Friday, March 16, 2012

3D Vehicle Icons

I really grew accustomed to 3D vehicle icons when I did the Ecclesiarch and Fortress of Arrogance conversions.  I decided to dress up my Vostroyan vehicles with 3D icons modeled after the 'V' icon on the Baneblade transfer sheet.  It's a pretty neat looking emblem with the possibility for some nice texture.

I started by applying one of the large insignia from the Baneblade sheet  to a sheet of plasticard -- this will serve as the template for the shape.  I actually want a slightly smaller version but I'm using the large transfer to get the angles right.  I then cut out a piece of clear plastic from a blister pack (Yarrick, in this case) and taped that over the transfer to use as a substrate for the emblem.

To create the heavy 'I-beam' effect of the left side of the 'V', I went with a piece of 0.060" C-Channel, the rest of the emblem is simply 1-mm rod.  I laid down the left leg on top of  the corresponding piece of the transfer.    The rest of the icon was cut from the 1-mm rod and glued down over the transfer.   The last step was to add the skull between the two legs of the 'V'; easily accomplished using the 'Winged Skull' icon from the vehicle accessory sprue.

With the master completed, I heated up some water to soften a piece of insta-mold to create the mold to cast green-stuff versions of the emblem.  Here's the first cast:


Not too shabby, though I might see what I can do about improving the depth of the eyes on the skull. I'll update on the next attempt.   I also need to see where I can obtain Blue Stuff like Ron at From the Warp uses.  I'm curious to compare that to Insta-Mold.

3 comments:

Space Hulk Enthusiast said...

Blu-Stuff is the way to go for this hands down. You'll get an almost perfect mold of it.

Ron, FTW

GDMNW said...

Seconded.

Hudson said...

Thanks, I'll see about getting some.