Jump to content

Ambush! - U.S. SF Operators & pickup in 1/24


Recommended Posts

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you've all had a good Christmas/holiday.

 

As I mentioned in my post about the DG Artwork figures, I have a plan for another diorama, this time featuring these figures having jumped out of a vehicle due to an ambush. The figures have already been completed:

 

So now I had to find an appropriate vehicle. If this were 1/35th scale, I would be spoilt for choice and could choose from any number of Humvees, or the more SOF appropriate GMVs, Meng's Hilux/Tacoma pickups, a few different Land Rovers etc.... I also would have a lot of accessory options for stowage, weapons etc. But alas, this is the different world of 1/24 scale where the prevailing subjects are non-military vehicles, so unless I wanted these guys jumping out of a Mclaren or a Nissan GT-R, I had to look a bit harder. I've just finished a 1/24 Land Rover so I didn't want to build another (it wasn't the greatest kit either) so a quick search on the great Scalemates for Hiluxes (if that is the right plural?), Tacomas and Land Cruisers was needed.

 

In the end I chose this one:

1340402-27767-13-pristine.jpg

I chose a pickup so I could have one of the figures leaping out of the bed and because there are enough references out there:

pFi7a7Q.jpg

cwo5v6Q.jpg

This one seems pretty similar to what I'm planning to build

36Dkriu.jpgYhTySvu.jpggf6tmBQ.jpg4mX6Ide.jpg

and I chose this one because.... it was cheap and I could find it in stock. My plan is to have the pickup stopped at a T-junction, doors flung open and the 4 soldiers firing/preparing to fire back against an unseen ambushing force, with some building elements behind and in front of them - not a great description, but hopefully I will have a sketch ready soon to explain it better.

However, if any of you have ever built one of these kits you'll be able to spot the problem with my idea pretty quickly. Here's a hint:

CQ7ju6U.jpg

 

The doors + body are one piece :facepalm: so some 🔪-work is going to be required.

Doors 1, 3 & 4 will be open, and 2 will be closed, but even this presents problems:

lEpIsRv.jpg

1. The moulded panel lines are a good guide on where to cut, but because the cuts will be through various curved profiles and varying thickness plastic, I'm going to have to be careful to keep the doors and body useable

2. There's no B-pillar so when the doors are cut off I will have to recreate the B-pillar, matching the side profile of the body and lining up perfectly with the interior elements ...fun?

3. Need to be careful not obliterate all the detail during cutting and to make sure these strips will line up with the opened doors correctly

4. No A-pillar either...

 

fpEwoU2.jpg

It's more of the same on the inside where I will have to cut out the door interiors (1) and leave the moulded in B-pillars intact to build mine from (2). Speaking of the interior:

KOBgDAF.jpg

What is this?? These seats really need some work to look less plastic. So, starting with the seats, I removed the head rests with a razor saw, used plastic card to rebuild the profile of the seat back and head rest, then used brass wire for the headrest supports:

agsw4Nk.jpgxf6oIoR.jpg

The second photo shows my attempts of adding some more texture and give the seats a more used look. I used Green Stuff to resculpt the side bolsters to look more worn and wrinkled. Then diluted Mr White potty was stippled over to give a rough fabric texture. Once dry, I gently sanded back the putty to remove sharp edges - looks pretty ugly right? :D 

mlJLEtc.jpg

The same putty mixture was used to texture the floor (to vaguely represent carpet) and the rear seats - this photo also shows a few other things I've done - the chassis and B-pillars. The chassis is straight oob so nothing to write home about, but the pillars are built on the kit interior side parts, then the interior door profiles have been built up using styrene sheet and Miliput to match the doors. As I had already cut the doors off by this stage I was constantly fitting and removing the body to make sure the profiles matched - basically this was all a lot of trial error to get B-pillars that would match the door profiles, line up with the body/roof and be strong enough to mount the doors to. So how did I do? See for yourself:

wOtSYkD.jpg

So a lot of other things have happened here as well:

1. Front wheel arches added - not the best fit so more diluted putty was used to fill and smooth the gaps to make them look like factory fit pieces

2. Body chrome pieces test fitted - the chrome will be removed with bleach and a more appropriate metallic finish applied

3. The dashboard pieces is in place, but there's a large gap to the body where the glass will fit, so I'm still not sure if any of my surgery has affected the kit

4. Pickup bed filled and gaps filled

5. Rear wheel arches fitted and filled - more mediocre fit

6. B-pillar built up, sanded smooth and perfectly aligned to the roof and door profiles - same on the other side

7. Doors, awaiting interiors, glass and hinges

 

Now, even with the work above, the interior still needed work, so off came the body and here's what was done:

fCA2ctI.jpg

1. Dashboard retextured to represent the moulded plastic dashboards of the 90s

2. Dashboard/door joins filled and reprofiled with putty

3. A better look at the B-pillars

4. Textured seats which I hope to have partially covered by some stowage, if it exists in 1/24

5. B-pillar profile awaiting door lock and other mechanical/electrical details

6. Floor textured and holes for the sidesteps filled - this kit really wasn't designed to be built like this!

You may have noticed that weird piece of plastic stuck between putty lumps - yes I know it looks like a mess but it's my attempt at building in a firewall and extending the dashboard/centre console to eliminate the gaps.

h3KTIu5.jpg

This is how it looks from the angle it will be visible from - not perfect but once a floor mat has been fitted it should suffice

wWZ50tC.jpg

Here's an interim shot with the seats in place, still looking ugly.

