Hello Claude, not nearly done yet. I just wanted to get some pictures of what it will hopefully look like soon. It was a good day to take some outside photos so I didn't want to waste the daylight.

I kinda like the little spruce and its position close to the church, maybe gives the impression that it has been sheltered by the grace of God during this time of conflict, and a sign of the new life that is just around the corner perhaps?

I will think about what you have said though and we shall see. As to its quality I think it is not bad, maybe I will give it a bit more variation in coloring with some light airbrushing.

I too am somewhat disappointed with the roof trusses now but I doubt that I am going to redo them at this point, but you never know. I am going to do some washes and some dry brushing to try to bring out some of the lost detail. I also plan to color the roof tiles and add some interest to the roof line with a bit of debris. In the end I hope the result will "look" right, but that will remain to be seen I guess.

Thanks for your input, it helps to have someone give input since I no longer have the membership of a local model club to bounce ideas off of. There is no organized chapter of any sort here in my city.

I will post more as I continue to build up the rubble and position the elements in the right spots. I still have lots of work on the big tree to finish & all the final steps on the Panther to complete.

Then the figure building begins in earnest.

Take care sir.

Dave.

Thanks you to everyone who has made comments on the build so far, I get a lot of compliments, and some good advice along the way and all of it is welcome and appreciated.

Claude I want you to know that even though we don't know each other at all I place a high degree of value on your opinions and respect your comments on my build.

I have spent the better part of four hours over the past 2 days trying to undo the damage to the roof trusses that you caught in my last update. I thought at first I would just build another roof entirely, as the second time is always a little easier than the first.

Then I thought of just trying to highlight with some dry brushing and some pastels and see if that brought back some of the character to the wood. Neither of those options appealed very much to me for different reasons.

Lastly I thought I would just try to remove the paint as best I could with some thinner, and meticulously remove the buildup of unwanted paint possibly allowing me the opportunity to redeem the hard work of the original build. At that point maybe I could use some filters or washes or apply some transparent colors onto the wood and achieve a desirable effect.

I will let you be the judge. Let me know what you think.

Dave: I think the new effect on the wood came out quite well.

The overall shots are impressive also. Enjoy the sunshine.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Thanks Zon! Once again I think i may have staved off another disaster. I have to keep reminding myself that I am just really getting back into the hobby after a very long hiatus and I will undoubtedly make many more mistakes before I begin to feel comfortable sitting at the work Station or in my case the big old desk.

The weather here was not quite as nice as the weatherman predicted, but I am enjoying the sunshine anyway. Thanks again for the encouragement.

Dave

Another quick update, very quick. I am about to rebuild my roof. Long story short in my efforts to remove the paint I managed to loosen almost all the joints of the rafters etc. So even thought they are pretty clean and mostly paint free, they are in about 10 pieces each. So I might as well just build a new roof. This time i will NOT paint the wood, just some glazes or stains to enhance the grain not COVER it. I will post pictures when I am done.

L8r

Still following this one … and I am still in awe at your work! It’s too bad about the roof, i hope you will build a new one swiftly.

Regards,

nearly finished the new roof Vlad. Thanks for following my build. I should have the roof construction completed today, then a light coloring with some stain, and then glue it down and call it completed. then the figures and the rest.

here are a couple pics of the new roof: I think it will look better than the first when done so I guess I am happy with having to remake it...





And both for a comparison :


all for now.

A few more of the progress:

one more for the record books...

Well I am beyond happy to report that I have successfully finished the buildup of the new roof trusses to replace the old roof! Here are some photos to show it off. I will soon be putting the color on, I think I am going to spray it with a diluted mixture of Vallejo's smoke as it has a darkness I think old wood would get over time but is also transparent allowing the woods natural grain pattern to peek through. I will do some testing firs before I go further.... just to be safe! I am sure it will work better than the last attempt.














In case anyone is curious, the dimensions for this roof section are that the vertical trusses are spaced 3 scale feet apart, & the horizontal support beams are 2 scale feet apart. The roof boards are a scale 2x 12.

Again as always please let me know what you think...

