Hi Tim just amazing work, it looks so real :thumb2:
Pete.
Pete.
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This can't be done better ! Top shelf work !Comment
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Finishing the exterior texture of the church
Although the basic texturing was done by scribing the exposed brick and stone work into the dried Das clay (see post above), I felt that the church did not look quite ancient enough. I took a tip from railway modelling and added some additional layers to some parts of the facade using a product called No More Cracks by Unibond.
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When dry this has a different texture to the clay. However, be warned that it dries fast and - almost - rock hard. At first I thought I had ruined all my hard work, because it just looked too clumsy and random. However, after some pretty hefty sanding with course sandpaper and a sanding block I managed to bring it back to what I was after. This was where I realised that keeping my church detached from the base for as long as possible was an advantage, because I was able to manipulate the structure and apply pressure in a way which would have been almost impossible had it been attached to the base.
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Understandably I didn't take many pictures before I 'tamed' the new layer, but in the picture above you should be able to see how the harder plaster started to add another dimension to the original Das covering.
The other advantage of this material only became obvious once I started to apply paint - because No More Cracks is less porous than the Das clay, it means that it absorbs less paint. This is what is called 'a happy accident'! So, if you look at the picture taken after painting in the previous post, much of the variation in the basic tone is actually the result of the different plasters taking the same paint in different ways.
It is this random 'blotching' that lends old Italian buildings much of their character, as you can see from this photo below that I took whilst in Tuscany.
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Moving on to the street buildings
Because the Verlinden street front is only a facade, I needed to construct the actual buildings behind them myself. Despite the fact that I had already pushed the buildings back considerably from my initial placement, there was still a surprising amount of space to fill.
This was all done with foam board, sometimes double-layered for strength. It looks complicated from the images below, but actually it's not that hard to do. If you use A4 sized boards then they come in a useful size from the start - and they have perfectly cut right-angles. Although I had begun with white foam board for the church, I soon realised that black covered board makes more sense because, at the end of the day, I was going to have to paint any visible interiors a dark shade anyway.
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My wife is an architect, so I have to be careful not to make lazy generalisations about building dimensions - but my basic rule is this: if it looks right, it is right!
You will notice that I also included internal walls and floors where appropriate. This was partly to add strength, but also because I planned to include some visible interiors and even some suitably moody lighting effects. In fact, this has all been accomplished as I write: I have a flickering candle effect in the church and the balcony room and even an illuminated street light! The hollow recess at the back is to accommodate the battery. It's a bit of a gimmick, I admit. But fun! More of this later...Comment
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I find one of the pleasures of diorama building is the mission creep that inevitably occurs as the vision broadens during execution. Some really top craftsmanship here Tim, and some great ideas too. PaulEComment
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Top notch diorama WIP Tim,:thumb2: it's always a pleasure to see a well planned dio in the making. The end execution has been just amazing with textures and detail well thought of. You're going to give Telford some eye candy.
Your dio reminds me of one done by a famouse Japanese dio builder I met at Shizuoka. It's also set in Italy...but obviously not the same buildings and scenario.
I have always been avoiding Italian campaign dios...so afraid without the right ambelishments it might look like a spaghetti western setting. I think the key is to get the right trees and hedges of the Italian landscape right.
Looking forward to the ground work phase.
Cheers,
RichardComment
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Thanks, gentlemen.
One of my sources of inspiration was this wonderful diorama Jerry Got His by Radek Pituch.
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Although his is set around Monte Casino and so further south where the landscape has more of a desert-like appearance.
There's also a useful Italian build in the book Landscapes of War. Vol.III. In fact I would recommend the whole series very highly indeed.
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Talking of the ground work...
There's going to be at least one small olive tree hanging over the ravine and sunflowers in the foreground. I even brought back a pot of Tuscan soil to make sure I got the colour right!Comment
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Yes olive tree and sunflowers will definitely set the scene...rubbing my palms with anticipation. Mr Radek has some really inspiring dios.
Thanks for the reference Tim. The one I refer to for my dios is Diorama Perfection 2...unfortunately its all in Japanese but picture heavy.
Cheers,
RichardComment
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Thanks for the tip Richard - just ordered a copy of Diorama Perfection 2!Comment
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Bringing alive the Verlinden street facade
After I had dropped the right-hand third of the street buildings I was left with a rather oddly truncated corner. It was odd for two reasons: firstly, the corner didn't actually meet the edge of the diorama, secondly, the windows were too close to the edge to appear realistic.
