V-2 railhead diorama - work in progress

[Chippyminton]

Hi folks,

 

I recently made a post in the 'Painting' section regarding how to reproduce fading paint over weathered wood on a railway box car. Not LSP obviously - but we have some diorama builders here, so I thought it might come in useful to some folks, sometime maybe. @dmthamade dropped a very kind comment, and asked me to put up some WIP pictures of the model this box car was going to sit on. But rather than stink out the 'Painting' subforum - I've put them in here so as not to incur the wrath of the mods.

 

So as requested - here you go, mate.

 

Lots to do yet = detailing-up and weathering the raw-paint figures, more weathering on the vehicles (including removal of the shine from Takom's horrible injection-moulded rubber tyres), a twin tunnel mouth, two sets of railway tracks and other infrastructure, coal staithes, a water crane and a semaphore signal, all of the scenery including a backdrop of stone retaining walls, track ballast and cinders, grass, weeds, another ten figures .............. 🥴

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited to add ...... this is part of a long-term project involving 17 different Luftwaffe aircraft, at least 9 of which will sit on a diorama - some small, some looney-tunes like this one. I've come from a production-line background - so all of the vehicles, figures and other hardware are being built first (including 8 single-engined aircraft so far 😃) and the dioramas will then be built once this is all complete. There's another few different work in progress pics in the Bf 109 Group Build section of the forum (an E-7/Trop) for anyone who's interested in this kind of stuff.

 

Since any airborne fighting force is only as good as its supply chain - there are trucks. Lots of trucks. I'll post some pics over the next few days. 

 

Best wishes

Kev

 

Edited June 25 by Chippyminton

[OzzieNick]

Like where this is going….. Kudos for going big on ideas…..

[dmthamade]

Looking forward to more pics!!  Sounds like there will be a lot going on, can see a lot of weathering in your future!!

 

Don

[Chippyminton]

2 hours ago, OzzieNick said:

Like where this is going….. Kudos for going big on ideas…..

 

Thanks Nick - it's greatly appreciated. "If something's worth doing - it's worth over-doing" 🤣🤣🤣 To be fair - this one's the absolute 'mother lode' of the whole project, but at around 1200mm x 600mm it still won't be the biggest. That dubious honour ironically goes to a V-1 whose launch ramp and Walter catapult alone are over a metre long. That one won't be anywhere near as 'busy' as this one, though - just a truck towing a second folded-up V-1, a Horch staff car, a concrete launch bunker and a few figures. The other WIP 'busy biggie' is an Fw190D-9 partially hidden in a forest under camo netting, with a ruined farmhouse, several radio communication and telephone trucks, a Gulaschkanone and a bunch of troops generally lazing around. The others are way, way, way more more sensible. As mentioned in the OP - a substantial pile of this stuff has already been built so I'm doing OK.    

 

Thanks again mate.

 

Kev

 

[Chippyminton]

2 hours ago, dmthamade said:

Looking forward to more pics!!  Sounds like there will be a lot going on, can see a lot of weathering in your future!!

 

Don

 

Thanks Don. Yeah - a lot going on indeed. The challenge with something like this is that it can get quite overwhelming, looking at the plan and realising how much there still is to do. That's why I've 'parked' it for now, and started an HKM Do335 today 😀 I'll stick a few truck photos up here soon which I hope folks will like. Maybe a few other bits, too. And who knows? Maybe even a few actual LSP's ......

 

Best wishes to you.

 

Kev

[Greif8]

Your wood effects are excellent Kev and I like the camo on the V2 as well - very nicely done!  

 

Since you brought it up in my Panzer IV thread, reference the figures; do you acrylic paints to paint them?

 

Ernest

[Chippyminton]

12 minutes ago, Greif8 said:

Your wood effects are excellent Kev and I like the camo on the V2 as well - very nicely done!  

 

Since you brought it up in my Panzer IV thread, reference the figures; do you acrylic paints to paint them?

