Hello everybody!
Here some pictures from one of my current projects. The old Tamiya 88mm with a Dragon crew. The plan is to build a vignette of a antiaircraft bunker position.
Here the mentioned kits:



Tamiya did overall a very good work with this kit, with only a few changes and additions the kit can be improved significntly. A few minor pitfalls and errors on the instructions can be easily overlooked.

In any case, here I started by adding a traverse bar with pins.....






A few extra holes need to be filled and sanded....




Since I have planned to build the kit on permanent position, some modifications are required for the anchors....




Cables replaced with soldering wire and alluminum foil....



Starting to look like something more decent........






Some minor changes on the fuze seter and cahin made link by link wit soldering wire.....




Finally, this morning I started working on the base, using a picture frame, styro foam and some glue......note the ammo storing areas....





That's it for now, will start working on the figures tomorrow....some pregress pics to come soon....

Mirko

Hello, a few updates on this scene....balsa wood and oils used to start the base, also shown some of the figures......lots of work to do..... I changed the base of the dio.....comments and suggestions are welcome.






Mirko

Nice work! Where did you get the metal barrel?
Thanks,

JB

Interesting kit and build! The base looks very good!

I like the "88" and had the idea to build one of Dragon´s kits.
But I´m not sure with this.

greetings...
Soeren

It's a "Barrel Depot" one.

Some updates on this build.

I airbrushed Tamiya German Gray + Flat white mixture to give a base and after this was dry some chipping was done with mixture of flat brown and flat black acrylics.
Then a coat of Testors semigloss lacquer was airbrushed and set to dry for a couple of days.
Next step consisted of applying a coat of very thinned flat white acrylic paint all over the flak. As soon as finished covering all the kit, using a piece of cloth dampened in rubbing alcohol I started to "clean" the white coat here and there and this are the results:








As far as the base, using cheap craft acrylics the concrete color was achieved by mixing flat white and a tiny bit of deep sea blue. Over this a thin wash of raw umber acrylic was applied as well.
I am still planning to make this a winter dio so some snow is on it's way....



Now, my nightmare so far during this build, the figures. In the past I've used to apply an airbrushed coat of some acrylic pain as base but his time I decided to use Tamiya Flat Base following some advice of a few friends and modelers. In any case, didn't work as expected. The flat base didn't adhere very well to the figures and when I was hand brushing the final colors everything started to peel off. Still not sure if I thinned the base too much or if the product was defective.....I guess will stick to my old but reliable technique in upcoming builds....this is the result so far, figures need lot of detailing and extra work yet...





Thanks for following, any advice and critiques are welcomed.

Mirko

Mirko,
I like the enhancements you've made to the Flak 37. The whitewash finish is really good too, looks just like it hs worn off with use. My only question is how did the gun get in the bunker? It's too big to go through the gap in the wall, unless it was built after the gun was emplaced. Sorry, don't mean to be a spoilsport, I really like the work on the gun and the base otherwise, & I'm sure the blokes will turn out all right too.

Mirko, you can BUY chain to scale, LOL!

Talk about making a silk purse from a sow's ear. This is real modeling, and I tip my hat to how you've made the creaky old Tamiya FlaK 37 look superb.

The improvements you've made to this kit really make it sparkle - Its really looking great so far!

Hahaha...very good question, I guess a crane???...never thought about that detail. I got the idea from a few pictures on my old books about the german flak line...not very good pics....

Well, continuing with this build, trying to get it done on time for next saturday 29th local contest in St. Paul,MN.

I was running short from 88 mm ammo boxes and shells to use in this project so my options were basically buying more aftermarket parts (boring) or take the opportunity to try something new. I went to a local Hobby Lobby store and found this:

Over the years I have seen multiple descriptions about molding and casting your own parts with resin. Finally, I have tried it.
This kit included silicone molding and resin, everything needed for about $20.
Here the molds filled with resin:

Unmolding:

After some trial and error:



SOme shells painted and ready for fitting on the dio:

And the crew, waiting as well....

Well, this is it for now, will post final results later this week! Thanks for watching.

Mirko

Ok, hello again, finally I got some pictures of the finished project:

sofa~ good job ~ snow is kind of not that real , improvement could be make

Great job!