Building a Diorama. - Page 4

**Bunkerbarge** · 31-08-2006

I've just had a look at my photo's and I remember now. The one on U-535 is actually unusual in so far as it is one of the rare two barrelled versions.

The four barelled one was the more common and was fitted to later u-boats.

rjwood_uk · 31-08-2006

the mobelwagen had a one barelled 3.7 flack on the top of it

deakon · 31-08-2006

ithink youll find it is ......its the only quad 20mm weapon. i can find.that was used by axis forces...but dont hold me to this..............

OH and ive spent all afternoon in the boozer....so dont expect an update this evening .....although i will try my besht!........hic.....

deakon · 31-08-2006

right ..a couple of pics of the work i managed this morning before being called to the pub...ive decided to model the stairs in concrete. rather than wood. also im going to put an access ladder and a hatch in the top of the emplacement..its starting to look buisiness like and is comming along nicely..

Another angle wouldve been better...but you get the idea!!!!

deakon · 01-09-2006

today i added some more concrete to the emplacement.another piece from the same cast.was added to the underside of the bomb protection..i made stairs from another piece of plaster i had cast yesterday...and marked where the rung ladder and access hatch were to be situated....

next i made the metal rung ladder from bent lead wire...and an access hatch from balsawood and detailed it with some grandt line boltheads..

i textured the whole of the construction with a piece of heavy gauge glasspaper,, to give the appearance of cast concrete..it dosent show up too well in the pics yet ..but it will once painted..i then scribed and cut the access-hatch hole ..using my rotary tool..and fitted the wooden hatch in position..

I added a figure to better gauge scale...and put the rungs into the backwall

on the other side of the baseboard.. i started the rockface , i split pieces of coal and slate along the natural compession lines so they split easily..and fixed them to the formers with white glue..some of them were pushed into the polystyrene..to aid the sit..when i add the groundwork...

i carried some of the rock pieces over to the other side of the dio..to tie in both sides...

Finally this evening..a couple of pics with the flak gun in position and a figure to set scale.....After dinner im going to tap the top of the emplacement with a hammer to create some stress fractures..and knock out some chunks..to represent the poor quality of occupied workforce concrete..[slave labourours dont do high quality work and sabotage was rife].....ill post pics of the results later this evening..............D........

rjwood_uk · 01-09-2006

this is looking great Deakon!!!

do you have any pictures of already completed ones to show us as examples of your work?

deakon · 03-09-2006

friday.. i mixed up some papier mache...from old newspaper strips..and left it soaking overnight..i like a smooth mix..so i knead it with my fingers..to seperate as much of the fibres as i can...then i squeeze out as much of the water as i can.and rub it through my fingers..to get lots of nice loose..semi dried pellets..if it dries out before im ready to use it it can be re-wetted .and used..i take a guess as to how much i needed for the rockface ..and used white glue to mix the pellets in.this goes on the formers quite well and can be pushed into nooks and crannies with the blunt end of a pencil or somesutch tool..and can be kept workable by using wet fingers to press it into the base..this dried overnight .and it set rockhard..looks pretty good so far...

there semms to be a problem with photobucket i cant get the pic posted.. ill try later.........AHA>>>>>

ok barbed wire.. i stripped a length of household electrical flex to get at the fine copper wire inside...i take six..strands of this and twist them together in my motortool..this gives me the wire...to make the barbs i took a single piece of the copper wire ..and wrapped it arount the "Wire" and trimmed it off leaving the barbs much longer than the finished piece to aid manufacture..this i repeated every three or four millimeteres..[guess]..the barbs will be slid closer together after trimming..the two bits at the bottom are made with pipe cleaner wire and copper barbs..and are a little too thick for this scale but will look the bizz in 1:6th..i prefer the first method..looks pretty good when painted up..this takes a little patience but its worth the hassle..IMHO..

rjwood_uk · 03-09-2006

lovely. you can add this to my barbed wire thread (linked somewher at the bigining of this thread) if you want!

great stuff!

**wonwinglo** · 03-09-2006

Deakon,I dont think that Photobucket are very keen on direct linking,we have had this problem before,just insert the pictures here as needed as you are now.
Brilliant techniques by the way.

deakon · 04-09-2006

Mon...today i finished putting down the groundwork [earth] on the baseboard..i smoothed out a path way with a wet finger.and pushed up the mounds of earth by the side..to add a little depth..the path runs from the emplacement steps to the riverside....i pushed the emplacement and thesteps into the groundwork and built up around it by pushing the papier mache against it again with the wet finger..i also added some planking under the rungs..in balsawood..the cracks in the casement were made by tapping [gently] with a hammer..and using superglue in the cracks..i made the reinforcing rods from lead wire..and fixed them with superglue.. i trimmed one of the lengths of barbed wire i made yesterday. and coiled it up ..ive temporaraly fixed it to the base with wooden pegs and a loop of leadwire.....the barbed wire posts in these pics were made from a thicker guage copperwire. bent with pliers..to form the loops where the barbed wire goes through..the wire was fixed to these using superglue..and pushed into the groundwork for the pics......

the wooden retainers along the earthbank..are made from lollipop sticks trimmed to length..and stuck on with white glue..im going to make a retaining strap..to be riveted along the planking..from lead foil....D.....