Author Topic: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON  (Read 9775 times)

Wizzel

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1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« on: July 11, 2017, 07:50:08 PM »
Once again I return after a long absence with yet another project.  I know I have 2 or 3 part done things on here already and I WILL be dealing with them in due course but this one...well it may not strictly be modelling in the IPMS sense but it's still producing a scale depiction of something so I thought I'd share it and as there is a very strict timeframe, it WILL be finished in weeks rather than months.

My son has announced his intention to get married in March has asked DCOS and myself to do their cake.  Baking the thing is no great shakes as I'm a bit of a black belt at that.  Decorating also is something I've done a bit of and so covering and smoothing with icing, producing roses and other flowers and painting leaves etc with food colouring doesn't fill me with the same trepidation as filling and sanding  wing roots HOWEVER, this cake is to have 2 pairs of wellington boots on the top to pay homage to the "happy couple's" love of trudging around the countryside.  One pair would be burgundy and one pair navy.

After 2 weeks of comparing colour match samples from decorating shops and producing an acceptable match of each in sugar paste, DCOS and I had a bit of a friendly competition last weekend to see how easy or hard it would be to produce a welly.  She was keen to get something done immediately and went for the option of moulding one big lump of the pastes in the style of a potter producing a clay jug.  She made an acceptable Ugg boot but nothing resembling a welly at this stage.  I got my modelling head on and injected myself with a hefty dose of patience.  I decided that I would produce mine in more than one piece as I had had experience of some reasonably complex constructions for cakes I had done previously.  I sat, stared into space, drank a cup of tea, stared some more, drank another cup of tea and went to bed.  My thoughts are now gathered and so it's time to put my theory into practice.  Here goes.  The next thing I am going to say will be my theory.  I will produce the soles of the boots (piece number 1) and I will produce the actual boots themself (piece number 2).  I will then allow the pieces to set to a consistence that will allow me to handle them in a reasonably robust manner without them becoming distorted and then stick the boot onto the sole with edible glue, using my wax moulding tools to smooth the joins.

Because I want a hollow boot with a reasonable scale thickness, I decided to make a "former" out of balsa wood which will be varnished to seal it, given a smear of TREX to act as a release agent and build the sugar paste boot around that.  When virtually set, I can then take the balsa former out of the boot and do a bit of fine tuning and massage each one into the most realistic shape before fully set.  Now, because wellington boots are thick at one end, much much thinner in the middle and thick again at the far end, the design of the former needed some thought so that I would be able to pull it from the sugar paste boot without wrecking shape of it.  Once the former is built, I will cut in into 2 at the ankle, giving me a foot and a leg, then drill each cut end, glue a pin into the foot end and simply push the leg end onto the pin.  When I am ready to extract the former, I can pull each piece out separately - the leg from the top and the foot from the bottom.  This may mean drilling and gluing additional pins into the other end of each piece but I've a way to go before I get that far.

I'm going to have a go with white sugar paste first to see if my theory is sound before using the very carefully shaded coloured paste.

Tonight I've started work on the balsa former - I intend to make just the one as there is not enough difference in Left and Right welly to make it worth doing two formers.  I'll just shape the almost set boots as I glue them to the two soles which WILL have Left and Right shapes to them.  As my balsa blocks aren't big enough to make a former out of one piece, I've had to cobble it together by sticking blocks together with super glue.  It's coming together well so far....  More to follow in a couple of days.   Sweet! 
« Last Edit: July 11, 2017, 07:52:30 PM by Wizzel »

bridlufc

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #1 on: July 11, 2017, 08:34:26 PM »
When are you going to post DCOS' effort?

Bridlufc

Bigkev

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #2 on: July 11, 2017, 08:51:19 PM »
I reckon when he feels 'brave enough'

Until then 'matrimonial harmony' must be preserved...........................

Bigkev
I hope my next is always better

bridlufc

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #3 on: July 11, 2017, 08:53:15 PM »
Good point well put Bigkev

Bridlufc

MSea

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #4 on: July 11, 2017, 09:07:29 PM »
Or he might get the boot.
MSea

Bigkev

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #5 on: July 11, 2017, 09:20:00 PM »
Or she might give him some 'Wellie'...............
Bigkev
I hope my next is always better

bridlufc

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #6 on: July 11, 2017, 10:05:17 PM »
Don't you just love the puns eh?  The old ones are the best.

Bridlufc

Wizzel

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #7 on: July 12, 2017, 07:40:29 AM »
Oh you lot.  I just had to wipe my desk down when I sprayed coffee laughing at it all!

DCOS's welly was in the first picture - she was so disappointed that she smashed it back into the big ball of navy sugar paste.  I think she's hoping my theory will work - or if not, she did mention that I could simply make 4 balsa wood wellies for the cake.  Won't be as tasty as the sugar paste ones mind - be a bit like eating summat from McDogmucks I imagine.

Roger

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #8 on: July 12, 2017, 12:49:17 PM »
This is very interesting, hope it works!

Roger

Wizzel

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #9 on: July 12, 2017, 03:28:16 PM »
Me too Roger.  I really don't fancy trying to create 2 identical pairs of wellies out of balsa!

Kiteman

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #10 on: July 13, 2017, 10:55:58 AM »
Good to see you back, and with an unusual project. It´s all modelling after all. Welli good!

Wizzel

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #11 on: July 13, 2017, 06:00:04 PM »
Good to see you back, and with an unusual project. It´s all modelling after all. Welli good!

Welli good!!!!  As discussed, LOL.

Wizzel

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2017, 08:33:06 PM »
Little bit more shaping done in between all the other chores.  I'm almost happy with the shape now and once the legs are a little "slimmer", I have to take the whole boot down to account for the thickness of the sugar paste.  Whan THAT'S done, it'll be time to varnish it.  But that's for another day.

Roger

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2017, 09:23:47 PM »
Looking very like my Dunlops shape wise, very good!

Roger

Wizzel

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Re: 1/4 SCALE WELLINGTON
« Reply #14 on: July 17, 2017, 06:11:32 AM »
Thanks Roger.  The challenge is one pair are Barbour and the other pair Hunter.  I imagine there are some differences - tread, straps, fairings, radio equipment, weapon hard points etc!