Author Topic: Ice by accident  (Read 2937 times)

Weirdo

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Ice by accident
« on: 20 July 2016, 14:38:21 »
An interesting discovery has just been made. As I mention around here often, I like to use sand with superglue soaked into it to fill my mechs' hex bases, as the end result helps make the mini bottom-heavy, is nigh indestructible, and dries to a very nice rough texture, perfect for painting up as any kind of non-paved ground. Wanting to base-fill a Cataphract I had with me during lunch, I tried splenda instead, not having any sand at the office. Not near as effective, as the smaller particles means the glue didn't soak in as well, and took much longer to dry. However, if you do let it dry, splendaglue apparently ends up looking exactly like deep snow in the deep recesses, and where there's only a thin layer, it looks exactly like a thin layer of ice over pavement or dirt. Slightly glossy, too. Thought you  guys might find that useful someday. O0
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cavingjan

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #1 on: 20 July 2016, 16:51:24 »
That has potential. I'd be curious to see what it looks like in a month or three. Does splenda degrade over time?

Acolyte

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #2 on: 20 July 2016, 23:45:22 »
Splendid!

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Weirdo

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #3 on: 21 July 2016, 08:48:28 »
That has potential. I'd be curious to see what it looks like in a month or three. Does splenda degrade over time?

Looking that up mostly brings up nutritional discussions, so it's hard to tell how durable it is in our context. The wiki article for sucralose(the fancy name) says it doesn't really get processed by our innards, and that it is also highly resistant to heat and pH changes, so I imagine it can probably handle being encased in CA glue. It also apparently causes blood cancer in Swiss lab mice, so if you live in or travel to Europe, don't leave your minis in a rodent cage. I am now convinced that eating my Cataphract would be a bad idea.
My wife writes books
"Thanks to Megamek, I can finally play BattleTech the way it was meant to be played--pantsless!"   -Neko Bijin
"...finally, giant space panties don't seem so strange." - Whistler
"Damn you, Weirdo... Damn you for being right!" - Paul
"...I was this many years old when I found out that licking a touchscreen in excitement is a bad idea." - JadeHellbringer
"We are the tribal elders. Weirdo is the mushroom specialist." - Worktroll

klarg1

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #4 on: 21 July 2016, 10:49:29 »
Looking that up mostly brings up nutritional discussions, so it's hard to tell how durable it is in our context. The wiki article for sucralose(the fancy name) says it doesn't really get processed by our innards, and that it is also highly resistant to heat and pH changes, so I imagine it can probably handle being encased in CA glue. It also apparently causes blood cancer in Swiss lab mice, so if you live in or travel to Europe, don't leave your minis in a rodent cage. I am now convinced that eating my Cataphract would be a bad idea.

Have you tested the superglue coating for water-tightness? Splenda is highly water soluble. I'd hate for your snow base to disappear in a freak soda spill.

I would also be curious to know if splenda (or regular sugar, for that matter) changes color with time. Baking soda (another past snow suggestion) tends to slowly turn yellow.

Good experiment. I'll await the publication of your findings.  O0

Cryhavok101

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #5 on: 21 July 2016, 11:13:44 »
This was primarily due to the life support system of the mech ejecting waste after particularly harrowing encounters.

worktroll

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #6 on: 21 July 2016, 17:39:47 »
I've used interior gap filler for snow before - it also provides that textured matt white surface. But it's a bit of a pain to smear over mini bases, so this looks better.

Klarg1, had you sealed the minis with baking soda? Baking soda's pretty chemically active, so it would certainly react with air & humidity, and might even react with varnishes - but maybe not with polyurethane? Either way, I'd expect the artificial sweetner to be less chemically reactive if sealed off from humidity.

I use a lot of 'natural' dirt & sand, but I did use coffee grounds with one set of minis to be "rich earth". Looks good, is safely sealed, but was painful to work with, as it came off the glue more than anything else.

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Mech42ace

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #7 on: 21 July 2016, 18:55:13 »
Interesting. I wonder if you fill a base normally and then paint it light blue, and then coated the top of it with the splenda CA if it would look like a sheet of ice. Could make for some convincing dioramas!

Might have to try this with a spare hex base and let it set for six months or maybe a year or so to see how it ages.
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worktroll

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #8 on: 21 July 2016, 19:19:59 »
I'll be using white glue, not CA - this would hopefully add a slightly translucent underlayer.

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* No, FASA wasn't big on errata - ColBosch
* The Housebook series is from the 80's and is the foundation of Btech, the 80's heart wrapped in heavy metal that beats to this day - Sigma
* To sum it up: FASAnomics: By Cthulhu, for Cthulhu - Moonsword
* Because Battletech is a conspiracy by Habsburg & Bourbon pretenders - MadCapellan
* The Hellbringer is cool, either way. It's not cool because it's bad, it's cool because it's bad with balls - Nightsky
* It was a glorious time for people who felt that we didn't have enough Marauder variants - HABeas2, re "Empires Aflame"

Nomad

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #9 on: 28 July 2016, 13:58:57 »
Interesting discovery - let us know how it holds up. I've been using a combination of baking soda, gloss medium and a drop of white paint (to prevent yellowing).

pheonixstorm

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #10 on: 24 March 2017, 02:21:29 »
Weirdo, how does it look after almost a year? Any color changes ?

Weirdo

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #11 on: 24 March 2017, 06:57:44 »
*digs through his drawer of Marian stuff*

Your lucky I hasn't painted it yet...yup! Still looks the same, no color shifting or fading at all. O0
My wife writes books
"Thanks to Megamek, I can finally play BattleTech the way it was meant to be played--pantsless!"   -Neko Bijin
"...finally, giant space panties don't seem so strange." - Whistler
"Damn you, Weirdo... Damn you for being right!" - Paul
"...I was this many years old when I found out that licking a touchscreen in excitement is a bad idea." - JadeHellbringer
"We are the tribal elders. Weirdo is the mushroom specialist." - Worktroll

klarg1

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Re: Ice by accident
« Reply #12 on: 05 April 2017, 10:36:06 »
*digs through his drawer of Marian stuff*

Your lucky I hasn't painted it yet...yup! Still looks the same, no color shifting or fading at all. O0

Excellent.