Post-Apocolyptic Urban Dio, UPDATED PROGRESS

A good start, Brad.

The nice thing about 1/72 scale is the small size of your diorama elements. If you do gaming, you can make them a certain size and inter-connect them as you build them. I havent done many myself, and plan to do some mecha vs men when I get some BANDAI kits in the mail.

Progress is slow right now, just finished a bit more on each building and planned out construction and designs. Gotta go to work though.

Leave me some suggestions or comments.

sounds like a neat 'blank canvas' to start a dio of. If you need some inspiration, try (yes try) watching the starship troopers movie. it should give some ideas on costume and weapon design. also the games "advanced warfighter" and "battlefield 2150" should also help.

  Hey Brad.........i mean Cam........ This looks like fun. What are your soldiers going to be fighting? Machines, aliens or other humans?  Also i suggest you make up your camo to suit the environment very closely.  I would wait until you start to put some colours on your diorama, then something cool may come to mind............I was thinking, maybe a six wheeled, motorized heavy gun would look cool supporting the troops too.......more troops would look good........

  This one is all yours. It's sci-fi man, nobody can tell you right or wrong.............you can let your imagination all hang out on this one.......

   Boomer...

Looks like a fun project.  Keep us posted.

Regards,  Rick

Thanks for all the feedback, I really appreciate it. Thanks a bunch for the link and stuff Aussiemuscle. Ive played both those games, both great and ya they partly inspired me to do this. Especially BF 2142 and the camouflage patterns they used. And yes I totally love Starship troopers, one of my favourite movies. Im a big sci-fi fan, mostly futuristic infantry combat type stuff like Halo, BF2142 and Starship Troopers. Ive always wanted to model it too but couldn't find much kits or anything. Also I like dioramas and doing the futuristic urban settings a lot.

Hey Boomer, thanks. And ya its lots of fun. As for what they are fighting I was thinking of keeping it a mystery. Like a one sided view where we see them but not what they are shooting at. I will put in some hints like plasma scoring to maybe indicate alien weaponry or something like that (suggestions?), or maybe hide some enemy creature or whatever somewhere in the dio. And I was thinking that exact same thing with the camouflage, match the colours and create a specific pattern. Ive been experimenting still though, colours will wait but Id like the pattern to be something unique and distinctive. The vehicle idea may not work out sadly, Id really like to but there isnt much room, maybe an alternative like a heavy weapons position or something (SUGGESTIONS!??). The number of troops is at 8 right now I think, 3 running across the road, 2 giving cover, 1 shouting at the ones crossing, and a 2 man sniper team. The modern BW set by Revell has some good poses too, and the G36k look pretty near futuristic, even more with minor modification although the scale is so small hard to tell a difference.

Im pretty stoked today because I just bought a badger anthem airbrush and a compressor for $150 and some other little tools. Pretty sweet deal though. My first real airbrush, besides a cheapo testors one that sprayed like a rattle can only. Pretty cool though, brings a new element to my modelling.

Anyways not much progress lately, real busy week with church, dentist (ughh 3 times this week), school (ughh 5 times this week) and family.

Big post lol. 

   Hey mate, when i mentioned about a wheeled vehicle, i didn't mean some huge assault weapon. I was thinking more along the lines of like those things in Stargate. Those six wheeled buggies they take there supplies through the gate on. Instead of supplies you could mount some sort of heavy gun......a cannon that fires an EM pulse that only effects what it hits maybe..... I was only thinking small, 2 inches max length. It could be remotely controled by the troops, as is the Stargate thingy i mentioned.

   Boomer...

   Oh, you won't know yourself with that new airbrush.....

   Boomer...

Actually ya some small weapons platform would be cool to scratch build. Ill have to draw up some plans in MS paint. Unfortunately Im returning the compressor because the water separator isnt working proper. But the airbrush is pretty sweet, its dual action which Im still getting the hang of.

Also one of the buildings is almost done being constructed, next I will get some spackle or plaster of some kind to cover the buildings with and chip away for damage. Anyone have any experience with this method? What kinda stuff should I cover the buildings with? 

Boomerang wrote:

Also i suggest you make up your camo to suit the environment very closely.  I would wait until you start to put some colours on your diorama, then something cool may come to mind........

How 'bout adaptive camo? Maybe an LCD skin that shows whatevers on the other side(Like the Aston in that Bond movie with the ice castle). Maybe have one damaged too so it's not working and have it a different color or something. Also, how bout a guy trying to figure out one of those alien weapons maybe? Hope this helps!
------------Kevin

I like the figure suggestion Kevleerey, with the alien weapon. Would require some custom sculpting though. The camo is cool but would be hard to simulate with figures lol. Probably stick to some blocky experimental camo pattern.

Hey, I like where you're going so far with this.  Since you mentioned you wanted to have some explosions and effecs and such, heres some ideas I was playing with a while ago:\

Mortar/shell hit:

First I just crumpled tin foilo into a basic shape, and poked in toothpicks where I wanted the little things "shooting outwards".  Last I just covered in plaster of paris, I think wall spackle would be jsut as good or even better.  this was going to be a mortar hitting water a Omaha beach, so for an urban setting, throw some bits of debris or even weapons and rebar and stuff coming out of the explosion.  Last, you could use some wool or stuffing painted appropriately, and glue sprinkles of sand on to it to show the dust and dirt getting kicked up.  If you threw an orange LED there and paint4ed the mortar hit niely, that could be one awesome looking explosion.

