Ghost of Midway

This was a project that came from an article in National Geographic many years ago.  The sight of downed planes sitting on the ocean floor still somewhat preserved and in some cases covered in new sea-life was just so cool to me.  I had a SB2U Vindicator model kit that I had gotten for cheap and there were a few shot down in the battle of Midway so I decided to make it into a seabed diorama.

This is the kind of thing I was looking to replicate

This was my starting point.  I had cut the flaps, aileron, and elevators loose and positioned them.  I also damaged to aircraft very mildly.  I wanted it to be damaged enough to have crashed but whole enough that the pilot could crash-land it.  I decided to put a bit hole through the fuel tank, you can see splatter from the fuel leaking out which forced the plane down.

For the base I used a combination of carved insulation foam (something I will never use again) and cast plaster rocks held in place with sculpting putty.  There is a deep notch cut out for the left wing.  You can see some of the weathering I did on the airplane.

The base was primed grey to take the glue I used to hold the sand on.  I used watered down Elmer's white glue brushed on then sprinkled with sifted dust (to make it more fine).  The rocks have been painted grey, given a dark grey wash, and dry-brushed light tan and a very light brushing of white.

The plane nestled in it's place, this was a test fit partially through the sand process.

The wing has been locked in with sculpting putty, after this I would finish putting on the sand.  Here you can also see the lichen I used for seaweed.

Then there's our intrepid diver.  For a base I used a mechanic from a P-61 kit.  I sanded down his bulky clothes to look more like a wetsuit and painted it accordingly.  The flippers were scratchbuilt from sheet styrene.  The goggles were carved from clear sprue and the regulator is a modified 200lb bomb fuse.

The air tank is the business end of a missile topped with part of a helicopter control stick.  Thin wire was used as the air hose.  

To keep our diver swimming I ran painted, copper wire through holes in his hands, through a "dive weight" and into the insulation foam.  The wire was curved into the foam so the diver won't spin.

And here is the final product from two angles.  This is one i'd like to strip and rebuild, there are several things I'd like to try to make better.  Except for the diver, he's my favorite part.

Arch 550 photography Pt. 2

Now we have part 2 of last weeks post from my grad school photography class

I don't remember exactly what the assignment was that produced this photo but it had something to do with looking at the world through different eyes.  To create this I laid several scissors on an overhead projector and projected their silhouettes onto a metal cabinet where I worked.

This image, and the next two, were from a similar assignment where I had to use perspective and scale to subvert how we see the world.  This image looks a bit like a planet but is actually a macro image of a dish-washing sponge.

 

Another planet looking thing but is a macro image of bass wood.

This was a bit of a cheat (though I submitted the original too) where I photographed my carpet at a shallow angle with the sun coming through blue curtains.  I then added a ship and reflection in PhotoShop.

Our last major assignment was to photograph 100 strangers (100 pictures, not 100 people) and this photo was taken at breakfast in our hotel of a man and woman.

This gentleman (same assignment) was a construction worker doing something to the front of this building.  We weren't required to do these in black and white but we were encouraged to look at them under different treatments and I liked these in b&w.

Art 550 photography Pt.1

When you are in grad-school you have to take electives.  Some are extra baggage, some are real joys, advanced digital photography was the latter.  This week and next week I'll show off some of my highlights from each of the assignments and talk about them briefly.

One of our special guests was the imaginative Thomas Allen who uses images and cover art and Xacto knives to make stunning composite photographs.  All of his effects are done in frame and take time to compose.  He gave a lecture then we got the opportunity to replicate his style as best we could.

We were supposed to look at texture for this assignment and this peeling paint really caught my eye.

I took these photographs of my grandfather in his garden.  It was early in the morning and the light was just perfect.  We were doing a character study.

We did several light trick assignments where everything had to happen in frame on long exposure.  I spun a lightsaber in a circle while walking past the camera for this one except I inverted the color to make it a light color.

Here I used a pin-light and drew a bicycle.  It took my many, many tries to get it right and my bicycle got a little more complicated and accurate each time.

This neat picture was done by first flashing the lightsaber behind me then spinning the pen-light on a string around where I had been standing.  Because it was on long exposure the lightsaber created my shadow and the spiral appeared to go around it even though I had moved.

Bandai Y-wing

I have wanted, for years and years, to build some good quality Star Wars model kits.  I have build a pretty good cut-away Millennium Falcon when I was younger and a passable 1/48 X-wing and un-scaled AT-AT.  But they all left something to be desired, then I discovered the Bandai Star Wars series.  They absolutely blow me away with their accuracy and attention to detail and the precision with which they go together.  They are amazing!  I built this Y-wing and put my heart and soul into it.  I weathered each piece as I put it together and even filled in some detail here and there.  The canopy mounted ion cannon didn't seem to be tied into anything so I coiled wire and bridged that gap.  Another error is the model came with "studio correct" (ie. no glass in the canopy for filming purposes) and "real-life correct" (with glass) options, but there was no glass piece for behind the drivers head.  I took a brake-light lens from an old tuck kit and carved it down to fill that hole.  One thing that bugs me about Star Wars as a fandom is once something exists no other example of it can also exist.  For example, almost everybody that builds a Y-wing builds one from the movie.  I built my Y-wing to represent some ship out there somewhere, just not one that appeared on the screen.  So there are quirks like a silver dome, some stripped paint (which was covering an accident), and yellow trim.  The end result is I won second place for sci-fi models in a heavily contested category at River-con 2016 in Bossier City.  Here is the finished product:

 From the rear.  Not much clearance from the landing gear.  Requires flat ground to land.

The silver dome can be seen here as well as some serious damage to the starboard dome.

The tail-light lens and coiled wire can be seen here

Bicentennial currency display

So I had this pile of money from 1976 and most of it had some sort of commemorative engraving on it.  I wanted to have some way of displaying it so I made up this little framed plaque.  I designed it in Photoshop and used to-scale scans of the coins to lay it all out.  I found two different versions of the American Seal, and old one and a contemporary one, and included them on the plaque. 

Here's the original file, it was modified before final printing

I then printed it out on photo paper and stuck it to matte-board and used an Xacto knife to cut out slots for the coins.  I put it in a weathered frame with museum glass from Hobby Lobby (it reduces glare).  That's all there is to it, it now hangs beside my framed constitution.

Next time I would like to try laser-cutting the holes and possibly using a larger frame to give me some more leeway, it looks too tight.