Dioramas
Do you love dioramas & vignettes? We sure do.
It’s a GAZ (GAZ GAZ)
Removed by original poster on 08/19/17 - 03:13:05 (GMT).
justsendit
Visit this Community
Colorado, United States
Joined: February 24, 2014
KitMaker: 3,033 posts
Armorama: 2,492 posts
Posted: Friday, August 18, 2017 - 08:12 AM UTC
I knew it! — sensed those talons looming maniacally above! 🦅
Yeah, buddy!🍺

—mike
Dioramartin
Visit this Community
New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Saturday, August 19, 2017 - 06:32 PM UTC
Mike – no escape claws any more eh?…so to The Plan, an aerial attack stills-sequence partly inspired by an off-line discussion with MiguelBR who’s produced some very clever video/audio dios posted on this site. The main development of my own schtick is to use 3 simultaneous viewpoints of the action, having experimented with Ipads/phones to get better quality stills (the detonation above being an example) although the trusty Olympus was used for these test shots.

Several technical aspects to be grappled with:

1)The base. The two big styro blocks allow a much wider field of view & longer perspective than ever before but gras-mastering them would take way too long so I’m thinking of blending a couple of existing grassed bases into/onto them and filling in with just loose or glued-down soil.





2)Meteorology & predators. It’s early Spring downunder - the gales of the past couple of days gusted between 50 and 110 kph so even the rainbow lorikeets cancelled their flying lessons. I need sunny & calm conditions so it could take a few weeks before the windy season’s gone & I’m ready to shoot. The technical advisors like to observe from a few feet away…I can draw a crowd but they really want to eat the figures, so decoy birdseed is an essential local dio accessory…



3)Aircraft. I built the 1/32 Kanonvogel several years ago…



…but after trying out various angles it became obvious I needed a smaller version too. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a direct equivalent so opted for Airfix’s cute 1/72 Ju87 B-1, scratched into a passable B-2 if you don’t compare noses. Currently in the paint shop & what fun it isn’t masking that camo pattern & those teeny canopy frames…



4)Aircraft in flight. Getting the prop spinning with a hair-dryer just out of frame (on the cool setting, natch) is OK but I want the planes fully in frame in the air too, so hello fishing line with associated issues such as invisibility, tension, and totally, completely, utterly reliable attachment points. And a turbo-boost on the hair-dryer. To get movement-blur I’ll either need to make the planes slide down or pendulum on fishing lines…or film them static with the camera moving in the opposite direction…hmmm GoPro mounted on an RC car maybe? Or a drone…? Whatever, test shots…







5)Pyro. Once I’ve resolved all the above there’s the multiple issues of getting this right all at the same time. Last week’s test-fire was somewhat over-sized – the cops didn’t show up but there’s still time to be the first person arrested over a diorama

TotemWolf
Visit this Community
Oklahoma, United States
Joined: February 11, 2013
KitMaker: 294 posts
Armorama: 196 posts
Posted: Saturday, August 19, 2017 - 06:40 PM UTC

Quoted Text

but there’s still time to be the first person arrested over a diorama




Love the work so far. KUTGW!
jrutman
Visit this Community
Pennsylvania, United States
Joined: April 10, 2011
KitMaker: 7,941 posts
Armorama: 7,934 posts
Posted: Saturday, August 19, 2017 - 07:13 PM UTC
I am just endlessly fascinated by your approach to this hobby. Very very innovative and I love it !
Your inventive bent is also further illustrated by the excellent command of writing skills contained in every blog.
J
BUTA46
Visit this Community
Maine, United States
Joined: May 05, 2015
KitMaker: 117 posts
Armorama: 113 posts
Posted: Saturday, August 19, 2017 - 08:44 PM UTC
Cool and awesome... for the fields, how about the grass mats the model railroad geniuses use? Saw some at the big box Crafts store, didn't see the price.
Dioramartin
Visit this Community
New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Sunday, August 20, 2017 - 08:13 PM UTC
Thanks guys - hey Jerry I’m not sure what my approach is other than blundering through endless unanticipated difficulties which I should have anticipated, but glad to entertain anyway & thank you kindly. I was reflecting thus just now, trying to unclench after an extended sanity-testing masking session with the three-part 1/72 Stuka canopy (I’d forgotten why I gave up building small aircraft 45 years ago ), and noticing for the first time Airfix don’t provide swastikas in the decal set.

