"Haul'em Boys!" Wrecker Diorama

Post by **Paul** » Wed Jan 20, 2016 12:18 am

Damn they look great mate

Post by **Coen** » Wed Jan 20, 2016 2:01 pm

Thanks Fellas.

I can actually say that Ultimate has changed the way that I finish my builds completely now.
For the better I think. At least I'm happy with it and that's the only thing that's important.

Before I started in with the chipping I did a test shot to see if the vehicles would look ok where I thought to place them.
So far I'm cool with it, the wheels all touch and once dust and dirt is added to them they should blend in nicely. They're a bit stark at the moment.

YouTube · Post by **Kingdan** » Wed Jan 20, 2016 3:16 pm

wow Mike that looks the nuts, got to love Ultimate it's the bees knees the new dark dirt just adds something to the paint it's a game changer multiple layers and boom, all hail Ultimate

Dan

Post by **Scaleman** » Wed Jan 20, 2016 4:40 pm

Awesome Mike, I really like the truck. Very nice progress. Nice to see your not hauling snow all day.

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 4:28 am

Very sweet diorama coen, you really make show pieces, fun to watch them come alive.

Post by **Coen** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 11:47 am

Thanks Fellas. I'd have another update today, but my photobucket had gone insane. I can't upload images without half of the pics that I want to upload failing, pics that I uploaded last night are in triplicate and I can't delete them. Every time that I try it takes for ever and they just come back.
It's doing my head in.
I use photobucket everyday and it had tens of thousands of my photos on it, so I sort of need the thing.
They ran some sort of maintenance thing last night and it's completely buggered for me now

Post by **Novorus** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 12:56 pm

wow just does not seem to say enough, looking amazing to be sure.

Post by **OliveDrab** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:22 pm

Another Coen masterclass

Post by **MarkVerploeg** » Thu Jan 21, 2016 2:02 pm

Very nice work so far Michael
i like the olive drab color on the vehicles
it is a bit darker then the one i used on my recent Sherman but not so dark as the Tamiya od
your problem with photobucket may have something to do with a maintenance thing
i couldn't upload anything yesterday
keep up the good work

Post by **Coen** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 4:12 am

My photo bucket is still completely buggered, but after three days I managed to upload a few images.
I really hope that those wankers fix their junk quick or I've got problems.

Anyway... I started work on the Sherman the other day. It's up to the point of weathering now.
There are a couple of videos coming out of this build on weathering with clay based washes.
I'll post them once they're all filmed.

Most of the work will be covered in the videos, so I won't go on about it here, here is what it looks like as of this morning along with a couple of shots of the wrecker and jeep finished and waiting for placement weathering on the diorama.
The tank itself is completely fictional.

Post by **ForbesHutton** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 6:12 am

It's not just you have fits with photobucket....

Post by **Coen** » Sat Jan 23, 2016 11:00 am

I just got a completely unhelpful email reply to my service ticket for Robert the photo bucket robot.
He suggested that if his email was unhelpful to reply to his email and someone would give a crap.

This is an auto-response from Robert, the Photobucket robot, to your email regarding Google and your account information. The following information may help to recover your account, and will provide further details for account privacy and search engine indexing. If you are still unable to find and/or access your account, please reply back to this email and a Photobucket Support Representative will contact you shortly.

If you found your Photobucket account in a Google search but do not have access to your account, search here for step by step instructions on how to recover it: https://secure.photobucket.com/forgot

For information regarding why your account or name is searchable on Google, go here: http://support.photobucket.com/hc/en-us ... gle-Search

Please reply to this email if you have any other questions. The Photobucket Support Team will get to your ticket as soon as possible!

Robert
(The Photobucket robot)

I had a good laugh at this massive customer service failure.
It's one for the books.
It hits on specific words in your ticket and offers the most unrelated advice hahahahaha!
Needless to say... I replied.

