MINIONVAULT

IS-3 Diorama

Posted by yansick on April 7, 2018

Posted in: Diorama, Scale model. Tagged: Diorama, Military, Miniature, Scale model, Tanks. Leave a comment

At last!

I had a bit of time available to complete my IS-3 diorama!

I scratch builded the furniture for the barricade from plasticard. The cobblestone road is made from a sheet of foamcore. I also printed small newspapers to add to the debris on the street. The miniature is from Mini Art (kit 35027).

Enjoy!

An old panzerkampfwagen II…

Posted by yansick on January 14, 2018

Posted in: Diorama, Scale model. Tagged: Diorama, Military, Models, Scale model, Tanks. Leave a comment

Right after Christmas, the urge to build a new model was really strong for me, but I wanted to build something simple and quick for a change.

On my shelves stood an old Panzerkampfwagen II Ausf. F/G from Tamiya. A kit produced in… 1971! The kit includes 5 figures. I only intend to use the tank commander figure.

Just to give you an idea of the simplistic, toy like nature of the kit: There’s almost as many miniatures parts in the box than actual tank parts…

Vinyl tracks (without details on the inside), molded on suspension, tool clamps that are just plain rectangles, no hole in the barrel, etc… The kit is way under modern standards and would require a tremendous amount of work to make it really accurate.

But I really didn’t want to put all the efforts (and after market products) required: I just wanted a fun build.

I decided to build and paint that little monster as is, OOB. No fuss. The only modifications I did were to drill holes in the main gun and machine-gun barrels and fill the gaps at the bottom of the hull with plasticard.

The decals gave me serious headaches: They were very thick, yellowish and did not stick well to the model. A huge chunk of the big letter R on one side of the turret even broke of during weathering. I made a Nazi flag from epoxy putty to hide this.

The diorama was pretty basic and quick to make. Again: no fuss.

The whole thing, diorama included, was built in little less than 2 weeks.

It’s not 100% done:

Tank commander figure is currently drying (oil paints…)
Some details in weathering need fixing (the antenna rack for example was made of wood on the real tank and I want this to be more obvious in my paint job)
I want to ad a bit of oil spills on some wheels and on the engine deck

Overall, it was a fun project. And in the end, it doesn’t look so bad for such an old kit.

Enjoy the pics!

IS-3 Tank …almost done!

Posted by yansick on October 22, 2017

Posted in: Scale model. Tagged: Military, Models, Scale model, Tanks. Leave a comment

Almost done! Some minor details to fix: add an antenna, add some mud on the mud scrapers near the drive wheels and glue the tracks to the wheels.

I don’t think I will be able to create sag in the tracks since they are too tight… I should have known better not to glue the front wheels, wich act as track tensioners. Once the tracks will be glued to the wheels, at least they will stop “levitating”…

Small diorama coming soon! Yeah!

Entwicklungsfahrzeug E-10 – Part 4

Posted by yansick on October 9, 2017

Posted in: Diorama, Scale model. Tagged: Diorama, Military, Miniature, Models, Scale model, Tanks. Leave a comment

Done!

My little E-10 diorama is done! I added a figure of a tank driver (Tamiya) and a rusty barrel to complete the composition and add a touch of color.

Enjoy the pictures!

IS-3 Tank …a new shade

Posted by yansick on October 7, 2017

Posted in: Painting, Scale model. Tagged: Military, Models, Painting, Scale model, Tanks. Leave a comment

I decided to finish the IS-3 tank from Tamiya I built a while ago.

As soon as it was on my workbench again, I thought it was too dark and not “yellowish” enough. I was afraid further weathering would make it even darker and conceal the details. So I decided to do a bit more highlights.

I think its color will be much more suited now for weathering and washes.

I also decided to go for a small Budapest 1956 Diorama instead of the original Berlin Victory Parade 1945 I was planning to do, so I will be able to put the model amongst debris and barricades (also this gives me more latitude for heavier weathering, since the tank would have been in service for 11 more years by 1956). The Hungarian insurrection of 1956 was pretty violent, the streets of Budapest were a mess and a number of JS-3 were involved (event destroyed!).

Entwicklungsfahrzeug E-10 – Part 3

Posted by yansick on October 1, 2017

Posted in: Diorama, Scale model, Step by step. Tagged: Diorama, Military, Models, Scale model, Tanks. 2 Comments

The small diorama for my E-10 tank is almost completed. Yeah!

I took some photographs during the build.

I got inspired by some pictures I saw of the Reichsautobahn and a tutorial from AK Interactive on Youtube.

I don’t have any AK’s modelling products, but I thought I could replicate the same effects with my own stuff.

In case you’re wondering, this project was super-quick! It tooked only 2 days to build this little diorama. I think that without the overnight required for the drying of the ground material, it could have been completed in a single day. Which is sad, in a way: I love building dioramas. This one was too quick to build… 😦

I added a description for each picture, to explain the process.

Enjoy the pictures!

A small wooden base I had lying around. I might repaint it later, since I don’t like its glossy finish.

A paper template, to plan the layout.

The main elements of the diorama are placed on the paper. to visualse the composition.

I traced with a pen the position of the elements on the template. “A” is for the main attachement for the tank, “F” for figure, “D” for drum, and “W” for water.

I used cork sheets for the road surface, since the texture of it is quite close to the texture I want. Plus, it is quite easy to damage the cork and make it look like broken concrete or asphalt.

See? Quite easy! This little dent will be one side of the small water pool.

I glued the cork on the wooden base with my hot glue gun. Quick and simple.

Prior to gluing the cork in place, I scratched and dented the surface for better adherence.

I’m using wood filler as the base material for the ground work.

Once it was a bit dry (after a few hours) I used a smal brush and tools to give the paste a earth-like texture. The wood filler was applied quite thick, so I had to let the whole thing set overnight.

The surface of the concrete road was brushed with a mixture of glue, wood filler and fine sand. I brushed this liquid mix leaving some brush strokes to simulate concrete road texture. A strip of foam was added to represent the asphat expansion joint between the concrete slabs.

Various small rocks and sand was glued using diluted PVA glue.

I used a mix of Liquitex Ultra-Flat Medium, Mod Podge and water as a fixative after the PVA was dry.

Overall view.

Basecoat with acrylic paints.

First, a wash of earth brown and sand colors. Followed by a dusting in various pigments. The whole thing was then held in place with fixative. Then I painted the rocks various shades of grey and beige to make them pop.

The bottom of the water hole was painted a darker shade of brown.

Stains and dust details on the concrete surface…

Airbrush time! Two darker line were made on the concrete to represent the trails left by rubber tires on the surface. A white line was painted (actually, it is more a pale grey line as pure white would have been too bright). I also dusted the whole surface with just a little bit of Tamiya Desert Yellow (XF-59).

A little bit of black was painted in the cracks and with a small sponge dipped in gray-brown, I added the chipping for the white line.

Overall look.

Vegetation is a mix of various small plants, roots and grass turf I had. The larger plant in the foreground is handmade (tutorial comming soon, maybe…)