Army_Air_Force

I fitted four tiny geared motors into a 1/144 scale B-17. The motors were bought from that auction site. /media/tinymce_upload/908b18ec6dd5f032ab610f844f6dc03a.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/0d256d4e16cd939b6b5f0b43f222dcd8.jpg

I've already modelled my first Jeep ( Follow Me ) and Dodge ( Flying Control ) in 1/35 scale, but my other Jeep is yet to be built. /media/tinymce_upload/11331673a27e8dc38178dde0bf64a6c9.jpg My 1/35 Dodge on the fender of the 1/1 scale Dodge /media/tinymce_upload/56236e5335442d62a00fc955fe0c5bff.jpg

Possibly a Tamiya 1/35 Willys MB Jeep, modelled on one of my own 1/1 scale Jeeps.

Ah, picture hanging wire. I wouldn't care, I have some in the workshop, just forgotten all about it!!

Shame the posts have been approved in the wrong order as the first set of final pictures and text should come after the post above. I expected them to appear in the thread in the order in which they were posted. Oh well, tis done now! Not sure what our next project will be.

We're pretty pleased with the overall result. Looking back, skin coloured tights may have worked better for the camo net rather than the black. The barbed wire would have been better with thinner copper wire, but that was all I had kicking around the workshop. /media/tinymce_upload/e034f83f37556ecff2121c8ff24cce85.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/955bae7c64cf0218c7bfabb837920648.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/f44eae50c7e48286244762e1e26b26f6.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/a269d93976a839cd2d08485f5659edc2.jpg We made the right call to leave the Tiger tank off and replace it with a Jeep. It would have been unrealistic and perhaps toy-like, to have both tanks, unless the Sherman had been a smoking wreck. Without the Jeep might have been a little too empty. Neither the Jeep or Sherman are glued down and moved around a little during the photoshoot. /media/tinymce_upload/89aff94432a3253f3a8a738c7f42e21d.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/e60b736cd56506fbe6639d9861b5461c.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/9889bcbfbdf6b6035b34119db6ea9478.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/eec6bbb8fde10f30965932ec113670c9.jpg The layout seems to work well when viewed from all sides and we tried to make use of figures who seemed less involved in combat but more at readiness. The rubbery plastic figures are of course horrible to work with and only minor work was done by myself to melt away flash etc. Airfix could really do with making a range of styrene figures for diorama builders. /media/tinymce_upload/75d9f99edb29d536ea1d59bb0e155cda.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/4afe08057a45c839f631d34b32c4ba85.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/2de63744ef296539fce21718788de0e4.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/bdb73a5928a73151302e92670b22e2b4.jpg My daughter was eight when she started this model and heading towards eleven now. It is virtually all her own work, but with lots of guidance and advice from me, a little holding of parts where extra hands were needed and I did some of the figure painting detail after she painted the main colours. I also made the camo net over the radio operator, helped with joining the tank tracks and sprayed gloss and matt coats when needed. /media/tinymce_upload/18d9607922e3b09ba9a705903c6a956c.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/fd2872b4ee84f3af913204a9ca559918.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/0df01e1525c1c0e04f3298002da790c1.jpg We hope you enjoyed the journey as much as we did. /media/tinymce_upload/cfbc267d0d566f7f97d7030dcbe2d5fe.jpg

We haven't had the weather yet for an outdoor photoshoot. The way the UK weather is going now, Summer may well be over! I'd still like to try and get out for a real backdrop, but for now, here's a multitude of pictures from an indoor shoot, taken at both eye level and from above. Some I've turned black and white, while some others have just been desaturated a bit and red increased to try and replicate wartime Kodachrome film. /media/tinymce_upload/17db60d41296afb55bdef4ef4734e4eb.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/dfbe1d7dcb67c6ab7188b5a75b3d8549.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/d9d4e572a5d4cf8a659ac94116ad986a.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/8e73f543f56bc2cf50fde326a3851dde.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/92c5124775036f66dac161facb89813f.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/b76b1ebdb0b9ac306d62e2a4956c64fb.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/0ec8ce683259270269163e9bd8159c01.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/7a92868c75c90da590715cbc6fabda5b.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/4a0fd5e54316f53eb826a55fd77908ba.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/68f93cf10262263918f172428accfea3.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/44e9e1bcd09ac5da19fea9e3cf7cb6ce.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/7149bc30103181cb05833ba2650893b6.jpg

August 28th, we got the last of the small details glued down, though there was still a little more work to do. A couple of pulled up road signs have been dumped at the roadside here. /media/tinymce_upload/c78f8ff4b19da2a896d2cbf4ce37bfa6.jpg The other two were abandoned a little further around the diorama. They were placed face down so we didn't need to worry about text on them. /media/tinymce_upload/aab298e26889e0800f90e97525ebb85f.jpg Near the field gun, a shovel and pick have been added, along with some broken house roof timbers. /media/tinymce_upload/1626f67c4df36a984cc684faa560b98d.jpg At the trailer, a pick was laid up against the corrugated iron. A shovel in the trailer, a bike against the rubble and another bike in the house. /media/tinymce_upload/d06ad309015a885e3711a3a8f3003cc4.jpg Roof tiles and timbers were scattered around the house. The tiles were painted the same colour as the roof, but haven't weathered as much, so are a bit bright. I decided it would be easier to weather them once glued down, rather than loose, so they'll be re-weathered once fully dry. /media/tinymce_upload/c1865f735c555b3ab3ccc5f23c86f6ae.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/2d872293fea585dd799fca8627cf6766.jpg Once the last of the weathering is done, it needs a sprayed matt coat to hide any of the glue spots still showing. /media/tinymce_upload/25da8a489f6f89272403052789ee88c4.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/26e2f96c8c871273c601035047621c90.jpg September 1st. The roof tiles were toned down now. Once the paint was fully hardened, it would be time for a matt coat and final photos. We've been thinking about trying to find a real background for some photos. /media/tinymce_upload/3dc8b6152cb1d188de77beb46ed12b50.jpg /media/tinymce_upload/2858ca4d6976d46e5d12cd834e74b835.jpg

