Hey guys ... well my favorite customer has me building another diorama for him and this one I am going to enjoy .. its called Crossing the gap ..it all started with the purchase of the Bronco WW2 M2 type Bailey Bridge ..ideas got going and this has turned into a rather nice idea for a dio .. but like so many other Bailey bridge dio's we have seen this one will not be a small one with just the bridge and a tank ..this one is going to be sizable.. 1000mm long and 600mm wide ..the following pics will give you an idea as to where it's at at this point ..
The base started


Using plaster bandage to shape the rivers sides ..love this stuff






Verlinden Plaster AA bunker


The Bailey Bridge ,,this needs alot of work for it to look like the real thing ..Bronco missed some rather important parts ..I will write about those when i attack the bridge a little bit later .





Now to the vehicles and men to be used in this dio .. not all the men will be used but don't quote me on that




Didn't want to use a deuce and a half, so am going with this for something different .

And last but not least a little bit of PE ..much more to follow for the AA bunker .and the gun to ..will be building that again into something different ..


Cheers

Phill

Count me in for this one! This looks like it's gonna be a great one to watch!
Where do you get your Styrofoam from, by chance? I use the blue stuff but am curious as to where to pick up the styro.
Great start! Look forward to more!

Hey ya Brandi .. cheers for the comment always like to hear that ,, the foam i get from packaging ,,i use the hard foam which is best for cutting ..well with the white polystyrene anyway ..i can buy it here from a place call Ex Pol .. means expanded polystyrene ,,its cheap as chips and as you'll know many thicknesses .the blue foam is the stuff i use when i am working with fiber glass ..the resin wont eat it ..resin will eat the white stuff like theres no tomorrow .,,the blue is slightly more expensive than the white but hell its still only 20 NZ per sheet which is 2400mm X 600mm in size ..
I'm starting on the river shortly .start to put the bottom into that and work on the sides ..start getting a feel for the dio so to speck

Phill

Hi Phill,

Looks like an interesting progect and a rather intense one (because it’s so large), looking forward to seeing all the pieces come together.

Regards,

looks like it's gonna be really cool! a lot of kits there

Vlad and Stan ... thanks guys ya this one has got some size to it huh oh well least its not that hard of one to build ..pretty straight forward really and its what the customer wants ,,nice to be building something easy and you know its not going to change in the next month like the modern military always seems to..guess its part of the reason i do enjoy WW2 .
I'll haave a few more pics up tomorrow .farting around with the river bed at the mo ,,its going to look good ....... i hope

This looks really interesting, lots going on and some nice kits, hope you dont mind if i tag along and watch its progress!

Tom

Wow, this is going to be a marthon project. I looks good so far overall. One small critique for me is the uniform hard edge on the 'gap'. Easy to fix as you by adding a bump or clump, here and there.

Phil, thanks for the reply! I didn't know that about the blue stuff, that's interesting! Maybe I'll just stick with it, then. There wont't be any resin in the current dio I'm working on (except for maybe windows, if I get brave) so foamcore and blue stuff will work for me! What are you going to use for the river water, do you know yet? I'm interested to see all your techniques, the river and especially how you're going to make that Bronco Bridge be what it's supposed to be! You've got me hooked! Can't wait for more

Phill, that is some project you are building there looks real good so far, I will be following But 1 question will that panther be crashing into the river on the completed dio or is that just there for the time being

Morning guys and lady ok question answering time ,,first off thanks for the positive comments so far ,,helps me to want to work on this dio .
Tom mate your more than welcome to tag along lol its going to be a interesting trip lol
Scott ,,the edge of the gap is ya kinda sharp but one all the veges go in that edge will look not as sharp ..i have curved the edge since you last saw it ..had a play last night adding things the to river bid ,,will post more pics later today .
Brandi ,, I'll be using fiber glass resin for the water ..gotta be careful as it can get rather warm when its curing so you just lay it in thin layers .no worries then ..stick to the blue ..its great stuff ..brilliant for carving and because it is so hard compared to normal poly its much cleaner to work with to
Sal ol mate .. yup that Panther is going to be there but not that one ..I've got 8 Panthers ,,3 are just parts so i am going to build a whole new one for this dio ..this will be a classic case of bugger .. the Panther has run into the river and gotten stuck and the crew bailed ..so there will be no battle damage. i have a pic on my comp of one which ended up laying on its side in a river because it wasn't looking where it was going ..cool pic to same case with this one and also that area of the dio needed something and i think this works

Phill

Evening guys ...or morning depending on where on this rock you are ..been playing with the dio so heres some pics showing what ive been up to ,,,,






Thats the start ...much more to go yet ..the veggies look kinda dead ,,which they are but some work with the air brush will change that ,,still a long way from water ..gotta panther to build first .

