"Easy Pickins" 200mm diorama, Normandy, WWII

[Neil Merryweather]

Wow Steve that's fantastic stuff!

[Steve Ski]

Simply superb.

Outstanding work.

Wow Steve that's fantastic stuff!

Thank you very much, Gents! This is the fun part.

[john hutton]

Steve,
Those items are amazing, love the sack barrow, great work.

[Steven000]

Lovely scratch building Steve! Looks awesome :thumb2:

[Steve Ski]

Thanks, Gents!

[Jim R]

Excellent work Steve. A great deal of thought and skills are going into this. We see very few dios in this larger scale but the detail here is outstanding. In my opinion the out building works better than the original wall.

[Steve Ski]

Thanks, Jim, I appreciate the kind words. I agree about the out-building, spot on. This gives a better opportunity to add more details and spiff up the scene. In this scale it's rather difficult to hide any mistaskes, lol. I've got plans for that cemetary wall in 1/16th/120mm scale, it won't go to waste.

[Steve Ski]

Building Wine Crates and Bottles

This is pretty much a repeat from the “Embarrassing Moments” dio, but in a slightly larger scale. The process being the same I used the larger hot glue sticks for a more in scale appearance. Just melt the tip and let it drip. Actually, there’s a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea.

The crate designs are different, but strangely enough, I used some of the same crate labels, oops. Must be a popular wine in Normandy I recon. Ya, that’s it! Making these crates is very straight forward. I used some balsa wood for the sides and thin pin strips for the supports and handles and all of that is being held together with trusty old Elmer’s Wood glue.



This Tamiya clear color really is great for making these bottles and dries to a high gloss. I tried to follow what actual wine bottles look like for different wines. Some of the bottles would be considered clear glass and others would be tinted green or dark green and some a dark reddish tone. I varied the colors for a variety to mix things up a bit.

If you wished you could make a bottle look partially full or completely empty just by the number of layers of paint you apply. I didn’t bother making any partially full, but I will have one opened. Drilling a hole in the top of one of these is going to be a real pain, but I’ll get one hollowed out somehow. The Ranger is enjoying some vino with his cheese and sausage, so he’s got to have an opened bottle.



The bottle labels were taken from pics on the inet, printed, and glued in place. Some of the bottle tops have candy wrapper foil on them and painted with mixed Tamiya clear colors for variety. The others are just dipped in paint and allowed to dry upside down, then re-dipped at the top and dried again. It’s easy enough to replicate the cork top by how many times you dip the top.



Once the crates were given an initial Burnt Umber oil wash I gave them some battle damage with dings, scrapes, chips, and heavily worn areas. I added the nails in the appropriate locations using a HB lead pencil, then gave each crate a good layer of Dull Coat before weathering and dusting. These are now set aside while I build the grape baskets, tools/clippers, and other shed items.

Making the bottles and crates was a fun diversion and will help add realism and character to the scene. Thanks for watchin and more to follow soon.

Cheers, Ski.

[Strenko J]

That is awesome work on those wine bottles and crates

[Steven000]

That looks amazing Ski, great results with the hotglue sticks, would have never guessed those bottles were made from hotglue! It all looks like the real deal, well done

[Neil Merryweather]

Outstanding!

[Jim R]

An innovative and very convincing way to make the wine bottles and crates.

[john hutton]

Hi Ski,
cannot really add much to what has already been posted. Will just have to add another 2, Amazing, Amazing ?.

[Steve Ski]

Thank you kindly, Gents. I ran across some vid on YT for making booze bottle, etc. I thought it was the slickest thing since sliced tomatoes, HA! What really gives it the kick is using the Tamiya clear colors, cause they dry super shiny and that is exactly what we want.

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Just picked up on this build Steve. Incredible work. I hope you get it past the finishing post.