Model Armour

Base is progressing as well- here are some shots with the black primer on...

Sprayed some basic colours on everything. Screwed the foam terrain down onto the base, epoxied the wall onto the base and to the foam. Then I mixed up some more celluclay to patch over the screws. Placed the parts in their estimated positions, and discovered the wooden table I made wouldn't fit!

So the pics show the rough layout. I was considering how to add some colour when I realized that without the wooden work bench, there is no reason I can't torch the factory ruin. I'll use some rust technique on the girders and smoke exhaust technique on the concrete foundation.

I was thinking of just scribing some planks onto the base and making it on of those Soviet factories with finished, polished hardwood floors! NOT!

At this time, somebody posted a period picture and I was struck by a few details

1. Lots of beams

2. The window frames survived

3. A low wall.

It made it pretty obvious to me that the building needed some real work, but I wanted to do this in such a way that the building would be interesting to look at, and did not seriously block the view of the tank. I love working with styrene so I was excited about getting a crack at it. Somebody mentioned the factory also needed a floor, so that was where I started. 0.020" styrene sheet cut to size with some expansion joints scribed in.

I used Mr Surfacer 1200 and stippled the surface to give it some texture.

Re-scribed the joints...

Primed black, airbrushed Gray and slid it into place...

Now for the window frames! I found these frames in the Mini-Art Building Accessories kit, includes everything but a building.

So I started with this...

Added some 0.030" by 0.040" strip...

Then built this jig to keep everything square and added a strip up the centre...

Here was the end result...

That'll suggest ruins and the viewer can still look through it. Next the framework for the half wall and windows. Starts like this...

Here is the frame...

I decided to make the lower wall out of sheet metal since this was easy to damage. I
started with a Diet Coke can cut it into rectangles, sanded inside and out. There was some kind of film on it which had to be removed. Then I primed them. Finished parts on the right here...

Then mangled some of the parts...

I painted all the sheet metal and girder bits in a mix of Tamiya Brown and Black - altering the mix as I went along to make the parts look a little different from each other. Here is the assembled half wall and windows...

Then I gritted my teeth and started gluing stuff in place; celluclay, cat litter and all the mangled metal bits....

Check out that piece of sheet metal getting run over!

I felt that if a building were blown up by bombing or artillery, some of these heavy girders might impale themselves in the ground; hence some are stuck in at various angles. Interesting thing I learned...when the interior floor space is a small area, all your rubble has to be stood up vertically or small!


Sample shot of the nearly finished scene...see the link at the end of this feature for the Photo Feature to see the FULLY finished result!

PHOTO FEATURE: T-34/76 Model 1942 Formochka