I had several modeling methods I wanted to test before trying them on other dio’s so that is the reason this one ended up so big. First was a product called Balsa-Foam, the store with the 4 pillars is made from it. And the product is just like it’s name, it’s like Balsa wood that you can carve into like a soft foam. Second I wanted to test plaster-o-paris for the street and sidewalks, and tank stops. And third I wanted to test scratch building light poles, park benches, and things of that nature. Anyways Enjoy.
Cool! What kits did you use? Where’s the car coming from?
Thanks. The car is from an old Monogram Kit 1/32 scale. The M-41 walker bulldog is Tamiya, and the T-55 is an old Lindberg kit.
Neat build you have there
Thad
very…interesting [:)]
How did you find the balsa-foam? was it easy to work with? I myself will be building a very large dio sometime this year and will need to scratchbuild practically everything, so any hints/tips on the lights, accessories, and other things you mentioned would be appreciated.
Cool!
Nothing like an ol’ blown street rod going up against some Warsaw Pact armor!
Very interesting.
Looks good though 
That was a great idea. It looks like it came off really well. Congrats.
Hmmmmm where to start…The lights starting at the top were made from small light bulbs from the hardware store, and the base is two different sized plastic tubes. The very bottom of the lamps are those eletrical wire twists. As for the Balsa-foam to get it I had to order it on-line and it cost about 5$ for a 10" long X 10"high X 1" thick sheet. I just did a google search for “balsa foam” and now I see there are more than one guy selling it, it’s about time…The foam is very light but unforgiveing, you can not make a mistake on it as it is unrepairable. It takes any acrylic paint and Elmers white glue holds it just fine. For large building that would weigh a ton made out of plaster the balsa-foam is great. But for little one story building it just costs to much, it’s easier to use plaster. One more thing I cheated when building this dio…At the time I was working at a hobbie shop and had complete access to all the wood, styrene, metal and plastic sheets and tubes. But as a result I brought home more supplies than money. I guess what i’m saying is you need every conceivable piece of styrene and balsa wood one can find, because that made it very very easy to scratch build. Oops i’m rambling, sorry.
Great idea, looks awesome. I like the ‘Do Not Enter’ sign under the T55. For the Balsa Foam, is it just like a high density foam? I use high density foam and it is easy to work with and can be fixed if you mess it up.
I forgot, the Balsa-foam comes in three different densities (high, med., and low). I used the low, because it was lighter and cheaper. The high density would have been much easier to fix, so yes you are correct. But the lower density foam was more porous and harder to cover up mistakes.