Having finished the cliffs basic build and still waiting for some of the Celluclay to dry thoroughly I dedicated my attention to the bunker once more. I added some washes on the entire exterior surfaces mixing various shades of Gray, Earth and Green acrylic colors together and thinning them considerably with water and then applying the mixture over it at random starting from the bottom to the surfaces with a “0” brush and then passing over it with a sponge. While it dried I did build a wooden floor with the same system I had used for the fences but first I had to measure all the sticks to make them all the same size and then, always using a Dremel tool I did saw then all at the very same length. Following that I fixed them on thin plastic sheet with white glue and let them dry. I then painted then with Vallejo New Wood #311 and while still wet adding a slight touch of Old Wood #310 only to finish them with a wash of Burnt Umber #70941. Once fully dried up I brushed a thin amount of Satin Lucky Varnish (A.MIG-2052) by AMMO MiG all over them, I also applied the same panels to the walls and glued some tiny regional maps unto them. Then I cut into shape a small rectangle of plastic sheet and painted it with dark rubber to simulate an insulating ramp entering the communication area and glued it upon a set of steps.
Furthermore, I started painting what I had conceived as an iron gate in its open position with some Hull Red mixed with Dark Rust and the Somua turret with AK Interactive Extreme Metal “Base Black” and then covered with “Steel” in an irregular dabbing with a dry brush. The camouflage net poles were then primed with Flat Wood.
And this is it for today. Next, I will show you the initial phases of the painting and further detailing of the ground that I had planned for this diorama.
The bunker is coming along nicely.
Thank you PaulC, yes it does and it has. But wait until it will be fully crammed with tables, chairs and various communication devices, plus cables all over the place and a couple of generators. Add to this a really busy scene with operators, officers and dispatchers and you will barely see the floor anymore. Moreover, there will also be a camouflage net over it, but only to one third of it otherwise you wouldn’t see anything anymore.
In fact during inspections such emplacements were only partially covered to allow high ranking officers to more easily visit them.
Besides and amazingly, that specific day, the 14th of April 1944, no recce RAF or USAAF plane seemed to have been present over this area of Normandy, and yet it was a very clear and cloudless day in which they could have easily raided this point and the German general staff would have known immense losses, even if just partially. In an article written by a former Wehrmacht Sergeant present that day even the German elite was surprised not to see at least one reconnaissance fighter appear in the sky.
Nevertheless, shortly after the D-Day landings Field Marshal Rommel was then wounded by an RAF aerial raid and had to recover from his wounds back home in Germany.
Without Rommel around, who was the most capable commander in the region since he knew it like the palm of his hand and knew how to defend it effectively the German resistance to the Allied invasion started to slowly crumble only to end in the Falaise Gap where most of its material was totally destroyed. Speaking of fate…
This when completed is going to be really special.
Thank you Mr. B, very appreciated. I can only hope so because I am giving it my all, but as perfection is not really of this world there might still be some surprises awaiting me and I am ready for them. I can only try to do my best with it since it is a work I was waiting for ages to accomplish. Stand by and wish me luck.
Patrick - Perfection is the enemy of progress. Carry on…success is sure to follow, perfection be damned.
Thank you PaulC for your words of encouragement which I really need because alas, I am a perfectionist in everything I do and heaven knows how many times I failed in it. Perfection is indeed a fool’s errand and I do know it, but I have always been afraid of letting people’s expectations down, especially when trying to offer something of value, It was true in my theatrical career as well as now, in which I present for the very first time online my work in progress. But words like yours really comfort me to go on and perhaps produce even better results. Not everything might be a masterpiece, but at least will represent my good will in reproducing historic or other projects to the best of my knowledge and skills.
Right now I am stuck with all those tiny communication devices which, with the exception of the Eduard offering (very fiddly and delicate PE parts), are just plainly there to fill space.
