Pierce Arrow AA truck street scene

[Model Mate]

From decorating to glazing….

 

I made up some windows using small evergreen angle, microstrip and pieces of clear plastic packaging (from a pack of pastrami – yum!). I've saved the clear off-cuts to scatter around the scene later.

 

I fitted window and door frames made up from 3mm wide strips of 0.5mm plasticard to the openings along with coffee stirrer skirtings.

 

I also started a front door from plasticard, and here they all are dry-fitted in place. I’ll probably eventually fix the windows as inward opening rather than like this. As the main bits are all in place now, I screwed the walls into place on the base and glued in the partitions and floor/roof sections.

 

I had to cut down the balcony, as the railings I’ve bought are really rather short, so I’m left with a pretty pathetic Juliette balcony now unfortunately.

 

[Maginot]

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I’ll probably eventually fix the windows as inward opening

Not sure I encountered these in Europe.

 

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I’m left with a pretty pathetic Juliette balcony

I seem to recall plenty of mock balconies is southern France and northern Italy, fit only for pot plants.

 

Somehow, your diorama structure is reminiscent of the old battle-scarred post office and stables in San Lazzaro (Bologna), at least in my mind's eye, where I squatted for half a year in the mid 80s.

[Model Mate]

I hope your squat was in slightly better condition!

[Model Mate]

Next step is the rubble. I painted my collection of bricks cut from waste bits of HIPS earlier by mixing them around in a jar lid full of diluted enamel paint. The glossier sides of them didn’t grip the paint very well, meaning I got some whiteish sides that look roughly like mortar stuck on, and the more porous sides soaked the paint up well, with a slightly gritty texture – all in all, pretty brick like, so I’m every happy with them. I also spent 5 minutes chopping 0.5mm plasticard into 1 cm x 1 cm squares for the roof tiles.

 

The tiles were blu-tacked onto good old coffee stirrers and given a lick of dark grey acrylic, whilst the door got a rough sanding with 320 grit sandpaper to impart some grain and then a coat of blue acrylic paint plus some bits of brass from the spare etch-frame of the railings. It’ll end up blown off a bit like this in the end:

 

I sloshed some diluted PVA into the troughs between floor joints and sprinkled dried tea leaves in for base earth. This was then followed by more watered down PVA and the bricks, a few roof tiles and bits of timber. I’ve also fitted the roof and first floor beams that have collapsed.

 

A few bricks made their way outside too…

 

Here’s the overall effect:

 

It’s all a bit clean at the moment, so next up will be dirt and dust in the form of plaster and tile grout.

[Model Mate]

While I was at the flat rather than the boat, I put a little work into this, rather than the armoured car that’s destined to sit on it.

 

I finished off the windows and fixed them in place, along with the front door. The etched brass railing was bent up and glued into place on the balcony. I should really have painted it first, but a thin coat of dark grey acrylic was brushed on.

 

A few paint touch-ups and then the dust and rubble will be applied.

[Maginot]

Wow! That really does look good.

 

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I hope your squat was in slightly better condition!

 

Only just. In our block, the top and ground floors were uninhabitable; we lived in between. I had to squat while squatting. The toilet was a squat job on the mezzanine level with what looked like bullet gouges out of the wall opposite the circular window. Ironically, one of the first newspaper articles I was able to read in Italian from beginning to end reported a rat appearing out of a squat hole in a Milano tenement and biting the unfortunate abluter on the bum.

[Model Mate]

Here comes the dust and dirt….

 

I used a cheap atomiser bottle to squirt very dilute PVA all over the building and then used a tea-strainer to sprinkle grey plaster powder and tile grout all over it. I squirted more dilute PVA all over this to wash off bits and sprinkled cat litter on. It was an incredibly messy process, but quite fun. I’m reasonably pleased with the result.

 

[Muchmirth]

23 hours ago, Model Mate said:

Here comes the dust and dirt….

 

I used a cheap atomiser bottle to squirt very dilute PVA all over the building and then used a tea-strainer to sprinkle grey plaster powder and tile grout all over it. I squirted more dilute PVA all over this to wash off bits and sprinkled cat litter on. It was an incredibly messy process, but quite fun. I’m reasonably pleased with the result.

 

The grey plaster does the trick with dirtying it up. Looking well. 

[Model Mate]

I haven’t done a great deal since the last update, but I got the wheels on, so couldn’t resist getting a couple of pics up to mark the occasion!

 

I finished the decaling – fiddly! The small numbers on the engine box should have in three lines, but the letters were a little too large for this, so I employed a bit of artistic licence. I added scratches using….scratches. In this case, the grey primer is a slightly lighter grey than the main paint, so I simply attacked areas by scribbling and dabbing with the tip of a scalpel. I’ve found recently that I’ve been using wood to model wood, brass to model brass and so on, so it seems a sensible approach.

 

This was followed by a black oil wash, then a little burnt umber and burnt sienna. A drybrush of slightly lightened grey went on the wheels and a few spots like hinges on the body.

The tyres got a lick of enamel dark grey and it’s now ready for a matt coat.

 

 

[Model Mate]

Oops - wrong page..... I'll post this in the armour WIP as intended.

[clive_t]

On 11/17/2021 at 5:28 PM, Model Mate said:

Oops - wrong page..... I'll post this in the armour WIP as intended.

Just as well you did, or I might have completely missed this excellent thread. I am following this now, all I need to do is go find the thread for the vehicle