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

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 .....

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...

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!

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)

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!)

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!!

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 .....

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!!!

***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 ....

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

... just another thought ...

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.

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

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

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

No, camo, never! I would never say that you need a whole HMMWV out there .... there's not enough room and it would block the scene ....

.... but now that you mention it ..... ....

.... you could always "chop" a HMMWV in half and have the front end "driving" onto the scene and the backhalf on the other end of the street. That would also give you the chance to FULLY detail the interior!

... I know ... I'm a b@stard.

BTW ... check out my PB page if you do decide to take on a HMMWV, I've got pictures from my HMMWV build up there as well .... you know ... JUST in case! (hehe)

A HMMWV?? No way! I thought you were going to put an Abrams out there??

just kidding!!!

i wish i could see that pic(s) alot bigger p.o. but thanks anyway.

yeah I know what you mean, that was just google search so I'm sorry I couldn't dig up anything nicer

i wish i could see that pic(s) alot bigger p.o. but thanks anyway. i'd appreciate you trying to get some from your dad! thanks.

these pics were taken by my buddy during the invasion...i never really payed much attention to the curbs but i see what you guys mean.

also wanted to show some other roads to best see what my options really are...

i like this one just because (as unfortunate as it is) the abrams is a.f.u...!

but at least between your pics and mine plus model's insight i think i know which direction to go!! thanks guys appreciate it!

Here's one that looks like it could be in my neighborhood

Here's (if you can see it on the bridge) the yellow white look I thought was cool, it's my understanding that that type of curb is indicative to Baghdad but I could be mistaken.

Stepdad's been in country, I know he's got a few shots but I'm not home, maybe I'll try and get my hands on some?

I'm sure model can hook you up sooner

modelchasm wrote:

You couldn't have done a better job if you were sitting on an Iraqi street corner with the street as your backdrop!

hahaha...hey G.I. u looking for a good time....me love u long time....hahaha...that's all i pictured when u said that!! not that im "that way"...it was just funny!