Hey Adam

I think you're being quite hard on yourself about those figures. They are well painted, very expressive and definitely fit the scene.

Im curious as to what weathering you're planning on doing to these guys? I can't really tell from the photos but an dark oil wash might help bring out the details on the clothes.

Anyway since these guys are done you can move onto familiar territory and paint the ASLAVs, right?

If it helps to motivate you, there are loads of guys here who are waiting for your next update.

Anirudh

Yep, you've been busy painting. I know how long it can take to paint that many figs, beautiful work Adam. Standing by for more.


Cheers, Ski.

hey folks been a while,

Ok so heres my weekend up dates - being doing alot of small tedious things.

First I finally glued down all three buildings. I used aquadhere. The gaps around the buildings have been blended with fine dust. I have drilled the holes for the street lights, having decided to mount the second one. Also I started on the street litter, and the water in the gutters.

I fiddles around with figure placement too. So lets start with that and then onto the updates.

The large gaggle of people at the top of the street , with the fruit vendor.

Another view zoomed out

the workmen and other people


The water in the gutters was the last thing I have done tonight, will take a better pic tomorrow when Its dried. But here is the stuff i used - two part epoxy resin called glass magic.

The street rubbish was very difficult - making it look random but balanced is always a challenge. ALso there are alot of newspapers and rubbish on the ground that had to be individually cut out..
Pile A

Pile A different angle

Pile B - note the red spot on the bitumen - I dropped red paint ! will fix tomorrow when its dry....


So theres tonighst update - every day this week will get one as i have a week of holidays before Easter. Tomrrow I want to nail the scaffolding and the construction site layout. Also make a start on the power grid. Also I want to look at the street fruit vendor and think about his 'shop" and whether or not I need to design a cart. Plus other things as they crop up!

Wish me luck.

Adam

Very very very very good indeed...a work of art infact

Adam,

I have no idea why i completely missed your thread, not that i haven't been around lately. Perhaps the title did not catch my attention, don't know.

Anyway, i looked at it this evening and thought, oh sh..., you missed a lot there and you did not even comment the guy. As a regular here i am deeply sorry about that and i apologize.

So now, i am stuck with 9 pages of a building Blog to go back to and i promise you i will do that. I really want to see how such a talented dorama builder came to the result i now see at page 9.

Congratulations on this build and sorry again

Claude

Very interesting work, a great feeling for details

looks great. love it bud maby more dust on the rumble
henk

Thats cool Claude, Iraq dioramas are not everyones cup of tea, and Australian dioramas are certainly not everyones cup of tea! But for missing it I sentence you to read all 9 pages (thas alot of reading). lol. Welcome aboard!

@Henkp, which rubble in particular or all of it?

Adam

Wow!! This is top top class work here buddy! Looking good. Brings back haunting memories of that place for me.
J

Hi Adam,

I've been reading your blog on how you did the bituman roads again and I have two questions.

When you applied the fine dust, did you use any type of sealant afterwards or is it au naturale?

Did you get your florist blocks from somewhere like Spotlight? Its the only place I haven't checked yet and my wife is tired of driving around with me. Can't wait for my car to get here.

You may have mentioned it and I didn't read it.

Cheers, John

PS Your rubbish and gutters are spot on. I'm almost having flash backs again.

Adam,

just wanted to let you know I am still here with you and have been all along the way.

You ought to keep the momentum now that the light at the end of the tunnel is visible!

Your project is amazing, a true masterpiece, and given its spread and depth you could definately write a new "how to build diormas" book.

Also, don't be too hard on yourself with those figures: they are great and catch the complexity of moods in the scene very well.
Heck, I even feel guilty that I brought up the "hooded vs. non-hooded" comment altogether!

Best of luck and please feel we are all supporting your fantastic work!

Thanks for sharing it all.

yes curse you for your comment ... lol no actually thankyou for it! the subsequent discussion had a measurable effect on the quality of the final product. So as with all good suggestions, you can feel that you are are in some way responsible for the standard. So I thankyou for your input. Just dont suggest they all need sunglasses or something..