Post by **digger303** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 1:35 pm

Hi all,
I was concerned about the glue problem so I got in touch with Libor and this is his reply..... quote

"Hi Ian
There has never been problem with tamiya super thin glue, only early produced diamond trucks in abs were good to glue with abs plastic glues or fair amount of tamiya super thin.since all produced in PS,it glues very easy.
Cheers libor "

It seems Coen you were unlucky in getting an early kit but problem has now been fixed. Much to my relief as I have one or two kits unbuilt . damn who am I kidding I have a lot of unbuilt kits.

Ps..... Damn fine job

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Mon Jan 25, 2016 6:59 pm

WOW coen, outstanding builds on here, what did you think of that jeep? that wreaker is just AMAZING! and I've always liked the Sherman, you really turned it into a real soldier, where did you get some of those Decals on your builds? love your work,

Post by **Coen** » Tue Jan 26, 2016 11:53 pm

digger303 wrote:Hi all,
I was concerned about the glue problem so I got in touch with Libor and this is his reply..... quote

"Hi Ian
There has never been problem with tamiya super thin glue, only early produced diamond trucks in abs were good to glue with abs plastic glues or fair amount of tamiya super thin.since all produced in PS,it glues very easy.
Cheers libor "

It seems Coen you were unlucky in getting an early kit but problem has now been fixed. Much to my relief as I have one or two kits unbuilt . damn who am I kidding I have a lot of unbuilt kits.

Ps..... Damn fine job

That's good to know, I'll have to mention that fact in the next video that I make about the diorama.

InitialProduction1 wrote:WOW coen, outstanding builds on here, what did you think of that jeep? that wreaker is just AMAZING! and I've always liked the Sherman, you really turned it into a real soldier, where did you get some of those Decals on your builds? love your work,

The jeep was ok... Tamiyas jeeps are hundreds of times better, the best out there I think it's fair to say. This one was better than the italeri one that I built for my Holy Yeeps! diorama last year. Better instructions, better fits and better plastic.
The Tamiya jeeps are still the best choice though.

I have a huge stockpile of decals left over from prior builds that I use. When I don't have what I'm looking for I'll go to Ultracast, or Archer for the rest.

Post by **Coen** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 12:10 am

The last few days or so I spent working on the Sherman and making a few videos on weathering with clay-based washes.
It takes longer when you have to film everything, normally it would take me only a day and a half to do this job, but it took almost five.
Here are the vids if any one is interested... they're also posted in the How-To section here on the forum.
Hopefully some of them can be of some use.

[youtube]fRDSMX8e6-U[/youtube] [youtube]_QJnYgsMKV8[/youtube]

[youtube]p8XIJnc4_-o[/youtube] [youtube]RcUVVd_-k38[/youtube]

Needless to say, the entire process of weathering is described in the videos, so I won't repeat it here.

Here are some shots of the sherman all finished and ready to be installed on the diorama. All that's left now is to paint the dragon wagon, then weather the diamond T, wrecker, and the jeep to match.
Then I can paint all of the damned figures.

Post by **conradschmid99** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 12:28 am

that sherman's an absolute stunner!

this is one of your best dios and that's saying a lot!

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 1:21 am

Thanks for the info, I love Archer drys, Ultracast? Have to look into them. Now your build Wow, hard to shut me up on builds, but you just did. Really amazing,.

Post by **Coen** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 1:29 am

http://www.ultracast.ca/Aircraft%20Deca ... 0Scale.htm

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Wed Jan 27, 2016 6:58 pm

Thanks coen, nice site.

Post by **OneSmallStep1966** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 8:01 pm

A BIG thank you for the 4-Part how-to on painting and weathering that fantastic Sherman. I've just got to watch Part 4 but have already learnt loads.

Post by **Coen** » Fri Jan 29, 2016 10:11 pm

Happy to help, I'm glad you found it useful.

I've made more progress on this project but I can't post any photos until photo bucket is working again.
If it's a ded duck then there's a whole lot of work here on the forum that will go poof.

Post by **Coen** » Sat Jan 30, 2016 3:48 pm

With photo bucket back up and running I can post a few pics of what's been done on this thing.

Mostly just work on the forest of figures that will go on the dio.
I've pruned a few as some were just not doin it for me. They either went in the bin or they went in the stash for some other project.

