Thanks Bob friend! once more these sbs must be entertaining at least

Hey Jeff thanks I've got a better heater though I fear the cold still might cause me some further problems -You know about the Womb diorama, I finally got that because I spent hours simulating the real places of the elements and also liquid run offs, one must really be prepared to spend so much time if one wnats to get such results, "think 2 hours, model 1 hour" or so

indeed Paul i should! the problem is that i can't fin any heater that keeps both feet and hands warm at the same time, I realized I could model without having to move the fingers at all as I often go back home with numb fingers. really, I think i should do stuff like sculpting and painting figs in the winter because I could do this at home.

Thanks for turning in Robert, you will see water in no time -the diorama is roughly at the 2/3d now..

btw, that was silicon i was supposed to pour in my plasticine forms..


When the silicon went all dry (more than 1 day because of the cold), I poured in some grey tinted epoxy resin


here the drying time will get colossal! I suppose it will be all dried up by Wednesday eh..
In the meantime here are the paints I will use for the baot, grey, white, and yellow too..

Yo JBA, my friend !
Good to see you back "on your bench" ! VERY NICE progress so far, my friend !!!! On a side note, I really LOVE the new figure in your "Galilee" diorama; it really makes it more "eerie" in a good sort of way . I really got to check out the actual images on your website. BTW, I've done sculpting another figure (bohemian artist) and will post some in-progress shots of the diorama-to-be here, when I get the chance to shoot some pictures, for you to have a look-see. Looking forward to the next steps, my friend. Cheers !
Kenneth .

JBA's back! I'm praying that the temperature in France drops so that we see more progress on this one.

I'm curious what kind of new idea you have with this dio.

Primož

Friend Jean-Bernard , you are unique.

You know you have to modelers worldwide working pending?
spending a lot of neurons, novel approach guessing that you will perform on this occasion.

I for one intet stop and find out, I'll settle continue your work and enjoy

greetings
Domi

Yo Jba,

Nice story about how you see the build up for dioramas...I also try to work to an unclosed setting...its hard to do...churching for the right angels and lay out.... But you always find the right sollution. Thats way you're dioramas are always very interesting and atrackt the viewer!

Keep up.

Greetz Nico

Thanks Kenneth friend!
What you say about the Galilée thing is interesting, indeed I think it is much better this way. You know George lucas? he is an American entertainer whose work is very easy to dismiss, but there is one thing i like about him: he never considers his movies as being finished, indeed he adds this or that new scene every 5 years in his old movies. Of course it helps him to sell plenty of times roughly the same thing to the same people but there is not the question. I consider my dioramas as being the same: unfinished buisness. So there is Galilée 2 with a new guy and an improved painting, and there will be Galilée 2.1 that will correct a few things I am still unhappy with until I consider i should either dump the diorama or let it stay like that.
Now for this one it sort of works the same, as I had to let it down for a few weeks at least 2 times because of the cold, it allowed me to have enough insight about the diorama to be able to correct some stuff i considered i did wrongly at the start. Whioch means this diorama will take twice longer to do than some previous ones but in the end it might be exactly what i wanted to do without the diorama getting 2 or 3 versions..
of course I will watch this space for your bohemian artist! You look like you're still much inspired when doing your dioramas

Primož thanks -indeed the temperatures dropped again lately, but I will do my best Well this diorama will be something like a B serie, a calm, relaxed and uneventful one. I need this to get some rest from some more intense work.

Friend Domi you are also unique and I thank you for your comment as usual

thanks Nico, yep I will keep up. You see that "balance from all corners" thing is really personal -some stairs like dioramas really work very well too! The thing is that i really like to increase the technical difficulty at a maximum height and those sort of balances take a lot of time to come up with.

Well, I had a heck of a lot of work lately, and stuff doesn't dry so fast too, and -oh dear- I managed to break the nozzle of my Premi-Air airbrush (I thought it was *really* fragile, *TOO* fragile exactly. Ordering a new one would have taken some further time so i decided to stick with my painfully bad Aztec, oh well still it went okay!
notice the clearer tints amidships

time for weathering!
My usual wet on wet technique with some white ink, grey and black acrylics





the rusty/dirt run offs are done with pigments and blended with the grey mix
Of course everything is painted according to some direction of the light (the sort of sunbeam you can see amidships) that means for instance that the backside of the airintakes are painted in a more darker shade

Back to the turret!I found the way..
well not I but some guy who scratchbuilt the same thing on a British forum..
HE PRESSED THE SHAPE THROUGH A HOLE.
So i did the hole, I sanded it carefully so that the borders would not damage the transparent plastic

.. and there it is!

