Something unusual

Hi Hieronymus,

    I'll go with something unusal. I'm thinking the bow of a Japanese transport ship? Workmanship looks great. What are the plans for the dio?

-Stephen

Here I am back again, with my current project. I have finished some more work yesterday and just a few minutes ago I took some more pictures to post them here. The "Maru" is coming together, if you can say so, of something like this. As you might have guessed already this is going to be a Japanese ship, the Idea is to build a diorama with a part, in this case the entire bow section of a beached ship or should I say the remains of a wreck. So here are the next few pictures of my ship, have fun and if you have any ideas, comments, critiques, or questions, just let me know....

Let' s start with the broken off section, lot of damage here, and stiill more to come, I'm still looking for more pictures of original wrecks.

The starboard side is still uncovered, what a pity that one  will not be able to see most of the internal structure, perhaps some I will remove some plates to show it off?, let me know what you think.

Keep on modeling

René

www.usns.biz

Very neat project.

I'm always fascinated by pix of wrecks and beached vessels.

Looking forward to your progress. 

Eric... 

Hi there,

today I had some time left after I finished my normal work in my office, which is fortunately right here in my house (I'm running my own little business), After that I decided to go ahead with my current project and here are some more pic's for you to watch.

As you can see I have finally covered the entire hull structure, don't worry I will reopen this hull, even so I will do the hard way.  On the port side picture you will see a black X, this is where I plan to show some additional heavy damage at the hull, perhaps from a torpedo or maybe from some obstacle the ship rammed when it was beached. Still trying to find some pictures of such a damage.

On the Main deck you will see that I have added the first few details, all scratch build of course and still more to come. I have added some more detailed pictures of the damage where the ship was ripped apart. I knew the hull looks pretty beaten up but I think this is normal for any kind of ship which received such heavy damage.

Let me know what you think and if you have any questions, remarks, critiques , let me hear them.

Keep on modeling

René

www.usns.biz

Hieronymus wrote:

if you have any questions, remarks, critiques , let me hear them.

To Manstein's revenge:

Hi there,

sorry for being a little bit late with my answer. 

No and yes, I'm using plans of a ship, but I have not been able to find plans of a Japanese freighter, so in the end I used plans of a US build ship and modified them a little bit. The main deck of this ship will be built just like most  ships of this time period were built. I'm already working on the next bits for this part of the dio, perhaps I will be able to post a few pic's this afternoon.

keep on modeling

René

www.usns.biz

Hi there again,

after finishing my days work I went back to my "cave" and restarted my work on the "Maru"
She is starting to look better (if I could say so) every hour, so let's see what I have done today.

The plan is as you have already guessed to show a part of a shipwreck which was beached. For this I had to "build" some additional damage to the hull which I did today. Most if not all the entire inner structure will never be seen again, well it is not the first time something like this happens to me and I'm afraid it will not be the last time either!

The main deck received some additional details, just check out the pic's and see for yourself. The deck gun is completely scratch build as well as all the rest of the ship, I really like that gun. I had some plans and photos for this one, it's a Japanese 4.7" gun.Some stanchions were added too and now most of the parts are in place next I will start to colour the whole wreck which will be quite a challenge, what a pity styrene does not rust all by itself.....well on second thought Thank God it doesn't!

Here are the pictures, as usual all comments, questions and so are welcomed

Have fun and
keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz 

Man, that is so cool...what scale is that figure?  Are you gonna construct a base for the hull to sit on?

During the battle of Tarawa (I believe) there was actually a Japanese ship hull on the beach that was used by the Japanese for snipers/mg's that had to be taken out several times...it was a prominent enough part of the battlefield that it is often seen on maps of the battle as a broken ship symbol... 

Hi,

the figure is the same scale as the ship: 1:72 and concerning your questio about the base, wellthis is going to be one of the next things I'll have to do. Some vehicles perhaps and some figures and finally the entire diorama base. Of course I will post pictures of them, so stay tuned

keep on modeling

René

www.usns.biz

HOLY S*** that is some serious scratchbuilding. I love it. Now that would be something to rust up. You've got my attention and I'll be watching this for sure.

Rob

Hi there and welcome back again, to my current project.

Work is going.....great, really I mean that, everything is falling in place, just like it was supposed to be. I had already a couple of more ideas for this diorama and I'm really curious if you will like them.

Detailing the "Maru" is (almost) finished still a few more things will be added later, but I started to colouring the wreckage. This is a progress which will take a few days, so please note that this is not the finished result. I ran out of rust-colour and I had to order 2 new bottles from my favourite shop, should receive them early next week. But here you will be able to get already an idea how my "Maru" will look when completed. The gunplatform is finally in place as well as the starboard anchor. I also attached a small portion of wooden deck, it looks so georgeus I could not resist to do this. After that I gave the hull a basic colour, Top is Tamiya XF-53 Neutral grey and the lower part is WEM Antifouling Red, one of the best coulours I have ever used, what a pity they don't do them as acrylics! After that I started to cover the entire ship and I mean everything with a special material to simulate the rust, it comes in 2 separate bottles, sorry but I dont have any names or brand for this stuff but it produces fantastic results. I will continue this work in the next days, maybe until then I will start working on the other parts of that dio!

