Claude, it's possible! I am looking forward to seeing your bike shop. Thanks for the compliments. The music shoppe will be fun. Still need a couple things, but there is time.
Phill, thanks. I think this will look awesome, can't wait to get the buildings done and start on the dio base itself. What you told me about taking one part of the larger whole and working it on it as one diorama has made things a lot easier to handle and I'm able to focus more on it now.
I'll be back in a couple days with some more photos. Last day of class tomorrow and finals on Tues/Weds, so almost done!!!!

Hey guys, well finals are finally done, so I will be back with an update shortly! Page 4 has some photos for you, if you haven't seen them since there's a new page now.
Thanks for reading!

Hope you did well on your finals!! I just finished my finals too. Looking forward to those updates!

Hi all!
It's been a good 5 months or so I believe since I have been able to do any building and playing in the craft room. We were moving things around in the apartment and I am getting some new stuff (including a new airbrush finally!!!) and getting all set up again. Sorry about the long hiatus, just got really intense busy with school. Good news is spring break is around the corner and I will have some time to get back into my modelling. Will update as I start working on some stuff again! Time to find out where I left off.

It's been a while. Got really busy with school and a little burned out, but I'm back making some slight progress.

Decided to redo the base. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the blue foam wouldn't work. So I got a piece of MDF board and sealed it before adding some cork and plastruct to it. Here are some photos of what I have been working on:

Here is the MDF board with the new layout. Taking a long layoff can really open your eyes to see flaws in a project! I changed it up a bit because it just didn't make sense before. Now, it seems more realistic, more feasible and like this layout could actually be real, looking at photos. Have the Cafe still towards the rear there, with lines laid for the sidewalk and road, then the other two buildings. The outline on the left towards front will be the destroyed house and the right will be the music shop. The lines in between will be the road that E company comes up. I will be "digging" a ditch after laying some sculpt-a-mold (8 bucks at the hobby shop VS 25 at Michael's/Hobby Lobby!) and make a sort of downhill thing with the terrain. It will be fun!



Michael's had some sweet cork board paper! It was in the scrapbook aisle and totally came in handy for making the road as the sheets were the perfect size and super thin. After painting and distressing it, the cork will look like a cobbled street...hopefully!


Next, I started laying down the Plastruct (same thickness as the cork sheets) for the sidewalk. I scribed lines into it ever 2 feet (in 1/35th scale) to make it look like concerete. The sidewalk will be painted gray. I still need to add the half rounds for the curb...but I might use cork pieces for that...just depends.


And lastly I finished up the music shop's plaster walls! Finally. Couldn't get the same texture as the 2 walls before (different plaster brand) but they came out well. Need to wall paper them and get some windows in next. Have to build floors for it as well. I have the piano together, it just needs some paint.


That's what I have been working on this weekend. Am now working on wallpapering and terrain as well as figs. Sorry it's been so long! I should be back at it at least this week, then intermittently till summer break from school. Still so much to do! Til next time.

Thanks for sticking with me!

Very nice restart now you truly are a diorama builder
If it ain't working redo it and have to agree ..this is looking many times better ..much cleaner in layout and it will prove to be much easier to work with too .
You gonna enjoy yourself now

Phill

Got some more work done today. Was busy re-setting up the craft room (got some new shelving and whatnot). Here's some photos:

I ordered these a long time ago, and finally got to use one of the signs!


This will the hanging sign for the cafe/hotel:


Waiting for the house to dry. Had some trouble pulling it off the plastic while the plaster was sticking to it. Glued it together tonight, all is well now.


Got the inside of the music shoppe wallpapered and done. It won't be an open building, so I'm not concerned with doing as much detail. Still doing 2 floors and whatnot.


Here's an eye level shot of the cafe coming from the road where the E Co. figs will be laid out


And here's a birds eye of the new layout with the buildings set up so I could get an idea of how everything is working together. I am very pleased!



And lastly, the music shoppe getting its sign. Can't wait to get my new Harder and Steenbeck AB and spray it with some awesome green! Exciting. Get to make a door for it tomorrow, I think. Have never built a door before so it should be fun. the white stuff in the window frames is Krystal Klear..was trying to see if it will dry clear. Guess I will find out in the morning. I am wondering if I will regret this little experiment...

That's all for tonight. More tomorrow. Thanks for watching!

Thanks Phill. Starting over sucks,but it was totally worth it. Feels like I finally know where I am headed!

Yo Brandi,

Nice progress...always love projects from real ref pics...

