Mark Cassidy

Apologies for the sparse updates on this I have been progressing it and its complete So I fixed in the concrete slabs I printed up on the 3d printer some memorial tablets , I managed to get the tablets translated and I tried to incorporate the text from the real tablets, I sprayed them black white dry brushed them white and then i used some white water pencils to create like water marks. Im pretty please with them as I wasnt sure they would print. I also printed up the bollards , 1st set were to wee to get the chain through a reprint with a 25% upscaling sorted that. I picked up a chain from GSW and gave it a coat of black paint. I also printed up some slabs to make a path to the monument , they ended up not really printing properly but I think the pits added to the effect. Everything was glued down, and then I put a layer of garden earth down, I stuck the original bollards in at this point and realised later they were too wee lol 4mm static grass, spring went down next I switched over to the bigger bollards and added another layer of 6mm static grass, I tried 10mm grass and 12mm but I dont think it really worked TBH Threaded the chain , I realised that the Mig would tail sit, so I devised a chock to fit the nose wheel so I could glue it down, it was weird though it was really really finely balanced, slightest touch would cause the model to tail sit. And its done, I really enjoyed this project TBH, it all went really well.

Aw thanks mate for the helpful gen. Can I ask, and this will sound daft, see when u put the sheet of vinyl or masking sheet in, do you have to tell the cricut the size of the sheet, like.u would with a printer and then let's say u do a small canopy mask in the top right corner, can you then tell the cricut that you have a less than full sized sheet? Sorry I know it sounds daft lol

Hi Sorry to resurrect this, but I am thinking about getting a second hand cricut after xmas, either a joy or theres an Air 2 on gumtree for about the same price. I noticed that those mask that look fab are for 1/48th scale, as a 1/72 scale moddler whats your thoughts on whether it would work at the lower scale? I mean how small can you practically go? Regards Mark

Mate thats very kind of you , I dunno what attracts me to it TBH I think its the colours they are very unique , I just hope I make a reasonable approximation of it lol You might see some more as Ive seen it come up on a couple of Facebook groups that do entropy builds lol

Folks After a great delay Ive finally gotten around to getting this on the bench, Ive started a wee WIP thread for it below And thanks again for your help with this Mark

The base for this is a Wooden photoframe, MDF backing glued down, and then some time grout applied, the plinth was a piece of XPS foam cut and covered in grout, I used a heat pad and a plastic box to speed up the grout drying and it worked pretty well, its my intention add layer of earth then static grass the area , the slab the Mig sits on is a bit of 5mm foam board with the backing paper removed to help the grout stick , I added some deck tan and some play sand to the grout to add texture, then washed it with grey acrylics, enamel AK keorsene leaks, fuel stains and dark green slime wash in various strengths. I then hot glued that to the little hill, am going to pack that with some grout in places, before its static grassed. I also have some 3D printing to do, I have some rough paving slabs to add and Ive created vertical slab that will hold the memorial plaques last I need to print up some bollard in order to hold some chain link that will surround the Mig Happy for any feedback or suggestions you may have 🙂

This is a long planned diorama, I found some images online of an abandoned Mig-21 Fishbed somewhere in Russia at this time last year , and Ive finally got around to doing the planned Diorama. I got some really good help from people on this forum that provided me with a wealth of reference photos for the project, so big thanks to them , the reference photos can be found on this thread here. Special thanks to @Dmitriy1967 for his kind help. So the build started out being a straight copy of the Mig but if am honest its became a bit more a "based on" rather than "true copy" so forgive me that. I used a 1/72 Eduard weekend kit for the MIG-21 PFM, its was cheap and available and I think the real life A/C is an SMT variant of the Mig with a humpback. The kit went together really nicely , I find Eduard kits do, I decided to leave out the pilots ejections seat and I tried not very successfully to remove a couple of the panels the Eduard kit has a engine tube assembly that I added then cut away one of the access panels, my intention is to rust up the inside of the aircraft a little as though some local vandals have stolen the access panel. I built and sprayed the interior with the teal colour that was common Russian aircraft, everyone seems to hate that weirdly I quite like. I then gave it a wash of AKs green slime and added some fine turf to the cockpit floor in order to simulate some signficant organic growth that I guess would take route in there. I agonised a little over the canopy and noticed that in one of the pictures it seems like its covered and I decided to create a look as though someone tried to smash their way into the cockpit, either metal thieves of vandals , so drilled a couple of holes in the canopy, then used snips to create a ragged edge, I sand papered the inside of the canopy to create a grazed look, that seems to affect aircraft canopies exposed to UV light, I then used AK water colour pencils and green slime wash to build up layers of green mould on the inside. I also decided to use Tamiya clear blue for the windscreen itself and left it clear, I might have went a bit hard on the blue and made it too blue I think One thing I should have considered is , I should have attached the same pre shading process to the canopy as I did to the rest of the model, maybe a temporary attachment to the fuselage otherwise I ended up with the canopy with no persuading effect and the aircraft fuselage having it, I think I might have gotten away with it this time due to the nature of the build, if you look at the original images of the aircraft its clear that the paint job is poor at best. I preshaded the aircraft, then used AKs Mint Green , lightened with white, masked the camouflage pattern , re-persuaded on the exposed panel line areas and then gave it some Vallejos Light Rust without any lightening , the underside was done with Vallejos AMT blue and the dark blue is AKs Medium Blue I did the interior wheel wells with Vallejo light grey then used AK Dark Slime Wash on to really dirty up those areas. I wondered about the decals, and wanted to put a chippped peeling effect on them, so I tried 2 techniques, one I sanded them gently to try and wear them and the second method I used was to try and rip them with a pin. The second method seemed to work better as they didnt fragment quite so much. I discovered that you can use AKs weathering pencils to achieve some neat effects so I decided to give it a whirl on this, I drew green lines on the panel lines, then used a damp brush to soften the edges, am quite pleased with the results of that if am honest, much more controllable than enamel washes Ive used before.

