Galil�e WIP

[JBA]

"flotsam and jetsam" today, those bits of wood (and the stanchion) will be hanging from the cabin and other places. I will have some colour corrections to do depending on the places they will be put in, as well as maybe some *very* light drybrush kind of technique for the edges of the wood bits to stand better.
tonight the cabin should be mostly finished

[MichelB]

[JIM BAUMANN]

I have to outdo MichelB...



JIM B

[JBA]

AH thanks Michel and Jim!! yeah right only 2 weeks evening worth of job and I call it finished

look at this mess, that's my working table, see the camera on the left? yeah right i filmed the whole of the diorama making process! Hollywood it won't be though!


Anyway, I have been finally putting some windows on! I didn't use glassy stuff for binoculars as I feared the tiny shards of glass to end up in my fingers -so i set back to use some transparent paper for printers. It worked well, though the windows were not really very easy to cut at the right dimensions. I sealed them with white glue that dries transparent (no CA as it would fog)

here's what it gives. You spot it right, only 1 broken window, the 23 others are intact


After that i started to fix some of the pipes, especially on the interior



Now here' s the point to which I stopped yesterday night. i didn't have the time to fix some extra planks nor some further details and colour correction. but all the pipes are glued so that the look like a bunch of flowers.

more tomorrow if I have the time!

[MichelB]

You said you wouldnt include a seagull or other birds, but perhaps it's an idea to add bird droppings? I'd find that a realistic element...

[JBA]

Michel! As you can see from the diorama itself, I don't think i am hugely into realistic elements. i would even say that I really enjoy using accurate boats or whatever and place them in conditions they would never be able to face
And then bird droppings.. that would kill any romantsim of the scene don't you think?

Well well the diorama will soon be completed. In fact it is almost, except for the fig. yesterday i did plenty of colour corrections, as well as glued the planks. I changed my mind about the bottom of the steel cabin by actually rust it quite a lot too.

So what's left to do about the diorama itself? first a little bit of colour correcting here and there (some yellow screenings on highlights particularly) I will also add a few tiny nails done out of stretched sprue on the metal railings -the more the better.

then of course I will have to cut a base and to prepare the fig. So Actually I will be quite busy the 2 following weeks on daytime -which means there will be very few updates, so basically next time I post pictures here, the diorama should be mostly finished

last thing, I will have to find another background when i take my pics because a light grey background on a grey-whitey boat doesn't looks too good.

Anyway, you can judge what's the diorama looks like as for today, knowing that very few things will change from now on
First are some detail pics of the stuff I have been working yesterday



And here are some pics of the diorama in its whole.. sorry for the bad quality of light

[MartinJQuinn]

I can almost hear the waves lapping against it....very sharp work!

[JBA]

Thanks a lot Martin! Speaking of spray, I tried to add some on one of the windows. I think it kinda works out though I will have to get a look this morning to see whether it didn't destroy the plastic.
Actually don't ask me about the technique, it's a bit risky and rude.


And then -shame on me- I did some base with Citadel inks painted wood. But so bad it is, I have at least 1 mm of gap at each corner. i wouldn't be able to cut regular wood properly if my life depended on it, and the guys into these kind of things I asked to don't want to do it.. I am doomed %)
I will try to arrange this during the week end as well as putting on some spray -and maybe one or 2 touches to the water at some places where I think it could be improved.

[Rui Matos]

Hi Jean-Bernard

Coming live again after a few days offline (work) it's good to see you have been working hard on your dio!
I like the flower bouquet and also the windows with the spray on it - something I was about to suggest when reading your post when you fixed the glass, but with this last one you made me happy!

Also, one stupid question: I know that you make your dioramas as 360� ones, but on this particular one, I always have thought of it with its front being the starboard wing (don't know why, but for me it is!)! So here's the question: It's another 360� dio, right?

