"Midnight Raid in Mosul" Dio & Write-up....

ok, here are a couple of updates. i hope (so far) these enhance the build. enjoy!

i added some more graffitti at different angles and please ignore the tape at the moment.

still more work to be done.........

camo ... YOU ARE NAILING THAT BUILDING!!!! Seriously!!!

Great job. I think that's just what I needed to get my butt in gear today. Awesome update!

(I think that we should be calling this thread the "Iraq" group build!!! HAHA!)

camo junkie wrote:

there's half your problem model...too many projects...not enough time...all these ideas swirling around in your head...then burnout!! <--- if it were me!!

Yeah ... you might be right ....

 ... nah.

I'm workin', I'm workin' ....

I wouldn't put a light fixture out on the balcony, however you'd correct if you placed out on the first floor just above the doorway. HOWEVER ... IF you were to put one out just above (NOT next to) the doorway on the balcony, I don't think anyone would argue it. I understand that you don't want to overload the ground floor. (I'll look through my pictures again and see if I can find any pictures that might be of some help...)

The pipes and graffitti are dead on ... literally. The different angles REALLY pulled everything together. And the pipes!!!! WOW. I like the addition of the turn valve too. Nice!

I'm not sure what else you have planned for th building itself, but I'd say that you're done ... minus some touch ups and final touches on painting. But, yeah ... you nailed it.

Nice job.

 ya know model.....I HATE WORKING WITH REAL SMALL PARTS!!!!! and that turn valve is where i spent most of my time this morning!!!! one little tiny part that by the end i was ready to take a lighter to (and watching it melt) just to get the self satisfaction of inflicting the mind numbing aggrevation this thing caused me!!!!! . but i appreciate you noticing that. you may not be able to see it but i took a file to those pipes and made the "hex nut things" ( plumber i am not). over all i was pretty pleased with them and appreciate your "wow's".

 as far as what else im doing with it, still need to (what i call) "accent" the sidewalk (btw...what other colors do they use for tile)? any pics or info. of that too would be most helpful bud. add a little garbage, maybe some dirt clods, etc. and yeah, some paint touch ups. then the fun begins with cutting and hacking the figs doc!

i really have to thank you and p.o. for the help. i cant thank you guys enough. after im done it can sit on my shelf and the infantry can do battle with the dust!! seems wrong for some reason!

Nope ... that's not wrong. I think I "forget" about my builds for atleast a good 6-8 months when they go up on the shelf si I can block out the pain. hahahahahaha!

I'm glad that we have been able to help each other out on this.

As far as the tiles go. Pretty much, as if I had to stay it, everything is earth-tone. If it's not, then it's painted. However, most of the tile that you're going to find around a "normal" person's residence is just going to be different shades of earth-tones. I'd just paint with different shades and possibly "pop" and 1-2 tiles out showing a dirt patch. I think you'd be ok with that.

I have to agree- LOVE the pipe work, the turn valve is sweet, definitly worth it even with that trouble it was causing you. The graffiti looks a lot nicer too!

I like that you're mocking everying up with blue tape to check the fit and make sure the overall pictures not too busy, once you figure out the best way to approach the sidewalk- this things really going to get good!

Are you still keeping the fruit cart stuff down there as well?

I think as busy as the floor is with the tiles and the majority of the figures on the bottom side- plus the graffiti and everything on the walls compared to the kind of "blank canvas" most of the walls have on the second floor and up- I think you'll be fine with voids on the bottom half to help balance the empty spaces on the wall etc.

But yeah, I say make the figs and play around with their possitions before hand to see whats up- should help the creative process as well

Hey- no worries. And I didn't mean to imply with my last post that there was anything wrong with the walls with or without the holes/graffiti etc.

I understand completely about the thin sheet of plaster and I remember you saying just how hard it was to spread on and get to look right. It definitly looks good now so I'd hate for it to start to chip and break off, I think you nailed the texture and that sandy color.

