[Archive] Brass Etching & CD Iconography

Archive [Archive] Project Development
21

Nicodemus:

I definitely need to adjust the thickness of the borders around the pieces and I’ll need to tweak some of the features in individual pieces so that they’re less prone to over-etching. I think also I should be making these as double-sided transfers, although this is a good enough example that single-sided is still doable.

First one (a bit too much agitation near the bottom resulted in it etching faster)



Second one… mirror image and done with more gentle agitation.





~N

22

Grimstonefire:

Great idea for a time saver. Takes me back to when I used to etch circuit boards.

What is the thickest metal you could use do you think?

23

tjub:

Must say that this is a very creative idea, looks good too. :slight_smile:

24

Shakhorth:

Looking great, nice to see it worked out. This would be a huge time saver and it has a very unique feeling.

25

Nicodemus:

What is the thickest metal you could use do you think?

Grimstonefire
I'm not sure to be honest. The stuff I'm using right now is (I think) 0.1 mm thick, but I'd have to double-check to be sure. I'm sure I could go thicker with what I'm using, but then one runs the risk of taking too long to etch the material. The longer it takes to etch the less fine detail will remain as sharp features will be rounded and there will be more under-cutting (where the already-etched edges continue to be digested, eating away the material that lies under the mask).

In answer to a previous question regarding whether or not I plan to sell these. No. I'd only ever charge for materials and shipping anyway, but I just don't want to spend any more time making these than I need to do my own army. Making them to send away just isn't fun. While I've done similar things in the past to support the HeroQuest community - and I did get some enjoyment from knowing that people could use what I was creating for them - it's just not fun for me and becomes a chore. Additionally, even if I was just charging for materials, and I have permission from some of the artists on this site to use their artwork in this project (thanks), sending this stuff out to others wouldn't be a good idea as I'd be distributing copywritten works for which I don't have explicit permission to distribute. Not to mention I'd have to get rid of all of the 'real' Chaos Dwarf iconography that belongs to GW IP. So while I could make up a bunch of my own designs to distribute, I won't.  The most I might do if I can improve the process would be to make up one or two batches to be sent out to a future CDO contest winner.

That's a bit long-winded. I should have stopped after my 2nd sentence: No.  :o  ;)   :P

~N
26

Obsidian:

The brass etchings looks great! Are you looking on making sets for sale perhaps?

Obsidian
That would've been me in your other thread then! :cheers

Sounds totally understandable mate, guess I'll just have to give it a go myself then in the far future! :D
27

Joshmohr:

You should sell those- they’re fantastic

28

Nicodemus:

You should sell those- they're fantastic

Joshmohr
Nah!  At best I'll give some away :hat off

Here's how some of the shields turned out with the brass bits glued down:


Next step is to get a bunch of these icons affixed to my Black Orc unit to signify them as belonging to the Dawi Zharr as opposed to being 'free'.

~N
29

Shakhorth:

Shields looks nice. Can’t wait to see them on your models, and painted! :slight_smile:

30

nitroglysarine:

mini-thread-litch

Anyone have any ideas if somewhere does simply small chaos stars?

i’m after quite a few to put on the tops of my ‘‘fat’’ hats.

31

Fequiil:

those look really awesome!

32

Willmark:

Awesome stuff! I might have to acquire some of those. :wink:

33

Hazkar:

thats some nice stuff,will make your army pretty unique

really like it

34

Nicodemus:

Here are examples of them put to use from my army blog:







~N

35

Obsidian:

Ace stuff, they add so much character! :slight_smile:

36

Hazkar:

thats so freaking cool

37

Nicodemus:

So I’m revisiting the Chaos Dwarf iconography…  There’s no doubt that the etched brass pieces turned out very well indeed and did the trick.  But not so friendly in terms of getting the transfer sheet to print properly, ironing it on evenly, the corrosive chemicals, cleaning off the remaining mask from the brass sheet (which I found to be the most difficult part), etc. etc. Not to mention needing a proper fumehood to do it right.

My wife and I just got a Cricut Expression cutter.



I wasn’t totally sure until I saw some of the shapes she was cutting with it and how detailed they could be (see lettering & shapes on the above image). Then I heard that this thing can cut vinyl and other materials and has multiple cutting bits, including a ‘deep cut’ bit for thick materials… and I had a nerd-gasm.  We’ve just purched the Cricut DesignStudio software and I’ll be getting to work designing some iconography very soon :wink: There is a size limit in terms of how small things can be made, but it looks like with a little work I’ll be printing up plastic shield icons and all kinds of things in no time!

38

grimsnikk:

Wow, thats a good idea. I’ve seen those before, but was under the impression that there were premade shapes you could pick from, but if you can use it to cut out thick vinyl, or thin plasticard, that would be awesome!

Please keep us posted

39

cornixt:

Hows the Cricut stuff going? I saw them heavily discounted recently and was tempted, but the cartridges were outrageously expensive. I didn’t realise you could do you own designs. Sounds like an excellent solution to problems I have just come up with!

40

Admiral:

I have no idea how I missed this. Ingenius!