Kwajalein Atoll..February 1944 - An additional build bit!

[spanner570]

Thanks fellas.....sorry for the late response, but I've been away to a four day boozy food and drink festival!!!

Colin, that picture is the one I used to base my building on before I squished it! There seems to be precious few pictures of the actual Marines assault.

It's this picture that prompted my question.....stone or not?

I'm just not happy with the stone look, so I'll go with my gut instinct and hack the stone away and turn the surrounding walls etc. into plain concrete.

Thanks again all,

Ron

[eddiesolo]

Looking good Ron, yep the stone brick effect doesn't work in the setting you have created. You could of course just fill in the stone work with filler, add some supports and it would look like a layer has fallen away.

Si

[Guest]

I'd go concrete myself regarding the building, maybe stone was used for low walls etc?

There's definitely a distinct lack of photographic reference for this ... you're right there.

[spanner570]

O.K., poll result!

For keeping the stone.....1

For removing the stone....2

Abstain.......1

So, out came the knife and I roughly hacked off the stone work and added some fuse wire reinforcing rods and generally messed about with what was left. I'm far happier now the stone is gone....Sorry Joe!

Also, I have started adding rubble.

The bullet holes made with the aid of a pencil rather than a cocktail stick, 'cos it leaves a nice black 'powder burn'. The rubble is just off cuts of styrene snapped into small bits, and a shredded coffee stirrer provided the smashed timber work.

I've kept the plastered walls white to add a bit of contrast.

I was unsure what to put in the foreground, and very nearly sawed most of it off, but had an idea to make a second, smaller out-building sort of thing.

Still to add more steel bars here and there.....

The jumble on the slope is the start of a hastily dug - and quickly smashed - machine gun pit. I'll post a closer picture when it's finished.

Here are the latest pictures.....I hope you approve thus far and thanks for looking.

[ATTACH]69460.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69461.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69462.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69463.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69464.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69465.IPB[/ATTACH]


All comments and suggestions always welcome.

Cheers,

Ron

[Guest]

Looking very good Ron!

The steel bars are a nice touch, and give a perfect sense of realism at the diorama, as the colour of the walls too!! This colour and effect that you found is perfect. You use in other builds, and is great my friend!!

Polux

[Guest]

Much better without the stones.

Have you tried to tear off snall piece of paper from cardboard so that it shows a more raw material? Kind of if putty (sorry don't know the proper name) covering the concrete has fallen off.

Francesco

[eddiesolo]

Much better Ron, looks superb.

Si

[Guest]

Time I caught up on this one Ron and now that I have I can honestly say that this is going to be another one of your none stop amazing builds mate. Excellent detail as usual.

Cheers

Andy

[Guest]

That looks the business Ron.

I've had another 10/15 minutes looking around for relevant images for you but they're like hens teeth, so I think staying with what you're going for now will be the best option and it'll look bang on anyway knowing you.

For information .. The term ''hens teeth'' will soon be null and void as scientists are now reverse engineering chickens by halting and forcing certain genomes, the is will result in chickens with dinosaur attributes .. One of which will be teeth (of sorts)

Geeky paeleotological lesson here endeth.

[Guest]

Looks real nice Ron and better without the stones, chickens with teeth eh..... well i think i will change my diet to toffu. they already run like linford christie can you imagine if they bit you back.

scott

[flyjoe180]

Hi Ron, this may be of interest, bunkers and other structures from your battle. http://www.pbase.com/nowhereatoll/the_bunkers_of_roi_namur

[spanner570]

Brilliant, helpful and diverse posts boys, thanks.

A special thanks to Joe for taking the time to post the superb bunker link....Bit late for this dio., but I've saved it to my favourites...Thanks again Joe.

O.k., here is the latest progress...as it's throwing it down here, I've been in the shed throwing PVA around.

I've added some life to the remaining plywood by covering it with some sweepings from the drive.

Here's how....

It's very simple and effective.

Soak the chosen area with watered down PVA. Get your sweepings, whatever, in a dust pan. Then sprinkle the contents over the PVA and leave for a few minutes. Turn the dio. over and gently tap the base. Some of the stuff will stay on and some won't.

Let this dry and take a look and if required, repeat the process......When doing this kind of thing, don't be fussy...A:- where the PVA goes. And B:- where you throw the sweepings, just go for it. If you fiddle fart around the effect will be lost!

See in the last picture how through not fiddling with the PVA, the sweepings have gathered in corners and crept up the walls a bit. I think this looks more natural than just a flat surface, particularily for this diorama.

Using the same method, I sprinkled some dry tile adhesive around the building to get a sort of concrete lumps and dust effect. Finally, I've replaced the rubble etc around the main building.

Here are the stage pictures so far...Still plenty to do, but as usually happens with me, I start off with precious little idea of what I'm going to do and now they are piling in!

[ATTACH]69503.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69504.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69505.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69506.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69507.IPB[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]69508.IPB[/ATTACH]


Starting to take shape now, and thanks again for your excellent input so far. I appreciate them all.

Cheers,

Ron

[flyjoe180]

Wow, fantastic stuff.

[Ian M]

That is looking very good Young Ron.

Ian M

[papa 695]

Just caught up on this one Ron and your doing a grand job so far