One of the good things about doing dioramas is, that it covers a number of different approces to modelling. And should you grow tired of groundwork, you can allwaýs shift to vehicles or figures for a bit of change.

Besides that, its a good idea not to finish single components in a diorama before you are ready to tie it together with your wheathering - meaning that the dirt and dust and grime you ad to your groundwork should allso be present on your figues, vehicles and structures - grunts gets dirty on there knees, elbows and stomachs - REMFs get dirty on there a**

I am going to leave my groundwork for a bit, it still needs alot, but I felt for a change so lets go to the M 18 Hellcat - it needs some stovage to look lived in. Theres a lot of upgrade kits out there that includes stovage, but I like the cheep approach - and I am going to use stuff from the sparesbox, tissue paper, whiteglue and some of my wifes stockings to give the TD a bit of carracter.



Soldiers are good at "organizing" - stealing from REMFs and others who are not smart enough to look after there stuff or "liberating" - stealing form the enemy .... so you will find all sorts of stuff on a tank, not only military issue.



Bedrools, tauplins and camoflage netting, drikables, eatables, shootables, digables and other stuff



To help shaping and position the rolls I glue in a piece of solderwire, it makes it easyer to give it a permanet shape, while adding diluted whiteglue. - this one goes on the rear of the TD.









So far the stuffs only basepainted with diluted paint to help it soak in on the gauze and tissuepaper - effects are comming.

Feel free to comment or ask away

Jan:

Thank you so much. That is a big help. I went back and saw your palette. I never thought of doing it that way. Another thing I learned.

Thanx,
Carl

Jan,

good job so far on everything

I just fell over the post where you asked for the french word for a "blacksmith"

Both yours, and Pat's choice of tranlation for the shop are not really good.

You are both a bit on the right path regarding the terms forge and forgerie, but the word forge designates the work on the metal and the word forgerie would designated a bigger , nearly industrial complex.
To better give me a chance to find a word for your shop, you shoud give me the main business (speciality) of the blacksmith.
It can be called "metallurgie" "Ferronnerie" "Atelier de construction" , you have a lot of choices.
You also can have a "Maréchal-ferrant" who's speciality is the iron work for horses, horseshoes etc.

Which way do you want to go considering your relatively little shop

Cheers
Claude

Thanks Carl and Claude.

Claude, I´m going for the village blacksmith, you know metalwork on gates, horseshoes etc. , but with the twist that he is slowly switcing over to being a "garage" repairing autos and farm-quipment - I have a college comming from Rwanda saying that it should be "Forgerie et Garage" to denote something small and not industrial, but then again - I feel relatively safe in english and german ... but french, man, its ages ago i had it in school

I have set the TD aside to dry up properbly before adding the final wheatering, and have turned my attention on the blacksmith and the roof. Decided to give it a corrugated roof, so had to take out the secret tools:



Its made from heawy alufoil, the kind of stuff you store and transport food in. Its cleaned to rinse of any grease and the sanded and primed with automotive spray can.

I then cut it up in strips 2 cm wide and apply the ""corrugatedtinfoilgizmothingie" and then cut it up in lengths.

Glued on to the wooden framework with superglue - did a sloppy job on purpose, want to get a "messy" feel.



I am in doubt weather to paint it some more or seal it as it is and then apply wheatering.

Thats awesome! Where'd you get that tool?

Jan, in this case i would (considering your limited size) call it

" Atelier XXX "

You can put all those job descriptions in the word "Atelier" and it's a small word.

The X's are placeholders for a name

"Atelier Georges" Atelier Dupont" etc

Have a nice weekend
Claude

Jordan: Its called a "Coltopress" made by Coltene Inc. located in S´witzerland - its for squizing out toothpaste, oilpaint etc. from tubes - I bought it here: www.manufactum.de - it pops in and out of the sortment - right now it dont seem to be in-stock.

Claude: Thanks mate, right now I´m browsing the net to find samples on the net - font, size, colour etc. - Nice weekend to you too.

Cheers

Could I please ask, how do you scribed in blocks in the road? I understand it's dry-wall material, do you use a template to keep all blocks the same size?

Thank you,

Michael, I just use a ruler, the mark 1 eyeball and something pointy - if you look close the stones aint the exact same size, but that really doesn´t matter if you keep the difference small enough.

Small progress, fiddly stuff takes time, heres a - as yet unpainted - door:



And a fence - painted dark gray with some greenish taint on the lower part:



And the cat - getting close, Does it need more stovage ?

lookin good

I want also congratulate you for your excellent work, your use of cork and spackle are very good. but not only the house the cobblestone, corrugated steel, and vehicle, all are a excellent work
cheers
Carlos

Hi Jan. Great work on the base so far. The little forge is looking great. Can only get better as you add the details. Nice one.

The door appears to be moveable care to share the hinge secret?

I like your gadget for corrogated roofing.

I see it's a 4422 Coltene and around 42Euros

Thanks for the feedback - appriciate it alot!

Gary - the door is indeed moveble - the hinges is made from thin brass strips bendt around a piece of wire and glued on the door with CA-glue, the wire is drilled into the wall.

Alan, you are right - its rather expencive for just making roofs, but fortunately it has other uses - the only challange is not using corrugated roof on every diorama you do

Some update Please
Thanks
Seb

No updates - sorry, it has been collecting dust in this stage for some month. Suddenly I got fed up with 1:35 and armor, and have been working on 1:72 subs since.

I will propably pick it up when I get some time and interest in 1:35 subjects.

Thanks for asking anyway.

Cheers/Jan

great diorama! i get that i get bored and move onto something else!

Jan-- great work! The idea and the components are fantastic. I especially liked your ground work and the painting of the cobblestones...very realistic.
Continue to do well.
DJ

Wow!

Very cool, just getting back into model building, and really want to give 1:35 scale dioramas a go. The last one I did (1:72 scale) came third in a local competition when I was 13!!

Hmm, might even have some embarrassing photos of it somewhere!

This is looking really good!!! The road is very realistic and the scratch built building is awsome. Good Job and Keep us posted.

thxs,
John

This is one impressive seen it looks spectacular. Nice job Jan. Very nice job.

Its all very kind of you, but it was way back in may that I last worked on it - its on hold, dont know how long, but at least untill next year.

Cheers/Jan