Hi Guys,

Been lurking the forums too long not to contribute something back!

I've been on and off model making since I was a kid and I've finally got the bug back to pick up a pair of snips and paintbrush again.

Since its been roughly 5 years since I touched a kit I've taken an old Tamiya 88mm kit found assembled in the loft and decided to make a diorama scene to practice techniques and get back into the groove of things. The model was built when I was around 12 years old, so frustratingly its inaccurate and not a build I'd be proud of however id rather practice on this than a new model and make a mess of it!

Here are a few pictures of the base I'm working on. Its a Mini Art # 36033 farm wall diorama, which I have to admit was an interesting if not slightly frustrating build.
The groundwork is nearly finished, apart from pigments and details such as the drains.
I still need to add grime and weathering to the flaked plaster walls and the wooden doors. I am going to be re-painting the wall coping stones as I'm not happy with them.



Cheers
Dan

Hey Dan,

good choice you made to pick up the hobby again!
It seems you forgot to add a link to the pictures, though.

Cheers

Currently fighting minor technical issues....
Pics will be up shortly!

Pics added after technical issues!

Assembly stages:





Primed, shaded, base colour for brickwork added, plaster and chipped paint added:




Groundwork painting started, tufts of grass added, washes and colour variations added to the brickwork




Colour variations on cobbles added, washes and drybrushing started on groundwork, some of the details have had base colours added:

Wow that turned out really nice!

dear lord are those individual bricks on tape waiting to be flipped and painted from another side?

Indeed they are, those bricks are being pre-painted before I use them to create a rubble pile beneath the gap in the wall.

Here's some progress on making the scene a little more worn and weathered. It’s the first time I’ve been experimenting with enamels to weather so I think I’ve gone a bit overboard but I enjoy working with them. A few of the streaks aren’t quite vertical which bugs me but want to at least move onto the next stage otherwise I’ll never get finished!

That is some sweet looking diorama base!

Gaz

Thanks Gaz,

I've still got a bit of work to do on it
- create the rubble pile beside the wall and weather it
- paint and weather the wooden doors
- finish painting and rusting the drains
- drybrush the cobbles
- put pigments and dust around the whole thing to blend it together

Then I can finally work on the 88! I have the 88, the transport bogeys, fuel drum, jerry cans, plenty of ammo boxes and ammo plus spent ammo casings to try make it look a bit more of a scene.

In my mind im going for an Italy '44 setting, hence the dry scrub grass and sandy appearance. Havent decided if I go for full Desert colour scheme on the 88 or go a mix of sand/green, I haven't done enough research to know if there are any known colour schemes identified in Italy service.

nice job on the Miniart dio.

damn that looks realistic, it makes me wanna hire some workers to redo those walls

Dan, that looks fantastic. Love how you've done it. I've got quite a few Miniart kits to build as I've picked them up when they've been at a good price. Even though I hate building them as they're a real ballache,they're quite nice kits when they're finished. I'd seen this one a few times and never bothered picking it up as it looked a bit boring with just two walls, but seeing what you've done with it I'm going to pick one up next time I see one cheap. You've taken a rather mundane kit and made it look really interesting. Rather than just being the background for the main model this stands out on it's own! It's that good it will probably distract from the main subject lol. Top work mate.

Dan, what did you use for the sand or is it actually sand? I was told once that sawdust's a good substitute so just wondered. Re the colour scheme for the 88. If you're going for Italy it'll be a dunkel gelb spray job all over from 1943 so you can leave it one colour or go for a dunkel grun overspray pattern. I have to admit I do like the green over sand colour as a paint job. From photos I've seen it seems that was more common in Italy rather than the three colour camouflage

Thanks mate went with this mini art base mainly because it gives quite a lot of area to work with, its surprising how much room the 88 takes up with the transport bogeys and ammo without makign the scene look incredibly crowded and crammed in. I have to admit i hated building it but im happy with how its turning out. the drains are actually spares from mini arts 'park wall' kit (have that in mind for a Marder III M kit i have stashed). The bricks are pegasus resin and quite good, i want to use them to make the damage to the wall more natural rather than looking like its been neatly tidied away.

The ground work is actually sifted builders sand as i had it to hand. For future im going to use actual dirt sifted and dried for a bit of a finer finish.

Im leaning towards dunkel gelb with green camo as it will look a bit more interesting and give me chance to experiment with my airbrush more than doing a solid paint job.

Been working on the rubble surrounding the wall, only thing to do now is pigments across the whole of the groundwork once I've finished the detailing the rest of the base (wood doors and minor rusting on the drains).

Also included the models I intend to have in the scene, it's surprising how easily the space gets filled!!!











The 88 was built when I was a teen, when I didn't put historical accuracy high up on my priorities (so I know there are... many, errors) however it's cleaned up sufficient enough to practice on and make a reasonable model

As always, any feedback welcome, even if it's negative lol! I'd rather learn from my mistakes haha.

Dan

Looking really good so far.

looks great I would aim the gun out through the wall damage personally

Impeccable stone work. Magnificent!

The base is coming out great, I really like what you have done with the walls.

Robert

Great work on the base Dan, it looks excellent!

Dan

Great choice to put the 88 together with that base. Lots of potential there to develop it into a first class diorama

Simon

I like this one, coming along nicely

Dan, this is coming on nicely. My only suggestion would be to have the 88 using the hole in the wall in an armour ambush situation as it would be hidden by the wall and the first time anyone knew it was there would be when a tank was hit. It just seems a bit odd pointing at something inside the farmyard/compound. You'd still get a bit of traverse on it even with the wall there. Just an idea. I like the way this is coming together. Have you decided what figures you're using for it?