Hello guys,

Some pics of my last projects, one between hundreds unifinished...
Who knows, maybe this time I will finish one..
The base is from mk35. I've just started the cobblestones yesterday night, tonight I will make the wash and all the little detail effects (like micro painting for tanks).
Comments and helps mucho welcome.

Best,
Julien

Hi Juian. I can't se your pictures. Maybe it's just my computer. Looking forward to seing the fallschirmjägers. - Johan

Hello Johan,

Thanks for the information. It might come from msn confidentiality rules.
Is it ok now ?
The figures come from Alpine MIniature.
Best,
Julien

I really like.
small but well-distributed

I hope more progress

Domi

Everything looks good now. I like the positioning of the figures together with the base. What kind of fallschirmjägeruniforms are you planning to paint?
- Johan

Muchas gracias Domi ! August is a quite month, I will be able to progress (at least i hope )
Johan, I didn't have to hesitate that much on the positioning given the size of the vignette, I didn't have so much choice...Regarding uniform, the firing guy will have hard hedge camo, and on the coward reloader, i will try the soft hedge, like on the Alpine boxart. I might try the dark blue pant on one of them, in order to add som color to the scene.
Best,
J

Hello Julien,

Nice idea.

Just one thing I'm not sure about though: The wall looks to be somewhat overscale (too large /high). I seems to tower over everything else, and detracts from the main subjects of the scene.

Just my opinion. Others may disagree.

- Steve

I like the cart, but I agree the wall looks huge. Maybe add a terrace element in front of it to shorten it a bit?

yeh that wall does look big, but the diorama looks like it'll be goodin

Hi Scot and Steve,

I hade the same feeling like you yesterday by spending hours to look at it.
I even wonder myself if it was the right scale (I think it is due to the size of the stones in it).
I've planned to put ivy on the right flank of the wall from base to top, thin at the base and large on top. Maybe it would be better to place it between the tower and the wall ? And I've planned to put a street plate on the wall in order to keep a little bit the attention focus on it rather than the entire wall. I don't know if it will reduce the tall impression of the wall ? What do you think ?

The other option youb mentioned would be to cut the wall at its base, cutting off up to the first big stone on the tower. But I don't know how the plaster will react to the saw. Won't it broke irregular ?

By the way does anybody has reference images of painted cart in old style ? I remember one diorama depicting a destroyed pz IV under a sicilian villa with a GI in front, where the modeler had put a nice painted cart in a Sicilian way. I'm pretty sure French farmer didn't paint their cart this way, but reference pictures woudl be very helpful for painting wooden chipping effects.

Best,
Julien

Hi Julien

I think you are right to consider reducing the wall height to balance the composition more. Scribe and saw should work.

As regards cart reference is this any help?
Cart image walkaround

Alan

Hello Alan,

Nice to read you again.
Thanks, this is exactley the ype of detailed reference I'm searching for. But I've planned to make my cart colored, to ad some contrast.
Here are the type of pictures I'm searching for, but I would need more close up and different views







Anyway I realy appreciate your help and comment

Best,
Julien

Hi Julien, great job you're doing man simple and rich.....waiting for updates

Hi fellas,

So yesterday I continue the work on my vignette and started the wall and continued the cobblestones.
I wanted to give an impression of cloudy/rainy days to my vignette. Something that I will continue to developp later one during the construction phase of the vignette.

You were definitively right guys, the wall was huge so I reduced it of a sixth.
After having cut part of the base, I undercoat it (much better for plaster as it will avoid visible brush strokes), and painted it with acrylics very diluted. You can play with the darkness of the color just by applying more or less paint. Several lavis were made with oils on the top, for moisture and between stones, using green, burnt sierra and black. I still think I need to lighten more the center, as it is the most damaged part, accordingly paint must be thinner and clearer here. It will also add contrast. I will try tonight different clear lavis at the center but I'm afraid to ruin the actual effect. I will also play on the coating next to the stones, with yellow and green colors



I've also started the ivy framework. The idea is there but the material isn't. In fact the branch covered by green stuff (duro) would be too large. So I have decided that I will finished the wall, and then I will make the Ivy ramified branches with Green Stuff directly on the wall, without any metal wire structure.