As usual have fun with my pictures and if there is anything you want to know, just let me know

Keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz

 BEAUTIFUL work! Just awesome. Just AWESOME!!

                                      60

Wow that is incredible!  The only ? / Comment I have is the figure, If you are planning on keeping him in the blue uniform you should omit the gold braid on his cover (hat).  Navy Chief Petty Officers at the time wore the khaki cover with black band with the blue enlisted dungarees.  Officers with the gold band were always in khaki.

Chief Cover

Officer Cover (can't resist the Asian girls)

Well done, well done indeed!  The art of (yes I said art) scratchbuilding is fast dissapearing with the event of Photo-etch and highly detailed 1000 plus piece kits.  This is simply awesome and you should be very proud!

Thanks for sharing it with us,

razorboy

Hi there,

well I'm back with the next update on my current project.

If you remember my "Maru" (it's still at work) I had to order a few things because I ran out of some special color. In the meantime I thought it would be a good idea to continue the work on some other bits and pieces for this Diorama.

So here is the next part, this time it's a DUKW with some Navy sailors aboard looking at something or somebody and some more Marines in front of it. (they are still waiting for their vehicle but thats anotherr story.

The DUKW is from Italeri with only some minor improvements and some extra details. The sailors inside the DUKW are all from my favourite figure maker, Hecker & Goros, I really believe that in this scale (1:72) they are perhaps the best available.

The Marines are from various sources like Preiser, Heller and so on and are partly highly modified.

Hope you like them all, next time I will perhaps show you another vehicle or maybe the diorama base itself. Have fun and if you have any questions remarks, comments, ideas or crtitique, please let me hear them.

keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz

Hi there,

here I am back with the next update for my stilll ongoing projec.

The "Maru" is still waiting for some parts which I had to order, so I continued my work with the vehicles for the Diorama.

My first idea was to use a Jeep besides the DUKW but then I settled for something else, a Dodge 3/4 ton truck for those Marines which I had built too.

So here it is, the kit is an old ESCI kit in 1:72 with some minor modifications and some extra details. The Marines were further modified and now I think you might be able to guess what they will do on my upcoming little dio,with the exception of the driver who doesn't seem to be interested at all! Creating and modifying these figures was sofar the hardest job on the entire Dio!

Please not that the truck is not entirely finished, some minor weathering and some cleaning but it is already late in the evening and I want to stop the work for today.

Have fun with those pictures and please feel free to contact me if you got any questions, remarks, critiques or anything else to say.

Keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz

Hi there,

as promised here is my next update. Once again I was lucky that I did not had that much work in the office. Due to that I was able to start the work on the Diorama base itself and as promised I will show you, how I'm doing it!

I start with a wooden base and some frame around it, which is just for a good look, on ths I glued a 4cm thick base of styrofoam onto which I simply draw the general layout for all the bits and pieces.

Just to make sure everything fits, I put all the parts in place before I start to cut and form the base into its final shape:



Then it becomes messy, with a knife, a saw and everything else that can be used I trim the styrofoam into the right shape, make sure your vacuum cleaner is nearby, cause this is really messy! When finished with this the next work is to cover everything with wallpaperglue, (guess what? it's messy too, or should I say sticky?) and before I forget it is NOT a good idea to stroke your cat at that time with those fingers!



Next step is already the final detailing. As I will put 2 vehicles on my beach, I need some tracks in the (still missing) sand, here is how I'm doing this. I simply take an axle and 2 compatible wheels....and let them roll!



The palms and some of the debris is next:



Then just for fun, the ship:



and finally the vehicles and the figures:



Just to make sure everything really fits:



seen from another angle:



and another one:



and so on:

Well I do not know what you think about this, but I believe it's starting to look not that bad.

Next, I will start to put a lot of color onto this thing and see how it starts to look then!

As usual, any comments, questions reamarks or critiques just let me hear them, thats the way I'm improving

Now where is that cat................Kitty kitty kittty, sticky kitty kitty?

Have fun &

Keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz

Hi there,

well some of you will remember this little Dio of mine. I started to built this about 2 month ago or so and got slowed down by some problems with that specific color I was looking for. Actually nothing dramatic I only ran out of my special "rust-color" and due to some people being on holidays and a major hailstorm the whole project took somewhat longer.

But here it is. The scale is as usual for me 1:72 , the cars came from Esci and Italeri, the figures inside the DUKW are from Hecker & Goros, my favourite figure maker, the 4 Marines are partly self made with the help of some bits and pieces from various other figures and some putty.

The Ship (or what is left of it) and the whole dio ase including the palm trees is completely scratch build. Now have fun with my pictures and if there are any questions, please let me know.

Keep on modeling

René

www.usns.biz

Man, this is really just terrific. I'm at a loss for superlatives to compliment your outstanding skill!

EXCELLENT!!!