Every Vally Shall Be Exalted - The Valentine Tank Family Vol.1 - Finished

[Bertie McBoatface]

On 4/25/2022 at 12:40 PM, psdavidson said:

Nice work on the figures

 

 

Thanks Peter.

[Bertie McBoatface]

With most of the figures, the shed and both vehicles finished, I'm running out of excuses for avoiding the diorama setting. I've been putting it off because I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm just blundering in and hoping for the best. I've seen pictures and videos of how it's supposed to be done but I'm afraid (very afraid 😱) that I'll make a fool of myself at the first attempt. Honestly, it's just like getting married! 😆

 

Actually I do have one excuse to deploy before I get started on my static grass tonight. Last year, in September, I had a Posterior Vitreous Detachment (PVD) in my right eye. That took my dominant eye out of the game more or less, and my poor old left eye did a marvellous job as a stand in for it. Right eye vision has been cloudy and occasionally completely blocked by thousands of pieced of floating debris inside the eye. It's improving and the ophthalmologist didn't want to see me again until Xmas time, by which time we are hoping it will be getting close to normal. Fine so far.

 

Then last night I started another PVD in the left eye. That's not good for modelling as the chances are I'll have blurred and occulting vision in both eyes for months to come. I'm not going blind, normal activities won't be affected too much apart from not being able to drive and it will all go away eventually, so save the condolences. I'm not sad, why should you be? No the only thing that will become quite difficult is the modelling. Expect to see some awful models made really slowly for the rest of the year! 

 

That excuses all manner of sloppy work. Ha, I'll get on with the diorama and if it turns out to be Poopville, Wiltshire, we'll all blame it on my eyeballs. It will be an (eye)balls up!

[Bertie McBoatface]

That was interesting, having announced that this wouldn't be 'perfect', I found it a lot easier to get on with it.

 

 

This was my grass mixture. Long brown stalks and short green ones. That seems to describe the grass in the fields around here in the springtime so we might have to change the timing to May 1944.

 

 

As originally packaged. The company that made the green packed it loosely in the packet. The other company's brown was rammed tight. Beware of packet sizes, go by the weight.

 

 

At first I embedded the earth terminal but I found this wasn't worth the bother. Better to be able to move it around so that I could control where the electric field was. At first I was a bit wary of touching the bare metal but as long as I didn't touch both the earth and the basket, I felt nothing. Touch them both and it makes you jump a bit. Be careful if you have a pacemaker!

 

 

My first bit of gardening!

 

 

I soon learned that there is a lot of fallout. You need to apply this stuff somewhere that can be swept with a 4" paintbrush. I moved to my dining table.

 

 

Shaken gently, this was the result. Good enough for a 'basecoat'. I'll be experimenting with tufts and unpicked hemp string as soon as the PVC has a chance to dry.

 

 

 

Grass and walkways/tyre tracks. Sorry for the fuzzy picture.

 

[EDIT also sorry for the orange pictures. Who knew my dinner table was in a permanent Saharan sunset! I only noticed that this morning on the phone!]

 

So far so good.

 

 

[Model Mate]

Sorry to hear that your peepers are playing up Bertie - still, this might slow you up enough for the rest of us to keep pace!
I have to say that your prodigious output, the (ever improving) quality of your work, and your wonderful flights of fancy and enthusiasm are really welcome and appreciated.
The grass is looking good - I really enjoy playing with static grass and I’m sure you’ll have fun too. 
I’ve picked up a few techniques for the static stuff, though I’m not sure how effective they really are to be honest. I’d recommend getting a few different lengths. I start with 1mm applied without the static applicator for the edges of any grassed area. Then build up the height - squiggles of PVA followed by 2mm; squiggles in between then 4mm; more squiggles and 6mm. All through this I keep changing the colour blend too to try to break it all up and keep it interesting. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

7 hours ago, Model Mate said:

Sorry to hear that your peepers are playing up Bertie - still, this might slow you up enough for the rest of us to keep pace!
I have to say that your prodigious output, the (ever improving) quality of your work, and your wonderful flights of fancy and enthusiasm are really welcome and appreciated.
The grass is looking good - I really enjoy playing with static grass and I’m sure you’ll have fun too. 
I’ve picked up a few techniques for the static stuff, though I’m not sure how effective they really are to be honest. I’d recommend getting a few different lengths. I start with 1mm applied without the static applicator for the edges of any grassed area. Then build up the height - squiggles of PVA followed by 2mm; squiggles in between then 4mm; more squiggles and 6mm. All through this I keep changing the colour blend too to try to break it all up and keep it interesting. 

Thank you for that information. I did have fun and for a first attempt it’s not bad. It doesn’t look much like real grass but with a bit of suspension of disbelief on the part of the viewer it will pass. 😁 

 

I need to go out and look at the stuff properly before I do it again, and get a palette of colours and lengths. 
 

Do you do anything about that shine? When the spotlight is on this one it reflects almost like tinsel. 
 