Maybe a little to soon to put the commercial sign on the wall? Or is it just a test case ?

Keep up.

greetz Nico

Brandi .. Love the over head shot .. that really shows the lay out and now we all have a prefect idea of how this looks .
And it looks very very cool , damn i can't wait to see the ground work

Phill

Hey Brandi, your re-do is looking great. Keep plugging away at it and remember to change anything that YOU don't feel is right. You will always be your own worst critic, and at the end of the day it will be you who is looking at your project 95% of the time. So the other side of the coin is just don't get into the trap of never being satisfied, or you will never complete a project. That said you did well by redoing the base etc....

Dave

Nico, I had that on so I could see the placement of the sign. It will be airbrushed on once I get my booth built.
Phill: Thanks. The new layout is much better and easier to work with. Excited to get some ground work on it, but need to get the buildings done so I can place them.
Dave: Thanks a lot. Redoing is always crappy, but totally worth it. Have redone a roof about 4 times now and I think I am getting the hang of it now.

Well, spring break is over, so no more updates til next month. I will try to work on it a little at a time, but I have 2 huge projects due in about 3 weeks and then finals to get ready for, so no big updates til May. It was nice getting back into it for a bit and I hope I can set some time aside in the evenings to work, even for 30 minutes.
Thanks for all the comments.

This is looking great. Looking forward to more updates.

Where in MO are you?

Hey Lee,
Thanks! I am re-doing the cafe (AGAIN! sigh) so there will be photos hopefully sometime next week.

I am very near Kansas City, actually live in OP now.

Some nice work there Brandi, watching and enjoying your progress....

Good Luck!

Paul

I worked for Sprint back in 2001 in OP. work in Branson now.

The buildings are lookin sweet.

Hi guys,
Little update:

I redid the base. I may still redo the cobble stone road, not sure if I like it, but I'll get to that soon-ish.




And the base with the sidewalk made out of air dry clay:



Some paint:



Just for fun, with some buildings:



So, after re-re-redoing the cafe, I FINALLY love the front wall! I figured out some little trick, as I spent the last few months just waiting for some free time to work on it, again. I came back to it and now I have this awesome wall, nice and flat, all square and I am very proud:



I'll need to get some mold making materials, and make the windows from plastic, or I guess I could just scratch build all of them. There aren't that many.

And then I started scratch building a standing bass:



And started to work on painting the piano and the bass:



The small wire will be used for the bass strings:


And, the gang's all here! Finally, the figures are ready to be washed, primed, and painted:



That's it for now. Hopefully, I'll be back soon with more photos!

Thanks for reading.

Brandi
Yesterday I went back through all the pages of its construction.
As it is getting big this diorama ... You should have enough space around to accommodate it.

Congratulations on construction so far. I'll keep watching.

hugs,
Rodrigo Sartori

Hi Rodrigo! Thanks a lot. that means a lot coming from you

Small update for you guys:

(P.S. thanks Jim for changing the date on the thread title!)

Here's the cafe wall with some window frames installed (took forever, but looks awesome!)



I scribed in some brick work, that will be "under" the plaster of the building. Some paint will make that look pretty cool.

Then, I put some glass in, using clear plastic sheets at 0.07MM:



And a closer look:



And some paint of the front wall, everything taped off that will be a grey-ish white color or brick:



And with the tape off, before finishing painting of the windows and bricks:




So far, so good.

I have decided to add in a StuG III because it will be awesome. The idea is that it will have been there before E Co came in to take the town, probably on the 9th or 10th of June. And it is now completely useless...Should be fun!

Thanks for watching. More to come probably next weekend!

I just saw this thread and it is an awesome undertaking. I realize this maybe late but have you looked at Nemrod figures? They have a whole bunch of paratroopers that are well detailed and just plain old awesome. Been around for over ten years. You can still get them. Here is the link to squadron mail order. http://www.squadron.com/SearchResults.asp?offset=0

Keep up the awesome work!

Curtis Towers

Hi Curtis,
I have! Some of my guys are Nemrod. I have no idea which ones anymore...

I may have to purchase more, since I think I will need to fill up the dio a bit.

Thanks for the feedback.

Brandi ... That wall is starting to look very nice .. the window frames just brought the wall to life .. can't wait to see it finished ,, keep it up ,,its looking excellent


Phill

Thanks, Phill!

Very nice indeed. I like your style,crisp and clean. Will follow your progress... Dave

Glad to see you Updating your work again. Im really impressed with your work and it will look brilliant when you have got all your figures finished
Brilliant progress
Curtis