I’m thinking about creating a diorama based on ‘Cloverfield’ or some disaster scenario that features flipped over / dented vehicles. Is there an easy way to do this with diecast? I saw on C.S.I. with the blowtorch and the hammer, are there any other ways?
ghost4umbrella
Im gong to venture out on your name here that it is somehow inspired by either Ghost int he Shell or the Umbrella corporation?
I wouldt go the blowtorch routine you wont get the results you want and it will be unpredictable round dents from the hammer.
Get your goggles out, chuck the beast in a vice and get out the dremel with your high speed cutters and do violence to the dreaded diecast. Cut, grind, dent, gouge, batter, bash, rend and tear the metal from the frontside and back to get what you want weak enough to bend it with pliers. Sicne you are working with DieCast you are going to encounter some pretty thick metal, but I would venture that you want the bigger scale and ready made nature of it.
how many vehicles are you planning to do this on? it may get kinda tedious doing all the work, plastic would be easier to work in by grinding slowly from the backside and then bending the plastic once it has been properly thinned.
Check out Shep Paine’ old classic book How to Build Dioramas, he uses this technique on a B24 that crashed in Libya.
David
You’d be correct about the Umbrella Corporation, I’m working on gathering reference photos to make a few CH/HH-53s like the one used in RE: Extinction, in a few different scales. As for how big this gets…I dunno, I’m just going to run with it. In my mind, the original was going to be maybe a block or two, with a few overturned police vehicle or humvees…maybe scratchbuild a bus…definitely have a vehicle sticking out of the side of a building, lights still going. I’m also in the process of looking for 1/18 or 1/24 scale police and soldier figures. Definitely NOT doing the monster, I’m not good at creatures. I’m thinking of doing the scene in a 3d modelling program first, to get a rough scope of it. Thanx for the advice.
Remember that Diecast vehicles are just that cast. They will be fragile and crack easily. Some will crack before a dent will form.
Two blocks in 1/24…that’s going to be huge and 1/18 even bigger. You’re also going to be pretty much in the heavy figure conversion game as there aren’t many figures in those scales. 1/18 cars might work with 120 mm (1/16), but again, you’re going to have to get quite creative. Jimmy Flintstone (use Google) has a few 1/24 figures, but few of them would be any more than a mannequin for you.
Good luck.
send me a PM and I can load you up on helo photos.
David