 

Ernest

 

Thanks Ernest - that means a lot coming from you. Yes - the figures are all done using acrylics. A flat black primer, a white airbrush hit from above to bring out the highlights, followed by the usual Vallejo/whatever diluted to a glaze using water and a retarder. Once they're weathered, the bodies look perfectly OK - especially in the context of something as 'busy' as this. But it's the faces and skin tones which I can't seem to master. Any tips from you would be greatly appreciated. Maybe a link to your tutorial if you can dig it out?

 

Thanks again for your kind words - very best wishes to you.

[Out2gtcha]

Lovely work!

 

[Greif8]

8 hours ago, Chippyminton said:

 

Thanks Ernest - that means a lot coming from you. Yes - the figures are all done using acrylics. A flat black primer, a white airbrush hit from above to bring out the highlights, followed by the usual Vallejo/whatever diluted to a glaze using water and a retarder. Once they're weathered, the bodies look perfectly OK - especially in the context of something as 'busy' as this. But it's the faces and skin tones which I can't seem to master. Any tips from you would be greatly appreciated. Maybe a link to your tutorial if you can dig it out?

 

Thanks again for your kind words - very best wishes to you.

 

Hi Kev, the uniforms look quite good, glazing is an effective technique for them.  I use oil paints for the flesh areas of my figures, both Abteilung 502 and Winser&Newton brands.  I will figure out how to link the tutorial I did in the section that covers painting in the forum and post it.

 

Ernest 

 

[Chippyminton]

9 hours ago, Out2gtcha said:

Lovely work!

 

 

Cheers mate. Much appreciated.

[OzzieNick]

20 hours ago, Chippyminton said:

 

Thanks Nick - it's greatly appreciated. "If something's worth doing - it's worth over-doing" 🤣🤣🤣 To be fair - this one's the absolute 'mother lode' of the whole project, but at around 1200mm x 600mm it still won't be the biggest. That dubious honour ironically goes to a V-1 whose launch ramp and Walter catapult alone are over a metre long. That one won't be anywhere near as 'busy' as this one, though - just a truck towing a second folded-up V-1, a Horch staff car, a concrete launch bunker and a few figures. The other WIP 'busy biggie' is an Fw190D-9 partially hidden in a forest under camo netting, with a ruined farmhouse, several radio communication and telephone trucks, a Gulaschkanone and a bunch of troops generally lazing around. The others are way, way, way more more sensible. As mentioned in the OP - a substantial pile of this stuff has already been built so I'm doing OK.    

 

Thanks again mate.

 

Kev

 

I have photo’s …..

[KiwiZac]

This is terrific, inspirational stuff! I do have one burning question though: what scale is it? 1/35?

[Chippyminton]

5 hours ago, KiwiZac said:

This is terrific, inspirational stuff! I do have one burning question though: what scale is it? 1/35?

 
Thanks mate !! Yes - it’s 1/35, so fairly monstrous. I’m guesstimating around 1300mm x 600mm by the time everything’s done. I’m glad it hit the spot for you.

 

All the best,

Kev

[Chippyminton]

Forgot to mention - I've had a couple of PM's asking me about the kits used for this. So here's the rundown, including stuff not shown in the photos;

 

V-2 = Takom

Meillerwagen launch trailer = Takom

Hanomag SS100 ‘Straßenschlepper’ heavy tow tractor= Takom

Fries 16-ton Strabokran = Amusing Hobby

Deutsche Reichsbahn 2 x SSYS flatbed & G10 boxcar railway wagons = Sabre Models

Renault AHN truck = ICM

Tempo E400, water crane, semaphore signal, wall pipework, tools = Miniart

Figures = Fields of Glory, ICM, Masterbox, Miniart

Railway tracks & buffer stops = AK Interactive

Anything else (V-2 hoist and straps, coal staithes, scenery, lots of bits) = Scratchbuilt

 

Hope that helps,

Kev

Edited June 28 by Chippyminton

[Greif8]

Hi Kev, above is the link to the tutorial I wrote about earlier.  I hope you find it useful.

 

Ernest