New Tombstones, part 2

Allright, here's the second part of my new set of tombstones! In the first part, I talked about the construction and the new materials and techniques I used, in this part I'll talk about painting.

Materials

• Liquid joint compound
• House paint
• Acrylic caulk (NOT silicone!)
• Fine sand
• Drill with mixing attachment
• Brushes and sponges
• Acrylic paints
  

Foam coatings
On my first stones, I used a mixture called Monster Mud, a mixture consisting of joint filler and paint, to coat the foam. Being the complete noob I was back then, I had no idea what type of joint filler was meant, and at first I tried mixing dry powdered joint compound with latex paint. Of course, this didn't work, and I found out you needed liquid filler. So I prepared small batches of powdered joint compound and water, and mixed my paint with that. This didn't have a long working time, about 30 minutes, and didn't have a good consistency, it contained lots of lumps. I then found out the stuff you need for this is actual liquid joint compound, not powder you have to mix with water like plaster.
Of course, I only found out what I was doing wrong until after Halloween, and I couldn't find the liquid stuff I needed. Luckily, in the meantime I have not only found a store that has it, but also a better recipe for foam coatings! The problem with the Monster Mud was that it was quite brittle. Perhaps this was because I used the wrong kind of joint filler, but my props were easily damaged. Another mixture that's supposed to be a bit more flexible and durable is Van's Super Scenic Dope, also known as VSSD or simply Scenic Dope. It has acrylic caulk mixed into it to make it more flexible, and much less joint compound.
The recipe calls for a quart of paint, four tubes of caulk and two cups of joint compound. So, in metric units, that's (approximately) one liter of paint, four tubes of caulk and half a liter of joint compound. For the paint, I mixed some leftovers white and black paint to get a gray base color.

 To give it some additional stone texture, I also mixed in some fine white sand. I didn't really measure the amount, I just eyeballed it until the consistency and texture seemed right. Keep in mind that the amounts of ingredients can be varied a bit to make the coating harder, more flexible, etcetera. Oh, and I used the cheapest paint and caulk I could find. No need to use the fancy, expensive stuff here.

Base coating
Before I started applying the foam coating, the engraved text was painted. This was done with plain dark gray paint, because the scenic dope would fill up the letters and ruin the details.
After the text had dried, I started putting on the scenic dope. I invited some friends to help me paint; after all, we had twelve stones to paint (thanks again, guys, you all rock!). Of course, some of the dope ended up in the letters anyway, and we had to use a small brush to clean them out again.

The mixture was very thick; if you'd paint with it like you'd do with normal paint, you'd end up with very visible brush strokes. To avoid this and get a nice, even stone texture, I used a dabbing motion with my brush. Another advantage of thick paint is that it also serves as a joint filler to fill up seams!

I had to do two coats of paint on each side to get good coverage. It took a while for all of it to dry, but the effect turned out great! Mixing sand with the paint gives it an excellent rough stone texture.

One word of advice, though: don't use expensive brushes with this mixture! Use the cheapest one you can find, because you'll probably have to throw them away afterwards anyway.

Shading
After the basecoat had dried, all stones had an even, gray color. To break this up a bit, I took some gray, purple and black paint, mixed them to get a blueish gray and applied them with a sponge and lots of water. The rough texture of the surface quickly wore down the sponge, wich actually made it easier to work with! In the meantime, I also painted the text and all the cracks a dark gray.

The final shading step was applying a white drybrushing. This technique is especially useful for rough surfaces, like the one I have here. The grains of sand pick up the white paint nicely, and you end up with a very convincing stone texture.

 

 

 

Finishing
I had planned to do some more finishing touches, such as adding fake moss. I wanted to use sawdust and green paint for that, but unfortunately, time was against me. Since I didn't know how weatherproof the scenic dope was, I clearcoated all the stones with a matte varnish, wich almost gave me a heart attack...
You see, I had used a ballpoint pen for marking the foam. It had bled through the first layer of paint a bit, but the second layer had covered it up nicely. However, the varnish had somehow dissolved the ink and made it bleed through all the layers of paint! On most stones it wasn't very visible, because I had used the pen mostly to mark cutting lines, but for example the Jack Sparrow stone had a few very visible lines on it.
What was my reaction when I saw this? Well, if you have ever seen that Mr. Bean movie, where he ruins a painting, that's more or less how I reacted! Luckily, they weren't ruined, a little bit of gray paint, followed by a final layer of white drybrushing fixed it.

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New Tombstones, part 1

When I started this blog in 2013, one of the first things I made was a set of tombstones. Now we're four years later, and the tombstones have been retired (read: smashes to pieces and thrown in a dumpster). In the meantime, my skills have also improved a bit, so it's time to build new ones!

I apologize in advance for the crappy photos. The lighting in my garage is horrible, and taking pictures of bright foam sheets is quite challenging! 

