Got another Dio going, this is taking place somewhere in France late autum 1944 and includes AFVs M18 Hellcat, scratchbuild french garage, bunch of POWs, crew for the tank destoyer and some GI´s.

Progress so far on the garage:



Very inspired from Carlos Cork technique



The TD - preshaded, OD and some lighter highlights so far:









And the POW´s - 2 boxes of Master Box´s splendid offering and some rebuild:





All input is welcome - cheers

Cool! Great work so far on your building, nicely done! Like your line of POWs as well, very neat idea. Looking forward to watching your progress, thanks for sharing!

Cheers -

Tim

Great idea for a diorama Jan!
Very convincing POW's.
I keep watching this one!!!!

Paul

What brand of tank is that?

Looking forward to this one. Very nice use of spackle over cork.
This has feature written all over it.

Cool Idea... Nice work so far, cant wait to see the finished Dio. Do you have a reference for that Carlos Cork building technique? I'd like to try it. Thanks & Keep On Modeling !

Goodmorning Gents, and thanks for the replys.

The M18 is AFV Clubs offering, Acadamy does one too, they are both less than perfect, but in different ways - I got a good deal on the AFV so thats it....

The "Carlos technique" - do a search on our member "Blockhaus" and check out his posts, he is the man when it comes to scratchbuild houses etc.

Scott, you might be right - if I remember to take enough in-progress shots.

Det ser godt ud!

It looks really good - I like the building and that'll come out nicely no doubt. Also the line of POW. Keep us updated.

Simon

No update - just a quick question to anybody who knows french - if the building is going to be a blacksmith, would it say "forgerie" or "forge" on the facade ?

Forge as far as I know.

Great start! I look forward to seeing this project unfold. Thanks for sharing your work. Dave

Great original work there dude. I am looking forward to seeing how this one pans out.

Stuart

Very good job so far,keep sending

A bit of woodworking, roofconstruction in balsawood. I´m going to keep the rear of the building open, so it calls for a little more detailwork.

A little progress, going slow due to the fact that spring and warmth finally has come to Denmark, so the garden takes first priority

The tools of a blacksmith the anvil still needs some tiedown to secure it to the wooden stub:



And its place in the shop, have given the house a basic paintjob.

Very nice work.

The detail work on the building is fantastic. Very structurally sound.

I see a feature here.

Very nice Jan. Keep up the good work

You see features everywhere Scott, have you talked with your doctor about it ?

Anyway, have begun work on the base, this is going to be a true mixedmediamixtogether ..

The base is a 12 mm MDF board, I like MDF for its density and that it dont warp even when you apply waterbased glue, plaster or paint - no need to seal it before use.

First step is the road - its a piece of drywall, plaster encapsulated in carboard.



I have removed the paper/carboard on the topside, and sanded/filed it down to shape the contours of the road, I am going to scribe cobblestones into the plaster. Here you can see the contour of the road compared with a strait piece of wood. You can fill any airbubbles - but newer seal the plaster before scribing it, as the paint will make it flake in big pieces.




Heres the general layout with some of the figures and the hellcat.

To build or drink beer in the garden ... thats the question...

Well, small progress, did the paving on the road, scribed in the stones and laid the stones in the backyard of the shop.



Its done with dried beans - newer had any trouble with them sprouting - just coat them well.



Gave it all a coat of black - ordinary waterbased wall paint - no need to use the expencive stuff for this - just thin it a bit so it doesnt spoil the details.

Keeping the building off for later - much easier to detail seperate.





Now - of to the garden ...

Jan -

Great progress! Looking spectacular. Thanks for the updated pics. Enjoy your beer...garden! Cheers!

Tim

Thanks Tim, beer was cold and tasty

Anyway - painted the grund and road over the day - brownish oversprays for the ground to give a good base for the grass and gray and brown tones for the stones. Handpainted individual stones in different colours and then a quick brown wash to even it out a bit:





Glued on the Heki grass using ordinary white glue - great product that grass - heres checking the layout - does it fit ?

Wow! Really nice work. Great road, the building, etc.

The only thing is that I believe the muzzle break would have been a bit of a rarity in Normandy. Most pics I've seen of M18s don't have them fitted until very late in the war. It's not incorrect, just doesn't show in many photos of the period. Personally, I think it looks a lot better with it fitted, so I think it looks fine.

Looking forward to seeing it complete. I'm trying to improve my work on structures, and I think your building looks great so far.

Rob

Jan:

Very nice dio. I really like the road. Could you please tell me what color browns and grays you used to paint? I have a town square resin kit that I bought at a model show and your colors was what I was imagining when I bought it.

Thank you for your indulgance andI look forward to your response.

Thanx,
Carl

Thanks!

Robert - the barrel is one of the weak points of the kit, in hinsight i should have gotten a replacement barrel - but i still have to ad stovage for the TD, so some netting on the barrel might help.

Carl - its a bit hard to describe, but as you can see it was black from the beginning - then i airbrushed some Vallejo Barley gray and Us navy gray on randomly - take care not to cover the black entirely. Then it got some light brown - with focus on the sides and hights on the road to create the impression of deposited dirt and dust and areas that is "cleaned" by traffic.

After that it got a coat with future before I painted some of the stones individually - you can se my palette on the pics - its where the house stands - I mixed som humbrol dark gray, light gray and sand/brown randomly and painted about 1 out of 10 stones in variating colours.

After that and before the humbrol dried completely it got a light brown wash - carefull not to smear out the paint - now it can dry up good for a day or 2 before progressing with pigments.

Hope it helps you, otherwise fell free to ask!

Cheers/Jan