realworkingsailor

Thanks EG! It’s not without concerted effort… many times I felt like I was one flailing finger away from a green disaster… to say nothing of the risk of tipping over a bottle of diluted white glue…. Andy

Thanks Alan! We’re definitely on the same page here! After hand sprinkling, I would say this is the cheapest method, followed by the bug-zapper approach: Andy

Thanks Mike! It’s definitely precise, in that you can target the bottle spout into various nooks and crannies, rather than broadcasting the grass all over the place and hoping for the best. I think the key benefit over just sprinkling, is that it does impart a modicum of a static charge to the grass (one that builds up the longer one repeatedly squeezes the bottle), so the grass does more or less what it is supposed to do (stand somewhat upright). Andy

As always, I would be remiss if I didn't start by thanking everyone for your kind comments and "likes"! I've managed to make something of a start with the static grass. What a fun process it is! First up, the glue. You don't have to spend exorbitant amounts of money buying specialty glue. I made my own with some watered down PVA. I initially tried a 3 parts water to 1 part glue, but found I had to add a little bit more glue, so it's closer to 1.5 parts glue. I also added a few drops of isopropyl alcohol as a wetting agent (helps break down the surface tension). This was dribbled and brushed on to where I wanted to apply the static grass. I should mention that I don't have a static grass applicator... at least, not the fancy electrical variety. A few weeks ago I saw this video about someone who just used an inexpensive condiment bottle to apply static grass: So rather than spend a ton of money on a fancy grass applicator, or putting my electrical mad scientist to work mutilating a bug zapper racquet into a homemade Frankenstein-ian Van de Graaff generator, I decided to give this method a shot. It does work, and very well, but it does restrict to a small working area... there's only so many times I can rapidly "poof" a condiment bottle before my hands get tired! Don't fill up the bottle too much, about the amount you see in the above photo is more than enough, and it will cover a surprisingly large area (big enough that your hand will be start to cramp!). The results shown here are using 4mm static grass. I did try a test area using 2mm grass, but it came out too quickly and became somewhat clumpy. Not altogether horrible, but not the effect I was after. The repeated "poofing" action generates just enough static electricity for the grass to do its thing. The lighter area in the photos is just due to the glue having not yet fully cured. The ground foam underneath provides a great stable base and the state grass grabs really well, after letting the glue set up for only a couple of minutes. I have some "burnt grass" and "straw" colours that I will layer on later to add highlights and break up the monotonous green. For that I'm planning on using some inexpensive hair spray as an adhesive. From what I've read, the odourless "extra hold" stuff works just as well, if not better than so-called specially formulated static grass adhesive sprays. For the more well trodden areas, I will reverse the colours, starting with the burnt grass and adding green highlights. I should mention, that I have managed to keep the mess under some level of control... so far..... Andy

Not just at Verrieres ridge, but on the other side of Caen: It’s very fun, as a Canadian, to hear an American describing what the Canadians did. Andy

Compared to the countryside that the Americans faced, the area of Normandy that the Canadians fought was comparatively wide open. If I’m not mistaken, Mr Robertshaw is standing just above St. Martin de Fontenay. If you have “Breakout From Juno” by Mark Zuehlke, you can see the map for “Operation Spring”. Otherwise, let me know and I can pm you. Andy

Some goodies arrived today: Let the fun, games, and a hopefully not-too-unholy mess begin! Andy

If that was in certain parts of Holland, or proximal areas of Germany, I believe there were a lot of pine forests in the region. A fair number of Canadian soldiers enlisted right out of the lumber camps, so chopping trees was a familiar activity. Andy

You may have seen this already, but if not: Andy

Thanks! The roughness of the foam is proportional to the roughness of the tool used to carve. If I had a hot wire foam tool it would have been much cleaner. I guess I could have carved recesses for the figure bases, but I don’t think I could have got the bases in any kind of presentable shape. The Airfix figures are moulded in a soft acetal plastic, akin to Delrin, and from a very old tooling… there’s lots of rubbery, hard to remove flash, and they really don’t take paint all that well, and if they do, they don’t tolerate any kind of abuse. I’ll hopefully get a hold of some static grass soon, there’s a model train show not too far away this weekend, I may poke my nose in the door for a gander; see what’s there. Andy

How about this: Lots of interesting pictures of QF 17 pounder guns here, including numerous pictures of Archers: https://www.silverhawkauthor.com/post/17-pounder-qf-anti-tank-gun Andy

I’m not sure if the actual size of the parts, but it could be that the number of holes didn’t lend itself well to the injection moulding process. They may had had them to begin with, but the test shots may have had a high rejection rate. Andy

Looks like fun, count me in. Although he’s just started, @AJohnson is working on the 1:24 Typhoon, and he’s built a few other nice Airfix kits on here too, you may wish to check out his builds. Andy

Thanks Alan! I think it depends on the depth of water you’re trying to convey, or whether it’s still or moving (wind, waves or currents). WS products can produce some amazing “water” in the right hands. Andy

