Ola People

I have discussed this with the Staff and all liked the idea quite much. This is about the Illustrated Beginners Encyclopedia (IBE). The idea is actually this: A couple of times I had to answer questions about the basics of modeling. Stretched sprue comes to mind. now I actually have no problem with answering this question or any other question about doesn`t matter waht basic thingy of modeling. But.. I was thinking there might be an easier way of doing this. My English is good but not perfect and sometimes people don`t understand what I mean or it does take me quite long to do an explanation. Then I tought of these sheets you find in the seats of airplanes about what to do in an emergency. Those are always quite clear information sheets and even without text you can understand what they mean with it.
Now I made one example for the Stretched Sprue method and I want to go on with this and make more of these sheets wich shows and explains the basics of some techniques in modeling. Here is the example:


Now my question to you guys is: I`m looking for more of these kind of basics. Stretched Sprue is the first I had simply because I had answered that question not so long ago. other ideas I had were things like washes, sanding and such Now anyone who has a good suggestion for such a sheet please let it know in this post so I get more ideas for the IBE.

Looking forward to your Feedback.

Faust,

Excellent idea.. I wonder how the encyclopidia will be formatted.. Will it be a CD thing or as a feature.. Now Im by no means a pro at this, but the basics of washes have been asked one or 500 times here in the forums.. Perhaps a page on that.. Just a suggestion.

Dave

Faust,
Link to link track assembly.
It can be the popular all at once method or a top and bottom run method.

Hi Faust, excellent idea and very well done!
A got a suggestion, for next IBE sheets:
1) Washes.
2) Sanding.
3) Priming (?).
4) Drybrushing.
5) How to use an aerograph.
6) Gluing and all kind of glues how to.

Cheers and happy new year....

If you´d like some help please let me know, I´m just not so good to make this kind of ilustrations though!
(:-)

If you are going basic, why not go waaaayyyy basic and do how to get parts off the trees and clean up mold seams?
Or how about a low budget toolbox? You know, like using Emery (fingernail polishing) boards vs sanding sticks.. discount or auto store wet/dry sandpaper vs hobbyshop tiny sheets. Back to the place where we all started kind of stuff.

Mike

Hi !
This is good idea. I think thera also shold be some diorama stuff, like making rubble, static grass or cobblestone street, a things like that. These things have been asked a million times in these forums.

Great illustrations!

How about cleaning your airbrush? Or masking canopies?

OLa Robert,
Great idea.
Also good suggestions already made. Some other topics:
Putty
Scribing panel lines/cobble stones
Filters
Pigments .............
Cheers

Howdy FAUST,

As usual (for you), a great idea!!

If there's anything I can do to help, just let me know.

Tread.

Some of the more intricate items/techniques will require a decent amount of illustrations as I'm sure you're aware...

Faust,
I am a realative newcomer to "advanced" modeling and I love this idea. I feel really foolish asking certain questions and having a FAQ with methods that may be common knowledge to someone who has been modelling for a couple of years, but elude us newbies would be awesome. I like the putty and sanding suggestions, since I am not sure if I am doing it right. I use jewlers files to sand but often come out with gouges. how about filling gaps and sink marks? How about what kind of brushes should I use to detail figures and gauges? How about a primer on choosing a type of paint for models (acyrlics, enamels, oils, inks) and where/when they should be used. There are a ton of concepts that I would benifit from seeing in a simple pictorial form like you demonstrated.


By the way, is your last step have a drink to toast your success?

Huzzah for Armorama!

-Matt

Ola People

The feedback is great so far and all have nice suggestions I will make a list of these suggestions and will make a couple more of these sheets. As soon as I have finished a new one I will let you know. Keep in the meantime the suggestions coming.

Howdy FAUST,

Was trying to think of something maybe a little more advanced, but still doable by the beginner,and also be simple to put in illustration form...

How about this, I did this recently for my HEMTT cargo truck.

TURNING FRONT WHEELS.

It's a fairly simple technique, and really adds some flavour to the static vehicle. In other words, more "Bang for the Buck"!
Just a thought.

Tread.

