Liberation, Italy 1944

[Snowman]

Amazing work, and a killer eye for detail! Thank you for sharing!:thumb2:

[rtfoe]

Tim, you're up there with the big boys. :thumb2:

Cheers,
Richard

[JR]

Tim.
Stone work A1, great depth with those washes. Light or lights as well. ! Going to o be something !
Nice work on the road up to the bridge .:thumb2:
John .

[Steve Jones]

Nice to see you are still going on this epic masterpiece. I really like the latest additions. Keep it comin mate:thumb2:

[TIM FORSTER]

Thank you for all your kind comments.

After a busy weekend with the airbrush I have managed to make some progress with painting the Topolino staff car and Universal carrier (for more details see my separate threads).

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The Topo after camouflage and chipping.

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The carrier after a base coat.

And here they are temporarily on the diorama...

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So we're getting there!

[TIM FORSTER]

I've been on holiday for a couple of weeks and sadly there just wasn't room to take the diorama with me... however, I was able to get to work on some of the figures.

These are being covered in a separate blog:

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/threads/figures-for-my-wwii-diorama-liberation-italy-1944.30821/

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However, I promise a lot more landscaping is coming soon!

[grumpa]

Great work Tim, I love the foam work and entire composition.
Will be watching for sure.

Jim

[TIM FORSTER]

First coat of paint on the groundwork

It's finally time to say goodbye to the pink DAS clay and get to some sort of uniform colour on the groundwork. This is only a basic mix of brown shades applied with brush and airbrush - with a little shading in the obvious hollows and beneath the locations for the vehicles - but it finally gives me a chance to see my buildings in a more realistic setting.

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There's still more work to be done picking out the larger stones, etc in highlighting colours - but then I'm ready to get stuck into the vegetation!

[TIM FORSTER]

Today I have been working on stone highlights: basically finding every stone on the diorama and highlighting them with a mixture of acrylic colours ranging from reddish brown to grey. It's actually quite therapeutic!

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[Guest]

Lovely dio and building work Tim, looking forward to the final reveal. :smiling2:

[Peter Gillson]

Tim
I was getting fond of the DAS colour. The earth colour you have chosen blends in nicely with the buildings,and the highlighted details look good. it is allcoming together loverly.

[TIM FORSTER]

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Vegetation

At last I have made a start on the greenery. Well I say 'greenery' - but because this is going to be Tuscany in the summer of 1944 its more of a collection of reds, yellows and browns.

The first step was to add rough grass to the areas around the ravine and road. This was done with a method I only read about recently. The hanging basket liner method is pretty well known, but what I hadn't understood was that it works best of you stick it 'grass' side down using PVA. It's dry within 24 hours. The trick then is to peel away the backing (it usually comes away quite easily with tweezers).

What you're left with can best be described as something like Donald Trump's hair... so it needs to be tamed with scissors, tweezers and fingers to make it look something like rough grass.

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The area behind the bridge clearly needs a bit more work!

Now, as I say, this gives you a basic covering of what is basically rough grass or undergrowth. It's very cheap, quick and easy way of covering quite large areas.

However, it needs something more to make it look like real vegetation.

This is where I turned to the excellent MiniNatur range of grass tufts. These come as little tufts of varying size and different shades, which you pull of the backing strip using tweezers. They can then be easily glued in place with PVA.

I used a mixture of 'Golden grass prairie tufts, tall' (727-35 S) and 'Two colour grass tufts late fall' (737-34).

I effectively used them to 'surround' the basket liner areas to give a more natural look.

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The contrasts may look a little strong in these shots, but here's still more to be added and, ultimately, pigments (and perhaps a little airbrush work) should help to bring everything together.

Onward and upward!

[Steve Jones]

A wonderful update Tim. Will it be ready for Telford?

[TIM FORSTER]

Fingers crossed Steve! It's all coming together...

[minitnkr]

Great work Tim. PaulE