Kallisti Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 (edited) Since my last post I've been building some other bits that will be revealed later and now I've moved on to the next component of the dio: Progress has been good with the lower hull built up Road wheels have been put together as well Now comes the fun of putting together the metal track links... thankfully I have a load of episodes of Stargate SG1 to watch, so a couple of fun evenings ahead and then a few days while my fingers recover Edited July 17, 2014 by Kallisti 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Just started following your progress, it looks great so far though. Can't wait for the end product! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Squarehead Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Your despatch rider looks very nonchalant.....Completely chilled out man! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 The Motorcycle with the figure looks very good. Those metal tracks for the Cromwell makes the difference. I have used them on a model of my own and they look excellent. That natural sag is great. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted August 3, 2014 Author Share Posted August 3, 2014 Been a bit quiet on the posting front for this build, but it has been progressing in various ways. First off, I got the base from Ed at the club ( http://www.ema-heritage.com/displaybases.html ) so started building up the landscape: and then laid down a layer of claycrete on the river bed, built up what is left of the bridge and added a strip of fine wet and dry to represent the tarmac road. I'm not so happy with this new claycrete stuff I got from Hobbycraft. the paper fragments have been mashed down smaller so when mixed it turns into more of a slurry and so you don't get quite the same quality of rough surface when it dries. I'm persevering with it for now and will see what happens. I've blocked out the river section for when I add water later on... In the meantime, work has progressed on the Cromwell tank - Its been painted and then Klear'd for decals, then I've been adding some weathering: The tracks look better in real life than on the photos, as I've cleaned off some of the pastels from the roadwheels since taking the photos. I need to apply a matt coat and finish it off this week. Work has continued on the figures, some of which have been completed. Here are some work in progress and some stowage for the back of the Cromwell and other places These too still need a matt coat. Finally, I've been experimenting with various ways to make plants and foliage, some of the results you can see here: On the left you have paint brush bristles which have had their tips dipped in PVA and then into crushed tea leaves (brown) or crushed florists oasis (green) Then in upper middle is a sprig of sea foam dipped in dilute pva glue then sprinkled over with mixed herbs from the kitchen. Bwlow that you have a piece of rubberised horsehair with crushed florist oasis. Hiding behind the sea foam at the top is a piece of lichen dusted over with crushed tea leaves. Right top is a another piece of sea foam and mixed herbs. Middle is a piece of lichen pipped in pva and then into the crushed florist oasis. Bottom right is rubberised horsehair with crushed tea leaves. So this gives me lots of interesting effects, some of which work and some don't. I've got a variety of other foliage products I'll be using to decorate the landscape. The bridge is also in the process of being painted. I'll be using the hairspray technique to get some paint chipping onto the girders. As you can see, a lot has been done but I need to get on with it as I've got a month to go to get it ready and its been over a month already... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 The Cromwell tank looks very nice, great weathering. Who would think tea leaves and mixed herbs would find modelling applications? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted August 3, 2014 Share Posted August 3, 2014 That is fome fine work on the diorama. Can't wait to see it in it's final stage. That Cromwell is also good looking. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 Hi Kallisti Would you like some photographs of one of these bridges ? I am about to change one of these for a new one, the existing one is still in service after all these years, but suffering a bit from rust, although that's hardly surprising on the west coast of Scotland. Cheers Pat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Suds Posted August 4, 2014 Share Posted August 4, 2014 (edited) I've been looking forward to seeing what progress you have made. Various bits of foliage looking good, almost thought you had used some cannabis lol. Would probably do but a little expensive Edited August 4, 2014 by Ian Suds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted August 5, 2014 Author Share Posted August 5, 2014 Thanks guys Pat - yes I'd love to see some photos of a real one - can you post them in this thread? