New Dio-WIP *Update 12-31*

vespa boy wrote:

Manny you do have a great start there with a lot of textures in the street. I really like the paving bricks and the join mid way in the road and the drain in the gutter.  This is something to think about as you build (and forgive me if I am telling you stuff you already know) Don't forget that there is a lot of action and consequence on streeet level, if you have a damaged building, the falling bricks must have hit the pavement and caused some pitting . Road repairs often don't match the surrounding areas. Don't forget to make everything settle into the base.... e.g. the pavement will have been redone a few times during the life of the building, so make sure the building doesn't sit on top of the sidewalk etc. Nice work so far.

Well, so much for the "mystery" vehicle...someone earlier guessed a Mk III...actually the DML zimmed KT will be the "star" of the dio:

...looks like my base measurements were spot on for the fit...this KT is modeled after a 503rd KT late in '44 defending Aachen:...

Nice.....from the teaser 

Manny, I love your dio & figure work. I was especially impressed with the US dio above.

Great snow job

This one seems to be moving along. I understand the idea of hopes, but you can't hope unless you try. I'm sure it will turn out great.

.... so you never answered the earlier question, "where are the women at"? I know....you are going to tell us the building is a burned out "adult fun house" 

Rounds Complete!!

Ok, so I was wrong--(from the guess in the "Armor" post about the 506th...)

You certainly nailed the camo! It's really accurately done, Manny, and a faithful representation of the color preofile there! WELL DONE!

I agree with MG42 about the tracks--definitely need to "silver" them, what with them being on stone streets and all...

 This would be the recent "zimmed" KT right? That doesn't look like "field applied" zimm! LOL!

This one looks like what we've come to expect from you, Manny--another "winner"! I'm sure it'll be chock-full of cool figures too? 

the doog wrote:

Ok, so I was wrong--(from the guess in the "Armor" post about the 506th...) You certainly nailed the camo! It's really accurately done, Manny, and a faithful representation of the color preofile there! WELL DONE! I agree with MG42 about the tracks--definitely need to "silver" them, what with them being on stone streets and all...  This would be the recent "zimmed" KT right? That doesn't look like "field applied" zimm! LOL! This one looks like what we've come to expect from you, Manny--another "winner"! I'm sure it'll be chock-full of cool figures too?

You give the Zimmed Offering a ?

I'm looking at the Tiger I ZO when it comes out. 

ps1scw wrote:

You give the Zimmed Offering a ? I'm looking at the Tiger I ZO when it comes out.

Simply said, looks great Manny! It's really coming along wonderfully! The paint looks perfect! Don't forget a tan wash on those building bricks to simulate the mortar!

 If I don't get much of a chance to chime in in the next few days, have a Merry Christmas! 

the doog wrote:

Simply said, looks great Manny! It's really coming along wonderfully! The paint looks perfect! Don't forget a tan wash on those building bricks to simulate the mortar!  If I don't get much of a chance to chime in in the next few days, have a Merry Christmas!

Manny

My only suggestion is the rubble. The placement looks too clean, i.e. it does not fall into the streets. There should be piles by the building but rubble (wood brick etc) should extend into the street with less as you go further away from the building.

Unless you are assuming it was cleaned up, an explosion would spread rubble around!

Rounds Complete!!

redleg12 wrote:

Manny My only suggestion is the rubble. The placement looks too clean, i.e. it does not fall into the streets. There should be piles by the building but rubble (wood brick etc) should extend into the street with less as you go further away from the building. Unless you are assuming it was cleaned up, an explosion would spread rubble around! Rounds Complete!!

Super sweet figs there Manny.

My only suggestion would be that the building looks a bit too monotone. Maybe a bit more color to bring out the brick-mortar?

Keep up the great werk there Manny.

SST

Yeah, nice job on the figures' uniforms.

Steve 

Yeah, I sorta muffed this one...the technique I usually use is to paint the entire building the mortar color then dry brush the brick color on leaving the mortar color peeking inbetween the bricks...I didn't work that way on this one and if I go back and try to "fix" it I will lose all of the other work on the building, which I think looks pretty decent: washes, burned areas, plastered sections, etc...

Another thing I noticed is that my Dutton brand loose bricks (rubble) don't match the building so I am gonna have to go back and painstakingly paint them individually with more of a red color...I might also try a light white wash that may settle inbetween the bricks on the building for a better look, but am not sure if it will work??? Any suggestions?

Tiger is impressive Manny...as well as the figure painting and I like their placement also.

Looks Kool!

Manny, the layout looks fine, the figs are great, the tank superb, but the bricks need mortar, and the best way to do that would have to be a light tan oil wash. White+raw umber+ a pinch of yellow. Apply it as a pin wash. You won't even need to "ruin" the rest of it. And if you get a little bleed-through, so what--a lot of the best results I've gotten have come from pure mistakes. Stuff you couldn't repeat if I tried! Give it a shot!

First though, I would paint the building's bricks in a color to match the rubble--and not, NOT all of them, just about 40%--and then paint some of the rubble to match the bricks. YOu'll get a much nicer ditribution of various colors there, without any monochromaticism.

Don't forget to add some "mortar color" to the sides of some of the brick rubble too, to give it even addt'l realism. 

I think it looks pretty good, but like you said the brick rubble doesnt really match. I was thinking though that there would be a lot of dust after an explosion. Maybe try to simulate a lot of settled dust around the base of the building and lighten the bricks on the building a bit. Dust would make it look lighter than it really is.

