Sorry there's not been much progress over this last week. This post has no pics so tl;dr version is that I'm making slow progress designing the torso.
My graphics tablet arrived last week and I did some playing around on the weekend, but it didn't confer the amazing drawing skills I'd hoped
Don't get me wrong, I do find it easier than just pencil sketching, it's just that the tablet itself has a little bit of a learning curve, and drawing angled armour (as opposed to curved armour) isn't easy either. I will keep at it but have lowered my expectations to something a little more realistic. I'm always too ambitious ()!
I've had a few more goes at brass etch but just can't get the toner to transfer to the brass properly. Then I remembered the problem which I eluded to much earlier in this thread): I'm printing using a Brother laser printer. Apparently Brother uses a toner which fuses at a much higher temperature with other printers and that would be a good reason as to why even using the proper pren-n-peel film with a high temperature modified laminator I still get poor results. Unfortunately both of our laser printers at work are Brother (other than this we've been very happy with the brand), but a colleague has a Canon one so I have given him a sheet of the press-n-peel and asked him to print out the artwork for me. This will provide me with the sole tiny icon that will mount at the bottom front of the pelvis armour.
Once the brass etch is done the pelvis and its armour will be complete, at which point it will go in for moulding. With the parts duplicated I will then finally be able to start work on the torso!
My plans for the torso require me to first sculpt up the design in plastecine (clay). The idea is to mount the legs and pelvis cast on a board with a stand and armature like you see and then sculpt up the torso mockup on top, supported by the armature. Once I have a sculpt I like I can then proceed with duplicating it in styrene and Milliput.
Lastly, I've made some small progress with the pilot. Progress in that I tried and failed dismally to sculpt it! I was following and they all make sense, but it's not until you have this tiny little armature that you're trying to attach bits of greenstuff and Fimo to that you realise just how difficult it is. So I certainly won't be sculpting any pilot
from scratch. I have been in touch with a guy called Wereweevil from Wargamerau who lives nearby (and works literally around the corner from my work) who is pretty good at figure sculpting. We're going to collaborate on something for the pilot.
You'll be pleased to hear though that I've managed to get past the mental block of the pilot so will continue on the cockpit and torso likely before the pilot is even started!
That's all I can think of now. Hopefully my next update will include brass etch
Oh yeah I can make that....