Dear HERO,

If you want any proof-reading, I'll help. Please don't be mad because of the length of the list, and there may be duplicates. You did say encyclopedia.
As for topics, let me tell you that, since I am a middle-aged beginner, I am long on references and short on talent. So, I cross-referenced all my references by computer. Here are some of the "basics" I have collected.
1. Weathering with pastels
2. Airplane battle damage
3. Bases, how to prepare (Celluclay, Durhams, MDF, waterproof styrofoam, etc.)
4. Gluing clear parts
5. Fillers-spackling paste,epoxies,automotive filler,Squadron Green, etc.
6. Filling seams
7. Different glues
8. Planning,layout,staging,perspective
9. Lighting (maybe not a beginners topic)
10. beeswax
11. cleaning parts before assembly
12. putties-VP, Milliput,Dr. Microtools
13. Sources- Micro-mark, Squadron, VLS, Woodland Scenics, etc. etc.
14. working with resin
15. making rubble
16. flattening tires
17. tools- what is needed, how to use
18. how to keep tools from rolling
19. wash new resin with acetone or Blech White
20. constructing buildings
21. kill the styrene shine with wire brush or kitchen cleanser
22. Grandt line for windows, etc.
23. prepping plaster buildings
24. rubble
25. fixing aged decals
26.stucco
27. applying decals
28. storing decals
29. applying dry transfers
30. making custom decals
31. how to make nameplates
32. photographing models and dioramas
33. making tarps and bedrolls
34. pinheads for rivets
35. Gunze 500 for pin holes
36. masking
37. flags from Archer dry transfers
38. differnt paints and thinning for brush or airbrush
39. metal and gunmetal finishes
40. storing paint-blowing before closing,cleaning threads,Vaseline,foil, etc.
41. pegging figures for painting
42. rust
43. using markers for silver,gold or copper
44. building a cheap paintbooth
45. making barbed wire
46. rocks-Durhams, etc.
47. plaster-impregnated guaze
48. bricks-make your own
49. cobblestones-lentils and other methods
50. field grass
51. flyspecking-blowing turf or dirt on a rock wall
52. grass and weeds- Boyd's,FisHair,felt,hemp,theatrical crepe hair,corn silk
53. leaves-spices,silver birch catkin seeds, etc.
54. tree armatures-wood,wire,combo, bottlebrush
55. mud-making and using
56. plaster types and mixing
57. rock molds with latex and guaze
58. trees- wood shungles for pine trees
59. tree armatures-sea foam, sagebrush, tumbleweed, etc.
60. water- how many ways...
61. balsa foam for buildings
62. buckles from milliput
63. casting with Alumilite
64. panty hose for helmet netting
65. Legos for molds
66. E-Z photo etching- Sharpies and p-n-p paper and drawing program
67. converting scales
68. sandbags-epoxy, florists clay, etc.
69. Sculpey uses-and air drying clay uses
70. spectacles
71. sprue stretching
72. bonding styrene, scribe and snap, reinforcing, etc.
73. solder for "gizmology"
74. use of Future (Klear)
75. dry-brushing

Sincerely,
Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower)

Wow. Sealhead's goin' to town on this. Way to go!

I would recommend some basic cleaning and prep studies. I'd also recommend a lesson on pouring plaster for diorama scenery. I'd be happy to help out with the illustrating. I've done some graphic work in the past and would love an excuse to get back to using Illustrator and Photoshop more often. I'm fairly handy with Flash if you want to animate these for a CD-ROM.

Very good work Robert. I should name it as FAUST's online modelling Encyclopedia.
Sealhead list is very good.Please inform if any help needed
Happy new year (:-)

Ola Guys.

man man man what a feedback. Together with Sealheads list we can make an encyclopedia wich will be bigger then Winkler prince or the Brittannia :-) :-) Truely usefull and I copied them all to the list of suggestions I got so far.

Ambrose. It`s great to have somebody who knows his way around in Photoshop and Illustrator. So I think it`s absolutely not a stupid idea to make a Joint Operation out of this. I haven`t played with the idea of making them In Flash so we have some sort of Animated Encyclopedia but let`s first get this online more or less. :-) :-)

Ok if you have something to add what is already suggested or something you ever were curious about but you don`t know how to. Post it here too And We`ll see what we can do

Thanks again guys I`m really excited about the feedback on this subject

scratchbuilding convincing Straps and buckles would be useful info too.
Using the dremel tool or drill as a "micro-lathe" would be good...

DOOOOOO IT!!! PLEASE< PLEASE< PLEASE< PLEASE. As a beginner, it hardly understood some of the things suggested for the contents. What a fantastic idea!!! Please say you will!! It is Christmas (ish) after all (:-)

As a newbie to military modeling, I think that something on how to do camo would be nice. Sorry if it was mentioned above, I looked, but there's sooo much...

I suppose it's safe to say Sealhead would be considered an 'A' type personality??... :-) :-) :-)


Love your list Sealhead........just pullin' your leg

Tread.

You are definately not lying there tread and to be honourst I`m even working on some illustrations for the second sheet.

Faust,
Great Idea!!!!!! Maybe some simple how to figure reanimation or conversion, kit bashing and the cut, bend, and fill.

Hey There!

I'm not a type "A", I'm just older and forgetful.

Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower) (I think!)