John - Asphalt road.Some learnings since the blog/ technique. I got my flower foam at "spend a penny", for$3:50 a block of green, $2 a block of black. BIG TIP dont use the black stuff!! AKA "dry". It is so messy/dusty and although stiffer - does'nt absorb the dents as well. Stick with the green/ wet. I have seen it in spotlight aswell - but they sell a premium version a bit more expensive.

Once the slurry is on and dried - Do NOT - sand the surface - the small rocks will detach from the surface and act as an abrasive effectively turning your sandpaper into like 20 grit! and the rocks will scratch the surface in the pattern your sanding - so if doing circular sanding you get this big circular gouge in it the size of the dislodge rock. I speak from experience. A small secret no one picked up on yet (just for you J)- In this blog I used Black/ dry flower blocks (go look at the build back on page 1 or 2 I think!)- but look at many of the pictures since and you will see that under the bitumen crust are green blocks. Do the sums. Its not in the blog, but I had to completely redo the road due to big scratches while sanding out the ridges. So when 'surfacing" be careful as it will most likely be you near final finish, and when you do sand do so carefully and clean the pad often.

I always planned to release his infor ( and some other easter eggs) at the end, but will see if anyone picks up on them ( the patrol sequence was another with the ECM on the wrong car - has been pointed out a few times now)

As for the dust I applied a sealing coat for sure! While buying the flower blocks at spend a penny or go lo or cheap as chips whatever, buy a water pump spray bottle. Usually a dollar or two aswell, I got some at Coles. Then I make a mix of white glue (aquadhere) and water - usually 10 - 20% aquadhere to whatever volume of water. shake the hell out of it, and mist ot over the top using the trigger nozzles setting for misting spray - the spray will not blow away you top dusts as aerosol would, but settle on the surface. I normally do one of these prior to adding the first layers of coarse dust, and while damp add the final light dust coats to adhere to the still wet surface. the very final coats of dust could be au naturel, but dont carry it infront on the airconditioner, or any fans, or let anyone with cold get too up close to look at it ... or carry it outside on a windy day etc etc..

This diorama has some dust coats and they are not sealed. there are 4 layers of actual dusting on this one so far, first 2 were wetted/ sealed, next two were natural, and I will do maybe 1 or 2 more with pigmenst if I have an left over afetr the vehicles are done.

Hope that helps!!

Adamskii ( be back soon with todays updates)..

Thanks Adam.

I have some Scenic Cement so I'll try the sealing as you described with it to see how it goes (read I want to use the stuff up cause its been sitting around for to long). If its no good I'll try the Aquadhere method.

I have one more place to look (Dollars and Sence) before I hit Spotlight.

I'm slowly getting all the ingrediants for your slurry and hope to have a test run soon.

Thanks again. John

Mondays update - I didnt get nearly as much done today as I thought I would. Although distractions played a big part in that.

What I did manage to do was apply some dust coats to the rubbish piles, and mostly work on and around the scaffolding. Went somethng like this -

First I had to level the scaffold so I made the adjustable legs/ feet.

These pix also show the water in the guter ( the now dry epoxy glass)


Somewhere along the line I test fitted the wares for the second street store, the one with the shady character lurking alongside..



Once the scaffold was glued in place, I also painted dripped plaster from the scaffold down to the ground along the wall. The plaster/ render mix is sloppy and and I want it to look like as much slips of the trowels as goes on the walls. Also the store owner will begetting angry at the guys plastering and they looking down on him.. some splatter on his big jars out front of his shop.Also had to fit the plank and decide final position ofthe ladder. Watershed moment glueing these down for me.

Once that was settled, started to apply some plaster dust (used talcum powder) lots of dust everywhere - When I mixed cement it used to splatter all over and I Imagine any dusty mix be the same. Also made the sand pile - this is my magic heat bead dust mixed with white glue to make a paste / putty and then sprinkled with dry dust , cant see it here but there is half the pile with shovel cut marks in it. The tools such as shovels are being finished now. The sand mound is still wet from glue and until it dries will be that dark yellow colour.



overview pic..


So, to do list for scaffolding to complete it...Buckets on ropes hanging from scaffold, hose or water source for the mixer, empty bags of render, pallet boards for render on scaffold.

Thats for tomorrow!

