Case Mod [PROJECT] Airbrushed 'Bioshock' TJ-07 - Updated 28th november

[R B Customs]

Hi guys,
I haven’t posted here before! What have I been missing! There’s tons of nifty mods going on here! Great stuff.

Well anyway, some of you will have seen my work before, some of you may not. I am here to add something a little different to the forums with what I do, and hopefully inspire some people to try summit different.

I will be shamelessly ripping the content from another forum But I will answer individual questions as I go along.
I start this project log late, so I am a fair way through it already. So anything after this will be 'live'


Content to follow...

Rick B

[R B Customs]

Hi guys,
I haven’t posted here before! What have I been missing! There’s tons of nifty mods going on here! Great stuff.

Well anyway, some of you will have seen my work before, some of you may not. I am here to add something a little different to the forums with what I do, and hopefully inspire some people to try summit different.

I will be shamelessly ripping the content from another forum But I will answer individual questions as I go along.
I start this project log late, so I am a fair way through it already. So anything after this will be 'live'


Content to follow...




Brief:

Insides:
will be painted to look like a bucket of rust just like alot of the textures used in bioshock, lots of drips, rust, alge etc.

Outside: Im thinking a mainly metal look, dark metal, rusted up, again lots of texture, and of course... the BIG DADDY!
for good measure theres gonna be the bioshock logo somewhere on the case too.

Its all up in the air at the moment, Im just gonna make the composition up as i go along.

This project will be interupted by the Crysis project, so stick around


preparation pics.


Proper preparation is key to a great finish, so heres how I go about it.


everything is taken apart, sanded down, cleaned, cleaned and tacked off, then the appropriate primer used ( high build or etch)

sometimes I create a kind of washing line to hand parts from to paint.

Once the primer has been sprayed its left for nearly 24 hours to harden, then sanded down, cleaned and tacked off ready for base coat,

this time the base coat is silver and better still i don't have to worry about how well i apply it, as its gonna end up looking like a rust bucket anyway

Ill just let the pics do the talking here...


stay tuned





















I was playing about with the rusty for a while and decided that simplicity was the best option.

I started going down the green algae route, with spots of rust and flakey metal, but it just wasn't working. when i looked at the photo the next day, then the real thing in my workshop , i realised it was a lost cause.

I started doing the side your not likely to see, and liked the result... now i just have to do the same thing another 5 times :|

Heres a pic,


and the final result


Those blisters / water droplets are painted on by the way... no trickery here

Dont worry about the bottom corner of the MB tray, thats gonna be sorted out


Of course when clear coated the colours will pop out and the drops and blisters will stand out more and look great.

stay tuned!





























Okay,
im going to go into a little more detail about how the rust effect is achieved, and probably put everyone off airbrushing for life in the process he he!


The first step is the silver base coat. TO be honest, this didnt even need to be silver, grey would have worked too, but silver gives a little more depth to the colours once they are on ( this could be a bad thing though! )


once the silver base is on, solid black is used to detail, this will be the first layer of black, and there will be another 2-3 layers / patterns to follow. Not all the detail is painted into the first one.






From black i use a colour refered to as molly orange, its a bit like the colour of those orange ford focus's or, indeed an orange! - very bright!
You will notice that fresh rust is also this colour, and when sprayed loosely ontop of the silver starts to look like fresh rust at its early stages. i spray this in a pretty random pattern, some bit heavier than others.







Next is a semi transparent orange, which may as well be yellow... I'm sure you will agree at this point it looks like i have lost the pot... why that hell is he spraying yellow? it looks horrid doesn't it?








the yellow is re enforced by a darker root beer like colour, sprayed in streaks.


next more black is added and all the colours are darkened down - this makes the biggest difference!

A little red and green ( i know it should never work but it does! ) are added and jobs a good n.







All the panels are done now and currently drying over night before i finish the blister effect and clear coat them, Then i promise... the interesting part will begin!
thanks for watching.









I have just about finished the insides of the case, I'm not going to clear coat them till i have the right window of opportunity, i really need to wait till during the day ( weekend) when it is a bit warmer, instead of on a cold night like this, as the cold can cause problems with the clear coat. No hurry for that though, i prefer to do everythign in one go anyway

Here are the insides at the moment all that needs doing now apart from the clear coat is to sink the bubbles / blisters back in a bit as they pop out a little too much at the moment, this is a simple task and wont take 2 moments to do





the pics look a bit foggy and bright at the moment cos of the paint particles left int he air when the picture was taken, and also once the clear coat is on the colours will become richer and more saturated. and they wont have this light cast over them.

Next on the list:

outer panels!











This is the image i want to put on the side

The rest of the images of the big daddy are cool, but the case is a little too small to have that much detail in without muting alot of it.

Its kinda hard to explain, but it would ruin the big daddy to have it that small.

So a closer crop would work better, and this image will go very nice with the over all look of the case
I'm going for



If i ever find my printer cable, im hoping to have this drawn on the panel by tonight















Finaly,

I'm up to the most enjoyable part of the project.

The job at hand now is the side panel.

