VA3D Animal Collection

[HandTurnedMaple]

These will probably be the last of the animal collection I post because we have seen quite a bit of VA3D's patterns and already know how good they are. But I wanted to show these actually carved and finished.

I also want to make a case against using Danish Oil here. I used it on the fly fisherman, the deer, and the bass. It settles into the deep areas too much and makes them too dark. The trees behind the deer look like something out a children's horror story because the empty spaces are so dark (it didn't come through in the photos very well because the flash reflection off the lacquer). Again, this was from the Danish Oil, not the patterns themselves.

I still find a Gel Stain is the best for these style carvings (used on elk and pheasant here). It is hard to get out of the deep parts, so it really imparts an antique feel and gives a lot of visual depth to the carvings.

Also on the Pheasants, the lower pheasant has a flat spot on her back. I set the height way up, so the CW cut here flat. You should set the height down a little below the surface on this one.

Finally, the bass in style C makes it hard to see the tail (although it shows on the photo, its hard in RL to see). I think I will look into using style A instead, with a Carve Region slightly deeper than the depth.

[rjp736]

Handturnedmaple,

Very nice ! I agree with you on the Gel stain. I also use it and get great looking results. I found that if you use a q-tip in the hard to get areas it does a good job of soaking up the excess stain. Happy Carving.

[cajunpen]

HTM - very nice pieces. I know that you used a gel stain on the elk and pheasant, what did you use to finish them (varnish, oil, etc)?

Whatever you are using is working great. Also, what size is the finished product? It's hard to beat the quality of the VA3D models.

[HandTurnedMaple]

I use gloss pre-cat spray lacquer on nearly all my inside pieces (such as these). Extremely fast-drying (30 minute recoat +/- vs. 4 hours for polyurethane), easy to apply, self-correcting (to a point) for clumsy people (like me), and is very durable and fairly repairable.

[HandTurnedMaple]

Patterns are about 10.5" x 7", frames are about 10.5" x 8". And I put a 1/4" quarter-round on the outside edge using a router table.

[jim cancil]

HTM: Handsome pieces. What was the avg. carving time?

[HandTurnedMaple]

5:10:00 for all 5 (I never load less than a 4'-6' long board to minimize Under Roller waste), so 1:02:00 each.

[jim cancil]

HTM: Thanks. I have a single image, non-repeat commercial project I could use a machine like this for but it appears to take too long in the examples I've seen posted here.

The combo of sofware + machine is very attractive but I suspect the router (for lack of a better word) is kept underclocked so as to not strain the carriage. Thanks again for the reply.

Jim

[trailblazzzer]

I think those carvings are amazing. I have 2 questions. On those 75$ patterns do you have to set it up for carve region and add the decorative oval, or is that part of the pattern. I am interested in buying the $499 kit so a little heads up on that won't hurt. Also you said the carving time is roughly an hour. All my carvings seem to be 2hrs plus. Do you use best quality settings which add a lot of carving time? I'm going to post a few carvings i've done with va3d patterns so if interested search for them. I wish my carvings took that short of a time to carve :). Great work!

Trailblazzzer

[HandTurnedMaple]

These are all Style C - Recess carvings. All I did was use the pattern, then create a slightly larger oval for the outside cutout. Then I used my router table to run a quarter-round on the outside.

Here is how the 3 VA3D styles break down:

A - the carving kind of domes up from a flat(ish) background.
B - concave curves towards the center of the background, so edge details are lost (not necessarily a bad thing, just a stylistic choice).
C - the background is evenly recessed, and the carving builds up from there. Style C includes the uneven border featured in these, I can only imagine as a way to simulate the effect of using carving tools.

(JamesB can correct me if I describe that poorly.)

Carving Time: I use only Best Quality for these things. What I have come to realize is that Carve Region is your enemy in respect to time (like my "lonely" elk and eagle that I displayed in a much earlier thread). You are basically hogging out large areas of wood 1/32" [or less] at a time.

[HandTurnedMaple]

5th post on this thread.

[JamesB]

HandTurnedMaple - good description of the different styles. The Collection comes with all 3 styles for all the models shown here: http://www.vectorart3d.com/index.cfm/Animal1-Content.htm
- great job on cutting and finishing the models. Cheers, James

[trailblazzzer]

And pointing out 5th post means what exactly?

[HandTurnedMaple]

Someone asked for the sizes, and then deleted their post (appearantly).