Jump to content

PIT STOP. click on link on my 'signature' for vids


Recommended Posts

Optionally rearrange things so the scene is set inside the building.....Use the parts you have and a few extras to represent the shattered ruination of a larger building, one so severely damaged it's almost unrecognisable.  Perhaps you could have hints of the former rooms (shattered furniture, broken paintings, maybe even a cellar entrance)?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. Well, despite it being a chore, I'm glad you are making progress healthwise. Shame the same can't be said about Imgur.

As I mentioned in your RFI post - your Jeep looks stunningly superb and will certainly go well alongside your Sherman.

First off - stick with this idea - rather than starting to change an already well evolved diorama. (You'd probably have to take all those individual leaves off the trees, etc. if it's a winter scene!!!!)

Secondly - if the height is really bothering you that much - most of us wouldn't have even thought about it if you hadn't mentioned it - you could - rather than spend too much time on it - reduce the height of most of it and have it as though it's much more heavily damaged. Do it so the rubble/broken floorboards, etc. from it are still in place around the bottom of the walls and covering up some of the features you are concerned about. There have been some very convincing models of recently damaged buildings and, in some ways, they are more impressive than those where the broken walls are surrounded by just the odd brick or two. I'm sure you are the modeller to pull off a well damaged building scene. Just my :2c:.

Kind regards,

Stix

Ow do, Stix,

I wrote a long reply to that, but you'll be happy to see that I deleted it.

Basically, I'll figure something out..... and don't worry.... the building will have a proper, believable layout, and and wherever anything has collapsed, there will be the correct amount of rubble/debris!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 


 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 6/20/2018 at 2:55 PM, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Optionally rearrange things so the scene is set inside the building.....Use the parts you have and a few extras to represent the shattered ruination of a larger building, one so severely damaged it's almost unrecognisable.  Perhaps you could have hints of the former rooms (shattered furniture, broken paintings, maybe even a cellar entrance)?

Hi Sarge,

Sorry, I did read your comment and typed a reply to it yesterday, but I fell asleep watching the football and so didn't post it.

I originally intended to extend the building when it was going to be in my Ever Evolving Diorama, but then made a different building instead. So this one never got to a finished stage. Now I can get it looking logical, with a good layout etc, and that's been the challenge.... working out how to do that. I've sussed it now, but it means cutting it up, rearranging the parts and making some new bits.

I've just cut the chimney wall section off and will post the 'skeleton' of the new layout in a moment.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I chopped the chimney gable wall away from the side wall and moved it closer to the opposite gable wall. The newly created room is still larger than the original room (with the fireplace in it) but the effective length of the building has been shortened. Now, however the removed section of side wall has been transposed to run sideways, as shown below. The building then, is nearly 3 times as wide, but narrower front to back.

With this layout I can model an near complete section of roofing, plus damaged and collapsed sections. Prior to the rearrangement, this would have been difficult as the ridge beam would have been very long and if any section had collapsed, it would most likely all have collapsed.

 

Also, whilst the building's footprint is larger, it now inhabits the rear edge of the base and opens up the entire width across the front half of the base.

 

Finally, I've used a black marker pen to indicate where the new floor levels will be, and where I am going to chop out  of 4 courses of stonework and drop the entire upper floor down. The height of the building and the chimney will be lessened by about 30mm.

 

I'm going to have a mess about with some paint/draw apps and see if I can sketch out the full layout of the building.

,

CUUPucZ.jpg

 

pTDl6Kj.jpg

 

TFL

Badder

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Beer. Check. Sunshine. Check. Garden table converted to a modelling table. Check. The building above. Check. Razor saw, hacksaw, balsa wood, plaster of Paris, liquid latex. Check. Let the coversion begin.....

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've decided to re-make the windows on all of the building parts, using plaster casts taken from my Ardennes Building kit. In preparation for that, I've removed the shuttered window from the upper floor of the gable wall, and removed the bricks from the bricked up window on the ground floor.

