Inspired mainly by FBMinis I decided to try something in teeny scale

I am going to build a Vignette of a German mortar team using the old Tamiya 35th scale mortar team for my inspiration but building it all in 72nd scale.

My Inspiration ....




Trying to fully grab the spirit of a budget build I will try and build the whole thing for as near to one UK pound as I can - yes £1.00 !!!!

I will be using some figures from the Valiant Miniatures set - you get 68 figures for an RRP of £9.99 - so my initial budget for the 4 figures is 59 pence - I think I have a suitable base here ( about 10 pence) and the rest will come from the garden or scrap sprue.

Wish me luck

Box lid ....



And what's inside ...

OK - looks like I am ready to get started

I have a peanut butter jar lid (yum) some granite chips from the road and a dried weed root from the garden for my 'vertical element'

Looks like I am all ready to get started for a total budget of 56p pence.

Well working in this scale is nice and fast. I got up nice and early this morning and took my breakfast cup of tea to the workbench.

The sprues come with some spare arms and heads as well as various weapons and that made getting a few of these poses a lot easier ...

I think this is near enough to my original vision so here they are ...



I know these are not the most true to scale figures but I had them laying around so ...

this looks great
where are the figures from ive never seen this make =/

the root from your back garden for the tree wont this rot after a while??

ill be following this build

keep it up

tony

if treated with glycerine or sealed i think iit will be fine
looks great
the detail on those = great

Here is Valiant ...

http://www.valiantminiatures.com/

I bought this for wargaming but never used them. I have heard people say they are a little too large but I don't have anything else to compare them to.

I did paint one of the British infantry figures a while back and it was fun to paint.

The root has dried in the sun for a long while and is now just like wood - I hope it will be ok

Hi Rob. Its a "valiant" effort
Actually, the details are sharper on those little valinat guys, than they are on the older 1/35 Tamiya figures.
Good start with the project ... it goes to show that modelling doesn´t have to be expensive either.

Hi Frank

I am still a bit new to all this and especially to this kind of thing. I started on a 35th scale dio (still working on that) as that seems to be the most widely supported but some of the kits are very expensive even of they are fantastic.

I bought some of the superb Hornet heads for my other dio and they are as nice as I hoped they would be but just one head cost me about twice what this whole 72nd scale dio will cost me - I find that an interesting thought.

It seems hard to get really nice 72nd scale figures and I wonder if 48th scale could be a good compromise even though there is not too much support for it right now.

Hi again Rob. I guess it all comes down to preference and what your own goals are. If its pure economics ... I totally understand trying to get the best for the buck, but personally, I want to have something to see on the shelf when Im finished, so prefer the bigger scales.
The facial details on older kits such as the tamiya figures shown, are non existent ... which means having to buy hornet heads to have something to paint. This makes a cheap kit expensive. But more modern figure sets from Tristar and Miniart have excellent facial features and there is no real need to swap out the heads. So for £7 or £8 ... maybe less if you keep your eyes open ... you should look into these figure sets.
Quality figures cost a bit more ... but they also have sharp and better details ... which also makes painting easier. Painting those old tamiya figures is hard to get them looking good IMO.

I drilled a little hole in the base and the 'tree' and fixed it with some CA and a tiny screw. The 'rocks' I just glued on with some CA.

Then I bunged on some quick dry wall filler stuff and stuck it outside where it's a little too warm and it cracked a little - I am pretty sure that won't be a problem.



Then I painted the filler with chocolate milkshake - ok, that's not true - I painted it with thinned PVA glue with a little brown acrylic paint mixed in so I could see where I had been.



Then I sprinkled on some sand that I sieved with a tea strainer ( sorry dear)



Then I bunged my little men on and gave them a little squidge down in the gunge.

I guess I should add this photo to give you some idea of scale ...

this is really looking great!!
you said you soaked the branch in glisrene?? was it or ink ??
can you explain how you did this please.. am sure if it works then many of us modellers can benefit from it.. the size comparison is a wow ive some of revells britische infanterie moderne which are great lots of figs nice detail. but none have bergens just daysacks ( not all them just some ) and the lsw gunner running is holding the weapon totally wrong by the rear pistol grip which is only held when firing the weapon. i never ran with the weapon when i was the lsw gunner in the army cadet force..

best 35th scale figures are dragon. tamiyas have slightly fat legs on some and skinny legs on others. have alook on here plenty of people have used dragon figures.
im following this and awaiting the paint.

tony

Teeny eh - this is my tanks I get - just kidding, the scale is 1-350 quite a bit smaller then my favourite 1-72, most of that mortar team is what I built in my first 1-35 dio, and at the time I also asked the question about resin Vs plastic figures, again, I believe if you get a good kit such as your one, you can't go far wrong, plus you're saving a few quid as well, can't be all bad.

Didn't get time to do much today ...

rob, that is amazing, how long have you been modeling? ive been ,modeling for 2 years and my ground work is trash partly because of what goes in it . great work its really good, put this page in my favorites

Very nice Rob - very inventive use of what you had on hand.

This totally made my day!

I can't believe I missed this. I haven't been around much, I wish I had seen it sooner..

Keep up the good work, can't wait to see more progress

I've also been building another funny one:

http://fbminisworkbench.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20skinny-dipping%20seven%20%28now%20in%2072nd%29

Francisco

Thanks for the encouragement and THANKS again Francisco

OK - the base is more or less done I think.

I used 2 shades of static grass - one very dry looking and one quite green. I didn't put much grass and left it very patchy around the rocks and tree trunk and used the pale dry looking grass - then I mixed both types and used that coming away from the rocks and tree and finally the green stuff going thicker and thicker as I moved away from the rocks.

I am really pleased with how the tree came out but not so sure I got the lichen on the rocks right. I put the lichen on just one side of all the rock faces just like it would be in real life and a teeny tiny amount amount the trunk on the same side.

I will dust it all when the figures are on but I think that's good enough for me.

OK - here is my first of 4 of the little men for the dio - maybe the hardest part was getting the insignia on the collar and shoulders.







Here he is next to a 35th scale head so you can see just how teeny it is ....

Those figures looks really good, they're really going to stand out against that grass-green

I use titanium white for the collar insignia, it's helpful because you can clean it off with a bit of thinner if you mess up and it's easy to paint using a 10/0 brush with a dot of white on the tip!

Looks great, I like the style and character of these figures.





That's a matter of opinion- mine is that Tristar and the newer releases from Miniart and Masterbox are just as good.