Author Topic: Country road WIP  (Read 556 times)

Online Frank3k

  • The bomb lives only as it is falling
  • Global Moderator
  • Formerly Frank2056. New upgrade!
    • My new webpage
Country road WIP
« on: May 27, 2026, 01:05:45 PM »
I guess this is a "Land" project! I've had the Minart "Country Road" diorama base for years:



I repurposed the cart (a regular injection kit) for another project. The base and wall are both vacuforms, so the work required to get them ready has been an annoyance.  After every step forward I've put the parts back into the box and moved on to other projects. Over the years, I've cut out the wall from the vacuform backing and removed/filled in most of the pips in the thin plastic. A year ago, I glued the wall together, puttied the many gaps and eventually painted everything in black before it went back into the box.

A few months ago, I decided that I want to get better at bases and dioramas, so once again, the country road came back out. This is what I have so far. It's still very much a WIP, but I'm getting closer to something that I'm satisfied with. The "tree trunks" are Ficus branches from the planters in front of our building:



I made the tank tracks a little less obvious with some putty. They could be tractor tracks? I've used static grass, some pre-made grass and bushes and some "clutter" - small brown bits of... something. I also used a leaf punch; I painted some glossy paper with various green and brown AK pens, then punched out hundreds of leaves:



The wall looks shiny in these outdoor shots, but once I finish weathering and coloring it, I'll spray a matte finish:





I need to add more static grass (I made a static grass applicator and have yet to shock myself) and make a small tree or bush. I may move some of the larger clumps of grass, or add more clumps and clutter. Luckily, most of the grassy groundwork is easy to move around.




Offline Claymore

  • It's all done with smoke and mirrors!
  • Alt Hist AFV guy with a thing for Bradley turrets
Re: Country road WIP
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2026, 11:04:34 PM »
Very impressive!  I see what you mean about the outdoor pics of the shiny wall but the indoor shot makes the same wall look really good.  Massive respect for your attention to detail.  :smiley:
Pass the razor saw, there is work to be done!

Offline GTX_Admin

  • Evil Administrator bent on taking over the Universe!
  • Administrator - Yep, I'm the one to blame for this place.
  • Whiffing Demi-God!
    • Beyond the Sprues
Re: Country road WIP
« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2026, 01:05:29 AM »
 :smiley:
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline Buzzbomb

  • Low Concentration Span, oft wanders betwixt projects
  • Accurate Scale representations of fictional stuff
    • Club and my stuff site
Re: Country road WIP
« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2026, 06:45:21 AM »
Very nice work.
I am a firm believer in bases, not only allows better, safer handling of models, but setting the scene for context as well.

Online Frank3k

  • The bomb lives only as it is falling
  • Global Moderator
  • Formerly Frank2056. New upgrade!
    • My new webpage
Re: Country road WIP
« Reply #4 on: May 28, 2026, 11:21:04 PM »
Thanks, guys. I don't really know what I'm doing, so I'll just continue until it looks "right".

Offline GTX_Admin

  • Evil Administrator bent on taking over the Universe!
  • Administrator - Yep, I'm the one to blame for this place.
  • Whiffing Demi-God!
    • Beyond the Sprues
Re: Country road WIP
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2026, 01:10:03 AM »
Thanks, guys. I don't really know what I'm doing

Welcome to the team...
All hail the God of Frustration!!!

You can't outrun Death forever.
But you can make the Bastard work for it.

Offline Dr. YoKai

  • Was in High School when mastadons roamed the plains...
  • A notorious curmudgeon who is partial to...hemp!
Re: Country road WIP
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2026, 06:26:31 AM »
 At a glance, the shiny shot made me think of some the ancient Pre-Colombian ruins in the Andes. It looks excellent, Frank-props on tackling a vacuform. I can only imagine what a chore cutting the wall free from it's backing must have been.

Offline apophenia

  • Perversely enjoys removing backgrounds.
  • Patterns? What patterns?
Re: Country road WIP
« Reply #7 on: May 30, 2026, 02:16:22 AM »
... I can only imagine what a chore cutting the wall free from it's backing must have been.

Indeed. And then matching up the wall halves  :o

I recall it being 'challenging' to remove those pips from thin stock as well. (Like Frank's build, my Rare Plane Spiteful parts went through cycles of 'de-pipping' followed by being jammed back into its Frog Attacker donor box.)

AFAIK, those pips only appear when a female negative mould is used (which necessitates air escape holes). That seems to have been a feature of vacuform components in MiniArt diorama kits. On thicker stock, removing pips wasn't a big deal. With thin stock, though, sometimes you'd need to patch from behind. Ugh!

Another way of wording this moaning down memory lane would be to say: Masterful work, Frank! Nicely done  :smiley:
"Rumble thee forth to the land of the unbelieving scum on the other side
'cuz they don't go for what's in the Book and that makes 'em BAD!"

Online Frank3k

  • The bomb lives only as it is falling
  • Global Moderator
  • Formerly Frank2056. New upgrade!
    • My new webpage
Re: Country road WIP
« Reply #8 on: May 31, 2026, 06:14:45 AM »
Cutting the wall out of its backing was difficult, since there wasn't a sharp enough edge to cut around. The edges had huge gaps, which I filled in with sytrene and putty, then trimmed. The pip removal was annoying because they seemed random and they left gaping holes when removed. I left a few as "pebbles" on the road plate and "bumps" on the wall.