Materials and tools
When I built my first stones, I used expanded polystyrene foam (EPS). The problem with this material is that it's very soft and fragile, it's the kind of foam that has all those nasty little white beads. Now I'm using extruded polystyrene foam (XPS), wich is harder and doesn't have those little beads. It's a lot easier to work with, especially for engraving text. With EPS, it's almost impossible. On my first stones, I used a wood burning tool, wich gets waaaay too hot; with XPS foam, you can use a Dremel.
For glueing them together, I used a polyurethane based wood glue. This costs a bit more than regular white wood glue, but it's much stronger. PU glue slightly foams as it cures and fills any gaps. I tested it first on some scrap foam, to make sure it didn't dissolve it. Polystyrene is easily dissolved in many solvents, but apparently this glue didn't contain any of them.
So, without any further delay, here's the complete list of materials. It doesn't include painting supplies yet, that's for the next part!

• 2 cm thick XPS foam plates
• 16 mm diameter PVC pipes
• PU wood glue
• Band saw with 24 tpi blade
• Hot wire cutter
• Wood burning tool 
• Respirator
• Dremel with flexible shaft
• Grinding stones and diamond engraving bits
• 80 grit sandpaper 
• Wood leftovers (plywood, melamine, ...)

Designs
I wanted my large stones to be the same size: 80 by 50 centimeters. The reason for this is that I'm also building a tomb that will serve as a storage box, and they have to fit inside. The remaining space will be filled with smaller stones.
I took out my sketchbook and started designing the large stones. At first, I printed some reference pictures of real tombstones, but eventually I ended up designing most of them from scratch myself. I didn't add too much details, most of them would be added on the fly anyway. I did keep the proportions and scale in mind, so it would be easier to transfer the designs to the foam plates.

 One major flaw in my first stones was that I forgot something to keep them standing upright. I ended up using duct tape! This time, I'll glue a few pieces of PVC pipe to the back, so I can use sticks to keep them in place.

Basic shapes
With the designs ready, I got started on the basic shapes. Each stone consists of two panels of foam glued together, with the details carved into them. I first cut out the inside shape of the front panel, glued it to the back panel, and then cut out the entire outside shape of the stone. I don't know if this explanation makes much sense, I hope the pictures do a better job.

Next up, I cut some decorative profiles in some of the edges. I bought a new hot wire cutter, this one uses a much thicker wire that can be bent into shape. Mainly the inner edges got a profile cut into them. The outer edges were rounded by sanding with 80 grit sandpaper.

Besides 80x50 cm tombstones, I also made some 30x50 cm tombstones. I had already designed the tomb I wanted to use for storing and transporting the stones, and I had some space left. In total, I will make seven large stones and five small ones. The small tombstones will have names of children from horror movies (Georgie, Samara, Jumby, ...).

Carving details
The most important details were the names on the stones. I typed them on my computer, printed them and then needed to find a way to transfer them to the foam. Problem is, carbon paper doesn't work, it simply doesn't show on foam. However, simply taping the paper in place and tracing the letters with a pen worked fine. The outline was slightly carved into the foam and easily traced with a ball point pen.

For carving, I used a Dremel. If you want to do fine detail work, a flexible shaft is a must have. I hung the tool itself from a hook on the ceiling, so I could easily move the handle on the flex shaft around.

I started with a grinding stone to remove a lot of material fast from the letters, and then used a thin diamond engraving bit for carving out the exact shape of the letters. Medium speed is best for engraving foam; too fast and the foam will melt, and there will be globs of molten plastic in the letters.

I also carved some decorations out of foam scraps. For example, Jack Sparrow's tombstone got a Jolly Roger skull, and John Kramer's a puzzle piece.

Wear and tear
Of course, the tombstones should look old, damaged and worn. With styrofoam, the perfect way to do this is with a wood burning tool. I melted out large chunks of foam, and carved cracks in the foam.

A very important warning here, styrofoam releases very nasty fumes when melted or burned. This should only be done outside or in a well ventilated area, and you should definitely wear a respirator!

Keeping them in place

Like I said, my first tombstones weren't really stable. I did add some sort of base, but nonetheless the slightest breeze knocked them over, and I had to improvise with duct tape. This time, I took my precautions!

First of all, I cut 6 cm long pieces of 16 mm PVC pipe. I then carved a channel in a chunk of foam, put the pipe in it and glued it to the back of the stones, so I can use sticks to keep them up.

Second, I cut some strips of leftover wood and attached them to the bottom of the stones with glue and screws. This protects the base of the stones a bit, and makes them bottom heavy and thus more stable.

Showcase!
Here are a few of my finished, unpainted stones. I tried to carve Beetlejuice's face in the stone, but he looks more like Doc Brown...

A few of the little ones:

The next step in painting, but that's for the next post!

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Zombicide Machine Guns, part 2

Woohoo, here's part 2 of my Zombicide machine guns build! In the first part, I built the guns out of foam and plastic. Now it's time to paint them!