I’ve seen Uncle Nightshift spray paint the stuff. I must look that up again. 
 

With a new technique I tend to jump in and have a go first time to find out what I need to find out about. I hope that makes sense to you. 😀

 

I have several packs of different tufts which I’ll use today on the edges of the shed and the firing point. Maybe that will help. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

 I'm so excited. I just can't hide it.... (or maybe I can?)

 

 

I thought dioramas were the rather boring thing you did at the end of a successful build of a model tank/plane. It turns out that they can cause me to be so excited that I have to take the dog for a walk in order to calm down. 

 

Starting at the beginning, I pulled out my tufts. It turned out that I only had two kinds. These things are really good for the little bases on Warhammer type figures. Instant foliage. They are a little pricey but if you have a static grass applicator, you can make your own very easily. I was hoping that they would break uo the Astroturf-like homogeneity of my grass as it stands. And by the way, it's standing very well. I hoovered the loose bits off last night and was still left with a very nice coating. It's just a bit boring at the moment. So...

 

 

It doesn't take many tufts to start to break things up quite nicely, but it's important not to overdo it.

 

 

The darker tufts were too much of a contrast with the grass so I've used them as 'grassy weeds' in the cracks of the scrape.

 

 

Next up was a pot of moss which I collected and dried a couple of years ago. This is the first time I used it.

 

 

First go was a bit ham-fisted. I tore off a section and mashed it down into some washable PVA. (That's what I'm using for almost everything.) It looks ok but could be better.

 

 

Teased apart and snipped into pieces, the moss is more 'scale plant like'. Looks better and it's possible to be quite creative with it.

 

 

There! Look at that! This is when I started to get a feeling that this diorama, which has been hanging over me like an overcast for months, might be at least ok.

 

[I'm noticing that some of the photos are a bit blurry. The autofocus on the camera is brilliant but the depth of field is small so sometimes the camera chooses the wrong thing to focus on. I can no longer see this happening on the diddy screen on the back of the camera, so I'm unable to help it out when it gets confused. I'm not going to say sorry because it ain't my fault but I thought an explanation to the regular readers here would be a polite thing to do. I won't mention it again, if you don't. It's boring to go on and on about one's minor ailments.]

 

 

That one is gorgeous. Being real plants, they look BETTER the more you zoom in!

 

 

To me, 'weeding' now means planting the things.

 

 

All of this foliage was collected on dog walks. Just keep you eyes open and use those poop bags for a more pleasant task. This is a mixed box of heather with the purple flowers, and rootlets picked from underneath a fallen tree.

 

 

Maybe unseasonably vivid for autumn 1944, but it's nice to have a tiny splash of colour. I limited myself to one plant though.

 

 

The rootlets became sticking out roots unearthed by the bulldozer that made the firing point.

 

 

Rootlets can also be climbing plants. I really smiled when I looked at this. So simple, so effective.

 

 

Crushed catkins from 'those trees in the park' yielded this mixture of autumnal colours and textures. Perhaps better used in a forest scene, I couldn't resist having a go with it.

 

 

I felt the same about this which was the finer debris produced by a Council tree-eating machine. Ask nicely and they will dig down to the bottom for the tiny bits.

 

 

This is unwound hemp string. Natural fibres so it looks good close up. I used a drop of superglue to make a stem, then flared out the ends and trimmed them unevenly with scissors. Just another bad haircut. Then I applied PVA to the ends and dipped the plant into some of those autumnal catkins.

 

 

Isn't that amazing!

 

Have you noticed that I've stopped showing you these things in position on the diorama? There's a jolly good reason for that.

 

 

We need a red flag on a pole for reasons of accuracy, contrast and composition. It's lead foil from a wine bottle, and the rigging is standard issue green cotton tied off at the bottom (without benefit of a cleat).  

 

 

And where would the military be without a few out of date notices?

 

And then I put the Archer, the Tilly and the two driver types in position and laughed aloud with pleasure at how pinging good it looks. We aren't talking Shep Paine here, and maybe it looks better to me than it will to you, but I'm Dee-lighted! And that's why I stopped showing the pictures of the diorama in progress. All that's missing are three more figures; the Umpire, the Captain and the Colonel and then it's done. I want to do a Grand Reveal later in the week when it's all done and showing you these last steps would spoil my fun and your possible pleasure in that moment. And now I must  get a move on with those figures. 

 

Right then, lovely boys, let's get you assembled and primed!

 

[JeroenS]

Good show!

[Cerberus]

3 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

And then I put the Archer, the Tilly and the two driver types in position and laughed aloud with pleasure at how pinging good it looks. We aren't talking Shep Paine here, and maybe it looks better to me than it will to you, but I'm Dee-lighted! And that's why I stopped showing the pictures of the diorama in progress. All that's missing are three more figures; the Umpire, the Captain and the Colonel and then it's done. I want to do a Grand Reveal later in the week when it's all done and showing you these last steps would spoil my fun and your possible pleasure in that moment.

