Mark Cassidy

Bertie, Thanks, I know what you mean, I agree it seems a bit empty, I think an error has come back to bite me I made the water too dark. So when I sorted the base I had the static grass in and the base "framed" the tank quite snuggly, I was hoping that the grass would continue to shoe through and frame the tank on completion of the pour. I can see now it wasn't gona work out that way. Maybe if I had had longer seaweed or lighter water it would have kept that snug framing effect and made the diorama busier. I did toy with a swimmer aor a squid or something in there and ended up dropping those ideas. Thanks though feedback noted for the next build Mark

Folks, Finally finished my Saipan Sherman build , I stuck a ready for inspection thread up if anyone fancies a look As always any thoughts on how I can improve then next build is gratefully recieved. Mark

A wee update. I started the resin pours on Friday night and had a bit of a mare with the resin, it started oozing up between the acrylic sides and the outside of the photoframe, , so I let that dry and then removed it as best I could with a knife, it didnt look too bad. I then messed up slightly by using the too much Tamiya clear blue and ended up with some banding of the resin layers. Its not too noticeable to be honest and I still have issues with my resin having really small bubble in. I did all the ususal things warmed it in luke warm water before mixing then using a blow torch to burst the bubbles when they formed. After pouring the rest of the resin I finished off the surface with a stipple effect of AKs water effects as the resin was too smooth for the surface of the sea. But the good news is I am calling it done, I have created a new thread in the ready for inspection section, As always am happy for feedback and I want to say thanks to everyone who gave me hints tips and encouragement on this one Cheers Mark

After a fair bit longer than I thought it would take I finished the Saipan Sherman, I really enjoyed building this wee heller kit in 1/72. The background to this build is that during the invasion of Saipan in WW2 , three separate USMC shermans became stranded in the shallow lagoon surrounding Saipan, where they remain to this day. See below for the video that provided me with the basis for this diorama. My build is a bit of a composite of the three wrecks. I hope you like the results! Regards Mark

Very kind of you to say so mate thanks, be brave and take the plunge lol They arent all that hard like everything else its about improving things on the next build. Mark

Gents Thanks for the tips I will need to give both those a try and see how i get on, , this will sound weird but actually on reflection the slightly lighter shades helped me put the oils on top, so all's well that ends well. BTW am really using oils for the first time, OMG how good are they! Thanks again.

So life this last few weeks has prevented me getting any decent bench time, hence the lack of updates on this wee project, but I have managed to progress it. So I as per above and then I wanted to leave a blank circle around my sherman and then have the sea grass growing on the periphery, so I used a piece of card and then used 2mm and some 6mm static summer grass. Then like a plonker I realised I should have left a semi sunken area where the sherman would have settled into the seabed so I had to cut out a hole and then smooth it with grout then play sand again As for the sherman itself I scratch built a engine compartment, and glued in the tracks I also created a scratch built engine block, I have been experimenting somewhat with colouring the tile grout with paint and then stippling it on to build it in layers just like the coral and marine growth would have built up over time. So the sandy colour for the interior under water colour works well I think, once it was dry I used very thin oil washes to darken and mottle the marine growth as I noticed on one of the videos one of the tanks the marine growth in the engine bay was much darker than on the other parts of the sherman. Im broadly happy with that to be honest. Am less happy with the same technique I tried to use on the upper surfaces, I think part of the issue is the tile grout is white pre mixed so when I add the paint two things happens is one the tile ends up runnier than I want and two it ends up lighter than the colour I intended and it dries even lighter. Im wondering if getting some grout in powder form would help thicken the grout , but am not sure how to get the colour not really darker but "richer" the grout seems to desaturate the colour compared with what comes out the bottle so I would be grateful for any thoughts you might have? I should say I also have cut the perspex sides and epoxyied them in to place. the next steps is to add some more corrosion on the areas i have missed, then I need to figure out how to get that really vivid orange colour onto the turret like you see in the video, then it will be time for the resin pours. Any thoughts or feedback gratefully received Mark

Is it difficult to convince the admins to create a sub forum space? Would they be amenable to setting up a section titled Entropy?

Yeah i agree it's not quite there, think I should have gone heavier with the grout process to really make it like rough textured Cheers

Aw mate as a plumber I only ever sat in the management cabin during engine runs. That's intresting there was supposed to kidney plates to wear, must have been stored beside the bump hats that we had for weapons loading as I never saw them either

I remember sitting in the management cabin when the sooties were doing engine runs on the f3 in HAS , even in the spund proof cabin you had to shout to be heard, you didnt just hear it, you felt it as well. Iirc I was told that they could only run up to 85% rpm in the HAS as the noise and vibration could damage internal organs. Happy to be corrected by any sooties out there

Cheers mate thanks for the gen, yeah the engine deck is definitely not going to feature very heavily in the build that for sure

So now I have found the right place to post entropy stuff I ve started my latest entropy project, my take on the Shermans that were abandoned around Saipan , I've started a WIP thread over on the armour area of the web page, its early days for the project but have a look if you think it might be of interest. Heres the inspiration for the project, the guy also has done other dives on sunken aircraft ect And heres the link to the WIP Im always kicking around the web looking for new ideas for builds, I found this and was thinking of basing a build on this image, its from my research I believe its a Japanese Jake float plane that was sunk on Paulau Island , Im thinking of converting a Zero fighter to a Rufe floatplane and building something like this scene And I also saw this that may be of interest too , its a Russian WW2 era K class submarine in a submarine graveyard up in the kola peninsula, I think there are more more moderen 1960s subs up there as well , it might be of interest as well. Enjoy

WIP Saipan Sherman I came across a neat video of some rusty wrecked semi sunken Sherman Tanks in or should I say off Saipan. I really like the colours and contrast between say the tropical blue of the Lagoon and the rusty reds and oranges. I grabbed a few screenshots of the wrecks in the video that is worth a watch :- I started by buying a 18cmx 18cm photo frame , pulling out the retaining clips, epoxy and sealing in the glass with clear bathroom sealant so when I add the epoxy later it wont run out the bottom. When I have done similar dioramas in the past with perspex sides I have run into the issue where I ended up marking the perspex and it made getting in about the base awkward, so I decided this time to put spaces in until I got the base completed and the model mounted then I will take the spacers out and replace them with perspex sides of the same size, then do the resin pour. My next step I cut foam board and mounted it in the frame in order to raise the "seabed"up , I slotted in the spacers and then mixed tile grout with some Mig Ammo ochre, I then added quite a bit of water and smoothed out the grout to get rid of any scultping marks and make the seabed more natural in profile. I decided to be a little experimental and added some play sand to the wet grout to see if it will stick , if it doesnt I can simply add more with some PVA glue and it will give me the finish am looking for. Ive also started the Sherman, its the Heller kit, that might not be the exact model of Sherman, I believe the USMC used M4A2 and the heller kit is a French A4, I feel like the diffrence will be minimal as the end result will be a sherman shaped rusty reck so for me it was an acceptable trade off. I primed the sprues with Vallejo Rust Primer, I built the turret and the I test fitted the main upper and lower hull and the turret together, I decided to use a stipple effect to start building up layers of rust up on it. The next steps is getting the running gear built up and mounted on the Sherman. I also need to scratch build some of the rusty gun in the turret, I need to drill some holes in the turret top and then get the turret completed inside, I also need to scratch build the back end where the engine block was and figure out what bulkheads I need to put in and think how i can build a engine block, it doesn't need to be accurate as its going to be really rusty and clogged with barnacles and sand and stuff. Any thoughts or feedback, hints or tips is really welcome Mark

No probs Bertie, I knew I would mess this up lol