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

haha...its funny you mention an abrams p.o., was testing that out....lol....waaaaaayyyyyy to big for the scene like model says!!!

and model....not on your country fried life brother!!!! . btw, is the b.@stard.com???? LOL

Sorry, that wasn't supposed to be linked ....

... but you still tried it! HAHA!!

Honestly, I've got nothing at the moment. The best thing that I can think of off the top of my head would be to use something from the RR building/ modelling community!?! I haven't done an asphalt road before.

The only other thing I can thing of is to use spackling, like you did on the walls ... and then press sand paper into it before it cures to give it that "rough" texture look. You sould also create a pot-hole or two and show the "layers" of asphalt in the hole.

Other than that ... I got nothin'. Sorry.

... you might consider just gluing down sandpaper all together and weathering it from there ...

... just another thought ...

***UPDATE***

Been awhile since I put any of my own stuff up here (can't have people thinking this is camo's thread!!! haha!) so, I thought I'd better post a quick update.

The more and more that I build on this one, the more I'm getting convienced that Hans was in fact correct ... it looks like this one is going the way of a shadow box. Which is good, b/c I will achieve the desired effect that I'm looking for in the lighting, but bad, b/c I'm really a detailed builder ... but good, b/c I won't have to pay attention to all the detail like I was before .... so this one should actually speed up a little ....

.... Mmmm, or maybe not.

Anyway ... I've been working on the first figure, using him as pretty much a test-bed for everything. Just by the construction of this one, I wasn't able to slice and dice as I had with the others .... I liked his pose anyway. Here, I'm running the FO, which was kind-of a doosy in it's own right ...

... here you can see that I've drilled out the small holes in the arms and threaded the FO there ....

... here I'm just having some fun and testing out the FO lighting for the IR tabs on the shoulder ... looks decent enough even with the overhead light. I've since "flared" the end of the FO with a lighter to try and get a little more light out of it.

I also started messing around with the strobe that will be mounted on the helmets. Here, I've taken a small piece of clear acrylic rod and filed/ sanded it down into a rectangular piece to be the top of the strobe. I figured this would look better and act better than just a couple strands of FO.

... and testing it out under the desk ....

... and I got a little bored/ frustrated working with the FO, so I turned to modding weapons again ...

.... my concerns thus far are this ....

1) I'm finding out that the longer the strands of FO that I run, the less the amount of light that I get at the end. The above pictures, I was using about 3 inches of FO from the source. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the light that I want with the FO running through the figures and all the little turns that it has to make in the there. I'm also wondering if by painting the FO, if that will help with the amount of light that is lost along the length.

2) If this build is going to go towards the way of a shadow box ... It's going to be a little big for my taste. I think that a 1/35 version of this in a box would be ok ... but not 1/12.

3) As stated before, my castings didn't come out as well as I had hoped. So, I'm going to have a little clean up work to do. Right now, the McF figures are looking liek a D+ for being stand-ins ... at best.

Not b/c I don't think that I can pull this one off, but rather just b/c it's being a huge pain ... this one might get shelved for awhile ...

... any comments/ suggestions (and pressure to continue) are gladly welcome ....

I've been here ... working .... getting ticked off .... so I didn't want to RAVE on the forum.

I'm just getting frustrated b/c this build is kicking my tail .... and I haven't even really done anything to it yet.

If this one fails, the BEST that I can hope for is to save the McF figures for separate figure builds later on ....

I don't know .... I think I'm going to sleep on this one for tonight. Maybe the FO Gods will come to me in my sleep! HA!!!

Glad you found what you needed for your roads ... Given that "half" HMMWV addition anymore thought!?! HAHA!!!

How very true .... thanks camo. I'm reset and back on track ....

 ... now to get some work done ..... Rrrrr ..... I mean ... time to get some FUN done!!!

damn fiber optics .....

hey, n/p. i'm sure you'll be ok. as will the build. as i always say...better you than me with the fiber op's. on the plus side buddy i came up with a great idea for my road. its really realistic, will give me the results im looking for...and only needs some minor paint and weathering!!!! c'mon guess what it is...c'mon!! LOL...

its a roof shingle!!! cut to size, made of the same type mat'l plyable and i think extremely realistic for the scale!! believe it or not its black too...even though the pic makes it look gray!!! i cant believe u didnt think of that buddy...what the hell??? now go have some fun!!

