Anti aircraft diorama (bit of a long thread)
Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 7:25 pm
A ww2 german truck with a 37mm flak gun will form the main focus to my build, this will be incorporated into a diorama including a searchlight, a full crew for the flak at rest eating and drinking, I will have the flak hunin it ready to fire state with one guy searching the skies with binos while the rest are taking it a bit easier. I plan having a small led light n the searchlight powered by a battery which should hopefully look ok when lit. All this will be on a 18" x 10" mdf base. Seting wise I'm not 100% sure of yet, either inner city or countryside, more than likely,the latter using polystyrene shaped to give an undulating uneven surface. I've yet to get my flak gun I'm going to emodels on Wednesday and will post pics as and when i have it. . 
I started on the search light today. Box and spruce shots. 
The search light itself with the pe louves attached. 
The cradle and search light completed and with a mask covering the innards Of the search light i had sprayed with alclad polished aluminium. 
Primed in Vallejo dark yellow primer. 
Then given light coat of tamiya xf60 dark yellow 
Took the mask off and everything,inside,is fine. 
The trailer is is next then some green Camo
I started on the search light today. Box and spruce shots. The search light itself with the pe louves attached. The cradle and search light completed and with a mask covering the innards Of the search light i had sprayed with alclad polished aluminium. Primed in Vallejo dark yellow primer. Then given light coat of tamiya xf60 dark yellow Took the mask off and everything,inside,is fine. The trailer is is next then some green Camo
A searchlight like this would have been powered by a maschinensatz 85volt generator, I found this source of pics of the generator used, and set to scratch building it. 
And with my iPad in front of me I could enlarge it to life size which made it easier. 
Materials ready to get started 
I also got to use my new scale ruler, with marking for metres, cm , inches and ft it's a great tool. 
Progress so far. 
Some wheels from my spares box were added. 
The trailor has been sprayed dark yellow and the bits I missed on the light have been filled and touched up. And here's a group shot of them together, still loads to do, wiring to add etc. 
I then set to lighting this baby up. I found and old novelty torch and stole the led and batteries. I drilled a 3mm hole in the base and then into the rear of the light, this positioned the light were I wantd it and also hit the wires. I have a switch for when it's in it's final position othe diorama. 
I then used a blue filter to blend it all together. 
I then set to chipping the light and trailor I wanted to depict a well used look to the light and especially so the trailer as IMO I reckon they would have been battered. Honest opinions would be appreciated about the chipping. 
Next step will be pigments.
Gotta love the nail varnish. 
I've also resprayed the searchlight and top of the cradle, I'm going to chip it a bit lighter this time, but am leaving the trailor and base of the light cradle as is. 
It comes with a full sprue of weapons and accessories. As well as some figures which have good detail. 
Construction was easy all the parts are crisp and well made with no flash. Everything went together well, although you do have to make sure to read the instructions properly or some parts can end up in the wrong position. 
Everything attachd that I want attached for spraying, ive left offf all the tools for now. 
Some good wood effects on the paneling on the rear. 
And shown with trailor and generator is place, the genny is a tight fit, looks like I measured it well. On the diorama itself the trailor and genny won't be attached to the Krupp but I wanted to see them together. 
I didn't glue the cab and cargo bed to the chassis so I could remove it and spray it easier as well as weather the chassis later. It was given a coat of Vallejo grey primer 
And the tyres sprayed in tamiya xf85 dark rubber, gives a good effect for tyres. Just need to spray the centres German grey. 
6
Got some more bits and bobs for this build this morning. Although model hobbies missed out my 1/35 rats 
I then applied some industrial dirt to the lower section of the body and set them with thinner. The wheels were next, they were given a dusting of mig concrete and industrial dirt, this was then set with thinner and blended once dry, I then filled the treads of the tyres with flory concrete wash on the road wheels a d mud on the spare wheels. The spare wheels were designed to spin freely prevents the vehicle from bottoming out on harsh terrain so I guess they would have remnants of mud others treads. I'm not too sure about the Concrete wash tyes though I think I need to dull them a little. 
The cab armor was right pain in the ass to fit, requiring some filler plus the bottom of the door shuts had snapped off so I had t make new ones with plasticard strips. 
I've primed it in Vallejo red brown primer as with all the angles I thought it easier to see where I had and hadn't sprayed plus Its not a million miles away from the red oxide primer that would have been used on this. 
Got the halftrack sprayed in extracrylics dunkelgelb and I'm happy with the shade. 
I assembled all the road wheels, all 32 of them and sprayed them in tamiya dark rubber and then using a circle template sprayed them in tamiya dark yellow (not as thin as xtracrylics and doesn't go under the template). I've left them removable for now for ease when weathering. I also got the trailor sprayed too. At the beginning of this thread I said I woul be using a base 18"x12" well seeing as this is 12" in length I think that's out the window.: 
Next up wa the Camo pattern, I didn't like the one on the box art so just winged it and did my own. Using xtracrylics olive grin and rot brown again I'm happy with the colours. 
The aber barrel 
And I the set to work with the tracks. What you get for your £25 2 replacement sprocket wheels 120 links 120 track pads A length of brass wire And some instructions 
The three components of the tracks 
First off each link needs the hole for the wire opening with a 0.5mm drill bit. You don't go all the way through though as this gives the wire something to stick too. 
The the brass wire is inserted into the hole through both parts of the track, I dipped the end of the wire in superglue to hold it in place. 
