**Finished!!! 07May09** Taking Cover Hue 1968

Good suggestion. I do have some small scale styrene rod. Now the only question is do I have the putty skills?

Thanks for the suggestion

Psstoff~

Thanks for the encouragement. Trying to keep things in scale is one of the hardest things for me to do. The grass in reference to figures, the tree in reference to the grass. For intermediate height I am trying to crack the code on bamboo. I have couple of ideas but there is very little information on how to model bamboo.

More Later~

~Brian

Method 2 of elephant grass

Using natural vegitation the way I intended to simulate Elephant Grass did not work out. So, I went to Michaels and low and behold they had plastic grass that looked sort of like what I was trying to do, however they were very large in comparison to my figure.

I used a method similar to what I did with the pampas grass leaves.

First I separated the grass into plugs.

Looking at the bundles of blades there were too many so I made a smaller bundle and using my third hand I lashed the bundles together using a clove hitch with some button thread. I CA'd the bundle together and trimmed the thread and the parts of the grass blade below the knot.

Now my grass is more in scale to my fig. Seeing that elephant grass is between 9-12 ft. tall it is right in line with where it should be.

Now all I have to do is make about 30 more plugs.

I also started forming the ground work on the opposite side of the wall where the Marines are going to be.

Last but not least. I have also started working on the figures. I have not received the DML kit that I ordered yet so for now I am going to work on the two figures that I have.

As you can see I am detailing these figures using masking tape to make their H-Harness. I also detailed the gas mask with the appropriate straps.

Gamewarden5 wrote:

Maniac, Thanks. I will update with the other method. Brian

Maniac,

Thanks. I will update with the other method.

Brian

Tonight! Fun with Elephant Grass.

I am testing a couple of different ways of modeling Elephant grass that was common in Vietnam. The first Method is below. The figure is included jut to show scale.

The grass is made from a Pampas grass blade that had the center rib shaved out and then the individual blades of elephant grass was cut using a #11 blade held still while pulling the pampas grass blade steadily to try to achieve uniform thickness.

I am also going to try the same method with a thinner blade of grass to see which best simulates the elephant grass.

I figure if I make about 30-40 clumps of blades of varying heights that will simulate a pretty good stand of grass that will be on the inside of the wall.

I did that old Dragon set:

So did I.  I used them in my Vietnam MedEvac dio.  I swapped th etorsos out fo rones w/o flak vests from the Dragon 1st CAV figures to make them Army troopers.

model maniac 96 wrote:

HeavyArty wrote: Looking good and a good idea.  To make your figures more accurate and easier, since they come with all the gear, you should look at getting one of the below sets.  They are not currently in production, but come up often on Ebay and the trade forums.  Either set would work for your needs.  They are much better quality than the blobby Tamiya figures too. Good luck and keep us posted. OK, I gotta ask what and where are the trade forums?? and great lookin dio man, I am in the process of planning something just like it!

HeavyArty wrote:

model maniac 96 wrote: OK, I gotta ask what and where are the trade forums?? There are none on FSM.  Go to sites like Armorama, Missing-Links, Planet Armor, etc.  They all have trade forums.

Gamewarden5 wrote:

model maniac 96 wrote: Nice, How did you do those bullet holes??? Thanks, Jim The whole section of wall is a work in progress. Here is how I made them. I had poured a slab of water mixable skim coating about a quarter of an inch thick. I can't remember what the original intent was when I poured it because it has been sitting in a drawer for about six months. When the idea for this vignette came to me I used the slab as part of the inspiration. My mockup gave me the approximate size of the pieces I would use. I cut the skim coat out with a jig saw (ruined a blade in the process). Next I measured an actual cinder block to give me an the scale size of .442X.241 inches. I transferred these measurements to the wall sections with a set of dividers and scribed the lines into the wall with an old nail. To create the impacts I punched a random pattern of holes with a punch all that were deep enough to wedge in a dental pick. To get the chippin effect I literally pried out the chips with a dental pick. I also filled the holes on the other side of the wall where the air bubbles from pouring the skim coating were very large. To fill the holes I ground up the chips from the tops of the walls and the bullet impacts to a fine dust and mixed it with white glue to form a spackle paste and did a suitable patch job. Thanks for asking~ Brian

model maniac 96 wrote:

OK, I gotta ask what and where are the trade forums??

There are none on FSM.  Go to sites like Armorama, Missing-Links, Planet Armor, etc.  They all have trade forums.

model maniac 96 wrote:

Nice, How did you do those bullet holes??? Thanks, Jim

The whole section of wall is a work in progress. Here is how I made them. I had poured a slab of water mixable skim coating about a quarter of an inch thick. I can't remember what the original intent was when I poured it because it has been sitting in a drawer for about six months. When the idea for this vignette came to me I used the slab as part of the inspiration. My mockup gave me the approximate size of the pieces I would use. I cut the skim coat out with a jig saw (ruined a blade in the process).