Phil – my mate Alistair who is a 5-star railway genius has used those mats (I’ll remember the manufacturers just after I log out, there’s at least two) and they kinda work once he’s faded the bright colour back to scale- I’ll see if they’ll bear closer inspection, good idea. Although there is an unusual hesitation about them – flammability - and that’s yet another technical issue, how & where I arrange the big styro blocks...if I screw up there’ll be an amusing climactic scene as trucks disappear from view into a yawning white molten sink-hole…
Dioramartin
Visit this Community
New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Saturday, August 26, 2017 - 12:13 PM UTC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WowZLe95WDY









BUTA46
Visit this Community
Maine, United States
Joined: May 05, 2015
KitMaker: 117 posts
Armorama: 113 posts
Posted: Saturday, August 26, 2017 - 03:55 PM UTC
You and Rutman need to get together and make movies. Dayum! Looking too groovy, getting into "the danger zone"
cheyenne
Visit this Community
New Jersey, United States
Joined: January 05, 2005
KitMaker: 2,185 posts
Armorama: 1,813 posts
Posted: Saturday, August 26, 2017 - 04:12 PM UTC
" Hey y'all watch this " and pyrotechnics = Tim .

The zoomies look beautiful [ I hear ya on the small scale planes gave em up years ago meself ] .

This is very cool out of the box fun and has more than likely produced quite a few laughs while engineering the whole thing .

Just promise me when the director says " action " you'll be sitting in a lawn chair drinking booze out of a coconut as the whole thing goes down .
Dioramartin
Visit this Community
New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Tuesday, August 29, 2017 - 05:04 PM UTC
Thanks guys – yes Phil they’re looking meaner & there’s a couple of things still to come with them. Actually JR’s been far too modest by not mentioning he’s already been here/done that, with that fantastic aerial attack/Falaise pocket dio with guys leaping off carts & the road, it’s somewhere here a few pages/months back.

Cheyenne gotta keep those coconuts under control now we’re retired…& maybe cut down on the scantily-clad bar girls too…but hey the chair, bullhorn & tequila paraphernalia ’s all ready. You’d appreciate this too – raided my Letraset/Decadry stash for the mini-Stuka’s four “B” letters, 25+ years old and they went on per-fect-ly, yet meanwhile the mail brought some new dry-transfer swastikas & they’re crap – 100 mega-Newtons of force applied to the end of a cuticle-stick but less than half of each one stuck down, I think I’ve now engraved the shapes onto the tail-fin. Restoration-painting not so easy as they’re hollow-outline swastikas, not solid. But then I look at Texas…what’s to complain about? Thoughts & prayers to those affected.
BUTA46
Visit this Community
Maine, United States
Joined: May 05, 2015
KitMaker: 117 posts
Armorama: 113 posts
Posted: Wednesday, August 30, 2017 - 05:47 AM UTC
A classic. Actually got to touch several of JR's dios in my capacity as runner at the AMPS show in April. They look better up close. Oops
DocEvan
Visit this Community
California, United States
Joined: August 09, 2014
KitMaker: 180 posts
Armorama: 180 posts
Posted: Wednesday, August 30, 2017 - 07:18 AM UTC
Can I play? Here are mine....two cousins. The model on the right is a MiniArt GazAAA converted to a 1930 AA Ford with a TwinFlex auxiliary rear axle. Dump box was scratchbuilt from the kit's cargo box. Model on the left is the HobbyBox Gaz, converted to an ice delivery truck.









Dioramartin
Visit this Community
New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Wednesday, August 30, 2017 - 08:28 AM UTC
Heh heh Phil I’m sure you didn’t mean they look more terrible the further away you get! Hi Jerry, it’s OK nothing to see here

Hey Evan they both look great & of course you can play...as long as I can wreck ‘em, always room a couple of extras

justsendit
Visit this Community
Colorado, United States
Joined: February 24, 2014
KitMaker: 3,033 posts
Armorama: 2,492 posts
Posted: Thursday, August 31, 2017 - 02:29 AM UTC
Hi Tim! The JU 87 parrot pest control bombers look great! I can just smell the burnt feathers — kidding! Lol! ... Makes me want to build "wingy-thingies!"

