Not a Moment to Lose… Battle of the Bulge, Ardennes, December 1944

[minitnkr]

Nice progress Tim, looking good.

[Guest]

I knew that the horseshoe would prove controversial. From my meagre research it seems that there are two schools of thought (or superstition) and depending on how you look at it, the shoe is either trapping the good luck or preventiong it from escaping.

Also, those are the British lines of reasoning behind horseshoes. You would need to find out what the prevailing thought in Wallonia is/was for it to be accurate. Chances are that what matters is putting up the horseshoe at all, regardless of orientation, for example.

[TIM FORSTER]

Thanks for all the lovely comments / horseshoe theories guys.

More Shed Shennigans



I achieved the wood texture by using various shades of MIG wood paints (they come in the Weapons and Tools sets) and wet-blending them over the black base colour, then applying washes. Everything here is painted using acrylics because I am still paranoid about damaging my foam.

Next I tackled to interior...




OK, so some may say that I have got a little carried away... But there's something about a small, cluttered interior that just gets my creative juices flowing.

The idea is to show a shed that's crowded but not completely chaotic: this is a farmer who likes to look after his tools and keep his bits and pieces in reasonable order...

One set, in particular, has been of great use here: MiniArt's Gardening Tools MIN35641. The detailing is just exquisite, although for my money it's the watering can that steals the show.



Apart from the watering can I used a scythe, fork, spade, hammer, sickle from the set, as well as the table, which was cut down to makwe the work bench. There are also a few bits and pieces from other MinArt kits: the red oil lamp came from their Office Furniture set and buckets and a wash tub from their Water Pumps set.

The milk churn in near the door is a beautiful 3D printed item from LIANG.



The table vice is real golden oldie - it's from Italeri's Field Tool Shop. Oh dear, I have only just realised that it's supposed to be positioned at a 90 degree angle from where I have put it. Let's just say that this guy had some unusual project in mind.

To help fill out the space I also made a length of 'rope' from copper wire and a roll of wire from... well, thin wire. Plus a hanging bag of some sort made from Magisculpt and masking tape for the strap. Other anonymous sacks and a hanging rag were also made from Magicsculpt. There's a few other bits and pieces from the spares box. Lastly a few bits and pieces of wood and an appropriate beer sign from Reality in Scale.



Once the roof is on and the shed set against the side of the house, the light is going to be limited, so I made sure to paint everything in a slightly less subtle manner than I might have done if these objects were to be sitting outside.

There are also the doors to go on, although these are only for the workshop on the left-hand side and they will be open to make sure all of this lovely detail pops out.



This shed was also a bit of a test bed for some techniques that I had not used before.

The corrugated roof has really come up nicely thanks to the LifeColor Rust paints. I bought mine years ago, but it's still going strong. It seems this is the best way to buy them now:



The beauty of these acrylic paints is that they are very diluted straight from the jar, so they can be layered in glazes over any surface. I started with the darks and worked up to lights, then used the paintbrush spatter technique to add a more textured feel. Finally I spattered a little Vallejo Concrete over as well.




I'm happy with how this turned out, although this is by no means the end of the weathering, because there's going to be moss and then a little melting snow - but this will do for now.

The final challenge was the stone work. This was a bit of a step into the unknown for me. I was happy with the actual carving of the styrofoam and the way the stonework looked after the my initial pre-shading with grey over the black, but brush painting was going to take things to another level.

My reference image for the colours came from this building I found on Google Steetview.



I think it's from a place called Warche, which is on the outskirts of Malmedy. This image is useful, because it reminded me that stone is seldom grey. In fact, the dominant shade here here is a sandy brown, although there are plenty of other colours ranging from blues to reds and very pale brown.

I have begun to assemble a pallet of colours to use on the house and this bit of shed wall was my first attempt.





I was worried that it looked a little toy-like once I had painted the stones various different colours, but the secret weapon was this acrylic paste recommended by Night Shift:


It's full name on ebay is: BERGSWERK Ultra Light Model Building Spatula New Generation. I had to order it from Germany, but it came very fast. It has an almost foam-like texture and it's easy to push into the cracks between the stones using a cocktail stick before smoothing with a wetted paint brush. There may be a little too much white showing at this stage, but I have yet to apply any washes or other weathering, so I will wait and see how these work when I move onto the main building...

[scottie3158]

Tim,
Superb mate the details you have added are excellent, and the tin roof is outstanding. How did you achieve the effect?

[Andy the Sheep]

I really like your approach to diorama building and the results are outstanding.

[TIM FORSTER]

Tim,
Superb mate the details you have added are excellent, and the tin roof is outstanding. How did you achieve the effect?

Thanks Scottie.

The key to the effect is to use the speckle method - so lots of back and forth with the various shades of rust using a cocktail stick to flick a loaded paintbrush. But it helps to have the underlying pre-shading done with an airbrush first.

[TIM FORSTER]

I really like your approach to diorama building and the results are outstanding.

Thanks Andy!

[TIM FORSTER]

Well I have made quite a lot of progress over the last 3 weeks… the image shows the farmhouse in its current state.

Painting the stones and brickwork

For a template I used two main sources.

First, a google street view image that I found of a rustic building in one of the villages along the route of the German advance.



Then when I was in Prague a few weeks ago I noticed that many of the cobbled streets have a similar mix of stone hues.



The painting process is rather repetative, but once I started I actually found it quite therapeutic. Because of the gaps scribed into the foam between each block, it’s also very easy to work quickly over the surface without over-painting.

I started off by choosing a selection greys, blue and brown tones for the stones, all brush painted in quite thin washes.


In the end I reduced these further and made further variations by mixing as I went along.



As you will see I did not colour in every stone with this selection of colours and tried to keep the distribution random.

After just the grey tones the effect is already rather pleasing.





Next I moved on to the more yellowish and reddish hues.







But was not until I painted the bricks that I felt everything started to come together.

Like stones, there is tendency to think that bricks are all a similar colour, but look at any old wall and you will see that the colours can vary from shades of blue, through reds to yellows and pinks.



So I assembled an appropriate selection of paints and got cracking:






Now I agree that it all looks rather extreme and toy-like at this point, especially because of the gaps between the blocks and bricks, but everything changes with the next step…

[scottie3158]

Tim that is superb mate.

[JR]

Nice Tim.

[Guest]

That is very convincing stonework. However, one thing I would correct is that you can see the vertical seam between the wall parts running through some of the cornerstones, which IMHO rather spoils their appearance.

[rtfoe]

Great stonework Tim. I'm going to get stoned on mine soon and I don't have three weeks.

Cheers,
Wabble

[TIM FORSTER]

That is very convincing stonework. However, one thing I would correct is that you can see the vertical seam between the wall parts running through some of the cornerstones, which IMHO rather spoils their appearance.

No problem Jakko! That's where the drainpipes are going...

[vizenz]

This is a wonderful tutorial and exceptionally high level of model building art. Pure art!

[Neil Merryweather]

Wonderful stuff Tim, very inspiring