Friday, May 13, 2011

Rotting in the morning dew / Apodrecendo no orvalho da manhã

Working as a car designer and modelling as a hobby gives me lots of opportunities to do side projects for my fellow co-workers in exchange for some new desired panzer kits. This new posting is just such a model. The title sounds almost fitting for a horror movie but I couldn't resist the image of a car rotting away for years in the humid morning light in some remote countryside backtrack. An idyllic sight I decided to model with my colleague's, Daniel Gerszon, 1/18th scale die cast Karmann Ghia, made by the chinese manufacturer YatMing.
Trabalhar na area de design automotivo e ter modelismo como hobby sempre me rende algumas encomendas por parte dos colegas de trabalho  e sempre atendo em troca de um ou dois kits que estejam na minha lista de desejos. O Karmann Ghia da YatMing em metal, escala 1/18 do meu colega Daniel Gerszon é uma dessas encomendas. O titulo que eu tinha em mente seria bem apropriado para um filme de terror mas eu nao conseguia imaginar cenario mais apropriado do que o pobre carrinho apodrecendo durante decadas em algum beco de vilarejo no interior. 

 
I decided to go the the whole nine yards and instead of doing just the car, I also did the vignette. I started it all by disassembling the model and striping it of its lustrous paint job, a work accomplished with the help of  my clay modelling pal of Fiat's model workshop, Danilo Camargos, who soaked it in a paint removing fluid and returned it to me in its natural metal finish. I proceded adding bumps and fenderbenders to it, using swiss files and sanding paper. A rough texture. was added next, stippling on Tamiya putty, in order to simulate the rust crusts.
Nesse modelo decidi fazer o pacote completo com vinheta (cenario) em vez de fazer apenas o carro envelhecido. De inicio desmontei o carro e o entreguei a outro colega da Fiat, Danilo Camargos, que trabalha na modelação fisica, para arrancar a pintura lustrosa. Depois de algumas horas numa solução de removedor, Danilo me entregou a carrocaria no metal natural. Usando limas e lixas eliminei linhas de molde e apliquei alguns amassados na lataria.  Seguiu-se entao uma texturização com putty Tamiya e um pincel chato cortado para simular a crosta de ferrugem.


 At this point I stopped the car and started the vignette. After lining out the size of the base, I cut the rough shape out of a ceiling insulation styrofoam hardboard.
Nesse estagio deixei o carro de lado e iniciei o trabalho do cenario. Apos delinear um contorno bruto, recortei a base a partir de um painel de isolação de polistireno expandido. 


To add a bit of relief, I glued a couple of thin foamboard layers over that. These are lunch meat package trays from the local supermarket. See honey, why I kept these after the sunday breakfast?
 Mais relevo foi adicionado, colando algumas camadas de bandeijinhas de frios sobrepostas. Viu, meu bem, por que eu guardei elas depois do café da manhã de domingo?


Once the glue had cured I startes slicing of bits here and there untill I was ok with the shape and sanded it all smooth.
Assim que a cola secou, recortei e lixei partes para dar forma uniforme. depois bastou lixar tudo para alisar.


I wanted a suitable backdrop for the whole thing and planned a brick wall with wooden fencework on top and some kind of adjacent gate. In that scale, I realized that the most convincing wall would have to be done brick by brick, instead of engraving a brickwall pattern into a solid piece of plaster or foamboard. So, I cut the bricks from polyurethane foam sticks, I had herded years ago. See, you never waste anything really! The bricks were assembled together like real wall work, using "mortar" mixed from plaster of Paris and white glue.
Queria, alem do terreno, fazer um fundo e assim optei por fazer uma mureta com cerca e algum tipo de portão. Claro que nessa escala nao basta riscar um padrão de tijolos numa placa de gesso ou isopor. Em vez disso cortei tijolo por tijolo a partir de pedacos de espuma de poliuretano e montei os mesmos como um bom pedreiro, usando "cimento" misturado de gesso em pó e cola branca.


To smoothen out all the terrain, a coat of white glue was applied and paper towels layered on, followed by more glue and another layer of towels, forming a nice hard shell on which I could start adding sand, pebbles and grass. Once this had hardened, I sanded all the edges smooth for a good finish.
Para equalizar o terreno, passei cola branca com pincel e apliquei varias camadas de papel toalha fino, seguido de mais cola e mais toalha de papel, ate formar uma capa dura sobre a qual poderia trabalhar com areia fina, pedrinhas e grama. Uma vez seca, lixei o contorno todo para dar um bom acabamento.


The wooden fence was made from balsa strips mounted on cocktail sticks and glued into place with white glue.
A cerca de madeira foi feita com retalhos de madeira balsa e palitos de madeira diversos. A cerca foi entao montada na parede de tijolos com cola branca.