Keep it up! Really lookin forward to seeing that tile flooring. Did you ever think about putting all of this on a somewhat larger base, maybe including some of the road next to the tile walkway? That might also help with the balance and make the ground floor less busy, not sure how easy it'd be to pull off. It looks great the way it is- modelchasm'll tell you, I really just fling out any idea that comes to mind haha doesn't mean you have to like it or agree, I just got lucky on his OIF figure and he was able to pull off everything I was talking about (those shotgun shells still surprise me!!)

So by all means, I have no problem at all with you reeling me back into reality- go ahead and disregard away- haha I mean the fact that you've got a base coat of paint down on your building puts you ahead of me in the dio category. Everything I've ever made has made it to the half mock up/first coat of plaster/Acrylic gel medium phase- so really, I'll start taking advise from you know please!

camo ... feel free to smack psst at anytime ... I'm almost convinced that he really doesn't build, but rather just instigates others on all the forums!?!?! j/k....

I'm hoping that with my OIF build complete I can really start cranking on this one. I think that camo has more updates here on this thread than I do! WOW! Although, b/c I'm using the McF figures, I'm hoping that this is where I'll pic up the time. Once all the castings are completed, I should have THAT much to re-tool. I don't think that it's out of the question to get everything into the booth by the end of the week.

Now ... the base is a different story. Against all teachings prior .... I haven't even begun to lay that one out .... I know ... I'm retarded and doing it all wrong. But using these figures, I'm just not sure how big to make it. I've got a general idea, so I'm ok with that.

psst ... we need to see some updates from you buddy. Shut you lip and start talking with your hands!!! (HAHA) Seriously though, I'm waiting to see how you figures come out .... BTW, are they both Verlinden figures?

 yeah ya know i was wondering about p.o. and his lack of work!! you might be on to something. . guys busy telling us what's wrong with our stuff and what's cool...think he's living vicariously through us...damn wanna-be!! j/k

as far as what your doing...with everything else...i dont know how ya do it, let alone keep it straight! but, if its in the booth by weekend....its in the booth! ...i'll believe it when i see the pics buddy!! lol.

I'm sure that it'll turn out just fine. I'm always doing work that I think sucks .... Just take a break, step back, and look at it again later.

I should have said it earlier ... not that you wouldn't think of it .... but to help break up the floor pattern, try painting the tile with their "grains" in different directions.

As far as your fruit basket, I think that there will be enough going on. Here's my take on the whole thing ....

Since your main focus is going to be on the ground level, that is where the majority of your detail should be. Then, the level of detail should be less and less as you move up levels. Just make sure that the 3rd floor isn't so BLAH that it draws attention away from the viewer. It should be suttle, but noticable.

Just my 2 cents.

I've got 2x molds left (for the x-tra figure that I decided to work on during this project) before I can really lay into the construction bit. However, I've been trying to work a little on the lighting. I've got a couple of small, store bought, LED lights that blink about 3-4x/ sec. Do you guys think that this is too fast to use as a "stobe" light for the model? The real strobes we used probably flashed 1x/ sec ... if not 1.5 sec.

I've looked up different write-ups on-line, but I just don't understand the whole electrical bit. I'd rather someone just tell me what I need, and have a diagram for how to hook it up. I'm not lazy ... just retarded! HAHAHA!!!

 well, i will take your advice i think and leave it for tomorrow. or later tonight?! yeah, i've given up on the fruits & "nuts" thing. i'll get this thing all done and then be brain dead on the title!!! gonna make a few molds myself...just not at that stage yet.

 the l.e.d. blink should be fine. i had a few of those and not only are they bright but they blink for what your doing fast enough. that's my . good luck with the rest of the molds and all that electrical stuff!! better u than me!!

You don't think that the 3-4 flashes/ sec is too fast? Did I forget to mention that there's going to be a strobe on each figure? ... so 4x total!?! You don't think that's going to be too much flashing going on??? Honestly, I'm a little concerned about it. BUT, b/c yo're not, I'll give it a shot and see what it looks like.

