Jump to content

My Daughter's Airfix D-Day Battlefront Diorama - with Additions


Recommended Posts

Today was modelling day again, but part way through the day, I spotted we'd made it famous, on the Airfix Facebook WorkspaceWednesday picture. My daughter was rather pleased when she got in from school!

 

d_day063.jpg

 

The first job tonight was to start painting the interior walls white. I thinned the kit acrylic and set my daughter painting while I was getting dirty with the tank ( more of that shortly ). She did one coat and force dried it with a hair dryer before applying a second coat. It is seen here after the first two coats.

 

d_day064.jpg

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

While the second coat of white hardened off for a while over a heater, I set her away painting the base, starting with the road and paved area.

 

d_day065.jpg

 

She followed that with two different shades of brown for the floor boards of the bombed out house and other destroyed buildings. We'll be adding more detail and texture to the base, as some of the vac-formed edges are a bit soft looking for rubble and wreckage. While she did this, I gave the house another couple of white coats and touched up the floor in the house.

 

d_day066.jpg

Edited by Army_Air_Force
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd given the roof a sandy wash by this time, and it all looked good with the house on the base. The road needs lots more work yet, but it's beginning to come together seeing some colour on the base. I still need to find some wood to glue the plastic down onto, as the vac-forming is very thin and will be easily cracked.

 

d_day067.jpg

 

The figures had previously been primed with thinned PVA glue, so today I set my daughter loose giving them a base green coat. Having the PVA primer made a big difference to the application of the paint.

 

d_day068.jpg

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

At the start of the afternoon, while my daughter was painting the first white coats on the house, I was studying mud! Using Adrian Barrel's M4A4 Sherman as reference ( the one I posted the video of earlier in the thread ), I made notes of where the mud gathered.

 

d_day069.jpg

 

To replicate the mud, I used some first coat wall plaster, dilute PVA glue and earth brown acrylic paint all mixed together. The first coat plaster is quite gritty and seems to work well. It was applied with a small brush and while all still wet, some model railroading grass powder sprinkled on here and there.

 

d_day070.jpg

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

After the plaster had dried, I went back over the mud with a few brown shades of enamel. Once we work out where the Sherman will be on the diorama, we'll also have to add some clods of mud along the road, deposited by the tracks. That was another two and a half hourswork done. While the progress today wasn't as spectacular as some other days, it's all steps along the way to completion, 

 

d_day071.jpg

 

d_day072.jpg

Edited by Army_Air_Force
  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is nice to see young ones showing interest in modelling. 

If I can suggest something. I know you used the reference photo for mud location, but do not forget that this tank probably just left the garage where was nice and clean. Yours have some combat behind so some dusting could be added as well. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The model had already had several sandy washes. If you look back through the thread, you'll see the difference between just painted and after the washes. Don't forget also that the camera doesn't always show the detail as it looks in real life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 31/01/2019 at 12:53, Army_Air_Force said:

Don't forget also that the camera doesn't always show the detail as it looks in real life.

You absolutely right, that why is quite hard to judge just looking on the photos. 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

We didn't have much time this week so didn't get much done. My daughter got some more base colour painted. This is just an undercoat for further colour and texture. 

 

d_day073.jpg

 

While she was painting the base, I painted the broken edges of the house walls with several colours stippled on. After a quick force dry with the hair dryer, I gave the house walls and wooden floor a couple of washes to tone down the colours and even finish.

 

d_day074.jpg

Edited by Army_Air_Force
  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My daughter had a smashing time after school on Wednesday - with a large hammer! To create some more realistic rubble around the diorama, I sent my daughter into the garden to look for some small stones. A few at a time, they were wrapped up in an old T-shirt to stop flying splinters and beaten to death! It created a nice range of colours, shapes and sizes.

 

d_day075.jpg

 

After that, I found a piece of Ramin wood, and sliced it into thin strips on the bandsaw. These would be additional roof timbers from the house, scattered by the blast or cleared by the troops using it. Straight from the saw, the edges had lots of splinters, so I set her off with a sanding block to clean up the strips.

 

d_day076.jpg

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

While she was busy with all that, I masked up the road to paint the paved areas on the base.

 

d_day077.jpg

 

With the tape removed, the streen suddenly looked very clean and fresh! Lots of work would be needed to weather the scene, but it was slowly coming together.

 

d_day078.jpg

Edited by Army_Air_Force
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Once the timbers had been sanded, we got some Humbrol acrylic matt earth and diluted it with some screen wash. 

 

d_day079.jpg

 

After a good stir, the thinned paint made a nice wash/stain to soak the new roof timbers of the house. As it dried, it soaked into the wood, allowing the grain and texture to show through.

