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Ants' "Duel in the sun" dio

This scenic dio will be the base for my "Duel in the sun" group build halftrack. I thought it would be good to do this dio as a SBS and post it separately here in the "Dioramas" section, to show how I do my groundwork etc.

The scene will show the halftrack taking shelter underneath a corrugated barn in an Italian farmyard which has been under attack. Below is a rough mock up of how it may look. The frame is an old metal picture frame.

HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN017.jpg


The large tree at the back will be a Stone Pine, something like this.

Websitetrees004.jpg


The barn itself is a simple corrugated roof on four strong wooden legs. I was originally going to make the roof look like it had taken a hit but have now decided to make the damage manmade and put a figure or two in the hole as lookouts.

HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN041.jpg


Two celing tiles have been added inside the frame. This gives me a total depth of 1.5" to excavate. Some of the terrain has already been carved. This shows the position of the barn in the scene. Outside the barn is a small crater this will be mostly filled with the stone flags that are/were on the barn floor. So this is where it stands as of today.

HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN045.jpg


Thanks for looking

Ant
 
Thanks for the comments guys. I have made a start on the first stage of the ground work. The stone flags in the barn were pointed. Firstly I brushed some TREEMENDUS bark powder into the gaps and then simply drenched with hairspray. When this dries it will have set rock hard.

HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN089.jpg


HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN093.jpg


Next, the "farmyard" was given a thick coat of PVA glue.

HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN095.jpg


Onto this I scattered TREEMENDUS stone scree and some fine dark grey ballast, to give the whole area some texture.

HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN058.jpg


The next step, while the PVA is still good and wet is to sprinkle TREEMENDUS earth powder over the whole area. It will stick to the PVA but not to the top of the scree or ballast. This gives a natural look to the whole area.

HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN071.jpg


HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN070.jpg


HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN076.jpg


All the above is to give the ground surface some texture to now add details to. Alot of it will be covered up eventually.

Whilst I was working on the overall ground texture it seemed like a good time to add the stone flags to the crater. These flags are to support the beams that the halftrack will have to cross to get out of the barn - ( If anyone reckons it could have just driven straight over the crater please let me know so I can remove the wooden beams etc.

HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN085.jpg


HALFTRACK-DUELINTHESUN087.jpg


Thanks for looking. Any comments would be appreciated

Cheers - Ant
 
Well Anthony ,

I was going to comment about the corrugated barn yesterday but then I could not find the thread again :blush: :p , but now you have done even more :D I really am enjoying this build . I was going to attempt the salt technique to represent the mottle of Galvinised plate , have you given any thought to how you will paint it ?

Keep up the good work ;)

Jenny :kiss:
 
Thanks Jenny, I'm glad you're enjoying it.

I am hoping to make the wooden legs look very old and dry so will go for a pale silver/grey looking finish. I might add some old flakey paint over them too? As for the roof itself, yes I was also thinking about having a go at using salt. I'm not sure exactly what look I want for it yet but I think it will involve - matt black, silver foil (maybe), lots of rust, salt and I might even paint the whole thing in something like a very flakey aquamarine or something similar. :X

Cheers

Ant
 
Fine work their Ant. I realy like your method for the ground work. The building also is fantastic. Good luck with the painting of it.
Keep up the good work B) B)
Adam
 
Adam - Thanks very much. It is a simple way of giving the whole area a base coat. There is still loads to add to it. Treat it as a primer as it were.

John - Thank you. I have started to add silver foil to the barn to give it a "real" base to then start weathering.

Cheers

Ant
 
Can't wait to see it finished as it looks like it is going to be a diorama you could spend ages looking at all the details.

I am working on a 'corrugated' dio myself and I need some inspiration to take it off the shelf and complete. Need to wait for the finger cuts to heal after making my corrugated iron sheeting out of soft drink cans.
 
Thanks G and Jo. There is so much I want to do on this dio and the list keeps growing daily!

Jo how are you creating the corrugated effect. I have seen a kind of mangle with ridges in it which makes great corrugated iron. You just feed it through and it comes out "done". WATCH THOSE FINGERS :S
 
Hi Ant,

The dio is looking great .

Good dio workmanship.

Great effort and look forward to more.

Michael
 
that's coolio looking anthony!

i'd say both would be possible - that the HTR would punk through the crate and that the put beams over it! leave them on, they give a nice touch! :)
 
Thanks Massimo

I am planning on showing lots of my products on this dio, even if it might be just using a tiny amount of some of them.

Hey Martyn

It was good to talk to you at the show before!. Thanks for looking at my dio progress.

Cheers

Ant
 
Well mate got to say that is looking mighty fine i love the groundwork and the barn is superb, looking forward to watching this one come to life (y)
i think a trip to your website is on the cards for some of that groundwork scatter
Ivan :drink
 
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