Need help with translucent Alien egg

[Carson]

Hello,
I'm currently working on the Polar Lights Executive Officer Kane kit. The Alien egg is translucent and I'm not to sure how to go about painting it. It will be lit from inside. So, do I just paint it without putting a light coat of primer on it or does it need some kind of undercoat like dullcoat or something?

[btbrush]

Yeah, stay away from primer. You Dullcoat for a primer. Then use only transparent paints. I like stain glass paints.

[kevtk135]

There was someone (I forget who now) building the kit and what he did was to dremel out the inside a bit to make the egg wall a thinner and more transparent.

[JJCap1]

I prep the pieces then finish with steel wool. Wash, air dry, then spray the pieces with "Future" before painting with transparents.

[btbrush]

Ohh, just had a brainstorm (more like a light shower). Hollow out the egg. To smooth the interior walls a bit, fill it with clear resin then pour out the excess. Then put a flickering LED inside, to look like movement.

[DefiantWorkshop]

Sorry to resurrect this thread but I was about to come on here and ask about the egg and did a search, finding this thread.

So I've been doing a lot of research (which means lots of movies and popcorn, obviously) into the egg. Originally, I was going to pose the question on here (b/c I can't find the answer elsewhere) as to if the egg really does light up, and really IS translucent/transparent, or if that's just a way for the movie to show us a glimpse of what was inside. If anyone can answer that, I'd appreciate it.

Now, as far as painting....before I found this thread I had a similar idea. I have spent days hollowing out the inside of the egg to clear it up some. It seems that hollowing it out introduces new and different problems. If you light the inside, before it was hollowed out, the light actually disperses BETTER (I'm placing the light behind the facehugger, not in front). When it was "stock," the light was a bit more "uniform" in appearance. Now its so bright that it washes out the side its placed on.

On top of that, I got one half of the egg as thin as I dared without punching through. I then sanded it smooth with micromesh, THEN put future on the inside and out to brighten it up. When my finger is in the egg, you can clearly tell its a finger. But the facehugger? Its just an obtuse silhouette. When I put the LED from Kane's torch, its almost worse....because the light shining on it reflects off the surface, instead of illuminating the interior.

I also got some transparent Createx paints, instead of just thin coats like most other reference builds I've seen (then the builders seen bewildered when you can't see through opaque paints). This hasn't helped the situation any. Seems like Polar Lights really wanted it to work, then produced the clear resin egg and realized you couldn't see a thing, shrugged and said "well, we tried." I haven't come up with a reasonable solution as of now, where you can really see the interior facehugger, and on top of that, really understanding WHY the alien egg was illuminated and transparent. Because honestly, at this point, it almost feels like I have to choose between lighting it and showing the hugger on the inside versus making the model actually look good.

So, thoughts? You can see some of my in progress shots here: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/ ... ficerkane/

[kevtk135]

While I haven't started my Kane kit yet, I've been thinking about it. There's no "everyone's doing it this way" or "everyone's doing it that way." I've seen guys that have just washed over the egg and poke one of those slowly blinking lights up thru the bottom
to go into the egg on the opposite side of where the flash light is shining, else they seem to say "screw it" and just painting the egg opaque.
Being yours is so transparent, if it were mine, I would go with a faint wash to color the egg, and then make the creature lighter in color than I normally would, and make the shadow areas darker than normal. Basically turning up the 'gamma correct' to make sure the face hugger gets seen. Screen accurate? Prolly not... Just my 2¢.

[DefiantWorkshop]

Yeah I've had a local modeler give the same opinion....paint the hugger "extra Broadway" he said, so it would show up better.

Upon further frame-by-frame reference, I've decided on of the crucial issues is the fact that the mound of whatever the face hugger is resting on, is just conjecture. There's no reference for the inside of the egg, except a quick glimpse through the egg itself in the scene where its lit. I watched the scene probably 20 times before it dawned on me....the face hugger isn't sitting on ANYTHING. Its floating, I'm guessing suspended in goo. The solid "log," as it were, that the model part is molded with, is blocking the light. So I'm working on getting just a plain face hugger for the inside of the egg.

As for how to paint it....the big issue is you really have a choice....make it look like the scene (transparent), or make it look GOOD (opaque). While painting it with washes/glazes/transparent paints is fine in theory, and will "show" well, the other 99% of the time its on the shelf and unlit, it will look "off" a bit? Because there are zero reference shots of any translucent egg. They're solid. The "light" emanating from it is just the way the SFX team did a "cut away" to show the audience there was SOMETHING BAD in there, but you just didn't know what. So that's part of what I'm wrestling with. I thought about paints 75% of the egg opaque, and the 25% in "normal" view of the egg in washes, but I think I'd have just as bad, if not worse, of a problem in the actual MODEL won't look good as a static display piece like that.

If I'm perfectly honest, I almost wish PL hadn't cast the egg in clear and given the option, b/c its killing the nitpicky side of me to no end lol.

[kevtk135]

Haha, I had a thought when you mentioned the face hugger floating in goo. I wasn't that you could see the hugger, but you "saw" it move. Now I'm thinking, get the hugger by itself and glue it to a little spring. With a little bump of the model you set him in motion inside the egg... Maybe I'm thinking too much.

[DefiantWorkshop]

Yeah, there's juuuuuust a little flicker of movement in the film as it coils up like a snake. There are a few people who have put flickering LEDs in the egg to simulate that, but I've never been a huge fan of movement in models. Kane doesn't move, so the hugger shouldn't either. The LED I have for the egg is one that fades in and out, which I liked as a compromise. It slowly brightens to show whats inside, then goes away. Though for anyone wanting their hugger to move...that spring idea is brilliant. Get a small loose spring and attach it to the top inside of the egg (it would be hidden best there) and any wobble would jostle that thing around....creepy.