Not to worry, those obnoxious bases will be removed in due course. I plan on using a short length of fine wire to hold them in place (I have some nice 0.015” stainless kicking around). I will be adding some static grass next, so everything is just temporarily in place for now. I’m just waiting for the hobby shop to restock what I need. Andy

Mud, mud glorious mud.... I think I've managed to create a reasonably convincing miniature mud puddle! No small feat considering there's nothing even remotely close to dirt or water even involved.... I first painted on a couple of coats of acrylic paint. I think it's important to stipulate, that I've had this paint for a while, and it has thickened up noticeably in the bottle. Which is good for what I'm going after here. The paint was dabbed and stippled on in the "muddy" area, and in areas where vehicle wheels would have shed any mud they picked up as they drove through. I applied a couple layers of this thickened brown paint until I had something of a desired texture. When the brown paint had dried, I then added a coat of clear acrylic gloss to the muddy area, in order to convey wetness. This was spread out in most places to the edge of the "grass", but in a couple small places I left it back a bit in order to hint of a slight amount of drying. For the final (?) layer, I made a mixture of about 6 parts gloss to 1 part brown paint. This was dribbled into the lowest areas of the puddle to simulate a bit of standing, muddy water. I was looking at the options the WS provides to make water and they're all a little pricey for the amount I need (~$40CAD for a bottle of "water", plus another ~$15 for colour tint). I think my budget "water" works perfectly well! How that Tilly made it through that sloppy mess, I'll never know! Anyone else for a bit of mudding? Andy

Thanks guys, I’m glad you’re finding reasons for me to justify adding the Hurricane! I think, though, @Egilman you’ve hit the nail on the head with your last remark, about giving the scene that sense of space. While the Hurricane does look good, I really think it makes it look too busy, and it takes away that sense of space. I’ll probably build a separate (and smaller) base just for it on its own (with a figure or two for fun). Also, the Hurricane is from 1940, and the Bomber from 1941… must have been some pretty rough weather to divert that pilot a year forward in time…😜 Andy

I keep looking around my house wondering where the heck am I going to put this thing!

I wonder if the black demarcation, that makes the cover boards appear to be in pairs, is not a channel for a securing batten? The hatch coamings appear to be nothing more than a toe rail, so perhaps this would allow the battens to be even height with the coamings. If you look at the forward “pair”, they appear to be leaning at an odd angle that doesn’t appear to lend itself to two individual boards being stacked in such a manner. Andy

Thanks for all the "likes" everyone! Rather quick progress has been made, and a lot of matte medium has been consumed in the process! After painting, the first layer of ground cover was added. This consisted of a mostly uniform layer of Woodland Scenics "Earth Blend" Sealed for freshness! The end result: When the matte medium had dried, I began adding WS "Green Blend": A key trick to scenery is to work in small areas, it helps too keep things from getting out of hand, and you don't end up with areas that don't adhere properly as the glue has begun to set For the "runway" area I applied only a few streaks of green blend to simulate dried/dead patches of grass interspersed with greener grass. This was then followed up with some additional blotches of "burnt grass" to add some variation to the uniform green layer: Once all the matte medium had dried, I couldn't wait to see how things looked: I know if I wanted to, I could stop here and be mostly satisfied (the mud puddles still need some work, though), but I intend to take this up a level and I will come back and apply some layers of static grass to really make the ground cover "pop". For now I'm really happy with the way things are looking. And just for fun, I placed my Hurricane on the runway to see what it would look like: Likely an improbable scenario, but....... Andy

Probably something like "What's most people's concerns is, dey don't waants it to back out to sea. If it do go back to sea dey's not gunna know nuttin"

Very nice Alan, well done! The night shots still look pretty amazing, and the figures give it a nice hint of “life”. Congratulations on completing your project! Andy

“McGregor” hatches are more correctly called hydraulic folding hatches. MacGregor is a trade name, although it can be considered in the same vein as “Kleenex” is to bathroom tissues. The Mark W Barker has a type of self-stacking/rolling hatches, whether these were built by MacGregor I don’t know. In the Barker’s case, one pontoon is equipped with jacks, while the adjacent is equipped with rollers. Once the first is raised by the jacks, the second pontoon is rolled underneath. The first pontoon is then lowered and the combined stack can be positioned about the hatch opening as required. Andy

So I finally received my order of scenery supplies. These will form the base layers of the diorama: Three varieties of ground foam as well as some earth tone paints. Of course I couldn't wait to get things going. Starting with the paint. This was brushed on straight from the bottle. There's no point standing on ceremony, the object is simply to cover the white of the plaster, so any voids will be hidden as later layers of scenery are added. The end result: The photo makes it look greener than it is. Anyway, this is more than adequate, brush marks and all. Next up will be the paint for the "mud" puddles. I have some yellow ochre coloured paint that I will blend with the "earth" paint until I get a nice muddy colour. Shouldn't be too hard! Following this, the first layers of fine ground foam will be applied. Andy

Nicely done! The paint job and the chrome work turned out amazing! Andy