Armorama :: In the cold morning of December 19, 1944

Dioramas: Flora & Fauna
Trees, shrubs, nature and animals.

Hosted by Darren Baker

In the cold morning of December 19, 1944

kurnuy

West-Vlaaderen, Belgium
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Posted: Sunday, October 12, 2014 - 06:21 AM UTC

Hello everybody ,

after not having a great summer afterwards , i'm back with a whole new project.

Yes , as you've noticed the title it's a theme from the battle in the Ardennes again .Why ??? Because i like to make them and i think i'm good at it

Okay , so far the showing of

.

Maybe you have seen the pictures of the diorama entitled '' Road Block '' ??? That was my interpretation about how the American defensive positions should have looked like at the very beginning of the battle.

This time i'll show the German side . A German elite unit on its way to take position after taking out a Sherman tank in a forest.

To create the diorama i will use the Panther G from Dragon.
The Sherman tank from Academy.
6 figures from Alpine miniatures and 4 figgies from Dragon (German combat unit , Ardennes 1944 -45 ) equipped with a head from headset WSS set 4 also from Alpine.

I'll make the landscape completely from scratch , meaning by myself

So , what is the current situation ? Well , i've done a pine tree using Aspergus fern soaked in glycerin ore something like that ? The Latin name is Asparagus seteceus .

Once dry , i sprayed te branches with the airbrush with a mix of acryl Tamiya Olive green and deep green . To increase the cold effect i added snow on the branches.

This was actually a test , and here are the pictures...

You can see them also in my gallery

https://gallery.kitmaker.net/showgallery.php/cat/29448

Cheers

Kurt

justsendit

Colorado, United States
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Posted: Sunday, October 12, 2014 - 07:13 AM UTC

Hi Kurt,

Sorry to hear your summer sucked — mine too. And now there's snow in the high-country — it's that time of year, already!

Speaking of snow ... your snow dusted tree looks fantastic! Good luck with the new project.

—mike

Stickframe

#362

California, United States
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Posted: Sunday, October 12, 2014 - 08:20 AM UTC

Hi Kurt - glad to see you're posting again - sorry to hear about the tough summer.

As you're back now, I'm sure we'll see some very good and interesting work!

Nick

jrutman

Pennsylvania, United States
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Posted: Sunday, October 12, 2014 - 08:52 AM UTC

Welcome back brother!! Nice to see you again. Sorry about the summer. Look at it this way,it can only get better!!!
J

panzerconor

Massachusetts, United States
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Posted: Sunday, October 12, 2014 - 10:58 AM UTC

Nice environment there! Looking forward to this one, the Ardennes never gets old

-Conor

kurnuy

West-Vlaaderen, Belgium
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Posted: Monday, October 13, 2014 - 03:57 AM UTC

Hello mike , Nick , Jerry and Conor thanks for the reply !

- mike , i'm sorry to hear about your bad summer too , i hope all is well . So concerning the snow , my timing is perfect right?

I'm glad you like my pine tree .There will be more...Take care !

- Nick , but of course you're going to see some good and interesting work from me .....without cutting my fingers though

Thanks again for your sympathy !

- Jerry , Thanks for the support buddy and congratulations with the new car

I'll need your experience and advice for painting the camouflage patterns on the German combat uniforms....Yeehaaaa....looking forward to that !

-Conor, thank you for looking in and you're right about the Ardennes it's never boring....

Cheers ,

Kurt

kurnuy

West-Vlaaderen, Belgium
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Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - 08:46 AM UTC

Okay , i'm back with a smallish or short update .

I'm working on a second pine tree and this time in a slightly different shape than the previous tree.

The lower part of this tree consists mostly of dead branches and the upper part the healthy branches. The intention is to create more variety in pine trees and for the same reason each tree will also be different in size .
I'll try to make at least five trees....

To simulate dead branches i use fine wire .
Now the progress so far

The next step will be the application of the asparagus fern .

Stay tuned !

Cheers

Kurt

1stjaeger

Wien, Austria
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Posted: Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - 10:25 AM UTC

Hi Kurt,

welcome back... and with a new project!!!
Ah, Ardennes, one of my favs (given my origin)

Thanks for the WIP photos! The first one looks just fine!!