3Mq7aQF.jpg

Dashboard/door/A-pillar - more filler needed when the body is glued in place but looking ok - I know the large angled flat piece of styrene isn't accurate at all, but with the door in place it won't be visible (much). With the interior mostly done, it was time for paint! References showed that sadly real trucks were mostly grey, but I added some colour to match the blue I plan to use for the body:

Xrcfy4W.jpg

Grey, grey and more grey, but hopefully this shows the textured seats and dashboard in better light - the look a lot less ugly now. The seats were weathered and worn with pencils and oils.

2DHLTSX.jpg

Seat back pockets from lead foil were added, and the kit dashboard decal was used. Don't mind all the putty and green stuff behind the seat - that's just where I've been putting my unused bits :D

EBpBbP5.jpg

Seat belt latches added, and carpets added. Now, with the interior mostly done, I can add the body and still have access to add various details and weather the interior later (once I've finalised the colour for the base) - cutting off the doors was a great idea!

2vye2a6.jpg

The body primed and painted in MRP Oxford Blue - too perfect of this build but weathering will change that soon. So how does the painted body look with the painted interior with all my scratchbuilding?

snTdVKb.jpgcifqF1Y.jpg

7aYEWi4.jpg

ntxcIJ6.jpg

 

Not bad - clearly there's more gapfilling and cleanup needed, before I tackle the door interiors and weather the interiors more and so on and so on, but given how the kit was designed to be built, this is good progress, and now that it actually looks like a pickup I can use for in my diorama, I can make some real progress!

 

Ok, so that was a long post catching up on a couple weeks progress - smaller updates should follow! If you aren't already bored that is :D 

 

Cheers

 

 

 

 

 

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/2/2022 at 9:25 PM, veg said:

Wow simply great. I love this, I’ll be watching the progress 👍

Thanks Veg!

 

Small update today. Firstly, I completed the C pillar, which looked like this originally:

snTdVKb.jpg

The kit part only went up to just below the top of the seat and didn't touch the body. Also there was a large gap at the back of the body through which you could see the bed/chassis/floor - even the rustiest of old Hiluxes would not have a hole like this! So I broke out the Milliput and styrene

lnrXzkQ.jpg

1. The pillar was extended with styrene to match the profile/angle of the B-pillar and width of the kit part.

2. Milliput (followed by Mr putty) was used to build up the pillar, and smoothed out once dry.

3. A small lip was left so I had somewhere to add the door seal (needed on all the doors as well)

 

umLoBiq.jpg

And the completed pillar - almost looks like the kit came like this!

 

I also did some work on the kit front bumpers. Like the wheels, they came fully chromed which is just not appropriate:

JpzPDTl.jpg

Like an 80's disco, everything is chrome!!

1cKVQ9p.jpg

But once you remove the attachment points, the bare plastic is visible and no paint can repair it convincingly, so it all has to come off

uouPjfX.jpg

It also shows up finger prints very easily

OjcUo7E.jpgmGmYBvL.jpg

Time for a swim in bleach - 5 minutes and we have....

H5sVFY5.jpg

Clean parts. Since I wanted a metal finish, I needed a gloss black base (Tamiya XF-1)

40mHMEY.jpg

Shiny!

4N605fH.jpg

Finished bumpers!

1. MRP Chrome - not the shiniest chrome, but a very smooth finish with no visible metallic particles that make it look more like a metal finish as opposed to a metallic paint.

2. Vallejo black as this part appears to be a separate plastic piece on the real vehicle

3. Molotow liquid chrome marker refill painted on for the back of the lights

 

And this is how it looks on the truck:

65ExqsF.jpg

Less shiny but much more appropriate - the rollbar/bed hoop was finished in the same way

 

IBIDPch.jpg

KazCzcd.jpg

And of course I've already scratched the finish!!!🤬

 

The styrofoam for the base has been shipped so I can soon start work planning out the dio properly and really get this project moving!

Cheers!

 

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What superb modelling,  so glad I stumbled across this build, inspirational stuff!

 

Love how you've fearlessly pulled the shell apart and rebuilt it in a far more dynamic pose. The work on the interior is super and some great background research pics too!

 

Brilliant! :like:

 

Darryl 

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Jasper dog said:

What superb modelling,  so glad I stumbled across this build, inspirational stuff!

 

Love how you've fearlessly pulled the shell apart and rebuilt it in a far more dynamic pose. The work on the interior is super and some great background research pics too!