 You're just teasing us now, try that vanish for a month and then just go BAM have some of this, kinda thing  

[Bertie McBoatface]

14 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

 You're just teasing us now, try that vanish for a month and then just go BAM have some of this, kinda thing  

 

I believe it's called 'narrative expectation'. 😉

[Bertie McBoatface]

Figures assembled. They'll need a clean up in the morning when the glue has set properly and then on with the primer. They and this build are getting preferential treatment since tomorrow was to be a boatbuilding day. However, the boat will take months more to finish and I could have the whole Archer Saga* finished by Wednesday. 

 

 

 

 

 

*That's a joke I missed. The Archer, an everyday story of military folk...

[Cerberus]

1 hour ago, Bertie Psmith said:

However, the boat will take months more to finish and I could have the whole Archer Saga* finished by Wednesday. 

 The boatbuilding saga is turning out very good 

 

 Are you planning on any more Valentines after the Archer Saga? 

[Bertie McBoatface]

5 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

 The boatbuilding saga is turning out very good 

 

 Are you planning on any more Valentines after the Archer Saga? 

 

Oh yes. I think the next one will be the water bowser conversion that was used in New Zealand, in the fifties I think. I have little information and don't want any more, so that I can build it according to my imagination.

 

And I can't stop until I've done the rocket propelled one.

[Cerberus]

8 minutes ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I have little information and don't want any more

 🤣

 

 I'll remember that 

[Bertie McBoatface]

22 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

 🤣

 

 I'll remember that 

Let them go and count their own pinging rivets!  😆

[Bertie McBoatface]

44 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

The boatbuilding saga is turning out very good 

It certainly is. On the late night dog walking I was musing. When this diorama is done, I’ll work mostly on the boat until she’s finished. I’d like to have her safely in the display cabinet by July 16 which will be a year since Bertie’s arrival here. And then I’ll start HMS Beagle. 
 

53 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

Are you planning on any more Valentines after the Archer Saga? 

I will take time off from Valentines after the Archer. I have a little something for the Canadian GB, whenever that is so something’s gotta give. 

[Bertie McBoatface]

I was up at five thirty this morning preparing three figures for painting. Sometimes insomnia is your friend 😳.

 

Before I became a Britmodeller I would wake at the ‘Gestapo hour’ before dawn, the time when we are most vulnerable and the time that secret police of all nations come for their prey. I never had a dawn raid, but I’d lie awake reviewing all of the mistakes I have made, all the embarrassing moments…

 

But now my thoughts turn to which primer would be best on the figures and should I try sanding sealer on the boat before or after planking the other side of the hull. Believe me, those thoughts are a lot better for my state of mind!

[viper-30]

Coming along nicely.. if you put the string in hot water it takes out the twists .

[Bertie McBoatface]

48 minutes ago, viper-30 said:

Coming along nicely.. if you put the string in hot water it takes out the twists .

 

Thank you!

[Model Mate]

excellent stuff Bertie! I'm glad you're enjoying diorama-heaven. I love splashing the PVA around too. Big, cheap paintbrushes (kid's ones from the works or similar) are a good source of long-grass bristles for tall tufts by the way.

[Bertie McBoatface]

16 minutes ago, Model Mate said:

excellent stuff Bertie! I'm glad you're enjoying diorama-heaven. I love splashing the PVA around too. Big, cheap paintbrushes (kid's ones from the works or similar) are a good source of long-grass bristles for tall tufts by the way.

 

And thank you too. I've been secretly considering the dog's tail.

[Modelholic]

Would it be too late to nick the spare wheel off the Tilley? and how did the officers get to the range. I cant see them squeezing into the Tilley and stopping for sarnies on the way!

Tom

[Bertie McBoatface]

45 minutes ago, Modelholic said:

Would it be too late to nick the spare wheel off the Tilley? and how did the officers get to the range. I cant see them squeezing into the Tilley and stopping for sarnies on the way!

Tom

 

The wheel stays but three of the four hubcaps are long gone.

 

I pingin' well knew someone would ask about the officer's transport. 🤣

 

The Captain, Ratface, has been there all day umpiring. He was dropped off early by the Tilly driver who then went back to the garrison. The Colonel got a lift from his lady who needed the car to go to a WI meeting in the village. The General, who is a strange bloke, as you will soon see, jogged up from the barracks, following the tanks cross-country. They will all pile into the Tilly for a ride home - there's a war on you know. And the General doesn't stand on ceremonies, however posh the Colonel might be.

 

Another question that is bound to be asked is, "Where did the second driver get his mug of tea?"

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Why do figures look so bad when you are painting them, even when they look reasonable at the end? It's always the same!

[Cerberus]

22 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

I think the next one will be the water bowser conversion that was used in New Zealand

 

 Let me take a wild guess, the title Bertie Builds a Bowser will get used at some point... 

[Bertie McBoatface]

1 hour ago, Cerberus said:

 

 Let me take a wild guess, the title Bertie Builds a Bowser will get used at some point... 

 

What a great idea. I would NEVER have dreamed that one up. Thanks.