Last US Navy Bi Plane Diorama WIP 1/72 scale

Boomerang

Really great diorama. It's a real eyecatcher with all the colour.

 Your figures look excellent with the poses that you chose. Good work on the conversions too, it's hard to tell they were Germans once...

To top it all off....the section of carrier deck you have built is fantastic.

You should turn some of your pics into black and white. I turned one to black and white on photobucket and it looks good. Gives it a real 'period' look.

 

Justin...

Thanks Justin, appreciate what you have said very much.

Yeah, I might just try converting some pix to B/W in photoshop.

Cheers,

Richard

Really great diorama. It's a real eyecatcher with all the colour.

 Your figures look excellent with the poses that you chose. Good work on the conversions too, it's hard to tell they were Germans once...

To top it all off....the section of carrier deck you have built is fantastic.

You should turn some of your pics into black and white. I turned one to black and white on photobucket and it looks good. Gives it a real 'period' look.

Justin...

tonka

Super job on the figure conversions,,I would have thought they were store bought.

I have worked with Preiser figs in 1/87 scale for model railroad,, didn't even give a thought to 1/72 scale.

I love what you did with the old Matchbox kit,, I have just collected the Monogram 1930's biplanes and new decals and will begin the build soon...Great inspiration!

Thanks Tonka,

I'm glad my build has given you inspiration to tackle the 1930's Bi-planes. Besides the new stuff, I get a kick out of constructing really old kits. I can apply what I know now what I couldn't have done then.

I think the old kits are just as good if you need the basic shape. With the AM products available, a decent build can be achieved.

Cheers,

Richard

Super job on the figure conversions,,I would have thought they were store bought.

I have worked with Preiser figs in 1/87 scale for model railroad,, didn't even give a thought to 1/72 scale.

I love what you did with the old Matchbox kit,, I have just collected the Monogram 1930's biplanes and new decals and will begin the build soon...Great inspiration!

More progress pix to drool :lol: ... although the composition had been established much earlier, slight adjustments with blue tac just to get a feel.

At the last minute I had to add the figure you see in the foreground. With a friends reference I built the figure as an able seaman.

Sorry this pix is a little blur...I think the camera automatically focused on the wing.

Ah...now the figure is painted and even the deck is re-painted. Gone are the white stripes. The Lexington spotted chrome yellow run downs. I realised that the color scheme of the planes was for a squadron operating from the Lexington.

Planks were masked with a single mask which I moved around and randomly sprayed the lighter shades...I then went over the lines again with a 0.5 tip permanent marker pen. Areas that stood out got a post shade of diluted dark brown.

The tie downs was a print out I made on normal A4 paper, cut and weathered before gluing it on the deck.

The guys aren't stuck on yet (notice the blue tac). They all got a coat of clear matt varnish before permanently sticking them down.

I'd like to thank all the guys who have encouraged me through the whole progress build, even when I ran into problems like the decals.

C&C welcomed.

Cheers,

Richard.

tonka

Beautiful work!! What figures did you use??

Thanks Tonka, the figures I used come from Preiser.

This is the first time I'm working with Preiser and what a gem it is. The box you see is the Luftwaff personel at rest in 1/72nd scale.

It comes even with deck chairs and tables.

On opening the box, you're greeted with two sets of figures with detailed and unique poses. The plastic is easy to work with being soft for carving and sanding,  great for modifying to US carrier personel.

I told one of my fellow modelers that there were going to be five figures and these are the lucky chosen ones.

Notice that I have already added sprue filling to correct the pose that I want on one of the figures.

The following are close-ups of the figures. I've cleaned up some of them removing mold seams and sanded some of the details too. Up close their proportions look good.

Next will be the choice of arms and surgery for the heads. :lol:
This is how I'm going to pose them.
1. One deckhand on the sidewalk watching whats going on.
2. The pilots discussing their flight plans.
3. One deckhand checking the undercarraige.
4. The other making sure everythings in order in the cockpit.

It's going to be scratch like mad in this scale to convert Luftwaff personal to US Navy and Airmen.

In my other forum I had asked if anybody got a clue to the color codes to the deckhands pullovers and head caps? But didn't get any feedback so I proceeded with what I could imagine.

The following are the figures that I have remodeled to navy personel.
Most of the conversions were made with bondite after shaving off some of the detail.

The parachute harness and pack was challenging. After seeing what my friends did with bondite, I had to give it a go. My experience with putty is basically with 1/35th scale figures. At 1/72 was even more fun.

Next up is the painted figures. I also test fitted their pose on the carrier deck.

Cheers,

Richard.

Beautiful work!! What figures did you use??

In the previous picture on the close-up of the deck edge, I had to apply two rounds of white glue spots to get better raised results. The port holes are Tamiya clear tubes cut thinly and sanded to size. Everything you see is scratched from plastic.

Again after priming it with grey primer, I coudn't help but dry fit it against the base to see the effect.

The following is the pre shadowing of the deck edge.

Both plane and deck getting their coats of paint. Again all dry posing.
All I need is to add a coat of clear varnish for decalling. Have to fashion my own.
The canopy still needs to be vacformed. Figures are touch and go for now.

Thanks for viewing.

Cheers,

Richard.