 

Brilliant! :like:

 

Darryl 

 

Thanks Darryl, that's really cool to hear! Being lazy I really would've liked to buy a kit that already allowed for the doors to be open, but none were available. So it wasn't so much fearless as much as the only option I had :D

 

Small update today on the doors. After cutting the body apart I was left with a pile of 3 doors (7), and the interior pieces as well (1):

wOtSYkD.jpgfpEwoU2.jpg

 

But how to make these into doors? Looking at the one uncut door in the kit, the interior piece is spaced out ~5mm from the door - you can sort of see this gap in the 1st photo of this post. I don't think that gap is accurate since that would equate to a 12cm+ thick door in real life, but maybe that's ok. Either way, in order to match the kit I had to space out the grey door interiors from the door itself.

Txflnnj.jpgDvvez9U.jpg

Rear & Front door interiors spaced out with styrene and glued to the doors - I used some L angles to brace the spacers and lined them up with the top & bottom straight edges. Then I glued them to the door taking care to line them up with where they should be carefully. But why not use styrene for the sides? Well these aren't completely straight so to handle the more complex shapes I planned to use Milliput

H7gms7G.jpghGB4nAL.jpgfm8YaYa.jpg

As you can see above, the Milliput was pressed in to fill the openings, then smoothed out to match the kit pieces using a wet carving tool. Once dry it was sanded smooth and cleaned up as in the right hand photo - worked as I'd hoped which is nice!

 

6hX8MY8.jpgXHBFnba.jpgAP3zDnB.jpg

On the front doors, the lower grey box is actually supposed to be a small door pocket, so I ground out the middle with a Dremel and a micro chisel before using styrene again to finish off the pocket. Finally I wanted to add the rubber door seals seen all around the edge of the door. Here I used 0.5 & 0.8mm diameter lead wire from Plus model which I shaped around the door and glued with CA glue before using debonder to remove the overspill

76PW3eL.jpgJQPFHgE.jpgKf1XNAo.jpg

All 3 doors now look a lot more appropriate! Looking at references, it looks like Aoshima actually got the door details correct so I only need to add a small switch panel for the window controls to the front doors to match the real ones. Also, I should probably add some lock & latch detail, oh... and the windows - I guess I'm not done with these yet.

 

Also, I've gambled on some 3d printed items from the Shapeways marketplace (from a few different designers) - Never ordered before and I probably should've ordered one part 1st to see if the printing and detail are acceptable before spending so much, but too late now! I ordered a Pelican case & some water cans for the pickup bed, a bullbar and roofrack for the pickup and some other small details seen on SF pickups - hopefully it'll be worth it! The parts have shipped so I'll post photos soon!

 

Cheers

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/7/2022 at 10:59 PM, eng said:

This is incredible!! Will defo be watching the progress of this and the figures/dio.

 

Love it 

 

Eng

Thanks Eng

 

Slow progress atm as I'm still waiting on a delivery containing the materials needed to both start the base, and also mount the doors, but I have been working on small details, and more excitingly I did get the 3D printed parts!

MiCDiWw.jpgzgDzjNa.jpg

I've added the door latch hooks for the 3 open doors - they're made from copper wire and styrene sheet. I think they look a bit too big compared to the real ones and stand out a lot but hopefully I can dull them during weathering. I can live with the size issue since they'll not really be visible from most angles in the final build.

 

Anyway, moving to the parts I ordered from Shapeways, well it's a mixed bag frankly - What's good is how quickly they were printed & shipped to me from the Netherlands. Whats great is how detailed the parts printed with the "Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic", like the jack & towing eyes/hooks:

w5RlenR.jpg

That is seriously impressive detail! The print lines are still visible but they're not that noticeable so I'm happy with these. Likewise the radio & BFT parts are also well printed:

DFTdch7.jpg

mP4h5UD.jpg

After priming you can still see the print layers but the fine detail like the keys and the fins on the radios are really impressive!

 

Other parts however aren't as impressive - where the option to print in the "Smoothest Fine Detail Plastic" was not available and I had to choose something else there are issues. Take the fuel/water jerry cans:

35r7Gco.jpg

Looks ok right? Well, when primed, you can see this:

rzrUU1K.jpg

Not very pretty frankly. But how does one look with a little light sanding and then a primer coat?

v44ciTM.jpg

Better! and considering I will have a lot of other stuff in the bed, plus a tarp covering some of it, I think this is acceptable. My favourite piece however is the bullbar which really adds to the look of the truck:

lzfYiDi.jpg

It lines up with the lights almost perfectly! So now I just need to find a way to mount it to the truck - out comes the styrene strip and the chopping tool

 

Cheers for looking!

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

9 hours ago, Robert Stuart said:

Just stumbled into this build, lots of good ideas .. plan to watch

Thanks Robert!

 

The bull bar came with no real way to fit it to the kit (not that I expected it to) and since most bull bars aren't just fixed to the bumpers, I had to build some sort of mounting device which could attach to the chassis rails under the bumper. I also planned to use build up this structure as part of the bull bar as well. Not really based on any particular piece but I took inspiration from many different designs I found photos of.