Ok - kinda lost me.... Is the styrene heated then you pushed the mold into it? or is it vacuformed?

i will try to explain the thing better Scott
-first picture, the transparent plastic sheet is taken in sandwich between 2 small sheet of wood, one of which is pierced at the right size
-I heat the plastic with my heat gun
-i pressed the whole against the form
and errr, yes, it wasn't vacuformed at all doing this way was the only way to get the sheet in a right form without it being "wrinkled"

GOOD FOR YOU , JBA !!!!! Now we're getting somewhere ! Looking forward to the next steps, my friend . Cheers !
Kenneth .

Hello Jean-Bernard. As I am unfamiliar with a lot of your subjects until they start to take shape, its hard to comment .... "good job" ... doesn´t make sense until I understand whats actaully happening, Now it has taken shape, I re-read the thread again, and am really enjoying it so far. I love reading your process .. and what you are trying to achieve. Hopefully I can learn a little from this process along the way .. and incorprate it in my own work ... somehow ... somewhere

Ok -cool, thanks

thanks Kenneth friend, indeed we are closing to completion!

hi Franck -indeed the whole makes sense to me and I start with a definitive idea. but I never tell much about the outcome because i don't like to spoil the surprise -and then the surprise is yet to come.. Well, I realize it's been years I didn't see any new diorama from you

You're welcome Scott!

here's my new turret looks like the curve is right.. so let's cut it.


the problem is the large opening on one of the sides to let the .303 go out. So to be able to cut it straight, i have been puting some masking tape at the right dimension and used a small saw to cut it. Now of course with such an opening, the turret couldn't keep its shape which is why I have been putting some plastic circle of the right dimension at the base of the turret..


now where this circle comes from?
yep that's right, that's an old milk dose for kids!

Well, I have been doing all the metallic circling using some CA glue covered paper -I don't know how I managed but it seems my only picture is of the worse side as there is one place where the paper obviously went sort of wrong!
of course I had pre painted the paper in grey so that I would only have to apply some shadows and highlights after gluing the paper.
Notice the 2 kind of "wings" at the top which come from my photoetch fret
the whole has to be arranged somehow though, the painting is crap.

Salut Jean Bernard,

Absolutely great stuff! The turret is some wonderful piece of scratchbuilding.
One big lesson here is certainly to never give up! If it does not work right away, put it aside, rethink and voilà!

I'm really impressed!

Cheers
Claude

IMPRESSIVE, JBA, VERY IMPRESSIVE !!!!!!! Looks like the "end" is really in sight now ! Cheers !
Kenneth .

BTW, 1/2 way through the figure vignette base now (inspiration only came to me during the weekend !) I'll post the initial photos once I've put the various elements together.

fabulous, including your ability to build you
parts and your imagination to take home any items you have secured the final result

to envy

Domi

hey Claude you are SO right, never give up! the dustbins are full of dioramas from people who end up not being happy with their own stuff because they don't try harder.
If you're not able to sit on an ice block when it's getting a bit harder, you never get anywhere. And that's valid for plenty of things in real life as well

dear Kenneth, near the end, not yet, there is harder to do than the turret.. there's the water you know!
I will keep an eye for your new scenette!

Thanks Domi!!

I found back those pics about putting some CA covered paper around the "glass"

the top.. notice I had some trouble at this point to get a nice curve on the top metal sheet...

and the "solid" back of the turret

Looking good JBA.
Hopefully the weather stays good for more progress.

Yo Jba,

Coming along nice here.

Looks spot on to me...nice curves!

Greetz Nico

hey Scott thanks, the weather is still very problematic as you will see below

yeah curves are everything boat modelling is about, I love curves, always had

So the weather vs/ resin hardening..
errr, usually this kind of resin takes 1 day to dry, here after 4 days you can still bend it with your fingers without any problem so well, I trimmed it with some scissors

and fix it on the base

I'm still watching. This is for me the most exciting time in your builds JBA. Every thing is slowly coming together and the water effects are the stars of the show.

Primož

Thanks Primož that's a sticky star of the show indeed, so more like it today..

So, let's fill our *sky reverberating into the sea* with some sky-like colours.. you wouldn't believe the amount of pictures i took with my portable phone everytime I found a suitable sky.. I sure will end up looking like a middle east French sky, hope it will suit for Britain.

let's fill the inside of the boat with some tinted plaster! because of course the resin started to go inside it!

Fantastic stuff as always JBA, really starting to come together...

John