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Digs · Posted: Sun 08 Mar 2009 12:06 pm Post subject:

Glacially slow progress...

I've identified a lump of wood for the diorama base and would like to attach the FCP itself before building up the road and so on with polyfilla. The hold up (apart from lack of time) has been that I'd like to more or less recreate the general layout of the old vacform base so I need some more bits of wall for the right hand side. This was where the Linka was meant to come in, but it's been a complete disaster - I suspect my plaster must be the wrong type or I'm mixing it wrong. The castings are useless. But then memory kicked in and I recalled that I had the remains of an Airfix station building kicking around:

I should be able to get enough sections of wall out of this for what I want and it'll increase the % Airfix in the diorama!

feanor · Posted: Sun 08 Mar 2009 14:59 pm Post subject:

Ayup Digs...

Nice bit of lateral thinking...

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Digs · Posted: Sun 08 Mar 2009 17:23 pm Post subject:

Here's a shot of the rough layout of the major components:

I wonder if anybody would have recognised the booking hall as the source of the ruined walls without the post above?

Paul

Digs · Posted: Sun 15 Mar 2009 18:47 pm Post subject:

A bit more to show after today.

The base is an offcut of shelf that was kicking around, but with only two edges properly finished. So to try and make it a bit neater and potentially viewable from the back, I cut a couple of lengths of wood moulding to fit the plain sides - mitered corners and on a slant so the high point is back-left. As this gives a bit of a contour to the diorama, I glued in a wedge of cobblestones so one of the roads has a matching slope. I then started blending edges in with polyfilla.

I also found a use here for all the duff Linka castings - break them up bit more and stick them into the polyfilla to make rubble!

I then gouged some shell holes out of the roadway with a minidrill and dental burr:

And this is a shot after the walls from the booking hall have been glued down and bedded in with more polyfilla and Linka fragments:

I'm happy with how it's going but two things worry me a bit - will the Linka stick to the polyfilla? - and how the hell am I going to paint all that white?

For the first, I may paint over the 'rubble' with some diluted PVA. The second, just suck it and see I guess! If it goes OK, then the FCP itself will get glued down and the same process repeated.

Paul

Flash Flash · Silver Star Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 2938

Looking promising
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Minty · Posted: Sun 15 Mar 2009 20:54 pm Post subject:

Look's pretty nice so far Paul.

Who makes the cobble section's that you have used as they look very good.

stuzzar · Posted: Mon 16 Mar 2009 16:48 pm Post subject:

That is looking great

I would think a coating of diluted PVA would do the trick, you could scatter a little bit of railway ballast over it while wet to give a bit of smaller debris among the linka sections.

Cheers

Stu

Ratch · Posted: Mon 16 Mar 2009 21:35 pm Post subject:

Looking great Paul

I like the use of broken Linka

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daniel7891 · Posted: Tue 17 Mar 2009 08:32 am Post subject:

Looking excellent
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Sgt.Squarehead · Posted: Tue 17 Mar 2009 18:33 pm Post subject:

Fascinating to watch it take shape.....Do you intend to largely cover the base in rubble, just leaving cleared areas on the road and occupied areas?

All the best
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Digs · Posted: Tue 17 Mar 2009 18:48 pm Post subject:

Thanks guys.

Minty - the base cobbles (road surface etc) are Slaters. Small enough that they're not really visible as cobbles in the photos. The bigger panels of cobbles (pavements, FCP base) are Wills 00 scenic series.

Stuzzar - good idea, thanks.

Sarge - yes, a lot more rubble will be added to try and account for all the missing walls. Clearer patches in the roads and where the remnants are being used. That's the aim anyway!

I'm away all next weekend though so progress will stall again!

Paul

Digs · Posted: Wed 18 Mar 2009 22:14 pm Post subject:

Another update - I've had a go at colouring the polyfilla and Linka rubble.

Perusal of the paint stash turned up a pot of Burnt Sienna poster paint. The Linka sucked this up like no tomorrow and went a decent approximation of brick colour. The polyfilla sneered and went pink...

More searching of the paint stash found a pot of Humbrol black acrylic which mixed in with the Burnt Sienna to produce mud colour and this has darkened the polyfilla down a tadge. As so:

The colours are still a bit bright but overall I think it'll work well enough so onwards with more rubble once the sandbags are in place. But first they needed the hollow backside filling with Das clay:

And there it rests for now.

Paul

PS - the paint stash also contains two pots of Humbrol Bobcat paint. Anybody come across these before? I've no recollection of where they came from or ever seeing them on sale in the UK.

Ratch · Posted: Wed 18 Mar 2009 22:22 pm Post subject:

Coming along

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Digs · Posted: Sat 28 Mar 2009 19:51 pm Post subject:

More evidence that this won't be another of my failed GBs...

More polyfilla and worn out Linka castings added and several rounds of painting with Burnt Sienna, black acrylic, brown and then green oil paint washes, along with touching in some of the rubble stonework with different colour enamels. I intended adding some ballast/scatter as per Stuzzar's suggestion but that got sidelined as I can't find the damn stuff.

Then onto adding the multitude of bits and pieces needed to populate the scene - crates, barrels and a wooden framework (out of matchsticks, stained with Colron wood dye) for the corrugated iron camo sheets so far:

Flash Flash · Silver Star Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 2938

Cool
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Sgt.Squarehead · Posted: Sat 28 Mar 2009 20:06 pm Post subject:

Brilliant!

Very impressive ruins indeed!

All the best
Sgt.S
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Disorder · Posted: Sat 28 Mar 2009 21:22 pm Post subject:

Ratch · Posted: Sun 29 Mar 2009 09:48 am Post subject:

Splendid

really convincing

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TimJ · Posted: Mon 30 Mar 2009 15:48 pm Post subject:

Great stuff. Love the rubble.
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