discussion Trench Sections in 1:32 scale

[Andy Belsey]

I posted something here earlier that I shouldn’t have. Sorry!
Andy

 

[Peter Gillson]

Andy

Glad to hear that the house repairs are well underway - having ceilings must make it more of a home and less of a building site. Fingers' crossed that it does not take too long.

 

[Andy Belsey]

I have made a small bit of progress on the latest section which shows two parts of trench mines. When I have time, I'll post some photos, which I have at home - I have to post them from home, but never seem to have time to post! I 've just had a very welcome break from flood damage in Andorra.
Watch this space!
Andy

 

[Andy Belsey]

Here are the promise progress shots of the little work I've done in recent months. I have to reduce them at home but never have time to post there these days, so I copied them to a memory stick and doing this during my lunch break at work. (I'm back home but have no end of tasks to do there!)

This is my 10th section model, which consists of two parts. The first shows tunnelers 'clay kicking' the soil as quietly as possible. The second, lower half, will show the tunnelers 'tamping' or blocking the mine charge with sandbags to force the explosion up rather than back through the tunnel.

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After creating boxes of acrylic, I clad the tunnels with strips of balsa. The roof timbers have a rebate to fix the upright to the walls.

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Where the explosive charge was I laid the timbers closer together. I've been following illustrations from a book by Peter Barton called Beneath Flanders Fields.

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I made a 'crucifix' chair from balsa with a central rebate made by a mixture of cutting and filing.

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There will be some spare timbers waiting to be put in place once the next area has been clay kicked.
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I had hoped to join the WW1 Group Build, but will not make much of a contribution, as time is still very scarce. Also I will have absolutely no chance of finishing on time as Mike Butler caught wind of what I was doing and has asked if he can paint the figures as Anzacs. I haven't even converted the figures yet. We have two other projects in the pipeline before he'll paint these, so it will be ages before this one is complete!! I'll try to get as much done as I can for Euro Expo in September.
Andy

 

[Peter Gillson]

Andy - no doubt that your attention to details will ensure these are two more excellent trench sections.

 

[Guest]

Andy .
All looking very smart and well researched. I particularly liked the timber of course and the halving joint is neat indeed. Good to see you back even if not that often.
John .

 

[Guest]

Hi Andy do you mean Euro Miniaures Expo 2018. 22nd & 23rd September at Leas Cliff Hall, Folkstone, CT20 2DZ.

If so do you know which day or days you will be there, I'm going so I might bump into you so find a good place to hide or the teas are on you :smiling3::smiling3::smiling3:

Nice to see you back at the bench, another masterpiece coming up by the look of it :thumb2:

Pete.

 

[Andy Belsey]

Hi Andy do you mean Euro Miniaures Expo 2018. 22nd & 23rd September at Leas Cliff Hall, Folkstone, CT20 2DZ.

If so do you know which day or days you will be there, I'm going so I might bump into you so find a good place to hide or the teas are on you :smiling3::smiling3::smiling3:

Nice to see you back at the bench, another masterpiece coming up by the look of it :thumb2:

Pete.

Yes Pete, That's the place. I'm trying to get permission from SWMBO to go both days, but will be there on Saturday. I will probably be based with Darren on the Tommy's War stand, so you should be able to track me down there. There are plans afoot to have my sections and diorama on display somewhere, but that's not finalised yet.
Andy

 

[Andy Belsey]

Thanks for the welcome back guys. I'll try to post some more photos later.
Andy

 

[Andy Belsey]

I'm using one of Tommy's War's gun crew for my clay kicker. I'll convert his leg so that both are bent equally to accommodate his spade (which I've not yet made.) When I've sanded his bottom a little, he won't be bashing his head on the ceiling.

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I'll show you a series of photos showing how I created the end wall using curing car body filler.

This photo shows the area before I added any filler.

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The first layer was added wet to get the basic shape of the wall.

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I then added smaller area of filler to fill in the gap at the back corner.

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I then added small areas of curing filler. It goes crumbly as it cures and the catalyst starts to act. You only have a minute or two, so have to do it in small bits. (I've got a fuller explanation on my website).

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Notice how the latest area is darker pink because I added more catalyst.

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Lastly I put in some pieces of filler that I dug out of the front wall. I wanted to create an area where the spade had been working, so I stuck in a small chisel and gouged out an area while the filler was still soft. It gets harder after and hour or so. The pieces that were gouged out were then stuck on the floor with PVA as chunks of soil. I'll have a second guy lying on the floor collecting this loose soil.

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The crucifix chair sits between the support timbers, top and bottom. You'll see I've added the seat part.

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Here's how the figure sits on it.

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Andy B

 

[Andy Belsey]

Sorry Moderators I've realised that this shouldn't be in the Completed Dioramas section! It's obviously not finished yet!!

 

[Peter Gillson]

Andy it's nice to see you back at the bench. The figure looks just right for the pose you are aimong for.

 

[monica]

real nice work,Andy,loving the detail,and good work on the figure

 

[Guest]

The magic continues....

 

[Jim R]

Hi Andy
What can I say. Stunning modelling, superb research and a history lesson as well. Hope all is settling down a bit.
Jim

 

[Steve Jones]

Wonderful work as always Andy. Great to see you posting again

 

[colin m]

Brilliant work, and I've learnt a thing or to as well.

 

[Andy Belsey]

Thank you guys. I'll try to post a bit more tomorrow.
Should I carry on posting here, even though its in the wrong section? It should be in the Dioramas Under Construction Section.
Andy

 

[Andy Belsey]

Here's how far I've got with the explosive side of my mining sections. The ammonal was stored in Flimsies (former Petrol cans). I've made them before so worked out ways to make a lot of them. Rather than making individual ones I made a lot in rows and just stuck the aluminium foil over them, burnishing it around the foam blocks.
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I've left the backs uncovered as no one will ever see it.
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I wanted to find a way to create lots of handles easily so made a jig from bits of styrene strip. Press the two halves together with a strip of pie foil in the middle and they just need cutting to length.
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The spouts are just short lengths of styrene rod. I have quite a few to create and looking at photos of the real thing they didn't stack very well as the handles and spouts made them unstable. I'll try to recreate this on the upper levels. I'm only going to create a skirt of flimsies with a block in the middle.
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The pile of flimsies will sit here with sandbags being piled up at the end of the tunnel to force the explosion up rather than back down the tunnel. I'll have lots of wires coming from the cans towards the detonators too.
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Andy

 

[Guest]

Andy.
Very neat idea, read a nice comment on You Tube earlier mentioning you work.
John.