Materials and tools

• Foam primer (book binding glue/acrylic gesso 50/50)
• Wood primer
• Spray primer
• Acrylic paint
• Paintbrush and -roller
• Masking tape
• Paper towels
• Varnish

Video
Like the previous part, I made a video of this. Again, way too much footage. This one is a lot shorter than the first one. I'm getting better with the video editing software, it didn't take as long as the first time. But for future videos, I should really invest in proper lighting and a good microphone.

 

Priming
The start of any paint job is a good primer. For foam props, I use my glue/gesso mixture. This does a great job sealing the foam and providing a smooth surface. In this case, however, I used several other materials, so the foam primer alone wouldn't do.
But first, the foam parts. I thinned my primer a bit so I would get a smoother surface, and used a foam brush to avoid brush strokes. On my axe, I used a paint roller, but that only works for large even surfaces. I gave each gun three layers of primer, and then let them dry overnight. For the MDF parts, I used a wood primer.

The next day, I primed the guns with spray primer, so all the plastic parts would get a base coat. Three layers of primer, with about 30 minutes between each layer, and then curing overnight.

I plan to experiment a bit with other types of foam primers in the future. One type I'd like to try is Flexi Paint, wich is both a primer and paint developed specifically for EVA foam.

Chipped paint
To make the guns look old and used, I first of all wanted some chipped paint. This is surprisingly easy to create! I painted some silver spots where I wanted chipped paint, and after it had dried, I masked it with liquid latex. After the base color is painted over these spots, the latex is peeled off, revealing the silver below. This looks very realistic, because, well, it IS chipped paint!
I had to wait for the base color to fully dry before I saw the result of this trick, but I can already say I went a bit overboard. After peeling off the latex, I painted over some silver areas again, because I overdid it and it looked a bit fake. As for more effects, less is more!

Base colors
Before I started painting, I mixed a good base color. I couldn't find the right color in a spray can, so I had to mix it myself and use a brush. Funny thing, I do have an airbrush lying around (borrowed it from my brother, who doesn't use it anymore), but I need to get the right type of paint first, an adapter for the air hose and, most important of all, learn to use it and practice a lot first. So, for now, the good old paintbrush!
The base color is gray, darkened with some black and then a bit of blue. Guns usually have a blueish-gray color. I tested it first on a piece of foam, and waited for it to dry before checking the color. On acrylic paints, the color always changes a bit as the paint dries, and I didn't want any unpleasant surprises.
I wanted to avoid brush strokes as much as possible, but a paint roller wouldn't get into every small detail, so I used a brush first, and then went over it with a foam roller. This did a great job of removing the brush strokes.

After it had dried, I took my base color and darkened it a bit with more black. This was used for the grip, the bottom of the magazines and the forward grip on the big gun.

Details and weathering
Allright, so the paint had dried, and I had peeled off the latex that masked the silver spots. The next thing I did was drybrushing a bit of black on the handles and the exhausts on the muzzle brake. On the small guns, I painted a recessed area on the front of the guns white first, followed by orange. I painted it white first because the orange didn't really cover up the gray very well (yes, I tried). After the orange had dried, I used masking tape for fragile paint to make some black stripes. Orange and black hazard stripes are frequently used in Zombicide manuals and artwork, so it's a nice reference to the game.

But next came the most fun and messiest part: weathering! This turns a shiny, clean new prop in something old, worn and dirty. The first step was drybrushing white paint over all edges. This lightens them and makes them look a bit worn. This wasn't the messy part, but the next part was: washing!
I used a wash in most of my props, so I have explained it a lot already, but for anyone who's new to my blog, here it is again. Basically, you paint your entire prop black (or any other color you want to use) and then, while the paint is still wet, you wipe most of it off again with a paper towel. Paint remains in some areas, especially cracks and recesses, so it looks like dirt.

The black was ruined my white drybrushing job for the most part, so I had to repeat it. I should have known this would happen, but luckily the drybrushing didn't take long.
After all the weathering was done, I added a few final details. On the big gun, I added a kill count with red paint and a pen. And finally, I put some pale green dots on the sights on all three guns.
The only thing left was a protective clearcoat. On the magazines, I masked the exposed bullets with some masking tape and then gave everthing a few coats with matte spray varnish.

Finished!
It took me a while to finish them, but my first foam firearms are finished. Using textured floor mats and small pieces of foam isn't the best way to build these, so I plan to buy large, smooth sheets of foam for future projects. I should also learn to use an airbrush, and finally get the accessories I still need to get going.
As for the guns, they will see their first use next Elf Fantasy Fair, along with Tiff's Axe. Before that, I'm going to build a box for transporting them safely. I would hate to arrive in Arcen, only to find out my props got damaged in the trunk of my car.
Speaking of safety, it goes without saying you should use some common sense when travelling with realistic looking prop guns. Although these guns are fake, I can imagine not everybody would notice it and think they are real. So if you build stuff like this, keep them out of sight while on the road. To quote Harrison Krix from Volpin Props: "A convention is a good place to show off your work, a post office isn't"!

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