Jump to content

1/35 Scale 81mm Mortar Section


Old Marine
 Share

Recommended Posts

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.

584AB2C7-89DA-4B9F-90DC-21BAB5C74625.jpeg

DFDCC3CA-04A7-4A1B-995F-1C03317E73AC.jpeg

039BF6F7-BF5A-4112-8EEC-6F9704D3B239.jpeg

C0C59C65-3C49-4C5D-81E6-3CF162D7A854.jpeg

F6A3F402-44AC-4156-80DF-57DF70B481A1.jpeg

BECF138F-33E0-4250-9878-FADAC743D523.jpeg

F30DAF13-4EE6-42DC-8177-963B9583E25A.jpeg

1BC8C169-4BCF-4D19-A7A3-AB343E8F9F63.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Browninggunner688
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.

 

 

 

 

D3B243F6-FFF7-4243-AA62-2B4E09A66BEB.jpeg

9C0FC996-88CE-490B-9A1D-8684A8F38FC9.jpeg

EED2598D-52E5-4988-9BE9-97DE98180247.jpeg

066BAC4E-4A6F-4AD3-BA6B-4FBE0B192549.jpeg

A2E93D5E-9BB5-4C5C-BB40-7D13AEB91222.jpeg

21DDB75B-3398-4CE9-9AE9-E3FF7CE3D0F3.jpeg

1A8A8E4E-3E41-41CC-8B57-0C97A4C2FE74.jpeg

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

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.

96F859AC-59AF-448E-A661-9396B72720C5.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

 

 

AFE2D48D-09FB-4541-AAFF-FAF09E8CEE96.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

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.  

 

 

AFC45687-91ED-43BC-A852-B80F976C4F25.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

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
 

 

F8CC45F2-8FDC-47BF-917E-1AB294AE1220.jpeg

5D518E82-8577-42D3-9DD7-4E980BBD8963.jpeg

FAC639E0-6987-4FB4-A76A-EBE68247D968.jpeg

90665377-EDFC-4293-A0E1-70BFAD83878E.jpeg

A34B39CA-2265-40B0-A08C-591DB6719667.jpeg

A7694987-6475-4E70-893D-A676D9E4424C.jpeg

607090AA-AEDB-468F-A5B9-3B899345FCDE.jpeg

7841FCCE-502D-42DE-A8D5-593EC5E3FB8C.jpeg

4184368F-0575-4FD1-836C-D637CFC71D6D.jpeg

029A238C-EEA1-45AF-A982-64D4269F35D4.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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

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

Browninggunner688

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

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

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.  
 

 

 

 

BA2F5D38-300C-4FF0-B319-75F4A14C2FB8.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...