The Liberation of a Normandy Village - and some cheese and wine too!

[spanner570]

Cheers men!

G.C. R.C. - Not to mention the sweet smell of chainsaw oil. (Used for fitting doors) Well I was on a price per door!

Steve - Can't fit any more on the base...

Ron

 

[Steve Jones]

Make the base bigger

 

[papa 695]

Make the base bigger

 

[Armorguy]

I'm pretty sure no one's bored sir. I like it.

 

[Allen Dewire]

Absolutely fantastic and not the least bit boring!!! C'mon Ron, make the whole town. You want to and besides, you get to eat the pizzas too! It's a win, win………..

 

[spanner570]

Thanks boys. Onwards and upwards!

Let's tackle the base. I didn't take interminable pictures of every single stage of the process, so if things get a little disjointed blame the producer!

I decided that six buildings would be enough for the village square. So after more shuffling than the Government Ministers, I finally decided on the buildings positions.
I marked around each one and then set about making some pavements.

These I made from thick plastic card with the flag and kerbstones scribed on to the surface.


Cut as required.


...... a loose, just to try fit.


Cheers.
Ron

 

[Jim R]

Hi Ron
Looks good. What do you scribe plastic card with?
Jim

 

[spanner570]

Thanks Jim.

Not being flippant, but anything sharp would do the trick (scalpel, Stanley knife) I mark the lines out in pencil first, then scour them freehand with whatever I have to hand - Wobbly is good!

That's what I dislike about most bought stuff - too neat and precise. No one in the real world lays paviours etc. spot on, straight and true and dead flat.

Cheers.
Ron

 

[Jim R]

Cheers Ron
Freehand sounds good. That would be realistic. Bought some cheap acrylics this morning in town on your suggestion. Makes perfect sense
Jim

 

[JR]

Chainsaws !!!! Ron how could you. I preferred the axe.

Buildings of course looking perfect, I agree with the too neat on purchased paving.

JR

 

[spanner570]

Thanks J & J. I'm chuffed you like it thus far.

Here's a down shot of the pavements glued on to the base. You will see on the left of the model I've changed from paving slabs to tiles. A bit of variation kind'a breaks things up and adds a bit more interest. See the pavement bottom right? It's flying over the river. Honest mistake guv'!


The next picture will show it better, but it was about this stage I feared the whole thing was going to look flat and boring. So just prior to this photo, I made some drastic alterations.
More to follow .....

Cheers.
Ron

 

[Armorguy]

Man I enjoy this so much ! Thanks for sharing all of this diorama action !

 

[Jim R]

Hi Ron
If nothing else you are always entertaining - actually looks very nice indeed.
Jim

 

[JR]

Don't think it would ever be boring Ron .
J

 

[spanner570]

Thanks for your posts boys.
As mentioned, the base was starting to look flat and boring, so I decided to put the two rendered buildings on a higher level, looking down on the village square. I used a thick piece of polystyrene for this. Where I can, I prefer to build any ground up, rather than dig into stuff. No mess or dust -

Incorporating a higher level gave me a nice sloping road running down into the square - bonus!


I've placed a building on to get a better idea as to what's what.
That flying pavement is starting to annoy me!


Here's a closer look at the setup. I made the two set of steps out of scrap stuff.

Note the up and down, all over the place tiles and paviours....Luuuurvely. I added small wall up stands with stone cappings to the raised areas, then gave them all a grey wash to highlight the 'joints'



Cheers.
Ron

 

[papa 695]

Coming along at a steady pace Ron, nice work too.

 

[Gern]

Fascinating and great stuff as usual Ron, but that 'flying pavement' is bugging me too! When you gonna do summat with it?

 

[minitnkr]

How about a stone or cement retaining wall beneath flying pavement to prevent further erosion by the stream? PaulE

 

[spanner570]

Men, stand at ease! Already sorted, but thanks for the concern and suggestion. Quite reassuring to realise that my buddies on here are looking after this old f**t!

Your Servant.
Sir Robin Day

 

[Gern]

[QUOTE="spanner570, post: 387085, member: 161"Quite reassuring to realise that my buddies on here are looking after this old f**t!

Your Servant.
Sir Robin Day[/QUOTE]

Well, somebody needs to - and us old f***s need to stick together!