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Airfix D-Day Battlefront Diorama - with Additions


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Cutting and trimming the very fragile chassis and transmission parts took her a little while and lots of concentration; as did working out which way to assemble them. The springs, axles, prop shafts and transmission support are all one moulding. The spring ends didn't all want to sit on their spring hangers, so I bent some thin sheet lead to add a little wieght to hold them in place so she could apply the glue with a fine brush and then leave the whole thing to dry.

 

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Later in the afternoon, after she'd gone out and the chassis had a while to dry, I took the weights off and compared the 1/72 chassis with the 1/35 version I'm working on.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A change in the time table at school is sometimes leaving my daughter tired on a Wednesday, so progress may slow down a bit. Wednesday is the only day we have free for modelling.

Today we managed a little work. The trailer and field gun were given a second coat of paint, and put into the curing cabinet to bake. She then began to cut out the parts for the Jeep tub - sides and floor.

 

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She was quite tired already, so I knew we weren't going to get much done, so focussed on getting the tub glued so it could harden for next time. The sprue joiners need trimming and sanding here.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

We managed to do a little more yesterday. The wheels that were painted on the sprue some time ago were cut free, trimmed and glued to the trailer and field gun. A little later in the afternoon, when the glue had a little while to cure, the black on the tyres was touched up where the wheels had been cut from the sprue.

 

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Next was back to the Jeep, gluing in the rear body panel, which slotted in between the floor and rear body handles from below very neatly.

 

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Attaching the tub to the chassis came next and that's where I spotted a problem. I suggested we glue the chassis rear cross member to the bottom of the tub first and once the glue took hold, then pull the front of the chassis in line with the front fenders. That's when I spotted the bumper at an odd angle.

 

At first, I thought we may have glued a twist into the chassis when attaching the axles. However, closer inspection showed the cross member at the front of the fenders was parallel to the top of the fenders and the axle was also parallel to the chassis front cross member. The twist existed in the chassis moulding ahead of the grill position.

 

I decided my daughter could glue the chassis on regardless, as the majority of the chassis was straight and true. Once the glue was set, I would warm the front chassis leg with a soldering iron to soften it and then straighten the twist. I did that today.

 

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Here's the tub and chassis as joined yesterday, prior to straightening the chassis today.

 

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  • 1 month later...

We managed a rare free afternoon today and did a little more on the Jeep. The grill was fitted, the gearbox and transfer case levers, and the three seats.The clear headlight moulding was meant to be attached to the grill first, but we left that off. Adding it now would then cause difficulties painting without painting on the clear part.

 

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The instrument panel was attached to the hood and then the front end of the Jeep was painted a first coat ( still drying here ). When the paint is dry, the lights can be fitted without needing to repaint around them. Once the lights are fitted, then the hood could be attached.

 

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  • 1 month later...

After what felt like weeks of inactivity due to school work and other after school activities, my daughter got back to her diorama today. Having given the front of the Jeep a coat of paint last time, we got the headlights cut out and glued into the back of the grill. This would allow the hood and instrument panel to be fitted - almost!

 

The instructions called for the screen arms to be trapped under the hood as it was glued in place, but as it wasn't yet painted and was fragile, I didn't want it fitted just yet. The pivot arms were quite long so I cut them about 1mm shorter and this allowed the screen to be fitted later by stretching the arms around the Jeep body.

 

So with the screen adapted and able to be fitted later after clear coats and decals etc, the way was clear to attach the hood. 

 

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It was left clamped to dry while we went on a model shop trip for some supplies for other projects. When we got back, we had lunch and then went back out to the workshop. There were some other small parts that needed to be painted, but that I didn't want to attach straight away, so things like the steering wheel, mirror and spare Jerry cans were painted and left to dry.

 

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I got the rest of the diorama back out too, just to show her how far we'd already come on this project. It also reminded her how great it looked and how much of it she had done herself, albeit still with lots of step by step guidance.

 

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To finish the session, the rest of the Jeep body was given its first coat of green and while she did that, I gave one side of the windscreen its first coat of green. Masking or painting that freehand was still beyond her current skill level. The parts were all placed in the curing cabinet and we left it to do other stuff. Not massive progress, but another step along the road.

 

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  • 2 months later...

You may have thought this project had dropped off the end of the modelling bench, but it's still ongoing ( slowly ) due to school work and other activities. Today we did a little more painting for an hour after school. I finished painting the Jeep windscreen and the Jeep body got another coat as there were a few thin spots from the first coat.

 

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We also did some figure painting. There was quite a lot of flash and being the horrible rubbery plastic Airfix use for figures, trimming and sanding doesn't work well. Instead I opted for a soldering iron and melted flash away and seams flat. That worked fairly well.

 

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  • 2 months later...

Life has been both busy and difficult over the last few months, meaning the family has had little time for fun. However, mid December, my daughter and I got back to spend a little time on the Jeep. I'd managed to get the Jeep gloss coated some time before so it, and the trailer were ready for decals. The seats still needed painting, but that could be done later. The hood star was the first decal to be applied.

 

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The Jeep was set aside and the tiny flag/wading instructions were added to the screen next. I was doing the cutting out with the aid of a watch maker's magnifier and my daughter did the application.Blu-Tac was used to stop the screen from sliding around the table while the decal was prodded and poked into position.

