Okay, things have progressed quite rapidly in the last couple of weeks - nowt like a bit of pressure to get yourself moving. The Lighthouse bloke wants to display the model for the Easter opening, so, what with my few weeks off badly and in hospital, every spare moment has been spent cutting, gluing and painting bits of card, plastic and various other household objects together...
With less than one week to go, there is a mild feeling of panic - partly due to the arrival of the display case which, I was originally told was to be 3' x 4' (36" x 48") internal dimension and was simply going to be a Perspex hood which would either sit just on top of my base-board, or my base-board would go just inside it. This has now turned out to be a glass and steel box with it's own fitted base-board so mine would have to slide inside through the hinged side. internal dimensions being 33.5" x 44". BUGGER. As I had already started to add to contours (packing foam and mod-rock), I had to carefully turn it upside down on a pile of old sheets then mark out and saw off a couple of inches from each side. this worked fine but left me with an scale area of 15' x 24' LESS than I was expecting. Oh well, it would still work, the building would just be a little closer together.
This weekend saw most of the buildings now virtually complete; 5 accommodation huts, 1 x kitchen, 1 x admin block/arms store/drill shed, 3 x shower blocks, 1 x guardroom, 1 x sentry post and the perimeter fence and gate along the front. Although far from perfect as construction goes, I have seen things improve in terms of quality and speed as I have got used to working with card, balsa and superglue and my confidence has grown. I am particularly pleased with the Mk 1 perimeter fence. The mesh is net curtain painted with natural steel acrylic. The pattern on the mesh meant it was easier to get continuous strips of horizontal/vertical mesh. For the Mk 2, I am making 45 degree mesh - smaller panels due to the pattern - and adding outward leaning post toppers with barbed wire strands along them, but this will be a slower time task. For now I just need a fence in time for the display to go up, but the gate at the entrance is a taste of what it will look like. The barbed wire is single strands of the net curtain with bits of the cross threads at either side and then twisted. To me it looks spot on as barbed wire! My other jewel is the guard room. Still a few small bits needed such as fire buckets, but the door and booking out hatch (complete with upwards hinged window and shelf with booking in/out folder on it were great fun).
I have some work to do on the terrain and a few more small buildings to complete, then the really small details such as the lamps above the hut doors, goal posts for the sports pitch behind the guardroom, flagpole on the parade square and barrier for the sentry but these will be done with the help of my son, visiting for the week. pictures of the finished (or rather, presentable - it will never be really finished as I intend to continue building and adding to it) diorama will be posted on Saturday.
[attachment deleted by admin]
[attachment deleted by admin]