discussion Pushing Back .......

[toto]

Ok,

my second attempt to kick my Diorama off.

It's 1944 and the allies are pushing the Germans back across Europe towards Berlin.

Somewhere in Europe the allies have just called in an air strike to soften up a local pod of German invaders to provide the catalyst for the allied ground troops to push them back into a retreat.

We are taking this up just after the successful air strike where the allies are making their presence felt ..... big time.

" Well done Philip, Gerrys on the run ...... leave the rest to us ". " Our pleasure Crawford..... time for tiffen I think .... over and out "

and the scene gets set ..... first images of the new construction on their way soon.

toto

 

[toto]

Ok baseboard insulation foam cut and stuck to plywood base .....



nearly done ....



one corner left to go ....



and we are there .....

I have since given it an all over coat of very thin plaster slurry just to roughen the surface up a little. ..... just something I do.

I want to heighten the terrain at one end ( allies end ) just to get away from a perfectly flat board. I'm just trying to visualise the merging of the allies end and the Gerrys end. It will be separated by a cobble road.

I'll also be looking through my stash of plaster building casts to create a bombed out building from which to base Gerry's cover for a machine gun nest amongst other things.

more as it comes.

toto

 

[toto]

so .....

as I mentioned, a quick, very thin application of plaster to thr base and filling in the base board joins .....



I can sand these down and fill further where ever required.

Then I started to pay attention to my first structure to be planted and done a bit of a mock up .....


enter stage left the " Great Northern Roads " offering of a storehouse ruin. Could be anything actually.

I started to play around with the building ( yet unbuilt ) in different locations in " Gerry's Corner " as this will be where their machine guns and infantry hide out. I bored holes up through the base of the plaster casts and inserted wooden dowels with which I secured them temporarily to the foam base. They can still be moved anywhere .... but for now ..... its here as below.



a bit like this ....



and a bit further away .....



Something planted and I can now start measuring and plotting out other features as I fix the idea's in my head.

more later.

toto

 

[toto]

OK ..... we continue after a few hums and haws .......

Building number two committed to the scene .... in the form of .....



another Great Northern Roads kit ...... this time the workshop ruin ...... A pretty similar " semi industrial " theme as the first " stores ruin " building.



and here is a gander at it temporarily fixed to the baseboard via softwood dowels .....



this time from the rear ......



from a bit of a distance just for a sense of scale .....



and showing my doodlings on the foam to mark out the general layout of the street. There will be medium height walls erected on the corner just opposite the latest building. As most of you will have gathered .... I'm making this up on the hoof.

The explosion scene that I spoke of will still be going ahead ( looking forward to that ) its just a question of where will give maximum effect.

Plenty room around the buildings to incorporate different types of vehicles and armour from both sides.

I will be doing some due diligence on this set up before committing to " firming up " my idea's to allow for any changes. The build will be started with the setting out of the cobble roads and pavements. Then the addition of some walls of various heights possibly made from blue board.

The sixes of the road and pavement widths are just temporary and as a guide to work to. They could well end up narrower or wider depending on what pleases my eye.

More leter and hope it is of interest.

regards

toto

 

[toto]

As mentioned ..... some blue foam to mark out where the walls will be going. they are indicative as the wall thickness etc is presently too thick. These will be scaled down before carving in the surfaces etc.



I'm sure you get the picture. thinning down the walls should be a bit simpler as I have a Proxxon foam cutter. Makes a great job of it.



this time from a different angle .....



and the last for now ...... you'll be glad to know ....

I think I am going to start laying down the kerb lines and working out the cobblestone roads and pavement levels.

I'll post up if I get any more progress if there is interest in the build.

many thanks

toto

 

[toto]

Next step and in order to get some of the infrastructure in place, I'm turning my attention to the roads and pavement. My first issue is that the roads are too flat. does not look convincing enough even once the cobblestones go down.

Soooooo ....... I'm going to introduce a camber .... just slight but hopefully it will manage to be seen in the finished article. My problem will be at the Tee junction but I'll worry about that later. I have some thin balsa wood for this which will be lifted slightly on the roads centre line by means of a thing balsa strip.

I want to do a few measurements first to gauge the height of the kerb stones and what effect the addition of the balsa will have on the finished cobble level. A few random shots will follow to let you see what I am doing. The balsa wood I have at the moment looks thin enough but I wont know for sure if I need to go thinner. I'm hoping not as once the Balsa is installed I will be going over it with a very light coat of thinned down PVA glue to assist adherence of the cobbles later.

Ohhhhh the joys ........ back later.

cheers

toto

 

[toto]

one or two images for scale purposes ....



it looks like the kerb line will need to be lifted in order to give a sufficient increase in height between the road and the pavement .....



maybe see the difference here better ..... to me ..... just not enough ....



and another last one for now ...... really must go and play around a bit more to get the right look.

cheers for now

toto