8eUgfLB.jpg

 

Then I had a play around with the building layout again....

yYrxFIO.jpg

 

I had the idea to turn the chimney wall around becuause the fireplace nd chimney brest won't be seen if I build a complete or near complete roof,  Turning it around will also add some interest to the view from the rear. Also, I can collapse the roof and upper floor over this rearmost area, piling up rubble around the fireplace.

 

OOOH a C47 Skytrain with D-DAY markings just flew over my rear garden.

NqTH4AM.jpg

 

s0fSB85.jpg

PBElQDo.jpg

 

 

The only problem with this idea is that the wall itself won't match the wall at the other end. I will have to even them up by adding strips of stonework to the upper edges. While I'm at it, I may as well replace the chimney brest and chimney itself, as I think they are too large for the building and awkardly positioned.

So.... more work to do and more plaster casts required.

 

No, I'm not being particularly neat and tidy with casting! See below!

 

YIqfwXn.jpg

I've use the corner of the base's frame as a rough guide to plaster-pouring depth, but I'm not being too fussy. I'll be making casts of the inner wall surfaces and placing these on the backs of the outer walls. Plaster will be used as 'butter' between the two 'slices of bread', to create the loose 'rubble' packing that was used to fill the wall cavities at that time (well, in the Ardennes region anyway)

3kIt5rO.jpg

 

 

Some more casting - another wall section and some plastercast brickwork (from Tamiya's Brick Wall Set) The later will be used to remake the chimney.

r7hd6e2.jpg

 

And a cast taken from my Ardennes Building, which will provide more interesting window surrounds.

f0x5vsr.jpg

 

A bit of wall section balanced in place, I'll be working on this further to reposition the windows. The doorway will be removed completely,

 

TFL

Badder

 

 

Edited by Badder
  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

With regards to the photo below.....

Here are both gable walls offered up to each other. Placed thusly, the left hand roof slopes match for angle, but the right hand roof slope and a section of wall are missing on the right hand side. I had thought I could simply chop up some plaster wall sections and fill in the missing parts. But then I realised that I'd decided to reverse the chimney wall and have the chimney face the rear of the diorama. In that case the roof slopes would no longer match because MiniArt, in its wisdom, had made the slopes uneven in length - the right hand roof section truncated by a higher side wall on the right hand side.

oUWk17i.jpg

 

So, filling in the 'damage' was only an option if I reverted to placing the chimney on the inside. There was another problem doing that though, and that's the fact that the chimney stack is far too close to the roof ridge for my liking. This would have been okay in the past but now I'm making a roof, it's not.

 

After lots of head scratching, I decided to stick with my 'fireplace facing to the rear' option, and pondered narrowing the fireplace and chimney stack so that the stack effectively moved further away from the roof ridge. I got as far as cutting the sides of the chimney brest off .......

YVn5ZRe.jpg

.....before realising that this was all rather protracted, unnecessarily complicated and silly.

 

 

It would be far simpler and give a better result if I just built an entire new wall/fireplace/chimney.

So that's what I'm doing.

 

Here are two sections of wall placed back to back.

Vwa2ULJ.jpgThe topmost section will have the window and door appetures removed and the whole lot will be cleaned up and given treatment so as to look like a plastered internal wall. A doorway will be cut through to the room behind where the fireplace will be. For the moment, the bottommost section of wall is detailed with plain stonework (I've already covered up the windows and doorway) The new narrower, fireplace, chimney brest and stack will then be added there. It will be offset much more than the original so that the chimney sticks up through the roof without intersecting the roof ridge.

 

BTW, the two sections of wall above are fixed together using balsa wood spacers, CA'd in place. A gap of about 4mm exists between the inner and outer walls and this will be filled with plaster, fixing the walls together solidly. It will then be far easier to work the walls and not risk cracking/snapping the walls.

