WIP: Vesuvibear
The theme for SCGMC 2018 is Bearguys. I have a lot of builds planned for the theme this year. I started off this project going for a really quick build to get something done after taking a break from gunpla for about 6 months. This was originally going to be some creepy stone petite guy but the idea slowly morphed into some sort of lava creature. Started off by using a hobby knife to chisel at the plastic to give it a stone look.
I used hot glue to make the eyes and mouth area so the light from the led is diffused. The head was lined with aluminum foil to reflect as much light as it could. Ran an led though the arm and modified a beam effect part to make it look more flame like.
I used magic sculpt to extend the arms and legs to give it the appearance that its coming out of the ground. The head was completely sealed in and more rock detail was sculpted in. I used woodland scenic rock molds to give some areas more texture.
LED test to make sure everything was still working. No way to replace the LEDs if they ever go out. This was essentially turned into a statue by this point.
Wanted to go for a lava flow base. First attempt did not turn out well. The plaster was too runny and it ended up looking like a cake.
Before the plaster dried up. I built it up on the sides of the base to create a slope. Mounted the rocks to the positions and poured a new plaster batch. I was much happier with the results.
As the plaster was drying, huge cracks started to form….
Since the front area was relatively crack free, I decided to just break off the other sides. Fixed the only visible crack with white glue and plaster powder. After I sanded down the sides, this was finally really to paint.
Used blutak to mask off the areas where light shines through. Need to look into alternatives because it take about 3-4 hours to remove it after I was finished painting. Since the plaster is so porous, I had to seal it with a layer of Woodland Scenics scenic cement. I believe that is just a mix of glue, varnish and a bit of soap.
Some test pieces to try to dial in the colors I wanted to use.
The rocky areas got a base coat of a mix of Vallejo RML Red and Orange. The lava areas got a Moon Yellow base coat. I applied a layer of Folkart crackle medium on the yellow areas. That was followed up with a coat of Orange. The crackle medium worked really well on the head but only worked on a few areas of the base. I was really not happy with how the paint job was turning out at this point.
Added yellow highlights around the LED areas. I added some reds to the areas that didnt crackle on the base. On the rock areas, I started off with a mix of Vallejo fire red, mud brown and black. I gradually started to go over it with darker shades of the mix and finally finished it off with a black dry brushing to bring out the edges of the rocks a bit.
Overall, I was happy with the final result. It was a nice break from the usual gunpla modeling.
Source: Freddy Was Wrong