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The answer was to add a corner.
This I accomplished with a fillet of balsa wood covered with Das clay (applied, as always, over copious amounts of PVA). Once dry, this was then scribed (using a metal rule to ensure that everything was straight) with my dental tools so that, as far as possible, it blended with the original facade. To help give a three-dimensional effect, once the brick or stone course was marked out a relatively blunt scalpel blade was used to 'round off' each horizontal and vertical line.
In the image below you can see the finished courses at the bottom and work in progress above.
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Eventually (I hoped) you would not be able to tell where the Verlinden facade stopped and the extension began...
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Further Das was later added on top where I wanted the plaster render to remain intact.
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Even though there was an odd angle created by the edge of the diorama, I decided to carry on the illusion of the corner a little around the right-hand side so that anyone looking at it from this direction wouldn't have their view interrupted by a blank, black wall.Comment
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I love the flickering candle!Comment
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The Verlinden set comes with a substantial amount of resin bits and pieces, including a balcony, windows, doors, shutters and even some small roof sections.
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However, in the end the only parts I used were the balcony and the window frames.
Here is a shot early on in the build with the balcony in place and the windows (which haven't yet been sanded down to remove the excess resin) temporarily installed.
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The balcony is going to be especially important because one of the little vignettes I have planned for this diorama will be bella donna leaning over the balustrade to welcome the liberating Tommies. The figure I will be using is one of the excellent resin castings from that French manufacturer MK35. I am going to adapt her pose a little and I will probably replace the bunch of grapes with a bottle of vino.
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One of the rooms for which I planned an interior was the one on the lower right-hand side. Before I closed up the end of the buildings I added a simple staircase which I hoped would be visible in the gloom.
This a very simple, cheap but effective kit from RB Model. Because it is made from real wood I used wood stain to colour it before installation.
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The flight was actually too tall for my room, so I cut off the top three steps and used them in my bell tower.
In due course I was to add more details to the interior so that it currently looks like this:
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The next part of turning my Verlinden Italian street facade into something more three dimensional involved adding stone texture to the other side where the houses adjoin the church. I was getting the hang of working with Das clay. The trick when making larger sections of wall is to press the clay as flat as possible onto a metal baking tray and then transfer it piece by piece to the wall (using PVA glue first to make sure it sticks).
As before, once the clay had dried I scribed it with my metal 'dental' tools and a scalpel blade.
The small window was almost an afterthought - but it adds interest to an otherwise rather plain section of wall. Who knows, I may have a somewhat frightened German peering out as the Allies swamp the town! The surround was made from Magicsculp...
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Less boring doors
The resin doors which came with the Verlinden Italian street are fine as far as they go - but a little 'old school' in their wood texture. Plus, they look too crude and, to be honest, a bit boring. The doors I photographed in Tuscany were often time-worn, but always interesting...
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Like everything else in this build, I am revisiting skills I last practised as a teenager. In those days I made doors like these out of thin balsa wood. These days you can also use thin basswood. However, although this has a great texture (it is wood after all), it is difficult to cut precisely - and it has a tendency to split along the vertical.
So, I turned to my trusty friend plastic card. Using a single piece for both sets of doors, I built up the reinforcing wood pieces from thinner card cut to size. Texture was added using a compass point and the edges rounded a little with a knife.
Here are the first pair:
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The spy hole is from an old Verlinden PE set (I later recessed it into the door). I also added some nail holes and a rough keyhole.
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I had also sanded away the plaster cast detail above the doors and replaced it with a grill from photo etch. There was also a cherub face moulded into the facade, but the detail was poor so I replaced it with a lion's face carved off an old Italeri fountain. This was textured with Mr Surfacer.
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Once everything was painted I was happy that they looked the part.
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The second set of doors were made in a similar manner, but this time I decided to add some circular 'peepholes'. These were made using a large hole punch and then detailed with some etch taken from the middle of an old Verlinden railing set:
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These doors will be shown opening inwards and so they were eventually separated. And after a little paint...
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I've been able to do quite a bit of work over the half term...
Here's a couple shots of where I am in 'real time'.
With all of the groundwork now covered in terracotta Das clay, it's good to see the back of the yellow insulation board at last...
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Although it's a bit early, I decided to give the edge a coat of black acrylic to see how the colours would look with the contrast. But please note, the ground work has NOT yet been painted.
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