doyler Posted November 26, 2020 Share #26 Posted November 26, 2020 shaping up super nice Dennis. Thanks for adding the details of the build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted November 26, 2020 Share #27 Posted November 26, 2020 Dennis, these crates are terrific, much more realistic than the resin ones. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sgtdorango Posted November 26, 2020 Share #28 Posted November 26, 2020 Dang, that helmet netting is amazing!!.....mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Marine Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share #29 Posted November 26, 2020 Thanks Mike. I was getting ready to add these photos to the post when I saw your comment. As I said above the Tamiya helmets are kind of small and have no detail. Covering them with a piece of this soft roller gauze makes them look a bit bigger and a little less toy like. It’s a nice detail. Brush watered down white glue on the gauze and then drape it over the helmet. Twist it tight and then using these locking clamps, (hemostats, Kelly’s or roach clips) or what ever you call them clamp it tight and let the glue dry. Overnight is good, the longer the better. Then trim off the excess and stick it on the figure's head. You might have to carefully trim the inside to get it to fit on the figure. You can add a strip of paper for the chinstrap. This same technique works with tissue paper for Marine cloth covered helmets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browninggunner688 Posted November 26, 2020 Share #30 Posted November 26, 2020 21 hours ago, Old Marine said: The mortars are moving along. I replaced 2 figures, the standing ammo man and the radio operator with 2 new figures a kneeling ammo man and a different radio man. I also altered the standing figure with the field telephone to a kneeling position. Nick, the mortar rounds come with the TAMIYA support weapons kit. Each kit has one 81mm mortar and comes with about 5 HE rounds and 3 WP rounds. I looked online for a long time trying to find mortar ammo, and found there were none available. For what I wanted to depict those few rounds that come with the kit were not enough so I made some resin cast copies of the Tamiya rounds. I am not very experienced with resin casting and mold making, so I made a simple one piece flat mold. I glued the rounds to a plastic strip and made the mold. This left a big blob on the bottom of the resin cast. I sanded them flat and used them on the bottom of the pile. I placed the better looking injection molded Tamiya rounds on the top to hide the less than perfect resin rounds on the bottom. It works visually. The close up detail photo of the rounds really looks pretty bad. But, from normal viewing distance in context with everything else, they look acceptable. There is a lot going on and the pile conveys the idea that they have a lot of ammo. Look at the big piles of ammo in the reference photos. The boxes are made of craft store bass wood and wood coffee stirrers with white glue. The boxes are 24mm x 13mm. The ordnance markings are from an old sheet of custom made dry transfers I was lucky to get a few years ago. That is the last of the transfers so I will have to figure out something for future projects. In the last photo is a wood chopper tool. It’s a simple, inexpensive thing but it works fine to chop up square, even piece for the boxes. I also used it for chopping up sprue to make the shipping tubes. I think it’s from Micromark tools. If you make the boxes make sure you use bass wood and not balsa wood. The balsa is too soft and doesn’t sand very well. More to come. Thanks for the comment. I hope everyone has a happy, safe Thanksgiving holiday. Thank you very much for your reply, that is a huge help to me. Luckily I have several boxes of the Tamiya kit un started, I never thought about casting the rounds, I will give it a go. I will also make the boxes, as for the markings I will have to paint them on as I don't have anything that resembles the ordnance bomb and writing. I would never had guessed the rounds were cast they look really good, thanks for the close up of them. Looking forward to seeing this done, it's realy good. Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Marine Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share #31 Posted November 26, 2020 Hi Nick, you can see the difference in the TAMIYA rounds and my terrible castings. Yeah, that’s the last of those custom dry transfers so I will have to figure out some other way of marking boxes in the future. Good luck with your projects. I am glad you found it useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted November 26, 2020 Share #32 Posted November 26, 2020 Excellent way to improve these horrible early Tamiya helmets, thanks for sharing! I will try this in the near future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Marine Posted November 26, 2020 Author Share #33 Posted November 26, 2020 This is another netting I found the works well. It’s a stretchy fine mesh that they use for packaging garlic. It’s not the stiff plastic, it’s a stretchy nylon type. Poke around in the vegetables area and look for the prepackaged garlic, it’s usually three to a bag. It makes a good open weave netting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted November 26, 2020 Share #34 Posted November 26, 2020 👍 Looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtyScout Posted November 28, 2020 Share #35 Posted November 28, 2020 Truly excellent work Dennis. I like the helmet netting tutorial. I've never gotten into resin casting but it seems to work for the amount of mortar rounds that you needed. They may not be perfect, but once painted they work very well. Great job! Semper Fi. Manny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Marine Posted November 29, 2020 Author Share #36 Posted November 29, 2020 Thanks Manny, good resin casting takes practice. Those casts are crude, but they work. You were right, this is a busy diorama. Here is another progress photo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Marine Posted December 19, 2020 Author Share #37 Posted December 19, 2020 The mortar section, is pretty close to being finished. There are still some details and touch up painting to be done, but it’s about finished. Here are some photos. I will try to post some better lit photos later on when I can get outside with out all this snow. If there is any thing in particular that you want to see in a more detailed photo, just let me know. This diorama is a 12 x 7 inches and fits in to a football display case. Thanks for looking and all the comments and observations. Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtyScout Posted December 19, 2020 Share #38 Posted December 19, 2020 Excellent work again Dennis. Your attention to detail is magnificent. I especially like the discarded mortar round tubes with the yellow tape. But this diorama flows. Another masterpiece. Semper Fi. Manny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Proud Kraut Posted December 19, 2020 Share #39 Posted December 19, 2020 Dennis, when did you last attend a live firing? Yesterday? Wow, simply amazing, can´t get enough of regarding your pictures and recovering more and more details. As Manny said, a real masterpiece!!! 👍 10 rounds complete! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browninggunner688 Posted December 19, 2020 Share #40 Posted December 19, 2020 Absolutely superb. I really like this diorama, full of motion and tells the story. How did you make the compass on the map, very nice detail. Well done. Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RWW Posted December 19, 2020 Share #41 Posted December 19, 2020 You model guys are amazing!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cutiger83 Posted December 19, 2020 Share #42 Posted December 19, 2020 Dennis, Amazing that all of this action fits into a football size case. You have so much detail in one small area. I love to see your work. ...Kat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Marine Posted December 21, 2020 Author Share #43 Posted December 21, 2020 Thanks for the comments. Nick, the compass is just two pieces of round plastic that I sliced off, glued together and added a small loop of fine brass wire. Here is another reference photo of an 81 in action. There are some great details in the photo. The gunners is wearing a CIB and the 2 guys behind him look like they have CIBs also. The guy with the field phone and the guy next to him have the .45 holsters on their trouser belts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikie Posted December 21, 2020 Share #44 Posted December 21, 2020 Simply amazing! Mikie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Browninggunner688 Posted December 21, 2020 Share #45 Posted December 21, 2020 Thank you for letting me know how to do a compass, something so simple yet adds tonnes of life to the diorama. Nick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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