07T2xc2.jpg

No WIP photos but I basically cut some square styrene strip to create something that resembled a welded metal structure - the hardest part was lining up the two "arms" so they both looked ok when lined up in parallel.

xGaKdyS.jpg

These brass pins will insert into the chassis so I don't have to rely on a glue only joint

ZtM2FUP.jpg

Some structure in place but some clean up required still - I didn't take any more WIP photos of this, but it's now painted black and awaiting some metal chipping, but it has been attached:

UMRRhCn.jpg

7vVs7wm.jpg

 

I think it lines up pretty well and really looks the part on the front of the truck! Also despite my best efforts you can see the two arms are both tilted inwards, but at least they're tilted the same way so it looks somewhat intentional.... I realised that the detail in between the lamps is meant to represent a winch but it's a little basic and I didn't want to build the rest of the winch so I'll probably cover it with a tow rope or ratchet strap later. Now time to work on attaching the doors!

 

Cheers,

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

It's been a while since I updated this thread which isn't great but I have been working (somewhat hard) on the truck and the base. Here's what's happened since my last update.

s1rrDsQ.jpg

I pinned the doors with o.8mm brass rod, aligned them with the body and drilled corresponding holes in the body - since I'd backed the A-pillars with Millliput (and the B-pillar is mostly Milliput anyway) the pins are going into solid, hard putty so I'm confident they won't sag over time and that I can get a strong bond with super glue. At this point, I was happy with the way I could attach the doors post painting/weathering so I started work on finalising the interior details.

k4DotFo.jpg

First up is something to fill the interior - a laptop and a file. I know that a lever arch file isn't very military and does make these guys seem like the most over zealous accountants ever, but it's something I'd seen in an old old photo of an SF Humvee so I copied that detail without really knowing why they would have one anyway. The keyboard is a 3D printed item intended for the Blue Force Tracker system, but I didn't have the space for the whole system and it doesn't look like they actually get used in SF pickups so I built the laptop around it with styrene sheet/strip.

 

g79h6Pu.jpg5QlkzVf.jpg

At the same time, I started work on the bed - although the 3D printed items are ok, I can't clean up the layer lines under the jerry can handles and I can't clean up the box enough at all, so I cleaned up a few examples that I'd leave visible, arranged them in a somewhat sensible way and glued the whole thing together in to a single block....and then went about covering most of it with a tarp

osfcGgG.jpg

More Milliput - honestly, I'm not sponsored by them, thought that could be an idea?

d7PnbVs.jpg

The tarp was draped over the now painted stowage in the bed, then teased into place, creating realistic folds with the wet handle of a paint brush. Once dry it received an initial coat with Vallejo acrylics. I wanted to have a strap of some sort running across it to add some colour and because it would be needed to stop that spare wheel falling out, so I used Tamiya tape and stretched it tight, crushing a small cardboard box in the process. I am useless with PE so I used a 1/35 Djiti productions ratchet strap which works well enough. Also applied the Toyota decal which went down fine and after a gloss coat the film is all but invisible

gRxLePm.jpg

Although 1/24 accessories aren't as widely available as 1/35th, I did find these soft drink cans from Doozy productions (who seem to be affiliated with AK somehow) - they're great to look at, but the decals weren't the easiest and required a lot of prodding and various solutions to get them to conform. But the result is well worth it!

 

Although I didn't take WIP photos, I also painted the doors, and weathered the interior with oils - I wanted to represent a really muddy looking truck that the crew have been operating out of for a while so used a few different muddy oil colours to represent dried & wet mud. I also added some debris, and other things that you'd expect to be there. This is the truck as it is now:

Sxa0u2u.jpg

lPr6Sav.jpg

HL6RTO1.jpg

Here you can see all the added details like crushed water bottles, spent rounds, mud and other stains. The air recognition flag is based on some reference photos and needs to be toned down still. The duck tape is Tamiya tape painted gloss black.

RyYFAS8.jpg

The 3d printed high lift jack is one thing I didn't want to cover up as it as incredible - for a single printed piece it is spectacular. The tarp and bed has been weathered with oils to give a stained, dirty faded look, but the otherside of the tarp is cleaner, mostly to add some contrast to the mass of green

75Ntq3v.jpg

A close up showing the cans, boxes and spent rounds - these are actually 1/35 .50 cal rounds but do the job unless anyone comes around with calipers :D

 

With the truck coming along, time for the base - one thing that became apparent very quickly is that even though the truck isn't very big, a 1/24th scale dio needs way more space than 1/35th scale, so I had to scale back my initial plans of having the soldier shooting/aiming down a long street, otherwise it wouldn't fit in my cabinet. Still, with a rough idea of what I wanted to build I started hacking up a piece of foam with every tool I had: knives, saws, a Dremel, teeth to get this:

4HVkgpd.jpg

Looks terrible doesn't it? But with some Fimo air drying clay, the road looks like this instead:

75xiern.jpg

Much better! But the footpaths needed work, so out came the cork:

cf9s0Mn.jpg

Again, I got wrapped up in building so didn't take enough photos, but I now have this:

cugmTbp.jpg

The footpath and kerb have been built up with cork strip/sheet, the mortar has been added with a mix of filler and sand, help in place with diluted PVA. I then sanded them smooth and damaged them with a chisel & scalpel - more weathering will come as the dio progresses. I really wanted to represent an old, misaligned, cracked surface so I think this is a good start. The hole at the front is for a manhole - again nothing available in 1/24th so I had to scratch build one:

uER4TNk.jpg

Not perfect, but once weathered I think it should be ok.