The Dragon polystyrene offering included in the their German Communication Center, as well as the Verlinden resin German Communication Equipment are well done but come without decals or dry transfers to depict them more accurately and so I have to attempt to add microscopic painting details to them which with my bulky hands and weak eyesight (despite magnifying goggles and glasses) are not really satisfactory enough for me, but at least I give them a more lively appearance, I use various tools to apply such tiny details, such as a 00000 brush and a toothpick. I also tried to give them some slight dry brushing where very minute details are important, such as some dials or some very small keyboard keys. Still not the same as if I had said decals or dry transfers at hand, but hey, in this scale who will really notice them at all unless wearing a jeweler’s lens? I even noticed that field telephones of that times came in some special encasement which the instructions state to be Wood Brown, but in reality they were not really painted like this despite the basic color being correct. They also had a “marbled” kind of black spots on them. A think I have tried to reproduce in scale but the result is quite dubious.
I am sending you some preliminary pictures of the work I have done so far. Some stuff is already assembled, other items remain to be glued together and further refined, such as the metal folding tables on which the devices sit, which will need a further sheen of a Satin Varnish on them. Let me know what you think and if ever, how in your opinion, I may further enhance them.
Until my next “Prequel” post I wish you well with your own endeavors and projects.
Clearly the painted ones are by far lousier than the Eduard ones and need further refinement and retouches, but so far that was the best I could do with crude peinting rudiments.
Patrick - Nothing wrong with your efforts on the radios and other equipment. Certainly acceptable at scale in my books. I too strive for perfection…but only to the point that the risk of making things worse becomes greater than the benefit of achieving perfection. It took me a long time to learn that. But I am retired and have more time (and patience) and I build primarily for myself (though who doesn’t enjoy sharing our work with fellow modelers for feedback).
Hi PaulC, thank you for your reply and yes you are completely right. As I said, these tiny things are a beauty, but one can only do so much with them, especially if they come without decals or dry transfers. Funny though, Verlinden did provide some dry transfers for all the boxes and other equipment, but not for the communication devices (go figure), while Dragon completely omitted them and only specifies to paint them either Black or Gray and the Gray is not the one Germans used on their equipment so I decided to use a Vallejo Gray described as Splinter Uniform Camouflage Base which actually correctly duplicates the Light Gray color on the faces of these.
After having further refined and assembled the other ones, I will then attach small nylon threads painted in both Black and Gray simulating the cables used for them and finally attach either headphones, telephones and microphones unto them. Another one of those cumbersome tasks, since the glues I use do not like nylon, although I now discovered my old friend , “Pro Weld” by Ambroid which does the job for me and yet, with this kind of glue one has to work rather fast, and since it works with Lucite, ABS, Butyrate and Plexiglass once it bonds, there is no way in hell to correct a false attachment. The advantage though is that it binds parts solidly together.
I even used it on resin and it seems to have an extremely tight grip to it, so much so, that one cannot detach parts once they are put together. In some cases this is excellent, especially when working with otherwise flimsy or weak joints in a model. And as it states, it welds parts together, not just glue them. The downside is that if not careful, it might destroy weaker plastic, hence only a tiny capillary action is required which at times even tends to fill gaps left open by a faulty mold in a model without leaving further traces and does not require sanding afterwards.
I used it often on vacuformed models which had no pins to place parts. I simply used little plastic card rectangles attached on one half of the model and then applying a thin droplet of this product then attached the other half and it did fit perfectly. Besides, once so assembled the bond was stone hard and reinforced the consistency of the model itself. I did build a U-2R and an TR-1A Senior Span aircrafts in 1/72 scale when there were none on the market except those from Special Hobbies which all came in vacuform. They were not too highly difficult to build, since the parts were rather basic and didn’t even an appropriate cockpit, which I only found in the aftermarket items, as well as coming with disastrous canopies, which I too found on the aftermarket at a considerable expense. Only a few years later, someone finally produced a regular series of these in styrene. I still have them but I will never finish them because of the newer releases that are by far more accurate, although they date back to 2003 and 2005 respectively.
Patrick - Another option would be to use white glue to join dissimilar materials. It is very slow drying but attaches most anything without risk of damage to delicate parts. Not the most robust but worth considering if you do not expect to be handling the piece too much.
Gotcha! Thank you for the suggestion. How come I didn’t think about it myself is just beyond me, but clever heads like yours are there to help a thick mind like mine.