Iron Painter 8 Round 6 (Final!): "Last One Standing"

[Bexley]

Iron Painter 8 recently started up over at Wyrd Miniatures, and I have entered. This is a contest where instead of submitting an entry (it's all online) based on pre-defined categories, you sign up in advance. You are randomly paired with another participant (actually, two participants in the first round, as over 128 people signed up and the contest would run for seven months other wise) each round. You have two weeks to build and paint an entry. A theme is announced at the start of each round- primarily, to keep people from starting early, though the difficulty of some of the themes has become a signature of the contest. At the end of the two weeks, a panel of four judges scores all the entries. If your score beats the score of your randomly assigned opponent, you proceed to the next round. If you are beaten, you are eliminated. The next round generally starts about a week after the previous one ends. This continues until there is only one person left- the Iron Painter. Typically, they run about six rounds, so that's one entry every three weeks for four and a half months. I went all the way to the end of Iron Painter 5, lost (by 1.4 pts!) in the final round of Iron Painter 6, and lost in the semi-final round of Iron Painter 7. (And I might have continued on in IP7, but I wasn't satisfied with my entry, and mentioned on the site's forum that I wasn't finished. All the judges docked me points based on not being finished. Had I kept my fool mouth shut, I likely would have advanced, as I believe I only lost by 2.5 points or so.)

ANYway. The theme for the first round is "Start Your Engine." My plan is a post-apocalyptic father and daughter with a stalled-out motorcycle. The scale is 1/35. I admit to being a overly found of post-apocalyptic stuff. Mostly, because the opportunities for rust and weathering and decay are limitless. (I particularly like the Fallout video games' take on it- 50's future retro blown to bits. Mostly, because it allows the mixing of WW2, sci-fi, and modern kits and accessories.)



The bike is from Mini Art, and I have to say, it's an incredibly detailed little kit. It even has photo etched wingnuts on the bar that holds the battery in place. Sadly, my build will lack them, as one of them shot out of my tweezers and will likely never be seen again. Regardless, it's something ridiculous like 112 parts for a model that's about 2.5 inches long.

I'm at the point right now where I'm deciding what parts to glue on and which leave off for painting. I'm also probably going to leave off a few of the kit bits, and replace them with strip and rod, so that it looks like it's been fixed up with scrap. One idea I had was to make a new front fender from thin styrene or brass, to look as though it had been hammered out of a traffic sign. A stop sign was my first thought, but a "Ped Xing" sign might be funnier, mounted on the front of a motorcycle.

[darrylhuffman]

One of the great pleasures in the online experience is to see how other people approach model building.

Working "outside the box" provides such a great opportunity for expression.

My first thought was to watch Mad Max again but then I realized doing so would tempt me to do what so many people complain about:  modeling what we see on TV rather than reality.

Of course the Apocalypse has not happened so that reality is not reality anyway.

It will be interesting to see your progress.

Have fun.

[Bexley]

A little more (not as much as I'd like) work done tonight.



More on the bike. I roughed up some of the frame and the fender a bit. One tail light will be missing, and I plan to put some loose wires hanging from the bracket. I've got a few more bits assembled, but they'll be left off for now to facilitate painting. (The wheel and fender are not yet attached either, but it was easy enough to stick 'em on for the photo.)



Dad. The torso and legs are from the Mini Art "Germans at Rest" kit, though they are not from the same figure. Initially, I figured my biggest problem would be finding the right arms and then positioning them to be working on the bike. However, a third figure in the kit is reading a book, and I had a flash of inspiration, seeing the book as a repair manual. It would add to the scene if the father appeared to be a bit stumped as to how to fix the bike, and give the daughter even more reason to be exasperated. Plus, it meant the arms wouldn't have to connect to the bike. The other arm is from Verlinden, and will be holding a hand tool. (I haven't yet decided what. Wrench seems obvious, but somehow screwdriver feels right. I don't know, maybe because it adds to the mechanical cluelessness of the dad.) The head is from Hornet, and is from the "bare heads smoking" set. He'll get some hair and a cigarette.



