Its a pile of junk Dio Tutorial

VERY COOL, Bodge!

Glad to see you're going to take the time with this! It'll be a great piece of instruction for this forum! 

I'd read about useing rubberised horsehair for brambles but never been able to find it. hats some nice alternative and an excellent result. I will be watching this very closely as this is one area of my dios i need to work on.

I can see another steep climb in the learning curve coming up.

Is sea moss the stuff you get from woodland scenics they call foliage.

    Bodge that wreck looks great the rusting looks spot on for something thats been sitting for over sixty year's

the doog wrote:

Bish, you can also use just regular "steel wool" for the brush's framework!

   Doog are you sure about the steel wool? Do you need to coat it with something first to keep it from rusting?I use it to remove scratch's and after sanding and if the stuff get's even a little moisture on it it start's to rust and fall apart.

I dont know if Woodland scenic foliage is sea moss? I get mine from a model railway shop and its from Hock.picture below

I sure do love my stash of rubberized horsehair; I get mine online from a shop in the UK-

Antenociti's

Cheap, and lots in stock. Fast shipping. Seafoam also on this page.

BTW, looking good, Bodge.

Steve 

On to Trees, You often see trees in Dio,s but they are usually only small in comparison to the real things scale wise that is, so im going to do a Whopper, Im starting with an old bush i pulled out the garden last year. This has turned into a mere skeliton and i thought it would come in handy for modelling although its way to big.

So i trimmed of a piece to build upon

I then started to trim of other pieces off the main bush to add to the tree,fixing them with superglue

After repeating this a few times and when i was happy with the shape i started to add fine roots from plants previously collected to beef up the smaller branches

Then it was time to break off some more horse hair and glue onto the end branches,i could have used the seamoss but horse hair is more flexible and go,s on where ever you want it.

You could blend this in colour wise and leave for a winter tree but seeing as mine,s in the summer ive got to carry on. You can see by the figure in the photo above how big the tree is. But this is more to scale than a piece of seamoss usually used as tree,s. I find seamoss is fine for small trees and bushes in 1/35 scale and more suited as larger tree,s in 72 scale. I then added seeds from a silver birch tree after spraying on the scenic glue. these are ideal for reproducing Ivy in 35 scale as well.

This was then painted in the required green and then i sprincled on a light dusting of the Woodland scenic turf for lighter contrasts  and reprecenting some new growth.

And there you have it about 2 hours later (not as quick as the bushes) a realistic tree thats cost nuthing apart from the glue and paint and maybee some horse hair if your roots arnt bushy enough.

Great work on the trees I'm working on a dio (well mostly just looking at the unbuilt pices and puting some paint here and there) but In am realy lerning from this tread and will be watching!

Thanks for that link steveM.

No Bodge, the woodland scenics stuff isn't sea moss. I have been scared of doing trees for ages but really want to add some. Think i will give your way a try rather than the stuff i read in books. Looks simple enough and very effective.

No problem, Bish.

This cracks me up, Bodge, because I've spent a few hours today working on a tree, too. Not quite as big as yours. Your tree looks fantastic.

Steve

panzerguy wrote:

Bodge that wreck looks great the rusting looks spot on for something thats been sitting for over sixty year's  the doog wrote: Bish, you can also use just regular "steel wool" for the brush's framework!    Doog are you sure about the steel wool? Do you need to coat it with something first to keep it from rusting?I use it to remove scratch's and after sanding and if the stuff get's even a little moisture on it it start's to rust and fall apart.

   Doog thank's.

  Bodge thats one heck of tree. Just a suggestion I think it would be cool if you put a bird's nest or two in it.

Wow, don't have no other words, just wow.

Griz

Bodge wrote:

Several people have asked me to do a tutorial lately so here go,s ,this is a first for me.This is going to be for the rusty panzer 4 (a pile of junk) over on the armour site. First off  i want this to be a dio set in early to mid summer anywhere from the 70,s onwards.So firstly the most important starting point is go out and take some photo,s.This dio is going to be set in a farmers overgrown piece of land so i need to no what the vegitation looks like this time of year, With that done im going to show you how to make a realistic bramble bush in 10 minutes, first get some horse hair or plumbers hemp or rubber hemp shown below,you can also use hanging basket liner. Pull a piece off and tease it out so its a random shape like a bush Then spray it a dark green colour When this is touch dry (about 2-3 minutes) spray it with some scenic addhesive, i spray using an old Fry lite spray bottle as this comes out in a mist rather than a jet and is more controlable. Then i place it in an old shoe box and sprinkle on some course turf from woodland scenics,shake then take out of the box and spray again. the reason you do this procedure in a box but dont spray in the box is because you tip whats not stuck back in the jar so you dont waste it. This gives you a realistic looking bramble bush. You can then spray this a darker green again then repeat procedure to reprecent new growth over old.Also you can use various spices like parsley from the spice rack for varied foliage sizes.All done in under ten minutes. Next up you can do the same thing with sea moss to create smaller tree,s or large trees for 1/72 scale. This is ideal for the hawthorne type bushes in the hedge rows of Europe.First of i spray these a dark brown and then the same procedure as above but varey the colour a bit. this makes quite  a nice comparisum to the real thing