Mike Thanks that's very kind of you , I will indeed drop you a wee PM shortly when I figure out what am going for. I have since become aware that the UK built a fair few merchant vessel's for Japan, some were even built up here on the banks of the Clyde , who knew ! Regards Mark

Yeah something like that thanks, if am honest am note exactly sure what type of ship, something thats easy to model am thinking something thats easy to scratch build so maybe something a bit smaller lol

Folks I wondered if you some kind soul might give me a few pointers in the right direction, I have an idea , I fancy building a diorama based on the Australian Beaufighters that carried out air strikes against Japanese ships around the south west pacific. My idea is to have a beaufighter passing over a Japanese transport/merchantman, at mast height as a pair of bombs skip towards the unfortunate ship. So scene set , Im looking at a 1/72 scale beaufighter, so what I was thinking is having a just to build a cross section of the ship to form 1 end of the diorama and I wondered if you might know where I could find perhaps plans for such vessels? It doesn't need to be specifically a Japanese design, I can make the back story of the diorama fit , it was a British merchant ship pressed into service after the fall of Singapore for example. Im also open to all suggestions as to how to achieve this or any good reference sites, videos ect ect Thanks in advance

Folks Thats fascinating, that rocket pamphlet posted above is a real find, I love the operational research that went into it, where they went and figured out where and what the rockets hit ect ect , thats why I love this hobby.

Excellent, well in that case Ive already started my next build, a MIG-21 War Memorial at the abandoned airbase at Smuravevo about 15 miles from the border with Estonia

Mate that would be awesome if it was year round, have to say folks is my first GB and I have loved it. I've liked the sense of community that we have built up, it's been great being able to talk to ppl in my niche interest. I've been blown away by your skills and projects and thinking behind them as well. One thing I will really miss is having a dedicated entropy area to go to on britmoddler I know If we all tagged our builds with entropy we could search them but its not quire the same. I personally think what ever you produced or didn't should give yourself a big pat on the back likes. And thanks to all of you for everything 👍😊

Beneath Nikko Bay- A Sunken Rufe Fighter Floatplane The kit was a 1/72 Scale Mitsubihi A6M Zero with 3D printed floats and canopy, coral, and kayaker. Scratch built terrain Build Thread

As promised heres the latest update on the Rufe.

Thanks yeah it does but its a lovely gradient not as has happened before with builds two distinct bands as such. I've just done 2 more smaller pours over the weekend and fingers crossed I might have got away with it 😅, also realising you have messed up the mixing of the resins, having to add hardner and then having to mix it in the diorama is not the way to go to be honest 😅 I will post some updates tonight, I've stuck the kayaker in now and what I need to do once this last pour sets I need to decide what ripples am going to add to the waters surface, do I go for wind ripples or just create a disturbance for the kayaker paddle and the kayaks wake. For anyone interested I think it might have used 1.8litre of resin at a guess.