More hole drilling followed..... /media/tinymce_upload/85f94136884ffc53ee19ec6ceb9a347c.jpg ....and more figure planting. This is Ralph the rope rigger. Formerly a grenade thrower, now making the final adjustments to the camo net guy ropes. /media/tinymce_upload/22b7bb85697c42b6f630c90f1b383176.jpg After Ralph's feet had stuck firmly, the rope was attached to his hands. The easiest was to do it was to soak the rope in cyano kicker, and add a drop of cyano to Ralph's hands. /media/tinymce_upload/1f742a1798b95286b4b2865b7cb38a93.jpg Rob seemed quite at home now under his camo net. /media/tinymce_upload/6fd933568cc49acd230556100a991898.jpg Slowly the diorama was filling up with figures and accessories. While it still looks quite empty here, we'd already added quite a lot of details. They should show up on closer inspection and when it's all done, I'll be taking a number of photos showing the various scenes from different view points. /media/tinymce_upload/4564f6d41cffacd1da2a186abd9a1f10.jpg Tom and Jerry can! The Jeep isn't attached yet, but Tom is topping up the fuel now while there's time. /media/tinymce_upload/017a89a8a722e6026e3c84714454ac49.jpg Barry was busy setting up another barbed wire barricade. /media/tinymce_upload/605d74c9ef9528201de830ef82d50ac2.jpg Ian was injured in earlier combat, but fortunately not too badly. He's waiting to be evacuated. The two other guys in the house are as yet un-named. /media/tinymce_upload/f6d14264dbaaf075c7f298e4c4ba7713.jpg The gun crew are talking about their field of fire and the need to lower the barbed wire a little, just in front of the gun. The Sherman is moving into position to provide more fire support. /media/tinymce_upload/3e74271e897712f157e621ea8d123e2b.jpg To finish this session of posts, here's a general view from house front. The layout of the figures and weapons is designed to give the diorama interesting viewing angles from all sides, with several small stories going on from where ever you view from. /media/tinymce_upload/a7a0f142c7b94a1cb5952a28e3069c15.jpg

Posted the first of the last updates yesterday and just waiting for it to be approved. We're now waiting for an opportunity to take the model to a location where we can have a real background for some photos in addition to taking some studio shots.

On August 12th, after a break of four months, we finally got back to the diorama. Since late March, life has mainly been focused on home-schooling, so we've had little time for modelling. I had a big workshop clean up the day before, so we spent the whole day modelmaking. Most of the painting and detailing had been done on the various components, so it was time to start the final assembly. Work began on cutting some small brass pins to length which would be used to attach the figures. The pins were filed with a diamond file to rough up the surface to aid the glue joint. /media/tinymce_upload/555c05f899578832e72240247d517481.jpg All the figures then had the pins glued in with cyano and their boots touched up where needed, following the melting of the holes for the pins. They were left in the curing cabinet for a while to dry while we moved on to other jobs. /media/tinymce_upload/f7b405dc7a09ed6c8bb2c46c028354b2.jpg A few small details still needed painting, so those were done next. /media/tinymce_upload/356f631cf988787f12e0d75db37cf7aa.jpg While the paint was drying, we started the final assembly by gluing down the field gun. That gave us a position for the two crew and enabled us to drill the mounting holes. After a test fit, they were both glued in place. /media/tinymce_upload/6312e2919f08a4fc15aaf7d07b04a055.jpg The coil of barbed wire was next. It was quite springy, so were started at one end, attaching it with cyano. It was held down against its natural spring, and glued every inch or so. /media/tinymce_upload/f8a708d95e00554ff9c79b467c0b6cad.jpg Rob the radio operator was next. He and his radio were glued to the bench and the bench glued under the position of the camo net. The barrels and crates were trial fitted, but we didn't know if their positions would interfere with the netting, so they were left loose for the time being. A few options for cargo was also tried in the trailer. /media/tinymce_upload/7b52aa627afdc5422e55fcf1d55bad22.jpg With Rob in place, the camo net was next. Some cotton thread was glued to each corner first to act as guy ropes. Corner by corner, the netting was glued to the top of each pole. When the end was pulled down, it gave us an indication of the space for the supplies. /media/tinymce_upload/d2791a91e512a815d3691dba154977e0.jpg A few positions were tried before they were glued down. They are seen here prior to gluing. /media/tinymce_upload/2a4f0a9c5cd5e31ae71f06dfac25e9fa.jpg I'll add the next few pictures once this is approved.

Still can't upload. I'm getting close to giving up trying to post pictures in the Airfix forum. If you want to see the latest pics of the almost complete diorama, search on Britmodeller.

I'll try again in December! 😉

I haven't posted here since early April and now find I can't upload pictures to a post. I keep getting a "403 Forbidden" error. I tried a single test Jpeg image, 700x525 pixels, 60kb in size and still get an error. A text only post works ok. Any thoughts?

I keep getting an error when trying to post with uploaded pictures, so this is just a text only test.