Dragon Sherman Vc Firefly + Diorama - The Italian Job.....LAST UPDATE

Post by **chalkyw** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:26 pm

Augustus wrote:Right, I'm getting fed up now, having to say how good your kits are after every update! So, I'll just pretend I'm here to seek information.

What is DAS? Is it a brand name for some sort of clay or other craft materials?

Lol......I'll let you off mate.....this time

Yep, DAS is a brand name https://www.amazon.co.uk/DAS-1kg-Modell ... B001GAP4YA....messy stuff but cheapish and easy to use for all sorts of dio stuff

Post by **chalkyw** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 1:28 pm

Stokesy44 wrote:Paint job looks superb, really moving along now. Massively enjoying watching this thing as it develops.

Crazy super skills mate!

Thanks Stokesy

......been learning lots of new stuff with this one

Post by **spock1701** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 3:14 pm

This build looks amazing, chalky! I've always been a fan of the Firefly. That house looks superb, too.

Post by **Kevthemodeller** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 4:55 pm

chalkyw wrote:UPDATE #11:
then I did the detail painting as I want this to be underneath all the weathering

Chalky

I'm watching this build with great interest and it's coming along very very nicely

Cab I ask what colour/make of paint you used on the tool handles please?

Post by **chalkyw** » Wed Aug 31, 2016 6:18 pm

spock1701 wrote:This build looks amazing, chalky! I've always been a fan of the Firefly. That house looks superb, too.

Cheers Spock

Kevthemodeller wrote:
chalkyw wrote:UPDATE #11:
then I did the detail painting as I want this to be underneath all the weathering

Chalky
I'm watching this build with great interest and it's coming along very very nicely

Can I ask what colour/make of paint you used on the tool handles please?

Cheers Kev

...why is only me that spots all the mistakes and blemishes, lol.

The wood is base painted in Tamiya Flat Brown (XF10) and then given a dry brush using Vallejo Model Color 70.834 Natural Woodgrain. You'll have to experiment with density of paint to your taste but the Vallejo is slightly transparent so gives a faded look I think, you can see the difference on the shovel where the handle has been left in just Flat Brown and the shaft has been dry brushed. I'll also give it a dry brush with a Tamiya Sand weathering stick when I do the weathering to fade it a bit more.......hope that helps

Post by **Kevthemodeller** » Thu Sep 01, 2016 8:47 am

chalkyw wrote: The wood is base painted in Tamiya Flat Brown (XF10) and then given a dry brush using Vallejo Model Color 70.834 Natural Woodgrain. You'll have to experiment with density of paint to your taste but the Vallejo is slightly transparent so gives a faded look I think, you can see the difference on the shovel where the handle has been left in just Flat Brown and the shaft has been dry brushed. I'll also give it a dry brush with a Tamiya Sand weathering stick when I do the weathering to fade it a bit more.......hope that helps

Yes it does many thanks mate

Post by **chalkyw** » Thu Sep 01, 2016 7:06 pm

Kevthemodeller wrote:
chalkyw wrote: The wood is base painted in Tamiya Flat Brown (XF10) and then given a dry brush using Vallejo Model Color 70.834 Natural Woodgrain. You'll have to experiment with density of paint to your taste but the Vallejo is slightly transparent so gives a faded look I think, you can see the difference on the shovel where the handle has been left in just Flat Brown and the shaft has been dry brushed. I'll also give it a dry brush with a Tamiya Sand weathering stick when I do the weathering to fade it a bit more.......hope that helps
Yes it does many thanks mate

No worries

Post by **chalkyw** » Thu Sep 01, 2016 7:14 pm

UPDATE #12:

I've spent a few evenings this week assembling and adapting figures to get the poses I want and after a bit of limb swapping, supergluing, putty filling and sanding, I came up with this lot who will be the stars of the dio, lol

.......mostly Dragon and Masterbox from various sets I've accumulated recently. You can get an idea of where this is going from the period photo in update #1

Now I've got a bit of figure painting to do

.....as well as all the other stuff like finishing the dio and weathering the Firefly

WILL THIS EVER END

Post by **Madmattmodels89** » Thu Sep 01, 2016 7:28 pm

Can't wait to see the whole scene together my friend! (Especially interested in how you paint your figures) keep up the awesome job!!!

Post by **chalkyw** » Thu Sep 01, 2016 7:40 pm

Madmattmodels89 wrote:Can't wait to see the whole scene together my friend! (Especially interested in how you paint your figures) keep up the awesome job!!!

Matt, my figure painting is crap but the flesh painting is based on the techniques in this YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-rsH9wdaVg and also Shame Smiths YouTube has loads of great stuff on figure painting also recently I've been watching 'That 1/35th Scale Show' https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB_gAy ... NVufPdGCNg which has some good figure vids as well.

