Haven't posted any progress of this in a while because of exams etc. Here is the base for my Diorama set during winter of 1944 during the ardennes offensive. This is being built for the Borders of the fatherland campaign. so here goes:













The Base is a corner shelf from an old cupboard, upon which i built the house using foamboard, balsa and polystyrene. the cobblestones are cork, which didn't turn out as well as i hoped but seem OK for now. The interior of the house is a little sparse but everything is scratchbuilt from balsa and plastic sheet. also excuse the picture quality, i'm still learning how to use this camera.

thanks for looking and any feedback is appreciated

Hi Anirudh,

Great progress so far - some nice scracth-building (I especially like the railings of the house balcony) and the shape of the base makes a very nice chage from the usual square / rectangular shape.

I'm by no means an expert photographer myself, but I have found that taking pics indoors with the flash tends to make darker washes look too dark etc. and generally doesn't do your work justice.

So as a basic tip for starters: Use natural light as much as you can. Try setting up a small table outdoors. Cover it with a blue cloth, place your subject on it and have the sun behind you when you take your photos.

Search around the site - there are some useful tips on photography from guys who really know what they're talking about.

What vehicle are you going to add, and are you going to "winterize" the scene by adding frost / snow?

Keep us posted!

- Steve

Thanks for the reply Steve. I'll check out the photo Features for tips, but for the last week we haven't had any natural light, just natural rain.
I'm going to add the tamiya king tiger (henschel turret, ardennes front). this was a kit i built about 4 years ago, then i reallised it was rubbish, so i stripped it and re built it. the new version has, fruil tracks, tools from a dragon tiger I, copper tow cable and a crew made from dragon, italeri, tamiya and some scratch. Here are some pictures of the tank taken before i did some more work on it and the base.









thanks for looking

Very nice job on the house and tank.
My only but,is the flesh tone of the figures,could be of the pics, but they look in a green sick tone,lol .
Where is the weel and the fuel drum?, they look good in the dio.
Pedro

Hi,

First of all i am welcoming your effort do scratchbuild a house on your own. The uprise of the Miniart buildings is probably disastrous for the hobby because the majority of the modelers will take the easy way and simply buy a house instead of scratchbuilding one.

That said a have a few recommandations and critics always considering that you are a beginner.
I simply start with the first picture.
As the house is set in the Ardennes i suppose that the roof is a slate shingle roof.
You should paint it a bit more gray instead of a near black. After the gray, you can take the wash you used for the front and wash all the roof and take it away with a rag. You can still do that, it will be worth it.
The tiles should be in one straight line. You can take one out, loose one or the other, but they stay in line because they are hold normaly with a nail. (that's for the next dio)
The stains under the windows arent good, sorry. Your wash was to thick. You must build that up with a few thinner washes until satisfied or alternatively apply a thick wash but immediately start to blot it away again until satisfied.
IMO, and always considdering it as a training for the next dio, repaint your whole front and redo the wheatering. If you have some dark pigments , those work also very good under the windows but also on the roof.
On the second photo, there is a bit to much moss on the cobble, a bit near the house would be enough if the street is well used.
Uhhh, the third picture!

My honnest advice here would be to salvage your furniture and destroy the house and restart. You don't want to :-)
What you can immediately do is take away those braces, (the two logs going up) and support with them the two rafters, so at least those are somewhat correct.
The rest of the roofwork is abit wron g to , but that would lead to far for now , but we can expand that later. For example, your planks are in the same direction as the support plank under it. You also don't have any support joists for your floors, the hang in the air.
You choose a very difficult first one with a lot of potential traps. Do you have access to your own attic at home. Go up and take a look at your roof..
Here are two pictures you can study.
The first is out of the book ModelBuilding Masterclass and describes the roof. The other is my own roof of the castle i made.



Do is see a support log in the bottom floor in the middle of the room? Take that away, it doesn't belong there.

Hope this helps. If you have more questions, please ask them.

Cheers
Claude

Wow, Claude thanks for the great advice.
The roof isn,t actually black and is a grey colour similar to photos of Belgian buildings, its just the picture and camera that spoils the colour.
Also, I've removed the majority of the moss on the floor, toned down the wash on the house and added darker pigments under the sills and window ledges.
I will redo the the supports and attic when i can get all the wood needed. this weekend. Thank you for the advice and time, and I'll post pictures of the improved version for your scrutiny.

Claude-- thanks for the constructive comments you posted. They are among the finest I have read on the site.
Well done
DJ

great diorama good job and good luck with it