This is then snipped off with wire snips. 
One completed section of 16 links 
The pads then need gluing in place, they have a lug shown by the cocktail sticks which with some superglue locats in the hole on the track. 
2 and a half hours later with a sore finger and half the tracks are done : I won't know the complete length of the tracks till I get the wheels done etc so I'm doing them in sections for now. 
Sprockets where a fantastic fit on to the kit parts. 
Also applied the tritone filter to the Camo, leaving a nice faded finish behind. 
The set of lion roar brass turned ammo for the flak gun which gives a couple of mags of ammo,and some spent casings too. 
And a verlinden tow chain too. 
Ok on to the 37mm gun. I got my aber barrel installed a perfect fit once the factory hole was opened up a tad with a 0.5mm drill bit. A much better looking barrel than the supplied one. 
This was then superglued on place and primed in aclad grey primer. 
And then given several coats of alclad gunmetal. I've still. Got to dry brush it and apply some pigments. 
The gun platform was then built, and i dry fitted it all. 
Then primed in Vallejo grey primer. 
I then gave it several coats of xtracrylix dunkelgelb, and then the olive grun and rot brown Camo applied. 
I started on the chipping too, trying to give the halftrack the same look of heavy use as the krupp. Using a 000 brush and some sponge and Vallejo German cam black brown I got to work. It looks overdone but as with the Krupp a lot of it is lost in the washes and pigment weathering so it'll be fine. Only done a small section of it and there's a fair bit to do too so just a short update for now. 
Using the white spirit I then stampede oils until a very thin coat was left, once dry this left before a nice cloudy faded look. 
Next up some streaks, using tamiya enamel flat brown I applied it in vertical streaks using a thin brush. 
This was again stumped and dragged downwards with white spirit leaving a very faint colour of the paint leaving a rain marks effect. 
Next up rust effects illmhave to use oils rather than paint as believe it or not with all the paint I have I don't have a rust enamel colour.
I dabbed the oil colours (dark and light rust) in the position I wanted then using a flat brush and some white spirit stumped the oils in a downwards motion thinning at the bottom as I went. 
Since these pics were taken I did stump them a little more. I then sprayed the entire chassis in tamiya earth and using the same paint I sprayed a very light coat around the bottom edges of the vehicle giving a dust effect. 
I then added dried mud the chassis using vallejo pigments and mig fixer. 
I also added some Mig pigments (concrete, industrial dust and Europe dust) mixed together and applied with white spirit to the wheels, once dry I cleaned it to give a dusty effect. Then mixing plaster of Paris, water and Mig mud pigments I made a wet mixture and using a dollop on a brush blasted it on using an airbrush. Again giving the impression of dried mud. I also added a some oils stains using mig oils and grease stains to the centre of some of the wheels, some of them will be stumped back with white sprit tomorrow. 
As I've said I'm trying to give the impression of vehicles that have been of road at some point but have been in the city for some time, so dried mud but dusty. I got the wheels on temporally and tried the friul tracks on and added the links as needed, I've got two pics one with a lot of sag and one without, I prefer the one with sag, but am worried its too much? 
Opinions about the tracks would be appreciated. Edit after looking at various Images online it'll be the 2nd image with a lot of sag, but I need to adjust the angle of th road wheels to suit.
I then sprayed them using tamiya earth. 
I believe the sponge material is a heat embossable so you can make your own stamps, but for me it's perfect as its nice and stiff, ideal for holding things on sticks and for spaying heavy tracks. 
After this had dried I mixed some mig track brown pigment with white spirit and covered the entire track with it. 
When this had dried I added some industrial dust pigment in the same way and later some rust pigments to give a few differing colours. Once dry I set to work with some wet and dry and a sanded the tracks to show the metal Finish through. I also painted the tracks pads in Vallejo panzer ace dark rubber. Sadly I didn't get any pics of is process, doh! I then had the tricky job of getting the tracks and drive sprockets on the halftrack in one go. I attached part of the track the sprocket and holding it all and using superglue stick it on I then fed the tracks through to the idler wheels and flipped it all over and connected the track pin. I also attached the front road wheels and added some grey dust to the lower half of the bodywork and to the wheels. Here they are, they move every time I lift the tank so won't be in final position till it's on the diorama, but you get the idea. 
I primed it using aclad grey primer and then sprayed it in alclad steel. 
I tried using mig rust wash but it wash too thin and just dripped straight off. 
So needing a thicker wash I used flory models rust wash and it worked perfect. 
I then applied 3 different tones of rust pigments and using thinner blended them on. 
Once the pigments were dry I sprayed a thinned coat of tamiya xf 1. Next I painted the rear bench in panzer aces new wood, then with two coats of AK heavy chipping fluid followed by panzer aces old wood I then removed some of the old wood oaint using water. Then adding various pigment this was then glued in place behind the cab. I put many different pigments on the rear cargo deck and again using thinner blended them, after which I dropped on some dark mud and European earth. I also painted the spade and crank handle as well as attaching the width indicators and wing mirror. I hung the tow chain over the front armor panel. Mixing some mud pigments with some plaster of Paris and water I used a brush and airbrush to flick mud up the rear of the halftrack and along the sides of the vehicle. I also added some earth tone pigments to the side steps leading into the cab. 
The pigment are still wet behind the cab and well need blending once dry 
it looks impressive!! All the work you've done is perfect!
so hurry up and get back into it mate.