Here's where they're at now.
All base painted, glossed, and decaled. Ready for the washes and dryburshing.

These Tamiya drivers for the dragon wagon are just about garbage they're so badly moulded. Good thing they'll be in the cab and not really visible.

Post by **Coen** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 12:41 am

Between bouts of shovelling snow and napping I started in on the figures today

Some Ultimate Dark Dirt to start...

A bit of before and after the dark dirt...

Once they're all cleaned up I'll hit the faces with a wash of some burnt umber acrylic paint then I'll start the dry brushing.

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 12:55 am

You know coen, you just keep putting out amazing build's, one after another, thank you for letting us into your world. you turned, "in my opinion" and I am only speaking for myself, the biggest piece of crap figure set, into a work of art. Outstanding work my friend.

Post by **heel** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 1:33 am

Epic. Fantastic. It just gets better and better.

Post by **Coen** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 4:38 am

They're still pieces of crap.

Post by **Coen** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 10:30 am

All flat coated no drybrushed.
Now I just need to add some dirt and grime and they're done.

Post by **Coen** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 4:23 pm

I'm about to toss the dragon wagon on the paint bench, but before I set all of that up I finished all of the dirt and pigment work on most of the figures, the jeep and Diamond-T and I added the first of many to the road surface.

The figures all got a bit of a mix of Ultimate dark dirt and earth to their knees, pants cuffs, boots, buts, and elbows. Then this was taken back with a stiff bristled brush and blended.

Then I did pretty much the same thing to the wrecker and the jeep. All of the lower areas and undercarriage got a coat and then I carried it up on to some of the upper surfaces.

Then I added two more colour mixes, one lighter, one a little darker to add variety. I also added the fuel stain to the fuel tank with some vallejo gloss.

The crew were also installed.

Then I started adding them all to the diorama. Some have been permanently installed, others only temporarily as I want to do more pigment work on them. I stuck the M4 on the road as the dragon wagon isn't painted yet, so I tossed it in for fun.

There is still a huge amount of work left to do, but it's closer to the end than the beginning now.

[youtube]TXObTlWKAGs[/youtube]

Post by **OneSmallStep1966** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 4:48 pm

Damn that looks good

Post by **Scaleman** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 4:52 pm

Wow Mike its coming along great with all the details, I really like the guy reading the paper Its one of those dioramas you can look at for a long while. Great job

Post by **Nige99** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 5:16 pm

Amazing work Mike

love the weathering on that wrecker, absolutely spot on!! The Bobby trap sign is a nice touch. Well done mate.

Post by **conradschmid99** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:41 pm

That dio looks amazing!

I love the guys eating apples, it gives the figures a real human touch that many dios dont have.

YouTube · Post by **Kingdan** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 7:44 pm

Freakin awesome work Mike

Dan

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Sun Jan 31, 2016 8:47 pm

Wow amazing build sir coen,

Post by **hansolo** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 8:47 am

Wow, Mike!
This truly is an Epic Build!! What an awesome diorama. So much going on, so much to see.

The apples are my favorite! Brilliant idea and execution! How you made and painted them, simple thus brilliant!
The apple tree is also beautiful! I have gót to get me some sea foam too! The weathering on all the vehicles is spot on.

I especially love the weathering on the M4 (that you'll be taking of later). The story of the MP's and the booby trap is genius!

Top to bottom amazing work. Love watching your build videos on it.

And I too am watching and learning from your clay based washes tutorials!
I'll keep my stick on the ice.

Post by **Coen** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 4:16 pm

Wow... Thanks fellas.
Very high praise.
I'm just trying to make it as easy as possible, so that there's no smoke and mirrors.
Breaking it down so that any of us can figure it out with some practice.

Post by **OneSmallStep1966** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 9:11 pm

Mike, in your 4-part weathering how-to videos I thought the homemade handle you use to hold the workpiece was a great idea (I've lost count the number of times I've left a thumb print behind when painting a model).
A question, the threaded rod looks quite substantial (obviously needs to be rigid enough to withstand vigorous brushing without flexing) and I wonder what diameter rod it is and if you bother to fill the hole afterwards (not seen to the end of pt4 yet so apologies if you covered it there).

