Something unusual

Outstanding work!

That looks great!

 Were your medium paint, you would surpass Van Gogh, or any of the classics. Beautiful work, despite the stage it is set upon.

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Out-friggin-standing!!!

Dave

Magnificent work. Stunning.

Steve

Very nice work indeed. Great weathering on the ship. Hats off to anyone who can scratchbuild this well.

I can't help but be reminded of the scene in Lawrence of Arabia where Lawrence seemingly sees a ship sailing in the desert.

Man, this is really just terrific. I'm at a loss for superlatives to compliment your outstanding skill!

EXCELLENT!!!

Hi there,

well some of you will remember this little Dio of mine. I started to built this about 2 month ago or so and got slowed down by some problems with that specific color I was looking for. Actually nothing dramatic I only ran out of my special "rust-color" and due to some people being on holidays and a major hailstorm the whole project took somewhat longer.

But here it is. The scale is as usual for me 1:72 , the cars came from Esci and Italeri, the figures inside the DUKW are from Hecker & Goros, my favourite figure maker, the 4 Marines are partly self made with the help of some bits and pieces from various other figures and some putty.

The Ship (or what is left of it) and the whole dio ase including the palm trees is completely scratch build. Now have fun with my pictures and if there are any questions, please let me know.

Keep on modeling

René

www.usns.biz

Hi there,

as promised here is my next update. Once again I was lucky that I did not had that much work in the office. Due to that I was able to start the work on the Diorama base itself and as promised I will show you, how I'm doing it!

I start with a wooden base and some frame around it, which is just for a good look, on ths I glued a 4cm thick base of styrofoam onto which I simply draw the general layout for all the bits and pieces.

Just to make sure everything fits, I put all the parts in place before I start to cut and form the base into its final shape:



Then it becomes messy, with a knife, a saw and everything else that can be used I trim the styrofoam into the right shape, make sure your vacuum cleaner is nearby, cause this is really messy! When finished with this the next work is to cover everything with wallpaperglue, (guess what? it's messy too, or should I say sticky?) and before I forget it is NOT a good idea to stroke your cat at that time with those fingers!



Next step is already the final detailing. As I will put 2 vehicles on my beach, I need some tracks in the (still missing) sand, here is how I'm doing this. I simply take an axle and 2 compatible wheels....and let them roll!



The palms and some of the debris is next:



Then just for fun, the ship:



and finally the vehicles and the figures:



Just to make sure everything really fits:



seen from another angle:



and another one:



and so on:

Well I do not know what you think about this, but I believe it's starting to look not that bad.

Next, I will start to put a lot of color onto this thing and see how it starts to look then!

As usual, any comments, questions reamarks or critiques just let me hear them, thats the way I'm improving

Now where is that cat................Kitty kitty kittty, sticky kitty kitty?

Have fun &

Keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz

Hi there,

here I am back with the next update for my stilll ongoing projec.

The "Maru" is still waiting for some parts which I had to order, so I continued my work with the vehicles for the Diorama.

My first idea was to use a Jeep besides the DUKW but then I settled for something else, a Dodge 3/4 ton truck for those Marines which I had built too.

So here it is, the kit is an old ESCI kit in 1:72 with some minor modifications and some extra details. The Marines were further modified and now I think you might be able to guess what they will do on my upcoming little dio,with the exception of the driver who doesn't seem to be interested at all! Creating and modifying these figures was sofar the hardest job on the entire Dio!

Please not that the truck is not entirely finished, some minor weathering and some cleaning but it is already late in the evening and I want to stop the work for today.

Have fun with those pictures and please feel free to contact me if you got any questions, remarks, critiques or anything else to say.

Keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz

Hi there,

well I'm back with the next update on my current project.

If you remember my "Maru" (it's still at work) I had to order a few things because I ran out of some special color. In the meantime I thought it would be a good idea to continue the work on some other bits and pieces for this Diorama.

So here is the next part, this time it's a DUKW with some Navy sailors aboard looking at something or somebody and some more Marines in front of it. (they are still waiting for their vehicle but thats anotherr story.

The DUKW is from Italeri with only some minor improvements and some extra details. The sailors inside the DUKW are all from my favourite figure maker, Hecker & Goros, I really believe that in this scale (1:72) they are perhaps the best available.

The Marines are from various sources like Preiser, Heller and so on and are partly highly modified.

Hope you like them all, next time I will perhaps show you another vehicle or maybe the diorama base itself. Have fun and if you have any questions remarks, comments, ideas or crtitique, please let me hear them.

keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz

Well done, well done indeed!  The art of (yes I said art) scratchbuilding is fast dissapearing with the event of Photo-etch and highly detailed 1000 plus piece kits.  This is simply awesome and you should be very proud!

Thanks for sharing it with us,

razorboy

Wow that is incredible!  The only ? / Comment I have is the figure, If you are planning on keeping him in the blue uniform you should omit the gold braid on his cover (hat).  Navy Chief Petty Officers at the time wore the khaki cover with black band with the blue enlisted dungarees.  Officers with the gold band were always in khaki.

Chief Cover

Officer Cover (can't resist the Asian girls)

 BEAUTIFUL work! Just awesome. Just AWESOME!!

                                      60

Hi there and welcome back again, to my current project.

Work is going.....great, really I mean that, everything is falling in place, just like it was supposed to be. I had already a couple of more ideas for this diorama and I'm really curious if you will like them.

Detailing the "Maru" is (almost) finished still a few more things will be added later, but I started to colouring the wreckage. This is a progress which will take a few days, so please note that this is not the finished result. I ran out of rust-colour and I had to order 2 new bottles from my favourite shop, should receive them early next week. But here you will be able to get already an idea how my "Maru" will look when completed. The gunplatform is finally in place as well as the starboard anchor. I also attached a small portion of wooden deck, it looks so georgeus I could not resist to do this. After that I gave the hull a basic colour, Top is Tamiya XF-53 Neutral grey and the lower part is WEM Antifouling Red, one of the best coulours I have ever used, what a pity they don't do them as acrylics! After that I started to cover the entire ship and I mean everything with a special material to simulate the rust, it comes in 2 separate bottles, sorry but I dont have any names or brand for this stuff but it produces fantastic results. I will continue this work in the next days, maybe until then I will start working on the other parts of that dio!

As usual have fun with my pictures and if there is anything you want to know, just let me know

Keep on modeling
René
www.usns.biz

HOLY S*** that is some serious scratchbuilding. I love it. Now that would be something to rust up. You've got my attention and I'll be watching this for sure.

Rob

Hi,

the figure is the same scale as the ship: 1:72 and concerning your questio about the base, wellthis is going to be one of the next things I'll have to do. Some vehicles perhaps and some figures and finally the entire diorama base. Of course I will post pictures of them, so stay tuned

keep on modeling

René

www.usns.biz