Six day frozen Tiger dio

[Lurcher Two]

I was building a 1/35th Sturmtiger, but hit a dilemma as where to go with it. I could detail the innards and then proceed, or leave the inside and concentrate on the outside. Anyway, I reckon the safest thing to do was to leave it. My experience is that you do something else and your mind sorts itself out!

So here we go, as a distraction I'm gonna do a 6 day dio and by next weekend I'll know what I'm doin with the sturmtiger, I hope!

This little tiger is 1/54th, and won't take up to much room or time and will be fun to do........




Ok, sat on my foam base board, I have drawn a a canal to the left, a road on top and a watercourse to the right........

 

[Lurcher Two]

I borrowed the bread knife to cut the foam. Shhhh....... It cuts like a razor and dosent 'crumb' the foam. You can kinda see the form of the dio now. I think......

 

[Lurcher Two]

I'm gonna use Das for most of the landscape and paving, hard landscaping etc. This means my build medioum will stay malleable and soft for me to work and then i can hit it with heat to harden it as i go along at stages of the build

 

[Lurcher Two]

The Das won't stick to the foam normally, so I sprayed it with acrylic matt black paint to seal it. Wetting the Das and smearing it on hard makes it adhere really well. I am imprinting the basalt setts with a tool that I made. Bigger than british setts, these would be 4-6 inches square and not unusual in europe.

There rough to start with but I will tidy them later. Working in this medium gives me the time to get the whole lot done.

 

[Lurcher Two]

More setts in place. I have punched some through so as to leave some gaps. wear and tear and all that. When they get too loose, the holes fill up with crap and the setts get pushed out like loose teeth.



Some of the setts are bunched together, tight, others are further apart. I will go over the whole lot, twisting some and removing the surplus material around the shoulders.

Some material I will leave as moss grown around the stones. This will get the green treatment later.

 

[Lurcher Two]

I finished the setts for the moment, so I started the canal to the left. It will have ashlar masonry blocks which will eventually just be above the height of the road with channels for water to leave the camber onto the canal on that side. I have shaped the canal as being shallow towards the edge. This is often the case where you can see bikes and all sorts lying in the silt. I have bulked out the retaining wall ready for detailing.






That will do for tonight, just time for the oven

 

[Lurcher Two]

Baking went well. Your not supposed to do this with this particular Das, or shoudln't have to but extra warmth accelerates the hardening. It was a close thing though, I forgot about my cooking and as a consequence the base board warped slightly.

However.............., it has actually improved the shape of the landscape ;D

The Das has set like carvable iron and is stuck fast to the foam with no delamination or cracking. Result, it is ready for me to carry on with tommorrow. Can't wait.

 

[THE NEW ONE]

glad it went well

 

[Lurcher Two]

Thanks, very well.....





















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All in a weeks work, I was knackered Best wishes, Steve

PS, if your interested, I'm changing the Tiger for a 1/48th hobby boss t-34 86 to do the dio justice. I'm gonna put a shell hole adjacent to the paving disrupting it and change the canal water for something clearer with rusty ironwork in it!

 

[hook1169]

Nicely done!

 

[Lurcher Two]

Nicely done!

Yeah thanks for that, I'm changing the 'Toy' 58th Tiger for a Hobby Boss 48th T-34-86 which should do the dio justice. It truley is an amazing kit, packed full of amazing detail and potential.


The bigger scale of the T-34 should fill the shoes of the Tiger nicely


Sixteen sprues and one of the best bargains I have ever purchased at 12.00 gbp


And then, lovely brass and soft copper wire for cables


Crisp mouldings and some of the nicest wheel sets I have ever seen at this scale



And then there are the instructions and detail...Wow