Ideal Hosiery diorama

[bilas68]

I was going to post pictures only after finishing the kit but since I am really slow at this point I am posting  few pictures of intermediate result. I still need to add roof access hatch and weather the roof. The little shed I am building for my diorama still needs rafters and to be weathered.

Vilius

[bilas68]

Finally I had some workbench time this week. Not as much as I would have liked though. I weathered roof and was going to declare kit finished but while taking pictures I noticed that I forgot to weather the chimney. I need to add more roof details but I'll do it later after I figure out what details and figures I am going to use on diorama. Then I'll paint and finish them all at once.

One of the pictures shows my diorama base. I usually raise my structures by 1/16 so I have room for sculptamold and lightweight spackle. Since I have come up with this myself I don't know if  anyone else is doing that.

I'll need a tree for this project. I have both "Making Model Trees" books and would like to try making my own wire armature trees. However books mention that the process may take around 30 hours per tree. I don't have time for such luxury. Therefore, I am going to use  tree armature I bought on eBay from some Chinese trader. I used same one on Houligan's Alley diorama and was quite pleased with the result. This time though I will be using new material I have never used before. I'll tell about it when I get to making the tree. Now the armature needs to b e washed to remove any grease or mold release. Then branches have to be secured with epoxy. Finally whole armature needs to be spray painted and possibly drybrushed a little.
Stay tuned for updates... or not if you are not interested.

Vilius

[barrymk]

Great work Vilius, definitely interested in seeing how the tree turns out. Cheers Barry

[John B]

Villius: 

Great job! 
Could you tell me what the 2 main colors are...thanks

[bilas68]

Thank you, Barry and John.

The label is gone off of white paint bottle so I'll make my best guess here. I know it is Delta Ceramcoat for sure. After checking their pallet I am guessing it is Oyster White. The tan color is Polyscale Earth.

Vilius

[NEMMRRC]

I'd not considered raising structures on the diorama base as you showed. It should help get all the scenery down while the structures are off the base. I'll have to remember that.

Jaime

[bilas68]

OPINION NEEDED!!!

I made these potholes but I am not sure if they aren't too deep. The pictures are really bad. Like always I was modeling up until last moment. Then I grabbed my cellphone and made few shots. I need to decide until tonight whenever to keep them or patch them up. Thanks.

Vilius

[ranny9]

They look just a little deep to me. Maybe if you feather them out a bit more?

[PHQRR]

OPINION NEEDED!!!

I made these potholes but I am not sure if they aren't too deep. The pictures are really bad. Like always I was modeling up until last moment. Then I grabbed my cellphone and made few shots. I need to decide until tonight whenever to keep them or patch them up. Thanks.

Vilius

Look about right for a SE Michigan pothole!!

[bilas68]

They look just a little deep to me. Maybe if you feather them out a bit more?

Thanks. Last night I put thin layer of spackle on top and re-scribed stones.

On another note. If anyone remember few months ago I posted pictures of Houligan's Alley diorama on mrrforums. I had several cardboard boxes on it. They came pre-printed on white cardstock.  I want few cardboard boxes on this diorama as well. I just don't like painting them. Therefore, yesterday I went on a hunt for cardstock in appropriate color. I came across some construction paper. I'll give it a try tonight. And I also bought a rim of newsstand paper. It is very thin and should be good for use as tarpaper. 500 sheets will be good for 10 lifetimes unless I find another application. I should try printing something on it. If it works I may use it for scale newspapers. The ones that come with the kits never have right color. What can simulate newspaper better than newspaper? 

Vilius

[bilas68]

Look about right for a SE Michigan pothole!!

Al,

Thank you for the input.

Vilius

[bilas68]

This is my tree making report. I started with plastic tree armature. The picture of it I have posted earlier. First I sprayed it over with gray primer, then brown and black paints. My brown was not flat but satin what gave my tree some sheen. I killed it off with two coats of Dulcote. Then I drybrushed the trunk with light gray to highlight bark texture. The picture below doesn't show much brown but in reality it is dark brown.



The new material I have mentioned in one of my earlier posts is crepe hair.



I have never used polyfiber. The trees made with it look like moth balls. I have used fish tank filter material which I would tease out and spray paint gray then cut to about 1/4" pieces and place over tree armature. With crepe hair I was hoping fibers would fall apart which I could sprinkle over branches. It didn't go that way though. The fibers still wanted to stay together although I had about 25% of loose ones. Perhaps I should have straighten the hair first. I'll try that next time. To attach fiber to the branches I covered them with spray glue and then dragged hair clump over. I repeated dragging part several times until I was satisfied with the look of my tree.



I misted the tree with spray glue again. This time I sprinkled over static grass fibers.



After one more coat of spray glue I sprinkled over some Woodland Scenics turf.



As a final step I sprayed my tree over with Dulcote to remove spray glue stickiness which if left untreated is very good dust trap.

Vilius

[bilas68]

After I fixed the depth of the potholes I painted almost entire diorama with brown paint. I bought the paint to make "Goo" from Lou Sassi's book. The goo is very messy and I have used it on two occasions only.



While paint dried I finished the shed.





Finally I glued both structures in place using 5 minute epoxy. I don't want to mess with water based glues here since next step involves a little of water.







Vilius

[bilas68]

With Winter Olympics and other things in the way it has taken me a little longer to finish the project. It is quite a leap from my previous post so if anyone has any questions about happened in between don't hesitate to ask.

[bilas68]

Few more...
Vilius