My last update for Saturday night. Les Habitants are winning 2-0 over those hapless Maple Leafs, so I am entering these photos during the commercial breaks. I have laid down some smokey shades on the roof, and wanted to see what the prevailing winds are.... let me know good or bad? Hopefully it looks good to everyone, I am quite happy with it but I ask for other opinions as a way to improve my skills. Have a great night, and early morning to all my european comrades. Go Habs go.

still wondering why I didn't come on this post earlier....

great stuff, brilliant building, and really good looking woodbeam structure!


superdope!

greetz

Thank you Pit. I didn't do the coloring of the roof justice with this last set of shots, so I just took some new pictures out on the driveway with my DSLR. Here they are for a better look at the color washes and the distressing I did between glazes. They look much better in this light and I am quite satisfied with the results. My only issue, and it is a small one, with them is that the color is way lighter than the other " wood " in the church. but I guess it isn't too much of a stretch to have the trusses be a different color, since they are made of a different species and quality of wood then the paneling would be.

Anyway here are the shots I took:













http://s1210.photobucket.com/albums/cc419/ahandykindaguy/?action=view¤t=39c063c0.jpg

Dave;
I like Frank have been following this loosely since you first posted it. And I agree with Frank that it has become quite an amazing piece of work. Every time I run through the photos I am amazed at what you keep adding. Bravo.

Thanks Damon. The lessons I have learned, some of them the hard way will hopefully benefit more then just me. And if that is the case then i am glad I have had the opportunity to help someone else. I often in eagerness get way ahead of myself, & sometimes bite off more then i can chew. Thankfully I don't possess a quitter's spirit though and will push the process to completion.

take it easy, if possible, but take it either way.

Dave

Well said Dave, well said. Cheers to you and looking forward to more progress soon.

Thanks again Damon. I am trying to get some of the interior details finished off so I can glue down the new roof to the church.

I have been trying to figure out a way of securing the tower structures to the floor of the tower section so they can be removed, but won't wobble around when they are in place. I plan to put a few figures up inside so I have to be able to get at them, but the two pieces are a little unstable when I move the diorama around to paint and work on different areas.

I want to make it secure without actually having to glue the tower structures into the tower itself. If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate any suggestions.

This way I would be able to remove them and occasionally blow some air through to remove the dust that will undoubtedly accumulate over time.

for now here is a picture of the radio tables that I got painted today.





Happy modeling everyone1

Hi Dave,
the roof is very convincing to me! Maybe Ilost it, but what did you use to daye it?
Thank you!
Edo

Thanks Edo, I first sprayed a very diluted layer of Vallejo 70930 Smoke over the entire surface of the roof section. I used about 6 drops of smoke to every full cup on my airbrush, an Iwata Revolution. I am not sure how much fluid the AB holds, but I filled it up several times this way to spray the whole roof.

Then I let it dry and after that I took a fine grade sanding stick I liberated from my wife some time ago and lightly sanded away much of the color from off the truss sections, trying to leave the cross beams & the roof boards in their darkened condition for contrast. The good thing about my wife's nail-board is that it is quite narrow, letting me get into the tiny space between trusses.

when I was satisfied with the distressing of the wood, I thought the exposed raw wood was a bit too bright, so I used a wash of mostly 831 Tan glaze, with just a minute amount of smoke added in some spots. I applied this dulling wash with just a small brush.

I also went over some of the cross beams with a dark wash of just smoke to deepen the beams on some of the shadow sides, assuming the majority of the light would be coming from below the roof from lights inside the church.

This is BTW what I spent much of the past couple afternoons trying to do, figure out a way to hang a couple lights up in the rafters to illuminate the building. With all that wood this church would be quite dark without some kind of hanging lights.

Thankfully "Michael's" has a great supply of beads & such for another hobby group but perfect for us as well if you have the time & energy to sort through the myriad isles of them to find the right ones for this present moment. My good fortune should prove to be well worth the headache I got from the search. lol. I will post pics as soon as I can.

Hope that helps Edo,

Has it really been seven days since my last post? Actually it has been eight! well life gets in the way of hobbies like model building sometimes & then there are days when the bug is just not there. I had a bit of both worlds this past week but did manage to get some new work done.