Also for my rubble I usually throw down white glue and crush plaster chunks between my fingers and I get really fine and coarse stuff and it settles inbetween. I dunno if you already planned on it but maybe adding some finer pieces to the mix like some real fine sand or something. To me the rubble all looks like pebbles and fist sized pieces so maybe fill inbetween some spots.

Doog, hadn't thought of the pin wash to achieve the mortar look...sounds like the plan I needed---thanks...and I do plan on painting many of the bricks to match the building---good point about doing only a percent of them to achieve more color variety...just the feedback I needed to overcome that "mortar muff"...

DeputyBrad, thanks for the feedback...I plan on setting in some dust (same as used on the KT)as a last step, so the washes and other work I still need to do won't "wash" it away...also, will add some more random debris once figs and tank are finalized for placement so I won't interfere with their "footprint"...the bulk of this last debris addition will be the finer variety you mentioned, as well as some glass shards and random bits of paper...may even add some chalked messages to the building and/or a VLS propaganda poster...thanks for the input! 

Thanks for the feedback, guys!

One thing I did notice Manny now that I think of it...there should probably be a few broken roofing tiles in the mixture of rubble as the roof had to go somewhere...a few more pieces of scrap wood (some burnt) probably wouldn't hurt either. ...but I'm no expert.

 Lots of good suggestions so far. A few more thoughts. Make sure that the bricks in the rubble are the same size as the bricks from the building. Don't forget that when bricks scrape the weathered surface is removed and they are a different colour beneath.

At the moment the colour of the drain is not really what street steel looks like. Go outside and look at some drains and manhole covers.

I know that this suggestion will not fly on this forum, but I want to present it anyway. I think that the diorama is much more powerful without the tank and the figures...a war destroyed building in what used to be a residential (I am guessing) area tells the story of what happened without needing the narrative to be spelled out.

vespa boy wrote:

Lots of good suggestions so far. A few more thoughts. Make sure that the bricks in the rubble are the same size as the bricks from the building. Don't forget that when bricks scrape the weathered surface is removed and they are a different colour beneath. At the moment the colour of the drain is not really what street steel looks like. Go outside and look at some drains and manhole covers. I know that this suggestion will not fly on this forum, but I want to present it anyway. I think that the diorama is much more powerful without the tank and the figures...a war destroyed building in what used to be a residential (I am guessing) area tells the story of what happened without needing the narrative to be spelled out.

The last suggestion is DEEP. But.....the more I look at what you have the more the Tiger somewhat overpowers your building.

I know you built this for the Tiger but for hahas you may want to pull something smaller like a staff car and try that in place of the tank.

Then at least you can say, I looked at other perspectives

Rounds Complete!!

Here is an update after I painted the mortar in-between the bricks (I'll get you back for this, doog--LOL)...I must say it was worth it though...and painting EACH AND EVERY brick in the rubble to match the color of the brick in the building, also added a first wash to the street and street-light...getting there!

...Vespa, I must say that although I know I won't leave the base bare, I am flattered that you think it could stand on it's own...RegLeg, I built this base JUST for the KT so the KT will go on it but I appreciate the feedback...I'm not sure WHAT base wouldn't be overwhelmed by the King...

Thanks, guys!

Looks kool but where'd the roof go Manny?...roofs are made of light weight materials like timber beams and sometimes ceramic tiles from the localities depicted. There is no representation of any roof debris here....it certainly wasn't made of brick. Also any high explosive bomb or round that would have destroyed a building would have certainly burned some wood.

JMhO.

Looks great though.... .... Love the Tiger and figures.

9 Toe Tanker wrote:

Looks kool but where'd the roof go Manny?...roofs are made of light weight materials like timber beams and sometimes ceramic tiles from the localities depicted. There is no representation of any roof debris here....it certainly wasn't made of brick. Also any high explosive bomb or round that would have destroyed a building would have certainly burned some wood. JMhO. Looks great though.... .... Love the Tiger and figures.

Anyways, I am depicting a scene in Aachen...my theory is that this building was damaged primarily by fire and not blast...the roof fell inwards, along with most of the timber supports and was burned in the ensuing inferno...some of the walls were weakened by the fire and fell...that's my story and I'm sticking to it...

This is a question and not really a comment...why are the lower story windows bricked over?  Was this a common practice in "war zones"?  If they were bricked over wouldn't they be a slightly different color?

Just wondering...

Oh yeah! That looks killer Manny! The mortar wash thing definitely makes a big difference!

The whole building really has depth now! The bricks look good too.

I agree about adding in some timbers--I always add a few scorched pieces of wood, and some slivers and splinters of toothpicks and cocktail sticks. 

You might want to add the and the figures now though, to get everything in there so that you can finish off the base debris--you don't want your debris field to look too pre-planned.

Man, this is gonna be good!

Thanks, doog---I'll be hitting her with a sealer soon (probably dullcoat) and then attaching figs and other last minute items, then pigment dusting...I am still trying to decide wether or not to add "ornamental bars" on the street level windows or not...I have some PE that might work from a VLS gate set...

PS: I agree that the mortar really pushed it to another level...the wash concept didn't work though---I had to thin some light grey paint and pretty much paint the lines in...nonetheless, it was worth it and thanks for "pushing" me to go ahead and JUST DO IT! LOL...