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My scenic vignette........Completed!


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Good morning all

I am just bookmarking this for my little effort. So far I have amassed this...

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Not a lot but I am still in the pondering stage. I am thinking of a beach type scene, I saw a picture of an aircraft, having done a wheels up landing, sat on a beach with the sea just coming in, so that has sparked some inspiration. Not sure which kit to use, I don't really have anything suitable so may have to have a quick pop into my LHS. Still we have a few days to go before it all kicks off! Just surprised how SMALL the base is, my workable area is 17.6 cm squared. A bit undersized but I don't think the extra would make too much difference, I still would get my 1:72 Nimrod flight line idea on there!

Bob

Edited by moaning dolphin
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Hi Bob and welcome to the Vignette GB. Sounds like you've got a great idea for a vignette there - a combination of land, sea and a crashed aircraft.

:popcorn:

Kind regards,

Stix

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Well its time to kick this off. My inspiration was a picture of a Spitfire which had crash landed on a beach some time before so it was half buried in the sand which had a depression around it filled with water. I shall try and find that picture and repost. It also had a couple of guys posing on top of it for a picture but I don't know if I will have the same pose. My first task was to find a 1:72 Spit. I searched my 2 LHS and also the Atlantic Canada Aviation Museum which has a nice collection of used kits (more than my stash!), but alas there was nowt, who'd of thunk it! So I looked for a 1:48 version but the only ones available were pricey and I didn't want to throw that much money into this. So whilst searching my stash I came across this little blighter hidden away.

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I was kit bashing the 'extra' wings with a Hasegawa kit, so basically had a full donor kit going spare. 1:48th is a bit bigger than I wanted but I am sure I can make this work. The kit is quite old but has some detail

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So the idea is that the aircraft has been on the beach for a couple of days and hence it has been quite royally stripped inside of all useful components. So the inside will be bare ish, but even a bare Spit cockpit will be full of detail! The first thing to go would be the instruments, so the kit IP was de-instrumentised (yep, I just made that word up!), the other cockpit parts were cleaned up. The seat is quite clunky and has a cushion moulded into it. Now I am not sure how long a cushion would last, or indeed a seat. So I started with a new backing panel, and I may just knock up a new seat as well which will be bare. I also removed the hatch and battery (?) panel behind the pilot as these were easy souvenirs. I will remove the clunky detail on the inside and replace it with more refined framing and maybe a couple of items not yet half 'inched. I have only done a bit of that work so far and this is where I am at

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In preparation I had a practice using some clay and the realistic water just to give me an idea of what I am playing with. I splashed a bit of paint on it to see how that held and used a bomb just for a touch of interest, a little masterpiece in its own right! :tumble:

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The 'water' looks ok and the clay was easy to work with. I think I will have to be clever with my shading to provide the 'depth' of the water. I also snapped a chunk off a corner to see how strong or brittle the clay is, it will (thankfully) take a bit of punishment. So that's it for now, I have a lot to do to the aircraft before I start the base, so a lot of the aircraft build may be skipped a bit and I will document the base more. It will be a bit of time for the next update, I have my daughters graduation later today, lots of football for my son and its a Canada day weekend coming up with a lot going on, so hopefully more progress late next week......I am just glad we have a couple of months for this one!

Cheers now

Bob

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So I had a trawl through Google and this was the image that stuck in my mind

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I probably wont have it that sunken and I won't be displaying the engine open like that, but it gives a good basis. If I had the figures then I would add a few more to look like this........

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....... but I did think this one was taking the mickey a bit.........and is that a naked fellow on the top there? :jealous:

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Plenty of food for thought :analintruder:

Bob

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Good to see this one underway and great photos - but yeah - not sure about the chap apparently without his swimming trunks in the last photo! Nice practice piece too. :thumbsup:

Edited by PlaStix
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I have my daughters graduation later today, lots of football for my son and its a Canada day weekend coming up with a lot going on, so hopefully more progress late next week......I am just glad we have a couple of months for this one!

Cheers now

Bob

A little bit of progress over the last week, but it is all on the kit so I'll show some progress pics Its only sanding and plastic strip work so far, nowt exciting. There was a change to my last statement above, Daughters Graduation went very well and I was so proud to see her walk up on stage, the auditorium was getting a bit smokey at that point! Then my lad had Football training on Tuesday night and in the final drill he suffered a heavy challenge (completely innocent I may add!) and promptly broke his leg, so after spending a couple of hours in hospital he is now sitting at home in plaster for 4 weeks. Sucks for him as he is an active kid but now needs to restrain himself. Sucks for me too as I don't have to take him training 5 nights a week, so what can I now do instead? :hmmm: Maybe progress might speed up a touch??

Bob

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So I have managed to progress this build slightly, all plastic work so far so no scenery build yet. The problem being the aircraft will be sunk in sand so I need to complete the aircraft before I can start work on the beach! I ended up removing the moulded on interior and fitted it out with plastic framing and some of the fittings. The Seat and most of the backing was also scratch built, I also cut out the radio bay access over size and then fitted an insert to give it more scale thickness. I will represent the recessed part of the hatch by painting. so this is before the priming began.