 

TFL

Badder

 

Edited by Badder
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, PlaStix said:

Looks like this is going to turn into one of your 'ever evolving' projects again! :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix

You know me too well Stix!😊

 

It's just the way I am... always overthinking everything and trying to get things looking correct, physically, logically and aesthetically! .

The building is going to be as spot on as I can get it. No cutting corners. Well, yes, cutting corners off here and there. Hopefully everything else will be a doddle after that.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Badder said:

everything else will be a doddle after that.

mmmmmmm.................................................................................okay........ :winkgrin:

 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Work on the building continues. I still haven't settled on a layout, but I have begun constructing the higher side wall using old offcuts of plaster casts and new plaster. I've also made a new chimney stack, but I'm not entirely happy with it. I may start again on that, with a much narrower design.

 

Pics tomorrow  late today.

 

TFL

Badder

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having decided not to use the old fireplace/chimney stack, I found myself with a large slab of cast plaster wall. Rather than bin it I decided to break it up and use parts of it recreate the taller side wall to the building. I left the original bit of side wall there, but cut off all the raggedy bits to make it easier to fit the new parts. The wall is now at its height, The aperture for the window is oversized, well, definitely too tall anyway, but I will be lowering the top edge of the window, filling in the gap with more stonework.

 

The joins between the sections of wall are obvious, but I will hide them with some more plaster, some carving and maybe more tea leaves. The roof will fit roughly as shown by the white plasticard. It's this section of roof which will be only lightly damaged, its counterapart and all other sections of roof will be greatly damaged, partly collapsed or completely collapsed.

rr2uhSi.jpg

 

Below: the new section of wall will go here. This section has ended up as a slab of almost smooth plaster, with just a bits of stonework here and there. It will be an interior load bearing wall, in the middle of the building, but everything rearwards of it will be collapsed.

25SQSvh.jpg


Here's a couple of shots of the chimney stack. It was made with cast plaster brickwork and then bits of paper were CA'd to the surface to mimic patches of plaster - the rest having cracked and fallen off.

It's narrower than the original, but still its size hints at a rather large fireplace and a suitably large room to house it and I'm struggling to find a suitable site for it .

 

8aVlGtW.jpg

 

R6xs6be.jpg

 

TFL

Badder

Edited by Badder
  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Badder. Interesting to see more developments with this project. I can see what you are thinking of with the wall and hope you manage to make a decision about the chimney stack - which looks excellent by the way. I love the idea for the plasterwork made from paper CA'd into place - it looks very convincing.

Kind regards,

Stix

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, PlaStix said:

Hi Badder. Interesting to see more developments with this project. I can see what you are thinking of with the wall and hope you manage to make a decision about the chimney stack - which looks excellent by the way. I love the idea for the plasterwork made from paper CA'd into place - it looks very convincing.

Kind regards,

Stix

Hi Stix,

Thanks. I have to be honest and say, that actually, the original chimney stack looked better. The CA'd paper plaster was much more realistic both in texture and the fact that it lifted up along some edges, making it look to be flaking. But as I said, it was all a bit too large for my liking. And so is this remake! I've decided to go for one or maybe even two of those narrow chimney stacks that can be seen in my Ever Evolving Diorama diorama.

 

Rearguards

Badder

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Progress on the building has been stilted due to problems with Plaster of Paris. Several attempts were made to cast new gable walls as donors for new sections of the building, but the hot weather caused much warpage. Scraping some of these abominations to flatness and recarving the stonework has been successful in only one or two cases. For instance, I managed to replace the taller of the side walls.and copy the Gable wall stonework pattern more accurately.

 

The photo below shows the replaced taller wall bottom right - it could have been framed a bit better in the shot!

4n51BBe.jpg

 

 

I also made the lower wall for the opposite side, seen below left.

Bv4Zc6q.jpg

This will have a doorway cut into it where the plaster is smooth.

