itsa_ss

this is a tamiya 1/35 antitank gun. this is the first gun. i have not built the figures yet. im thinking about a simple diorama. any ideas?

rjwood_uk

just a simply muddy field diorama would do this beauty great justice!!!

itsa_ss

thats kinda what i had in mind. i just started working on the figures, they really put a strain on my eyes,lol.

Bunkerbarge

I actually made this model well over thirty years ago and put it onto a very simple diorama base. With the figures included you have to really!

I started with a piece of plywod, rectangular in shape and obtained a packet of modelling clay, Das I think it was called. I cut the Das into slices and then cut the slices into strips of about the same thinckness of the slice. So you ended up with square section lengths of about 10mm x 10mm.

I then got hold of some old silk material and covered a small piece of wood with it and used this to roll the pieces of clay into round section. The material gave the clay a nice fine textured surface. I then cut the clay 'round bar' into pieces with a knife and ended up with a shape that looked pretty close to a sand bag. I then made a sandbag wall diagonally across one corner of the plywood base with enough height for the gun barrel to just clear it.

You can then either fill in the area behind the sandbag wall and make a second level, as though you are looking at a part of a gun emplacement or simply leave it as a sandbag wall. I covered the base with soil from the garden, dried out and sifted, and painted it all up. It was very simple but very effective. From there you can go as far as you want by adding fence posts, corners of buildings, street signs etc but I prefer to let the model remain the centre of attention and the diorama the means of presenting it rather than develop the diorama into another model i its own right. That is only my prefferrence though.


You could of course also buy a Tamiya set of field accessories and stick them on a plywood base but there is a great deal of satisfaction to be had from doing it yourself.

The gun looks excellent by the way!

itsa_ss

i had an idea kinda like that with the sand bags, but i thought of maybe some sort of neting camoflage over the gun itself.

has anyone added black to the tip of the gun to make it look like smoke from firing it, like weathering? if so could you give me some pointers.

Bunkerbarge

Be carefull with such weathering. If you study pictures of real guns you will notice that there is only a little noticable in the way of deposits at the muzzle.

A very light dusting with an airbrush would be about all you would need or, if you wanted to use a brush, very light dry brushing with a matt black/brown.

squiffythewombat

Nice model dude, thats really nice!

As Richard said i remmber building this model when i was young, it didnt turn out anywhere as good as yours!

A muddy field with maybe a hedgerow or something as, and might be wrong here but i doubt it would of just been used without any available cover?

rjwood_uk

and mayby (practice this on a model hack or spare parts first!) get a colour such as XF-60 (dark yellow) and flick it onto parts of the models that you think would get splashes of mud into it.

just an idea!

__________________
...One finished model...5 O'Clock in the morning!

itsa_ss

the mud should just be on the wheels and soliders boots shouldnt it?

rjwood_uk

and maybe on the "shields" (dont know what their are called) and a bit up the front where it may have been through a puddle?

__________________
...One finished model...5 O'Clock in the morning!