Ht pannel was previously primed, then wet block sanded to a smooooth finish before getting plenty of very very thin coats of black base coat. left to harden over night, i returned with a scotch pad to smooth he paint down and give it more 'tooth' for the art work to stick to,




once this was done, i wiped the dust of my old overhead projector and set about transfering the design onto the panel.
Now, in some peoples opinion using an OHP is cheating. But really, it isjust time saving, and the amount of time it does save is well worth it. It means i can compose the panel correctly, first time. and not have to re-draw anything.

The down side is that the amount of information you can transfer is very limited. You will see from the next pic that i have only drawn the most basic of lines - the rest i fill in with the airbrush by eye.
Its always a pain too as the design constantly quivers and moves around as the OHP gently humms away. just the nature of the beast though.




NO masking?
I tend to do all my art work as free hand as possible. Masking can leave harsh edges which are hard to soften. And i find i can get edges as hard as i need - freehand. - It is a bit of a black art, but worth the effort.

So on with the painting its self.
I can see how most people would think this face is almost finished, but it is far from it. This picture demonstrates only 2 coulours form the airbrush - pure black and light grey. For work of this nature i normally only use a hand full of shades and let the airbrush blend them together.

I spray at pressures that would make most airbrush artist wince - its just the way i prefer, although it does leave me with faint overspray, so i find my self re-filling black areas in again toward the end.

heres what i have so far... cant wait to get it all done now!



Whats all that mess on the side?
alot of my projects that you see will have random squiggles on the sides, this is simply the area i use to test a line on the airbrush, or get rid of paint gathered on the needle... it gets covered up in the end.

stay tuned guys, were onto the best parts now!









BEFORE YOU LOOK! ! !

There are some parts of these images which look like mistakes, and look completely wrong. Don't worry, they are not wrong as such, just not finished!


I am still onto the first 50/50 grey layer of paint, and because of this, some parts ( eye socket) look terrible at the moment, I can see how to some it looks kinda finished, but it is no where near!


#1
Starting to define the eye socket a little more with black, this are is going to receive alot of attention later on, so looks bad at the moment.
I have also started the refine the hairline / face a little too


#2 Starting to fill some areas of the glove hands, these will receive more attention later too, make them look really old and work, with the stitching showing - this if you like is just the under painting of it all.


#3
more work on the glove, and starting to suggest some hair



#4
A little work on the lace parts of the dress, more work ont he glove and more added hair. Also i have starting to suggest where the folds in the dress will be.


Lastly i can share a little bit of technique, This is the shade of grey that i a using, its quite dark - although it shows up almost white on the black panel. from this i will go 75/25 white/black, then 100% white
and also 25/75 white/black, then 100% black


Heres is the same colour on a white support.



Ive started to put some shape into the legs and the rest of the dress as i didn't want to do too much at one end of that section, in case it all got thrown off balance.

Ive went back in with a little more black to pick out parts of the gloves and push parts of the face back also.









SO tonight I have been working on the little angel again, and the gloves. This time concentration on the left glove ( our right ) And on reviewing the pics ive spotted a mistake I've made already lol

I have also added more to the dress, and the legs are almost finished too.

The first stage of the lace trim around the bottom of the dress has been started too ( those weird looking bright dots)

I'm working on this til late tonight so may have another update later on. don't think i can do any tomorrow night as im working late and have a girlfriend that is due some attention!

Started to rough in the glove






Stronger highlights on the face have been added, and a little more detail to the hair




start of the lace, and more detail in the glove



Legs almost done!




Now, i know this was meant to be freehand , but within freehand airbrushing comes occasions when a little bit of masking must be used! this is one of them, and there will be more.
It is a leather belt / strap on the Big Daddies arm that i really want to look good. If must be masked so i don't screw the legs up with over spray.









***edit*** Excuse the crappy photo's, there was a load of paint int he air and the flash just loves to pick it up!

Just some detail of airbrushing one of the shoulder plates. What you see here is just the basics of it, only one colour here so far. so again - i aint quite there yet... only posting it to show a bit of masking technique.













and as it is now:



Cookin' on gas now fellas!










Well, Ive been grinding away again this weekend and I'm pleased to say that the side panel is pretty much finished

I'M not going to add the colour until the res of the case is ready for colour though. SO only black and white for now.

So I learned one thing last night - Don't paint at 2AM, or was it 1AM ? I'm not entirely sure as the clocks went back.

I'm leaving the little angel and the big daddies arms alone this time, and concentrating on the helmet.
the thick end of yesterday was spent finding a decent way to do the tubes that attach to the helmet. A little bit of artistic license ( that is the posh way of saying making it up ) had to come into play as the reference picture is a little lacking in information for the round part where the tube goes into. So I have just painted it to give the effect. Its not a 100% match to the original, but sometimes with pieces like this. it looks better if its a little different.


It all looks a little rough here, the round parts are defined later.

A little bit of fine line tape helps me create the shape of the helmet and provide a hard edge to spray against. Again It's just basic shapes we're after here.

Now this is when disaster struck.