Now I just need 30 years of practice to get them looking half decent but at my age I think I might run out of time

Post by **OliveDrab** » Fri Sep 02, 2016 6:41 pm

Oh Yeah, this is looking really good, the Firefly is coming along just Super

Post by **chalkyw** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 1:41 am

Nice of you to say so OD

Post by **digger303** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 5:21 am

great build I like the little subtleties , such as rough casting in a localized area ( near lifting hook ). Corrosion in some tight corners, but not spreading madly over everything. Well balanced.

Post by **chalkyw** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 8:20 am

digger303 wrote:great build I like the little subtleties , such as rough casting in a localized area ( near lifting hook ). Corrosion in some tight corners, but not spreading madly over everything. Well balanced.

Hmmm.......Digger, that'll be some of the cock ups you're talking about there but I'll take the compliments anyway

Post by **digger303** » Sat Sep 03, 2016 8:56 am

chalkyw wrote:
digger303 wrote:great build I like the little subtleties , such as rough casting in a localized area ( near lifting hook ). Corrosion in some tight corners, but not spreading madly over everything. Well balanced.

Hmmm.......Digger, that'll be some of the cock ups you're talking about there but I'll take the compliments anyway

Post by **chalkyw** » Sun Sep 04, 2016 9:21 pm

UPDATE #13:

I didn't have a whole lot of modelling time last week but got in a couple of hours over the weekend and managed to make a start on the dio base and got the structure glued in for the pavements in front of the house and what will be a garden behind a wall

I also made a start on putting windows in the window frames which are thin clear acrylic sheet with balsa wood frames. They're a bit rough but hey its an old house

Hopefully I'll be able to finish the rest of the windows this week and start adding some detail to the dio base

Post by **Stokesy44** » Mon Sep 05, 2016 9:13 am

Don't make the house look so good. It'll stop people noticing the tank!!

Great stuff

Post by **chalkyw** » Mon Sep 05, 2016 6:54 pm

Stokesy44 wrote:Don't make the house look so good. It'll stop people noticing the tank!!

Great stuff

I'll try

Post by **Madmattmodels89** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 9:11 pm

You're the diorama master my friend!!

Post by **chalkyw** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:09 pm

Madmattmodels89 wrote:You're the diorama master my friend!!

A mere amateur Matt but love the dio's as much as making the models, its great fun and your imagination is free to run riot

Post by **chalkyw** » Tue Sep 06, 2016 10:19 pm

UPDATE #14:

I got the rest of the windows finished tonight and started on painting the stonework showing through the render. This is just the base coat for a sandy coloured limestone type appearance which I did with some Humbrol Sand Wash that I've never used and seemed the perfect colour. I'll be going over it all with some washes to darken the joints and will give the stones some highlights and colour variations as well as a bit of weathering, which will hopefully bring it all to life.

I've yet to decide on a colour for the render but I'm thinking either pale yellow/orange or a pale red/brown colour......any thoughts anyone??.....Gotta to make a door as well

Post by **digger303** » Wed Sep 07, 2016 1:12 am

some house's can be brightly coloured ....take a stab depends which country your placing it in.

Post by **chalkyw** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 7:09 pm

digger303 wrote:some house's can be brightly coloured ....take a stab depends which country your placing it in.

Come on Digger, read the title mate, lol....The Italian Job

.......decided to go for YELLOW

Post by **Madmattmodels89** » Thu Sep 08, 2016 11:02 pm

Yellow seems to be appropriate as I recal when I was a kid in Italy most of the houses in my grandmother town had yellow as primary plaster colour

Post by **digger303** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 1:27 am

chalkyw wrote:
digger303 wrote:some house's can be brightly coloured ....take a stab depends which country your placing it in.
Come on Digger, read the title mate, lol....The Italian Job .......decided to go for YELLOW

Post by **chalkyw** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:04 pm

UPDATE #15:

Well, that's what I call yellow

I painted the render the other night and tonight I made a start on staining the woodwork but my bench light packed in after I'd done the windows so the interior will have to wait till later in the weekend. The yellow is very bright at the moment but I'm going to sand it back a bit to give it a more worn and faded look and then seal it all in with a gloss coat and give it a few oil washes and filters to hopefully fade it out a bit more and get it looking weathered......fingers crossed

A quick thanks to all of you still watching and to those that have commented

Cheers

Chalky

Post by **Madmattmodels89** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:48 pm

Ahhhhhh that house brings back sweet memories of long summer afternoons playing soccer outside my grandma house till dusk and then being called in for supper!!!

Damn you Chalky I could taste the pasta my grandma used to make!!!

Awesome job buddy!!!! Can't wait to see more!

