CliffB Posted December 8, 2013 Share Posted December 8, 2013 Evening all. Finally admitted to myself that I too need a KUTA, to make me finish this. It's been on the go for about a year now and is destined for my first ever attempt at a diorama, which is to be entitled 'In Search of the Pharaohs'. The dio' is inspired by the film The English Patient and will show base camp for a small group of archaeologists in Egypt in the 1930s, complete with truck, camels and a light aircraft. The truck is the first element and currently looks like this: I'm after a sun-bleached/sand-blasted finish so the paintwork is deliberately looking pretty tatty. I've not got much more to do to get this finished, so I'll probably try to get the ground works and other ancillary components (tents etc.), finished by the end of this GB, as they need a KUTA too. The aircraft will be a Frog/Novo Gypsy Moth, which I'm planning to build in the 'Under a Tenner' GB, if it stays in the top six See you later Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted December 9, 2013 Author Share Posted December 9, 2013 Last night I decided to get the chassis finished, so here it is.. As usual, the camera's pretty unforgiving in 1/72! There will be plenty of weathering to be done with pastel pigments, but I will wait until construction is fully complete. Off now to try to complete the cabin tonight. Cheers Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted December 10, 2013 Author Share Posted December 10, 2013 OK, all finished now - that didn't hurt much, did it? Next job is to work out which tents and stores I'm going to use. Cliff 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Stonking.....The dusty finish looks great and the headlights are very well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted December 10, 2013 Author Share Posted December 10, 2013 Thanks Sgt, Yes I was pleased with the headlights too. The kit provides them as deep 'cups', which I first lined with small discs of Bare Metal Foil which I punched out using a leather punch. The foil burnished easily into the contours of the 'cup' using a blunt cocktail stick.. i then filled the 'cups' with Kristal Klear. This took a few hours to dry, but once clear looks pretty good. First time I've tried this technique. Cheers Cliff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Spot on! (Sorry! ) You planning on doing any more small scale vehicles Cliff....You are clearly pretty good at 'em! I'd be willing to donate a Mirage Hobby 1/72 Vickers 6-Ton to the Gran Chaco cause if you fancy having a go at it? Was considering it myself, but I've just got too many builds at the moment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger Posted December 11, 2013 Share Posted December 11, 2013 Well done, That looks really nice!! Will be shamelessly "borrowing" the headlight idea for a couple of my own kits that have similar style headlights as it really looks the part. Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted December 11, 2013 Author Share Posted December 11, 2013 Spot on! (Sorry! ) You planning on doing any more small scale vehicles Cliff....You are clearly pretty good at 'em! I'd be willing to donate a Mirage Hobby 1/72 Vickers 6-Ton to the Gran Chaco cause if you fancy having a go at it? Was considering it myself, but I've just got too many builds at the moment! Thanks Sgt. I've only got a couple of random small scale vehicles in my stash (picked up at my model club's annual charity auction), both of which I'm likely to be doing in next year's GBs - a T34 for Korea and an Sd.Kfz.234/2 for D-Day. The idea of the Vickers does appeal though! Thank you for your kind offer. I'll drop you a PM. Cheers mate. Well done, That looks really nice!! Will be shamelessly "borrowing" the headlight idea for a couple of my own kits that have similar style headlights as it really looks the part. Ben Thanks Ben. Problem now is that I'm fretting about doing the rest of the diorama to the same standard - in particular, I'm rubbish at painting small scale figures (or any figures for that matter)! Cheers Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger Posted December 20, 2013 Share Posted December 20, 2013 (edited) Hi Cliff, I find the trick with 1/72 figures is that most things can be hinted at. I prime mine in grey then paint the uniform / webbing etc trying to be as neat as I can. I then paint the face using a pale flesh colour. All shading etc is done with thin washes built up over several coats to the effect I want. My personal favourite range of figures is from AB figures (recently gone out of business - hopefully temporarily!), although milicast and dan taylor modelworks are also rather nice. Hope this helps Ben Edited December 20, 2013 by badger 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 Thanks Ben, I can see the wisdom of repeated thin washes .My late father-in-law used to do some fantastic small scale 'flats' - mostly painted with oils. Big regret was that I never took the time to learn his techniques (young family etc. at the time). I'll look up the figure manufacturers you suggest, the few Airfix and Revell polythene figures that I've got are pretty disappointing. I've got some nice Preiser civilians though which I'm hoping will do for the archaeologists with some minor mods. I've also got some OK camels (not sure how to paint those either!), but really need some Bedouins to look after them. Cheers Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badger Posted December 21, 2013 Share Posted December 21, 2013 Hi Cliff, Having thought about it there are 2 other manufacturers that might be of use - SHQ and Sgts Mess. Both do some nice metal figures and are reasonably priced. I tend to use vallejo paints with games workshop washes, although the gw paints are rather good too. I thin them down to a "milk" consistency first as I find I get a better flow then. I'm going away today for xmas but if you're interested I'll try and post a couple of pictures of some of mine when I get back? Kind regards Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CliffB Posted December 21, 2013 Author Share Posted December 21, 2013 Hi Cliff, Having thought about it there are 2 other manufacturers that might be of use - SHQ and Sgts Mess. Both do some nice metal figures and are reasonably priced. I tend to use vallejo paints with games workshop washes, although the gw paints are rather good too. I thin them down to a "milk" consistency first as I find I get a better flow then. I'm going away today for xmas but if you're interested I'll try and post a couple of pictures of some of mine when I get back? Kind regards Ben Some pictures would be good Ben. Thank you. Have a good Christmas break! Cliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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