Quoted Text

Hey Evan they both look great & of course you can play...as long as I can wreck ‘em, always room a couple of extras


Hey Evan, Tim is NOT kidding! ... 💣ssssssss ... 💥💥💥💥💥

Cheers!🍺
—mike
Dioramartin
Visit this Community
New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Friday, September 01, 2017 - 06:58 PM UTC
Mike the lorikeets are currently doing a re-make of The Birds, massing in a nearby tree - if I set off a charge in their general direction heeeeyyyy acid trip

Anyhow continuous winds & man-flu curtailed progress this week but this is what I got:



Hair-drier works OK - this is the 1/32nd which nearly got totalled when one of the two fishing lines snapped during its first "flight". Following emergency landing Pilot Rudel seen here demanding upgrade to an 8lb. line & a new Director – it ain’t all coconuts...



Safer to use the lighter mini for motion-blur tests...



...benefits being that if the plane’s moving the fishing lines vanishes & it looks less modelish...



The pic below tested suspension & hair-drier together. Duh # 1 was that the plane danced in the air like an electrocuted albatross while the prop stayed immobile. A rare viable frame from a 2 minute clip...



Duh # 2 was I bought a spray-can of flat black & tested it on a styro offcut, intention being to prevent any whiteness showing through the soil that’ll cover the main blocks. Pshhhhhhhhhh all over it and...wtf?... the styro slowly melted into dark bubbling pits – oops I got the enamel instead of the acrylic. In the above pic, from around 2 ft. overhead it looks like a giant pile of smokin’coal but maybe it’ll be OK, uneven spraying undulates the flat surface nicely & I might even try masking out a river or sunken road before I er soil it. The first pic in this post shows a different trial section after I got to moderate the effect – wet cobbles anyone?

Strictly an outdoor operation though, here’s a well-ventilated ex bar-girl to explain why...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOZuxwVk7TU

165thspc
#521
Visit this Community
Kentucky, United States
Joined: April 13, 2011
KitMaker: 9,465 posts
Armorama: 8,695 posts
Posted: Friday, September 01, 2017 - 07:08 PM UTC
That ground looks like it could be a cityscape from high altitude above the clouds. All you need is a river meandering through the center!

Good job!
jrutman
Visit this Community
Pennsylvania, United States
Joined: April 10, 2011
KitMaker: 7,941 posts
Armorama: 7,934 posts
Posted: Friday, September 01, 2017 - 07:16 PM UTC
I look forward to all of your updates because the modeling is good and the narratives are even better !
You can really turn a phrase. I also love the film makers' viewpoint !
J
165thspc
#521
Visit this Community
Kentucky, United States
Joined: April 13, 2011
KitMaker: 9,465 posts
Armorama: 8,695 posts
Posted: Friday, September 01, 2017 - 10:08 PM UTC
Tim I know you didn't ask but I could not resist applying a little photoshop. Please forgive. This image is yours to do as you see fit.

BUTA46
Visit this Community
Maine, United States
Joined: May 05, 2015
KitMaker: 117 posts
Armorama: 113 posts
Posted: Saturday, September 02, 2017 - 04:38 PM UTC

Quoted Text

Heh heh Phil I’m sure you didn’t mean they look more terrible the further away you get! Hi Jerry, it’s OK nothing to see here




Error. I've seen the size of of JR's boots and I don't want that trooper jumping in my schizzle. He can take criticism for sure but none intended. I spied "Falais" first and couldn't stop gawking.
Your stuff on the other hand, is best viewed right here.
Thanks so much for the show!!
Dioramartin
Visit this Community
New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Saturday, September 02, 2017 - 07:16 PM UTC
Thanks Jerry I guess we’re all in the entertainment business & not just for ourselves or we wouldn’t post - writing’s just a good antidote (for me) to taking the hobby too seriously.

