Hi everyone, I had a semi-productive weekend on the first building for my new dio. I tried a new technique on the timbers used in the walls and added a thatched roof. The pics dont show the timbers well yet...they will come soon Please let me know what you think. I havent done any weathering on this yet, and havent trrimmed up the thatch. I will start that today. Also am playing around with the vehicle positions, so I would appreciate feedback there too. As always all comments welcome and incouraged, both good and bad.In some of the pics you see a piece of cardboard, thats the location of the second building. Cheers Kevin

hiya kevin you got a great looking barn their. I like the dio idea is their going to be a river or will it be dryed out?

keep us posted. looking good sofar!

Juul, there is going to be a river. Even a couple kids fishing as the germans roll by Thanks for the comments.Cheers Kevin

so Kev thats great lookin there . I like the setup and all!!!!! Why don u put some fish around the kids that will be fishing ?

Costas

Keep us updated please

Hmmmm ok Costas, in the water or on the ground? I can make a few for in the water but I sure could use a nice one on the ground with the boys. Have any ideas where I can get such a fish? Thanks for the comments friend Costas, and with the boys, soldiers and fish(?)Cheers Kevin

welllllllll i ll be happy to assist and send u some scratched fishes there !!!!! but i dont know if they ll reach fresh enough !!!!!!
ok written down and will be done !!!
Costas

Thank you again Costas. If the package smells on arrival I will know to plug my nose when opening it :-)

Pretty nice so far. Visually, I'm left with a big empty wall and the impression that the window is to small. I know its early and as figures and detail are added this affect will go away. Just something to think about.
Another thing to think about is the position of the vehciles with relation to thier suspension. As the Pnz IV goes up over that little ridge some of the middle road wheels will compress a bit. It's a bit hard with the angle of the shots to know if looks ok or not. Just consider it when you go for the final spot.

Looking good - good weekend work.

Timbers are looking good! Looks like you have good placement on the bridge, I like it! I like the fish idea, better find some. If Costas can't, I have a pond in the back yard with lots of little babies!

Thanks guys for the comments. Scott-I am still playing with the vehicle position, there are a lot of figures that are going on this dio and have to be sure there is room and its layed out well. As far as the window goes, the building in the picture had two small windows sorta centered on the long wall, from what I figured I came pretty close to the size in the photo. But I thought it looked a little small too.As for the road surface, it will all be redone when i get the final vehicle placement and I hope i dont have to "adjust the road wheels". Paul-since Costas volunterred to make a few fish I am sure I will use them. Now its just figuring out what I will use for the water. Also thanks again for sending me off the figures as well. I appreciate it. Cheers Kevin

I know that the closest side of the bridge is supposed to represent the opposite bank but I would like to see two posts with a support beam across the top rather than a solid piece. That way you can see the river details instead of having to move around. If you look at the thrid picture, most of the detail under the bridge will be blocked out by that solid pice.

ShermiesRule
I'm pretty sure that Kevin is planning on having the bridge 'hover' with no supports on the edge side. That way the entire underside of the bank will be open.
I believe that what you see is mearly a construction support that will be gone on the finishe product.

Alan, Scott is 100% correct. Now I have to figure out if if the river I make will be worth looking at My first attempt at water was a terrible experience, hopefully I will have good results this time using other products. Again thanks for the comments guys. Cheers Kevin

Hovering will be even better. I just thought it would be a shame not to see the detail of kids fishing or whatever is going down there. My bad. Good job

Jack - what are you using for water?

Ok as I said earlier I would post a close up of the building timbers. I tried new things so everyone let me know what you think. Scott as far as water goes I have the same casting resin you did in the dio you showed me, but I don't know how to tint it. Even with it being a mountain stream it would still have a bit of color to it, wouldnt it? I also have the dreaded E-Z water(which I wont use), realistic water, and water effects. Any one with comments on this please let me know. The water I will try to duplicate would be a fast moving mountain stream or river. Any way enough talk here is the wall section. Let me know what you think. Cheers Kevin

Kevin, your dio is good. Keep it good work.

You can try to use transparent liquid die used just for that liquid resin. It's sold at Michaels and is in the same area. Honestly, good luck on color, you can mix the different colors, I was unsuccessful and ran out of time on the dio I was working on. I also tried Ritt clothing die. Again, it was ok, but I just couldn't get a color I liked. It will take a number of tests to 'get it right'. Lots of small test batches.

The rock wall is looking good, the walls are nicely textured. Will they receive an overall patel coating?

jackhammer81,

The dio is coming along great. I'll have to give one a shot some day. I especially like the thatch roof. What did you use as thatch?

Thanks for the kind words guys. Scott I will be using pastels as the building is close to the dirt road. About the water, I wasnt aware of the fact that rit dye can be mixed with the resin. Was it the liquid dye? I tried a test of the powdered dye and thats what I got was little flecks of dye through out a clear body. Thats the only real thing thats holding me back from the resin. I have a bunch of RIT dye in the powder form, but I am not sure if it mixes with the realistic water either. Armorguy the thatch is hemp twine that has been cut to length then untwisted and glued into place. Cheers Kevin

You just brought back memories, you have to stir the RIT FOREVER.

If you are going to leave a side wall barrier that you can't see through on the EDGE of the water you can also try the pour 3/4" of resin, then AB a transucent layer of dark green, then another 1/4" of resin, then AB a transulcent layer of lighter green (or substitute whatever water color you want [brown]), then and so on until you have a very thin top layer of clear. Only works if you have a 'damned' edge.

Kevin, it is hard to tell from the photo, if they are too dark or not, to play it safe will say from the photo, they may be a little dark. My reasoning behind being a little on the dark side is they were most likely sedimentary rock (lighter in color) uplifted and left by the glaciers, some may be igneous if brought down from the mountains which would have leaned toward the darker shades. Both types of stones would have been rounded by the movement of the glaciers. My answer would be check a map and see if there were mountains near by, if yes go darker and if no then go lighter shades.

Scott, what paint exactly would I use that is transparent? I would love to try that as I dont think I will be able to get away with the ends being open. Paul, since its set in the carpathian mountains I guess the rocks should be a little darker. The pic was very dark, so I can see where it would be hard to judge. Again guys thanks for the comments. Cheers Kevin

Well Kev i think that if u paint in some intermidiate gray-brown tone and use easy water and water effects for detailing will do well.
also maybe can use more that 2-3 layers of easy water till the surface painting lightly each one with lighter shades as going up and highly dilluted colour to give the depth impression . if its not too deep maybe with 1-2 coats will do the job but for having fishes in it u should give some depth

Costas

Coming along very nicely Kevin, Must have been darn tedious getting the twine for the roof but it has a nice effect.
Can't wait to see the whole thing finished.