Da fishy, he is done
Project #10 came to a successful conclusion, if I do say so myself. It was probably the least stressful project I’ve done, a combination of a new attitude and workging to my strengths, such as they are. Attitude is everything, though.
My only disappointments with this project are a) the break in the tail, which was totally foreseeable, and I probably could’ve modified the design to get rid of it; b) the gaps between some of the pieces, which should be lessened in future because I ordered some 3/0 blades; and c) some lighter sawdust trapped in the superglue that calls attention to itself.
Regarding issue c) I’m not sure what I can do about that; maybe more acetone at earlier cleaning stages after I pick it out. I think it’s actually shell dust; the wood isn’t that color. That said, I am AMAZED at how well the superglue/sawdust filler around the little front flipper worked out. It’s not even distinguishable at first glance. Thats what we want!
I stopped sanding the whole piece at 800, as that’s the dust that seems to get trapped in the pores of the wood. I guess that’s why they say quit at 400, but I don’t like the scratches that are still in the shell at 400, so I will just attempt to sand the wood to 400, then spot-sand the design itself to the shine I like.
It’s hard to get a fair representation of color of the shell in a photo; I’ll try again tomorrow in daylight, but in a bit of shade, so I don’t get the glare. The middle part of the body ended up with some white and gold striations, though the piece started as gold. I expected this to some extent; gold MOP is just the colored lip of white MOP, and if you sand far enough, you’ll start sanding through it. That said, I think the striations give it a more realistic, fishy look. One thing I noticed once I had it all put together is that the front part of the fish and the middle part of the fish flash on from 2 different directions; I’m not sure how I feel about that, and it probably would’ve been worth it to check that ahead of time so that the whole piece flashed on at the same lighting angle. Live and learn.
The next design I’ve got in mind is a very silly one, based on a card I picked up once. It could be a hoot, or a horror. We’ll see. It’s also 55 pieces. I’m not going to tip my hand yet, in case I get into it and decide it was all a horrible mistake. Stay tuned.