Michael – man I thought someone had slipped some special mushrooms into my Fathers’ Day cooked breakfast when I checked in – unexpected! Very nice ‘shopping, trying to get my head around how seamless you made it, really cool and a big thank-you for taking the trouble – I might frame & of course co-credit it! (Warning - skip the following if you’re sick of Modelling Philosophy)It brings up the old conundrum about what I do, namely if I’m trying to make something look real why not go all the way with software enhancements? On one hand I’m more than interested – it would be a whole new ball game to collaborate with you or someone like you to achieve that. And yet, and yet...on the other hand I feel like it’s messing with the authenticity (?) of model-making & it becomes a step on the way to the illusion of reality by other means. Something in my head just says no, I want to explore how close what I made (that’s probably the key phrase) can look to the real thing with “pure” un-doctored photos – like the lunacy of a tightrope walker eschewing a safety net I guess. Having said that, apart from occasional colour balance/contrast tweaks I’ve only interfered with 3 of all the photos I’ve posted – using (cringe) Paint clumsily – months ago to erase a passing airliner in one, a foreign object on a uniform in another...and yes! a fishing line in a shot in the penultimate post, what a hypocrite am I.

Thanks Phil that’s a new word for me - “schizzle” – sent me & doubtless some other non-American speakers scurrying to Google (pity Scrabble only gives one [scoring] “z”) - anyhow looks like you got away with it, Jerry’s got his sights fixed on something else right now
165thspc
#521
Visit this Community
Kentucky, United States
Joined: April 13, 2011
KitMaker: 9,465 posts
Armorama: 8,695 posts
Posted: Saturday, September 02, 2017 - 09:38 PM UTC
Tim, I always feel that reworking the background is OK but not reworking the model itself. In any case I do understand your point, I just hope you enjoyed it as much as I did doing it! (I had the idea and wanted to see if I could pull it off.)

Regards
Dioramartin
Visit this Community
New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Sunday, September 03, 2017 - 09:55 AM UTC
You bet I enjoyed it Michael & I’m still pondering about it – if I run into trouble in the coming weeks I might well be begging you to come on board as SFX Director…if I haven’t been fired in the meantime
Dioramartin
Visit this Community
New South Wales, Australia
Joined: May 04, 2016
KitMaker: 1,476 posts
Armorama: 1,463 posts
Posted: Friday, September 08, 2017 - 06:27 PM UTC
Continuous semi-Antarctic winds all week meant further test-flights have been postponed indefinitely – there’s another reason the big bird needs to fly, which will become apparent in the fullness of time. Meanwhile it was possible to firm up 3 consonant camera angles on the diorama i.e. the other two cameras stay out of frame...



What I’d imagined to be a simple triangulation turned out to be more problematic - I don’t want to raise the table or dio any higher so need to put some work into the far styro block to obscure the Sydney skyline & other undesirable features...







So armed with hot-wire styro cutter...



...the ground-work evolved...





...as I mentally transported to Kursk-area landscapes, with some hyelp from Syiggi...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUWhlqItgus

Just for the record, mercifully I don’t have tremors, the high tension of the cutting wire creates that ridging all by itself. Next step plaster/filler to rationalise the slopes & then soil/rocks/scrub/trees throughout. Today the gusts temporarily dropped below 30 kph enabling a quick trial of other tricks...



The dolly-track’s probably not viable, the train that ran on it has long gone so I’d need to build a wagon on which to rig a smartphone...could be fun though. The R2D2 Japanese barbie does have potential as a smoke generator (yes yes I got some shrimps already) – provided I can fashion some kind of non-heat-conducting/non-flammable connecting collar from the flue to the rubber hose. Any ideas? – the best I can think of so far is rolling up a section of cut-up fire-blanket. Alas asbestos is...one more time Britney?

jrutman
Visit this Community
Pennsylvania, United States
Joined: April 10, 2011
KitMaker: 7,941 posts
Armorama: 7,934 posts
Posted: Friday, September 08, 2017 - 07:39 PM UTC
I am always guaranteed an interesting read with one of your posts !
J