WOW! Mr. Resourceful!!! I honestly DID think about it .... ok, no I didn't ....

However, when I first read it, the first thing that came to mind is if the grains would be too large for 1/35. BUT, if you say that it's good, then it's good.

Can't wait to see how it comes out! (Are you still thinking about adding in some pot-holes? ... And how about 1/2 a HMWWV ....... AAAWWwwwww, COM' ON!!!!! DOOOOOOO IT ..... DOOOOO IT ... DOOOOOO IT!)

AWESOME!!! I knew you'd come around to the idea!!! .... j/k!!

Yeah, I think you'd be fine w/o the brick/ tile in the median. As psst said earlier though, I think that it would be a nice "detail" touch if the curb was painted in the normal yellow and white, but I think you'll be fine w/o the tile. A nice little palm bush would make a nice addition ... and I don't think it would be a distractor at all. I've seen some "palms-ready-to-eat" in the dio/ RR section of my local Hobby Lobby. not sure how detailed they would be to go with your dio, but it's worth a shot.

Nice catch on the shingle BTW. I didn't know you were using the backside. I'd say that pot-holes are pretty common, but I don't think that it's a make-or-break case in your build. It would just be another one of those details that people would notice the 2nd or 3rd time they looked at it .... kind-of like your pipe value. VERY nice .... but probably won't be caught the first time ... HOWEVER, to me, those are the details that MAKE the model. If someone catches something that they didn't see the first time, that means that they will come back a 3rd, 4th, or 5th just to see if they can spot something else.

... of course .... IMO.

(HMMWV .... subliminal messaging)

yeah i agree with the yellow & white. not sure though if that means the "original curb" should/is also yellow & white!?!? yeah, i'll also try and do something with the "pot holes". and yes, i agree with your thoughts on the "details".  and yes also, a 1/2 humvee would look great. i just never cut one up and since the cost out weighs the work, it aint happening brother!! i'll leave that one to Mr. Details!!! btw, i have palms & palm bushes from verlinden...so i can use those. thank you sir!

WOW! Awesome weapon work- love the bipod, very nicely done. That copper wire must have been fun.

Sorry about all the hold ups and the frustration.

As far as the FO goes, might not be much- but how about this? Since you have decided on a (huge!!) shadow box- you can get away with using 3" of FO cable! That's the beauty of the shadow box- I think if you stick the source light inside hollows you carve out of backpacks or pouches, you can run the wires from the source right on their back- I know you've already ran the wires up through the legs but the idea just hit me as you were talking about the light over the long lengths.

It's the same idea with nasal O2 cannula. Hospitals and Dr's will perscribe home O2to elderly pts. but they'll still want the mobility around the house, so they have the central tank and instead of carrying it around with them, they'll have 50+ feet of tubing running back to their tank. By the time it gets to them, it's basically room air, but you take their nasal out to transport them and they'll start complaining of dificulty breathing. Kind of a Placebo effect.

I know this project is doable for you, so I guess it's just a question of you're ability to over get around all these road blocks, the size of this things going to be difiiclut... I guess that's the only way? That's too bad about these McF figures...

camo ... good deal on the palms and the pot-holes. As far as the curb paint ... yeah, it's just going to be th ecurb like in your pictures ... and it's going to be REALLY faded.

psst .... I actually had that thought last night as I was getting to bed. However, my thought was, instead of trying to run the FO through the figure, why no place the LED in the figure's torso and run the wires out the leg. That should REALLY shorten up the length of the FO ... however, I feel that this route is going to be even more pain-staking to accomplish.

I'm still not convinced that I'm going to have to do a complete closed-in shadow box ... as much as I want to b/c it will really simplify everything. I just can't bring myself to shut everything in like that. I'm trying to buil the figures, while at the same time trying to figure out if everything is going to work out. Unfortunatly, its very hard to recreate the scene and exactly how the lighting will look without just going ahead with the build.