Adding the first vegetation. To do the Ivy, I used a typical brazilian plant fiber product called "Bucha". It's a vegetal bathing loofah found in most markets. I tear it into shreds and soak the pieces for a couple of minutes in a mix of white glue and water until they get soft and then lay them out where I want them.
Primeira vegetação. Queria fazer trepadeiras (hera) invadindo o cenario e o carro, e o jeito mais bacana e real é usando bucha de banho. Eu rasgo em varios pedaços e deixo de molho na cola branca com agua por alguns minutos para amolecer a fibra. Dai é so aplicar sobre a area planejada. 

 
Time to lay down the earthwork, pebbles and stones and grass. instead of sand, I use fine foam turf, basically ground sponge powder. Using sand over a coat of white glue will result in a very hard shell, not suitable for my purposes, so, I prefer the sponge powder. Grass is made with chopped up sisal rope. Static grass is too small for this scale and would dissapear under the following coats of thinned white glue. I seal this with another coat of dilluted white glue on top and small pebbles (railroad ballast) are added here and there for a bit of texture. Some more thinned glue and larger grit pebbles and stones are added. A last coat o thinned glue ensures that nothing  falls off.
 Hora de aplicar terra. Eu uso pó de esponja moida. É tao fino quanto areia e prefiro porque que nao seca numa casca tão dura. Grama foi adicionada em seguida. Usei fibra de corda de sisal picada com tesoura. Static grass seria uma opção se a escala fosse menor. Aqui ela desapareceria debaixo das camadas de cola que se seguem para selar e aproveito o embalo pra jogar um pouco de pedrinhas de ferromodelismo aqui e ali para dar textura. Mais cola diluida e adiciono as pedrinhas maiores. Passo uma ultima demão de cola sobre tudo! Odeio material solto.


Next step was to create a realistic looking gate next to the wall / fence. I first thought of doing a wooden gate but had a better idea just popping up in my mind: I used thick aluminum foil from a tube of swiss mustard. I flattened it out and drew a linear corrugated pattern using a burnishing tool with a round tip and a rule. Simple and effective.
O portão inicialmente deveria ser de madeira tambem mas uma ideia bem mais inusitada me pegou de surpresa. Usei folha de aluminio grossa proveniente de uma grande bisnaga de mostarda suiça. Abri a folha e procurei deixa-la mais plana possivel. Com um burnidor de ponta redonta e um regua de acrilico simplesmente tracei as ondulações de chapa zincada corrugada.

Finally, time for some paint. First, primer. Basics were airbrushed using varied tones of buff, brown and dirty greys; all Tamiya.
Finalmente, hora de pintar alguma coisa. Primeiro, primer. As bases sao tons de buff, marrom e cinzas meio sujos, tudo Tamiya.


A dark acrilic wash was applied over everything to add depth:  Ivory black & raw umber
Uma aguada bem escura foi aplicada em tudo para dar sombra e profundidade: Preto marfim & sombra crua


The gate was painted with the well known salt technique, I described some time earlier this year.
O portão de chapa foi pintado usando o metodo do sal que descrivi alguns meses atras


Now, it all happens very fast. The painted gate is attached to the base and green foliage from Woodland Scenics is glued to the Ivy vines.Dry leaves from the same brand are liberally glued around the base where dry leaves usually accumulate. A chain and padlock made from sheet styrene is also added to the gate.
Agora tudo acontece bem rapido: o portão pintado é colado a base e folhagens verdes da Woodland Scenics sao coladas nas trepadeiras da cerca e da mureta. Folhas secas da mesma marca foram coladas em abundancia onde elas se acumulariam da vida real. Um cadeado feito de chapa de plastico e arame, e uma corrente, sao colocadas no portão.


Some more veggies were made for greater variety using sisal rope strands drawn through white glue and then dipped into that ground up sponge turf. Once painted green, they added a lot to the base. Bricks were individually painted with different orange and siena shaded oils. The mortar was picked out using light warm grey color pencil. Rust shaded pastel chalks were liberally applied to the rusty gate to age it further. The base contour was then finally painted flat black. With this the vignette was finished!
Mais matinhos foram confeccionados com filamentos de corda de sisal, que passei pela cola branca e depois naquele pó de esponja. Pintados de verde eles contribuiram muito para o volume da vegetação no cenario. Os tijolos foram realcados individualmente com varios tons alaranjados e avermelhados de tintas a oleo e o cimento reforcado com lapis de cor com tom quente de cinza claro.Assim se encerrou o trabalho da vinheta!

 
The car had already undergone the texture treatment a couple of days back and now that the vignette was finished, it received its primer coat.
O carro ja tinha recebido o tratamento de textura alguns dias antes, e agora que a vinheta estava finalizada, pôde receber algumas camadas de primer.