Post by **chalkyw** » Fri Sep 09, 2016 10:03 pm

Madmattmodels89 wrote:Ahhhhhh that house brings back sweet memories of long summer afternoons playing soccer outside my grandma house till dusk and then being called in for supper!!!

Damn you Chalky I could taste the pasta my grandma used to make!!!!

Sorry, lol

Post by **chalkyw** » Sun Sep 11, 2016 2:26 pm

UPDATE #16:

Had a good day at the bench yesterday and got the building weathered and the front door added, base coated the roof as well as starting work on the garden wall and also a wire tree which is in the process of being coated with DAS clay so that I can carve a bark texture. The building has also got a ground floor now which again is foam coated in DAS clay which I'll carve and paint to represent a flagstone floor.

In case anyone is wondering why the front door is off the ground, its because I'm going to add some steps at some point

The weathering was done with oil paint dot filters and AK's rainmarks for Nato Tanks, the door was stained with their wood wash like the windows and dry brushed with Tamiya deck tan and the handle was made from a bit of wire.......looks like the windows need a clean!!!!.....when everything is fixed in place I'll do add some pigments to try and tie everything together

I spent today starting to clear out the spare room in preparation for a bit of decorating for what will be my much improved and larger work bench area

Thanks for watching

Cheers

Chalky

Post by **Augustus** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 1:18 am

I was getting a bit worried about the general bright yellowishness but looks great with the weathering.

Post by **Madmattmodels89** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 3:11 am

Love it buddy!!! Every update is more stunning than the last one!!!

Post by **Schoof** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 5:41 pm

Looking great Chalky

Post by **chalkyw** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:27 pm

Schoof wrote:Looking great Chalky

Thanks Seb, I was admiring your Firefly on Facebook (got to get myself a page going soon), you've done a great job on the weathering.....your Dio's looking good too

Post by **chalkyw** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 9:49 pm

UPDATE #17:

Ola Chaps and Chapesses,

Just another quick update for you.....finished the external walls and pavements on the dio which again are DAS on foamboard in preparation for carving paving slabs and to give the walls a bit of texture

I've finished off the tree which I ended up applying the same filler that I used for plastering the internal walls to the house and this now needs a primer coat. I used a brush to apply the filler and it seems to have given a nice 'bark' texture which I can hopefully enhance with some painting. I also had another go at the stonework in the house walls using some dry brushed oil paint as I didn't like what I'd done with the acrylics.....looks a bit better to me but I'll probably have another go at it sometime

Next the first floor was given a ceiling to the underside of the joists and the ground floor I mentioned last time was carved with a scalpel blade to give a flagstone appearance and then given a wash or two and a bit of selective painting using oils which I'll probably go back to again like I will with the external stone. I also added an internal wall to create a hallway.

This is the garden behind the gated wall with a DAS path ready for paving slabs......not sure what I'll do in here yet but I think it'll be a bit overgrown

And finally I thought I'd do a mock up with the Firefly as its been a while since its been seen and as you can tell it still needs weathering and the tracks adding but I'm gonna leave that till the end (almost)

As always its great to hear what you think, good or bad

Cheers

Chalky

Post by **Augustus** » Sun Sep 18, 2016 2:24 am

Turned out nice again ain't it. Have you got anymore done?

Post by **ForbesHutton** » Sun Sep 18, 2016 4:05 am

Very Coenesque.

Post by **chalkyw** » Sun Sep 18, 2016 9:41 am

Augustus wrote:Turned out nice again ain't it. Have you got anymore done?

Its been slow progress at the moment mate as I've been busy with other stuff and also waiting for things to dry is slow too but hopefully an update soon

ForbesHutton wrote:Very Coenesque.

Thank you Forbes......Coen has been a great teacher and inspiration via his YouTube videos and some of it has definitely rubbed off.

The techniques for the building have come from the book I mentioned in an earlier update and that guy does some awesome work

its well worth taking a look at his website.

Post by **chalkyw** » Wed Sep 21, 2016 4:06 pm

Howdy Folks,

I thought it was time for an update. I haven't had too much time lately as I've been decorating the spare room and somehow this week I've contracted the proper Flu, not the man stuff!!!....so rather than sit here feeling like crap and sorry for myself, I thought I'd show what I managed towards the end of last week.

Firstly I did some more work on the tree and got that finished

If you want to know how I made it then I posted a video on my new YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ap1ZOyd5Z1w which I did for Madmattmodels89 :th:cheers Matt

With the tree made I then moulded it the ground contours in the garden with a cling film barrier so that I can remove it and still work on the garden area

I then painted the garden wall and carved paving stones in to the clay for the pavement and base coated that with a grey enamel wash

The pavement was then weathered a bit and I set about detailing it with moss (green foam) in the joints and some laser cut paper weeds in some of the cracks

I wasn't happy with the ground floor that I'd done so I did it again and i'm a lot happier with the results this time

This is starting to come together now and I'm really happy with how the street is looking at the moment

Still lots to do and hopefully I'll start feeling well enough to continue with it soon.