 

Sorry for the huge update, but the thread is all caught up now so future updates should be more manageable!

 

Thanks for looking!

  • Like 10
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Time for another update on the base. I've spent the time slowly painting and adding details to the road etc before I start work on the building. Looking at references of Iraq, Syria etc, I noticed that unless there had been rain or the roads were freshly built, the tarmac isn't very visible. Likewise there don't seem to be any road markings on smaller roads. However, If I actually attempted to represent this, the base would look very brown and uniform, so settled on having the dust/dirt.rubble etc built up on the edges and between where the wheels would run, and have the surface cleaner where the tyres would rub away dirt. So here's how it looks now

ZYwPEeD.jpg

1. The tarmac texture was done with a textured acrylic paste from Vallejo, spread out thinly over the base with an old butterknife. The paste already had a tarmac colour but it looked a bit too new, so after sanding the unnatural ridges, I sprayed the tarmac with a mix of Tamiya flat black and neutral grey, varying the mix to represent wear and tarmac age.

2. & 3. The paving stones are corks sheet trimmed to the right size with water based putty (mixed with some sand) to represent the cement/mortar. They were primed black before a light grey preshade to highlight the centre of the slabs, leaving the black in the mortar lines. Then select slabs were picked out with different shades of stone/sand/tan colours for some variety. After this, they received some oil washes in the recesses and then a very light grey shade speckled over the slabs to better simulate concrete. The slabs were made to look cracked with a micro chisel. I'm pretty happy with them now, but after more details are added as well as some rubble from the building I think they'll look good

4. The road dirt and debris was made from sand and crushed dried clay from the base, mixed with dusty pigments and fixed in place with VMS ballast freeze. Then it received a dusty coat of Tamiya Buff, before I picked out details with oils

5. The drain grates are laser cut MDF pieces from Yen models - they are 1/35th apparently, but they fit well in this scale. They were painted in various oil & enamel rust tones, and then oil washes on them and the surrounding stonework to add signs of grime & water damage

6. I added some tarmac patches using the same Vallejo paste and with less weathering to look newer - I think this one is a bit too clean still.

7. The kerb stones were painted in alternating black and yellow as I could see this pattern in some of my reference images - both colours looked very fresh once painted so I knocked the colours back with more Tamiya Buff, followed by weathering with oils and water colour pencils for chipping.

8. Finally, I've added some oil stains from vehicles on the tarmac.

 

Adbto8V.jpg

1. & 2. The manhole cover and plater were painted with enamel & oil rust tones before adding dust washes, and some grime colours.

3. The grime colours were blended into the crack in the road to represent leaking water mixed with road grime.

 

KMeJJWR.jpg

1. The kerb stones were damaged with a chisel then the paint was made to look worn by chipping them with pencils.

2. Not sure what I wanted to highlight with this note :D 

 

U0YafK3.jpg

Another overall shot of the base as is - However, I still have to add some more debris, because as the image below shows, there's lots of paper/plastic debris mixed in with the usual stuff

pk5GdF0.jpg

 

r0bGyHc.jpg

And a final shot with the pick up in place in it's rough position on the base.

 

Thanks for looking

  • Like 12
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks both - appreciate the the comments on the build so far!

 

I have made some progress on a few different areas since the last update. Firstly, I got around to sorting out the base edging - I will be using a thin veneer, but rather than applying it directly to the base which isn't very flat I used balsa wood and wood filler to give a smooth base for the veneer. You can see it in the photos below and it looks very ugly right now but it's all going to get covered up. I also made the choice to fix the building to the base now rather than later as with my previous diorama to avoid the problem I had trying to trim and fit a finished building without damaging it. I also chose to close up the interior this time.

 

As with the previous dio, I used polyurethane "Kapa" foamboard which is denser and stronger than the regular stuff and it can be glued with CA so the building went up very quickly. If anyone's interested, I found out about this foamboard and the techniques for working with it from this excellent article: https://davidneat.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/model-making-basics-creating-surfaces/

 

I wanted to build a multilevel, multi textured building which I could damage easily. Also looking at buildings in the area they mostly seem to be concrete pillar and cinderblock constructions:

1idrnkG.jpg

This image also shows another detail I wanted to add - the chipped away render/plaster revealing the stonework behind.

Is9ep99.jpg

Another great reference shot I found shows a lot of different details like signage, metalwork, graffiti, and damage plaster/stonework to try and replicate.