In case you missed it


Now believe it or not. This is not such a bad thing. It could have been worse though !
The best thing to do in a situation like this is to just leave it to dry. If i was to follow my instinct and wipe it it would have been well and truly ruined! SO i just carry on painting and come back to it the next day and simply sand it off.





working on the right hand side of the helmet now and adding some texture to the helmet too. You will notice the rough shape of the pressure gauge on the tank. I was never sure if i wanted to put it in or not so i only ever roughed it in... Now you see it...


Now you don't. Much better Don't you think? - that whole artistic license thing again

I need to sort that bit ont he top of the helmet out too

I have also decided not to include any of the windows and architecture in the scene. The reason for this is simply that when i put the panel onto the rest of the chassis, all of those window panel lines and metal bars would have to 'go somewhere' So i am just not including them.

Now what i tend to do now on a project like this is to finish off any major parts of this panel, then put it to one side and come back to it at the end.
When you have been starting at the same piece for days on end. you tend to miss mistakes... SO after a few days of not looking at it. when i go back to it any mistakes will stand out and i can correct them and put the final touches onto the artwork


Next stage..

Rapture!

[R B Customs]

The week from hell:

Well the lack of updates has been for a few reasons, firstly my internet was down and then things decided to go from bad to worse…

I was painting the main section of the case, finished the photograph which you will see later… pulled the masking tape off to finish the design and… well to cut a long story short, my bin is now full of unused B and q masking tape rolls!

Then I had to use ‘the N word’ ( Nitro mors) and pretty much start from scratch on the mid section.

How could it get worse?

Shortly after this, I was putting the case back onto the bench, lost my balance and nocked my airbrush off its stand, so now I have a bare metal case, and an airbrush with a 90 degree bend in the needle, and a potentially ruined fluid nozzle to boot ( these 2 parts cost more than the average beginners airbrush to replace! ) I’ve now been waiting days for a spare needle to arrive, so in the mean time I managed to find an old needle that is a little worse for wear, but kinda works. So I have been using that.

SO on with the update?
I cant really undertake any serious work on this case until my airbrush is 100%, Its not worth it!

Ill start from where I left off.
The side panel with the mural is nearly done. All colour to the whole case will be added at the very end. Up until now its all black and white.

The rest of the case has proved a little difficult to decide on a design. The problem is that there’s just hardly and space to work on.
I quickly mocked up the case and heres what I have so far.



I decided to play bioshcok form the start again, as this is where the strongest images are. From this I took the city scape of Rapture from the pause menu, and some images from when your first in the elevator going under the ocean.



Remember this from the area where you first get the plasmids?

The ‘welcome to rapture is masked in negative, so when the mask is pulled it looked like this:




Going back to the scene in the elevator, I remembered that slide show that Ryan shows, and the photo that sticks in your head “from the desk of Ryan”

Now this is the point where I had the problems, during which time my brother decided to borrow my camera and I forgot to change the settings back to how I needed them. So some of the pics are a tad poor in places.



Again, I cant finish this bit until I get my new needle! Which is why the guys face looks a little off. But this also has a lot to do with the photo’s


I start off with masking film, and start to pic the parts out to paint the boarder of the photo, along with the curls ( which will be bettered come the new needle! ( argh I need a needle))




I pick the parts of the text:




spray the rough shape, mostly just basic reference points

]

Try my best with what I have got to get something half decent


un masked:


and where it stands at the moment:


That’s all for now folks ! thank for being patient.
If you’re thinking its looking a bit bland, just wait until I add the colour

[FuzzyOne]

WOW

[jokkos]

Lol "If you’re thinking its looking a bit bland, just wait until I add the colour"

I think it's pretty amazing already!

[R B Customs]

Originally Posted by jokkos

Lol "If you’re thinking its looking a bit bland, just wait until I add the colour"

I think it's pretty amazing already!

Its gettign there...
It is a very tough shape to work with, very bitty, not alot of surface area. The front is casuing the most problems to be honest. very limited as to what i can acctually do with it. I ahve ideas though

The colour will tie everything in though...


Rb

p.s, Loved your project mate ! i followed that one ( Im a dirty bit-tech troll )

[Supra55]

Amazing!

[Bogomip]

Holy ****! It always amazes me what people can do with paint and an idea but thats really phenominal

[will.]

Really awesome. Looks ace.

[makkone-]

THAT is freakin' awesome.

[R B Customs]

as soon as this ones out the door, Roll on crysis akasa eclipse 62 is all i can say

[E.E.L. Ambiense]

Very mature work here, man. Excellent.

[Cadillac Ferd]

Wow, the airbrushing is really breathtaking. Really and truly excellent.

[Kylevdm]

nice loved bioshock will be watching your mods in the future

[Hiren]

Also awesome work so I'll be following the progress of this case closely.

Out of interested where are you based? (UK / US?).

[MonkeyNutZ]

HOLY HELL! That's amazing!

There's going to be color?!?

[Angel OD]

That is FRIKKIN awesome! /subscribed

[DoOb's]

Same here, Subscribed For sure, I lov your WORK, Absolutely mental

[papeniglio]

Fantastic! Waiting for progress...

[Kenny_McCormick]

I wish I know to airbrush like you. Great work man, keep going. I like more the draw after the "mistake".