panzer948

Wow Maru5137, Very kind comments. This thread has been a bit dormant for a couple of months but glad you found it and liked it. I had the opportunity to meet WNW staff at the IPMS Nationals in Chattanooga a couple of weeks ago and showed them pics of this dio on my phone. They asked me to submit to their site. They have since put a few of the pics in the readers gallery, which made me feel pretty good. Great group of guys that work there. I couldn't help by buy another plane from them that day (Gotha 1).

Thanks all for the very encouraging comments. This took me about a year to complete (and I didn't work on other builds at same time). It was nice to finish it and for it to come out the way I originally envisioned.

Thanks Kevin! Really appreciate your thoughts. I decided to play around with editing software and convert a couple to aged WWI looking images.... just for fun.

Figures In order to get the look of the pilot helping the injured crew member, I purchased four German Navy air and ground crew figures from Cooper State and did some parts swapping and heavily modified other arms/legs by cutting and filling with Milliput. I read somewhere to combine heavily modified figures that are connected prior to painting to ensure they look natural and mold them to each other using putty etc. I felt that really help me get the look of the injured guys weight on the pilot, even though it made painting more difficult. I used Vallejo acrylics for base colors but di

Diorama Construction The base bottom is plywoood with cut/angled Styrofoam glued down to represent the gradual relief from the bottom of the bay to the beach. I lined the sides of the base with basswood (later painted black and sealed with clear semi gloss) to cover those areas. This was also used later to cover the temporary damns I made to pore the water. The ground cover is Sculpt-a-mold with a mixture of fine to coarse sand and some organics. After the Sculpt-a-mold had dried, I painted the groundcover a light tan to yellow base coat using regular spray paint cans from the hardwar

Diorama Scene I finally have the W.12 on a proper diorama setting that I thought would be so applicable to the plane. As described in the 1st post to this thread, I am made the assumption that the W.12 1410 had added the black tar base floats by April 1918, which was documented on her sister W.29s aircraft from the same unit when the 1410 was written off that same month. Thus, I thought I would build a dio showing my imagination of the planes fate; that is an emergency (albeit controlled) landing in enemy territory near the coast of France. the environment is more of a tidal lagoon, ba

I finally have the W.12 on a proper diorama setting that I thought would be so applicable to the plane. Quick summary of products used for diorama: Terrain: Sculptamold with Fine to Coarse Sand and Organic Matter Water: Magic Water - tinted with oils in lower layers Vegetation: WWS Layered Static Grass and Field Grass by The Scenic Factory Figures: Cooper State Models - Heavily modified German WWI Navy Airmen and Ground crew combined into two figures.

Thanks, yes Aviattic makes some great decals. They went on better than the WNW kit decals.

Ignore the bolt. I needed something to help prop the plane up in a more natural position. The floats are weathered in prep for sitting in the diorama (water). Giving some battle damage allowed me to make an excuse to have the one cover off on the right to show all that engine detail.

Below is a final pic after sealing the decals with Mr. Hobby Semi Gloss, but before beginning the weathering process. . For weathering, I followed the same methods I use for armor models. I use some of the same techniques described by Adam Wilder and Rinaldi using mostly oil paints for both washes but also for fading, shading, and adding grime. I like how you can fade the oil paints into your base colors. Some refer to this as Oil Paint Rendering. For me, oils are the easiest to use since they give you a ton of working time and are easy to fix if you don't like the loo

Next came time to prepare some of the smaller details. I wasnt real happy with the kit guns, partly because I had a hard time rolling the metal cooling jacket (top image), therefore at the last minute I placed an order with Master Model for their PE set (AM-32-104) (lower image). As indicated above, I used GasPatch Models - Parabellum 14/17 for the rear gun. It too is a great kit. Note that this plane is modeled with minor battle damage, which will go along with the theme of the diorama. I thinned out the back of the panel with a dremel tool before cutting sharpnel holes with an X-Acto kn

Next it was time to prepare and trim the Aviattic Decals since they came on one large sheet. I have to admit, I was a bit worried about this step. After asking some fellow AMPS friends (I build armor too), I got the great advice of scanning the WNW decals and printing/cutting those out as my template. That way you still have your originals in case you mess up. Luckily, my cuts were on the money and I was able to match the new decals pretty close to the correct size WNW decals on the first try. This step was much easier than I thought so if anyone is on the fence about cutting your decals

Wanted to update this thread with some final work on the W.12. Actual plane is done so wanted to take some pics and document what I have done to date prior to working on the next phase, which will be a beach scene diorama. First, as indicated above, I used Aviattic Decals, the weathered naval hexagonal pattern, instead of the kit decals. This was mostly because I wanted a weathered looking aircraft for late in the war and wanted to do some preshading of the ribs and let that show thru the applied decals. After Tamiya primer, sanding, primer, and more sanding; I then painted the

Thanks so much! I may take another pic after mounting it to the deck and adding some more touches. I hope the completed model doesn't cover up much of the work.