Good luck with the dio m8!

Cheers

Romain

jrutman

Pennsylvania, United States
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Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 02:28 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hello mike , Nick , Jerry and Conor thanks for the reply !

- mike , i'm sorry to hear about your bad summer too , i hope all is well . So concerning the snow , my timing is perfect right?
I'm glad you like my pine tree .There will be more...Take care !

- Nick , but of course you're going to see some good and interesting work from me .....without cutting my fingers though Thanks again for your sympathy !

- Jerry , Thanks for the support buddy and congratulations with the new car I'll need your experience and advice for painting the camouflage patterns on the German combat uniforms....Yeehaaaa....looking forward to that !

-Conor, thank you for looking in and you're right about the Ardennes it's never boring....

Cheers ,

Kurt

The trees are looking great so far brother!
You shouldn't have much trouble with the German winter combat suits as only the Heer troops had those during the Ardennes. The WSS didn't have them until Hungary.
BUT...the WSS did wear a lot of summer cammo uniforms in Belgium,etc. Smocks and 4 pocket '44 suits,etc.
BTW,did you see Count Claudes' incredible fir tree on his newest part of the Clervaux dio?
J

kurnuy

West-Vlaaderen, Belgium
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Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 05:08 AM UTC

Hello Romain and Jerry ,

thanks friends for the reply !

- Romain , i'm glad to see you back in this new topic m8 ! I was getting a little bit anxious to be honest .

You are Ardenois ???

Well then , your advice and comments will be appreciated for sure and ow , i certainly count on that eagle eye of yours

-Jerry , WAAW that was fast ??? When i mentioned elite unit in my first post , i meant indeed WSS. To be honest this is my first diorama that contain WSS. And because i'm not good in painting figures you may say '' a very sloppy painter '' the painting of the patterns will be tough to do .

Yes . i've seen the fir tree in the newest part of Claude's topic. It's fabulous and close to perfection ! I have also seen the pictures of the show in Veldhoven (Netherlands) at fb. Château Clervaux was present and i have to admit that Claude est un vrai maître a true master ! Very nice pictures of his beautiful work !

Cheers

Kurt

jhoenig

New York, United States
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Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 11:57 AM UTC

Kurt, Lookin real good, I agree Ardennes stuff never gets old, keep up the good work!
- John

kurnuy

West-Vlaaderen, Belgium
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Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 04:24 PM UTC

Hi John ,

thanks for the reply , really appreciated !

If my pine trees are even good as yours , i'll be very happy !

I'll do my best to make it good lookin .

Cheers

Kurt

1stjaeger

Wien, Austria
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Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 07:00 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Kurt, Lookin real good, I agree Ardennes stuff never gets old, keep up the good work!
- John

Well, you count among the fir tree masters as well John!!!

1stjaeger

Wien, Austria
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Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 07:04 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Hello Romain and Jerry ,

thanks friends for the reply !

- Romain , i'm glad to see you back in this new topic m8 ! I was getting a little bit anxious to be honest . You are Ardenois ???

Well then , your advice and comments will be appreciated for sure and ow , i certainly count on that eagle eye of yours

Kurt

Hi Kurt,

thanks for the kind words m8!

Yes, I was born in Wiltz and later grew up in Ettelbrück! My whole family (on both sides) is ardennoise!

Cheers

Romain

roudeleiw

Luxembourg
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Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 09:34 PM UTC

Hi Kurt

Thanks for the comments on my dio.
The upper part of the trunk of your tree should really be thinner. Just look at a real one. They are thinning out really early and the last 1-2 meters are very thin.

The size relation between the trunk and the aspargus fern is not really yppealing to the eye to. If you do not have bigger aspargus, try to thin the whole trunk a bit.

Myself I changed now to the moss technique. The tree looks really better, more filled. With the right moss it is also easier to mae a nice tip for the tree, something impossible to make with aspargus. In your region you should be able to find the moss in humid forests. It's really worth a try.