 

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The flag decal on the real Jeep has the US flag on one side and on the inner side facing the driver, it has all the instructions for wading the vehicle through water. At this scale, those instructions are far too small to be seen anyway as the flag is only about 1 x 2mm in side.

 

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The hood star had ben left to dry a while and was then given a few treatments of Microsol and once more left to dry before we could apply any other decals.

 

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After the star had settled and dried, both registrations were added to the sides of the hood. It was once again set aside, and the first decals were added to the trailer, then that was set aside to dry. We hopped back to the Jeep to add the stars to the sides of the rear of the body and they were left to dry. Back to the trailer again for more decals and then the Jeep again for the front bumper markings. We were so busy, I forgot to get any pictures of the work on the trailer. We ran out of time for any more and it was all left to harden.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

We got back to the diorama today. I set my daughter away cutting out the wheels from the sprues, followed by cleaning up flash and cutting out several more accessories.

 

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While she did that, I cut some metal rod for poles to support the camo net. I didn't want to rip the netting on the top of the poles while trying to assemble it, so turned some small plastic pads for the top of the poles. These would provide a small pad to glue the net to or at least to support it while the netting was pulled down at its edges. I painted each pole after this piture.

 

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The tyres had their black paint touched up where they were cut from the sprue and left in the drying cabinet for a while to bake. Once dry, we test fitted the wheels, only to find the axles were a bit big and the holes in the wheels partially filled whith paint. The combination meant the wheels didn't fit well. I had a go at cleaning out the paint with a scalpel tip and tapering the axle stubs, but the fit didn't really improve much. Instead I just used a small drill and opened up the square holes which then gave the required fit.

 

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My daughter had been busy cutting out barbed wire, road signs and barrel halves which were then glued together. They would need the ends sanding once the glue hardened up - a job for another day.

 

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I'd given the Jeep another coat of clear the day before to seal in the decals already applied after one of the side stars came off while painting the seat cushions. Fortunately the star only made it as far as my finger and was re-attached to the Jeep. Sealing the decals in should help to hold them in place, but I wanted to minimise holding the vehicle, so I set up the Jeep lightly gripped in a mini vice while my daughter glued on the wheels. We opted to angle the front wheels, an option that was possible since I'd opened up the hole in the centre of the wheel. The left two wheels were left to harden a while before turning the Jeep around.

 

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While the first wheels were drying, my daughter began painting the barbed wire and road signs.

 

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I'd been breaking up wood for damaged floor joists and roof beams to be scattered in and around the partially collapsed cottage.

 

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I also chopped up some plasticard that had been previously painted to match the cottage roof tiles. These would also be scattered amongst the wreckage.

 

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Almost the end of the session, the other two wheels were glued onto the Jeep and we then left it upside down for the glue joints to fully harden. The spare wheel would be attached later.

 

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To finish the afternoon, Dave the driver parked up the Sherman near the cottage while Kevin the commander kept watch. I grabbed a quick photo before they moved on. 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Painting the road signs came next. They had already had their posts painted, so just needed the signs painting white. They'll all be piled up somewhere on the diorama.

 

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After a time for the wash to harden, the Jeep had its windscreen, mirror, axe, shovel and steering wheel fitted. It was also dirtied up a bit with some mud around the tyres, fenders and rear wheel arches. We used a chrome pen to paint in the mirror. The diorama base also had a bit more work with washes and dirt/mud along the moulded in track marks.

 

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We had a few other craft projects to work on during the day which were done while paint on the diorama was drying in my curing cabinet. Later in the day, I told my daughter to cut one of each figure off the sprues and to look at what they were doing and try to work out where they could go. This was a bit of a challenge as most of the figures are in fighting poses, while we wanted to portray a forward position being held, but not under fire.

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Four of the items that needed a location were coiled up rolls of barbed wire. That got us thinking and out came some mono-strand, electrical copper wire which had its insulation stripped off. It was then coiled around a carbon fibre tube to make a long coil. The wire is a bit thick, but it was fairly easy to work with, not too fragile and held its shape.

 

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Here's one of the stretched out barbed wire coils, awaiting painting and becoming a road block. When we come to attach the figures, those with bases need the base cutting off, and I'll possibly use a fine wire up one foot to help secure them.

 

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As can be seen here, guns, webbing, packs etc., still need detail painting to be done. The figures may not be in the final layout, but we photographed each scene as a reminder of their location should we wish to replicate those positions in the final glue down.

 

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Three moulded coils of wire are likely to be piled up in preparation for another road block, while one of the running soldiers is to be used, carrying the last coil into place. In the background, three of the four poles can be seen which will support the camo-net over the radio operator. One of the figures who was throwing a granade, will be used to be pulling on of the rigging ropes that hold up the poles and camo-net.

 

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Some figures in the house will be on watch. There's still lots of roof tiles and timbers that we made, that need attaching around the remains of the house.

 

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Last two pictures. A close up of the Jeep, now with its spare wheel fitted. Just behind the hood is the solder who was throwing the granade, but will now be juggling the camo-net guy rope. We haven't painted the seated radio operator yet, so he needs to be finished and seated at his bench before the camo-net can be fitted. The radio has had a base coat of black, but needs some highlights adding.

 

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Finally for this update, an overview of the diorama so far. We're very pleased with our work in what turned out to be our longest building session ever. 

 

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