Hello dear readers,
Last year I promised I would make a step by step guide on how I made the scratchbuilt corner for my dio entitled "
En route pour Dunkerque".
I took the pictures while I built it but I never took the time to carefully sort and select them to write this step by step guide but... finally here it comes. I hope it will help you in your future projects!
Tools needed for the building process: foam board (5mm or 1cm thick depending on what you want to achieve), balsa wood (or plastic sheet), a ruler, a pencil, a sharp hobbyknife, a pointy tool, wood glue, wall filler, a brush and sandpaper.
Step1: make a drawing of the place the wall / corner will fill on your diorama (this is not an exciting but usefull step of the process).
Step2: Once you have determined the dimensions the different sides of the wall / corner, make a drawing on a sheet of paper.
Step3: Cut the general shape of the different sides of the wall / corner from the foam board.
Step4: After stripping down one side of the foam board, draw the different panels that represent the sides of the wall / corner.
Step5: Also draw the rows of bricks that will appear under the wall filler that we will apply later.
Step6: Cut the different sides of the wall / corner and glue them together. Watch out: for the corner that stands between the two walls, don't forget to cut the 4 sides that compose it with an angle of 45 degrees. This will allow you to align correctly the bricks that will be seen under the wall filler.
Step7: Prepare some wall filler and brush it on the wall / corner. Don't cover the whole surface if you want some bricks to be seen like here. Mask the parts on which you want to simulate another texture (I used Post-It's).
Step8: You might need to apply several coats. Wait until one coat dries before applying the next one.
Step9: Once completely dry, gently sand down the wall filler until you get a smooth surface.
Step10: Build the details of the wall / corner and glue themon it using wood glue. I used balsa wood but plastic card could be just as efficient depending on which texture you're trying to simulate.
Step11: Draw the cracks on the wall / corner and engrave them with a pointy tool.
Step12: Glue the subassemblies together and fill in the joints with wall filler. To simulate the stone-like appearence of the bottom part of the wall, cut sandpaper to the desired dimensions and glue these straps of sandpaper on it.
Step 13: Prime the wall / corner with Humbrol paint. Why Humbrol paint? Because it's going dry hard. This will allow you to use any paint on it and to protect it against the wheathering process. that will follow
Step14: After airbrushing the base coat (I used Tamiya paints), paint the details with acrylics (I used Vallejo paints).
Step15: To simulate the cement between the bricks, use pigments and fix them with Tamiya Thinner. Tip: when you fix pigments, don't apply pigment fixer directly on the pigments (because this will remove them) but let it flow gently from your brush next to them and they will be fixed by capilarity.
Step16: After applying the pigments, you will need to repaint the bricks in different tones of red. At the same time, also add some variation to the colours of the details.
Step17: Add shades and rainmarks using oil paints.
Step18: Once fixed on the diorama, add vegetation on and around it as well as rubbles. Airbrush some well diluted Tamiya "Buff" colour in order to give an impression of dust.
HAPPY MODELLING!
