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A Tale of Two Veterans - a Small Vignette *** COMPLETED ***


clive_t

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Hi folks,

 

For a bit of background, I have for some years had a large scale railway in my garden - as a sort of a spin-off from that, I developed an interest in modifying existing figures (mostly Preiser) for my own amusement and to add a little uniqueness to the lineside. Then, back in 2016 I entered 2 of them in a modelling competition at my local club - I was lucky enough to win an award. That's pretty much how it stayed, until this week. It occurred to me that a small vignette could be made that would show them off a little better.

 

I made use of a small, cheap picture frame:

 

Iokd3fv.jpg

 

The middle was filled with lumps of expanded polystyrene - of which I have significant amounts retained from packaging down the years. The back of the photo was kept as a reasonably solid base on which to build:

 

9Z2JXkV.jpg

 

The slot in the middle would house a dividing wall - the significance of which will become clearer as we go along. For my purposes, one side of the wall would be stonework:

 

XiTSrOr.jpg

 

... whilst the other side would be partially exposed brickwork:

 

nwKgGvU.jpg

 

Curious persons might be speculating as to the nature of the green material making up the stones and brickwork - well, they're made from egg boxes, and glued on with Mod Podge.

 

But what of the ground surface? Well, on the 'brick' side, I want to do some kind of paving slab arrangement, in the manner of a pedestrian walkway with a hint of a road. For that, I used a lump of styrofoam:

 

B3g0M5F.jpg

 

The irregular surface of the walkway was done simply by pushing my fingers into it to force small dents in the foam. The lines delineating the slabs were fashioned with a blunt toothpick. The roadway is an off-cut of styrofoam cut to half thickness along its length.

 

The other side of the wall was a lot simpler - just a piece of coarse sand paper cut to size:

 

F0teJz6.jpg

 

Next up, some el cheapo car body spray primer (grey):

 

1swhdVa.jpg

 

f0GFjjB.jpg

 

A slosh of acrylic paint of various shades of stone for the stone block side:

 

juInLHs.jpg

 

Similarly, some brick colouring for the brick side, oh and some primer for the paving slabs:

 

LrS9uN9.jpg

 

This is where I am with it today - the gaps between the stones have been filled in with some filler to look like mortar:

 

VgaOxrk.jpg

 

Hopefully more to follow in the next few days!

 

Thanks for watching :)

 

 

 

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Thanks for your comment, Bill. A small step forward today - I applied some 'render' to the brick side of the wall, using Galleria modelling paste:

 

qmY60TG.jpg

 

I deliberately left some of the brickwork visible, to indicate that the render had peeled off the wall over time. The big disadvantage of this stuff is the amount of time it takes to cure - but it is flexible and should stay put once cured.

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Whilst waiting for the wall rendering to cure, this evening I have made a top for the wall from Milliput:

 

KohwU3k.jpg

 

Once this has hardened I plan to tidy it up a little before painting.

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11 hours ago, clive_t said:

deliberately left some of the brickwork visible, to indicate that the render had peeled off the wall over time. The big disadvantage of this stuff is the amount of time it takes to cure - but it is flexible and should stay put once cured.

Hi Clive,

 

I can see what you're planning to do wall-wise. One question though, why didn't you choose to make the entire wall from plaster or Paris? It's simple to pour into a rectangular mould, quick to dry, easy to carve and cheaper than using multiple and relatively expensive materials like Miliput. At the very least, you could have rendered your wall with plaster of Pairs instead of that Galleria stuff.  You could have chipped the dried plaster off for real.

 

Still, each to their own, but I'm absolutely sure it'll look just as good as a plaster wall.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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Thanks Badder, you have a point with the plaster. In hindsight that might have been a better way to go. I'm not that happy with how it's looking at the moment, but hopefully with a bit of sanding I'll get closer to what I am after. 

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1 hour ago, clive_t said:

Thanks Badder, you have a point with the plaster. In hindsight that might have been a better way to go. I'm not that happy with how it's looking at the moment, but hopefully with a bit of sanding I'll get closer to what I am after. 

Hi Clive,

Don't worry about doing things a different/unusual way. It's called experimentation and sometimes what you end up with is better for it! There are many ways to create a 'thing' and so long as it looks like what it's supposed to look like by the finish, it's a job well done. That's how we learn and develop and improve isn't it?

I'm sure your wall will end up looking just how you want it to.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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7 hours ago, Badder said:

Hi Clive,

Don't worry about doing things a different/unusual way. It's called experimentation and sometimes what you end up with is better for it! There are many ways to create a 'thing' and so long as it looks like what it's supposed to look like by the finish, it's a job well done. That's how we learn and develop and improve isn't it?

