Desert Dio WIP

[cobraleader]

G'Day All,

Now the comp is over, time to return to previous projects.

Currently building a diorama of the 82nd Airbourne.
This is the dragon kit of the Modern 82nd Airbourne - I thought it was WWII 82nd Airbourne when I brought it sight unseen .

I've decided to do a desert diorama, set in the middle east somewhere.

I've built the figures out of the kit, with no modifications.
Dio base is scratchbuilt with walls of building made from depron foam which is covered with spack filler. Rumble is a mixture of cork board cut up, with sand and grit mixed in. Base has been coated with white glue and covered in sand and tamiya sand diorama material.

The palm trees are brought via ebay from china - the fronds are card or something similar, that is already cut out read to be glued to wire and attached to the trunks. At present, I just coated the trunks in spray primer.

I think the palm trees are over size for the scene - everything is meant to be in 1/35 scale.
Might have to finish building them to see if they detract from the scene.

Enjoy.

 

[TRM]

Nice little set you got going on Mark! Everything is looking really good! I kind of agree with the tree being a little big, but yeah, finish em up and try. Worse case I guess you could cut em down! Keep it going!

 

[Eastrock]

yes the coconut trees may depict like Sequoias ;D, you could sand them down or scratchbuilt a new.

keep up!!! cheers!!!

 

[Quaralane]

Looking good so far

 

[cobraleader]

G'Day All,

After sitting down and staring at the dio, it does look like the trees are too big for the size of the dio, so i'll put them aside for another dio - say a dinosaur dio or something larger.

I have found the following
http://www.armorama.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=75

I don't think I'll use the electrical wire for the trunk, might go for some balsa wood, whittled down for some random appearance to the trunk

 

[moi196872]

Can`t wait to see the rest of this go up !!

 

[Chiefpettyofficer]

These self made palms looking good. Have to try that for my own
Nice progress so far

 

[geegad]

them palms look like an infection i once had ouch!!!! lol

looking good and all scratch built even better the sign of a true modeller
john

 

[schweinhund227]

them palms look like an infection i once had ouch!!!! lol

looking good and all scratch built even better the sign of a true modeller
john

LOL !!!

 

[Jelly]

This looks good,

Well, there are a lot of palmtrees here where I live: I must say that the ones that you´re showing are absolutely not disproportioned. Those palms can be maybe too tall for that dio display/visual composition, but I can assure you that they are right in size. Just 60 feet from the front of my house I have neighbors that have a couple of palms in their garden: both palms are wider (diameter) than the ones that you´ve shown us, being one of these at least equally tall if not more of one of yours.

So don´t worry too much...
Cheers
RG

 

[cobraleader]

I've been checking out the palms around my own town. All different.
I've decided to focus on the palms with seeds or dates hanging below the branches. Some of the pics on the web show these grow in desert areas.

From what I can see, the trunks need to be filled and the tops need to be redone.
I've filled in the trunks with tamiya putty, used some epoxy putty to change the trunk near the top and created some ribbing with the motor tool.

The leaves are painted olive green and the stems are tamiya XF-60. The trunk is painted Humbrol 64 and washed with black weathering powder. A further wash of brown pastel was applied and drybrushed with humbrol 64.
The trunk tops, where the leaves are applied are coated with whiteglue and dipped in Woodland Scenics earth blend.
I haven't added any hanging fruit or seeds yet. Looking at using lichen or similar to represent it.

 

[cobraleader]

Wow - more than 120 days since I posted anything about this dio ....

okay ... its completed now .....

Brought extra paper palm fronds to build up the leaves on the palms ... used some 1.5mm glass beads paint black as fallen dates and glued some to lichen which had been painted in brown tones .... lichen was added to palms and some on the ground work under the palms.
Static grass was added, and some home made palm fronds painted brown.

Glued the figures to diorama and repainted ground work and added a sepia wash and dry brushed.
broke up some lengths of balsa and wiped on/off brown,black,burnt umber paint - added these to the ruined building. touched up the building as it saw some abuse while sitting on the shelf collecting paint.

And completed the dio a few hours ago .... enjoy...

 

[Solander]

Excellent dio, buddy!
Love the look of all the elements, especially the palms and the destroyed building - very realistic. Well done!