Friday, October 17, 2014

空中に浮かぶの謎 Floating Objects in Diorama

In gunpla modeling, there is something i kinda hold pretty strong onto; something like a weird little habit that I have problem getting rid of: My dislike upon sticking up a stick to my gundam's butt to make it "fly".  Hahah yeah,  like some previous projects i have had done, i will go a few extra miles just to avoid making the supporting mechanism being too visible. Below are just two of my previous projects.

 photo P1010983.jpg   photo PB145925.jpg
link:
delta-plus-r-2013-gbwc
laser-pointer-diorama-1

What now?  Recently I had been thinking of this material, but it took me much longer than expected to get hold of it. Initially I was thinking of doing a proper diorama to showcase it, but thinking of GBWC is coming, n there might be some other idiots like me who hate to see supporting material poking here n there all over the diorama base; therefore i will share it now, with a lousy setup for showcase, so it might benefit anybody for this year's GBWC.

Ok, look at the 2 two photos below, what's the difference?

 photo P1010668.jpg photo P1010669.jpg

Huhu, alien aduction :p In the 2nd picture, a 1/35 mechanic, a HG virtue left arm, and a dont-know-what leftover part, are all floating in the air.

This is my discovery in pursuing my fetish of not seeing stands of supporting rod. no rocket science, no too high level difficulty. All i need to know is just some magic.

Ok, basically it is a kind a extremely fine fibre which is also very strong relatively compare to its thickness. The string is so fine it's basically invisible in normal light n movement. Of course, it it's static n u look close enough, well, it's still 100% invisible.

These are few photos i took, with different objects on different type of strong:

First, the mechanic. Light weight so "sup sup sui", no problem. tested the string with blue tack (on the back of the mechanic) It sticks real well!

 photo P1010671.jpg photo P1010670.jpg


The unknown-watever-leftover part: oso "sup sup sui". This one I wanna test what kind of damage  a normal plastic seam will do to the strong. Result: so far so good, as i think the 2 piece of snapfit plastic do not even give much pressure to the strong, as it it so fine.
 photo P1010673-1.jpg photo P1010680.jpg

Then this HG virtue arm. This is mainly for the weight test. So far so good! If this is the case, i think i m gotta test on something even bigger and heavier.
 photo P1010683.jpg

This is a big @ss gun I m making for my PG MKII. Basically it consist of the body of a rezel BFG, Bandai action base stand(This one is a killer, as Bandai needs to make the plastic thicker so that the stand can withstand some heavy sh*t)

The whole gun is ..... ok, I was too lazy to weight it..... but i think it has 200~250g. The two thinner bottle i use at the sides are still about 60~70% full. The test went well. Single string failed to hold, but double string still manage to hold it.
 photo P1010689.jpg
WHOA!!!! Floating gun!!!!

 photo P1010688.jpg photo P1010691.jpg photo P1010697.jpg Just a black n white photo to make it(me) looks cool.... :p


 photo P1010710.jpgFinally, 75% of a HG kit.

************************************************************************************************************************

Material :
This round, I manage to find three types of material, according to my informant, are used in different magic tricks.

 photo P1010712.jpg
- most tidy
- non elastic, which means it can be ease up the planning in a diorama for a more accurate length estimation. Bad thing is, it's inflexibility can be a bad thing too in certain circumstances.
- comes in black n white (transparent)
- strongest among the 2
- unfortunately, also the thickest and easiest to be visible among the 2


 photo P1010716.jpg
- already tied in a rubber ban shape
- super, super, super elastic. it can goes up to a few times of it own length. The more you stretch it, the thinner it will become.
- extremely invisible. When I was using it, for many times, i really cannot see anything on my hand n fingers. i can only work with it base on the feeling on the skin. Ok i m apek, but i doubt even young chap will take awhile to see it.
- since it is thin n elastic, it tends to curl up especially after some heavy stretching. once it's tangled up itself, u can pretty much say good bye.
- Black


 photo P1010717.jpg
- these are cheap ones, comes in black (grey) and white (semi transparent), elastic n non elastic.
- The non elastic one is still ok. The elastic ones, being keep in such a way, is too easy to tangle.
- Note:there is only one string roll on a card, so just be extremely careful with the elastic one.

***********************************************************************************************************************

Ok, so now the whole thing being put aside for endurance test.... As long as it can last up to 7 days, then it can be used in GBWC.
 photo P1010684.jpg

I hope this helps!