Yeah its not bad, it's just not great lol But thanks, I knew it was a risk, and I know how to prevent that in future projects, between that and a load of other lessons , like how to do corrosion with a dremel or 3d print aircraft structures, has made it a really worth while project 😀

So the big pour didnt go exactly according to plan if am honest. 🙈 I made the mistake of trying to pour too deep and thats the basis of my problems, I mixed up 1300ml of resin, all I had and added 2ml of tamiya clear and stirred this, got the bubbles out , everything looked good I only had one small leak in the frame that I could deal with, 1st issue I was maybe I guess 200ml short of resin , thats not a huge drama as I can get some more, the problem is then making sure I tint it to the same "blueness" as the bottom layer, I did note the tamiya ratio to resin so that should help. And in all honesty the subsequent events actually having not enough resin was a bonus. I didnt realise the engine would float and I had to wedge it under the rufe and coral to keep it down. lol About 45 mins after pouring , the resin started literally smoking and I couldnt touch the case, I used a IR thermometer on it and it registered 72 degrees C, so predicatiably the Rufe started deforming and warping, and TBH thats not a really noticeable thing , and the resin went solid, the kicker is , that at certain parts bubbles started forming and and trying to get up to the surface except the resin solidiified so quickly it trapped vertical strings of bubbles, a bit like gas escaping from the sea bed lol . Then a short time later the resin started "erupting" like lava and then cooled. so the surface isnt flat. Its not ruined, and I think I will get a reasonable dio out of it, but its still gonna bug me the bubbles. Happy for any feedback I did take some pics of the pre pour final result just in case it went wrong BTW intresting factoid, the heat melted plastic but didnt bother the resin I used in 3d printing Last bit of advice , if you are pouring resins by a paddle stirrer for an electric drill, they make the job of mixing the 2 parts so so so much easier

Thanks both of you for your kind words , the big pour day is due to be Wednesday i think, I will pour the resin and WFH so I can keep an eye on it when its setting Im not sure how this will turn out, the resin gets warm so I am hoping that it wont get too warm to melt the rufe, the rest of the stuff is solid resin or foam, so am not too worried about that. I also have a worry about whether the resin will soak into the terrain or if it will remain, time will tell I suppose, I also despite copious amounts of sealants and resins not sure how confident I can be there wont be a leak in a seam. I plan to place the dio in a plastic basin for just that eventuality , ive been caught out before with that and the prospect of telling the missus that I had dripped resin down the bedside table was not a good one lol.

Another update, today has been a productive day, I got the jungle cliffs finished off , palm trees fixed in , some bushes fixed down, and coincidentally a post storm walk in the country park saw me pick up some buds of a fir tree, and it made me wonder if they might work as bushes, they were green yesterday when I mounted them but they have since gone yellow , not that am bothered TBH I think they look reasonably life like. I also used sand and gravel fixer to fix down the leaf matter. I sorted the vegetation for the sea stack part, painted up the kayak , still need to sort the kayaker and paddles after one paddle snapped off . So the coral, am definitely on the downward slope with this , I have 2 rocks left to cover, and as low and behold I have printed too much coral, I will add the smaller bits in to fill gaps, I also need to add some of the smaller coral to the rufe itself, its going to be judgement call tbh I don't want a aircraft shaped coral reef, but equally I don't want it completely devoid of coral either, there's a happy medium to be struck I think. Ive also installed the last side of the perspex and sealed up the gaps with clear resin. I hope I have anyways lol I need to add some sand around the base of the sea stack in order to hide the unatural depression around it.

mate dont i know it, and aye lucky I stay at the top of a hill so am not likely to flood where I am lol that said the 2 roads in and out the village are liable to flood, I got my supplies in and will just need to progress the dio lol

So a wee update on this, Im glad we have a wee extension on the GB. So I feel like I have little progress to show , but I have been busy , if I ever have an idea to do a dio with a coral reef, slap me lol its just been what seems like endless printing/painting/fixing and rinse and repeat. Thats nearly all of it not counting what I have already attached, and Im hoping I dont have much more to do , but it will be easier to judge as I fill up the rocks Ive also been working on the top of the cliffs as well, I have watched some videos on you tube on making palms and tried to take what I think was the best bits of the various videos, I think next time I would paint the palm leaves after I cut them to make it easier, I did try using a coloured paper but it didnt look too natural but then up have to deal with the white bits of the edge of the palms . Ive tried to add in some of the smaller younger foliage, and I will add some clump foliage for bushes and also some leaf matter for the floor of the jungle. once the corals are completed and the jungle terrain done I can get the last side in , leak test it and then get ready for the big pour. Oh I do need to get my kayaker painted up and also figure out where/how to insert my hammerhead and stingray into the scene as well Any thoughts on what I can improve on or change am always happy to hear 🙂

Thanks thats outstanding mate thanks for taking the time to let me know, I will deffo get it finished by then, this weekend in Scotland is likely a wet weather weekend so I will get a good jump on it.

Thats awesome mate the brick work looks really good