First Dio, UPDATED 3/28 - Gang's all here!

You and your Stuarts! Geez!

Well, The paras would well work with tanks whereever they met an allied tank... Check my reply to the figure post of yours and you see I gave some ideas. But without knowing of the Stuart..  

The M3. Looks alll fine to me! :D

Looking more forward for the M3 Lee I bought.. Tamiya aswell.  Also the Panzer II Tamiya. All 3 kits the old ones.

I will build the 2 allied ones as Desert BRITISH tanks. And the German tank as a DAK one. Desert display! \o/ 

NICE looking figs!!!! what kind of paint did you use?? I'm gessing Tamiya? if so di you mix in there Flat Base coulor?? it looks like you did in the 5th pic.

For the cobble stone street take a look at the April 2009 FSM page 41.

Again great figs!!

Hi TacoBuff

I used to spend days drawing and scribing cobblestons, until I devised this quick and easy way to simulate cobblestone road.

Once you have your base worked out, and your road ready to go...

Apply a thin layer of plaster of paris to the road surface, let it dry and sand it down to shape. (that will give something for the skim coat to key to).

Next, get yourself one of those open mesh washing bags, (available from supermarkets) the type you put your loose articles in, to throw in the washing machine. Cut it into one strip of the material.

Lay the material over the road, and apply skim coat (plaster filler in a tube), and squeeze it through the material using a plastic applicator. (very much like screen printing). Go right to the road edges, and make sure you have squeezed enough through... otherwise the cobbles will lift with the material.

Carefully peel back the material while the skim coat is still wet, and there you have your cobblestone road.

Have a practice before you start on the project. The material is available in different grades, keep an eye out for it, for different sized cobbles.

The surface will not match the road in the Verlinden kit, so you may wish trim that off, cover it with rubble, or put the new road surface over it.

hope this helps.

TacoBuff wrote:

Yes, they're tamiya paints. I mixed khaki into buff to get the color. I didn't use any flat, guess I got lucky huh? Thanks for the comments, I'm having agreat time working on them. I totally spaced about that FSM article, thanks!

That's a cool coulor mix..... I never thought of that so I'm going to have to steel it for my next US figs

I can't wait to see some more pix!!

I've done the plaster-scribing cobblestones too, and I like the rough, random effect and being able to bust up and gouge the stones here & there, but it is tedious... These days, I hit the model RR section for Plastruct "Dressed Stone/Block Wall" sheets in O scale... Two sheets of vac-formed styrene 12" x 7" and scales out about right for 1/35th... You could also use it to make stone walks and it'll work for plaster mold-making too.. Use it to make the "male" (the grout will be raised rather than recessed) mold for the "female" road parts poured in plaster...

Just make sure you run the courses across the "street" at a right angle rather than paralelling it...

I know to have the road run along an angle in the dio, but I'm curious as to why this is the method of choice.

I'm no engineer or even a mason, but I'd hazard a guess that it's because there's more strength in the material that way since there's more contact area between the stones when they're at right angles to the direction of travel... Same reason that brick and block walls have the courses running horizontally... That's a SWAG (Scientific Wild-Azz Guess) on my part though..  Heck, it might be just because it looks better...

You can also make cobblestone roads by balling up tiny balls of milliput putty or modeling clay (self hardening), and then flattening them to a similar height. Completely coat your base with white glue, place the pre-pressed stones in place, and then sprinkle the entire street with real, fine sifted dirt. This will stick in the gaps between the stones and complete the street.

Takes a little time, but it's the real way a street would essentiallly have been made, and it looks it when done.

PS--Uh,..."just say 'NO!'" to using any frozen vegetable products in your street-making efforts!  

TacoBuff wrote:

Your perfectly welcome to steal the color mix stick man! Hans, I've only found random stone patterns at my lhs, but I haven't checked in a while, I'll keep an eye out for that. I know to have the road run along an angle in the dio, but I'm curious as to why this is the method of choice.

You gotta be an artist, dude! LOL

NO, seriously--it helps to draw the eye into the action, and removes the banality of similar angles. It really DOES work to jazz up the appearance. Straight-angled bases look crappy.

the doog wrote:

PS--Uh,..."just say 'NO!'" to using any frozen vegetable products in your street-making efforts!

 lol that's what I thought

And I’ll second that artistic thing. It’s the same reason a snapshot of a person will have them dead center while an artistic portrait might offset them somewhat, or move the focal point out of the middle of the frame. Nicer balance, less symmetry, looks more natural.
 

All right, Updates!  So this is the wounded soldier included in the verlinden set.  I decided to not have him supported by the other trooper, as I felt he would be more interesting moving than helping this guy.

He deffinately gets my vote for "best face I've painted so far!" 

My questions are:  1) would it be realistic to have him propping his foot on a helmet like that?  2) would it be alright if he used an M1 as opposed to the more common para weapon M1A1 carbine?  the effect i'm going for is that he's trying to force himself back up with the butt of the rifle (he procured it somewhere, it is D+ # of unknown days), and is using the helmet to keep his legs up. 

would this make sense?  or should i take him out of the dio, as i have no medic to tend to him.  I could position a figure to make it look like he's moving away from the wounded guy after tending to him as best he could.

TacoBuff wrote:

1) would it be realistic to have him propping his foot on a helmet like that?

Oh yeah it would! Classic "shock position". I’m not a doctor- but I’m an EMT. Elevate the legs 8-12”to keep the blood flow in the core. After a shot in the thigh like that (I have the kit as well btw, not built) I think this position is much better than the one on the box. As far as the weapon- from what I remember from Band of Brother’s and Saving Private Ryan- you’d be fine with it? But that’s just a guess.

I actually like that there’s no medic to tend to him- it makes it that much more serious that he’s got such a band wound. A broken femur can be fatal in some situations, a bullet is even worse (if you remember Black Hawk Down the soldier who’s femoral artery was severed and he died before they could extract him or get him blood). I saw the helmet propped up and thought that was perfect. Medics in the field are famous for throwing things together on the fly with items around them. If I was elevating someone legs, I’d use a jumpbag or something like that- the fact that the figure OOB never had a helmet on- I think this is a great reason for him to be missing one.

figures are in the final touch up phases, point where i pick out the details I forgot on the initial go around .  Check 'em out, and leave feedback!

These are the guys I just finished and you haven't seen yet.    Also, came up with a new idea...  I've got a Pnz IV H in my stash, and I thought i could have the last guy with the tommy gun charging the tank's rear, satchel charge in hand, while the other paras distract the tank with fire.  might include some german soldiers here and there.  What do ya think? 

Nice figs TacoBuff!! thay are all realy good.

   Yes, great figures TacoBuff. Can't wait till i can do mine that good!

   Boomer...