 

So here's what I've built so far

DaIIJ2H.jpg

First, I built up a simple looking frame with double thick foamboard walls for strength when I weighed it down during gluing to the base. I pre-cut windows/doors and a large opening so I can pin it to the base to add extra strength. The large front opening will be covered up by a shop front with a roller shutter door and some other details.

aQG9KVe.jpg

The same balsa wood was used on the side/back of the building, sanding it smooth in preparation for the veneer

I then started out detailing the building adding the concrete pillars, lintels and other stonework using fine grain cork

f2ZWuqn.jpg

I built up and glued some cinderblocks for the balcony wall. I also planned to have a whole in the 1st floor which I roughly cut to shape with a dremel:

KaJRzaE.jpg

 

The next step was to replicate broken concrete

g14OqZr.jpg

A lot of photos show broken concrete hanging in place on rebar so I tried to replicate that

I6NVFcs.jpgolbFNLC.jpgoJq70iu.jpg

I twisted brass wire using a pin vice for the rebar. Then I built a form to get roughly the right size. The rebar was then cut to size

6sdCwxA.jpggWeQPDM.jpgnnH3Rs4.jpg

The rebar pieces were aged with burnishing fluid. I then pressed some clay into the form, laid down the rebar in a suitable way and added some ballast/sand to represent the stones in concrete. The rest of the form was filled with more clay.

 

Unfortunately....none of what I did above worked :D The two clay pieces didn't stick together, maybe because the ballast/sand messed with the adhesion or because I didn't press down enough. Eitherway, when releasing it and starting to cut it up, it quickly fell apart. So I fell back on using cork again:

iGXUM7F.jpg

The cork pieces were roughly cut up, holes were drilled for the rebar which was pushed through, bent to shape and glued up. I added more sand/ballast held in place with VMS ballast freeze. It's a bit bare at the moment but once the balcony floor is tiled including broken tiles around the hole, it should look a lot better.

 

Then I started work on the cinder block walls that would be exposed behind the damaged plaster, but because I didn't know yet which areas to expose yet I decided to apply the blocks over everything. First step was to cut out the blocks, matching the size of the ones in the balcony

UlmOAmX.jpg

KaRP69M.jpg

All done - this is where a chopping tool really comes in handy

WVfGtmZ.jpg

First wall glued and drying

SS16ft9.jpg

1st floor done, next up was the more tedious walls because of all the additional cuts and angles to deal with

Q6m1MKq.jpg

Whole building done, dried and ready for mortar and a tidy up

tTPMHF1.jpg

The mortar is Perfect putty - a water based filler applied over the gaps, pressed down with a sculpting tool and wiped ways from the blocks with a wet cotton bud. The building was now ready for the plaster. For this I used the Fimo clay used on the road. It was rolled thin, sprayed with water to ensure it sticks and pressed on to the building faces. Once dry, I picked away at it using a micro-chisel, sculpting tool and scalpel to damage the plaster and expose the stonework below.

63a14yw.jpg

This is the building as it is now. The next step is to damage the building more to represent bullet/shrapnel damage concentrating it around windows/doors and the balcony as that is likely where it would happen.

 

Thanks for looking!

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Look massive!!! Like the use of cork board as looks like authentic stone. The rebar from copper wire is very cool. If doing more it might be worth actually setting some plaster over the grid pattern rebar (inside a plastic mould/ cling film lined box) then smacking it with a small ball point hammer to expose the rebar) that way you can tint the plaster before whacking it and saves painting later. This would effectively be a mini form block like in real life but in 1/24.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Only just seen this, as I’ve been hanging out in the armour section pretty much exclusively for some time, but I’m so glad I found it - excellent work on both the pickup and the base. Really clear “how to” tips and other advice - brilliant stuff all round.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Love it!

 

I have a '93 Hilux which is my fishing rig....complete with the HiLift jack on the roof.  Wish mine had a bullbar like you model however.  I reckon if I hit one decent roo with mine, it will fold.

 

These vehicles are bloody bullet-proof compared to modern 4WDs.  I just can't bear to part with mine and upgrade because while the new ones are much, much nicer on the bitumen, off-road they can't go half the places my stock standard Hilux can without spending another truckload of money on them with lift-kits, diff lockers etc.

 

PFSqYwxl.jpg

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
On 3/23/2022 at 11:28 AM, Muchmirth said:

Look massive!!! Like the use of cork board as looks like authentic stone. The rebar from copper wire is very cool. If doing more it might be worth actually setting some plaster over the grid pattern rebar (inside a plastic mould/ cling film lined box) then smacking it with a small ball point hammer to expose the rebar) that way you can tint the plaster before whacking it and saves painting later. This would effectively be a mini form block like in real life but in 1/24.

Thanks! Plaster would have been a better choice but I didn't have any and didn't want to wait for any to arrive so I tried it with what I had, which clearly didn't work. 

On 4/3/2022 at 9:27 PM, Model Mate said:

Only just seen this, as I’ve been hanging out in the armour section pretty much exclusively for some time, but I’m so glad I found it - excellent work on both the pickup and the base. Really clear “how to” tips and other advice - brilliant stuff all round.

Thank you, glad you like it!

On 4/8/2022 at 8:36 AM, thommo said:

Love it!

