Luft46's Blog

Paint is chaos black from citadel and xtracolour rlm 24. Will need a little weathering, just checked only four wheels hit the ground so a little bit to do tomorrow.

A very rough draft of the final product, lots of work to do yet.

A painful lesson learned from experience is that I label parts where needed so I orientate them correctly when gluing, wish some model manufacturers did this better. The labels indicate orientation for this piece, ie this is the back on the long side and this is the top. Simple isn’t it! Below is a quick shot of the table, things to be added still include a coffee cup, coffee cup stain, lamp with cord, computer, some brushes paint tubes, turps bottle, cleaning cloth, sandpaper and whatever else I can think of….. Nearly forgot the magazine stack and open magazine or book.

Firstly making the water bottle in the bin. This came from Accurate Armour and is in resin, unfortunately this has not been done quite right, probably not enough hardener in the mix and so was slightly sticky and rubbery. What was a problem actually helped as I wanted a label on this which I cut from roll your own cigarette paper. This was then pressed on the bottle and stuck. This stuff is very thin but still quite good quality and scrunches up nicely to put in the waste paper basket which came in the Plus Models office set. I must have thought it such a good idea that I had bought two of these over time and I don’t even smoke. The colour for the label was Citadel Skull White with a little Regal Blue and a tiny touch of RLM 24. I also did the same for the cap.
RLM 66 was used for the computer monitor screen colour topped off with a gloss varnish.

Not sure how others go about this but my take is the following.
Idea
This is the launching point. Sometimes this comes from a particular model but it is most likely from a passing idea especially when generated by a conversation with someone. These should always be noted down.  Very often these will go nowhere but the ones that do are most likely to be original. I once had the idea of doing a dio of a missile crashing into the sea near a whale which was based on a news article.  I got as far as buying a plastic whale but no further. I still have the whale, maybe one day it will get used.

Supplies

This is often the point of failure or delay for many projects.  For the one I am currently working on it nearly was. Not being happy with any of the tables on the market including stuff from Verlinden ( which was too old in style ) I had built my own but wasn’t that impressed with the result so just sat on the concept.  Enter Diopark with their work table set and away I went. This looked like something a modeller might use, old and sturdy but definitely someone else’s cast off.
Without enough ready made products to add to my own scratch building efforts this model would not have been started. 
Models within models

On many of these my approach is to try and duplicate real life as much as possible. With some vignettes I have seen like this the modeller forgets basics like lights that have no power cord or an overly clean desk.
An example is the waste paper basket. This has rubbish in it including some screwed up pieces of paper. All have what appears to be writing to add veracity.

See the previous post for more info

View here is end on

Above is where I am up to basically. The carpet is on top of the concrete floor. The floor is Mig pigments with their fixer on the bottom layer and more pigment on top. The carpet I had problems with, basically the threads on the end had to stay, not ideal as every time I cut them they unravelled, cue why one end is shorter than the other, by the time I have the scene a little more cluttered this should hopefully not be so noticeable. The carpet has been weathered by the following – drops of TSC207 Oil from Lifecolor, some more Mig pigments ie Russian Earth P034 & P 414 Track Brown both ground into the carpet at various points. Ther is also some flesh paint in there but at the moment not enough to be discernable so this needs doing again. The fabric has been roughed up a little with sandpaper to give a worn appearance. The carpet was attached with superglue and white glue, actually could have just used the white glue as it stuck well. Currently I am working on the architraves which will be wooden with a raw umber acrylic paint ( cheap art supplies type ) and a gloss coat over to look varnished but then slightly weathered. Ok now here I show my nerdiness or maybe OCD, in most room dioramas I have seen no one includes the architrave but these are very common in most places, in this case they will also hide the gap between the foamboard and the photo frame. Now if you are going to that trouble you may as well put some extra work in and trim the top edge at about 45 degrees then sand this to get a bullnose profile on it. This you would know if your father had managed a timber/hardware store and especially if you had spent part of your summer Uni holidays stacking the stuff, hot dusty and windy some days!

This is the first of my diorama projects that has got some work done. This idea has been brewing for a number of years whilst I tracked down the apprpriate materials as much as anything. Fortunately in recent times a number of manufacturers have cooperated with new releases that will find their way into this project. The above shot is my first proof of concept piece. This is glass from a photo frame that was painted grey then treated with Mig concrete pigment. Glass especially this thin is not the best material but usefull to get some practice on. Having discovered foamboard many of my next works will use this material such as the aircraft hangar that needs to get started. Moving on below is a quick list of items that will go into this dio/vignette. MAM carpet Verlinden No 307 Framed Paintings and Carpets, probably not the carpets as the above looks better but will need some serious weathering A.m.r.i architectural figures in 1/200 scale ie 1/35 of 1/6 figures is about 1/210 so close enough though mostly the female ones Archer Vietnam era pinups AR35360 Reality in Scale wallpaper, plenty in the pack Verlinden Movie posters, centr folds etc No274 Military in Detail Pinups and Magazines 35048 & 49 Verlinden wallpaper but this may not make the grade given the above Accurate Armour Accessory Urban refuse #2 A121 though the Meng set would be a better bet, found some of the resin vey soft and sticky

PC Station 224 from Plus model 1/350 scale aircrew from Tamiya, not sure whether bumps will be necessary in this scale and Diopark Factory Tools Set 1, great table including working drawers which also has a KV2 model on the back of the pack. This was a totally gratuitous inclusion on their part but indicates they thought the kit would be used by modellers trying to depict a modeller at his workbench scene.

Anyway back to doing the base.

This arrived in the mail today from Uschi van der Rosten in Augsburg Germany or at http://www.uschivdr.com. It is a set of two A4 sized sheets of thick paper on which are enough parts to make up two sides of a workshop with the other two being open. One side of the workshop has a large window and the other side is a closed door. As well you ge a concrete floor with grates. Colours look quite good and other inclusions are a clock face, some oil drums. The web site includes instructions on how to turn this into a very 3D diorama though accessories including some of that plastic card board to provide bracing for the walls. Now here’s the kicker myine arrived a bit bent because of my strong mail box flap and an overzealous postie. I will be providing feedback on this score. It is now off to sit under some heavy books. Below is the second sheet or check out the website.

Ok so the dicky 5 1/4 inch floppy in the top right means I want to publish something, glad they told me this when they changed things around. That symbol is just so last century…. I am well and truly myself but so what.

The photos are pretty average but the Tornado in RLM 66 on the top seems to suck light, three lights on it didnt help last night. Even for a resin kit this kit was an arm wrestle all the way. I have shots somewhere of an ordinary power drill bit well buried in the pulse tube as I tried to hollow out the exhaust. This and other tragedies like the many pinholes, the supports that either wouldnt stay glued or if they did were at the wrong angle made this an unfun build. Deciding to use Lifecolor paints through an airbrush didnt help either though I solved this in the end by not using them, subsequent research has shown I am not the only one struggling in this regard. Anyway it is now finished so onto something more pleasant.