Rubble:

I know wrubble isn't hard to make, but this was pretty easy.  I just poured the extra plaster into a CD case, and let it harden before bending the CD case backwards would made them crack into nice little squarish chunks.

I ahd a technique for ullets hitting and kicking up dirt, but I think it would be too big in 1/72 (the two above were both 1/35, but could easily work for any scale.

Hope this helps!

I ahd a technique for ullets hitting and kicking up dirt, but I think it would be too big in 1/72 (the two above were both 1/35, but could easily work for any scale.

Oh please share it, I may be able to adapt it smaller or it could simulate larger caliber hits. I really like the explosion effect though. Thanks a lot Ian

Weeeeeel you asked for it so here it is:  keep in mind this was to simulate bullets hitting the water and kicking up some spray, so you would need to paint it or something so it looked like dust, not water:

Bullet splashes:  Take the cotton off of cotton swabs (ear cleaner things) or any other source of whispy white cotton or such.  Pull it apart into the general shape you want, and glue it to your base or whatever.  Next, after the glue dries, spray in adhesive or even like a gloss finish or hairspray, just to make stuff stick to it.  Than sprinkle on some sort of white powder, I used woodland scenics snow, then pray on more adhesive/gloss or whatever.  let this dry and repeat until you get enough of a body top the bullet splash, and there go! very easy.

And, while I was looking through the pictures of effects I was palying with for that Omaha diorama....here's some pictures of a crater I made, just for inspiration, plus it would go well  ith that mortar strike.

Thanks a bunch Ian, really helps. I may modify the techniques a bit to suit my purpose.

Also more progress tonight on the buildings, it's slow but hopefully I can start working with plaster within the next two weeks. After the styrofoam stage itll be all laid out and then I just need to "finish" it with plaster and details. Ill post some new pics.

Things are starting to take shape

      Looking good. You have given yourself lots of work doing the plastering there......... You need lots of rubble i am thinking. Make it look like a scene of total chaos.

      Hey, did you notice in the HUGE Halo3 diorama you posted about, that there are expolosions on the walls of the buildings and they look exactly like Ian's mortar explosion! They obviously used a very similar technique.

      Boomer...

Yes I did notice those. Some look like cotton or something, but what really gets me are the explosive fiery ones. I wish I could simulate that somehow but I cant figure out how they did it. Unless its some orangey molded plastic with LEDs under it maybe but that's a little complicated to make myself.

Oh as for plastering Ive done a little on some WWII bunkers but the finish was rough. Its ok for old bunkers but I kinda wanna simulate a smooth concrete so maybe some spackling compound or that lightwieght filler stuff. Im thinking of putting together some colourful signs maybe even light them up, just for contrast and stuff. Instead of just a pale gray urban setting. I wanna make it look like people were walking around and shopping a week before.  

    It looks like some sort of lighting was used for the explosions in the Halo 3 diorama. I put up a post not very long ago called Smoke and Fire. It was of a diorama i found in which i thought the fire looked quite good. I don't think lights were used on that one. I emailed the builder about his techniques but i never heard back which is a shame because it is the best smoke and fire i have seen.

    Boomer...

Hey Ive just been working slowly on this right now, with school and all. Last year of school too hopefully. Anyways I got some progress done on the largest building. Actually itll be the second largest, the one at the "rear" of the dio is gonna be the tallest and have the snipers on the roof.

I went and cut off the buildings from the base. It just made it easier to work on and paint. I bought some LePage lightweight splackling compound for the covering. It works great and I recommend it to anyone using similar foam core and plaster techniques. 

Anyways heres some more pics showing progress of the building and stuff. Please comment and give feedback.

Ive decided to add a vehicle to the mix. Theres plenty of room, but Im still trying to find a place that it "fits" in. Im using Heller's 1/72 VAB 4x4 as the base and kitbashing it into something else. Not sure exactly what Im going for, just kind of winging it. I already got planned out the camouflage pattern, not the colours yet.

Pictures and more HERE

Thanks a lot. This is probably the only large project Ive gone through with and will actually turn out half decent. Also this is my first urban attempt and making everything square and as flat as possible is probably my one issue.

I just need to find some suitable civilian vehicles to place on the street. I might not use the APC, saving if for another dio I think.

Awesome diorama!  Keep it up, I really want to see where this goes...

You are inspiring me to make a 1/72nd urban diorama.

 Take care,

Austin

  Hey Cam, those buildings are looking great. I love the battle damage. Adding you rubble and wreckage and maybe some wrecked cars should be fun. The challenge is to make it all look futuristic. You may have to modify the cars a little. Go and have a look at the ones in the movie I ROBOT. They look cool and you may be able to modify some current vehicle without too much trouble. I am not sure where you get 1/72 scale motor cars from though..

  Hey, it would look good for that armoured vehicle you had to be plowing through some wrecked cars. In my personal opinion. you are worried about space, but i think this would look good crowded with lots going on. Thats just my opinion, i don't know what others think...

  But looking good so far mate!....

  Boomer...

Hey boomer thanks a lot. I appreciate your comment and supports.

I like the plowing idea. Maybe Ill scratchbuild a plow for the front of the APC. Im still not very happy with how the APC is looking though, doesnt really fit the look Im going for. Im just thinking that future armour would have most of its external venting sensors and all that stuff more hidden instead of ugly things sticking out every where. I guess Im trying to make it more streamlined. THIS was my biggest inspiration for the APC, second from the very bottom. Ive even been experimenting with the camouflage scheme (search armour, second page probably). 

Civilian vehicles is the most puzzling thing right now though. Ill check my old hotwheels collection though, theyre about the same scale I think.