 

I have a '93 Hilux which is my fishing rig....complete with the HiLift jack on the roof.  Wish mine had a bullbar like you model however.  I reckon if I hit one decent roo with mine, it will fold.

 

These vehicles are bloody bullet-proof compared to modern 4WDs.  I just can't bear to part with mine and upgrade because while the new ones are much, much nicer on the bitumen, off-road they can't go half the places my stock standard Hilux can without spending another truckload of money on them with lift-kits, diff lockers etc.

 

 

Cheers Thommo - I hope your bullbar is attached better than this one :D

 

It's been a while since I posted an update, but I have slowly been working on the dio. It's really taking a lot longer than I anticipated, but the building is really coming along. The first step was to give it some colour:

fwYvADu.jpg

Vallejo Model Colour Deck Tan for the concrete and a mix of Tamiya Buff and Desert Yellow for the plaster.

uVhxjlw.jpg

I mixed up a terracotta like colour from Vallejo paints for the tiled balcony area, with a sand colour for the grout. The tiles were then randomly painted with various thinned acrylic shades to add some variety. With the base colours applied, I broke out the oils to add some colour variation to the plaster - this is what I did on the previous diorama and I liked the effect the oils have when stippled and blended randomly.

MvrRm75.jpg3ZOZETs.jpg

Once applied with a toothpick, I stippled the oils, working in small sections and trying to match the variation seen in references. Which led to....

1zkyDOW.jpg

The plaster looks a lot less uniform and much more worn now. As I was going to use oils for the streaking weathering later I sealed the building with an acrylic gloss coat. The window & doorways have also been painted black in preparation for the next step - unfortunately I only remembered to take photos after I started so I have no photos of the roller shutter. Doh!

vyAsYXs.jpgjMpAOrE.jpg

The shutter was made from corrugated styrene sheet with additional styrene and wire details. The base colour is a Vallejo flat red on top of which I applied the Pepsi decal, which was sealed and sponge chipped with red and then brown to simulate rust chips. Then, I simulated bare metal being exposed by the shutters rolling over/past each other with a pencil. Finally, an oil wash was applied. The same method was used to weather the sill.

The frame, door and shutter are all made from styrene strip in different profiles - I've been trying to improve the neatness of my scratchbuilding recently and two things have helped - a Chopper tool to get get neat angled cuts and Tamiya Extra Thin Quick Set to glue the pieces with minimal overspill.

EfDgSQv.jpg

Here are the doors and window frames, all measured up to fit the pre-made holes perfectly

l929jPq.jpg

Again, the door was painted red (MRP this time), transfer applied, and chipped. The transfer is an Archer dry transfer and I have no idea what it says, but it is Arabic ( I think?) and breaks up the otherwise uniform door.

7WZXTiC.jpgIpJHeIF.jpg

Skip forward a bit, and all the doors and windows are done using the same techniques - the glass is clear styrene, damaged with a drill and a scalpel, then weathered with oils. Since there's no interior, I stained the glass quite heavily but also used some brown paper to represent cardboard taped on the inside of the doors. All of these will receive further dust weathering along with the rest of the building, but for now I think they look pretty good!

Another detail a lot of buildings have is an external air conditioning unit, but this being 1/24 scale there weren't a lot of options - in fact the only one I could find was a 3D printed item from Greece which seemed a bit OTT so scratchbuilding was the answer again. The box was a pretty simple build based on some measurements I found for an LG unit. I then added various styrene details based on references, before cutting and forming a fan from copper sheet - it does spin on the shaft but not if you blow air over it so clearly I know nothing about fans :D

sRMgMNm.jpgdzugPQ1.jpgsnbh8oo.jpg

Next step is to paint, decal and weather the unit before mounting it, and then I can start with the streaking/staining on the building itself!

 

Thanks for looking!

 

 

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Evening everyone

 

Nothing much done this weekend as I had some car things to sort yesterday (why does it need a service after doing no miles during Covid???) and today I was at ModelKraft at Milton Keynes. This was my first show visit in 10+ years and it was very impressive - the builds were excellent as expected but it was really nice to see how well supported the show was my clubs and vendors. I was especially impressed when the one of the chaps from what was my local shop, Hannants in Colindale, recognised me and my dad after what must've been 15+ years since we moved away!.

 

That said, I have done some detail work on the building - firstly the air conditioner was weathered and mounted:

W1gJAE7.jpgF6rVOwa.jpg

It's an offwhite Vallejo colour with oil, enamel and pencil rust work - I'll add some debris and dust when I come to that stage for the whole building

I also scratchbuilt a satellite antenna for the roof as it's some thing I've seen on a lot of photos:

zy4S544.jpgkK9Bqep.jpgISLycA7.jpg

 

All I can say is thank god for compass cutters! I got the dish shape by putting the styrene circle in boiling water, clamped between 2 tablespoons so it formed to the curve - I did this twice with the piece rotated by 90 degrees to get an even curve. The rest of the detailing is styrene strip/tube + brass rod.

 

YARF7c6.jpgtPZSwVB.jpg

And painted up and temporarily placed on the roof - the roof is an area I haven't focused on but it needs a lot of work!

