint I only have a metallic blue. I think before spending money on more paint I will try this as a base coat and run a speckle pass with chrome. Hopefully I will be able to get an idea of how it will look.

 

@cteno4 I have seen pictures of the bakery. The floor looking stunning, I had no idea it was made brick by brick. I can imagine it did send her slightly crazy 🤣

I have just sent her some etched chairs she asked me to draw up and having made one up myself I think they could be just as stressful 🤭

[Kamome442]

Playing Around With Ideas

 

So I tested waterslide transfers on both silver and white backgrounds. Of the two white gave the best results:

 

It looks okay from a normal viewing distance however is just a little flat and dull close up. I also played around with spray painting speckle patterns in metallic and clear paints. These did not turn out great, probably more due to my painting skills than anything. The problem was speckles from each colour pass overlapping, it quickly became a hot mess. 

Honestly I think the glitter turned out better than expected, all subsequent tests left me a little underwhelmed. Having seen the waterslide version and getting a better idea of how small each of the little tiles should be, the glitter is heavily over scale. I wanted something that looked like glass finer than glitter. I did look for crushed glass but all I could find was either bigger than the gutter or crushed to a fine powder.

 

The answer was of course coloured sand. 

I first tried mixing it with resin but it just ended up as a mushy discoloured mess. 

For the second test I treated it like ballast and used watered down PVA glue and an eye dropper:

 

The photo doesn't really do it justice. It already looks much better than any of the previous tests. It was tricky to get the surface perfectly smooth and this test does have a few lumps. 

For the third test I wanted to see if I could get a perfectly flat surface. For this I simply poured sand on a piece of sellotape I then placed a block on top and applied pressure. Finally I brushed off the loose sand. I was expecting there to be lots of gaps but I was wrong it worked perfectly:

 

Hard to see the photo but there is a subtle sparkle as you move it around and it has a very consistent smooth finish. I will need to seal it somehow maybe with a clear glue or vanish. Also there was some noticeably finer sand, you can just about make it out near the top so I will probably sieve it carefully first to get consistent sized grains.

I am able to slide strips of paper behind this sample so that I can test the best background colour to use. 

For the finished arch I am planning use double sided sticky tape applied to the walls. Which can be dipped in sand and compacted.

[cteno4]

Joe,

 

wonderful set of experiments! Love to see the progress of what ends up working at scale to the eye. 
 

In the end on the tape are you going to hit it with some sort of fixative or just rely on the tape adhesive to work? Might look at using transfer adhesive instead of double stick tape as their adhesives are usually super, super sticky and very permanent. They also have little or no center membrane so it does well squishing the adhesive layer into smaller deformations and thus a better bond. Sand particles may sick into this better. Down side is it’s usually in thinner rolls and it’s more expensive than regular double sided tapes.

Again great work, Kudos!

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

Thanks for the tip jeff, I will certainly look into transfer adhesive the stickier the better and I like the idea of a thin membrane some of double sided tape is pretty chunky. 

[cteno4]

Warning transfer adhesive is sort of like using contact cement, once it comes into contact it’s stuck! It’s even been used to mount thin auto trim pieces where brackets would, be too tiny. Interesting stuff.

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

So you are saying there is a chance for comedy to ensue. Don't worry I promise to share pictures of me trying to remove the arch I accidentally stick to the end of my finger. 

I am still finding glitter 2 weeks after using it.

[cteno4]

Yes think super glue meets rubber cement meets contact cement! Interesting stuff. We used double stick take a lot with chipboards doing 3/4” scale exhibit models but at times it did not have the strength to hold some parts well and gluing was a pain when working on these quickly. The head designer had me order a roll of it (from a local car supply place as he knew they usually stocked it to put trim back on cars in places) and it was great. But it took care laying it down and even cutting it at times as it could stick to the scissors or knife blade easily. It does peel off your fingers better than super glue! 
 

A friend went as I think it was a genie to a Halloween party and used a ton of body glitter. He said he kept finding glitter all over his life for a few months subsequently…

 

hmm transfer adhesive and glitter and Joe body decorations…

 

jeff

 

 

[Kamome442]

I'm Sure It Will Buff Out!

Well it is finally time to finish installing tubes to carry the wiring for street lights. I had already installed one end on the scenic side I just needed bring the other ends out off scene. I have been putting this off for a while as I knew it would be a big operation. I started by cutting off the side of the board:

 

This gave the room to install the lights that sit along the edge of the board. There are 3 to install however I did think I would only be able to have two working, more on that in a bit. It also gave me a chance to see where all the tubes had ended up after poking them through holes when installing the pavement. I was able to use a ruler to poke around and get them all facing in the same direction. The next step was to cut a large hole under the 7-Eleven arch where they will all feed into:

 

I also had to make a smaller hole under the Tokaido Main Line tracks (just visible above the big hole) for one of the lights further back. Now I need to construct some side walls to support tracks above. I will drill holes in the walls for the tubes to exit out of sight. You may notice the pavement at the front looks a little springy. There are three street lights along this pavement however I knew that the one on the very corner would drop into the solid corner block I had placed inside the board when constructing it.

For a while I thought about just having two working lights and one cosmetic light on the corner. I really wasn't happy about that idea so I figured I might as well keep cutting! There was no way I was going to try to lift the pavement as it took ages to make has a very intricate pattern of tiles that would be hard repair if I damaged it. I realised I could just cut board around the pavement and carefully lift it out of the way. 

The cover blocks hold board pins to connect to neighbouring boards on the ends and a channel for a hex nut along the front edge that will be used to hold a perspex screen when the layout is out and about. I have placed one of each on the block to illustrate their position:

 

As luck would have it there is gap or about 5mm between the two and street light is positioned perfectly in that gap. Lovely when things happen by chance!

I was able to use a chisel to create little trench and have 3 working lights. My job for this evening to start gluing everything back together.

Joe

[Kamome442]

Extreme Makeover Layout Edition

 

I started the day making the side walls for the pit of doom. This was pretty simple and just involved cutting strips of wood, then drilling holes where the wires would need to pass through. I glued brass tube into the holes for the tubing to attach to (top). On the side the wires will exit I sanded the brass flush and made sure there were no sharp edges or burrs that the wires could catch on (bottom). 

 

 

Once all the tubes had been connected I could then glue the wall in place. A glimpse behind the wall at the messy jumble of tubes.

 

With all the walls in place it was time to glue everything back in place (top). Finally time to move that bus, and see the restored scene (bottom).

 

I will need to construct some form of conduit to protect the wires but I will save that for another day.

[Kamome442]

 I made a very rough mockup of the night club arch to see how it would look in a scene using the sand.

It is just two pieces of card in the basic shape needed.

 

A closer look.

[cteno4]

Wow Joe, that came out great!

 

jeff

[Kamome442]

2 hours ago, cteno4 said:

Wow Joe, that came out great!

 

jeff

 

Thank you, the transfer adhesive worked really well. It wasn't too bad to use for the test piece, it did gum up the scissors a little however I was able to clean them really easily with a dab of acetone. I am dreading making the final version there are lots of little holes to carefully cut out 😬

[cteno4]

Yeah it does tend to stick to the scissors and knife blades a lot. Keeping the blades clean as you use them really helps as if there is a bit on the blade it can really grab a bigger piece on the next cut.

 

just realized it’s like watching a fine sushi chef that cleans the blade on each cut to the knife slides thru perfectly! 

 

jeff