I’ve been working on this one for a while, kind of got put on hold for the summer; spare time goes out the window when you get a job and your friends start getting licenses [zzz][swg]. Anyways, some of you might remember the boat from a while back, it’s Mig’s 1/35 PG-117 Soviet “Fast-Boat”. Unfortunately, the other night before it was encased in resin, it slipped out of my literal “butterfingers”, (I really had just finished a bag of popcorn) and sent it smashing towards the floor. I repaired as much as possible, but the headlight went AWOL, so I’m going to use one form one of my dad’s old car kits, and I have to do something about the chunk that got taken out of the the bow gunwhale.
I still have a ot of work left, with groundwork, tie downs and chains, figures, some scared geese. The boat sank deeper into the reisn than planned to the point that it’s almost resting on the bottom, so I might position a figure to look like he’s using a paddle to shove the boat off from shore. Anyways, here’s some WIP pictures:
Oil spill. In real life, the black oil in the reisn covers far less space than the dark pictures make it seem.
One of the figures so far, I used lead-foil to rework his webbing/straps, and the result was quite satisfying, even if they are out of scale a bit:
Comments/questions/criticism welcome and appreciated.
I like it… It’s not something you see every day… Dunno much (nothing, actually) about Russian boats so, well done… Landscaping is nicely done, although the “water” seems a bit too clear and smooth… Overall though, it’s pretty good…
Thanks to both of you. To the comment of the resin being to flat, I was attempting to portray a sheltered marshy cove sort of thing, which often are as still as glass in my experiences, especially at dusk and dawn.
On the comment of too clear, that you are correct on. I tinted the very bottom few layers too much, you can’t really even see the bottom in places (Mostly under the boat) so I poured the rest of the layers more clearly, a bit too clear I guess. I’m going to order some of those dead leaves from militaryminiatureswarehouse, wish I’d thought of that before since they would have looked great sopping wet with resin, covering the ground underwater. I can still scatter them on and in the boat, maybe even pour a tiny bit of resin in the boat with a guy bailing water, as if there was a a storm the night before and they took on “water”, which would also explain why the boat is nearly beached.
Ahh- juggling job and modeling… welcome to my world [:D]
Real nice dock, and the groundwork looks awesome! Maybe one more highlight to bring out the details of the grass and shrubs? Maybe wash that oil drum some more. Some smudges, too?
I love your dead trees, very convincing.
I agree about the overall flatness of the water surface. I do know what you mean by smooth-as-glass, and I’ve seen (and been awe-struck) by water like that. However, I believe that some texture would go a very long way in tricking the eye. Our brains know we’re looking at resin, so to mislead with slight texture would be a good thing. Might help hide that meniscus, too. I dunno, I haven’t had much luck making convincing water, so I don’t know what to suggest. Maybe some artist’s acrylic gloss gel medium, or some clear-drying glue.
I might also redo the groundwork around the edge of the water, speaking of meniscus. Evil meniscus! It would probably only take a few minutes to lay down some more celluclay (or whatever you used). Just a suggestion. IMHO. [2c]. et al the disclaimers.
I’ll try another highlight, and more washes. I’m thinking about varying the texture a bit, but I think it may be too late. I can’t pour another layer because the dock is already almost underwater, and I’ve already placed “Lilly pads” on what I was planning on being the top layer of resin. I was going to experiment with thick gloss coats to help hide the meniscus, since I only need to build up a tiny fraction of an inch, and yeah, I still have to redo the water’s edge on the sand. I’m going to have two scared geese from Doug’s Originals taking off of the water, which will give me an excuse to put some rough water affects in with 5 minute Epoxy and clear-caulking. With water that calm, a little disturbance like a bird taking off would send ripples through the whole area, so I might be able to make it a bit more visually appearing and less flat.
Last, to Dirkpitt, I used 2 part Envirotex Resin, which was recommended to me at the hardware store since it’s almost perfectly clear before you tint it (Which turned out not to be among my best ideas).
I think the water looks perfectly fine. I have boated on a few lakes and even with my kayak on the water its still really still and as long as there isnt a lilypad in the way you can see right to the bottom. I think its really true to life, with the exception of some water growth
Hi Ian remember me?, just got back online & looked you up. Sheesh you sure like challenging dio’s. Looks pretty good to me. Did you ever post pics of “Phobos & diemos”?.
Thanks Snake. I never did finish “Pathos & Deimos” The piles of unpainted figures sit on my bench as a reminder of my earlier, more ambitious, days of modelling. I still have plans to eventually take another swing at it, but probably with far less figures, and a smaller LCVP instead of an LCM. After seeing how much Envirotex resin this tiny PG-117 took, I can’t even imagine how much I would go through submerging a 50 foot LCM!
This cracks me up; not laughing at you by any means, but it was a large pile of GIs and a couple of landing craft that I handed off to you, due to the very same situation. My first dio idea was also Omaha, and I bit off way more than I could chew.
I think you should pass your stuff off to the next dude who wants to enter the world of dio-building, making a beach landing his starting point. And so on, and so on… in five years or so, somebody will end up with some completely finished figures and LCVPs. All they will have to do is pour the resin. Maybe in 8 - 10 years, this Omaha Beach dio will actually get finished [(-D]
ian,i think your name is a little mis-leading .you are not bored.this looks great.the water clarity is not an issue in my opinion as the boat would certainly seek safe refuge,say a backwater or smalllagoon what have you.and the clarity can actually be quite good in these calm water hide-outs.and the rest of your work is very good also.
Thanks to all, and Steve I see the humor in it as well. It would be interesting to see the cumulative touches that each of us add to the Omaha “stuff” as it inevitably continues down the line to the next ambitious modeller. Placed an order at MilitaryMiniaturesWarehouse for some Joefix Shrubs (The leaves just look so REAL!) some dead leaf type things, since I think the scene, especially the inside of the boat and the surface of the water are just screaming for some of those (Still beating myself up for not covering the lakebed with them pre-resin) and some geese taking off to give the scene and water some action, but they were out of stock, so I’ll have to look elsewhere.
I got some Joefix shrubbery, and the Doug’s scared geese. No plans any time soon. I could send you some shrub and the geese, and you can pay em back later, when MMW restocks. PM me if’n you wanna.
If you don’t feel like doing that, try Colorado Miniatures for the geese, and look around eBay for the Joefix stuff, in sellers’ stores. I can think a few that offer it.
Well if it makes you feel any better, I’m a couple of years into planning & consolidating a dio based on a painting by Jim Dietz “the battle for Moskow.”. Which features about 17 living germans, some 10 desciesed, a bakers dozen red Inf & mounted Cossack, 2 T34’s, 2 75mm AT guns, 1 75mm howitzer and a chopped up winter trench scene. When complete it will sprawl over 8sq feet, this assumes it reaches completion, I have my doubts. On the subject of water scenes, a good art supply store should be able to direct to some clear casting resin (polyesther type) that cures up water clear, & costs a fraction of epoxy types. Just be careful not to overdo it when you add catilyst as cracking or even fire can result. Some transparent resin tints, green & a skoash of red to warm up the green should give a scale effect. So hope that helps, abiets a little late for your PG-117. Another caution polyesther attacks styrene, alum foil, saran wrap will protect lg pieces, a coat of white glue for smaller things. Alum will further need wax or a shot of PAM to free from the res, saran will not stick. Keep up the good work.
