Olaaaaaaa People

Well I can finaly say I finished the thing to my own satisfaction. I entered it in Belgium in a contest and I will enter it coming saturday in a contest. But still after Belgium I didn`t have the idea it was completely finished. The ground looked too clean. It was not messy enough. To be short it didn`t had a Junkyard feeling. So I did some last minute modifications and additions.
First a pic to remind you guys how it looked before:
FAUSTS too tidy Junkyard.

Next the modifications:
I added more grass around the gun and also the addition of the bricks under and around it give more the idea it is a junkyard.


Some broken branches and a bunch of fallen leaves:


And next.... Does my Vine look....... "Vine"?



All the pics can be found Here
It is quite funny to see how modifications small as these can change the dio inmense. Fun thing is that the whole scene now ties together even better then before. The quality of the pics differ a little bit as some pics I had to make with flash to get them sharp.

As always I would like to hear your feedback

Faust...I love this Dio, sir...lots of little " goodies " lying about...Nice job!

Gunny

That vine on the barrel REALLY makes a statement - NICE.
The bricks are really good, can you 'smoosh' one or two into the ground a bit more or put a bit of sand up against the side to make it look like they've been there a long time? If not, no big deal they do add a lot.

Great addition, tell us about the medal you win with this.

nice dio! maybe you could explain to some of us unexperienced modellers how to get such great rust effects?

That is a work of art the attention to detail is super the rust effect is out standing, and what a difference those extra little details have made,the composition leads your eye into all the detail very original,first class.

Keep it up man cheers tango20

nice touch ups!

The additions bring more life to the dio..Nice Job!

Ola People

Thanks for the speedy replies.

Slodder
It is not possible to "Smoosh" one or two brick into the ground as the ground is hard as concrete. At this stage it is ok for me. I`m not doing a single thing on it anymore. I`m satisfied finally.

Spectre
The Rust effects are really easy to do. I only used 1 color of paint and about 4 different colors of MIG pigments. Applied one by one but also mixed together to create different tones of rust. I first apply the paint. In my case Humbrol Brickred. ( I believe that is #71) While the paint is still wet I start dabbing a rustcolored pigment on it. Because the wet paint make it clog up a little bit you get this really neat rust texture. Then you take another rustcoloured pigment and you dab that on different locations of the gun to get some different in tones. Then mix it with black pigments dab that on different places. add some dustcolourd pgiments etc. etc. Everybody can do that and the result is really nice.

As for Gunny, Tango, Mech maniac and PVtParts Thanks for the comments.

Robert - If you're satisfied - I'm satisfied - Go get that medal!

Ola Slodder

Well I hope the judges will be equally impressed as you guys. First let`s make it to the end of teh contest and then we`ll see if I can celebrate

well i thing latest improvements have really upgrade this lil fine vigniette or dio or whatever yard it is !!!!! This contest will go a bit better i think !!!!!

Costas

Faust - I simply LOVE off-beat ideas like this, and your new modifications are exceptional... especially the clinging vine. Tell us about how you made that?

The vine really adds a lot pulling the eyes to the barrel which then emphasizes the rusted through hole. I liked it before, I love it now. Great work, Robert!

Ola Guys

Thanks for the replies.

Costas:
Thanks for the comment. I too hope this can take some metal at the upcoming contest(s)

Keith
Yeah I`m a big fan of seeing things like this. I often try to look if I can position a model in an environment wich is not usual depicted in dioramas.
The Clinging vine was made with some khaki colored sewing thread and birchseeds wich perfectly are looking like (vine) leaves in scale. Well what I basically did ws putting a few drops of CA glue on an leftover bathroom tile of wich I have a few laying around my workshop. Perfect for cuting PE etc. but also for this sort of stuff. I modified a Toothpick by cutting a minispear out of it and making the point sharper and thinner. I Aplied with my mod. Toothpick some CA glue to the end of the wire and with tweezers I put it under the gun. That is where the vine starts. Then I added a little drop of CA glue on every part of the thread of wich I wanted it to touch the gun. I took carefully the gunshield off to let me reach the difficult spots easier. well I twsited around a couple of things etc. etc. till I came to the point as it is now without the leaves. I placed the gunshield back in it`s place again. Now comes the point you all will probably think I`m nuts. I took one of the bags of Birchseeds wich I collected last fall in the garden of my neighbour and poured some out. then I started selecting them on size. Too big would look weird everything smaller was always better. When I had made a selection of leaves wich had the good size I applied them to the sewing thread. Again I used CA glue. Through the years I have found out that organic things and things like wire and thread are connected to each other almost by the smell of the CA glue as fast as that is cured. Well I took the first leave (one of the smallest I could find as real vines always end up with the smallest leave) and added some glue with my toothpick. then I applied it to the thread with my tweezer. and so on and so on. No PE or whatever AM just the real handwork. After only 2 hours. (the vine isn`t that big) all the leaves were added. When everything was fully cured I took Humbrol #112 (IIRC it is a light version of the US green) thinned it a bit with ordinary DIY shop turpentine and with a little brush and a lot of patience I painted all the leaves and the thread. Because the paint was thinned it was easily soaked up by the thread and because of that the danger of ruining my model with green streaks because I didn`t need to get too close. just a light touch was enough to colour the wire.
Well that is basically the "Vine" saga. like the roman emperor Quintillius (who was a wonderfull gardner) once said: "In Vine Veritas"

Al
thanks for the comments. again I hope the judges will be just as enthuosiastic as you guys.

Looks even better now!Congrats!

I believe i already commented this one earlier but after theese changes its even more wonderfull :-)