Brethren, ive finished sketches of my Stalingrad Dio and i need help in a few areas. First, i need to know how can i economically and effectively/ realistically make buildings and from what material. Second, i would greatly appreciate any suggestion on how to make railtroad tracks, likely scorched and twisted. Third, i'd like to know if anyone has any idea where i can buy good Russian and German infantry figures and have t hem shipped to Lebanon , price isnt really an issue. Id also like to know how can i effectively make damage on buildings? I tried once to make damage by literally exploding chunks off structures with the aid of pyrotechnics and firearms (!!!!!!!) , that was cool, but in a sadistic and very damaging way, like an airraid or arty round. And finally, im making a Staligrad Dio of The Train station with tracks in the kiddle and two opposite buildings on either side of the dio with Russians and Germans dogfighting for the position, a PzKfw IV stands in the middle, providing cover fire after bursting through a wall. On the Russian end, a T-34/76-42 rides through the front entrance ( a la Call of Duty on PS2, although i think they put a t-34/85 there, if yes, then they belong on the same shamelist as Enemy at the gates) . There is extensive damage to the station caused by air raids and the glass is shattered on top of the vitrage on the roof and debris is literally everyewhere. A burned out Panzer (scratchbuilt crap from spare parts and cardboard) stands in a corner. How does that sound? Im not even mentioning the outside of the station, thats chaos. Hehe :-)

Hey there again.

First, as far as buying figures.. check out these places. I order from them on a regular basis and I usually get my package within 3 weeks at the latest. so it should be no problem for you in Lebanon.

http://www.hobbyterra.com

http://www.hobbyeasy.com

http://www.luckymodel.com

Second, as far as making buildings.. I use regular white plaster which is very cheap here in Egypt, and I imagine it's cheap in Lebanon too. I use balsa wood to make four sides then I pour the plaster in it and then I open up the windows and doors. Or I sometimes put pieces of foam where I want the windows to be so I don't have to open them up later. And in the end you just scribe the bricks on the plaster real easy. You can mix white cement with the plaster to make it harder. I hope my explanation made some sense.

Ola VladVolkov

Well it sounds you have a very interesting plan on your hands. What are the dimensions of this project?
I usually make my buildings out of Styrofoam. It can be found in the DIY shops. It is really versatile to use and you can easily carve, cut en detail it.
I made an article about how to work with this stuff
Distraction: Greta's Revenge

I hope it is of some help to you. And the article will inspire you to make your own buildings as it is really easy to do.

Sounds like this will be a big and busy dio mate.
There is a company that sells a complete train station as a set (custom something i think).
As for making the buildings there are alot of ways, wood covered in plaster, solid plaster, foam and recently there have been some outstanding work using cork.
Myself lately I have been experimenting with plasterboard ,here is the result but I'm not finished yet.
.
The building and the base is all plaster board apart from the doors.
I have just one suggestion for you I always associate train stations with raised platforms on at least one side of the track, maybe you would be better of with like a loading area as I think you could have problems.
I would like to see the burnt out panzer as I think these are always hard to do and I ithink they look great if good
Cheers Robbo

Thanks guys, but the thing is, plaster i sold in pharmacies here and it costs about 50000 LL, thats about 35$ a kilo, so its a bit insane to buy it, considering that a part of it will be lost etc... I tried once to make a building...Ill tell the woeful story... I took a thick cardboard box. Went to our bac kyard where we have a BBQ garden , dug up yearth from my mom's flowers, believe me, the earth wasnt missed, took a large cooking tray, spread the clay i made on it and waited for it to dry. After that, i cut the block of clay into bricks, each about 0.5x1cm and as a result got about 1500 individual bricks. then i went back to my box and after cutting out the windows started glueing brick by brick on the box. The result was a nice looking brand new building. Then i cut away the 4th side of building on which i didnt have any bricks left and made floors out of the obtained cadboard. Now comes the downfall. I took my contraption to the back yard and wired it in a few places with 500LL chinese pyrotechnics (serious high explosive stuff, can cause concussion and ear damage, one once exploded in my hand prematurely and i had to go to the hospital with 1nd degree burns on my hands and lots of loss of skin) ,so, whatever, i wired that building in places where i wanted damage from shells and bombs, that means i stuck these crackers into small holes made by pencil in the walls. Added the wire,took cover and ignited the fuse...The result was not what i wanted. The wall was blown to sherds and looked like it was never there, my hand made bricks were turned to dust and the box looked like it had been fired upon with an AK-74. My work went to waste by own miscalculation of explosive power ofthoe goddamn crackers. I dont want to do that again. Also, i tried to use those Tamiya wall sets, they suck,especially their pattern, the Italeri stuff was better, and they had only one set left, not enough. How about artistic clay? Can i use that? How about styrofoam from TV boxes? Any other cheap material? And for answers, my dio is supposed to be made on an old tabletop, about 1mx75cm, thats enough right? I thought of making snow from chalk, but thats not healthy. any suggetions for that? Also, anybody remember that shameful movie Enemy at the gates? Thats right, that one, the one where a T-34/85 stands in the middle of Stalingrad,why didnt they just add a King Tiger there or sometin'? How about the kid?Did you see his well fed face?Does he look like a starving kid from Stalingrad, the ones my grandfather described? Oh and of course he's wearing shorts...In the middle of winter,sure, i go barefoot in winter you know? And how about story? Thats not what i heard from some of my grandfather's friends who fought there. They said the city stank of corpses, they were everywhere, under every rubble. They said it was a city of scorched earth and slaughter, the Russians and Germans fought hand to hand. The veterans i spoke to said that they heard the Germans breath from behing the wall they were leaning against, they said that fighting was non-stop, not a single spot was left untouched and every wide open space was a chokepoint and battleground. One of them said that a He-111smashed into a wall in front of his eyes and the building was totaled, the winds flew left and right and the tail stuck out blazing like an inferno muffling the screams of the crew, then the payload turned the area into a crater. Another said that snipers were everywhere and condemned the movie by saying that no such story as one after another could possibly occur when people died daily and were involved in a battle for life and death, there was no room for revenge or emotion. Before i forget, remember the place where the russian combattant female puts on makeup? Yeah, sure, she's gonna die the next day and she has nothing better to do than go waltzing in front of fighters in makeup which Russian women fighters have never seen nor had time for.