 

Floor beams have been fixed in place around all four walls of the main part of the building and a sheet of balsa cut to fit. This is only temporary and will be used as a guide for the fixing of joinsts and floorboards. The floorboards will be made from coffee stirring sticks.

KMpgTNs.jpg

 

I still have to reposition the window in the photo above, lowering it slightly. Another window will be added to the taller wall. I have finally worked out where the staircase to this room will be, - coming up from the bottom left of this photo, sloping up the wall, with the doorway at right angles to the taller wall.

 

BTW, the loose rubble inside the broken bit of wall (top left) is not some clever bit of detailing, but the result of me knocking over the cast and smashing the top. I crammed some 'rubble' into the hole, fixed it with CA and will use it as a key for a plaster repair.

 

TFL

Badder

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

And mine.  ;)

 

Your rebuilding looks convincing to me.  :coolio:

Hi Sarge, did it fly over the same day? 24/06?

 

The building is moving on. I've added the floorboards and given them some washes. Next jobs are the windows and cutting the doorway for the top of the staircase.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah no, no it didn't.....It flew over today, about three quarters of an hour before the Grand Prix.  :doh:

 

Following with interest.....I'm very fond of that tank and I want to see it properly accommodated.  ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Didn't see the start of this, and have just finished reading through, really excellent work going on, this will be an awesome diorama, love the Sherman, obviously a crew who had a deep respect for 88's

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Following with interest.....I'm very fond of that tank and I want to see it properly accommodated.  ;)

Hi Sarge,

Funnily enough, I'm following this with interest too! 😁

I feel a bit guilty about the pause in my other diorama, but you're quite right. The Sherman is is my best model to date - although now I hate those kit bags hanging on the turret rails - very poorly painted and gooing up the buckle/strap details - but it deserves a special home.

 

Rearguards

Badder

Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Graeme H said:

Didn't see the start of this, and have just finished reading through, really excellent work going on, this will be an awesome diorama, love the Sherman, obviously a crew who had a deep respect for 88's

Hi Graeme,

Glad to have you along for the ride. It may take a while and get awfully messy in places, what with the thawing snow and mud and water! So get yer boots on!

 

Rearguards

Badder

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just occurred to me, but I may still have a bag of Goldstone dental casting plaster stashed somewhere.....This stuff is much harder than Plaster of Paris when it dries and it takes detail superbly (has to or your crowns will fall out).  Ideally it should be vacuum mixed, but it still works fine if mixed thoroughly by hand.  If I can find it you are welcome to it, but it's been a long time since I saw it last.

 

On eBay, something around £35 will buy you a 25Kg sack of Crystacal R casting plaster, while it's not quite as hard as Goldstone, it's still a million times better than Plaster of Paris at taking and retaining detail.....You can buy it in smaller quantities from this seller:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crystacal-R-Casting-Plaster-Variable-Sizes/392072257661?hash=item5b4953e07d:m:mQprxmK3cjbbB18oTnF1JDQ

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Sgt.Squarehead said:

Just occurred to me, but I may still have a bag of Goldstone dental casting plaster stashed somewhere.....This stuff is much harder than Plaster of Paris when it dries and it takes detail superbly (has to or your crowns will fall out).  Ideally it should be vacuum mixed, but it still works fine if mixed thoroughly by hand.  If I can find it you are welcome to it, but it's been a long time since I saw it last.

 

On eBay, something around £35 will buy you a 25Kg sack of Crystacal R casting plaster, while it's not quite as hard as Goldstone, it's still a million times better than Plaster of Paris at taking and retaining detail.....You can buy it in smaller quantities from this seller:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crystacal-R-Casting-Plaster-Variable-Sizes/392072257661?hash=item5b4953e07d:m:mQprxmK3cjbbB18oTnF1JDQ

 

 

Cheers Sarge,

I shall have a gander at the link when I have the time.

 

 

Incidentally (forgive the pun) - Forget about using the stuff for casting buildings etc, would it be any good for making false teeth? - I'm losing all of mine!

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...