WIP: Suburbs of Leningrad

 Hey Smeagol,

 How did the MiniArt kit go together? They're vacuformed right? I like the way your dio looks, I think the layout looks pretty good Keep posting, oh, is that Rush's "Permanent Waves" album cover I see?

 Best Regards,

First, you have great taste in music, that is Rush's perminant waves ALUBM (presto is under it)

Thanks for the liking of my wip, heh (that sounded horrible).  The kit went together horribly.  I didnt use the back of the building at all, because of how horribly it lined up and how big the gaps were. 

I still have alot of figures to do for that dio, Its going to be cluttered, the 3 primed one have 8 other figures still on spurs (I may not use them all, I dont like one or two poses).

How do the windows look?  the top one I used an extra piece, of a cellar door, to use as if it was used to board up the shattered window.  The bottom is just like broken glass.  How do the shutters look? 

 Hey Smeagol,

 I think at one point in time I had every Rush album produced. One of my favorites bands. i seen them in concert once. I think it was their Fly By Night Tour.

I think the window treatment looks good. The shutter looks great. a very nice touch.

The MiniArt buildings are tough to put together. I've done a couple. Lots of glue, and lots of filing, and lots of sanding, and lots of putty and lots of sanding, and lots more of putty and etc... I sanded one of the buildings I was working on so thin I couldn't sand it any more. It was a chore. It's still setting on the shelf in primer. The windows were the tough spots for me, and your windows turned out great.

 Keep posting,

Best Regards

I'v seen rush twice, both on the vapor trails tour.  I have all of their stuff, 2 vinyl, most on casette, and the newest stuff on CD and digital.  none of the latter has the quality of vinly in my opinion

I really went out with new techniques for this.  This is the first time I ever used a wash for anything.  I used 3 different ones.  The street has 2, the first is a hodge podge of different colors untill it had a dirty, ugly brown, I used it for a mud color between the bricks.  The second on the street was a blackish gray wash, for the cracks in the street and whatnot.  On the house I used the same dark gray, but I added alot of black, to make it have that sooty, old, damaged feeling it has

 Hey Smeagol,

 Something I just noticed in your pics. that you may want to address. I didn't see any debris from the bombed out building. There should be a good deal of rubble near the building and a good amount of a debri field. Just thought I would mention it.

 I'm starting work on a few DML figures. Taking a different approach to building and painting than I have in the past. How are you doing with your Soviet Soldiers? 

Best Regards

Hey, thanks for hanging this stv. I've got a 105 Sherman, and I thought about using this MAS kit as a base for it, but I wondered if it was big enough. Seems like it is.

Please post new pix as you take them. I'm also interested in seeing how those Russian tank riders turn out.

Yea, these bases are meant for 1/35 scale kits to go on them.  As far as debris, I dont know how to do that, and at this point I am happy with what I have, plus, you cant see on the base, but since its on an angle it cuts itself off after a tiny bit of molded rubble next to the end of the wall, and there is rubble behind it, but since I am not showing the rear of the thing.  I tried to simulate SOME rubble with the door on the street (I damaged it all the places the hinges/locks would be, plus I blackened one side really baddly

I am waiting for the other russian riders because I am going to be getting a bottle adaptor for my airbrush, and I am gona airbrush the lot of them at the same time (for the base color) instead of hand painting all of them.   

Just a suggestion, maybe you should weather it a bit more in certain areas. For example where the sandbags and soliders are add some dust and grime, since that's only reasonable.

 Hey Smeagol,

 If it were me, I would finish with all the figure painting/placement then lightly shoot the entire diorama with an oil based filter(similar to a wash but with an airbrush), after drying apply pastels. It should tie everything together. But I'm not an expert on anything! Just a Hobby Junkie.

Best Regards

I have put off working on this for a bit, just got back into it.  I started painting the commander.  

I had an odd idea and tried it.  I took some toilet paper, folded it in half over and over untill it was super thin, then used white glue to glue it.  once it dried and was hard I cut the sliver that I folded it into down the center, making it super thin.  I then cut it in half to a reasonable usable size.  I wrapped this around the commander's arm, glued it in place with white glue (didnt affect the paint or attach it to the arm).  Once it dried its tight enough to stay in place and not move unless I force it.  I frayed alittle bit of it, to look like a knot/where it was tied.  and I droped a drip of clear dark red paint onto it, to let it soak through.   Hopefully it looks like a bandaged wound, tell me what you think.

Looking fine so far. I agree with the comments about adding some debris on the base for realism. That miniart building and base looks good. I myself is working on a russian city diorama and was once contemplating getting a building kit from mini art but in the end I decided to just scratchbuild the buildings to suit my requirements.

Anyway, keep us updated. 

 Hey smeagol,

 Hope you can get the airbrush problem worked out. I wanted to see more of the dio you're working on.

 Best Regards,

smeagol the vile wrote:

I have put off working on this for a bit, just got back into it.  I started painting the commander.   I had an odd idea and tried it.  I took some toilet paper, folded it in half over and over untill it was super thin, then used white glue to glue it.  once it dried and was hard I cut the sliver that I folded it into down the center, making it super thin.  I then cut it in half to a reasonable usable size.  I wrapped this around the commander's arm, glued it in place with white glue (didnt affect the paint or attach it to the arm).  Once it dried its tight enough to stay in place and not move unless I force it.  I frayed alittle bit of it, to look like a knot/where it was tied.  and I droped a drip of clear dark red paint onto it, to let it soak through.   Hopefully it looks like a bandaged wound, tell me what you think.