Once the replacement huggers I got come in, I'll do some updating....I got 2 or 3 different ones to do tests, but I'm beginning to think that's the answer. Though after my Createx paint test, I'm thinking I might need to strip the egg and repaint it some other way. Maybe make my own glazes.

[DefiantWorkshop]

OK, I'm back, and decided to host the pics of the WIP egg to show what's going on.

I'e thinned the inner wall out as close as I dare:




Once thinned out, you can "clearly" see through it. The resin chunk of facehugger that came with it fills up the vast majority of the empty space, however, and doesn't allow lighting to pass through, so I have to come up with a different solution.


I bought a toy facehugger online, and its "free" arms let the silhouette show through a good bit more on the unpainted piece. I'm MUCH happier with that than the piece that came with the kit, at least for lighting purposes (video to show lighting effect).
https://youtu.be/vLqd4NrFMiY

So, now its on to paint and make the egg look good. Sprayed some Createx transparent paints onto the egg. This is the end result. There's not a lot you can do as the color palette is quite limited, and one super thin coat blocks everything from the inside.


Stripped the Createx off, and tried making a glaze. It worked well for the flame effect on my zombie dragon, so I tried it larger scale here. When lit from inside, one coat shows the unevenness of the paint, including brush strokes, thin spots, and whatnot. Two coats might as well be straight up paint, as much as it blocks light from the inside.


So what to do? I'm about to punt on lighting it from the inside. I COULD make it look good ONLY when lit, but the other 99% of the time its displayed on a shelf, it would look terrible (think really thin paint, or not even painting part of the egg). Or I could just paint the egg straight up and ditch the lighting effect. Leaning toward the latter at this point.

[ausf]

How about a series of washes?

Extremely thinned washes in Future (also thinned) might remain in the crevices enough to give a hint of color but still be very transparent. Future is used regularly by aircraft modelers to make canopies appear more transparent and remove scratches. They actually dip the entire thing and allow to dry, then mask, paint, etc right over it. You should be able to both add color as well as translucency once you find the correct balance (can test on clear styrene of course). Good thing about Future is a good spray of WIndex and it'll come off easily.

[DefiantWorkshop]

My issue with doing washes is that while it would look pretty good when lit, it still shows enough "clear" that it won't look good just on a shelf alone. I actually "primed" the egg in Future prior, so I'm hip to its uses for the most part. Just....I see what polar lights tried to do, I'm just not sure its doable, without having two different eggs. Maybe if somebody made a 2nd egg, I'd feel good about a translucent paint job, and could do one opaque for when its just sitting on my shelf, and the translucent one when its time to show off, but I can't see any other way around sacrificing one for the other.

[tay666]

Have you thought about watercolors?
You can build up color with those but still see through them.

[DefiantWorkshop]

Yeah I just got done looking at alcohol ink, which is super bright and vivid, but I think wouldn't look very good unlit. Haven't tried watercolors, but I did buy some acrylic inks today to test after the purple stuff bath. How would the WCs look unlit?

[tay666]

Not sure.
I've never painted them over clear before.
I have done a few pieces almost exclusively WC over primer.
http://www.tylisaari.com/models/misc/tiffany/bitkit.htm
http://www.tylisaari.com/models/conan/thor/thorbase.htm
http://www.tylisaari.com/models/misc/knob/knob1b.htm

I have some artist WCs that work great for things like veining and details.
But mostly I use the cheap kids sets that you find at the dollar stores.

Biggest problem is that they don't like to stick on smooth/slick surfaces.
For a project like this, I would either prime with dulcote, or go over it real quick with a thin coat of something like Delta Ceramcoat matte varnish. That way you have a little tooth for it to stick to.

[DefiantWorkshop]

Sounds similar to my glazing solution. I use glazes for veining as well, same basic concept, thin paint, but not a wash, just tints the color a bit. That's what that brown color was, just two coats of glazes.

[tay666]

Except WC are transparent by nature.
You actually need a few layers to really build some color and you can still see through them.
And if it doesn't bead up on you from not sticking, you won't have any brush marks either. (which reminds me, definitely add a bit of soap to the water to break the surface tension)

[ausf]

I thought of something you might explore if the acrylic inks don't work. Years ago, Dick Smith gave me his effects blood recipes, which were essentially paints he made using both lakes and dyes depending on need, white porcelain bathtub in the Godfather or dark hallway of Taxi Driver. A lake is particulate matter just like pigment in paint, so it's opaque, but a dye is a solution so it's transparent. A lake and a dye can be the exact same color in hue and brilliance, but behave differently regarding light transparency. We're talking about about 30 years ago and I had to get the lakes and dyes as sample, but I bet today they're readily available online. Three primary colors will get you anywhere you want to go as long as they're pure dyes.

Another idea is Sharpies. My son has a set of colored Sharpies that I used on LED candle tips to add a yellow-orange tint. Maintains true color as is and tints when lit. I first tried Vallejo transparents, even thinned, but the markers did a much better job.

[DefiantWorkshop]

Pretty much came to the conclusion that really you need two eggs. One for lighting, one for shelf display. I simply don't feel you can have it both ways with one, and it look good, so I punted, and painted it opaque instead. I think I'm happier for it. I would've liked to have had a 2nd one that I could do some thin washes on and lit up, but I don't, so there's that. Once I made the decision, finishing was easier, you can view it here:

http://theclubhouse1.net/phpBB3/viewtop ... 8&t=116965