Trail Ride!

[Stickframe]

Hello dio builders,

 

This isn't exactly done, but it's close enough.  it's also a base, and not a dio - no figures.   I've been waiting for a sunny day to get some outdoor photos - today was hazy - but, I was impatient.  I'll take these all again once it's sunny and clear.  For now though, I used the photos I took in the hazy light, and cropped them into some screen shots from a trail ride that occurred this week in Utah!  Happily, there were several videos shot and I could weave my truck into the little convoy.  Unhappily, while my topo looks fairly red while looking at it in my work area, well, in the real landscape - nah, not nearly red enough!  A guy could go ahead and to the right thing, and airbrush, or drybrush on some more red....?  I don't know...OK, have a look:

 

 

And off we go, through some gentle topo, and into something a bit steeper:

 

 

climbing up higher!

 

 

over the ridge

 

 

Into the valley

 

 

and out!

 

 

This was a fun project - the truck received lots of modifications, including posable suspension, so, the bas was made to illustrate the flex of the axles over different terrain.  If you notice in the first picture, there is a big gap over the left front wheel, while in the last, the the gap is over the right front - same for the rear.  The cast stones have just enough variation to allow this to be shown. I have pondered making another base that has more dramatic changes.  I chickened out this time! 😀

 

The graphics use pretty simple software: jpegs from my phone, snipping tool for images from videos, Photoscape for cropping, Photoscape X for cutouts, and powerpoint for the final images.  I couldn't figure out how to sample the red soil, or my base dio for that matter, to change the other images - oh well.  This was a lot of fun anyway!  I wish I'd been on the actual trail ride!  Looks like it was a lot of fun - 

 

Thanks for having a look 

Cheers

Nick 

 

 

 

 

[dnl42]

Very cool! 

 

And very well done. I got confused as I scrolled through the images. I don't believe I've seen a rock crawling dio before! 

[Pete in Lincs]

Nick, it's just perfect. And very clever picture tricks too. Well above my pay grade!

[Stickframe]

Hi guys, thanks!  

 

@dnl42, yes, I must admit, this is something of an unusual subject!  I've built 4x4's before, but am not a big fan of "monster trucks" so, this seemed like a fun alternative - necessitating the need to figure out how to make rocky terrain for a base - 

 

@Pete in Lincs, hi Pete - thanks!  appreciate it!  As you likely guessed, the photo work is serving as a bit of a test bed for the Reminiscing dio, which I will eventually get back to!

 

In the mean time, the sun eventually came out, so, I took the rig outside and made up some new photo montages:

 

 

 

 

I think the "real" sunlight really helps to punch out the look of the rocks - I also selected a bit more variety for the backdrops - now using photos of Utah, California, and about an hour north of Riyadh!  some roadtrip 😄  The LS3 worked just fine, and there was no rubbing of the tires or suspension!  

 

Cheers

Nick 

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Fabulous. Very realistic. Well played, Sir!

[Tim R-T-C]

Wow, those photos are amazing and so realistic. Superb work.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Excellent build Is this the old Chevy panel-van kit from Monogram or someone else's kit. Maybe a Dodge power-wagon ? 

[Stickframe]

Hi @Corsairfoxfouruncle, thanks for the compliment!  Good guesses on the vehicle model 😀 - but, it's not exactly any of the above.  The truck is based on something called a "Canopy Express" built by Chevrolet from the mid '30s to mid '40s.  They were used by green grocers and neighborhood vendors.  The build uses a Revell 1941 Chevrolet pickup cab merged into an AMT 1940 Ford sedan delivery, on a modified Ford F100 frame - the build log and some background on the original truck is here:

 

 

I came up with this subject while walking in my neighborhood - someone has one of these trucks, kept in a side yard.  I didn't know what it was, so did some homework and figured it out!  What you can't really see in the dio/base project is that the four wheel drive conversion is based on posable, long travel, front and rear four link suspension, rather than traditional leaf springs -  Why not? as long as I was going to try and get the body to work, why not go for an equally challenging suspension set up? - 😀  The dio/base is something of an old school build - plywood base, rigid foam covered with plaster fabric, then rock molds using hydrocal over - then lots of acrylic washes and real sand glued on.  I really enjoyed this build - 

 

Cheers, thanks for having a look and leaving a comment -

 

Nick 

[Maginot]

Nicely crafted vehicle with good paint and dings. Poseable suspension is a nice touch. The rocky terrain with desert veg is well done. The photos are super trick. If I were pushed, I'd reckon the tyres could do with more weathering and it would benefit from having a driver, all arms and elbows, to really bring the action alive.

[Bertie McBoatface]

That is amazing diorama/photography/vehicle modelling. It works so well, I have had to study the photos well to be sure that they aren't photoshopped reality. It's hard to see the joins.