For the wooden base:
1 - The gaps on the wooden base can be corrected with tinted glass fixing paste (I don't know the proper english (or french, btw) for it), but it is the paste that it is used to fix the glass to the wooden frame of the window (before aluminum double glazed windows).
2 - Another solution is for you to buy one of those cheap sets for wooden cutting (saw and a profile with pre-cut saw lines where you just need to put the wood and make perfect 45� angle cuts) - they are available here at hardware stores (big and small)
3 - Ask for a carpenter/lumber yard guy on your hometown to make the cuts you need (if needed, buy him the wood profile). It will take him 5 minutes to do it and it will be a cheap job.

Hope this helps
Rui

PS: you're not the only one with a great difficulty with wood

[JBA]

het thanks Rui for your in depth answer
happy to know I am not alone struggling with harder than balsa wood. You know why I can't see a regular frame maker for my dio? hey, it's not square.. my resin manipulations usually induce a slight amount of warping, and indeed the angles are not at 90� but more 88, 92 etc..
happy you liked the spray! it's been done by applying Humbrol Clear Quote and then wiping it out with white spirit!
the diorama is absolutely 360� with a direction of light. Though there will be certainly a "prefered" angle vision coming from the fact the figure won't be visible from every corner of the scene.
here's a picture I took of an unusually angle though still from front):


I will also investigate your trick to recover wood later today -thanks for this



back to the diorama, I reminded yesterday about something; I love wrecks, I think they are really very romantic. yet the few times I found or visited some on the Atlantic coats, I thought there was something very repelling about them, like a bad aura or something. I realized this by working on the diorama again -that's this nail thing. I just added quite a lot and suddenly my galil�e wreck began to make that same impression on me, like something both frail and quite dangerous in fact.. i will have to search a bit more words to tell about my feelings towards this.
But as you can see, a few nails on details can really change quite a lot of things..


there was something about the diorama I wasn't too happy about: there was not nearly enough of sea near the Blockhaus, so i had to change that. But then that would mean put some chunks of resin near the metal and that would have produce some dreadful result if the resin began to leak on it.
So I used a very old trick to do this: I dipped tiny bits of cottonwool in the resin and placed them at the right place. They have the right texture for that.

then 2 days ago after the resin set, I added a biot of foram to cover the joints


then another thing: I realized that the mast was standing too clse to the cabin. So using 'carfelully the powertools and sheer muscle strength ( %) ) I de-embeded the mast and changed its inclinaison in a more suitable position.

I could clall the diorama finished except for the fig, but then I will add a bit of rigging to the mast which will help trace other lines on the scene..



:-H

[Rui Matos]

All� Jean-Bernard!

Thanks for your reply
Woodcutting can be very tricky

I really liked the way the mast is now a little bit more tilted, the new foam next to the pilot house, and I must say the nail detail is a top notch! You can even use them to have some old rags (tissue/cloth/algae??) waving with the wind. Cables or ropes on the mast should also suffer from this windy aspect (an old ragged flag still attached to the cables????)

Now that I posted my "poison", I'll leave you to think about them

Rui

[JBA]

hey Rui sorry I am just barely home these days! thanks for your comments -I don't think i will add bits of clothes or seaweed or any other details in fact. Those must serve the main plot and not add to it. nails are there to add a bit of barely noticeable details and to add to the feeling of abandon of the boat, the rigging is there to add a bit of extra lines on the back of the scene but not to be necessary "noticed". While bits of extra non-boat stuff would be noticed maybe too much if you see what i mean..
I saw your great Omsk diorama and notice you don't overcrowd your dioramas either: every detail you added is there to serve the main subject (the submarine) or to serve the balance of the whole scene

In the meantime i added a bit of rigging

Well I have a fig to sculpt and paint now, maybe I will skip this part for you boaty guys and next time I will send a message here, this will be with the glamour pics in somewhat 2 weeks

[Rui Matos]

I saw your great Omsk diorama and notice you don't overcrowd your dioramas either: every detail you added is there to serve the main subject (the submarine) or to serve the balance of the whole scene

Indeed! You're completely right here! Those small things are in the dio for two reasons:
- Give (another) scale factor
- For the whole composition to be balanced

Even if they are colorful, the main and center point of the dio is the Omsk. The remaining "details" serve to direct the viewer to some important details of the submarine
Same here, if you are pleased with your composition, fine! You are the artist and should have the whole picture in your head for months! So... now that you're almost there, please keep us posted - even if it is a figurine!

