While other projects have diverted some of my attention over the past couple of weeks, I have not neglected the Centurion! I’ve recently been discussing detailing of the chest armour with one of my close design mentors, Xeones, and we came up with a cool design based around laurel branches.
The problem was that it required laying out some quite fine and intricate details like the leaves. I did a test one night with some leftover Procreate on some scrap styrene but the result was really poor. That was several weeks back and I decided it was easier to ignore it for the time being (and focus on other parts of the model). With those other parts completed I had to get the chest armour completed.
After some more brainstorming I came up with an idea:
- Draw the design in vector art (at scale)
- Use the CNC router to machine the shapes at a depth of 0.5mm into some 1.5mm styrene sheet. Areas surrounding the shapes would need to be milled down 0.5mm also. This effectively leaves a 1mm thick sheet with 0.5mm details protruding.
- Use a sharp blade to slice the details off the sheet
- Glue the details onto the armour
It seemed feasible so I gave it a go. Here are the results half way through and I have to say I’m really pleased! The process of slicing the parts from the styrene sheet tends to curl them up a bit, but straightening them isn’t a big deal. The edges are all a little bit crisp but some running around with sandpaper will sort that out.
This is what the milled parts look like. I used a 1mm cutter and you can see the marks where larger areas of styrene removed:
And here’s the result. WAY quicker and easier than sculpting by hand!
Once I’ve completed the other side I’ll hit it with some primer and smooth things out a bit where necessary. Stay tuned!