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted August 9, 2014 Author Share Posted August 9, 2014 Here is the latest update: First the bridge has been painted. The wooden track has been weathered and dirtied and the framework has been painted olive drab and then chipped. Still needs a bit more dirt and grime: The ramp up to the bridge has also gone through the same process but I messed it up a bit yesterday so I'll need another go over with the weathing powders to give the ramp an authentic dirty look: Work has progressed on the landscape, having taken about a week for the claycrete to dry. Foliage has been built up, grass laid down plus rubble from the bridge demolition. The brass rod is to support the bailey bridge from beneath. Some stowage has been added in the field next to the bridge. Please excuse the poor photo - I'm working in the conservatory to do this and the sun is quite bright in there today so the camera has gone a bit contrasty... One major problem that cropped up while doing this yesterday was the realisation that the supports for the bailey brige would reach the grond as it was built up, so I had to add two more patches of claycrete either side of the original bridge to allow for them - you can see that here with the "muddy" looking patches which still need to dry out before they can be appropriately coloured and dirtied. Here you can see an approximate fit of the bridge to show what I mean: (note in the background you can see my 1/5th scale Meccano Land Rover Mk 2 which lives in the conservatory as well ) Since its club night on Monday, and the Cromwell is finished, I knocked up a quick simple base for it earlier in the week from a small picture frame from Oxfam, my usual claycrete, a couple of pieces of grass mat left over from the Falklands Scorpion from 2 years back plus various stones and ballast: so here are some proper photos of it - If the worst comes to the worst and the dio doesn't work for whatever this could be my entry for the GB! I do need to clean up the edges of the base though - still some staining from the claycrete visible. I'm a bit stuck on the landscape now as I need to wait for the new layer of claycrete to dry before I can fully blend it into the existing landscape and then mount the bridge. Still got 3 figures to finish off in the meantime however. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 That looks lovely. Great job sofar. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Suds Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 (edited) Very impressed with the work so far. I've never used claycrete, is it easy to work with or messy? Seems to take awhile to fully cure but that's a small price to pay if it's an excellent product. Edited August 9, 2014 by Ian Suds Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted August 9, 2014 Author Share Posted August 9, 2014 Yes its quite messy but it washes off with water so clean up is relatively simple. Ideally you shouldn't use such thick layers as I had to so the drying time is decreased. However, I misjudged the shape of certain areas so had to use more than I would have wished and thats why its taken so long to fully dry out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted August 9, 2014 Share Posted August 9, 2014 Your dios are so lovely, I would love to be able to replicate such work. my 1/5th scale Meccano Land Rover Mk 2 which lives in the conservatory as well AA is 1/5th scale and would love to have a ride in that. I told him that would not be possible but maybe you could have a "Kallisti will Fix it" moment and make it happen for him? He still wants to meet the Donkey on a Divergent Course but I don't like to raise his hopes. Best Regards from Nigel and Attitude Adjuster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted August 10, 2014 Author Share Posted August 10, 2014 In that case I'll also have to get some 1/5 scale UNIT troops, including the Brigadier of course... "Chap with sink plunger, 5 rounds rapid!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted August 10, 2014 Share Posted August 10, 2014 Your individual display base and the diorama base both look excellent. I'm picking up ideas for when I do my diorama - so thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted August 11, 2014 Share Posted August 11, 2014 Lovely diorama, us aeroplane geeks can learn a lot about diorama's from you tanks guys, so much atmosphere crammed on to a little display Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted August 14, 2014 Share Posted August 14, 2014 Thanks guys Pat - yes I'd love to see some photos of a real one - can you post them in this thread? Hi KallistiPlease find below photos of the bridge as requested, if you would like anymore or different angle close ups of bits etc, I can honestly say yours is better than the real thing ! Cheers Pat 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted August 15, 2014 Author Share Posted August 15, 2014 Superb pics - do you have any of the bridge ends, where it rests on the river bank? This one looks like its been buried at one end. Very interesting to see one so old - mine will be relatively new so the wood planking is in better condition, no weeds or moss growing on it yet and not much rust. The chipping of the original paint would have been caused by the construction I reckon - there doesn't seem to be much paint left on your example Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOCKNEY Posted August 15, 2014 Share Posted August 15, 2014 Hi Kallisti No problem, I will take pictures where it meets the buttresses. The ground has been made up both sides so that the bridge decking is level with the road on both sides. I have to agree about the paintwork, I think the "weathering" on my one has been overdone ! Cheers Pat 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted August 18, 2014 Author Share Posted August 18, 2014 (edited) More progress in the last week: First off, brass handrail supports for the footbridge section: Then today was the big day finally - the water pouring! Now this was a definite make or break jobbie an I ws very nervous after all the work that has so far gone into this! This was my first time trying to do anything with water - well apart from the Sky 1 which was a very different thing! So I picked up a bag of Woodland Scenics EZ water, which is one you just heat up in a pot and it goes liquid. it heats up to about 180 deg C so I had some worries about the materials I'd used in building the bridge support and there is a few patches of green lichen on the river bed. I was also concerned about the river bank sections since there are quite a few plants on the actual river beank that will be stickign out of the water so will the EZ water flow around these properly? As it turned out, it was okay... Here I've removed the panels that built up the wall to retain the water and also removed the masking tape that was protecting the base edges. This was a bit tricky as the heat from the sun over the last few weeks (the diorama's been sitting int he conservatory most of the time where it can get quite hot when the sun shines) made the masking tape glue got very tacky so a lot of it stayed on the base when the tape was removed. That required a thorough going over with IPA to remove the glue. Anyway back to the water... the white blobs you see are a couple of spots of white glue that when dry will go clear which are repairing a couple of spots where either the water didn't get to or where I accidentally dropped the knife I was using to tease the water which caused a dent in the rapidly cooling surface which then almost immediately set. I don't have a heat gun to soften this stuff again and even if I did I'd think twice about using it with so many other details around that could be damaged by the hear! I had to do two pours of the water as I didn't have a disposable pot large enough to hear all the stuff up in one go. This is slightly visible on the sides of the water. There are a lot of bubbles trapped in the water and this stuff cooled and set so quickly I couldn't get the water turbulence effects I really wanted for going over the bridge rubble. Ah well this was my first time with this stuff and to be honest I don't think I'll be using it again. Next time I'll try one of the resin alternatives. The river bank came out okay apart from that one small blob: This pic also shows the footbridge ramp as well as the bridge itself. This is the bridge in all its glory... Eventually the claycrete build-ups on both sides of the bridgewere the right hight to bed the bridge supports into, although on the far side there was a still a bit of a gap so I added wooden blocks to fill the gap, which you can't quite see in this photo: The bridge road ramp has been bedded into the roadway by applying some carefully placed claycrete to represent the dirt that will have accumulated in the cracks, and then dusting this over with mig pigments. The ramp supports at either side have been built up with wooden blocks (actually balsa wood) so that they actually do their support role. So now the bridge is finally in place I was able to add the last bits of vegetation around the river banks and wear in the footpath that would be used by pedestrians across the bridge. So the next part will be to go over the whole landscape to blend everything together convincingly and then start adding the participants to the diorama. I've test fitted the placement of the components and I'm quite happy with it. Its almost done!! Edited August 18, 2014 by Kallisti 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 Well I for one see this as an exceptional and very skillful application of water simulation. To my eyes it looks utterly convincing and an all round good job. I look forward to seeing this face to face at some point, are you planning to have this on display at Telford? Well done Kallisti! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kallisti Posted August 18, 2014 Author Share Posted August 18, 2014 Dunno if it will fit into our club display at Telford as we are theming it as WW1 and Locate and Cement are doing a "yellow" theme so it doesn't fit there either. Its a big bugger to transport around as well - 500mm x 250mm, I'm going to have to build a custom box for it to be transported in as I've got nothing that it will fit! Thanks for the water support Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted August 18, 2014 Share Posted August 18, 2014 That is realy looking great. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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