You dont need to pull out the resin stuff again

it looks right ! and rather good, I have some resin wate i am going to experiment with soon but I have enought to do at the moment

puh-leeze dude, no need to sell yourself short, you are a natural if there ever was one.

Hi Chas,
This is really well done. I like your water work. You forgot to mention that you probably have muscular aches in the arm after holding it up for a few hours to ripple the water.

I'm looking forward to the scratched vehicle
Cheers
Claude

James... phew. Keep me updated on your water experiment.

Chris... thanks mate.

Thanks Claude... yes the muscles were aching. Creating the ripples was like dipping carrot into cement 3000 times, mmm... carrot.

I wish I had more progress to show, but school doesn't allow me time to model during the week.

Chas

Hi Chas
This is coming along very nicely. Looking great.

Grrr.... what have I done!!! Too many waves haven't I Jean-Bernard Andre?

I will take most of these waves off and maybe replace with small gloss coat ripples.

Here is some junk to scatter around the place. A portrait of Raffles and some newspapers (dated Sunday 15th February, the day Singapore fell and incidental, tomorrow's date).

It's time I move away from the water and start working on the Wolseley.

Chas

Hi Chas,
why to much waves???

I like ti this way. If you curl up the newspaper and make it being picked up by the wind?
This way you include some more movement (wind) into your dio!!

Chas,

The waves are realistic......it's a sea out there !

PS: I like the pic of Raffles...looking forward to seeing how it'll all come together.

Chazman, the water is just fine!!! Remember, it's a dockside, so the water would be more active (usually). I want to see the car dude!!!!

Chas,

dockside water is always moving around, especially near the boundaries of a concrete wall. any kind of current would be a huge catalyst for the bouncing kind of waves you have.

Obviously you are going to do whatever you feel is the right thing and I would too if I didn't like how it looks, but if you're taking the waves down for the sole reason that it looks "unrealistic", well, you could save yourself alot of extra work.

To me, trying to "replicate" things in dioramas is less important than having a cohesive, homogeneous scene. In terms of telling a story, your waves now create a sense of tension or anticipation of what's happening or about to happen. They echo the sentiment of the people's sense of impending danger of being uprooted and having to ditch some of their prized possessions.

That may not be what you are going for, though, so if you are compelled to do alot of sanding, I totally support you.

Hi Chas. I grew up on Eastern Long Island New York with the Atlantic on one side and the Long Island Sound on the other. There was a canal, large bays, and about every conceivable body of water in the area. I spent a lot of time in Sag Harbor which was once a whaling port many years ago and is still a place where where many large yachts and ships dock. Same for Hampton Bays and Montauk at the very eastern end. Lots of docks and piers, vessels of all sizes all over the area. Believe me, your water looks fine!

The junk looks fine Chas and personally i think you havnt done to many washes

Hi chas
The waves look great. Like the tire floating in the water as well.
Your doing a great job.

I'm feeling so indecisive right now. I'm sure I need to to go back and take off some of that foam.

Ron, yes I will be doing creative things to the newspapers and picture, they are not in their final places yet.

Chris, yes that is the effect I am going for, I'm glad you were able to pick that up. I'm not going to sand the waves off though, just get rid of some of the white foam! Sorry, I didn't make that clear in my post.

Thanks Nick, Ed, Jim, James and Shaun, your comments are appreciated! It's good to have feedback in this time of crisis...

The Wolseley
It's time to start on the big Series II Super Six 25hp. I spent about an hour yesterday studying the kit and noting the adjustments I need to make. Although the basic hull (oops I mean body!) shape is close to that of the Wolseley, there are some differences as the kit actually represents Airfix's 1:32 Humber Snipe Open Tourer.

It’s almost a shame to be constructing this kit, as it’s quite old, made in England and smells really nice (like an old book!).

I need to scratch build a step here and one on the opposite side.

The wheel arches need a steeper curve to them.

And the back boot section and wheel arches need to finish off flat. The whole back of the car need to lose that Kubelvagen/Shvimvagen look to it. Yea I know I probably spelt that wrong. My knowledge of German vehicles: ... ... ...

