UFO Thrift Store

How's it going everyone? T I've recently been in the mood to use up the kits that I've had on my shelf for a w I found t I wasn't sure how much of the kit would be in the box but figured if it had too many pieces missing I could just use it for spare parts. And it looked A quick assessment of what was in the box compared to the instructions revealed that the person before me may not have been following the instructions. And the mystery I want to solve is why did the previous owner quit? The first clue is the three big pieces that are already put together and the second is that t My guess is after they were removed they started to lose them. And sure enough If t I decided to start building the model where the previous owner left off starting with these little first gen air pods and the rest of the pieces that hadn't gotten lost. As I assembled the deck the t As you can see here the deck is full of benches. All of them were removed from the runner and many of them were missing. The ones that were left in the box were obviously not removed using nippers rather removed by force as was the identification tab w The scene I'm depicting is after the life rafts would have been lowered so that was a modification I needed to make and I will be using all of those life rafts later on. I followed the empty rafts stowage with a cover for the grand staircase and lots more of those little air pods. And I know that they're not actually called air pods and you should also know that I know that they're not called air pods. As I was putting t I looked for it for at least 5 minutes and almost quit and dropped t I did finally find it though and glued the three real smoke stacks and one artificial one in place backward the first time and after ripping those off and gluing them on the correct way it was finally time to move below deck. I glued those two large whole pieces together followed by the propellers. I added some railings to the front and the back of the s After a few additional details on the deck the s Upon some reflection I believe that I've pieced together the mystery of the previous owner of t My guess is that the previous owner of t A relative probably bought it for them as a gift after finding it on sale at Hobby Lobby. Thinking that the kit was kind of The lack of glue residue as well as the pieces being ripped away from the runners without the help of tools suggests that t I Now years later that same kid is on their way to becoming a pro athlete because they decided to go practice layups instead of put together a 1-700 scale replica of the Titanic. Or something After cutting some half circles out of pink XPS foam I refined the curve with some sandpaper and then I cleaned up my workstation and moved on to gluing the foam to the wooden base. The base itself was a little uneven so to be able to control the height of my phone pieces more accurately I used hot glue. With those nice sturdy and even it was time to create some waves. I fired up my Dremel Stylo and my vacu I've seen t I thought might as well try it on some foam and see if I can get the same result. The process was long and tedious and I applied a little too much pressure in a few places leading to inconsistent wave heights and patterns but the t It's not a bad method I'll probably use it again but there are definitely ways to improve the effect. First I marked and cut out a spot for the s I scooped up a small amount of plaster of Paris and then I broke out my gloss mod podge which I have not used in a while so it all came sliding out of the container So that was a nice surprise. I diluted that mixture with water and stirred it up thoroughly and then I spread it over the surface and I was hoping for a bit t After that first layer of protection had covered the foam it was time to set that aside to dry and paint the s For the clear coat the plastic surface was now able to hold paint and was also protected from my enamel pin wash w The hope was to get the wash in all the corners and cracks and recesses to boost the contrast. The goal was not to look weathered but sometimes that can't be helped so after that was dry I came back with some acrylic paints to clean up and add some Those are the places that needed to be cleaned up with the large open areas where the washes had pooled. I also went back in with a slightly lighter tan color to give some variation to the wood on the deck. Definitely not a time intensive or detailed paint job but as you can see just those subtle changes made a world of difference. I used some gray putty to patch up that seam and w One t After the icebergs had been protected with a layer of Mod Podge I glued the life rafts in place. I decided it would be easier to paint them afterward and just pick them out with a brush rather than try and handle each one individually. With my little grains of rice glued in place I took the whole base outside and I primed it w T And while I paint this frigid Atlantic water I'd The water painting process starts with a green color leaving light areas at the peaks of the waves followed by a translucent blue focusing on the troughs. After that you can go over it with a gloss or semi-gloss clear coat to finish the look. After that was dry I picked out the lifeboats with a brush. I thought about adding some debris to the water but this would have been before it had split so there wouldn't have been much With the painting done the next step was to install the electronics. I drilled a hole where the s And I held them in place with some clear heat shrink. After soldering some wires to the corresponding leads on the LEDs I threaded everyt Also drilled a hole for a switch off camera. To add some turbulence and blend the s The last details to add to the s The very last t 0. And after that I called it good. That is it for thank you all so much for watc Hope you enjoyed. Huge shout out as always to my patrons. Have an awesome week everyone. I'll