Diorama Techniques: Planes, Armor, Ships, Artillery and Troops

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For sure, I love scenes like that. A reason why I like model railways, all those every day scenes.

I'd love to combine 2 ww2 bomber bases from the USAAF and RAF, a RAF fighter base and a model railway. I'd need a lot of room :lol:
 
Depends what scale, PB. But one of the easiest ways is to use 'Milliput'. Don't know if it's available in Canada, but it's a 2-part epoxy modelling putty. Equal parts are blended together, and it can be made into any shape, moulded etc. When set hard (and it IS hard!), it can be tapped, drilled etc. For large-scale sandbags, mould each one to shape, angle required etc and, before set, press some fine gauze onto the surface. This will leave the impression which, when painted, looks convincing. However, in most scales, including 1/32nd., I wouldn't worry about the 'texture'; this would not be that noticeable, and could be replicated by applying the paint relatively thickly, then stippling with a stiff brush when the paint is still 'tacky'. (Matt enamel paint is better for this technique, as acrylics are a bit thin.)For lots of bags, such as a pile, or a wall, just use a 'sheet' of the putty, and 'mould' -in lines of bags, perhaps finishing off with individual 'bags' on the top layer. Hope this helps,
Terry.
 
heinz..if you ever want to make a captured luftwaffe aircraft on a railroadcar here is the official drawings on how they are loaded..these are german drawings but pretty sure its usable for US also :)
 

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Catch is right! Be prepared for 30% preparation, 40% practice, 5% actually spraying, and 25% cleaning!!!
You'll like it when you get used to it though, but don't forget, brushes are still there for many jobs, the airbrush for effects, large areas and finishes.

Don't let that scare you. Depending upon your airbrush, they are totally merciful, simple to take apart and relatively cheap to replace. I agree with Airframes with his numbers, but differ on the cleaning percentage. It's not THAT onerous. And once you get down a routine, you learn that some steps are overrated and others more crucial. Like anything you practice, you become more efficient.

Besides, Airframes is ex-special forces. He probably cleans his airbrush two or three times a day regardless of whether he uses it or not. :toothy3:
 
I've one of those Aztek A470 Airbrushes

Can I take that apart and clean it? Just want to check before i do it

Don't wana stuff it
 
I'm a beginner in the serious modeling and diorama-building world, and I have one question about displaying model aircraft. I want to display a number of helicopters in flight, suspended from a wall: and I have not been able to come up with a good way to do it, that would show as little as possible of whatever is used to suspend them from the wall.
I thought of using coat-hanger wire bent out to appropriate lengths, but that seems crude and would probably look ugly. Maybe clear acrylic rods, bent into shape are another option, if I can come up with a good way to fasten them to the wall. So I would love to know if the experts have any clever tips on how to display aircraft in flight, as cleanly as possible: and from a wall - not from the ceiling, since I don't want them swinging in the air, but suspended from behind.

Let me describe in short, what I am trying to do: it's not WWII-related I will admit, but if you can forgive me for that: I want to build a re-creation of the "Apocalypse Now" dawn attack of the 1st Air Cav. on the VC-held beach.
I have the model gunships that I need (I counted 14 in the movie), but so far I haven't built any of them, until I have a complete plan of how, and where to display them. I also have a giant poster of a sunrise, which is what I want to suspend the choppers from. I have three different scale models, to give depth to the display, as if the choppers really are coming out of the sunrise.

Any clever advice?
 
A difficult one! It's been a pain for every diorama builder, even for museum displays. I think the acrylic rod idea is probably the best. To get the best effect, have the rods through the sunrise background, and fasten onto the BACK of the backing board the sunrise poster is attached to. The rods could be mounted into suitably sized tubes, or similar, and both glued with epoxy adhesive.
A relatively thin rod should do the trick, being less visible, but strong enough to take the weight of the light models. Think about where the rods will attach to the models, so that they are hidden as well as possible - this might not be an obvious place. For instance, bent into an exhaust nozzle, or coming off a tail boom?
Good luck with the project, and look forward to some progress pics if you can.
 
On the theme of displaying aircraft in flight, has anyone seen a technique for creating the rippled blue flame effects from a large jet with full reheat (afterburner)?

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I was wondering if some clear flexible film could be delicately sprayed with translucent blue/yellow lines, rolled up and inserted into the jet nozzles? Might look rubbish but would have to experiment. I suppose the effect may not work without some sort of illumination.

I'm going to be doing an F4 Phantom in 'Nam with a small piece of airfield display base. This could be static parked as normal, but running down the runway, perhaps just lifting off?, perhaps gear part way up?, might make a more dynamic and exciting subject, but would only really work with some method of creating afterburner flames. Any ideas anyone?
 
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Good one! I've seen it done once, coincidentally with a Phantom, in 1/48th scale.
The model was posed nose up, with the nose gear leg at full extension,nose wheels just off the 'deck'. The afterburner effect had been created in a similar method to the way you described. It appeared tp be two 'tubes' of clear film, plastic or 'Cellophane', one inserted into each jet pipe, probably about two inches long, maybe a touch more. From what I could make out, these clear 'tubes' had been airbrushed with transparent colours, in reds and yellows, in a graduated effect. It actually looked quite convincing from certain angles.
However, there can often be a problem trying to model any form of 'moving' item, such as smoke, flame, water etc, as the movement depicted can only physically be for that moment in time, for obvious reasons. Smoke, for example, will evolve, spread and dissipate, something which is impossible to re-create in a static representation. On the other hand, these effects (on models) can look superb in photographs, although digital imaging and facilities such as 'Photoshop' have, to an extent, rendered such techniques redundant for photo or other imaging purposes.
 
Thanks for your thoughts on afterburner flames, I think subtlety would be the name of the game.

The issue of modelling movement is a tricky one, how I see it is there are two options, either (i) a complete 'freeze frame' approach where everything is frozen, ie a prop driven aircraft in flight would have a normal static prop, water, smoke, figures etc are static, or (ii) a scene set in a short space of time so that the prop driven aircraft in flight has a blurred attempt at a moving prop.

I've always avoided this by only doing a static scene with parked aircraft, vehicles etc. However if doing a dynamic scene, I think I'd go for option (i) above.
 
When I've done this in the past, I've removed the prop blades and, if the aircraft has a spinner, filled the apertures where the blades fit. I've also occassionally used a disc of thin, transparent film, only just tinted, to give the effect of a blurred prop-disc.
 
As a avid large diorama builder, may I make a request?? This thread is kind of buried, could it be on the front page as a sticky? I would like to contribute to the thread but unless there really is no interest in diorama's except for a very few of us. Some may not know where it is. My two cents, especially since it' been almost 3 years since any posts
 

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