Justice City Layout Build

[tooStupid]

Marty WOW your fixes sure make the building look good. Nice job.

There is room for more improvements as you will see in the next post.

[tooStupid]

I have been experimenting with the colour of the building and trying to get the foundation a sandstone colour and the mortar lines more "sandy" in colour to have the bricks stand out better.



The window sills are the next challenge. If your look carefully you will see that the laser cut window sills are actually smaller than the cut out of the wall panel. There are the width of the laser beam (x2) wider and the sill just do not look right.



It is better seen from this angle.



So off to the scrap bin and get some wood that I could cut to the exact size and install into the sill cut out. It looks much and has the texture of the sandstone sill that were used.



This may be hard to tell from this picture, but the bricks that end in the window holes do not have mortar line that wrap around into the window opening. I used the Excel knife to score the mortar lines so that the corner of the bricks has an air gap the separates each row of bricks and continues into the side walls of the window opening.  This is represented by the left side of the left window as it has been cut into while the right side of the left window has not. This is a very subtle effect but add that something that takes the wall for good-to-good Plus.



When you put it all together and paint the sills with Panzer Old wood paint the style begins to show its face. It will get better when more details are added and the background get more depth and weathering.



This is a thing were what is in the kit and what the picture of the kit model are different. No it is not upside down. The kit picture shows a row of wall cap slabs that finish of the wall, yet there is no mention in the instructions or any cut out pieces provided. So I took the scraps from the cornice bricks and made cap blocks and glued them to the wall top edges. I put the wall upside down so the caps would be straight and the sight weight of the tools held the roof flat.



Now when it is put on the diorama the structure is being to fit in and "own" the location.



Next is trying to figure out a name for the building and how to paint it on the wall.

See you next time.

[Keep It Rusty]

I've just ordered a bunch of structures from ITLA, including their large Albany Crown Tower. Very impressed with your work here. It looks fantastic.

Tell me - what hobby drill - Dremel - is that? It looks mightily impressive!

[tooStupid]

I've just ordered a bunch of structures from ITLA, including their large Albany Crown Tower. Very impressed with your work here. It looks fantastic.

Tell me - what hobby drill - Dremel - is that? It looks mightily impressive!

Heh Rusty Robot, love the handle.

I am glad you like it, there is so much more to do to the kit to take it to the next level.

The drill is NOT a Dremel, I found it had too large to handle and only uses collets type chucks. I wanted something smaller with a Jacobs chuck so I could use more variety of shank sizes. I chose a Jewelries Flex Shaft setup (search for flex shaft to see suppiers.) the more common one is made by Foreman but there are cheaper ones available. There is also a micro drill handle I will get some day, maybe.

I hope this helps. 

[Mark Dalrymple]

Looking good, Marty.

I couldn't really follow your photo's with your descriptions, but know exactly what you mean.  A lot of very time consuming small modifications/ super detailing you are doing that will take the model to the next level.

Cheers, Mark.

[Keep It Rusty]

I've just ordered a bunch of structures from ITLA, including their large Albany Crown Tower. Very impressed with your work here. It looks fantastic.

Tell me - what hobby drill - Dremel - is that? It looks mightily impressive!

Heh Rusty Robot, love the handle.

I am glad you like it, there is so much more to do to the kit to take it to the next level.

The drill is NOT a Dremel, I found it had too large to handle and only uses collets type chucks. I wanted something smaller with a Jacobs chuck so I could use more variety of shank sizes. I chose a Jewelries Flex Shaft setup (search for flex shaft to see suppiers.) the more common one is made by Foreman but there are cheaper ones available. There is also a micro drill handle I will get some day, maybe.

I hope this helps.

It does help. I had a quick look at eBay and there seems to be a bunch of 230W Foredoms for around $60! Pretty good price it would seem.

[postalkarl]

Hey Marty:

That's coming along nicely. Can't wait to see more.

Karl

[tooStupid]

Looking good, Marty.

I couldn't really follow your photo's with your descriptions, but know exactly what you mean.  A lot of very time consuming small modifications/ super detailing you are doing that will take the model to the next level.

Cheers, Mark.

Me enjlish a greemer aint two goed. General the text is before the picture and sometimes words are hard to related to a pictures. I guess it would take a thousand words to describe the picture. :-)

[tooStupid]

I've just ordered a bunch of structures from ITLA, including their large Albany Crown Tower. Very impressed with your work here. It looks fantastic.

Tell me - what hobby drill - Dremel - is that? It looks mightily impressive!

Heh Rusty Robot, love the handle.

I am glad you like it, there is so much more to do to the kit to take it to the next level.

