World War Two in Scale: A Modeler's Journey

The last few days have been focused on getting the foam mockups done with some figures kind of together in their basic poses to get a feel for the scene. I'm still going to need to get my hands on some more US paratroopers as now I have an influx of Germans but there will be more US guys than German guys in this scene. 

Here's the figure I have throwing the grenade into the first story of the Cafe, where there will be an MG set up. He's a Tamiya basic US Infantry guy that I'm going to paint up into a paratrooper. The detailing on this figure is not nearly as good as the other figs in the scene so far, but his pose is awesome!

Here's the German para with the US para throwing the grenade. The white fig is German and he's going to be trying to miss the grenade by doing a diving maneuver. 

MG gunners on the top story of the Cafe will be set up here.

Here's a different view...This is a side view and between the two buildings on the right will be the access road E company comes running in on. The building on the left is the Cafe with the grenade thrower and the white fig is a German para running. I'm thinking I may not include him, but I like his pose and he could add a sense of urgency to the scene, if done correctly. There would be a low wall to the right of him, if I include him.

Here's a birds-eye on the plan set up with the 3 buildings standing so I could get a sense of movement throughout the scene.

The start of the second building, which will quickly turn into a mostly destroyed house.

Here we have the greatest trick for foamcore: white glue mixed with water and painted on the foamcore so it will be resistant to moisture and take better to gluing of different types of materials. I didn't know this trick while building the Cafe, and I added it a little too late, so I have some fixing of the cafe to do now. :(

Here's the same building, now destroyed!

I added the wallpaper before I destroyed it, and that was a great move on my part. It sure was easier doing it this way.

Here's some Plastruct G scale brick sheet I bought. The only reason I went this route instead of scratchbuilding the bricks is, I could foresee the problems of having the brick look like it was under a layer of plaster. This seemed like a better and easier option, so I wouldn't have to do the entire building in cork bricks cut out by hand (that would take forever!) and it is thing enough to allow the gesso not have to be added in goops of layers. 

Here's the brick sheet cut and glued on, I'm now waiting for the glue to dry so I can the bricks down and start adding air clay to give a sense of plaster and brick mixed in. I will use cork bricks for the busted sides of the building, due to depth and stability and realism. This photo also shows the pieces of the busted window frame, made from balsa wood. That was fun to make!

Here's the two right side windows, and I got to use my new 2 dollar clamps I got today! They actually worked *perfectly* and I'm glad I got them. I went with wood for these windows just to change it up and I also want to get a feel for all the different materials so I'll know which ones I like best for future projects.

And now for some fun photos: Here's some photos of my "craft room", the second bedroom in our apartment, small, and I got stuck with all the extra crap there's nowhere else to put. And yes, there's a mountain bike in there as well. My cat uses it to climb up to the window sill. Silly cat.

This is the building/painting station. It's an old not-very-stable-but-sort-of-nice drafting desk I got for free last semester. I keep all my paints on the right with different glues, and have as much light as possible set up.

The dio is built here, when the pieces get done. It's literally right behind me from the painting desk.

This is a crappy table I also got for free that's to the left of the dio desk. I keep extra crap on it, and also, on the floor, as you can see. And the vacuum cleaner lives near it as well.

Inside the narrow tiny closet is the shelving with more modelling stuff than I'll ever know what to do with, but need just in case. You know how it is!

The models near to work on.

My hobby paints for figs and armor. I use Vallejo acrylics and Model Master enamels.

That's it! Thanks for checking in!