One step at a time though .....

Yeah I like that idea even better, but I agree, sounds like one more level of complexity this dio didn't need.

Just keep taking those small steps I guess, one at a time and after a while it'll start getting easier and under control I would think.

I'm back in town btw. Working on the faces and weapons for my 1/16 scale Marines, will post ASAP.

just out of curiousity, what is a shadow box? i have an idea but?

btw, roof shingle worked great for my road. not sure b/c of how thin it is if i can put pot holes in...can make cracks though. will post update soon.

look 4-ward 2 the marines p.o.

psstoff995 wrote:

I'm back in town btw. Working on the faces and weapons for my 1/16 scale Marines, will post ASAP.

HA! I'm not holding my breath ... I'd have been dead 4 times over by now!!! (j/k)

I've kind-of taken a step back at the moment ... 1) Trying to figure out if I'm going to put the LEDs in the torso or not and 2) mt FO keeps breaking on me ... inside the figure! RRRRrrrrr....

If I'm going to place the LEDs in the torso then that's going to step thing up, and I'm not quite ready to be there yet. (i.e. I'm going to have to starting wiring things together as I'm putting the figures together.)

I took all the FO out of my first figure ... I'm going to try running all the FO through heat shrink tubing to see if that will help give it some stability.

I also need to sit down and draw/ think out my wiring diagrams. I don't want to get into the figures and not know what I'm doing ....

.... oh, wait .... I'm already doing that!

camo junkie wrote:

just out of curiousity, what is a shadow box?

Uhh .... I'll let Hans explain that one. Hans ... Hans ... anyone seen Hans?

thanks for holding your breath model! haha

and thanks camo, glad to hear I got a few people interested in it. I'm looking forward to seeing your shingle road- those palm trees should look real nice and fit right in.

I can kind of describe a shadow box, but Hans is the go-to guy for anything Shep Paine haha

Hey- now that I'm home- I have the Dio book- let me read you an exerpt...

"A shadow box is a diorama set into a box and viewed through an opening in one side, and its effect is essentially that of a three-dimensional painting. In many ways the shadow box is the ultimate form of the diorama. This is because of the degree of control over all aspects of the display that a shadow box affords the modeler. In a shadow box you can dictate the viewing angle, lighting conditions, and, most importantly, the atmosphere and mood of the scene."

-Sheperd Paine "How to Build Dioramas"

If you want some scans of the chapter let me know- it's about 9 pages but has some great diagrams and photos of shadow boxes. Shadow boxes lend themselves perfectly to photography as they control the lighting, having their own stand-alone system, plus the figures are usually arranged in a photographically astetic group that would follow the rule of thirds etc. Very dramatic stuff- maybe tomorrow I'll scan a few pictures just for the heck of it, there's some really cool ideas. 

Booo !!!!!!!!! ..... Rubish, Booooo!!!!!!!! ............. Ye hath mocked and disgraced the Chosen One!!!! Booooooo!!!!!!!!! .......

Actually, I agree. I just think his techniques are worth trying. (damn-it ... now I'm gonna get stoned too .... HHHH....Hhhhhhhhhhh..........)

ahhhhhh.....funny stuff! i kinda expected alot of that from the "shep-pards"! now lets get back on topic people....c'mon!!!

haha oh it's not a problem, I think he's the reason a lot of people are into dio modeling, -not most, not all, but a good bit. I know he brought me into it.

I like his work and he has a lot of good techniques, but the book in 10 years old, a lot has changes. For what it is though, I think it's great, I have a few books by Verlinden and I think Paine did a much nicer job at the step by step. That being said, I understand where you're coming from- and dont worry! We're still friends haha

ok...n/p then. hey guys, here is my road...i also posted these in the dio forum...just curious what ya think. i like it myself...and i didnt have to do whole lot to get there!!! maybe a little more weathering and im good.

!! That looks awesome!

The only thing I'm wondering is how 2D the holes and cracks look? Are they drawn/painted on? Or did you actually slice little channels and a pit into the tar backing? They look awesome in these pictures- I'm just making sure they don't look too "2D" in real life.