nightshiftmodeller

Gutter: done, Plants: done

My friends, the gutter was my least look-forward-to part but it ended up being a pretty straightforward thing! So it's another thing crossed-out on my mental checklist 😁 The 3D file is kinda rudimentary so I'm not sure if it'll be of any use to anyone, but it might be worth the effort to design an entire "kit" for any future builds. It was weathered completely with acrylics, the only enamel step was an oil paint pinwash around details. 

Today's work was all about plants. Paper, ...

HD photos

Photos from the cobblestone video. I know, they're not too exciting, but it's something like a small taste sample before the finished diorama 😁 

Electricity: check

Alright, telegraph pole and cables are done, now onto the finishing touches. The end is nigh! 

I need to 3D print a gutter for the house and then it'll be about some paper vegetation and finally, dawg and cat 😁

PS. is it too much if I dared to leave an "autograph" on the pole's concrete foundation? 😁 

Early video

Cobblestone road - just like the house, but quicker and easier! 

New 3D models

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Qz8uvCPM9AihsbJxO_t19NvahY4SEPAn

Alright, here they are. The files are "Street lamp" and "Ceramic insulator", both in 1/35 scale. Print them upside down, this way the insulator needs only one medium support and the locating hole at the bottom won't get damaged. You can thread a 0.3mm wire through it without any drilling. The lam...

This place is WIRED!

My friends, today was quite electrifying. I hung the Christmas lights on trees outside and added some electricity for the diorama 😁

I actually used the Miniart telegraph pole set, but only the bare bones basic stuff, in fact, only 3 parts 😁 It was quicker than building everything from scratch. The set is otherwise pretty horrible and unusable, it's one of their older releases.

Of course, I made some sick-ass 3D models for this occasion: porcelain insulators and a street lamp...

Groundwork done

My friends, the ground and grass is painted and hopefully "integrated" well into the scene 😁 

This time I didn't use the standard "wet" method for blending enamels because it simply wasn't working, so instead I applied a wash of Dry Earth, let it dry, then applied Earth over most of the ground, let it dry, and finished with Dark Wash around stones, tufts of grass, etc. 

Stones and other debris were painted as usual, pretty much with the same paints as I always use. My...

Weekend progress

My friends, this weekend was spent creating the groundwork. Currently it's in the base-coated stage, so everything is airbrushed and ready for enamel washes and detail painting. 

Grass was painted, as usual, with a mixture of greens, yellows, and some pale tan for the dry, long stalks. Ground is airbrushed with the same dust color used on the Jagdpanther - this way it'll match the earth tones on the tracks and wheels once the enamel tones are applied. 

It's the first tim...

Finally something that didn't take a week 😆

My friends, this was once again a new experience, but the techniques were quite similar to the house painting. Photos are in reverse order with some close-ups at the end, so you can get an idea of how it progressed :) 

Now I'm thinking... how should I present the JP: did it reverse in place from the cobblestone road, or did it arrive from the other, grassy side? 

In case 1, I can still add some damage to the sidewalk and paint chipping from the tracks (just like that chi...

Early video

Haus painting, one of the longest videos I've ever made, so please, enjoy it extra much 😁

Corrected manhole cover

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Qz8uvCPM9AihsbJxO_t19NvahY4SEPAn

This one is called "Manhole Cover - French.stl" 

I'm keeping the other one there as a funny reminder to my epic fail. The backstory is: I googled French manhole cover and one of the results had Chandi Qarh on it. I liked it, so made a model out of it. Turns out it's and Indian manhole ...

Moar diorama files

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Qz8uvCPM9AihsbJxO_t19NvahY4SEPAn

EDIT: The manhole cover is an epic fail, I thought I was making a French one, but it's an Indian one designed by a French dude 😂 So I'll make a new one ASAP and post it here.

New 3D files: "Drain cover" and "Manhole cover" in 1/35 scale for your printing pleasure 😊

As always, I ...

More styrofoam and 3D

My friends, yesterday I made a cobblestone road and a walkway. Now THIS is some high-quality foam! See the difference between them? I didn't even know I had a dense foam like this, and I want more. From what I've found there are some super dense foams out there such as Styrodur 4000 and 5000 and I can only imagine how smooth these must be. Sadly, we're on another 2-week lockdown so I can't go out and see it in flesh. Also, it's only sold in large 25m square packages that cost 90 euros, but da...

HD photos

Ready for the diorama! The last two pictures show it next to the Jagdpanther 😊

Ready for the diorama!

My friends, first of all, I'm sorry for dropping this on you in its finished state - the time is getting kinda tight because a project like this takes more than I anticipated (but it's understandable, I should've known better), and as many of you might've noticed, I'm getting really behind the schedule 😅 So I kinda force-power-steamrolled through the finishing process to get the house done ASAP. 