Greets

Claude

kurnuy

West-Vlaaderen, Belgium
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Posted: Thursday, October 16, 2014 - 05:44 AM UTC

[quote]

Quoted Text

Yes, I was born in Wiltz and later grew up in Ettelbrück! My whole family (on both sides) is ardennoise!

Cheers

Romain

Well , from the heart of Luxembourg ! And i thought you were Austrian with roots in Germany somewhere close to the border with Belgium.....

Never mind m8 ,

Kurt

kurnuy

West-Vlaaderen, Belgium
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Posted: Thursday, October 16, 2014 - 06:24 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Hi Kurt

Thanks for the comments on my dio.
The upper part of the trunk of your tree should really be thinner. Just look at a real one. They are thinning out really early and the last 1-2 meters are very thin.

The size relation between the trunk and the aspargus fern is not really yppealing to the eye to. If you do not have bigger aspargus, try to thin the whole trunk a bit.

Myself I changed now to the moss technique. The tree looks really better, more filled. With the right moss it is also easier to mae a nice tip for the tree, something impossible to make with aspargus. In your region you should be able to find the moss in humid forests. It's really worth a try.

Greets

Claude

It is my pleasure Claude and you've earned it.

About my pine tree ;

I did a little research on the net about needle-leaved trees or confirs.

You have two species , one is called pine tree and the other is called spruce or fir, firry etc....

the big differences between those two trees are the size of their needles and also the structure hard or soft needles....

A pine tree has long and soft needles and the trunk can be shaped like a foliage tree. The pine cone is usually small depending on what kind of pine tree , austrian pine tree

for example.

The spruce has short and hard needles and their always straight. The cone is normally long and looks like leather. That's the tree that we use as a christmas tree in fact it's a Norway spruce.

to make this story short , i think that we are talking about different trees and that your tree with the moss technique is in fact a Norway spruce , however i'm not sure about it.

All i know is(correct me if i'm wrong) that in the Ardennes forests most of the firs are Norway spruce type of trees which are imported and planted a long time ago.That explains also the straight rows of the trees in the forest.

But i'm going to try out your moss technique as well and adapt the upper part of my trees.

I thank you Claude for looking in and your comments.

Cheers

Kurt

kurnuy

West-Vlaaderen, Belgium
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Posted: Friday, October 17, 2014 - 09:33 AM UTC

Hi guy's ,

i'm back with an update .

First of all let me explain the scene.

A Sherman tank positioned between a farmland and forest observes the road . At a certain moment the Sherman is hit in the flank , the driver switches the tank in reverse and he tries to reach the forest .....a second hit destroys one of the tracks and the Sherman is immobilized. Out of the fog a Panther tank appears escorted by infantry and fires off the final shot killing most of the crew.....except for the driver who is injured and tries to climb out of the tank !

First of all a sketch

These are two pictures of a broken pine tree , it's a battle scene so there will be damaged trees involved. Not finished yet !

I'm not going to bore you with photos or updates from every new tree i've made , so i'll give further details about the diorama on the next update .

Thanks for watching !

Kurt

1stjaeger

Wien, Austria
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Posted: Friday, October 17, 2014 - 10:03 AM UTC

[quote]

Quoted Text

Quoted Text

Yes, I was born in Wiltz and later grew up in Ettelbrück! My whole family (on both sides) is ardennoise!

Cheers

Romain

Well , from the heart of Luxembourg ! And i thought you were Austrian with roots in Germany somewhere close to the border with Belgium.....

Never mind m8 ,

Kurt

No problem Kurt!

And I'm intrigued by this project..!! A lot of story to tell in one scene!

Claude has a point about the diameter ot the tree trunk! Trees that thick would be older, bigger, "wilder" if you see what I mean. And the top part would be more tapered IMHO.
Asparagus is one possible way. It can look superb..look at John's (Hoenig) example!!

The other of course is Claude's way. I know I would never have the patience to complete such a beauty!! You must be Claude to manage that!

Anyway, good luck with this new project!!!

Cheers

Romain

alewar

Canelones, Uruguay
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Posted: Friday, October 17, 2014 - 12:24 PM UTC

Hi, nice work!, please can you explain me, why did you use glicerine?

