¹⁄35

hold on...hold on...

Continuing to work on the wall, I painted the inside of the windows and doors, base white coat for the wall and a little brick coloring. I didn't want any open window or door to be viewed through, I wanted the main view point on #11 sitting in front and not having anyone attempting to peak through a window. I constructed the open area with 1/35 scale bricks showing some damage. On the roof I decided to use balsa wood framing and 1/35 scale ceramic tiles. And test fitted the balcony railing.

Photo 0008 and 0008b

Before placing the windows in their locations I wanted to block the view of the board past them and placed curtains in each. This was accomplished using paper towels and liquid starch, once dry the towels become hard and sturdy. I also cut-out and glued the house to the base. I dry fitted the down spouts and rain barrels (Verlinden 0379 Wooden Barrels), placed the rain gutters and constructed a small porch/step. Placed both doors on the entryway, and broke and placed the balcony door, where I used clear plastic cut up to simulate broken glass. I took this a step further and opened the window next to the door and pulled out the curtain to simulate additional damage.

Photo 0009 and 0009a

Next session resulted in staining up the house wall, placement of some stray bullet holes and cracks in the plaster, bending and test fitting of the down spouts, and blending brick colors. On the base I decided on installing the fence where it overlapped onto all 3 sections. Cutting balsa wood pieces, I laid them out on the bench onto a piece of tape. I drilled and placed my end posts on the base and drew a line of glue between them. I lifted the fence in one piece and following the glue line I taped the fence to both end posts. I also started staining the gutters and shingles. After raising the road bed with plaster I laid the first layer of gravel on the road beds. I used a color combination of ballast used in Rail Road displays.

Photo 0010, 0010a, 0010b, 0010c

Now all the real fun began. No good plan goes unpunished. Receiving various information and suggestions from some of the great members of Armorama, a number of planning errors started creeping up. I will address them separately.

• First is the porch step. #11 was too far away from the wall, and I totally forgot that in Italy they hadn't started using gas grills, so I had to reduce the steps way down. Photo 0011
• Where #11 was to be parked looked as if the yard was a large field. Too bring this more into perspective I added the foundation wall of the other house to show the space as a little more restrictive. Photo 0012
• Electricity was missing, so I decided to add the power connections to the side of the house using Aber AB35D24 Power Line Wall Mount with Light included the lamp to the balcony roof. The lamp consists of broken lamp post pieces from a Tamiya kit and a melted blob from a clear sprue piece. Photo 0014 and 0015

Construction continued on the base. Using the smallest wire I could find, I weaved 2 strands 3 times through the fence posts to represent that winter fencing look. I should say I CAREFULLY added the wire. Extremely fragile basal wood, wrapped with wire, sometime snaps. It did add to the look in places but I ended up replacing about 20 sticks. I added the down spouts and supporting straps to the house. Added the power pole standing next to #221. And by my wife's suggestion, a bird house in the back yard because everyone had them. How can you argue with that?

Photos 0016 and 0017

As stated, things do happen and planning never is quite enough. I decided to use hemp string as my grass covering. You buy this 4 inch ball of string, using a pick you pull it out to its individual strands and using a wire brush you comb it out to remove some unwanted tangles and cut it in ¾ to a 1 inch length. Sounds easy doesn't it. Here are the problems; that pick is sharp, the wire brush really hurts when used on a finger and this is so time consuming to make enough to cover a 6 inch area takes about 4 hours. It did look cool to start with.

Photos 0018, 0018a, 0018b and 0018c

Remember when I mentioned the problem with using the model as a construction error. Well this is the point where I somehow hooked my #11 when standing up for a break, knocking it to the floor, in my attempt to catch it end up stepping on it. The turret wasn't on it at the time so I saved a little. My break included a down time reconstructing my loss. This time I used the Tiger Model Designs M4A1 Early Hull with Hatches.

Photo 0019 and 0019a

During this period of painful grass installation and tank reconstruction, someone pointed out the tiles looked a little large. Using my handy Russian 1/35 scale figure measuring stick, I placed him on the roof and imagined him placing these tiles. The tiles were half his size; no way would I be working on a roof with those heavy tiles. Also when I was doing this self awaking my wife brought me a cup of coffee and stated, "The grass looks like a rug".

Photo 0020

That was enough for me. I tore the roof completely off, removed the wall section from the base and made up an entirely new base. After reattaching the wall I used plaster again adding the small road piece and included walking paths between the houses that would normally be seen. My new idea on grass was to try the static variety. I didn't like the look because it was thin and I couldn't get it to look like an over grown field. My next choice was sheet moss.

Pulling it apart and shaking off the excess debris, I glued it to the base using cloth glue which is tacky to hold the item in place but allows adjustment. This is the look I was after. And was a heck of a lot faster and less painful then the first attempt. On the roof I decided to actually build the roof as it would normally be built using rafters and covering boards. This helped in recreating the roof damage.

Photos 0021 and 0021a