As always let me know what you think and if your interested there are a few short videos of the build so far as well as a few other diorama builds I've done this year on my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUlYm2 ... VZRAIDmRhw
Cheers

Chalky

Post by **Augustus** » Thu Sep 22, 2016 12:03 am

Incredible attention to detail. I think it's small things like the weeds in the cracks of pavement that make a diorama interesting and obviously more realistic. Love it!

Post by **Stokesy44** » Thu Sep 22, 2016 1:38 am

Looking superb. That tree is a thing of beauty.

Post by **Madmattmodels89** » Thu Sep 22, 2016 8:03 am

Too work as always my friend your diorama is looking better and better!!!! Keep it up! I should receive my supertrees tomorrow so I'll keep ya posted!!

Post by **chalkyw** » Thu Sep 22, 2016 9:34 pm

Augustus wrote:Incredible attention to detail. I think it's small things like the weeds in the cracks of pavement that make a diorama interesting and obviously more realistic. Love it!

Cheers Johnny, and there was me thinking you were a 'posh geezer' called Augustus

....putting the moss in the joints took a while but I reckon it adds to the look, as you say its the little things that make a bit of a difference mate......good to see you on YouTube and BTW love the xmas hat, lol

Stokesy44 wrote:Looking superb. That tree is a thing of beauty.

Thanks Stokesy, I must admit the tree wasn't the easiest thing to make but it had to be done

Madmattmodels89 wrote:Too work as always my friend your diorama is looking better and better!!!! Keep it up! I should receive my supertrees tomorrow so I'll keep ya posted!!

Thanks Matt......looking forward to it and remember 'less is more' and take your time over it......I've actually taken quite a few branches off the tree since the photos and it looks a lot better now.... if I can do it then you can too

Post by **chalkyw** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 12:27 am

UPDATE #19:

I was going to wait a few days for this update but I won a bid on a Tasca Sherman for £24, so I'm in a good mood and thought what the heck!!!

As well as the progress in the last update I also managed last week to make a start on and finish the garden area. I jumped ahead a bit last time but the garden was base painted in brown acrylic and I used some soil stuck down with PVA to give it a bit of texture and also added a screw which will hold the tree in place

Then I set about adding a bit of detail.....first up were some shrubs against the wall using Seafoam and a few 'off the shelf' flowery bits and pieces....I think the yellow and white flowers are from Army Painter...and added some static grass, this is 6mm which is the shortest I have but wish I'd got some 2mm as it would have looked more like a lawn.....next time eh!!

Next I detailed the planting bed against the house using some more shop bought stuff....including laser cut paper roses and ivy from Greenline Products as well as their mixed flower set and some grass tufts and also a few other bits and pieces I've got in the stash

The view through the hole in the wall looked good but was lacking something......

.....so I scratch built a gate from Styrene sheet cut down to thin strips and painted it in Tamiya Dark Iron

Next the tree was added back in and blended in to the grass with some PVA and soil as well as a couple of flowery things and in the background I scratch built a wooden garden brush and rake made from twigs from the garden and I also gave the tree some moss using model railway grass flock!!

Not looking too bad if I say so myself but over to you

Cheers

Chalky

Post by **InitialProduction1** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 4:51 am

Wow that's freaking awesome Chalky. That looks like my neighbors house, so cut your grass, you lazy bum.

Post by **Augustus** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 2:04 pm

Been called many things but never posh. Born in Stepney mate, a proper geezer, one of the chaps, on The Firm.......

Post by **privatepete** » Fri Sep 23, 2016 10:26 pm

Hi Chalky this is some of the best scratch building I have seen for a while, brilliant my friend

Post by **chalkyw** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:34 am

privatepete wrote:Hi Chalky this is some of the best scratch building I have seen for a while, brilliant my friend

Thanks Pete......call it a labour of love, lol

Post by **chalkyw** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:36 am

Augustus wrote:Been called many things but never posh. Born in Stepney mate, a proper geezer, one of the chaps, on The Firm.......

Lol......I'll tread carefully now I know you're part of the 'firm'

Post by **privatepete** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 2:24 am

Hi Chalky I forgot to mention your going to have to change your"Newbie seeking knowledge" I'm pretty sure your there

and if you have any spare throw it my way.

YouTube · Post by **StuartClark** » Sat Sep 24, 2016 4:39 am

Fantastic build. I actually started the same kit (my first 1/35 tank kit) last year, but the tracks nearly killed me. I had to take a break from it and eventually got vinyl replacement tracks. I'm just starting the weathering and a base for mine. But it is great to see what can be done by someone with much greater skills.

Looking forward to seeing this continue.