Finished Model

1 Day to go!

With less than 24 hours to go my model currently looks like this

I need to finish painting the sand as it is too yellow and have bought some white paint to mix tomorrow.
Corals are the main piece missing from this model.

To do:-
Finish painting sand
Paint Corals
Apply Corals
Paint tree roots
Clad and paint rest of Styrene
Stick Upper Rock Work On
Stick water effect on
Clean Model

Deadline in 3 days!

Since my last post I have been working hard to finish my model. My water effect PVC never arrived so I have also been testing my own methods.

Currently I have finished painting the upper rock work and applied all the plants other than a few trees. The models inside parts have been finished and assembled including scale people and information boards.

The image below includes the water effect that I'm planning on using, it was made by vac forming plastasine with clear styrene sheet creating ripples.

So far everything is going well and lots of people have made good remarks about the realistic rock work and plants.

With wednesday thursday and most of friday left I need to :-

Finish painting coral rock work
Attach rock work to walls
Attach water affect
Screw walls to base
Sculpt the rest of the corals
Paint all the corals
Apply all the corals
Add sand and texture to base of Aquarium
Paint sand texture
Add a few more trees
Complete cladding
Spray final areas

Working towards the finish line

I managed to laser cut today! The result is really good the letters and shapes are easily recognisable and I managed to remove the all letters without damaging any, this will be sprayed tomorrow with everything else I can spray.

I have also tested the sea foam

The two on the left are parsley and the one on the right is small flock, neither for me really work well the parsley is to large and the small flock is too small. Though these will work as bushes, but I will try find a better flock for tree foliage.

The rock work is now undercoated.

Penultimate Week!

Work is going well I have completed most my aquarium structure, I haven't finished the rock work, but milliput has arrived today which will allow me to finish it tomorrow so I can concentrate on painting.

This is what I currently have at university. The base and tubing wall have been sprayed while all other styrene has been primed. Laser cutting the walls is still yet to be done however, I have booked the laser cutter for thursday. Once I have done the lower rock work I can start to paint . The walls of the aquarium are all joined together now and will be attached to the base once the rock work is completed and I can start to apply corals/plants etc.

I am still waiting on two final orders, the scale people and the water effect PVC both should be with me this week, but it seems the second may not have come due to complications. I have already made adjustments to my model to accommodate the plastic sheet and if time allows I may try and create my own water effect using the vac former.

While I waited for milliput, I concentrated on creating the finishing items. I started to paint the rock work arch as it was finished but am waiting to paint the rock work all together so they do not differentiate to much.

I have been assembling and painting the scale link plants I bought.

They are looking very good I have used different greens and amount of leaves to create variation that you would in the wild they have all been dry brushed to bring out the shape of the leaves and detail.

I have created a ground cover that I am happy with using different scatters, tea (from tea bags), herbs, and miniature leaves.

Again I think variation, using different colours and textures really creates a natural look, this will then have bushes and plants on top of it. Some made from using another natural product sea foam.

I bought this product after researching how to create miniature trees, this was highly recommended and from pictures looked the most realistic. The technique requires me to spray the plant with spray mount then apply scatter. I think I will use small herbs and cuttings of the sea foam to create small trees/large bushes and possibly parts of bigger trees. This technique will be tested soon!

Corals will be a very important part of my model and I have already created 100+ ready for painting. I have created a list of the types I'm creating and the amount for each, I still have plenty to go and all will need painting. Here is a few that I have made.

I'm especially happy with my brain corals that once painted should look really good. 

Lastly I'm creating trees using bent wire and milliput which will given foilage either using scale link tree leaves or sea foam. 

I am confident that I will finish my model to a good standard though with an extra week I think I could add lighting and more painting detail. 

To do :- 

Finish rock work

Paint rock work

Complete all corals

Paint all corals

Attach Corals

Laser Cut Design

Make trees/shrubs

Attach all foliage

Spray paint aquarium walls 

Attach scale people and info boards

Clad final areas

Attach walls to base

Create and paint sandy sea floor

Attach water effect PVC (pending)

Yet to Laser cut!

I've decided on my method to create the textured coral reef rockwork.

This is my test piece above. This was created by sandblasting yellow foam then adding sand, then milliput on top in certain areas. The piece was sandblasted again while the milliput was still wet, then more sand was applied over areas I wanted to hide. 

This is a part of my real model that is yet to be painted and have the final coat of sand. This is better than my previous attempts as it has more textures and big recesses.

I still haven't laser cut the designs though I tested using sheet styrene.

The words were at a size that the laser just kept melting or not cutting through properly no matter what setting I tried. So I have decided to try with acrylic here is a tester piece.

The lettering came out a lot better however I will need to spray the acrylic white which will require some skill to not over paint the lettering.

I'm still working on the rock work I have started to implement the coral reef rock work and rock work leading to above water level. I hope to have the both of these finished early next week.

I have received my scale link plants and am happy with all but one which will be exchanged for a larger scale version. My sea moss which I'm hoping to test will be hear on tuesday at which point I will have all the foliage and ground affect materials I need.

I have also decided on the corals I will be representing in my model and have started to build some.

By end of next week the Rock work must be finished and I must have started to paint and add my corals and foliage.

I have noticed that my base is too thin for the weight of all my rock work so will need to reinforce this.

Still lots to do with 3 weeks remaining.

Work Continued

My work has progressed well since my last post. Firstly I have decided on how to create the island rock.

This a second attempt at the milliput applied onto the yellow foam test. As you can see I have decided to test my painting skills as well. There are a few things I will change when doing the real piece. The rock work could have used a bit more texture in small areas and I will try to use the foil technique to create this.
The colour is to dark and I will try to implement the white earlier in the painting process to achieve this. The green stains do not work well but brown ones used correctly do seem to work.

Next I finished the top tanks rock work, I knew I had limited space and that only small parts of the rock work would be on view due to scale and the designs.

This is milliput sandblasted while wet on a textured surface made from yellow foam and styrene. The texture has worked really well, the dry bushing I have done really brings it out and replicates a good texture within the small area that I have.

As you can see in the image above yellow foam has been cut into shapes and sandblasted in the under water areas ready for sculpting which will start once I have decided how to create the under water rock work.

The reason for my indecision in the lower rock work is that my research indicates a far varied textural surface that is far more detailed than the attempts I have produced.

This is a photograph of coral from Palau you first notice the the mass of bright colors and then the varied texture. I hope to produce something along these lines and may try using technique together to get the variety of texture.

While looking through my pictures of Palau I noticed this one.

The way the ripples and light have created an effect on the sea bed have inspired me to try and create a similar effect on my model using acrylic paints and I will post the results on this blog later.

I have also started to order materials to create the Island foliage. I'm using woodland scenics and scale link due to conversations and practice while at Lazenby Design.
I have images like this to inspire me to create an environment that represents Palau.

I have also finalised the design for the other top tank.

Both designs are now ready to Laser cut out of sheet styrene and this will hopefully be done tomorrow if not as soon as possible.

With four weeks to go including this one, I need to research the corals that I will be creating and create hundreds of them, finish the rock work and paint, spray paint all the styrene white and fill in any gaps, create the foliage, create a space for Lazenby Designs logo, create scale information boards, work out way to insert the water affect pvc, apply scale people, order plants from scale link, and other finishing touches.

My main priority this week will be to get the rock work ready to paint and to start creating corals.

Wish me luck!