Post by **Coen** » Mon Feb 01, 2016 10:14 pm

The handle is about an inch and a quartre diameter. I've no idea what the threaded bit is.
I don't bother filling the hole left behind, if I was doing an overturned vehicle I would certainly have to, but that has yet to happen. There's not much call for seeing the bottom of a tank. If I was I'd have to make some changes. Like glueing the stick to the inside through the turret ring with some epoxy instead of drilling a hole.

I actually have a how to on the stick thing if it's of use.

[youtube]ryw7wyBYn-U[/youtube]

Post by **burnie43** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 8:14 am

Mike
As expected...your work has my boat floating big time !!!
Fantastic, words really do fail me....the scene, the painting and building, the....well...the whole thing !
Thanks for sharing El Maestro

Mark

Post by **Coen** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 10:32 am

It's the least that I can do Mark.

Not much to look at right now... but I've started to paint the dragon wagon.
I've got it primed with black stynelrez and then base coated with AMMO olive drab dark shadow.
Once those have set up over night I'll do all of the painting for the interior and close up the passenger compartment.
Then I'll start adding lighter coats to the outside colours.

Set up...

Primed...

Olive Drab shadow...

I tried to take some semi-final photos of the wrecker but the itouch camera was playing up with the lights for some reason. It's never done that before. Almost all of my photos are taken with the itouch. The white must be overpowering it. I'll have to see about finding a different background for photos.

Post by **Paul** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 11:01 am

Great work as always Mike

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 11:05 am

Very nice coen, I really like this build/diorama, I'm a sucker for dios, I like the story part. I watched your's on YouTube, very cool. On the wagon how was the details on the rigging and tires? The wreckers rigging is beautiful and you really nailed it. On the tires, Some tread patterns are just awful, and I get after market, but on the wagon that would cost some.

Post by **Novorus** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:06 pm

Mike, coming on and amazed as always at the way it all looks.

The diorama will be just great

Post by **Coen** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 12:38 pm

Thanks Guys

InitialProduction1 wrote:Very nice coen, I really like this build/diorama, I'm a sucker for dios, I like the story part. I watched your's on YouTube, very cool. On the wagon how was the details on the rigging and tires? The wreckers rigging is beautiful and you really nailed it. On the tires, Some tread patterns are just awful, and I get after market, but on the wagon that would cost some.

The DW tires are all rubber, so the detail is pretty good. The trouble is that because they're rubber they won't take paint well, if at all. So leaving them in plain rubber is the other option. The problem with that is that over time they will disintegrate because they are unprotected. It might take months, years, or decades, but eventually the rubber will fall apart.
However, some of the solvents in the paints or weathering materials can attack the rubber and cause them to fall apart as well. So there's no really good plan.
They should really have been replaced with resin.
But as you mentioned... that would be really expensive... and it's why I didn't do it.
They aren't permanently attached so I can remove them and replace them if I need to at any time, and I may do that at some point one day.
But not this day.
My recommendation would be to replace them for anyone looking to build the kit. The resin will be far longer lasting and take paint better. The rubber ones just don't look good when they're left unpainted. The colour is out of scale and it looks funny.

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 2:48 pm

Well, sold me. ugh! I hate the rubber tires, did not read they were rubber yak, thank you. Wonder what there paying for one arm or leg these days lol. Again very cool build.

YouTube · Post by **Kingdan** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 5:46 pm

awesome Mike awesome

Dan

Post by **Twokidsnosleep** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 6:05 pm

Maybe time to do a race car in the GB, Mike
You have mastered all this armour stuff
Really super work here, love the truck and the guy with the news paper

Post by **OneSmallStep1966** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 6:28 pm

Can't add any more to what's already been said, your work is brilliant.
Also, thanks for linking your YouTube hand-hold thingamajig, guess what I'll be making this weekend

Post by **Rodney** » Tue Feb 02, 2016 6:30 pm

OOOOOH i like i really like