The drill is NOT a Dremel, I found it had too large to handle and only uses collets type chucks. I wanted something smaller with a Jacobs chuck so I could use more variety of shank sizes. I chose a Jewelries Flex Shaft setup (search for flex shaft to see suppiers.) the more common one is made by Foreman but there are cheaper ones available. There is also a micro drill handle I will get some day, maybe.

I hope this helps.

It does help. I had a quick look at eBay and there seems to be a bunch of 230W Foredoms for around $60! Pretty good price it would seem.

I am glad to help.

[tooStupid]

Hey Marty:

That's coming along nicely. Can't wait to see more.

Karl

Thanks, I am looking forward on how it will look to.

[tooStupid]

Speaking of the pictures,

There is a visual effect that shows up when you take pictures on small repeating patterns like the brick wall. Especially one that is laser etched using a pulsed laser. The pulsing laser cuts more like connecting burned dots together that creates a very tiny pattern.

These patterns cause digital camera to go crazy at various resolutions. I believe this is called the niquist (sp) effect. To minimize this effect you need at least two pixels for the detail dot you want to capture. It occurs when there is mismatch between the size of the detail and the number of pixels that render that detail. This and the repeating patterns begin to show artifacts like large arching lines going through the image.

So why mention it?

I took the pictures with a 644x800 resolution which causes a loss of detail and makes thise ugly lines showup more. So the next tine I show details I will get in closer or use higher resolution pictures.

Sorry for that.

[Keep It Rusty]

Speaking of the pictures,

There is a visual effect that shows up when you take pictures on small repeating patterns like the brick wall. Especially one that is laser etched using a pulsed laser. The pulsing laser cuts more like connecting burned dots together that creates a very tiny pattern.

These patterns cause digital camera to go crazy at various resolutions. I believe this is called the niquist (sp) effect. To minimize this effect you need at least two pixels for the detail dot you want to capture. It occurs when there is mismatch between the size of the detail and the number of pixels that render that detail. This and the repeating patterns begin to show artifacts like large arching lines going through the image.

So why mention it?

I took the pictures with a 644x800 resolution which causes a loss of detail and makes thise ugly lines showup more. So the next tine I show details I will get in closer or use higher resolution pictures.

Sorry for that.

This effect is called "Moire". Very common and happens for the reasons you describe. You see it a lot on striped shirts!

[tooStupid]

Speaking of the pictures,

There is a visual effect that shows up when you take pictures on small repeating patterns like the brick wall. Especially one that is laser etched using a pulsed laser. The pulsing laser cuts more like connecting burned dots together that creates a very tiny pattern.

These patterns cause digital camera to go crazy at various resolutions. I believe this is called the niquist (sp) effect. To minimize this effect you need at least two pixels for the detail dot you want to capture. It occurs when there is mismatch between the size of the detail and the number of pixels that render that detail. This and the repeating patterns begin to show artifacts like large arching lines going through the image.

So why mention it?

I took the pictures with a 644x800 resolution which causes a loss of detail and makes thise ugly lines showup more. So the next tine I show details I will get in closer or use higher resolution pictures.

Sorry for that.

This effect is called "Moire". Very common and happens for the reasons you describe. You see it a lot on striped shirts!

My brain is slapping itself for getting that. Thanks for the kick.

[Keep It Rusty]

Thought it worth mentioning as a YouTube search should yield some results on how to avoid the pesky thing 

[tooStupid]

Hello,

I guess it is time for an update.

Sticking with the Justice theme I finally decided to give a name to this building. "Murdoch Precision Instruments". Only one problem; that is too long for the building and would make the letter size too small. I thought of just "Murdoch Precision" but that was still too small and still would making the mask too difficult. (I cut them out by hand.) I ended up using "Murdoch". 

(Encase you have not figured this out, "Murdoch Mysteries" is a very successful TV program produced by a Canadian company(s) and the BBC. Murdoch is the police detective star that has an affinity for the scientific method and using fact-based knowledge to solve crimes. He is very precise and often building instruments to find the evidence and facts.)



The background colour for the wall sign reflects the colours used in the introduction to the Murdoch series. Also, black lettering will standout great against the Yellow. The red tape is masking tape from the hobby store.



The wall is ready for the hand cut mask.



Yes, it looks messy and turned out messy because I was too lazy to print it on plastic and glue in down to get crisper edges. I got out the paint and fine brushes and and cleaned up the letters to make them look right.



On the layout it is beginning to look "ok", but the signage needs something else.


A fine line pigment pen allowed me to add horizontal lines one brick high. It is a bit glossy and will eventually be toned down later in the build.



This is much better look to the signage.



Putting the window sashes and frames when easily, but a bit finically.



Back on the diorama the building is coming together well and looks like it will fit into the scene.