Few scenes for big Rats' diorama

Hi Nick

Nice work so far, the base looks really good and you have a good amount of activity on and around the tank.

Excellent, look forward to seeing this one finished. Both the vehicles are looking grand and you have lots of onteresting detail to catch the eye.

Cheers

al

Your painting really caught my eye. The tank is great but the camo on the figures is truly impressive. The flags are a nice touch too.

as Matt said, 'truly impressive'. The whole scene looks very realistic.

Nick, nicely done !!!
I really like the ground work with the tire and tread marks.
The vehicle builds are also a great work.
The only thing that caught my eye was the absense of dust on the vehicles - too clean.
Cheyenne

I echo the complements of everyone above.
I also have to agree with Cheyenne, not quite enough dusting. Not a big deal because it can be added (if you want).

The composition is great, the subject is even better - not much modern British building being shown off.

truly very impressive,wish i was half as good as you,could i ask if the bedford is a kit and if it is who makes it

Hi Nick
Cool looking dio, can I echo panther1121's quesion about the Bedford. Also where did you get the figures from, they look pretty nice, cant wait to see more
Cheers, Nick

Nick -

Nice job, looks great. Uniforms of the figures came out wondeful, as did the rest of the scene.

Looking forward to the progress.


Cheers!

Tim

Very nice! I would agree that perhaps a little more dust on the vehicles.

Looks really good so far!
Cheers,
-Mike

Looks great. Where did you find all the Brit troopers and the Foden (?) truck?

Well Nick
this is truly outstanding dio, but can you give us more details on the vehicle the figurines and the lovely motorbike ?
The sand is one of the best sand, I ever seen for a while.

Hope to see your details
seb

It looks very good, well thought out. Some more information would be very appreciated.

I like it very much.
Great Subject.
The second I saw it i knew the story.
I love the truck!

L.O.L., ok Nick we're waiting, I just worked 12 hrs. today and I figured we would get some answers by now ?
Just kidding, please give me a run down on your technique [ [ sp ? ] for your wonderful ground cover with all the vehicle tracks, looks awsome and it can be used in all eras of desert warfare.
Cheyenne

That is really superb Nick!!!

AA 4 tonnie? The detail is excellent.

Too clean though.

Great looking dio and an interesting lay out. I like it a lot.

Erik

Gents,

Thanks a lot for your feedback. I extremely appreciate this, I did not expect to find such warm responses, really.

It’s around 11 p.m. here and I’m just back home from 80 miles journey to my parents’ and I feel that I need to recharge my batteries a bit because tomorrow morning I need to wake up early to guide an excursion of schoolboys to Kubinka Base Armor Museum near Moscow. Tomorrow is official Russian’s Armored Forces Day in Russia.

So, I’ll come back to you on Monday with answers and more details.

Thanks a lot again,

Nick

Wholeheartedly agree, Seb. And as Glenn says it can be used in any desert warfare era
Funny how I was drawn to the base as opposed to the vehicles, etc. I guess my interest lay in dioramas and WWII...
Brad

Wow, great all around dio... though i second the dusting comments.

The camo nets on the chally are the greatest i've ever seen, you must spill the beans and tells us how to make them.

Thanks, MiKe

Hi everyone!

Start from diorama base.

Technique to produce this sand base is quite simple, but need some practice

I must say first, that base which is pictured on photos isn’t real diorama base, but A3 size temporary base for working on scenes composition. Real base is around 0.90 x 0.75 m and will be finished on last stages of work.

Take foam plastic mat (we use 50 mm thick) and make necessary terrain shape using knife. Then apply thin layer of paper on surface of the mat using white glue ( we use copies of receipts from supermarket cash-register, because they have equal size and appropriate thickness).
This procedure reinforces base and help to minimize amount of glue and sand which is needed on later stages. See how base look after this procedure:



Let the’s base dry out at least 24 hours. Then apply next layer of white glue on paper using brush and start applying sand using fine mesh sieve with flat bottom. Thickness of sand layer must be around 3-4 mm. Due to contact with glue sand will change its color to darker one. In approximately 30 munites ( depends on room temperature, glue, etc.) sand will start drying out and changing color to natural.
At this moment top layers of sand is pretty dry, but bottom layers – still wet. It’s time to start applying the tire and tread marks on sand. You have around 30-35 minutes for this process ( again depend from some factors), after which the sand will become hard. We use just appropriate size toy cars to imitate tyre marks.

Let the base get dry another 24 hours, and that’s it. You have a base.

If you need some correction on completed base, you may apply some amount of white glue ( mixed with water) on problem areas by using hand sprayer and adding sand through sieve.

We prefer not to paint sand at all, instead of this - try to find sand of appropriate color to keep good visual imagination from mix colors of sand, vehicles and figures. That’s why, for this diorama we use pure XF-59 color for vehicles, although real formula for Operation Granby vehicles is XF59 x 4 + XF57 x 1 + XF19 х 1

As for desert plants we use corn female flowers aka corn silk:



Thanks,
Nick

Technique to produce camo nets also isn’t too complicated.

Base material – medical gauze. Just cut necessary size of material , soak in white glue, form a shape, put on vehicle ( before applying a primer or paint on model) and let the gauze dry a bit. Then add small amount of white glue on net and apply small pieces of dry moss. When the glue completely dries it will provide enough level of adhesion to keep net on place. Do not remove net from model! Airbrush primer or paint on model in usual way. Layers of paint reinforce net structure and protect moss from future contact with air. Paint the net on final stages of work on model to appropriate color.

About dust. We don’t apply dust on vehicles yet, we’ll do it on final stages for all vehicles Totally 9 vehicles and around 65 figures will be presented on сompleted diorama:

1. Challenger 1 mk.3
2. Challenger 1 mk.3
3. FV511 Warrior Infantry Command Vehicle
4. Ferret Mk-1/2 Scout Car
5. Land Rover XD TUM WMIK ( temporary, will be replaced on Scud Hunter version)
6. FV104 CVR(T) SAMARITAN MEDEVAC
7. Bedford MK 4 Tonne GS Lorry
8. Land Rover 1 Tonne General Service
9. Commercial Motorbyke

Thanks,
Nick

Hi Nick
thanks for that info, however you didnt mention where you got that lovely bedford truck from . Cheers Nick

WOW! Sorry Nick T.
This was so good I thought it was finished!