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"Easy Pickins" 200mm diorama, Normandy, WWII

Wow Steve,
Glad i happened to turn up 10 years down the line, this is right up my street, i do love Z75. plus large scale figures to go with it ( which look damned good, i might add) . Excellent paint jobs , especially like the Camo work on the 2 wearing smocks. Building structure will be a very nice feature. Love the gardening work also, then you produce a stunning finale to this part of the thread with those scratch build barrels. This will be one Hell of a Diorama Matey.
 
Thread owner
Thanks, Paul!
What?!?!?! Next level witchcraft!
Na, no sorcery, just A+B=C, or something like that;)
Brilliant!
Tanks, Neil!!!
Nice work on them barrels
Thank you, Mark.
Superb work doesn't even cover it Steve, I love the detailed thinking that's you're putting into this build - little touches like worrying if the Ranger had a line of sight the the four Germans. Excellent stuff.

I've seen your work before on SPAM, so it's great to see you on these boards as well.
Thanks, Arnold. Ya, a lot goes into making a convincing scene, but therein lies the fun of it.;)
Loving the casks. Now my question. Would that be 15 or 25 year old Whiskey???
That is quite some skill you're lucky enough to have there Steve.
Thanks, Doug. Yall know the Irish better than I, but I'm gonna bet it's good 'ol Bushmills! Who else would make such a big barrel for the best?
Great work with the detailing Steve, colour of those barrels looks spot on.
Thanks, John. I recon since these should be old the color should have faded a bit, but I didn't take that into account. T'sall good, I'll dust em up plenty.
Wow Steve,
Glad i happened to turn up 10 years down the line, this is right up my street, i do love Z75. plus large scale figures to go with it ( which look damned good, i might add) . Excellent paint jobs , especially like the Camo work on the 2 wearing smocks. Building structure will be a very nice feature. Love the gardening work also, then you produce a stunning finale to this part of the thread with those scratch build barrels. This will be one Hell of a Diorama Matey.
Thanks, John. I appreciate the kind words, Amigo. Once this beast is finished every dio from here on out will have a much, much smaller foot print. I love the larger scale figures, but creating a scenario with more than a few is taxing on space and the 'ol cabesa, but it sure is fun. HA!
 
Thread owner
Building Up Accessories

I’ve been busy building accessories that would be commonly found in a work shed/lean-to and I have decided to make this part of a winery. I’m not going full blown-out crazy, there isn’t enough room to add too much, but I can give it that flavor. The Harley will be taking up a lot of space, so I’ll be adding just enough tools to add interest and keep the eyes moving throughout the scene as much as possible.

I built a buck saw using a broken scroll saw blade and wire with pine scrap as well as a few block and tackles. Looking on line once again at YT was a time saver, great tool. I’m still undecided how I will attach at least one of the B&T’s to the rafters, but the other will be on the deck.

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Looking over some photos of B&T’s I was able to come up with a simple design that would be practical for my need and easy enough to make using scrap pine and brass sheet strips plus some 12ga copper wire for the hooks.

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The rope for these B&T’s was first coated with water thinned Elmer’s Carpenter’s glue, then given a Burnt Umber oil wash to give it definition.

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For the chain I used the old “shake and bake” method. Wet the cheap chain with black or Burnt Umber oil paints and drop into a sandwich bag with rust tone pigments, then shake it up. Once you pull the chain out of the bag give it a quick snap and most of the excess flies off. I’ll be going back over this chain with an old tooth brush to clean it up, touch up the rust tones, and finish it off. An old Dremel lathe was used to turn the shovel handle out of some dowel chunks. This unit is so weak it was easier to use the sand paper than try to turn it.

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Next up, after weathering the wine barrel, I built a barrel dolly from pine scrape and shaped most of it on the belt sander. Cutting thicker sheet brass for the base and supports for the wheels was necessary. The wheels are rollers from a tank long ago scrapped and they were perfect for this purpose.

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After making a grid pattern for the dolly layout it all went together rather quickly. I Dremel’d out the cross-member slots which made the assembly very sturdy. I soldered the base and support bars together before gluing the unit to the dolly frame. Then I followed up with pins down the supports to retain the brass base assembly.

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Once the brass was primed I painted the metal parts and wheels with Tamiya’s Metallic Grey XF-56 and then painted the wood using Burnt Sienna oils. The standard rust and weathering applications were used to make the dolly look used and abused and now neglected.

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So, with the major accessories made I will make a few more tools and give everything a good weathering. The dusting to mesh the accessories to the base will be the last step before securing each item in place.

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More to follow soon and thanks for watchin. Cheers, Ski.
 
Excellent work Steve. A great deal of thought and skills are going into this. We see very few dios in this larger scale but the detail here is outstanding. In my opinion the out building works better than the original wall.
 
Thread owner
Thanks, Jim, I appreciate the kind words. I agree about the out-building, spot on. This gives a better opportunity to add more details and spiff up the scene. In this scale it's rather difficult to hide any mistaskes, lol. I've got plans for that cemetary wall in 1/16th/120mm scale, it won't go to waste.
 
Thread owner
Building Wine Crates and Bottles

This is pretty much a repeat from the “Embarrassing Moments” dio, but in a slightly larger scale. The process being the same I used the larger hot glue sticks for a more in scale appearance. Just melt the tip and let it drip. Actually, there’s a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea.

The crate designs are different, but strangely enough, I used some of the same crate labels, oops. Must be a popular wine in Normandy I recon. Ya, that’s it! Making these crates is very straight forward. I used some balsa wood for the sides and thin pin strips for the supports and handles and all of that is being held together with trusty old Elmer’s Wood glue.

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This Tamiya clear color really is great for making these bottles and dries to a high gloss. I tried to follow what actual wine bottles look like for different wines. Some of the bottles would be considered clear glass and others would be tinted green or dark green and some a dark reddish tone. I varied the colors for a variety to mix things up a bit.

If you wished you could make a bottle look partially full or completely empty just by the number of layers of paint you apply. I didn’t bother making any partially full, but I will have one opened. Drilling a hole in the top of one of these is going to be a real pain, but I’ll get one hollowed out somehow. The Ranger is enjoying some vino with his cheese and sausage, so he’s got to have an opened bottle.

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The bottle labels were taken from pics on the inet, printed, and glued in place. Some of the bottle tops have candy wrapper foil on them and painted with mixed Tamiya clear colors for variety. The others are just dipped in paint and allowed to dry upside down, then re-dipped at the top and dried again. It’s easy enough to replicate the cork top by how many times you dip the top.

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Once the crates were given an initial Burnt Umber oil wash I gave them some battle damage with dings, scrapes, chips, and heavily worn areas. I added the nails in the appropriate locations using a HB lead pencil, then gave each crate a good layer of Dull Coat before weathering and dusting. These are now set aside while I build the grape baskets, tools/clippers, and other shed items.

Making the bottles and crates was a fun diversion and will help add realism and character to the scene. Thanks for watchin and more to follow soon.

Cheers, Ski.
 
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That looks amazing Ski, great results with the hotglue sticks, would have never guessed those bottles were made from hotglue! It all looks like the real deal, well done :cool:
 
Hi Ski,
cannot really add much to what has already been posted. Will just have to add another 2, Amazing, Amazing 👏.
 
Thread owner
Thank you kindly, Gents. I ran across some vid on YT for making booze bottle, etc. I thought it was the slickest thing since sliced tomatoes, HA! What really gives it the kick is using the Tamiya clear colors, cause they dry super shiny and that is exactly what we want.
 
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