Post-Apocolyptic Urban Dio, UPDATED PROGRESS

I almost forgot about this!! I can't believe the last time I posted here was only a few days before I started school! I already finished my Aircraft Program, no jobs though unfortunately . Oh well! Working at Kal Tire and just making my truck pretty much my only project. I actually miss modeling! I packed all my model stuff up during the spring this year in hopes of moving now it's just sitting in boxes till next spring when we do move. Well I dug through my computer and found some old pics that I don't think I ever ended up posting of the "latest" progress. Also found a short video I made too! I'll try to get them uploaded in the next few days.

I really hope to finish this someday! Got a ton of unbuilt models sitting in boxes and half done projects hahaha!

Sweet, can't wait to see it!  I must admit, you're dio inspired me to try out 1/72 dio's and well, I'm at school as we speak, away from my models, kinda going through withdrawal, so please post pics!

Take care,

Austin

Haha, thanks guys. I am leaving for school this Saturday so I may only get a chance to work on it on the weekends. I got a bit more done today though, started foolin around painting the figures and experimenting with the rubble. I am having problems getting it to look realistically placed with the dust and everything. I glue it all down but the finer dust that fills a lot of space ends up blowing around and falling off its a shame cause it really ties the rubble in and gives it a better scale appearance.

I'm sure you've noticed but I have revamped the dio a few times and changed the placement and composition of the buildings. Before it was too hard to view it and you literally had to peak from all around the dio to view it all because of the positions of the buildings. I changed it to make it more suited to one view from the front for display purposes. I also changed the "story" a bit and added some different figures, I made it suggestive but ultimately you can make up the specifics in your own mind. Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll try to get more pictures soon.

Hey guys, it's been a while cause I have been busy with work and getting my course together for the end of this week but I got a bit more done. This is definitely a big project for me and I really hope I finish it sometime. Probably the biggest model-related thing I've ever done and for me it has been a big time learning experience and I have learned a lot of new techniques and improved since even the start of it.

I have a lot of pictures, and also a short  video "walk-through" clip. All positive comments are welcome.

Pics will come in a second

ahh I am having some problems uploading my pics. 

HEYYYYY!!!!!! Just thought I would let you guys know I'm back from my break. I may not be online a whole lot right now because I've been pretty busy but I thought I would let you know that I will be continuing with this project for sure. Not a whole lot of progress since my last update though but no worries as I will be hopefully adding some more soon. I recently made my first modelling purchase in a while and I bought 3 sets of Caeser 1/72 miniatures, some British SAS, Modern US Desert soldiers and some Urban Resistors (or terrorists lol). I have a feeling I'll be able to incorperate them fairly easily into my theme of dios.

Just a incase some of you were wondering, I usually take a break from modelling in the Summer and my interests shift to other things like bikes or trucks. I bought two trucks now that I have been working on so that is a pretty big project that I need to finish up too. I really missed a lot of the forum action around here so I thought I would come back and post something. Hopefully soon I'll be able to add more content again.

more more more!!!!!!

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.

  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...

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

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.

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

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.

    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...

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.  

      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...

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

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.

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

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 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.

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

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? 

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

   Boomer...