Hey really great work on painting the figure really looks nice.  You asked if it looks like a wound and it does.  The question I have is would he really be pointing with the wounded arm?  Granted I have never been shot, nor do I want to be, but it sort of like a "Hollywood" thing.  Where I guy gets hit in the arm and still nothing slows he down.  I mean that looks like a really bad wound.  Maybe I just a "wussy".  And, really it may just be personal taste.  And really it does look very nice, I wish I could do as good as that.

Grizz

Well, I did it like that for a few reasons.  The first is there is a gun that goes into his other hand, so that would be the arm left for pointing.

Also, I sort of got inspiration from a photo in a book ('The Unknown War' about russia vs germany in WWII) of a Russian Artillery commander fighting and giving orders with a bad headwound and his head all bandaged.

So I was thinking, Russia's forces were stretched already, and the way the communist police were, I figgured he would probably be shot if he tried to not command with the arm wound.  Thats what lead me to doing that. 

You have a point there about wounded Russians.  I have several pics with Russians obviously wounded and still fighting/leading.  It would very inspiring. 

Grizz

smeagol the vile wrote:

I'v seen rush twice, both on the vapor trails tour.  I have all of their stuff, 2 vinyl, most on casette, and the newest stuff on CD and digital.  none of the latter has the quality of vinly in my opinion

Grace Under Pressure - Toronto

Presto - Sacramento

 Hey smeagol,

 Getting inspiration from a book is a great idea. I read the "The last Victory In Russia" by George M. Nipe, Jr. published by Schiffer. It's a great book on the battles leading up to and including Kharkov. I recently started working on a project I've put on the back burner for a while. I'm waiting on some figures to finish another project I've been working on and built a T-34 in the meantime. I decided to use it with the backburner project while I'm waiting. Here are a couple of pics of the general layout. The first one is a top down shot to record the dimensions.

 The second shot is sort of a ground level shot to see if the VW is visible. I used your bandage idea for a couple of discarded items drapped around the T-34. Thanks for the tip. I was going to use putty but sometimes it is a hassle to knead, wait, roll, cut, shape, and repeat if it doesn't look right. I think it worked great. I've got enough filing, sanding, carving and putty to do on the figures.

 The story line I'm trying to convey is that of the 2nd SS/ 3rd Kradshutzens Battalion capture of a T-34, near Novo-Moskovsk Feb. 23,1943. The T-34 was abandoned after an assault of 45 schwimmwagens, of which only 23 were armed. The assault was led by Herman Buch and was responsible for securing the rear areas of Das Riech's supply lines. I thought after reading that,  it was really amazing and bawlzy being outgunned and outnumbered to assault an entrenched position with nothing more than VWs'. I figured I'll work on this until my figures arrive for the other project. One last pic from the 9:00 o'clock postion. Just checking on the layout from different views.

 The T-34 will be in a white wash camo, nose down in a bomb crater. It's in a basecoat right now. I plan on having the trooper near the VW holding an air recon flag. I thought the title "Catching the Next Flight" would be fitting. I don't believe the Gerries called in an airstrike on the positions but I thought it would be more appealing to have the troopers doing something other than looking over their prize. Well it's back to project "Mayhem".

 Best Regards,

well I'm glad I gave you some inspriation.  I really like the way your Dio lays, I like the telephone pole.  I have started playing Company of heros, and one of the things I liked was when you send light vehichles down roads and stuff, they had a habbit of hitting rough terrain and just going and plowing over telephone poles, I thought it was so cool, so I like that about your little dio.

 My next project, which wont be untill I start working again, is going to be a small little dio of Audie Murphy in the M-10 mowing down some germans.  It will be my most detailed and hardest project yet.  I'm going to have to get a after market kit for inner details, for where the M-10 is damaged.  I'm going to have to use resin figures (I figgure) to get a good figure for Audie murphy, as well as dead germans.  Alot of work damaging the tank, gona take alot of research and trial and error...

 Hello smeagol,

 I think this part time project is going on hold for a time, maybe a long time. I just trashed the T-34. I tried a 2 tone camo on it using some type of clay that should NOT be used as a masking agent. The brown went on OK but when I tried to remove the "clay" it stuck really good. Well I tried picking it off, sorta like picking ones nose. One never can get the whole thing. So I had another brilliant idea. I'll try water to remove the unwanted "bugers". Well I had painted the thing with acrylics and the water lifted the paint better than the "bugers". Egads this is developing into a nightmare I told myself. It wasn't over yet. With the paint lifted in several areas and the "bugers" still snugly imbedded into the detail areas I let anger win out. I applied a liberal dose of laquer thinner to the T-34 and began scrubbing. WOW. I mean double WOW. What a mess. It not only lifted the unwanted snugly "bugers" it lifted the primer coat too. Right now it is smoldering in the yard after throwing a molotov at it. I hope your dio is coming along a lot better than my new "inferno" dio.

 Best Regards,

I gota say, im disapointed in the molding for the head of that commander.  I dont know if I did something wrong (most likley not) or I just got crap tastic piece, but the face is severly ugly, it doesnt look right at all.