Bodge, great pictures of the beautiful English countryside. I just have two questions: 1: Now where did I put my hiking boots and canteen?, and 2: Wonder if British Airways flies direct from Phoenix to London?

Now im on to the base board, cut some thin ply to size required and then plan layout. I wanted this to be a simple scene but efective, i have chosen to have the tank sat in a slight revine and have it slightly of square. I then cut some polistyrine into strips to create diferent levels to the scene. These were tryed then fixed with stronge PVA glue.

I then put on a layer of Pollyfiller to desired contoures  creating a higher part at an angle at the front of the base and again at rear of base and pushed the tree and smaller shrubs in and let dry overnight.

Next up i placed the tank in the revine and worked out where the bushes were going to be

With this done i started laying in the grass area usins a grass mat from Noch (long grass summer) With this i set it with PVA and the pulled of some small pieces to represent clumps. I also painted on a line of PVA where the path is and flattened the grass in one direction as if this had foot traffic.

Next i started to add longer grasses , cutting of clumps and sticking with superglue.Then i added some dirt and moss from the garden as well as the brambles that i made described earlier.

Then the tank was placed in and the undergrowth was built up around it.

I made a fence to run along the path using copper wire and balsa strips for the posts then painted it black, this will have the rust treatment later.

I added debri of the tank into and under the brambles and bushes as if they have been grown over over the years.

The grass recieved diferent tones of green paind to break it up from looking to bland and i painted the tuffts a darker green. Most of this work was done outside as its a bit messy.

Then i added the tiny daiseys these are from a German company called Busch and are meant for HOrailway modellers but would be way over size for 1/72 scale , but perfect for 35 scale. These you have to make as they come in kit form and you have to paint the inside bit of the flower as well this is a fiddly job but wll worth it. I added these in a random way from reference from the field.

Awesome!!! You got that one together FAST!!

Steve

A few more photo,s

Need to do some finishing touches now,ie bird and nest in tree, and i thought about doing two boys in the scene  with one on the path and the other that i would have to scratch build trying to reach thier ball that has landed in the brambles, let me know your sugestions . Also any idea,s for a good title?

What if the ball was in the tank turret, and the two boys just sat staring over the fence... teriffied of having to go retrieve it... seconds away from one daring the other to go get it.

Could evoke kinda of a scary kid thing, a la "Monster House". Seems like this could be the summer they were still scared to death of it, but after retrieving the ball and exploring it a bit, it will be their secret boyhood hideout.

Is that too sappy? You could call it:

"You get it."

"No, you get it!" 

Wow Andy, you sure work fast fella. That looks amazing. The foliage just looks...Right. Just how id imagine it would grow up around the tank. I dont know how you find the time...errr..i do..you dont finish other projects LOL.

I like the idea of a couple of kids looking over the fence though. What about the 2 of them searching the brambles while the ball is obvious to you and the viewer, in the tanks turret.

and the title......Wait for it, wait for it.......Looking IV trouble!!

...Guy

P.s it is a Pz IV isnt it?

Luftwoller wrote:

Wait for it, wait for it.......Looking IV trouble!! ...Guy P.s it is a Pz IV isnt it?

Latest pics . I have added some more foliage to the bushes by spraying some more scenic spray then sprinkling some woodland scenic,s fine turf on and i have added the birds nest as described earlier. Next on the list is scratch building two boy figures  that are going to be looking for thier ball which will have landed in the turret. This may take a while.

Finnished the fence, i added some acrylic resin to some various shades of mig powders , rust and metal  powders then dabbed it on.

Wow Andy, thats just looking amazing (For a bush ) one thing i just noticed is the track lying on the grass. Could you have grass growing through the links? If you put an egg in the nest in the tree, im sure its not a problem to a man of your caliber.

...Guy