Adam

i love this dio and those rumble all of it the trashcans looks to new
but thats my opinion
henk

Adam;
I fully expect to have you announce a publication deal in the next week. In all seriousness, I really think that you should consider putting this all together into a book form. This could be the new SHEP PAINE's How to Build Diorama's! I know that I have said it before but this really is setting a whole new standard. My only question is, and I do not expect you to answer, what is the final bill for this whole undertaking? Keep it up! Cheers.

Hey Adam,
As I said ,a way back when,I'm totally with Damon.Sheps books were the best and no one has come through with anything close in years.This has got to be the longest running and most read post on Armorama.I'm starting to understand why my wife just can't miss an episode of some TV shows.{That's scarey}You'll be missing a great chance that most of us will never get.
You obviously have a market.
Maybe stick in a short DVD of the finished project?
Anyway it's looking more than incredible.Looking forward to the next post{episode}

Tom

I am going to restate that I think that you and Angry Dog (Nick) should get together on some projects. Nick is wanting to start up a garage business doing some accessory kits and masters, you have the ability to produce some outstanding accessory items, but do not have the time or want to do a bunch of castings. Anyone seeing this unfold into a small business proposition? Think about it. You have the cement bags, newspapers and trash, sidewalks, scaffolding, antennas, satellite dishes, ladders. What else am I missing from the list? You provide the masters to Nick. Nick provides the castings. Nick pays you a percentage for the masters (you guys work it out, I am just postulating here. . . ), Nick has stuff READY to go for opening and generating of cash, we all get cool things for our shelves ('cause you know we'll just be intimidated after this is ACTUALLY finished). Everybody wins. Who's with me ?

Tuesdays, updates.

Im telling you I have knack for being distracted easily. I dont think I got more than 4 or 5 hours in today - so much for taking time off work to finish this..

Anyways, two main things for today - almost completely finished the construction site and secondly started on refurbishing the vehicles ready for paint!

The construction site went ok, I added the buckets and the rope, some tools, and importantly, started to glue down figures. The Only things left to do in the construction yard are - fix tools to the workers hands; add some micro detailing and accesories ( waiting on mail order to arrive, again); add a 44 gallon drum with no lid and fill will water/resin. The empty bags I will park for now and do later as I think thats a job for the next few weeks rather than now, and the placement of the 44 gal drum will take priority so until i get that i dont want to have the bags tempting me to glue in place.

So heres some pictures of the construction site. LOL probably loks the same as yesterday. OH the vehicle is now glued down aswell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and all 4 wheels touch the ground


The gutter with the glass magic resin water (sorry was supposed to post this yesterday)

I also have managed to stain and varnish the base, twice. One more coat and Im happy with it. Pictures dont do it justice but its not black its a very dark red brown.


ALso glued the two running figs in place - I put them there for a number of reasons but the two main ones are - when at the very front they drew too much attention and arent good enough quality to deserve such attention, and secondly, I want to do wet footprints from the gutter up to them as an effect.


The vehicles.. Will keep this very simple here. I have to choose whether to blog the vehicles on this blog or the vehicle specific build logs I did back in January.
For now I will simply do the basics here but the specifics on the vehicle logs.
So here is what I did- basically I added the "Boxes with no name" to the front of the lead vehicle. There was a problem with the third vehicle in to the convoy ( the pc) having the "boxes with no names" - that made no sense, in a patrol you need that vehicle up front! this problem arose from the original design of the diorama had the vehicles in a different sequence. As some have pointed out this oversight, I have had to address it. Fortuantely I had a spare "boxes with no names" sprue in the spares box.

Anyways here's some vehicle update pics.
"boxes with no names" fitted

and with the pc. I dont have a problem with more than 1 vehicle having the "boxes with no names" on in the patrol order. Anythings possible.


I will add several more detail shots to the build log specific to the vehicle over here ASLAV with turret bar armour 2006 build log

So tomorrow, will be a very slow day. Im taking the wife for a promised drive down the coast to go whale watching. That will take care of the daylight hours. SO hopefully I get stuck in tomorrow night and continue pre spec the vehicles for paint. Fortunately the long drive will go past two model shops I never visit because they are way too far from my house, and will have to stop by for a nosey.