Regards from the south
Alvaro

kurnuy

West-Vlaaderen, Belgium
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Posted: Friday, October 17, 2014 - 08:26 PM UTC

[quote]

Quoted Text

Quoted Text

Quoted Text

Yes, I was born in Wiltz and later grew up in Ettelbrück! My whole family (on both sides) is ardennoise!

Cheers

Romain

Well , from the heart of Luxembourg ! And i thought you were Austrian with roots in Germany somewhere close to the border with Belgium.....

Never mind m8 ,

Kurt

No problem Kurt!

And I'm intrigued by this project..!! A lot of story to tell in one scene!

Claude has a point about the diameter ot the tree trunk! Trees that thick would be older, bigger, "wilder" if you see what I mean. And the top part would be more tapered IMHO.
Asparagus is one possible way. It can look superb..look at John's (Hoenig) example!!

The other of course is Claude's way. I know I would never have the patience to complete such a beauty!! You must be Claude to manage that!

Anyway, good luck with this new project!!!

Cheers

Romain

Thanks Romain ,

glad to hear that the story triggers the imagination.....
Don't worry about the trunks , i'll make them more realistic.

I am going to try Claude's way for sure because it's always pleasant to try an other technique , just give me some time to do it

I have to focus on building up the diorama as well ! A lot of work but something i will succeed .

Thanks again for the comments m8 !

Ola Alvaro ,

i give you this link to check out.
I use 4 parts of Glycerin by 1 part of water. Using Glycerin mixt with water is not toxic and is also used in the food sector.

http://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/227247&page=1

Thank you for looking in !

Regards from the heart of Europe !

Saludos,

Kurt

jhoenig

New York, United States
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Posted: Saturday, October 18, 2014 - 02:18 AM UTC

Kurt, all is good, you have to do what you want. You will never please everybody. In my early days I would build something and think it was the cats meow only to get shot up with criticism, its supposed to be a fun hobby and if you like it go with it unless your specifically asking for criticism. Scale is tough because if you build some of these trees to scale they will look out of scale, in my Ardennes diorama some of those trees are 24" tall. Claudes new pine tree is friggin' awesome but even for me that's just too much work, every day gains more experience, just keep it fun so you don't lose interest
- John

kurnuy

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Posted: Saturday, October 18, 2014 - 07:35 AM UTC

Quoted Text

Kurt, all is good, you have to do what you want. You will never please everybody. In my early days I would build something and think it was the cats meow only to get shot up with criticism, its supposed to be a fun hobby and if you like it go with it unless your specifically asking for criticism. Scale is tough because if you build some of these trees to scale they will look out of scale, in my Ardennes diorama some of those trees are 24" tall. Claudes new pine tree is friggin' awesome but even for me that's just too much work, every day gains more experience, just keep it fun so you don't lose interest
- John

Hi John ,

very wise words and i agree with every word you said ! So a big thank you for your support ! This afternoon i watched a few videos of the scenic factory on You tube.....very interesting stuff !

24'' tall ? Is that in inch ??? That's about 60,96 cm ??? That's i think more than 2 feet ???? Oh boy , on scale 1:35 ??? The tallest tree i have is about 10 inch......Good Lord !

But okay , today i've done a little bit more work on the pine trees... I'm running low on Asparagus fer

, it takes a whole lot of work for making reasonable looking

pine trees.

Okay , the photo below shows very white branches in reality it's less white !

Thanks for looking

Cheers ,
Kurt

justsendit

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Posted: Saturday, October 18, 2014 - 08:33 AM UTC

Walk softly through the forest or snow may fall from the branches onto your head.

Looks great Kurt!

—mike

jhoenig

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Posted: Saturday, October 18, 2014 - 09:32 AM UTC

Yes Kurt a couple are that tall in order to portray the thicker trunk but its not practical for most dioramas and they really eat up material. I wanted the tall "towering" look over the soldiers and schwimwagen. I have started a Hurtgen Forest diorama that I will start a thread on. It portrays the doom and gloom aftermath of a battle with a bunch of artillery splintered trees.
I'm following this with interest, keep it up.
Mike - are you sure your not part Confucius?!!haha
- John

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