Let's talk some cool tips first... I found a great trick for weathered wood. You pa...

Weathering and roof

My friends, the facade is pretty much finished as well as the roof(s). All that's left are the wooden details... finally! Because those planks must've been standing out like a sore thumb 😁Once those are done, I'll add moss and lichen along with other finishing touches. 

The sign will require some additional work. I didn't wan to make it overly weathered as I think it would be rather "new" in 1944. Definitely not as faded as can be seen in current pictures. However, as I was outl...

Early video

The best kit ever made? Styrofoam! 🤔😁

Ground floor done

My friends, today was a day of learning, experimenting and discovering new methods. Long story short, painting cracks is my new favorite technique! It's like chipping for buildings 😁Also, white acrylic wood putty is an excellent weathering medium. The concrete parts and plastered wall were textured with it, but I also stippled it very carefully on the brickwork. And it adds awesome rocky texture to stones! 

Main colors used for everything you see were deck tan, light mud, old wo...

The blessing of Vin Tonique

My friends, painting the sign was one of my most exciting modeling experiences ever! 😁More specifically, the moment when I peeled the mask off and saw the result. 

So I made a paper template in Photoshop, used that to outline the background with masking tape, sprayed white first, then red, and then I carved out the individual letters and sprayed the white and black letters. All with Tamiya paints. The black outlines were brush-painted with Vallejo, and that was the most tedious ...

Some rural references to accompany the house

My daily physio rehab brought me to an old distillery and the textures were too hard to resist 😁 

Brick and Morty

My friends, Sunday was a lazy day because I felt really tired after the entire week, Monday was video editing day, so today was turbo-mode day 🤣

And I managed to get the basic colors, including the mortar lines, done. I'm doing everything with a paintbrush, the only airbrushing was done with black primer in the shadowed areas and on the back wall. You can see the progress on these pictures (in reverse order), the only point of interest (or lack of) is the 7x7 cm area around the brick...

HD pictures

More progress tomorrow... painting! 😁 

3D doors and windows for your printing pleasure

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/1Qz8uvCPM9AihsbJxO_t19NvahY4SEPAn

Print them horizontally! It saves you time and clean-up.

Also, don't be afraid to distort them in the slicer software, you can easily adjust their dimensions for your projects. It might be advisable to make them slightly thicker, too, because they're rather fragile :) 

Some 3D printing to finish things off

My friends, the house is ready for painting. I resorted to 3D technology from the future because it was ultimately faster, easier and more precise. Not to mention - more detailed! Doors and windows are just dry-fitted for the time being because I need to be able to pull them out without snapping anything, so their geometry is kinda all over the place for now. 

In other news, I added the roof flashing, some extra peeling plaster on a wall, and filled the back of the house with acryl...

The roof is on 🔥

My friends, whoever thought making individual roof tiles was a fun idea needs a kick in the bollocks, but on the other hand, the result is very satisfying 😆 

Making them from styrofoam taught me how this material can be used for many things, not just for scribing! Also, stippling with a very stiff brush gives the foam a nice, uneven texture, but it also knocks down the "hairy" structure of the foam. So next time I'll try to start with this procedure before anything else. The foa...

Early video

Figure painting - the armor modeler way! 

Scribing DONE!

My friends, this was one of the most enjoyable yet tedious diorama-related tasks ever! Oh boy, I could start making foam buildings instead of tanks, it's so much fun! 😁

Some elements were glued individually, such as the stone slabs at the foot of the house, the peeling plaster on the shed and some concrete touch-ups around windows and the attic wall. These were made by slicing the foam into very thin sheets on the thermo cutter and then cut with a knife, glued with PVA. They'll recei...

Rise and scribe

My friends, this task is more serious than I thought! But on the other hand, gluing each brick and stone in place would've taken infinitely longer. The next step is finishing the attic, made completely out of bricks, and the small shed, completely from stones. The bricks need some texture, too, but for that, I need to make a simple brick stamp from a piece of styrene. Some elements, such as the bottom part of the house, or a line of bricks between floors, or some elements on the windows, will...

Diorama time!

My friends, after much deliberation, planning, testing, sketching, and cutting, I present to you the Normandy "Cats And Dogs" diorama! 

At this point, it's in the 3D sketch phase but it's pretty clear what's gonna be what 😁The paintbrush, for example, is going to be a telegraph pole. The road section in the foreground is either going to be made of cobblestones or dirt. I'm not sure yet. Also, the placement of figures is not final. I can still move the Jagdpanther around slightly...

HD photos

Mah frens, it's studio pic time. Pardon the title photo's resolution - it's gonna become a thumbnail for the video, but they look better on a black background (blackground?) so it's a small bonus pic :) (literally small, haha).