The first silver tote will be hollow, that's where the Dinobot cave will be. The inside of the blue tote will be unusable, I need it solid to support the weight above it. That's a good idea for the thruster tubes...goes along with the ideas I have.
I built support struts for the Ark that run between the top and bottom. Once I taped those into place, I laid the frame down and traced out the back of the ship. Next, I cut it out and attached it to the frame with the Gorilla tape. Then I traced out exactly where the Ark goes into the rubber totes. That way I have a estimate for where I have to paint to, as well as when I do the final assembly in place. Once I finished that, I did a final placement test and rough sketched out the thruster size and placement. My next step will be to start cutting and gluing all the raised details, as well as the thrusters. This will take some time. Once that is finished, it will be time to paint the Ark itself.
Picked up these lightweight plastic flower planters at the dollar store for $1.00 each. Cut the holes to attach them to the back of the ship to use as the thrusters and framed out the rear right corner of the ship.
I had originally thought of using cardboard tubes of some sort for the thrusters, however my plans changed once I saw the plastic flower planters. As I was going thru my supplies I was trying to think of something I could use on the inside of the thruster so it wouldn't be so hollow. Inspiration comes from the unlikeliest of sources, I happened to be staring at my spray paint when it hit me: Yup, the cap to my spray paint cans. I also cut out 1" board strips for detail on the edges of the ship and glued them into place: Still have a ways to go. Hopefully tomorrow I can get more work done on the thrusters.
Well, I hit the $150 mark. Got a crazy idea and got 2 packages of 3/8" × 1.25" window seal tape along with some zip ties. I cut the tape into 4" long strips. A LOT of them. The end result: I cut the zip ties to the lengths I wanted and glued them in place for detail. I also applied some compound to the joints and seams for a more smooth uniform look. I'm currently taking advantage of some nice early spring weather here in the midwest to start some painting outside. The adhesive on the back of the window seal tape isn't as strong as I'd like, so I had to glue some of the pieces on the thrusters in place. Hence the rope ties to hold them in place while everything dries.
Thanks man. I'll be honest, a lot of this is trial and error as I go. I've never attempted anything on this scale before. I kinda had the basic outline as I started but I literally go thru my day now looking at the weirdest stuff thinking "How could I use that?", lol
What the??? I didn't realize you were running a thread with this project. There are soooo many more pics here that u haven't sent me. You sir, are a naughty monkey!! This thing is a total monster. Can't wait to see the finished project. Loved the idea with the foam strips on the thrusters. When its done I'm coming over with Trypticon and we can replay the scene from Season 3. (Think that's right) Where Trypticon, y'know stomps all over the Ark. Just kidding of course. I could never dream of wrecking an awesome piece of art such as that. Keep up the good work, thanks for sharing!!!
You mean this scene? I figured if I tried to send you every picture via e-mail I'd crash your inbox, lol Seriously though, thanks for the kind words. I imagine this thing won't be done for awhile, but I'm having fun putting in an hour or two a day. I pulled every G1 animation still I could find of the Ark, and none of them were uniform. Some of them had it leaning to the left, I found 1 leaning slightly right and a few more or less horizontally level. So that gave me some creative freedom to make it the way I did. The real challenge is when I start using the spray foam. I have zero experience with using that stuff, I'm going all by what I've found on YouTube.
That's the one! I don't know how extensive ur getting with the foam, but if ur doing some of the mountain terrain, there's always the old school chicken wire/ paper mache method like they would do on model railroad layouts. Just a thought.
Pretty extensive. I originally thought about the chicken wire paper mache method, but I wanted something I could put together faster and less messy.
Made a little more progress this weekend. Screwed a few things up and learned a few lessons as well. I started off the weekend by painting the inside of the thrusters. The temperature was above 50 degrees, low humidity and no different than numerous other times I've painted using Krylon with no problems. I started having major cracking in certain spots after I came outside to check on how it dried. Then it dawned on me: I never cleaned the plastic. It's possible there was some kind of coating or residue that the Krylon did NOT like: I really didn't want to start all over again, so I decided to push forward and give it a second coat, bringing it inside to dry. If this was on a transforming toy, I would have had no choice but to scrap it and start all over. But since this is a diorama representing a 4 million year old buried spaceship, I felt that I could artistically use imperfections to my advantage and have the cracking in the paint look like weathering and wear in the thrusters. Lesson learned: Clean the plastic. I decided to use a small strip of gorilla tape around the diameter of the thrusters as a back-up, just in case anymore of the foam strips wanted to come loose. I also spray painted and glued the paint caps inside the thrusters. I added some exhaust details and will add a few touch up details once they are assembled. Now I'll spend this week trying to finish up gluing the rest of the smaller details on the ship so I can paint that next weekend. Once the body of the ship is painted, I'll glue the thrusters in place and attach the ship permanently to the rubber totes.
They look really good! The imperfections really just add to the "crahsed space ship" look for me. I kinda wonder why the krylon didnt stick though, a painted a whole car with krylon in pretty much one go. Did you sand beforehand?
I’m just impressed that Krylon stuck to window sealant foam Edit: Oops forgot to leave a comment on the actual build... The new updates are great!
Thanks! I feel like I got lucky with the botched paint. Dodged a bullet there. I've used Krylon for years, and these planters were regular plastic. The only thing I can think of is I didn't clean or sand it down first. And I didn't sand it because I originally wanted it smooth. So weird. Yeah, the Krylon on foam was a little bit of a gamble that paid off. I saw on YouTube that it's the propellant from the aerosol can that actually eats the foam if you spray too close, not the actual paint itself, so I took the chance and sprayed from a distance and gave it 3 coats with the orange. It's been 48 hours and so far, so good.
High grit sand paper should knock down whatever coating is on the plastic if you need to do this again. I mustve missed that. I never wouldve guessed that spray paint would work on spray foam. Cool!
Spent a lot of time working on time consuming tedious details. I used an odd collection of junk from around the house that cost nothing to add texture and details to the back of the ship. Pieces of plastic hangers, an old DVD player that was going to get thrown out, marker caps, zip ties, a battery cover, water bottle caps, old audio/video cord connectors, etc. It will all make sense once it's dried and painted. I also lucked out and got rings from an old light fixture in the garage that doesn't work. It fit perfectly around the thrusters.