Just so that we're clear .... the "midnight raid in mosul" title is taken!

Maybe you should put the "nuts" back in and title it, "nuttin' here... next house"! HAHHA!!!

yeah yeah yeah.

Alright, spring break is in a week, I'm going to go home, finish up the two 1/16 scale Marines (yeah- they're both Verlinden)- take some pictures of my giant WW2 Arnhem dio (Panzer 4; Kubblewagen; and a dozen British and German figures all over the place- graveyard, bombed out brick streets... it's kinda a mess of pink foam at the moment...)

and then I'm going to come back to school with a few kits so I can update you guys on my stuff as well haha

My work still doesnt stand up to much, but I like to pretend I know what I'm talking about

Hey- I got it- it's scale right? 1/12th figures and uh ... that means uhh carry the 3 and yeah that translates to faster blinking the smaller they are right?

It's all about the look- if you hadn't told me the real one blinks about 1.5 times a second I never would have known- but this is your think- I'd say, set a few of them up, turn off the lights and  just see how it looks. If it looks like a few SF guys thathad a massive short in their IR system and their indicator lights are going berzerk- find some way to make them blink slower. If it's not a bad look, I say go for it. Would I be able to tell the difference between one blink per second and 3-4? Yeah, but would I be primarily paying attention to that? No not really. I don't know- in my oppinion, if it's so crazy it distracts from the scene it's a no go. If you think it'll work, I think it'd be an acceptable short cut.

hahaha but again! Until I manage to make an update on my stuff haha you and camo do whatever you want

I just took a couple of other figures that I have and taped some of the LED lights that I have to their heads ... yeah, it looked funny ... and I think that the fast blinking lights are going to be a distraction. I think I need to slow the the blink down to at least 1x flash/ 1.5 secs to possibly 2 secs. However, I have no idea how to build this one up. I've placed a thread on the sci-fi forum, but no bites.

I've found a few pages online, but I'm all confused about the parts I need, what does what, and how to control the timing. A lot of what I'm finding are instructions to build fast blinking bike lights ... again .... confused.

If I can't this figured out, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this one. I'm almost convinced that the flashing strobes would be the kicker for this dio ... but I'm stumped.

I need serious help with this one. If anyone has an engineering friend .... well, just pm me.

... and no, psst. I don't think that "scaled down" strobe flashing is really going to work on this one. Nice try though!!!

Thanks man! .... That glimmer of hope was meant to distract me from noticing the shotgun aimed at my foot right!?!

HAHA!!!

I'm still scouring the internet looking for something that can help me understand .....

WOW!?! What a statement for all time .... I might just change my signature line to the above ...

.... W .... O ..... W .... ! ...... ? ..... ! .....

Anyway, I might just take a trip down to radio shack and see how much I can play stump-the-chump with the guy/ gal there. Who knows maybe they can answer my question. This might be a write-up in itself!!!

Thanks again camo ....

psst ... you got any engineering buddies??? .... you're still in that "learning group" thingy we call college!!!

So, check this out ... VERY simple to do it seems like. Just wondering if it's a little too slow flashing ... if the light stays on too long???

http://hackaday.com/2008/06/18/high-power-led-blinking-circuit/

I found a blinking LED on the RS website ... I'm going to run over there and pick up a few, wire them up and see how fast they flash. The guy said it was about 1x / sec .... we'll see.

That'd be great if you could email your dad. I've read stuff all over the internet about using 555 timer chips or 4060 binary chips ... again, all stuff that I know POOP about.

Basically, this is what I need ... I need to have four different LEDs, flash at different times, with a flash rate of about 1 - 1.5 sec. If this can be done with one timing chip awesome. If I have to build four different boards ... well, I guess it'll get the job done.

Right now, if the blinking LED from RS works, I guess I'm just going to build 4 different boards. I don't know. Just shoot me a PM if he's able to help me out. Thanks a million!!!

Awesome ... thanks brother!!

If he could provide a parts list and a schematic, that would be great too!