 

And because I had the photo tent out, here are a few shots of the building in better light.

9L35gl4.jpgpiSEQKC.jpg8CogVDi.jpg

 

Thanks for looking!

 

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is all far too good!… all the scratch building is brilliant, the air con, sat and shutter etc all amazing and very neat (I’m now gonna check out the cutter option as fed up with wonky blade cuts making very thing that much less convincing). Plus the Hannants guys are very cool indeed.

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Thank you guys!

 

I know it's been ages since I've posted an update but don't worry, I have (very, very slowly) been working on the build and the finish line is in sight. I have to confess that I did lose motivation somewhat because of the slow progress which meant I didn't spend any time at the bench which meant even slower progress and so on - I wish I was a modeller who could work on multiple projects at once and switch when one gets boring but I am way too messy to do that. Also, I have been on holiday, but we'll get to that later.

 

Before I left I got the base to the point where I had to finish the sides. Originally, I had planned on a plain black finish but without applying a lot of wood filler over the balsa to give a uniform texture I didn't think it would look good. So instead I looked for some dark wood veneer and eventually settled on some smoked eucalyptus veneer from the aptly named Wood Veneer Hub: https://www.thewoodveneerhub.co.uk/collections/smoked-wood-veneer/products/smoked-eucalyptus-wood-veneer-1

 

It was a little brittle but with a scissors, a dremel and PVA + CA glue I got it glued and cut to shape so I could start the tedious sanding, oiling and polishing work, but the results are nice:

KcoB11c.jpg

I also built a little porch/overhang for the shop from styrene base don some references I had. 

8BpCRgW.jpgrA4x7kQ.jpg

The corrugated metal was made by running lead foil through one of those tools used for squeezing paint (or anything else) from a tube - GreenStuffWorld sell them specifically for corrugating metal but there's definitely a "modellers tax" on it compared to the tube squeezers on Amazon. There was a little trial and error with how much to squeeze down but I worked out how to do it and produced a few panels, glued them to the porch with some overlap and then trimmed them to fit. Then I damaged them with pliers and a scalpel before "rusting" it with various acrylic shades and a sponge. Over this I applied some enamel and oil rust washes.

Since the door is partially open, I added some evidence of looting

duL5JO9.jpg

The carpets are ETA diorama items and the sign is a DioArt item originally intended for Afghanistan but I'm not that picky :) 

One thing I have seen in all my references of Iraq & Syria is ...WIRES! they are everywhere; pinned to the outside of buildings, crossing streets, windows, balconies, just everywhere:

24iraq-us06-mobileMasterAt3x.jpg

So I started on that with some wiring on the building

xFrkWep.jpg

No idea what I've wired up here, or if it even makes sense, but it looks the part, but still missing a lot!

At this point, I had a couple of trips - firstly to the Anatolian Eagle Spotters Day in Konya, Turkey! Having been to many airshows here in the UK, I was blown away (literally - got a face full of F-16 exhaust) by the access on base. We were 10m from the taxiway and 25m from the landing runway. Plus getting to see F-4s, Su-25s and all the F-16s one could dream of from 3 different countries made for some excellent photography:

DSC_0488-Edit.jpg?format=2500w

 

More photos here: https://anirudharun.photos/aet22

 

My second trip was to RIAT - After 2 years of cancellations it was sooo good to be back at Fairford. Unfortunately it was also the hottest ~4-5 days of the year but at least the sun made for some good photos! It was great to be back at a show again and I was happy to see anything flying tbh, but the stand out performers were the RoKAF Black Eagles display team and the Austrian Air Force QRA demo. In the static there were quite a few cool items like several Hinds, a special scheme F-15E and a Luftwaffe A340, but the star was the USAF E-4B Nightwatch making its airshow debut outside of the states:

DSC_3115.jpg?format=2500w

 

More photos: https://anirudharun.photos/riat22

 

Anyway, after both of those trips, I've been back at the bench working on more wiring - I knew I wanted some sort of power/telegraph pole or streetlight to string wires over the street so I ordered some styrene tube to start on that. In the meantime I used a lampshade from Hauler and some brass tube to make a small lamp:

H093rFL.jpg

This is for the building and was painted blue, chipped and rusted before being mounted - photos of it are below. With the tube delivered, scratched a lamp post:

v52rN4w.jpgvLUiZeg.jpg

Not the greatest photos, but it's a lamppost...nothing too exciting :D

 

I haven't been that diligent about taking in progress photos here, so to make up for that, enjoy some better photos taken in the light tent showing the painted and weathered lamppost, the small lamp, all the wiring so far and the veneer-ed sides:

Z8OHy57.jpgLbYDpGV.jpg

8Y7O7nR.jpg5Qo9GhM.jpg

nedHnML.jpgEbrkTFt.jpg

 

And that's it - like I said not major progress, and I have another trip coming up with family so unlikely to do anything more this week. But! but, there isn't much more to do (been saying that for a while, I know) so I'm hoping to finish this off in a couple of weeks so I can finally start my F-15C for the group build

 

Thanks for looking

  • Like 10
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...