One last thing, the little fruit and veg market has been eliminated. Don't stress. It will return better than ever as there was a very significant design flaw that had been nagging me for a while and I finally found a solution, but it may take a week or two to accumulate the parts I need. If I had not found a solution I would of left it alone as no one had pointed it out, yet. So the diorama has only one major/ significant job left to do - the electrical work! I am tempted to leave this aswell until the groundworks are finished as once the streets rigging goes in place it could be a hazard trying to negotiate the spiderweb while fitting other parts.

thats my thought for the day...

Adamskii

EDIT: removed technical term for the boxes mounted on front of the vehicle, and replaced with generic "boxes with no name" label.

Love the Dio, only thing I noticed is on the scaffold, the guy pulling up the bucket is most likely good for one time and then wiped up out ever pull a 40lb bucket up 20ft?? they usually use a pulley on a moveable arm to get it up.
just my 2cents worth, keep up the great work it is very nice stuff.

mark

Hello and thanks for the comments. This was considered, and from my time as a builders labourer (10 years) to brickies, I have shifted my fair share of mortar up several decks of scaffold. The normal method is to have several layers of scaffold and to shovel it up one layer at a time, but after about 3 or 4 heights if your lucky you got an elevator. The other way is to carry it up ladders over your shoulder on a Y shaped pair of wooden boards on a pole. Now these guys on my diorama are not brickies, but repair men adding render to the chipped/ cracked wall facia. It has a shorter worktime than mortar before setting, and is much thicker. They do not have levels of scaffold nor is there a figure of one climbing a ladder with the Y shaped boards. I have bucketed morter before, and your right it gets heavy but the trick is dont fill the bucket. Its better to do 3 smaller lifts than 2 massive ones. when I add the paste to the bucket on the rope I will only half fill them. Also at the top they would probably have a mortar board and upturn the bucket onto that so to work from a pallet.

So Im not certain about 40lb's ( I dont understand the old imperial weights system - only metric) but I wouldnt want to lift that without a derrick. So without installing a derrick or pully system, I say lift a half bucket of 20 pounds? twice..

I hope that is a plausable solution to your observation.

Adam

I had been out of the loop for about three months and somehow didn't see this thread until the other day. This is very inspiring stuff, indeed. I have a lot of the Pro Art accessories for a similar project one day, but not nearly as ambitious as yours. If you need a specific sort of sign, let me know. Mine are definitely Iraqi dialect.

Dear Adam, Been there, you get back the feeling just by looking at it. What a super superb job you did.
Will you add to your 'beautiful' garbish the everywhere present black plastic bags? And those shabby dogs and doves?
Hopefully, your dio will become (part of) a book so we can admire it longer and with even more photos showing hidden places in it!

Soldiers salute to you

DOGS... man I want to include some vagrant dogs.. but do u think I can find a dog that looks like its abandoned? heaps of alsations, poodles, blod hounds schnauzers collies etc, but no real "mutts" if you get my meaning - would love to have one nosing its way through the rubbish or trying to stick its snout into a can...

Also I read a book a while ago about Marines in Fallujah (i think it was Falujah?) called "door to door" or something... anyways they were rolling into this town over a week of fighting and they always talk about the stink of death and rotting corpses in the streets form god knows when, and packs of wild dogs everywhere - and the one thing that stuck in my mind as being a simply fantastic detail to add to a diorama was , and I paraphrase " the bradleys would roll over the rotting flesh in the streets and it would get stuck up in the tracks and running gear - packs of dogs would follow any armoured vehicle as they got used to scavenging from the tracks when the vehicle stopped moving" So one day I hope to include two or three dogs either following a Bradley real close or actually giving the tracks a lick if the vehicle is depicted as stopped..

Not suitable for my dio, But certainly the dogs are always in my mind. Sooner or later I'll find just the right one. Has too look malnourished and mangy, not well groomed, and also has to be a mongrel breed not some obvious purebread - as nearly all aftermarket ones are...

The birds... well I did think of adding some to the damaged buildings but havent seen any pics of the types of birds - If pidgeons taht are shabby I would have to scratcbuild them . So maybe will add it to the list things to do before the comp...

Thaks for the comments , always appreciated!

Salute returned!

Adam

Unfortunately the photos don't do these dogs justice. They were far more terrifying in person, especially being surrounded by a large pack of them.





I don't think the Legend EOD K9 can be made to look this mangy.