I'm sure your wall will end up looking just how you want it to.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

Very true, indeed the egg-box technique is also part of the experiment - I am actually quite pleased with that aspect of the proceedings :)

 

Anyway, after another going-over with the modelling paste, and a dry-fit of the capping stones on top, it currently looks like this:

 

sdktfLj.jpg

 

I'll leave it overnight before attempting any sanding, I think

 

Thanks for watching :thumbsup2:

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Thanks Mr Mustang, very happy to have you along :)

 

A bit more progress today - rather than sand the rendered wall straight off, I thought I might try applying a simple dark grey wash to see how it looked:

 

wcyN6su.jpg

 

Oh, and also I primed the capping stones too, as you can see!

 

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This is the other side of the wall:

 

WVcSF74.jpg

 

The bench seat is, believe it or not, a resin casting obtained a number of years ago for some miniature Christmas decoration that was ultimately not used. But, it will serve a useful purpose here!

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Hi Clive,

Looking good. Love the seat.

Just a thought on the render.... if you give that a bit of a sanding that will take off the high spots and reveal clean white again. Sand it several times, applying slightly different grey washes in between each sanding and you should get a nice effect.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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... meanwhile, on the other side of the wall, a bit of an update - some large flower pots, fashioned from Terra Cotta flavour Milliput:

 

Lo4FzS4.jpg

 

p4CS8bM.jpg

 

I only decided to do this yesterday afternoon, when during an ad hoc visit to my LMS I noticed some small scale trees, presumably sold as scenery for a smaller scale model railway. However, they were cheap (£1.50 for a pack of 4) and, I considered, of an appropriate size for 1:22.5 pot plants. Here's the result, just loose fitted for the time being:

 

gYq2v1K.jpg

 

By now, the intended theme of this vignette may be starting to dawn on at least some of you!

 

Thanks for watching :)

 

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Back to the other side, the render has been sanded to take off the sharper edges, and resprayed with thinned Tamiya X-19 'Smoke':

 

7ZAPVVB.jpg

 

As is my habit, I had put too much paint in the airbrush cup, so I applied the same to the capping stones:

 

AqXgEYg.jpg

 

... and to the paving slabs and gutter:

 

5I5vooB.jpg

 

Finally for now, with everything in place just dry-fit for the moment:

 

kpG2gnf.jpg

 

Getting there!

 

Thanks for watching :)

 

Edited by clive_t
Added another pic
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Hi Clive,

Looking good.

'Too much paint in the AB cup'. Errrr...... had to laugh at that. I always use an eye-dropper/pipette to put my 'paint' in, and never put more in than I'm going to need. It's always better to to add more if you run out than it is to add too much and have to pour the excess out. The temptation is to leave it in the cup and that will cause clogging problems if left too long.

 

Rearguards

Badder

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A bit more progress today - I scraped away the sand on the sandpaper where the bench would be sitting, to give it a slightly more 'bedded in' look, and also sprayed some Tamiya Clear Orange in the areas where the bench and the pots would go:

 

ErAqklQ.jpg

 

The idea with this was to create an impression of damp gravel, where the sun would not dry it out as readily. That is, under the bench and around the bases of the pots.

 

Here's how it looks with the capping stones glued - and pinned with short lengths of cocktail sticks - and the furniture in place (still loose fitted):

 

0SNe6Cn.jpg

 

Aside from a couple more touches, this side is done! :)

 

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Some finishing touches to the 'posh' side:

 

ciEu6VU.jpg

 

I freely admit to being slightly heavy handed with the greening-up of the wall mortar - I may end up knocking that back a little when it's dry. The pigeons are from the Preiser 1:22.5 range, and for a number of years adorned one of my railway buildings out in the garden. I felt - and they heartily agreed - that bringing them in from the cold was long overdue.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side, the wall has been 'decorated' by various members of the local community...:

 

HFPo0xH.jpg

 

... who also very kindly left a  squashed tin can, a broken bottle, and some 'dog doos' by way of a calling card. Classy.

 

So with that, and notwithstanding some remedial work that may or may not be needed as mentioned earlier, this little scene is set for the two subjects to move in. On the posh side:

 

fvhpAWb.jpg

 

This was a Preiser figure that started life as a German track worker, with, as one might expect, some significant hacking, re-arranging and filling, and adding of extras like the flappy coat layer.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side:

 

vmUUCPD.jpg

 

This figure is almost entirely scratch-built (with copper wire for an armature), with the addition of a Preiser head from my spares box - augmented with facial hair made from Milliput to give the unkempt appearance.

 

I will try and do an RFI at some stage in the near future, but in the meantime thanks for watching, and your comments - as ever, much appreciated :thumbsup2:

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13 minutes ago, Gorby said:

Not only excellent work Clive, but also very thought provoking. It's shocking how many ex-service bods are homeless.

Thanks Gorby, much appreciated. It was indeed my hope that thoughts would be provoked.

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Hi Clive,

I had a sense of where this was heading and I was right. I was expecting kit figures though, not scratched ones, so hats off to you! A simple vignette can sometimes be the most thought provoking and you've proven the point.

Perhaps you could do a little series of them, with other nationalities and different eras? You could wander off to the medievil period, the middle-east, or even sci-fi? Just a thought.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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