 

d_day080.jpg

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

Once the wood had completely dried, it was given a light sand with some 400 grit sandpaper. Some areas were sanded more than others to create variation in the distress of the timbers. The two at the back of the image aren't sanded at all, while the two closer pieces have both hadvarying degrees of sanding.

 

d_day081.jpg

 

As well as roof timbers, we needed some more roof tiles scattered about. I found an offcut of styrene around the same thickness as the kit roof tiles, and set my daughter loose, marking out and cutting some parallel, 4mm wide styrene strips. It took a few goes to get it right, but she got there in the end.

 

d_day082.jpg

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

I mixed up some red/brown for the tiles and she painted the strips. Once dry, they can be cut into single tiles and will only need a slight touch up on the edges. I also painted the left over, wider strip after she was done, to give us a bit of spare tile material.

 

d_day083.jpg

 

While she had been doing those, I painted the sandbags and other walls on the vac-formed base in a base colour. Rubble and other debris will probably be the next job to attach in the next build session. Another two and a half hours had gone and that was the end of this week's build session.

 

d_day084.jpg

Edited by Army_Air_Force
  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

No progress on this of late. We've been too busy with two school modelling projects. One is for World Book Day and that is now complete. The other, which is still ongoing, is a Moon Landing themed Easter Egg competition. We've won her age group for the last two years so the pressure is on!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The only progress we have made was to fill the back of the very thin vac-forming with a plaster/PVA glue mix to stop it being crushed by accident.

 

d_day085.jpg

 

Once the plaster was dry, the plastic was epoxied down to the MDF baseboard which has already had its edges painted black and varnished. It was weighted down and left to dry, and the lead weights came off this morning. We've got quite a bit of debris to add to the ground but it shouldn't be too long before we make a start on the Jeep.

 

d_day086.jpg

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

Little legs damaged a hair net while getting her hair done ready for dance class. I said, "Great, don't throw it away, we need it for the diorama!". While the mesh spacing is overscale for a 1/72 scale camo net, it would do for us. However, for some time I've wanted to replicate the square spiral hessian camo material in WW2 netting. I had a plan.

 

d_day087.jpg

 

I had a few miuntes to do some testing today so stuck some parcel tape down onto a piece of scrap wood. I mixed some PVA glue and waterbased green and brown acrylic together, then added some baby talc to thicken it slightly. I didn't have a fine needle for my syringe, so ended up just scooping up a little of the glue mix onto a piece of fine wire, and dabbing it onto the parcel tape, forming a spiral. 

 

These spirals vary between around 5/16ths to 1/2 an inch square. After it was dry, it peeled off the parcel tape no problem. The plan is to cover a larger piece of wood in tape and then tape down the hair net, stretched out over the board. I'll then start applying green and brown glue spirals over the netting, leaving until dry. The net should then peel off the parcel tape, leaving the glue spirals stuck to the net. It can then be used on the diorama, supported on some poles with cotton guy ropes.

 

d_day088.jpg

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

Despite the Easter Egg school project that is ongoing, we made a little more progress on the diorama today. I cleaned some of the paint away from the base, and had to do some trimming of the vac-formed base as the house didn't fit very well.

 

d_day089.jpg

 

Once we got a reasonable fit, the house was glued in place and then weighted down with some lead blocks to keep it firmly still while the glue set.

 

d_day090.jpg

Edited by Army_Air_Force
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

After a while to dry, the pots of smashed up stone were brought out, ready to add some debris around the site. It was sprinkled on dry and in some cases, move around slightly with a paint brush. Once we were happy with the distribution, the whole base was sprayed with a water/detergent mix.

 

d_day091.jpg

 

After that, we went around the diorama with eye droppers, dripping dilute PVA glue onto all the rubble. There still lots more work to go, with more dirt and mud etc, but all the extra rubble is turning the smooth plastic base into a more realistic scene of destruction.

 

d_day092.jpg

Edited by Army_Air_Force
  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I checked on the dio this morning and the PVA had fully dried. A careful prod and poke of the rubble showed it had all firmly glued in place. 

 

d_day093.jpg

 

The debris around the house will probably remain mostly untouched. Some of the other areas will have the colour changed or toned down with the airbrush and the road needs a good work over with further colour, dirt, mud and weathering. I particularly want some mud trails from the Sherman tracks.

 

d_day094.jpg

Edited by Army_Air_Force
  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

She's got a busy life with other activities so we only get to do modelling for two, perhaps two and a half hours a week. That means we aren't overdosing on model making and that helps to keep the interest.

Edited by Army_Air_Force
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

No progress of late. We made good progress on the Easter Egg competition build until a week ago, then the black death struck the whole family and knocked us all out. A week later and we're still trying to avoid coughing our lungs up onto the workbench, so work on all the projects is on hold until we feel more human again.

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...