The curved front is really my way of creating a visual arch in order to try to get equal balance among the figures. The back corner behind the building will more than likely be a backwards L shape - so it will eventually end up to be some form of a "D".

I think I'm going to rename it too. While I was laying in bed the other night I came up with a great name, but have since forgotten the name. I remembered the thought but forgot the details.
I think something like "Lets Compare Treasure." or "To Each His Own".

Posters are planned for the big wall.

Scott the title you were thinking of wouldn't by any chance be something like "I'll show you mine if you show me yours....."

That's a great title CK.

Good luck with your build Scott. This one has really gotten my attention. It's gonna look amazing completed.

Great work so far Scott.



Instead of posters what about a big painted sign, they always look well - an ad for pernod or cigarettes- something like that.

CK - that's a funny title!

Pat - maybe both a painted sign and posters.....hmmm the gears are spinning now.

Nice Scott, and yes he does look like Rodney.
Scott can you fill [ or partial fill ] the back of the building with rubble and broken timber ? This way you're back to 360. You may have to mess with the roof a little though.
Cheyenne

Scott,

What about a mixture of commercial and propoganda posters and graffiti over an old, faded painted sign?

My 0.02ZAR

Rudi

Rudi - that's exactally what I was thinking

That would be fantastic. The painted wall/posters would go very well with the scene and it would add even more eye-candy!
Also the damaged back wall of the buildings can simply be explained as a 'cross-section'. I'm sure noone will challenge it!

-Mike

Ok - so it's been a while and I've wrapped up a campaign project and a dangling project so I'm back to this one.

I've done a bit of work on the figures - mainly flesh tones. I've done a bunch of work on the seated figure - I've cut him at both hips the left ankle, right knee so he's coming along slow.

I plan on taking jba's adivce and adding a painting on the blank wall. Robert showed me a great site on outside ads and I found one I like. I used photoshop and size up a few images, then cut templates out. My plan is to use each template as a silkscreen type process to guide painting each color.

Hi Scott,
The fleshtones look very nicely done mate.I'm not sure if you checked your other thread but there is a neat method of adding pictures to walls on Ediorama under the technique (they call it technic) section.
Shay

A beautiful diorama Scott, nice figures, well chosen. But I really like the work you put in the houses. I'm glad I saw this topic today, I almost missed it, blind me !

Succes with the wall decorations, I'll come here and check regularly, so battle on please ! Greetz G.

Shay - I did see that feature on EDiroama - I'll be using it too.
I tried testing water colors to get the washed out look but wasn't satisfied with the amount of extra work to seal each color. So I will be using that

Thanks Guy - stay tuned for some more....

I was sick yesterday - too sick to work, not sick enough to stay away from the bench.
Here are the results




I painted the poster/ad. Still needs weathering.
I worked on the seated figure too, got the legs done and worked on the arms and hands.

I haven't seen/heard anyone talking about reworking hans of stock figures. So, here are some refreshers on how to enhance those blundt over molded poor detail sleeves. Yuo can do this with or without replacing the hands with AM hands. Use the stock hands.
Just cut off the hand, hollow out the shirt sleeve. Then use wire to reattach the hand. Use a touch of putty to fill in the wrist. You dont' want to insert the hand way up in the sleeve. The guy will come out with a short stubby arm.

Hey Scott. Great job on the wall slogan. The end result is excellent ... you make it look easy. I also like the pose you created with the seated soldier. Coming along nicely!!

That sign looks fantastic.

Thanks guys coming from you two that means a lot.

Got the hands glued into the seated guy - pictures to come. Now time to paint him to catch up. Then comes the ground work.

Yo Scott,

Nice work on the painting on the wall...this give some extra to the scene. Now the right weathering on it and its just like the real thing!

greetz Nico

For our American, and Brits, cousins, the practise of painted advertising on the side of buildings may not be as familiar as it is to our European friends.. But let me assure you, that that advertisement looks superb.

Actually in my home town of Winnipeg, many old buildings downtown have a lot of original painted signs still. Most are almost 100 years old. They always get my attention. I guess they still work even after all these years. I'm impressed with the work you have put into the sitting figure. I've tried similar figure modifications and it ain't easy to get 'em looking right. Yours is quite nice. I love seeing all the bright colours too. A nice change from most dioramas that are out there. Makes me want to try and incorporate more colour into my next dio. Looking forward to seeing more.

-Matt

very nice building advert Scott, it certainly adds a lot of colour to the side and is looking quite good ideed.
i certainly confirm what Henk and others said -a very common practise around here. You don't have to go really far in the countryside here to still find some of those really old paintings (often for alcohols though it's prohibited by law since a couple of years down there now ), their colours fade away but they still have that feeling of past popular grandeur!

Thanks guys - I must say, I am very pleased with how it turned out. Thanks for the push, it was you guys who wanted me to do it.
My next update - hopefully this weekend will show a CD 'wall painting' compared to this one, quite a difference. Figures, gutters, gear photos to come.

Its looking good scott, I carn't wait to see it completed. The wall painting does look so convincing

cheers

keith

Here's the update The figures have gotten flesh tones, pin washes, basic painting done, some second layer detailing, more details to be picked out, more gear to add for some. I need to make the cigarette bigger in the seated guys hand.
The stowage is just loose fitted. More will come and I am probably going to hide most of it with a tarp.
The building got a lot of attention, some CD touches in the building number and the cafe sign. The movie poster is from MiniArt. The gutters are a mix of CD plumbing fixtures and tube styrene with foil attachment points. Paint was Tamiya aluminum, then tamiya gun metal, then more aluminum, a wash of black oil, then an over coat of muddy red oil.






For my base I first started with a custom "D" shaped piece of MDF, but I was really dissapointed. I have to go hard wood to get a worthy 'good' base. Thats the biggest hold up right now.

Here is one quick photo for comparison purposes. The image on the right is a CD poster set image. The left side is my scratch painted version.
Use your imagination and think how 'thick' the paper would look. The extra work of painting a scratch version really paid off, you get the texture coming through and the weathering is really cohesive and natural.
Not that the CD poster is bad, it's just that it's more of a 'sign' vs a painting/painted ad.