PROJECTSPainted figures, sculptures and scale modeling projects

The media support I used to engrave the texture was a cheap and widely available modelling clay. Its properties are good enough for me. Once dried, it doesn’t break as easily as (a) regular clay, but at the say time it can still be cut,engraved and sanded as you like. 1Kg of this product will allow you to reproduce about a 1,5 meter long, 10cm wide, 3mm high, piece. Of course, you’ll most probably do not want to cast such a long piece (unless you’re building a huge diorama, but if so, you should use a permanent firm base under such a long piece of clay). Take it as a reference.

In the following picture we can see my light box. Inside it, I’ve made a vignette that will be displayed in the local shop where I got the rolling pins, Kekolandia Miniatures. On the left side, we can see both rolling pins very close to the sample clay pieces which I left unpainted on purpose. On the right side, there is a painted clay piece. In both samples, as a soil I used the pavement rolling pin, and as a wall the small bricks rolling pin. On the painted sample I also texturized the roof wall with the help of a scalpel, to simulate the top bricks. This was done after the clay dried, two days later.
Both parts of the sample were glued with superglue, with excellent results once the three layers of glue dried.

As you can see the final result is very realistic, and the detail engraved by the rolling pins is superb and in scale. I used some vegetation to simulate an abandoned street somewhere in the countryside. The poster was taken from internet and printed in a laser printer, using a high density paper. The box is made of ceramic and the oil barrel belongs to a Tamiya 1/48 vehicle set (Tamiya 32502 – Kettenkrad with Goliath Infantry Cart).

The painting was done straight into the grey clay by using two Vallejo inks: 73.202 Pale Grey and 76.505 Light Rust.
Then I immediately put a layer of cheap varnish (a house cleaning wax named Future) to allow the following wash phase to take place. I needed three layers of Future to turn the extremely high porous surface into an impermeable media. For washing I used darker tones: colder for the pavement (AK 070 Brown Blue) and warmer for the wall (AK066 DAK vehicles). Then I used a very dark wash (AK 045 Dark Brown for green vehicles) in a random way to represent more recessed areas.

Once dried, some drybrush was applied and finally, on the floor I applied both AK 015 Dust effects and 022 Africa dust effects without further solvent, since they work very well as ‘liquid pigments’ once dried.

Then, I used the painted samples like a vignette to see how the models of different scales look like. In the first example, a 1/43 die cast tractor, looks spot on.

As a second example a 1/48 Tamiya US Jeep also looks formidable on the scene.

As a third proposal a Tamiya 1/48 German side car looks very natural riding the poorly preserved street.

There are more uses for the rolling pins other than straight and wide pieces.
I made four samples of the standard small squared Warhammer base. While hard to see in the picture, that clay pieces are stuck over the black plastic bases.

Finally, some 1/56 (28mm) miniatures were thrown in. While they still look acceptable in terms of scale, I wouldn’t push any harder and go lower on the scale

Alternatively, if you have small children and want to have an excuse to cast some textures, the Playmobil / Lego world will also benefit from the experience.

Having checked the positive utility of both rolling pins, now I’m eager to try 1374 Small Cobblestone, since I think it isalso in the scale of these two rolling pins. Other rolling pin references such as Wood Planks or Dutch bricks, whilepromising, they look far over scaled for the 28mm enthusiastic. The rest of the rolling pins are of interest to me for they are futuristic/fantastic/epic oriented.
This is a good product, reusable, everlasting and with multiple applications.

Highly recommended.