Winter wonderland in 1/144

Here a model which I build many years ago, just when I started collecting tanks in the scale 1/144.
From a modeling magazine I got a good idea about a bleaching material what I could use for snow.

As a basis I took a 12 mm cork coaster which you find in each Swedish furniture store. On the top I modeled the landscape in a combination of gypsum and paper. Later I painted everything in dark brown and scattered it with this bleacher powder.
The only thing I forgot where the tank tracks in the snow. Therefore I tried a modification which I later removed.

Pantherturm somewhere in Italy

As I started to build my own Bergepanther I was thinking for what I could use the turret. The best idea I had was to build one of these small bunkers the Germans used in East Germany / Poland and in Italy. There these lightly modified Panther turrets or normal turrets. They were put on either a concrete bunker, an iron box or even on a wooden construction. Depending on the material which was used they gave room for the crew or just enough room for them to fight against the enemy. As I had enough concrete and time, my builders decided to build the concrete version. A piece of wood cut into the right dimensions works for the concrete basement. A door cut out of paper makes it complete.

The diorama itself is built up on a piece of gypsum which I casted into a mold I used several times before. With some graving tools I put the trench and the stones on the surface. The rest is only color and some green.

1/144 DUKW in a butter box

Some years ago I started using margarine instead of regular butter. In Switzerland we had nice butter boxes which I always kept, as once cleaned, they were perfect to store a lot of small stuff.

Here in the USA we use this light Butter too. So my wife asked me if I would like to keep the empty box like I made it in Switzerland.

As the bottom and the corners are not flat like the one in Switzerland I was thinking for what I could use it.

 

I just had ordered some tanks and other stuff from Wargames South in GB, so I had this DUKW on my hand.

My new DUKW had to go swimming. With a piece of paper I tried to find out the inside dimensions of the box to cut out the later water surface. For the water surface I used a piece of soft foam.

Once this was done, the surface got a painting with a mixture of blue, black and green.

After drying I had to cut out the dimensions for the DUKW. Here it is very helpful to cut it first out on a piece of paper so that nothing can go wrong with the foam.

The water itself was made with window colors. For small pieces of water it works fine and gives a bit of wave structure too. As I do not removed the top paper layer on the foam, the paper got wet again by the window color and waved a bit too.

 

Parallel I started building the goods for the truck. I decided to make one part of the loading out of small wood pieces which I just painted in light brown. The second piece is something I found inside my spare parts box. I believe it's something from the scale 1/87, a piece of coal or so.

Once painted in brown, it's now my second shipment of wooden boxes.

The driver lost his legs during the operation „painting", but there was no space for his legs anyway.  He is from an old tank kit I bought some time ago on eBay. I gave him no life jacket as I saw pictures from WWII were they had none. So this made the painting much easier.

My final problem has been the white on the top of the waves. Here I tried a lot, checked a lot of marine pages but nothing worked. So finally I worked again with the window color which is, at the beginning white before it turns into transparent. 

 The hit on the watersurface is simply made with cotton batting.

you are entering Germany, a small diorama in 1/144

As a part of the westwall the Germans had special openings developed for the roads. They ranged from simple wood parts up to massive concrete openings.

Here a picture of some of them as I have built them in the past.

In the case the enemy would come closer the Germans wanted to block the road with rail pieces. The most effort was made to protect some areas in the Nedderlands where the Germans built some of the below shown fortifications. In German they are called "Walzkörpersperre".

small diorama as a weekend project

Last weekend I just spent some time on building a small diorama which will give me the possibility to present tanks and trucks.
The dimensions are just 2 x 3 inch or 5 x 7 cm. 

The diorama shows a small piece of a road so that it gives enough space to present the object right in the middle of the diorama.
Once done, I made a mold out of it so that I can cast it and use it in future several times and can change the surrounding areas.

The frame is a small picture frame what suits perfect to my diorama.

One of the next things following will be the same scene but in fall or in winter times.

DUKWs are still alive in SF

Last weekend my wife and I went to San Francisco Downtown. Close to Pier 39 I saw this old friend from WW II. I took the chance to speak with the driver. I was surprised that they are still alive, the German Federal Agency for Technical Relief or better known as THW was forced to stop using their DUKWs as they run out of spare parts and they simply were too old.
The driver soon brought light up to this. The DUKWs used here are not the original ones. There is a company in the USA, who builds a better, a more modern version to be used for tourist tours.
So maybe the DUKWs used in London will be from the same company. Anyway even in the new version they look very imressing.
 

small diorama for lonesome Brummbaer

The Brumbaer was a supporting tank for the infantry so I should add a lot of soldiers and other vehicles. But as I here just wanted to try out some technics for water and tree building I decided to add the Brummbär.

The second diorama shows again a Brummbär, this time in a town area with some ruins I had built a long time ago.