1/72 as yet unnamed dio...

[RichBuilds]

Hi folks.

Here's my build log for my entry into the GB.

It's 1/72 and will utilise a US Halftrack, Amphibious vehicle and a good 'ol Sherman. I've got some figures too if there's time...

Unusually, I started with the base. I'd just got back from a week long kayaking trip and my hands were too broken for fine motor tasks...

I started with two sheets of 5mm insulation foam I recovered from a skip. I used a couple of standin models to get an idea of size.

I cut out the bottom corner to add a sandy bank and waters edge.



I textured up the river bed and road area using a bit of broken concrete pressed into the foam. Most of this gets hidden when you spackle it but it adds a bit of variance to the ground.



I sealed this with a layer of watered down pva. Helps the next layer of grout adhere to the foam better...



Refreshment time...



I knocked up some ground texture using fine sand, pva, paint and ready mixed poly.



And covered the base





Next I used a sponge to sculpt a rough track sweeping round the waters edge



I spend a bit of time sculpting the waters edge.







This needed to thoroughly dry so I set it aside and started work on a few buildings to dot around the scene.

I didn't have any plans, just a pile of offcut plastruct and sheets. I pulled up a few reference pictures of the type of building I had in mind on google and got to gluing and sticking.







I used a spare figure to judge sizes of doors and windows.







And this is where it'll go...



I started on another one...



Which gave me enough of an idea of how much of a footprint on the base the building would take up...



Couple of random vehicles and figures to get a better idea of scale...



The radioactive sand colour was starting to bug me so I broke out the airbrush and gave the ground a bit of colour...



My airbrush was playing up and managed to spit out a splatter on the edge of the bank. Thankfully I can cover it up with further work...



Dryrbrushing next...



And then pigments...



It's still very yellow, but there's enough colour down to work on the next step, foliage:



I marked out where I wanted foliage clumps



Covered it with a thick layer of pva and then sprinkled filtered compost as a groundwork base.



I fixed everything in place with watered down pva applied through a pippette.



Once dry, I sprinkled various tones of pigment and blended them with a big brush.









Now it was time for some big bushy foliage. A quick rummage through my foliage boxes brought up some likely candidates...



I selected a few of the most jungley looking...



Chopped them up and hot glued them to a temporary cardboard base.



I base coated them black with some poundland car paint.



And test fitted for coverage.



I gave them a couple of coats of greens (a light and a dark) and then hit the tips with yellow.





Next I prepped some bamboo.



And built another building to go on the second platform.





Now I had a better idea of the the roads location. I airbrushed sandy shades along its length to lighten it.

The top left hand corner was looking a bit uninteresting...



So after a bit of local shopping, I found a Buddha figure I could use:



I primed it with poundland car primer



And gradually shaded up through lighter greys.







I finished up with a light drybrush of very light grey just to bring out the edges a bit.



I painted up the bamboo with a few shades of green, focusing highlights on the leaves and the joins.



The tallest are way too tall. I'll need to cut them down a bit.





With the main elements of the base well underway, I turned my attention to the vehicles and figures...



I started with the half track. Both the vehicles I built in this set were a doddle to assemble. Zero fit problems and like the others in this range, assemble into sensible sub-assemblies for painting. I can't recommend these kits enough.















The Amphibous vehicle also posed no problems and only took about 1/2 an hour to assemble.



That's about it for now. Next up the Sherman and tying all the base elements together.

[NorthernModeller]

Hi folks.

Here's my build log for my entry into the GB.

It's 1/72 and will utilise a US Halftrack, Amphibious vehicle and a good 'ol Sherman. I've got some figures too if there's time...

Unusually, I started with the base. I'd just got back from a week long kayaking trip and my hands were too broken for fine motor tasks...

I started with two sheets of 5mm insulation foam I recovered from a skip. I used a couple of standin models to get an idea of size.

I cut out the bottom corner to add a sandy bank and waters edge.



I textured up the river bed and road area using a bit of broken concrete pressed into the foam. Most of this gets hidden when you spackle it but it adds a bit of variance to the ground.



I sealed this with a layer of watered down pva. Helps the next layer of grout adhere to the foam better...



Refreshment time...



I knocked up some ground texture using fine sand, pva, paint and ready mixed poly.



And covered the base





Next I used a sponge to sculpt a rough track sweeping round the waters edge



I spend a bit of time sculpting the waters edge.