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This was then primed and given a coat of interior green, other parts were picked in black and of course the red/brown non metallic seat. I added some copper wire to represent pipework that has been unceremoniously ripped out and left hanging, along with a half robbed, broken control column.

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This was all cladded together, a bit more detail added to the radio bay and now we have a lovely clean Spit interior. This will soon be given a gert dirty wash to represent a couple of days in the sea. I also dropped the elevators and the rudder has been removed so it can be either left off (robbed!) or hung at a jaunty angle. So this is how she sits with the base.

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That is where I am sitting now. I don't know what paint finish to do the Spitfire, or indeed whether I stick with my Naval heritage and depict it as a Seafire, but I don't know if I could do that to a Naval aircraft! I have looked at a second element of the vignette. I found some figures I had with a Eduard Albatros (I think). So these are WW1 figures and I don't know if the uniforms would be relevant for some time in the early forties. The guy in the white shirt I could probably get away with, but the leather coated guy may not be appropriate. Whats the general consensus, I am no German uniform expert here but looking at some of the pictures above there are some in long boots, would they have white shirts and braces underneath? Or I could do it as a random French bloke?

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One final question if there are any Spitfire aficionados, The aircraft above, would they be green/brown or green/grey? looking at the markings?

That's all for now

Bob

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Hi Bob. I'm very impressed with detailing you are doing on the cockpit and insides of the aircraft! Wonderful stuff! :goodjob:

Kind regards,

Stix

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So I have continued apace with the Spit, I have opted for a grey/green version as a. I have close enough paints and b. I have some decals to suit. As its a generic aircraft on a generic beach the Spitfire is not there for its historical accuracy. I got it all together, primed and first coat of grey. Again I am not too bothered about the shades, it will have had several days in the sea so will be starting to look badly weathered. I gave the internal a thorough 'sandy' wash using pastels, unfortunately I didn't take any pictures and its all masked up so you will just have to be patient! Here she is so far.....

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Green and decals will follow soon and then it will be weathered, before I can then start on the base! Talking of which I have done some work on the base

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I coated it with some 'maple' stain and sprayed with a generic artist varnish. I am itching to get some proper work done on it but patience is the name of the game so far!

Cheers now

Bob

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Hi Bob. Good to see yet more progress on the Spitfire. The base looks good too. And it will pay off being patient. I'm having to try and be patient while the filler dries on mine.

Kind regards,

Stix

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So more work on the Spit, I got the base colours down and the spraying went very well indeed. Next was the markings, I thought I would try and mask the lettering and spray it on as I had no suitable decals. Again the markings would be fictitious so I opted for something easy "LL*T". I don't think it exists but like I said it was the ease I am after. So I attempted masking then found my measurements all out so had to fit the roundals first (from the spares box) and then mask away. I taped a bit of plastic over the decals as I didn't want to seal them in too early and then masked away again. This is how she looked

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I then misted over some acrylic sky which unfortunately went on way way too thick (I think my nozzle is damaged......again!) so had to strip off the masking and wipe the paint off pronto. Back to square one, some paint remains but under a matt varnish I think it would look fine. This is the current situation.

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And a prop fitted which still requires a bit of damage, and also the exhaust which I managed to drill out successfully!

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That's all for now, hopefully start getting some clay down soon!

Bob

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Good to see more progress Bob. The camo looks great but I'm sorry you had the problems when painting the letters - I like the idea of doing them without the decals - something I have yet to try. Good work on the exhausts too. :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix

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So I eventually got some decal letters that should do the job and finished off decaling the Spit. I now just need to matt and weather it appropriately and then FINALLY I can start building up the scene, so here are a couple of fotos so far

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I know the letters are probably a bit underscale but half of the fuselage will be submerged so they were carefully selected to look ok from the middle up. The prop just needs the final coating of black and then that too can be weathered. I did turn my attention to how I was going to lay this out and was thinking of an arrangement like this.

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The guy on blue tac will be on level with the sand so thatll give an idea of how buried she will be. Not sure on the other guy yet, he will just somehow interact. I did think the heads were a bit small for the bodies but the photos look ok. They are WW1 German airmen from an Eduard kit, I will just make them quite generic so that they look like a couple of off duty soldiers up to no good! I think the hats may have to go though.

More to come soon!

Bob

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I think this is going to be rather unique.

+1

I totally agree with Darby. I think it's a wonderful idea and you are producing it brilliantly. The Spitfire is looking excellent. :thumbsup:

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Again thanks for the encouragement! I have done a little more progress, namely grubbying up the Spit. I used a mixture of sandy (ish) paint and pastels to give an impression of wear and tear especially where people have been traipsing all over it. And then given a good thick coat of matt varnish. So this is the Spit as she is now

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So I am now in a position where I can start on the vignette itself, hopefully I can get a couple of hours over the week end and start building up the beach!

Until then....

Bob

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Not been looking into this GB much yet so only now found your thread and progress. What an excellent idea and one that is being executed well :goodjob:

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