Car modellers and scratchbuilders, I need your help! I've never done any major conversions to a vehicle or armour kit in my years of modelling. Pointers, tips please?

Thanks for following,
Chas

Well Chas,
it looks as if you got yourself a pretty conversionjob!!!

I think you tackled the first and most important part of scratching allready; planning!!
What I usually do, as with my 250/6, I prefabricate the parts in cardboard, less expensive and more easily available then sheet plastic, and keep adjusting that untill it fits. Then I use it as a template for the plastic version.
How to do the fender, I'm not quite sure, as I have never done a shape like that. Maybe build it up from laminated pieces of card and finishing it off with putty???

Chas good luck with the car, its going to look stunning good luck mate ,

Have you posted it on Auto modeler? for help? Im sure someone can help you out?

Thanks Ron. Yes I will be using lots of putty on plastic/laminated card frames. The prefabricated cardboard idea is good. I might try that.

I am trying to get hold of some plans for the Wolseley but no luck as yet. I could print the plans to match 1:32 scale and compare with the model.

James, thanks mate. Yes, I will be jumping over to AutoModeller to get some expert advice.

Do you guys have any suggestions for the type of putty I should be using. I have Tamiya, Milliput and Magic Sculp (which is precious and reserved for figures ).

Chas

Chas your going to need "filler" not putty i know a few companies do it like Humbrol

Hi there Chas

It is hard to think about some of the areas you need without pics of the real parts of the car, but one way you might want to think about is to form/shape the parts like fenders or mud guards in Famo (the type of plasticine that goes hard) and then use tin foil to press the shapes and literally panel beat your own shapes out of the foil.

Ian Sadler another modeller uses the plastic kit parts of other vehicles to form common shapes and componants by embossing the tin foil gradually over the kit part then removingit. If the tin foil needs to be thin the embossed shape can be reinforced by filling the hidden reverse side with superglue to preserve the shape.

Not only can you make duplicate parts but the tin foil can be distorted to make dents and damage or left with a very true to scale thickness.

Maybe Ian Sadler can advise you and show how he embosses the detail. I have tried it on thin items and it does work. Ian manages to produce very detailed and deep detailed parts.

Nige

Well, the pic is rather small and I would rather have seen a close up, but nothing really shocked me here as being wrong. Maybe like your grass tufts in some other diorama of yours, those are maybe too evenly placed (I'm sure you're good at maths;))
Good luck with your car!
JB

Bright Idea

Chas: Hey, lets scratchbuild a lamp post!
Conscience: You're getting over-confident.
Chas: But it will look awesome, especially if it's battery powered!
Conscience: But you know bugger all about circuitry.
Chas: I'll learn how do do it, I'll re-read my year 10 science books.
Conscience: But you failed year 10 science... and you binned all your books.
Chas: ... ... ... there's always the internet.
Conscience: Fine, don't tell me I didn't warn you. Perhaps a bit of failure will help return your over-inflated head to normal size.

So, here is how a couple of hours work turned out:


The lamp is created from ball point pens and a small torch globe. It is working so far except I need to built a switch so I can turn it off and on. I also need to add a decorative 'top' to the post. The hard part is going to be installing the lamp on the diorama (making a cavity for the battery).

The technique was adapted from Ian Sadler (thanks to Nige for pointing out this modeller, I have found his techniques very helpful for creating parts with foil).

JBA,

Thanks for your thoughts. I am yet to remove waves cos I don't have any gloss coat left (no time to pop down to the LHS on school days). I can see that the waves are too evenly placed but I won't put it down to being good at maths!

Chas

I'm insane I'm insane, I'm insane I'm insane. Electricity and glue is no good for the brain...

You know they used to say it's fine to talk to yourself, you just have to worry if you start answering.
Sorry Chas couldn't help myself.
Great idea on the lamp post
Bob

Good, with this you'll go far

this is getting better everytime i look at it the water is very realisitic, makes me want to jump in it