"Which way did they go, tracker?"

[spanner570]

just sneaked up to my den.....Why? 'cos once a month a handful of heroes from around the emptiness of humanity that exists around here get together and celebrate being in the 'Brown Bottle Club' ....To be a member you have to buy obscure beers that you find in brown bottles and bring them along for sampling once a month, usually in another members garage!!....Mine tonight.....

What I'm really stating is - for obvious reasons - no building until Monday!

But thanks for the very funny, and complimentary posts, none the less.

Ah well, back at it!

Double cheers,

Ron

[spanner570]

Brilliant and very clever posts, all make for great reading...

So get on your milk and drink your horse (J. Wayne)

Here is the 1/35 cavalry scout. My first go at a 'orse. Nice Master Box model, but then in my opinion, all from this company are spot on....First time fit and no flash. Obviously I still have the reigns and proper horse hair to do, but it will do for scaling up.

Now I have a figure to scale the mini diorama with, I will try and figure out just what and where I can fit all the elements into a small as poss. space. At the minute I haven't a clue what is to go where! I just know I want to try and incorporate all the elements mentioned in my opening post....

I will have a root for a bit of polystyrene packing for starters - this will hopefully form the base and is easiliy dug out for the proposed river/stream bed...Then we will see how we get on.

More soon.

Ron

Sorry, the pictures haven't loaded, give me a mo'......O.K., there you go...

[ATTACH]60318.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60319.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Love your river idea Ron.

Will be calm or moved/wild one? I'm imagine it....will be amazing in your hands mate!

Polux

[spanner570]

Thanks my Spanish buddy, hopefully, it will be straight down, calm, and wild...all rolled into one small space. I think I'm starting to get excited at the prospect of giving this idea a good go......Kiss of death for sure!!

Cheers amigo,

Ron

[Guest]

Makes you fancy a John Wayne movie Ron.... Looking forward to this...I used to paint horse portraits for my local horse racing stable many moons ago... Gonna go look out " The sons of Katy Elder" brilliant film...Now see what youve done !

Danny

[spanner570]

Thanks Danny, your post made me reflect on what a great forum this is.....

Where else could you go from a 'serious' opening build thread - to Kimosabe, Capt. Findus, thru to a John Wayne film? Yet still strike a good balance between serious modelling endevour, and a good helping of humour.

John, the owner of Scale Models wanted a friendly Forum and, as far as I can see, he has it in bucket loads. This forum is unique and long may it stay so.......

Cheers,

Ron

[mossiepilot]

Sorry Danny, but if you're going for a John Wayne western it's got to be "She wore a yellow ribbon" The best JW cowie ever!!

Tony.

[spanner570]

Here's the start of the base work fellas....

I had a bit of luck when rooting for a suitable base. I came across a thick piece of polystyrene that was already scooped out for my flat bit of water. I don't know what was originally in it, but it's perfect for my 'pool'...I put the horse and rider on it and compressed the base as much as I dared - it finished up 11" x 9".

I have formed the landscape with scrap bits of styrene, just torn up in a random way and stuck down. I use UHU POR, this is for polystyrene and doesn't melt the stuff.....I have made the lip for the waterfall and as it stands, the straight drop is scale 12ft, so should be interesting forming that!

I'm trying to get the area looking like a place that's a bit short of greenery and more rocky...Like wot we see in the cowboy filums!

The flat area on the left is for a rundown shack....

If you have a go at this sort of thing, I'm finding if you start at the bottom of the stream with the first scrap bits, then work your way up to above the waterfall, things seem to somehow fall into place and start to look natural, then start again and place other bits on top of those already there, thus forming ledges. Don't mess about carefully positioning things - just bung them on rough and ready....

You can just make out where the three water elements will go.....The waterfall down onto a flat slab, down into a big pool, then down a small rapid at the front of the dio.

This is just the initial rock work, next I will get trowelling with the tile adhesive to get a bit more form into the rocks and overhangs. I'll also bed some scale boulders and the like into the adhesive whilst it's still wet.....

The pictures show the basic layering stages.

I hope you approve of the start of our journey into the Black Hills of Dakota!!!!....Or The Lake District if you prefer!

Cheers all,

Ron

[ATTACH]60364.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60365.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60366.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60367.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60368.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60369.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

Thanks Tony !!! now the song is in my head !!! " She wore it for her lover in the US Cavalreeeeee " ...

Danny

[yak face]

Top work matey! I can get a good feel for it by looking at pic no 6 , ,even in bare polystyrene its looking like rocks already . keep the pics coming , cheers tony

[spanner570]

Thanks Tony, it's coming on steadily. I'll get some tile sticky on it next and add some more rocks and things.....then step back and ponder!

Cheers mate,

Ron

[aaron]

Awewsome, i love masterbox sets.

I really enjoy watching your dios come to fruition Ron.

[spanner570]

Thanks for the encouraging posts boys, glad you approve of the progress up to now....

I've just finished this next stage. Can you believe outside in the sunshine too!

Last night I gave the whole thing a good brushing with diluted PVA. This morning I collected some small gravel from our path - bit of luck here - I wanted the boulders to be the same colour as I've seen in the movies...a sort of Cotswold buff colour. I actually found the exact colour in amongst the gravel on our drive!

So after I trowelled on the tile adhesive, I stuck the stones here and there into the stuff whilst it was still wet.

I've also tried to blend in the horizontal rock strata lines a bit more....

Yet another discovery, I was going to paint the polystyrene a buff colour at a later stage, then I realised the bits of gravel were very soft, so I crushed them all up to a dust with a hammer, then applied more diluted PVA and sprinkled the ground up stuff onto it...I'm well chuffed with the result.

It's taking shape now, a bit more work on the scenery and the bottom of the waterfall pool to come - I'll use the same method for this as I did for the water in the 'Vietnam' GB dio, then I'll break off and make me a run down shack.

Here's some pickies of this latest stage. Picture 6 gives a fair idea of what I'm aiming for. The waterfall will hit the flat bit, then run into the pool, and where you can see what looks like a wall that is where the pool will end, then a little rapid will be running out at the bottom, so to speak...The white bit top left is where I'm putting the shack.

Cheers,

Ron

[ATTACH]60404.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60405.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60406.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60407.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60408.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]60409.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

It's already looking the business Ron, most definitely getting the western feel.

[michaelm]

Ron, I got to tell you I really love watching you put these things together, one day I might even try one myself, thanks M