I made a quick trip up to Cowtown & in the process saw a great old church that slightly resembles my own build. Got a few shots of the front of it so when I got home I could compare mine with the real thing to see if I was able to refine my build. More on that soon.

I was able to begin the arduous task of assembling some figures for the dio. Two men for the tower. Here are some shots of their positions and First stages of paint:














I don't mind that both of these figures are wearing the Knight's Cross, actually Dragon's kit has all four of them wearing them, but for my needs you will not be able to see either of them anyway so all is good.

I had the eyes done on the guy holding the MP40, but thought the color was to bright so I am taking another mulligan on him... I have been distracted by the structure of the church again.

Looking at the photos I took in Calgary i came home & decides to change the exterior trim for 2 reasons. One was that I didn't think it looked chunky enough & secondly I wanted to make it reflect the crown detail I put on the interior walls. So I did a little demolition but mostly I just covered the old trim with new stuff:
















I am thinking i will treat this new wood in the same manner as the new roof & trusses on the interior. Smoke and Tan glaze after some distressing. This way I think I will be able to tie the Inside together with the outside for continuity of form and fashion.n With that in mind I finished the Base's frame in the same manner. I like the distressed look alot!

well that is all for now. The owner of the hobby shop here in Lethbridge is hosting the local model club this week & has asked that I bring my Diorama up to show it off so I am trying to get as much finished up as i can while i still have time. I am supposed to start work this coming week so time is getting tighter....

Dave: Your dio continues to impress! The new roof, radios, tables look the part. I also like the new crown on the exterior, however, were you intending to treat it as wood? I would think it more likely to be made of stone on the exterior for better longevity. The dentils are great.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Aloha Zon, how is the weather on the big island? We are getting yet another small blast of winter here in southern Alberta, snow and blowing winds to make an icy mess of the place. Oh well it is almost over for the season. My wife and I were able to visit Hawaii in 08, ten of the best days of our lives during the darkest days of our married life. Losing a child during pregnancy is a brutal reality of life sometimes, but our memories and experiences while getting away to paradise helped us more than we will probably ever know. Cannot wait to get back there again!

I was thinking of doing it as wood, the original work was made to look like stonework, but since the interior wood worked out so well I thought I might try it on the outside too. I also imagined that maybe this church was unable to afford the costly stone when they built & went for the lower cost timbers which would undoubtedly be cheaper and easier to find. I am not going to do anything for a couple days though so I will look to see what other comments and advise I get from those who follow this post.

Thanks for your input & your encouragement.

Mahalo.

Dave: Very sorry to hear of the circumstances during your visit, but glad Hawaii was able to offer you and your wife some healing. God certainly did wonders here. Bless you.

Happy Modelling, -zon

Thanks Zon, He truly is an awesome God! Our faith has made the difference in all things and He has continued to show His faithfulness to us. Our daughter, whom we knew He had promised us many years ago was literally just a hope we had until last summer when a knock on our door changed our lives forever in a miraculous way. Seven weeks later we welcomed our girl into our home, she had always been in our hearts. We look forward to the day we can walk the beaches of your great state again and tell her how God used the sand, surf and people of Hawaii to help us through the loss of her big brother. Thanks for the blessing Zon.

Dave

Well I have time for a very quick update everyone. I took the plunge today and glued the roof section to the church building. I needed to because i will have to do a little more carpentry to change the slope of the roof now that I have redone the exterior moldings. A lower softer sloped area needs to be built to bring the new roofline past the edge of the crown on the walls. I have seen this on many european buildings so i am confident it will look okay, and it will also be carried through to the bell tower roof section which I am currently working on to sit atop the structure when I have secured the inner tower structure to the church.

I secured it with CA glue, and then drove these stakes into holes I had drilled through the wood roof and glued them into the foamcore below!

Here are a few pictures for your enjoyment.





This last picture is blurry but you can see the basket of golf balls I have gathered over the years to keep me from buying any. A perk of working in the industry!




BTW Zon, I suppose I can always repaint the exterior crown to resemble stone if I change my mind, but i do need to finish this whole thing up before the contest season comes around....

Happy Modeling to all!

Dave