 The paintjob I had in mind would have to be carried out using the salt technique, to better represent the very advanced rust state. As usual, I started with a rust colored base, spraying 3 or 4 different browns, dark orange and earth reds. This time, however, I chose darker shades. This would give the car a feel of much older rust. I used Tamiya paints throughout the whole job.
A pintura que tinha em mente invariavelmente usaria a técnica do sal para representar ferrugem em estado avançado. Assim sendo, iniciei a pintura com alguns tons de marrom, tendendo para o avermelhado nas ultimas passadas de aerógrafo. Diferente do que faço de costume, usei tons bem mais escuros. Isso daria um ar de ferrugem bem mais velha.  Para o trabalho, apenas tintas Tamiya foram usadas.


After the rust colored basecoat, it’s time to sprinkle on the salt. I sprayed water over it and carefully deposited small flecks of table salt around edges, on the bumps and scratches I had done with the Swiss files a bit more concentrated, as these spots usually rust faster and more profusely. I let the whole thing dry over night.
Depois da base ferrugem, a hora de aplicar o sal. Com o aerógrafo molhei de leve o modelo, distribuindo pequenas manchas de sal em áreas mais expostas. Nos amassados depositei o sal em concentração maior já que essas áreas enferrujam mais rápido e mais profusamente. Deixei secar durante a noite.


I didn’t chose a specific color for the car but rather one that would give a nice contrast to the background scene and to the rusty weathering itself. I mixed a slightly greenish light blue color from Tamiya shades with a drop or two of gloss varnish for a discreet sheen surface finish. Once the spraying was done, I waited until the model was safe to touch and then proceeded holding it under the tap of my kitchen sink. Bye-bye salt, hello rust spots!
Escolhi uma tonalidade sem me preocupar com a exatidão da tinta do ano, mas procurando dar um contraste agradável com o cenário do fundo e com as manchas de ferrugem e do envelhecimento. Misturei algumas tintas Tamiya no que resultou num tom água-marinha claro e adicionei umas gotas de clear para quebrar o fosco típico da tinta, deixando um acabamento mais acetinado. Com o trabalho de aerógrafo finalizado, deixei secar ao toque e me mandei pra cozinha para tirar o sal debaixo da água da torneira. Tchau sal, olá ferrugem!


Next, before starting the final weathering process on the car body, I had to add the vegetation to the car interior and exterior, again using the same methods described earlier in the scenery. Here too, green and dried leaves were glued all over the interior. Beforehand, a dark brown color was airbrushed to the interior components and immediately “cleaned off” with a rag, resulting in a down and dirty smudged appearance.
For a final dramatic touch I used a jewelers saw to cut out the rearwindow. With a sharp point I scribed a broken glass pattern to the remaining glass of the frame.
Em seguida, antes de iniciar o processo final de envelhecimento da carroceria, tive que adicionar a vegetação no interior e exterior, novamente utilizando os materiais e técnicas descritas no cenário. Aqui também foram usadas folhas verdes e secas por todo o interno. Pouco antes aerografei um tom marrom escuro no interno todo, “limpando” em seguida com um retalho, resultando numa aparência bem encardida. Para dar um toque de dramaticidade a mais, recortei parte do vidro traseiro e inscrivi no que restou na moldura, um padrão de vidro quebrado com uma ponta seca.


All the parts were then finally  joined and screwed together and several layered filters and washes applied to weather the paint. Cloudy rust streaks were airbrushed all over the model and oily stains tucked in with a pointed brush. The chromed parts were carefully rubbed down with kitchen steel wool and pure Raw Umber oil paint was smeared over the parts and wiped off using cotton swabs to wear the shine of the chrome further down. The vinyl tires looked too new for such an abandoned car. First I flattened them in a hot frying pan on the stove, and then cutting off the excess molten material. Then I sanded them thoroughly to give them a dull appearance. Thinned down earth brown Tamiya color was sprayed to the lower part of the car to blend it in with the surrounding groundwork of the diorama. The car was then finally glued to the base. Mission accomplished!
Todos os componentes foram entao finalmente unidos e parafusadas. Varios filtros e washes localizados foram aplicados para envelhecer a cor. Escorridos esfumacados de ferrugem foram aplicados por todo o carro com aerografo e manchinhas de oleo feitas com tinta a oleo e pincel. As partes cromadas receberam um trato com palha de aço para atenuar o brilho excessive e tinta a oleo Raw Umber foi pincelada nelas e depois limpa com cotonetes para apagar o brilho mais um pouco. Os pneus de vinil novinhos em folha nao combinavam com o carro tão abandonado. “murchei” os mesmos, derretendo-os numa frigideira no fogo. Cortei o material derretido fora e lixei os pneus para dar um visual mais fosco. Cor terra da Tamiya, bem diluida, foi aerografada na parte mais baixa do modelo para integrar o modelo no cenario. Finalmente, o modelo foi colado na base. Missão cumprida! 


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