Ans lastly the cobblestones. I applied a wash of black and brown oils, but I'm not ahppy with the result. The lavis was to dark. So I will make another brown one to simulate earth/dirt. I'm not happy because the lavis was supposed to entrer between cobble, not on top of it !! The top of the cobble is supposed to be neat as hundreds of feet/cart/cars has polished them. So I will have to make micro drybrushing with several colors on most of the stones to delete this effect.
Voilà that's all floks for today.
The next episode tomorrow.

Best,
Julien

Hi Julien, nice detail of brick structure. I really like it and wait to see the complete scene. Thank you.
Thanan

Hello guys,

I've worked yesterday on the painting of the cart.
I'm not that happy with the result. I would have do it more greyish, which is the colour of the old dry wood. Ididn't paint the wheels yet. I don't know if I leave it like it is, if I add some blue paint with a lot of chipping, and repaint the remaining part of raw wood in a more grey color. Or I buy another cart and restart the paint from scratch.
The part I'm most happy with is the rear of the cart, because I painted it using transparency technique.

What's your toughts and advises ?

Best,
Julien

Hi Julien. Great start to the scene. The composition is also very nice .... but the painted wood grain on the cart is amazing. Love it!!

Thanks Franck, but I'm not totally happy with the color. My swmbo told me that the color was not natural, and I guess she's right. It would have to be lighter..
You know it tooks me hours yesterday to paint this little piece, BUt if I had the good color and transparency for the first layer, I would have save myself 3 or 4 subsequent layers...
But thanks anyway
Julien

Julien,

I have to agree with Frank, that wood grain is terrific ! If you are not sure of the colour, why not add a couple of grey filters to a less noticeable area and see how it comes out.

Looking forward to seeing the figures.

Andy

Hi Andy,

Thanks for your comment. I won't try the wash thing as it will go mainly in the holes and not on the surface.
Anyway as I'm stubborn, I've bought another miniart cart, and If I'm brave enough I will start it this weeke end...This week and I will also start the Ivy on the right part of the wall.
Best,
Julien

Hello Julien,

I agree, your tones are too ochre for an old weathered wood.
Maybe you should try one or two greyish layers of paint. But your painted wood texture is perfect, be sure to not erase it.
Cool to see a topic of yours, great work so far.

See you,
Alex.

Hi Julien. The vast majority of filters that I use, I spray them using the airbrush. I hardly ever use a brush for this. The reason being exactly the same reason that you have already described. Why dont you try it first? As Andy says, some grey filters would give this a whole new look. Id also have some black or burnt umber pin washes in the lines for definition.

the paint is well done, and as everyone agrees, not quite accurate. Don't give up on it, go grayish and try the airbrush technique Frank mentioned.

Salut Alexandre ! Thanks for the encouragment. You know I spent the night on the details and texture of the cart, and I'm very afraid to ruin the aspect with the filters..I really lke also your work. Should we say it's the new "French touch"

Franck and Sloder : thanks a lots for your tip. I'm primarly a brush painter, and the few tries I made with an airbrush was not convincing at all (starting by the way to use the tool)..... I guess I have to dilute a lot the paint before spraying, and not to spray it to close to the subject. I will aslo try filters on the cobblestones as I find them to dark due to heavy lavis.

Best,
Julien

Yes Julien ... very transparent ... a lot of thinners. I use both Tamiya and Humbrol for this ... prefer Humbrols. You might not even notice a color change with the first ... but after 2 or three coats ... it nicely changes the hue and ties the more contrasting colours together. Id use mostly greys ... but even a green and/or brown filter would be good as well. I use this method a lot for both armor and dioramas. As you have the second cart, why not experiment with this one. Take a little care ... how wrong can it go?