¹⁄35

Orders - France 1944

All painting was done by hand and brush, using acrylic paints from Tamiya and Viejo. The huge amount of debris includes Grandt Line plastic windows, Plus Model telephone poles and signage, along with over 2000 hand-cast lose bricks and cat litter. Large cinder-block bricks were made for the park fence using 120MM scale Grey Bricks (Custom Dioramics) and the white picket fence surrounding the park is salvaged H0-Scale railroad fencing, which works well in size and scale for this particular design. The cobblestone street was cast from a single sheet of Verlinden's excellent resin "European Street", using plaster to create the five duplicate sheets required. In fact, I find that the plaster takes a much more natural finish, absorbing the paint and pigment stains in a much more natural fashion than painting resin. Curbs are from the Custom Dioramics line. Note the drainage trap carved into the curb banquette in front of the Yellow cafe.

To add additional rear-view emphasis, all interior walls were finished with either paint or wallpaper found in a local "doll house" store. Flooring comes from the cast resin Custom Dioramics line. The interior walls of the brick three-story building was hand-detailed with matchstick joists, and muslin cloth was used to imitate the batten insulation often used in the older buildings from the colder northern provinces of France.