Phill

Phil, the groundwork so far looks fantastic! I always love water in dioramas and I'm excited to see how your river turns out! Keep us updated on the Panther. I haven't gotten to build serious armor yet, and I'm thinking of trying my hand at it some point soon! Can you link the picture you're working off of?
Blue stuff it is. Thanks for the tip!

awesome what material are you using for the board

Hey ya Brandi well the link ,,there isn't one ,,just using the ol imagination,,out a picture in my head and went with it .. and when it comes to armour ,, ohh i got you covered there ,, i have more than 300 built tanks and another 200 plus in my stash ..so i am covered there for damn sure ,,I'm playing with the Panther right now in fact ,,ok not right this minute ,,i'm typing lol but right now i am going thru the steps needed to mod the suspension to get it to conform to the shape i want them to set ya ,,i've got to cut the suspension arms off ,( this Panther was given to me in bits but the suspension arms are glued in place ) nothing hard there .I'll cut them off ,drill holes to mount pins so they move and then glue them in place .easy Dremel ..the wonder tool lol ,,this Panther is a Tamiya kit Panther Type G Early Version 35170 ,,nice kit ..the bugger part is theres lots of parts missing so into the junk pile i got for the parts i need


Curtis .. well mate the board is god ol MDF ,nothing flashy but works a treat

Phil, one question: where the hell do you keep all the tanks!!!??
Also...how many reference books do you keep, and are there some that you'd recommend picking up by chance?
Also...am I the ONLY girl that does this and finds it just as awesome and fun as you guys? I would go to a local amps meet or something if it weren't for all the creepy guys....lol
I digress! I have a Dremel and haven't gotten to use it very much. I'm sure I'll be using it plenty as I build this dio!!!

Hey you .. ok the tanks are all over my lounge ..i have a 3 bedroom house all to my self its basically one large work shop with a bed lol ..my walls are covered in shelves with the one i want on display ..the others are in bedroom number 3 which is also storage ..i have at least 5 boxes full of dead models ..nothing but parts now ..this Panther is a prefect example ..its going to have parts form Dragon .Tamiya and a few little bits from Italeri ,, just been in there hunting down the parts .got em all now .
Oh now to reference materiel ,,i have a few books ,,not many really but i do have thousands and thousands of photo's on my comp ..its got 3 hard drives just to handle them all ..soon to get two 2 terra bite drives ..that is keep me happy ..heres how it started ..needed some pic for a project ..looked on the net ..and away it goes ..one folder i have on modern military vehicles has more than 30,000 pics in it alone and theres a couple of hundred more folders ..its free and much cheaper than books and takes up very little room lol
There;s two series of books which i do like alot ..Concord and Osprey ..both are brilliant even tho Concord do go more into more detail in their books and with both there;s plenty out there .
Trust me on this you bring a girl ain't a problem .this hobby is for everybody ..all ages ,races and gender ..which is what i love about it and yes it can be huge fun .and a huge pain in the arse too
As to Dermels i'm on my fourth ..killed the other three ..just wore them out ..ok to be honest i can fix them but then wheres the excuse to buy a new one lol and i have to admit i have used them on everything form models to guns to real cars ..its the best motor tool i have ever used ,,simple as that
Oh because of my build i dont have a problem with creepy guys lol

Hi Brandi,
There's not to many ladies on this site that I have seen but there is a lot of women who do our kind of modelling. Mostly women do the Sci-Fi, Auto or figure painting, maybe something to do with the war aspect, I dunno.

But anyway to the crux of this note I've added a link to a site run by a woman called Jenny. I go there occasionally but prefer the guys on Armourama. This is just to show that there are other ladies and not to take you away from this site.

Cheers, John

http://tanksandthings.niceboard.org/

Phil,

This is definitely one for me to watch. I too have have a Bronco M2 Bailey Bridge kit in my stash along with a Resicast Bailey Bridge set that I will see if I can combine for one bridge.

Your challenge will be to build something this large with so much stuff in it and have it still clearly tell a story. Of course, what the customer wants, the customer wants.

Jeff ,, mate you might want to be careful combining those 2 together ..the Bronco bridge alone is nearly 600mm long with both ramps down ..so i be thinkin it would be one long bugger ..cool
Have no fear on this telling a story ..in fact there will be 4 stories and all very easy to read ,,so to speck lol .. the AA bunker will be one ..the tanks crossing the bridge will be two and three will some US chaps working on some bikes and having a chat and fourth will be a simple one ..captured Germans being lead of to a camp under guard of course ..but then again you could add as many stories as you want ..everything can be a story one way or another and you couldnt be more correct ..what the customer wants the customer gets .

Phill

Hi Phil,

Interesting build, this should be a grand dio. Off to a great start, I'll be following developments with interest.

Cheers

Al

John, thanks so much!!!!! I'll check it out. I'm glad to know there ARE some girls that are into this Sorry to hijack your thread, Phil. You can have it back now haha

John what a gentleman you are lol .. damn nice idea with that link mate

Thanks Al ... this one is going to be one i will enjoy ..will be posting some start shots of the Panther today .

Brandi .. oh its ok .. hijacking my thread is ok but only ONCE lol .. hell John was helping you out so its all good

Heres some pics of the Panther ..like i said before its being built from parts and so far its going pretty good ,,so heres some pics of its progress
Starting on the suspension mods ..

Modified suspension arms .


Now there in place and getting ready to set them

Quite a bit later and the suspension arms are set and the road wheels and tracks are in place .


This is how it would look out of the box but i thought i would throw some PE at it i had laying around ,still a little more to go yet tho .
Before PE

After PE




More to follow soon ,,still gotta bang the tools on and a few other bits which were lost .

Phill

Phil, this is coming along quickly!!!! I love the idea of the wire mesh for the grilles, looks fantastic. What types of paints do you use? I'm going to be watching this for some tips and tricks, and I'll ask you a ton of questions on the way
Looks good, can't wait to see it weathered and on the dio itself.