Hi Everyone, I've uploaded some photos of this dio, it's a church/convent type of ruin, it has Dragon's PAK 36 & figures kit, a resin statue purchased from Michaels craft store. All of the building sections are scratchbuilt, it was my first attempt at doing this, and I actually had some fun doing it! Comments and critisisms welcome...once again, I'm so code illeterate, and have a hard time trying to upload them into the forum...D'oh!The pics are in the Gallery, under KellyZak....

Enjoy!

Kelly

Great job on the dio. The building came out real well. I like the brick work. What did you use for the walls ?

Wolfsix

Great work ! The scene looks so real and lively !

Congreats !

You have nailed the walls. They are nicely done. The amount of rubble is well done too.
The angles are great, nothing is lined up which makes for visual interest. I like that there are a couple of stories going too.


Two comments that are popping up as I look at it. The guy in back with the wound and the CO (guy pointing) make me feel as if there is current action going on. The other three make me feel like its a lul and they are relaxed. Just a bit of 'emotional' conflict.
The walking figure is not paying attention (looking at) the guy down.
The CO is pointing in a totally different direction and that is throwing me off.

I just looked again and realized what is causing my 'problem' - the title of Laying in Wait. That makes me feel like they are ambushing or hiding and the points above contradict that. I was thinking that something like "Over Here" as a title will smooth some of that out. Either the guy down or the CO can be yelling "Over Here".
Hope I have made my point.

The diorama is well constructed and had a LOT of good points.

Hi Slodder, now that I look at it, you're right, I guess I was trying to show the CO quietly pointing out where a target was, and the wounded guy had fallen back from another area out of site of the enemy. I tried to get the solidier running to him angled a bit better, but when I posed the figure kind of leaning down, it would've looked like he was going to tip right over. Thanks for the comments!
The building started out as a sheet of poured plaster, cut in half with our mitre saw, and then was followed by drawing a basic brick pattern, and arched doorway.
I then scribed in all of the lines with the back end of a razor knife, and when pieces chipped off, I wasn't concerned, as it just added to the look of an old building. I then took my dremmel tool and with a cutting drill bit, carved out the broken sections on the ends. I then took an air gun and blew off excess plaster dust, painted it with Humbrol brick colored enamel. Washed with artist oils, and drybrushed. The base rubble was also washed, drybrushed and I added alot of MIG's brick dust to finish it off.

well done! this is a very nice scene and the incorporation of that statue is really cool. the rubble is nice and the weathering on the buildings is wonderful. overall a really great job.

nice diorama kelly zak, its fantastic the only thing i dont like is the poster, its to framed and striaght, i thinkits needs a litle more weathering and battyle damge, like tares and burn marks

good job anyway i love it

matt

Kelly, I really like the layout of your dio. I love your brick work and the edges of the walls, I also like the fell i get from the dirt and rubble. I agree with another here that your posters look to new, they should have some tears in them. All in all a great diorama. Cant wait to see what you do next. Cheers Kevin

Overall an excellent dio. I love the ruins and all the rubble ... very realistic. Great use of the angel, and its well blended in. The only thing that strikes me in a nitty way is the size of the base for a small number of figures and a PAK.The upstairs feels empty. Personally I would have liked to make use of this with maybe a "spotter" with binoculars, a sniper or even a machine gun team! This aside, its a great dio. The pic below may show better what i mean.

Thanks for the comments everyone!
Gee, so many cool ideas coming from you all, I didn't even think of a sniper up top! I know that the posters look a little too new, I just can't seem to get that "ripped and torn" look happening...I've tried using some scissors to cut little nicks, but it just looks exactly like scissors had cut the paper. Anyone have any suggestions on how to achieve the ripped look for posters?
Thanks again,
Kelly

Well - to achieve a ripped look - hate to sound easy - but rip it. For that scale I would simply pinch the poster between your two fingers of both hands and carefully tear the side away from each other. Try to keep the raggedness to a minimum. At 1/35th scale you won't see a lot of the ragged edges that you see in 1/1.

One thing I do to posters is to roll them, I bring one end to the other and I then roll the two ends together. I don't crease the fold. This gives the overall paper a worn ragged look.

I've looked at this for a couple days now. You have some great individual elements here. Well painted figures with subtle camo which is good for the scale and shows nice wear, good contruction on the wall elements and use of rubble, nicely damaged statue.
BUT 3 stings jump out at me.
First, the angle of the walls do not match. The sides are parallel to the long axix of the base while the front is at an angle and doesn't seem to match the angles of the walls. A little shift might have given the flavor of the Flatrion Building inTimne Square (NYC).
Second, the PaK appears (and this could be the pictures) to be aiming at a wall.At he very least, it have a very limited field of fire.
Third, there doesn't seem to be a single focal point where the viewer can stand and understand what he'she is looking at. I think the wall with the poster is what does that, since the eye is stopped by this flat space.
I hope you don't take these comments as harsh, because I like what you did.

Hey, no worries at all, Al, the comments is what helps us all improve our skills! The camera angle is a little deceieving on the part of the gun, it kind of looks like it is aiming at the wall, but it is actually aimed quite a way from it, I definately made sure of that when I put the gun on the base, the boys would have some serious problems if they let fly and the shell hit the wall ten feet away! LOL :-)
But like I said, this was my first attempt at scratchbuilding a building section, and now I can only improve upon with the great suggestions from everyone here!