I remember when I was growing up in lebanon we could buy plaster from the same hardware stores that sell cement and building supplies. This stuff is very cheap. For the equivalent of $1 I could get enough to build 10 buildings in 1/35 scale. You must be talking about a different kind of plaster. Ask people who do house building and remodelling and stuff like that. In Arabic they call it ( jafseen in lebanese) or (gibss in Egyptian ).

Take care.

Ahh, now i get it what kind of plaster you're talking about, i thought you're talking about medical plaster. If its building plaster, then its a different story.Thanx.

Yes, beat Art to it...haha, "Art" and I use the sheetrock material from drywall and find it very effective. All you need to do is soak your piece in some hot water then rip the cardboard backing off of it, and then you're ready to carve your buildings, it also takes paint very well, and any material that breaks off is GREAT for rubble, and I understand there were a few rubble heaps in Stalingrad

Where to get drywall? Go to any construction site and ask if they can spare a few scrap pieces they threw away

Plaster in German is called "Gips". Isn't this interesting/funny?

Stefan

Haha, isnt it funny, Its'' gips'' in Russian for gypsum.Hehe, same root word from European Latin languages.

Whoohoo, ive got treasure right next door then, they're digging a pool and doing makeup for their living room. They just threw it away in a corner of our parking lot...Im GONE, ill bring some right now.

in Hebrew it's Geves.
but thats not much of a surprise as a lot of words from the two abovementioned languages "inflitrated" the Hebrew language

btw, the word Plaster in hebrew has a completely different meaning, it refers to band aid.

Also.. "plaster" in Egyptian slang means band-aid!!

I work as freelance translator for Showtime Arabia channel and while searching for certain words, I come across lot of words have the same origin.

Just goes to show you that when it boils down to the very basics, we're all really just one people.

Oh this is just great, ''plastir' " in Russian is band aid too.

Check out this Basic construction of Buildings - Hunter or Hunted?, an article I wrote on making building and see if it might work for you. Easy and cheap!

Good Luck!

Neill

As You all can imagine in German "Pflaster" is also a band-aid

Great linguistic discussion we had here, I know German pretty well as well as Russian, French, Arabic, English ( duh) and Armenian. I can say that all the European languages i know have a lot in common, thats how i learnt German, it just like English and Russian!

well, Israelis being decendents of jews from Russia, Poland, Germany, Yemen, Morroco, Egypt, Tunisia and a few other countries pretty much contributed words from lots of dialects to our language.
also, in origin Hebrew is derived from Aramic of ancient times so again it has some words that are common to or nearly identical to Arabic languages.

I agree with Hisham, at the end every human is a carbon based life form :-)

O.K., Shain. That's one for you. He's right, though. Been using drywall/plasterboard/gypsum board for many years and many things: buildings, streets, bridges, fountains, and anyting else made from concrete. Even made some tombstones once. It's a fast, simple, cheap process. If you want more info, PM me or Mech Maniac and between the two of us we should be able to help. I've got pix I could post if that will help.

Art

I use foam reinforced with pva glue (50/50) then reinforced by plaster. Though I rarely make building out of foam because the only foam I usually get is from the rare new household appliances my family buys. then the foam is around 5" thick and in a weird shape. Vlad plaster here is $2 but I find it hard to make house. I recently used some plaster to add a special little touch to make on two wheels diorama. I had tamiya briick walls and I put plaster on the inside to simulate well... plaster. It came out pretty good and any sloppiness can come out with a good sharp hobby knife. If anygets on the base, it's ok because seeing as the house is missing more than 3/4 of body, the plaster wouldve either get scattered everywhere. It might've also gone crumpled to the ground, which is the excuse for some accidental plaster on the ground!

haha. It's "Gips" in dutch too. Njaa German and dutch is almost the same. All the same roots

In Singapore we call Band aid as plaster too...maybe be cos of the dominant band aid brand that start the slang..
HandiPlast..the add always refer it as Plaster.