kosalo

Creating a landscape Again, the idea is from Modeling Masterclass - MM. There are a lot of ways to create a landscape on the diorama. Now, the way you choose should relate to the kind of landscape you wish to create. Mine is going to be a bit on the hill side, especially if I want the humvee to fall in the river. Usually to fall means that something was up and then suddenly was - down. So, I need "up" and "down". If I used only plaster, the amount of it would be - a lot! And the whole thing would be too heavy in the end. A wire mesh is one way of creating hills but I chose the material which

Well, the plexi finally came. It's a 1mm thick piece of plexi which I got cut out to fit the future creek bed. Along the original one I got a few of the scrap pieces to experiment on before doing anything to the "right" one. (fig. 3) First the creek bed. I had to ad a little piece of black modeling clay - to lazy to mix such a small amount of plaster. Then I painted it black - the whole bottom. The idea was/is to make it dark through the plexi. See Modeling Masterclass (MM). (fig. 1, 2) Tools and materials used in this section: modeling clay - black, tempera black paint, a brush First

A-ha. That answers the color of the ZC in the photos of real aircraft as being yellow-ish and the MM paint is ... green. And this is a quote from wiki: "When used as a pigment, it is known as Zinc Yellow or Yellow 36. It is highly toxic and rarely used in art anymore." LOL Thanks for the answers. Awesome. Helped a lot. Later L

By the research I've done in last couple of days I figured that too. Though, this green zinc chromate used as interior color is still kind of an issue. Today's fuselage frames are painted that way especially in helis. Is this some special color and why is it used in such a wide range of aircraft? thanks L

Hi I'm building a P-40 which had seen better days so it should be all scratched and rusty and with all that sea water related sicknes. What I can't figure out from my reference photos (P-40, Anzio, Italy) is what was the basic color and material of fuselage plates - metal, aluminum, green zinc chromate... The tail and tail wing flaps were obviously canvas since they rotted away. I suppose that the tyre rubber is also gone. If anyone knows what were the stages in coloring the fuselage, before putting the last olive drab or cammo coat - it'd be very helpfull. Btw. is this an American or RAF f

I wish the photo of the carrier was better and with more details. But couldn't help noticing the McSundae Strawberry F-117! I mean how could I help NOT noticing... L

Intermezzo: while waiting on my plexi-glass to apear I started "accumulating" my grass supply. So, this will be a part on how to make your own grass. As many of you know, in this day-n-age we can just go to the modeling store and buy what we need for vegetation on our dioramas. But in some parts of the world we have to wait for 21st century to arive and create by ourselves. In Modelling Masterclass book, the author suggests using a lot of different shades and sizes of artificial gras to give the scene more realistic look. Lead with that idea I'll show you how to make your own grass and lots o

Hi It's been awhile since I posted but with this winter on I decided to hibernate some. Although in hours when I was awake, I was planning and planning and this is what I came up with - a diorama idea. This is going to be a longer post so brace yourselves, prepare some food and drinks, warm blanket or pack of ice - you people down under... I don't want to start of with: I'm going to do this or that theme, build this or that model and so on and after a month never post again. Overall idea is 21st century Europe, winter, probably Balkans (I think I have KFOR decals in the box..lol). This scen

drinking out of the question - to much turpentine in glasses s around me..lol and figured that weathering would help, will see thanks L

though the last post here is 2 months old it's the only one of it's kind..so please dont't delete it your humvees are awesome, the scratch work is unbelievable. I have the revell pack work-in-progress, ambulance+unarmored vehicle. and everything was pretty easy to do but I couldnt paint the wheel rims straight: the rim paint would go over tires or the black would cover the rims - so its masking problem. but I dont know how to mask such small area. oh, and I use a brush, not an airbrush.. the mask should be of much higher quality - it has to stick better... any ideas anyone thanks later L

q: the wire cutters which started appearing on more recent helicopters (never saw them on vietnam hueys) - do they really work. as I had read they're supposed to help get out of electricity wires...? L

wow people...! these answers were very helpfull. thanks georg and c-historian for brakes info. I was asking for rotor brakes because Ive noticed that our police twin huey always had blades stopped parallel to the fuselage without crew's intervention. even their jet ranger III does that. and this info about SAR hueys, that they have breaks for immediate stop was somewhat familiar but I had to check it with the experts, rite? btw georg, pics are great. though I could never produce such details on 72 scale.. ray: as usual, the info is incredible. didn't know that there were maintenance hueys

"antiglare" really explains it all - now I know why black. btw. how and where were the hueys "restored" and fixed during their time spent in Vietnam? where were the "garages"? bummer... I didn't look closely - so I painted the whole wing red. though the model won't hang from the ceiling so the mistake won't be obvious.. yup, thats the answer. since I got back to modelling and started "studying" the model in real life (well - real photo..) Ive been occupied with solving the problem of the panels looking more real than they were originaly given. maybe the paintjob wouldn't be so hard - to

my 60 looks bad comparing to yours - the handles from hasegawa are melded so there's no deatiling but I dont have anything better. the baggage idea is great. the ammo chute phase is yet to begin so I'll report on that progress later thanks L

on with the questions: the upper part of the nose section is usually black. but, since I've been "studying" hueys Ive noticed green noses. is there anything interesting behind that difference, is it unit-defined or something else? what's with tail wings being painted red while the decals are subdued? it's low visibility insignia and high vis. paintjob. strange.. and one more color related: how come that each panel looks like it was painted with different shade of od, at different time and...different place. of course, this is seen on photos. I haven't had a privilege to see it in real life.