Next I measured an actual cinder block to give me an the scale size of .442X.241 inches. I transferred these measurements to the wall sections with a set of dividers and scribed the lines into the wall with an old nail.

To create the impacts I punched a random pattern of holes with a punch all that were deep enough to wedge in a dental pick. To get the chippin effect I literally pried out the chips with a dental pick.

I also filled the holes on the other side of the wall where the air bubbles from pouring the skim coating were very large. To fill the holes I ground up the chips from the tops of the walls and the bullet impacts to a fine dust and mixed it with white glue to form a spackle paste and did a suitable patch job.

Thanks for asking~

Brian 

Gamewarden5 wrote:

I ordered the Khe San set of figures this morning. I don't think that the standing gunner in my current mockup is going to make the cut. His original body position on the PBR has him manning a .50 cal and leaning over to his right pretty hard. You are right on the money about exposure over the wall. Keeping a low profile would be very important to preserving his present living/breathing condition.

Why not do as you said with the ground and make the wall work with the gunner? Just give him more cover to explain being up so high, or put him in a bit of a hole, either way it gets more of him behind cover.

Interesting idea for a dio. I like painting figures and I'd like to do a diorama myself, but they seem so labor and space intensive. I hadn't considered doing little mini jobs where you just see a little piece of the action.

Maniac,

Thanks for the kind words. This is only my second diorama/vignette. I truly repsect the guys that do this alot. I am slugging away.

I finished the wall pretty much. Here is the other section of wall that is on the side away from the Marines who are battling tooth and nail. You can see all of the bullet strikes from incoming enemy fire.

The rest of the night is going to be spent on cutting palm fronds.

Semper Fi

Brian

HeavyArty wrote:

Looking good and a good idea.  To make your figures more accurate and easier, since they come with all the gear, you should look at getting one of the below sets.  They are not currently in production, but come up often on Ebay and the trade forums.  Either set would work for your needs.  They are much better quality than the blobby Tamiya figures too. Good luck and keep us posted.

Tonight I cut out the plywood base and I have cut the sections of wall out of pre-poured skim coat. I am starting to carve in the brickwork.
 
 [imghttp://i492.photobucket.com/albums/rr288/bavindicator/Hue_Vignette/WallSection.jpg[/img]

I have cut most of the large palm fronds, and am working on the medium and small fronds. I am also researching the look of elephant grass and bamboo so that the palm tree does not look too out of by itself in the middle of a concrete jungle.

Thanks for all of the encouragement and following along.

Brian

psstoff995 wrote:

Awesome link- thanks for the tip

I originally made the palm tree trunk more than 3 years ago when I came back to the hobby. I had built a HMMWV Avenger that I was going to put into a small diorama and I found this article on armorama.com that showed me how to make a realistic looking palm tree using jute twine, coaxial cable, and tissue paper. The leaves (fronds) are tropical looking silk leaves I picked up at Michael's on sale. The colors and general shape make them easily modified to look like any number of tropical foliage.

If you would like to read the article where I learned the technique the link is below.

http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=75 

Brian

Hey Brian,

Those palms are great!  What are they made out of?  Paper?  Foil?  You're doing a heck of a job on 'em

Gamewarden5 wrote:

bbrowniii~ congratulations on your retirement and thank you for your honorable service. My retirement ceremony was March 20th, 2008 and I actually transferred to the FMCR on July 1. I wish I could say I am enjoying the retired life but I work full time and go to college full time using my GI Bill.

OOH-RAH brother, and right back at ya.  Thanks for your service to your Country...

Yeah, I retired out of the SMCR, so: 1) I don't get my pension for another 20 years or so and 2) my former unit is working up to deploy, and it is killing me to be sitting on the sidelines...

I think that set of figs you have ordered will work well.  You might also see if you can track down a set of legs from a kneeling guy and combine it with the upper torso of the 60 gunner...?

Lastnight I spent time making the palm fronds for the palm tree. I have about 24 fronds of various sizes shaped. Now I have to make them look like palm fronds. Tedious, Tedious, and more Tedious!

Tonight I am going to cut out the actual base that this vignette will be built on and wrap it in bass wood strip. I am also going to try and get the wall sections cut so that I can start making this thing look like something other than a piece of cardboard and some foam core board.

I will update when I can.

Brian

I ordered the Khe San set of figures this morning. I don't think that the standing gunner in my current mockup is going to make the cut. His original body position on the PBR has him manning a .50 cal and leaning over to his right pretty hard. You are right on the money about exposure over the wall. Keeping a low profile would be very important to preserving his present living/breathing condition.

bbrowniii~ congratulations on your retirement and thank you for your honorable service. My retirement ceremony was March 20th, 2008 and I actually transferred to the FMCR on July 1. I wish I could say I am enjoying the retired life but I work full time and go to college full time using my GI Bill.