Tuesday 7 July 2015

Make your own Vortex template

I've not really had a need for a Vortex template before, but then the Ravenwing Dark Talon's Rift Cannon was upgraded to give the potential to create one so I suddenly had the urge to get one. Of course they're quite difficult to get hold of and on ebay they're going for about £15! So I wondered about alternative options. I still recall Ron From the Warp's awesome 'Wiffle ball' tutorial but funnily enough it was Rob's tutorial from warhammer 39999 that I remember most. But Wiffle balls don't seem to be easily available in the UK so I got to thinking about other 3" diameter objects


And I already had them! A while back I helped my son make a Neon atom for his physics class and the centre-piece containing the electrons, protons, neutrons [delete as appropriate science folk, I think the electrons are aound the outside?] was a clear plastic Christmas bauble. now I only needed one but my local art/craft store had a pack of 10 and they're just 4mm wider than a standard small blast so I thought I'd have a crack at making my own, so first up I cut off the hanging tab.


Now the difference with these is you can spray them on the inside to retain a super high gloss finish. So I covered my hands in a plastic bag and sprayed above the bauble with white, trying to ensure spots of paints dropped onto the bauble y'know for that spacy look.


And it came out alright, but while I was taking the pictures I missed the opportunity to drag some of the bigger spots with a cocktail stick for some weird warp lightning.


And therefore I sprayed some on some cardboard and tried to paint it on, with limited success and actually picked up some of the Red Oxide undercoat when the solvents managed to melt the primer on the spray box I was using. Still it was a first draft so I didn't mind so much.


I then did the same with the Red Oxide primer to add some nice colour tints to it, like gaseous nebulas and then it was a coat of black spray primer.


And I ended up with this! OK, it's not perfect but Ron took 12 attempts to get happy with his and Rob did three. As I only had the one coloured spray can and paused to take pictures inbetween I was a bit limited but for practically zero cost I'm chuffed with the results especially the high gloss finish, which is the advantage of spraying inside the bauble. Of course you can paint the outside too if you want a matt finish but that'll require a varnish to protect your handiwork.


I did actually put an LED candle inside to see if it would add an unearthly glow in the warp but it was a bit pants, and even worse in the dark as it shone through all the black spray like it wasn't even there!


Anyway, for a 5-10 minute job I'm pretty pleased with the results, so thought I'd share an alternative way to make the Vortex templates

8 comments:

  1. This is AWESOME Dave! Thanks for this. I need to make my buddy one. I know webways don't have portals n such anymore, but still mega awesome to use one.

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    1. 'Standing on the shoulders of giants' but I did manage to put my own spin on it thanks to the donor hemi-sphere. I'm sure I could get some more interesting results if and when I crank out the airbrush.

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  2. Looks great. I love it when someone's inner Mek charges to the forefront and makes a Vortex out of Christmas decorations. Brilliant.

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    1. And I've still got a load of them, I knew I kept them for a reason!

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  3. That's cool, I'm going to give that a go... and yeah, the electrons go around the outside ;-) My Chemistry teacher brain had a chuckle when you said he was making a neon atom for Physics class; bloody Physicists are always trying to steal our thunder.

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  4. Now that is very cool good job Dave.

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  5. I think this is a definite improvement on Ron's original idea because your paint job is completely protected by the plastic. I actually rediscovered my whiffles last month as I was cleaning up my gaming stuff, and at least one of them is coming apart (or rather, the paint is flaking off in the weirdest of ways).

    Since you have transparent globes, I wonder how the effect would be transformed if you painted the nebulas on the outside of the globe and the black on the inside. Would that give it a little more depth?

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  6. I remember Ron's wiffle ball tutorial! Never found one either. I got lucky on eBay and managed to get a proper one for reasonably cheap.

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