Well I have a fig to sculpt and paint now, maybe I will skip this part for you boaty guys and next time I will send a message here, this will be with the glamour pics in somewhat 2 weeks

As I said in my last sentence: Please, keep us posted!

Rui

PS: without trying to steal Jean-Bernard tread, here's the link for SSGN K-186 Omsk dio

[JIM BAUMANN]

I am sure I speak for the 'boatey guys'....

I certainly would LOVE to see the process of the figure sculpting- so many of your techniques and out of the box thinking can be applied to all disciplines of modelmaking-not just ship modeling, nevertheless I am sure there is a technique or even just perhaps the thought process that will be very interesting--even fr the boaty guys...!!

sooooo....--we wait!

JIM B

[JBA]

So then you don't say "boaty" in English? i though that sounded good? "salty" then? maybe you prefer ? I should get into more complicate english books than the ones I usually read I think
Anyway thanks Rui and Jim for the interest in my aahh.. fig sculpting abilities, I still must say to you salty (?!) guys, that fig sculpting I still consider as being my weak point -I lack training and indeed those trousers are the first i sculpted since those ridiculous (but great looking) Hungarian horse things from My Sokol diorama last year.
So then, thanks to the requests..
I had already done the wire and miliput (i hate the stuff but i still have one good bit left) base since last june but there I realized it was probably too big so I thinned it down with a scalpel

then i kinda dressed the fig with some Hornet hands (they don't come cheap) and that hornet head I had painted for some review a while back (the beard is homemade!!) and some Nemrod feet.
Okay, so i am supposed to do the complete sculpt by myself, but really, I want to see the end of Galili�e right now as my Mass�na is pushing me on the back of the head
Anyway, i dressed it with Magic Sculp

such an operation is necessary because magic sculp really adheres badly to wire and that would have been hell to sculpt directly the trousers on the wire.
And then here are the trousers. they are not trimmed or sanded or anything, just straight after 1 hour modelling session..

[MichelB]

Will he be standing at the helm, a damned soul, a Flying Dutchman of sorts, forever doomed to pilot his long-sunken ship? Cool!

[JBA]

*could it be* that you really got it Michel? eh mostly in fact He is some kind of Flying Dutchman!
he will be leaning against one of the windows!
JB

[Rui Matos]

A-ha!

Good, Jean-Bernard!
Another one of your "lost soul" figurines!

The head I think I already commented it (some where else ), but I think that the body has a very stiff position... considering that the base is unleveled, could he have a more "relaxed" or more pench�e attitude?

Sorry... by now, I guess you are starting to be a "little bit bored" of my comments

Rui

[JBA]

As you know Rui I am *never* bored by your comments
well he IS stiff, but if you consider he will be leaning against the windows inside the cabin, his stiffness becomes a bit more understanding..

Here is a bit more of rough sculpting!
just the front and the sides of the sailors ragged uniform for the moment. I will start the sanding/ trimming process this evening. There's nothing on the collar for the moment, because those are quite big indeed and I will have to do some extra layers on those specific points



err,, really, sanding is needed But i think the main wrinkles are okay? eh?

[Rui Matos]

All� Jean-Bernard!
Ok - we are set straight on my comments

Now to the sailor figurine:
The uniform made it less stiffened! I like the aspect of the wrinkles and it reminded me how navy uniforms can be uncomfortable.
Looking very good
Keep us posted, please Jean-Bernard

Salut,
Rui