This needed to thoroughly dry so I set it aside and started work on a few buildings to dot around the scene.

I didn't have any plans, just a pile of offcut plastruct and sheets. I pulled up a few reference pictures of the type of building I had in mind on google and got to gluing and sticking.







I used a spare figure to judge sizes of doors and windows.







And this is where it'll go...



I started on another one...



Which gave me enough of an idea of how much of a footprint on the base the building would take up...



Couple of random vehicles and figures to get a better idea of scale...



The radioactive sand colour was starting to bug me so I broke out the airbrush and gave the ground a bit of colour...



My airbrush was playing up and managed to spit out a splatter on the edge of the bank. Thankfully I can cover it up with further work...



Dryrbrushing next...



And then pigments...



It's still very yellow, but there's enough colour down to work on the next step, foliage:



I marked out where I wanted foliage clumps



Covered it with a thick layer of pva and then sprinkled filtered compost as a groundwork base.



I fixed everything in place with watered down pva applied through a pippette.



Once dry, I sprinkled various tones of pigment and blended them with a big brush.









Now it was time for some big bushy foliage. A quick rummage through my foliage boxes brought up some likely candidates...



I selected a few of the most jungley looking...



Chopped them up and hot glued them to a temporary cardboard base.



I base coated them black with some poundland car paint.



And test fitted for coverage.



I gave them a couple of coats of greens (a light and a dark) and then hit the tips with yellow.





Next I prepped some bamboo.



And built another building to go on the second platform.





Now I had a better idea of the the roads location. I airbrushed sandy shades along its length to lighten it.

The top left hand corner was looking a bit uninteresting...



So after a bit of local shopping, I found a Buddha figure I could use:



I primed it with poundland car primer



And gradually shaded up through lighter greys.







I finished up with a light drybrush of very light grey just to bring out the edges a bit.



I painted up the bamboo with a few shades of green, focusing highlights on the leaves and the joins.



The tallest are way too tall. I'll need to cut them down a bit.





With the main elements of the base well underway, I turned my attention to the vehicles and figures...



I started with the half track. Both the vehicles I built in this set were a doddle to assemble. Zero fit problems and like the others in this range, assemble into sensible sub-assemblies for painting. I can't recommend these kits enough.















The Amphibous vehicle also posed no problems and only took about 1/2 an hour to assemble.



That's about it for now. Next up the Sherman and tying all the base elements together.

Coming along great this is Rich, Loving the Buddha, cant wait to see how this comes along

[Lysus]

Brilliant idea with the statue.

[Always48]

must resist temptations to quote that massive long post

on a serious note, that so far is flipping amazing! if it wasnt for the miltary vehicles about to bust in i could have booked that hut for my next holiday as it looks so good.

your guys do bang out some great dios and im learning flipping tons

[RichBuilds]

Right, lets tackle the vehicles next.

I started with a poundland primer grey undercoat. I have some Ultimate primer but I have cans of this lying around I'm still getting through...



I painted both the vehicles up together as they have practically identical paint schemes.

I gave them a black preshade and then a coat of olive drab on the armour and khaki drab on the frame. I concentrated on the center of panels and flat areas and faded out to the black on the edges.





Lots of dryfitting of sub assemblies to make sure everything lines up.





Once I was happy with the base coats I filled in the details.



Gave them both a gloss varnish to seal in the base coats



Stuck the decals on.



And gave everything a dark brown oil sludge wash. I worked on it, cleaning and tweaking while it dried.



After:



Hand for scale:



Next I matt coated everything.



And assembled the sub-assemblies for the last time.







Next I chipped the exposed edges with a sponge dipped in black brown.



And hit a few edges with a graphite pencil.





And done. Ready for in place weathering on the dio...

[OliveDrab]

The beach scene looks great, thanks for posting your recipe for modeling a beach And the vehicles look great too!

[RichBuilds]

Got distracted with some other projects but back at the bench working on the base.

I preshaded and put a base sand colour coat down on the bamboo huts.



And then a liberal coating of Ultimate dark dirt to pick out the shadows.



And then cleaned it up a bit with a damp cotton bud.



Next I used brown, white and yellow oil paints applied randomly to add a bit of variation to the base coat.





And plenty of test fittings to make sure everything is looking like it's meant to be there...



Next, I fixed the foliage in place with a liberal blob of pva and then applied some scatter mixes around the roots to hide the joins. I used a presoak of 'wet' water and then fixed everything in place with watered down pva.