Daughter. From the Masterbox "Western Region Civilians" kit. I wasn't big on the head, though. The detail isn't so great, and the hair is a bit... funky. I think it was partially miscast. Fortunately, the Bronco "Allied Women at War" set are about the same size, so I'm borrowing a head from one of those figures. I'll have to do a little facial surgery to make her look upset, but I don't think it'll take much. I plan on giving her a helmet of some sort. Probably a WW2 US helmet, since I have a lot of them. I'd prefer a football helmet, or a batter's helmet, to give her a more ramshackle appearance, but I don't have the time to go looking for one, and then wait for it to arrive in the mail. She'll also get a backpack. Not yet sure if it'll be a military style pack, or Hello Kitty. I'm heavily leaning toward the latter. Maybe a military pack with a Hello Kitty patch on it. I'm going to put a few bits of stowage strapped to the bike, and I have some stuffed animals from Reaper Miniatures, so she'll have a toy unicorn in the baggage.

[Chuck Doan]

Looks like fun! I think Hello Kitty would be a big part of any post-apoxyclipse scenerio.

[Bexley]

I think Hello Kitty would be a big part of any post-apoxyclipse scenerio.

Maybe even the reason for a post apocalyptic scenario.

[Malachi Constant]

Oh no, the Hello Kitty Apocalypse! 

Bronco head is a nice choice for the girl ... that set does have some nice faces.  Speaking of Bronco ... and the lost PE wing nut ... Bronco makes injection-molded plastic wing nuts that look better than PE versions, cuz they have the full 3D detail.

Looks like you've got the dio planned out to be rather interesting ... following along ...

Cheers,
Dallas

[Bexley]

Speaking of Bronco ... and the lost PE wing nut ... Bronco makes injection-molded plastic wing nuts that look better than PE versions, cuz they have the full 3D detail.

Unfortunately, my FLHS doesn't stock them. I have to upload pics by 10pm next Monday, and while I may get them in time via mail order, I'd rather not hold things up for relatively unnecessary parts. (If this were a modelling contest, I likely would, but it's a painting contest. I would bet nobody judging will ever notice they were missing. I will certainly keep that in mind, though.)

[Chuck Doan]

Grandt Line has wingnuts too, but I don't know if they are the right size. Just for future ref.

[Bexley]

Hm. In HO scale? One of my two local stores carries a huge selection of Grandt Line, but only the HO scale stuff.

(Oh, if only there were some great interconnected network of information with which I could look this up...)

EDIT: Hm. 1:48, it seems. Which might work, but will take several days to get here. Ah, well.

[Bexley]

Batteries are dead in the camera, so no photo update tonight. Not a whole lot to show, though. I filled some gaps on the figures, and tattered up the clothing a bit with the Dremel and some putty. I began sculpting the hair on Dad, and got a bit more of the bike assembled.

I also started looking for a helmet for Daughter. I was going to use a modern US Fritz helmet, but I really liked how the WW2 US helmet looked on her head- extra big, which in turn makes her look more childlike. I'll add some brass etched chin straps, hanging unbuckled.

[Rail and Tie]

I am going to have to do something with this bike as well!! Glad you are are attempting it. The girl screams Hello Kitty or at least Alice!! ... with some weapons.

You go girl!!!

[Junior]

This should be real interesting and looking great so far. Great idea with the front fender as well. Myself I have just finished a bunch of these bikes for my shop but made civilian versions out of them - lots of cutting etc. will post pics. soon.

Here is your girl in a helmet (from the MIG forum). Maybe you already saw this pic.

Anders

Pic. 1 ][/img]

[Bexley]

Is that supposed to be a kid with that medal? It looks like a midget. Must be Verlinden; all their kids look like midgets.

Or Cotton Hill. I AIN'T GOT NO SHINS! I KILLED FITTY MEN!

[Bexley]

A little more done. Got Dad mostly assembled. He still needs his head, and a screwdriver. (Forgot
to photograph the head.) His hair is all sculpted. I also need to get some very thin rod to make his
cigarette. In this shot, I'm mostly just playing with positioning.





I AM VERY CROSS.

Daughter is just about finished. The back pack and helmet are only tacked on for the
photo, and will be positioned a bit better. I may need to Dremel her hair down a touch,
so it doesn't appear to be holding the helmet up. I added some putty to her brow to make
her look more angry, then Dremeled off and resculpted the mouth to remove her smile and give
her sort of a pouty/petulent look. I'm pretty happy with it- I've resculpted bits before, or
added simple things, but I've never tried to change an expression, and this came out better
than I'd hoped. She still needs a neck, though. Right now, her head is just superglued to a
nub I added to help determine the right position.

[BKLN]

That expression in her face is absolutely perfect! It goes with her whole posture of nervousness and doubt.