Humpback whale and calf (Completed)

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Ferris

A Fixture
Joined
Jul 31, 2009
Messages
5,426
Location
The Netherlands
Hi All,

Here’s the finished piece: A humpback whale and calf in 1:87 scale, cast in epoxy resin.

Models are 3d prints from MiniNature’s Shapeways shop. Figure is a modified HO scale swimmer.

Epoxy resin is from Dutch company MrBoat, deep cast 70mm version, poured in two layers. Unfortunately I let the first layer harden before pouring the second, leaving a noticable boundary surface. A hard lesson learnt to take onboard for another time.

Surface waves created by working the hardened epoxy with a burr, finishing with two gloss coats, and some acrylic gel for the whale’s wake turbulence.

To create the blueish tone of the water I added a bit of ultramarine pigment to the resin and airbrushed the rear surface of the resin block with Tamiya clear blue. This combination of effects was important for reaching the overall effect: a blue tinge overall, while keeping high transparancy in the resin and a clear view on the models.

The resin is poured over an MDF base spray painted in gloss dark blue, spraying a soft edge over the lower part of the resin. I hope this creates the illusion of dark deep sea below the animals.
Sides of paint and resin were slightly polished with Tamiya polishing wax to achieve a uniform degree of gloss over resin and painted base.

All in all quite happy with the result, despite the imperfection in the resin pouring. A difficult piece to photograph, due to all the gloss.

On to the next project! (...more animals)

Cheers
Adrian

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Wow, this is stunning. The waves are so effective, and the shadows they cast on the whales and the figure are incredibly realistic. The blue colouring also works really well, giving a great impression of the depth of the water.

It's a pity about the layer line. It isn't too obvious but you must be gutted, because the rest of it is near perfect. This is still a superb piece of creative modelling, well done!!

Looking forward to the next one......
 
Couldn't have said it better than Nigel so 'ditto', this is beautiful and has been very instructive to boot. Looking forward to your next adventure.

Cheers Simon
 
Great work Ferris. very captivating.
You make perfect use of those Mininatur animals in your vignettes.
What is the size of this one?
Looking forward to see your next project.

greets,
RJ
 
Great work from all views, I don´t know how you get the underwater atmosphere so well. Did you paint the light-through water effect over the wales?
Great idea and superb result.

Military miniatures painted by Eduardo Garcia

Thank you Eduardo.

I painted the light effect on the whales, but it is reinforced by the rippled surface, just like in reality.
What really helped to get the underwater effect was to paint the backside with the Tamiya clear blue.

Adrian
 
Great work Ferris. very captivating.
You make perfect use of those Mininatur animals in your vignettes.
What is the size of this one?
Looking forward to see your next project.

greets,
RJ

Thank you RJ.

The size is about 20x15x18 cm (w/d/h), weight about 3kg...yes, quite a bit of resin! :)

Next project is something with tigers...and no resin.

Adrian
 
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