And added a bit of shredded spagnum moss and other foliage.



Next up... the figures...

[PrivatePublic]

Really need to get myself some plastic fish tank foliage, that stuff looks great with a good coat of paint

[RichBuilds]

Next up the figures...

I started by undercoating them in black.



And gave the fleshy parts a base coat and highlight using vallejo flesh tones.



Next, I base coated them using tamiya greens and browns to pick out the uniform and details. Once the base coat had dried I gave them an oil wash of black + burnt umber:



Once the oils had dried (over night) I went back with the tamiya greens and browns and picked out highlights on the uniform and equipment. I picked our the face highlights with a light skin tone. I finished up with a slight drybrush of light green over the uniforms.



Need to clean up the cheek on this one:





















They need a bit of a tidy round and matt coat, but they're done till I weather them on the base.

[AdamLuscombe]

It all looks great, can't wait to see how it turns out

[NorthernModeller]

BEAUTIFUL

[rwsmith14]

excellent ground work... your base looks Great !!

[RichBuilds]

I've been helluva busy with work but I managed sneak a few hours in at the bench.



The seats on the 1/2 track are still way too clean. So I gave them a quick sponge bath with some Ultimate dark dirt:





And then gave it a bit of dust weathering by shooting an earth shade through the airbrush from underneath:



Next I added the figures to the scene...





Now it's time for the water. I used Woodland Scenics' realistic water. I damned up the sides with blue tac and did the first 1/8 inch pour...



It took 3 days to dry...



And another 1/8 inch pour...



Which took another 2 days to dry



Next up, some churned up water effects around the AV. There's a fair bit of empty space so I'm thinking of another vehicle (Sherman perhaps) or more figures...

[RichBuilds]

Next update!

I have a title for the dio: "Secure the Area!".

On with the build.

The board has a gaping space in the bottom corner. I wanted to put another vehicle there but the only thing in my stash was a Sherman. Definitely the wrong period sherman for PTO but, if you squint, it should look Ok

The kit is Dragon's 1/72 M4A3 (76) W VVS Sherman. A mixed media kit with PE and towing cables. Beautifully engineered and went together with no fit issues. Flash was nonexistent and mould lines were very minimal. I usually shy away from PE but there's only a little on this kit and it replaces kit parts so if I mess up I can always use the original part.

I started with the wheels...



And then tackled the first bit of PE. Replacement fenders. I used a razor saw to remove the originals AFTER I was happy with how the PE came out!



I used a cocktail stick to form the headlight guards.



And attached them with loctite superglue.



Next, I tackled the rear stowage shelf.



There's no PE for the turret, but the plastic is nicely detailed:



I fixed the upper and lower body parts together and attached the tools.



I left the tracks off and undercoated everything with poundland dark grey primer.



I preshaded panel lines and shadowed areas with tamiya flat black.



And then gave it a base coat of tamiya olive green.



I then oversprayed the raised areas and panels with a slightly lighter green.







I sprayed the sides vertically with the airbrush to start of the streaking weathering.



I picked out the wheels with tamiya rubber black...



and the tools with tamiya gun metal and lifecolor weathered wood



I gloss coated where the decals would go and picked a few decals from the kit sheet I liked.

I set them in place with microsol.



I applied chipping with Vallejo german black brown on a small bit of ripped up sponge to the exposed areas and areas of most wear.









Once this had fully dried I gave the whole thing a coat of vallejo gloss varnish.



And gave it a dirty oil wash of burnt umber and lamp black. I mixed it quite thick, but still watery enough to follow the panel lines.



Over the next few days I worked at the oil wash, cleaning it up and encouraging streaks down the side.





Once the oils had thoroughly dried, I matt coated the lot to seal it.







I picked out the teeth on the tracks and attached them to the Sherman. I wish I'd stretched them a bit more, they are about a link to short. I hid the join on the ground with mud







Next, the hardest thing to photograph, but turns a plastic model into a metal beast. Graphite chipping. This is to represent fresh chips and it's easy to overdo it...





Managed to grab a few minutes to take it out for some daylight shots.











And this rather nice shot where the sun hit it just right



A tidied round a bit after spotting a few issues in the photo's I'd taken and put it in place on the dio...



With that, I'm done. I can tweak ad infinitum but I have to draw a line under it somewhere.

Here's the final reveal: http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.php?f=492&t=19293