1/700 Amagi diorama

[Devin]

Marijn,

Amazing work. I can't add anything, everyone else has said it all. I hear you'll be at Moson next week with some of your work. My boss Adrian Davies will be there to see it in person. I've let him know how much I hate him...

Question: for the wood planking on the boat's hull, are you masking at all for the horizontal lines, or is that all free hand? I've replicated hull plating in 1/350th before with masking and light airbrushing, but nothing as fine as what you're doing here.

Fantastic!

-Devin

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks Devin!

I have met Adrian at SMC in the Netherlands last october. It will be good to see him again!
We'll be thinking of you!

The planking is done completely freehand with a good quality 000 size brush, which I feel is easier for a small model in this scale.
This is the process I used:
- drawing horizontal lines with very dark brown (humbrol flat black + raw umber oil paint), but making sure to keep them discontinuous. You only want to suggest them, not continue the lines over the entire length which would look too stark and cartoonish.
- draw a couple of vertical lines. But again not too many, and often only part of them (only towards the seam above or below, but not to both). You can quickly get an 'excel-sheet'-look if you overdo it, so keep it subtle.
- add a local glaze of thinned paint to some of the planks, mostly towards their ends. On this model I only used some raw umber oil paint, but with different base colours this might vary, or I might use a couple of different colours to get more variation.

The aged and weathered look of the hull wood is the result of a combination of the filters before the planking, and some 'chipping' (dabbing with a small stiff brush as described in a previous post for rust chips) with more fresh looking colour (again raw umber in this case).

For large hulls in 1/350 scale, it might not be necessary to keep planking or plating detail discontinuous for a subtle result, so the use of tape and paint can work good than. In 1/700 however, I feel only the heaviest plating looks good and in scale when added in a full and continuous way. For anything less I would prefer to do it this way.
On a larger 1/700 scale hull, it might help to use tape as a guide to keep the lines straight. I would however place the tape a millimeter or so above or below the line I would paint, because for painting fine lines like this I need to correct them constantly with a clean brush moistened slightly with white spirit, and the tape would get in the way of that.

I hope this helps!

Cheers,

Marijn

[RichardAigner]

Today at Moson Show I saw the Amagi diorama and "Lexingtons final battle". Absolutely phantastic work. The excellent photos of the thread make me forget just how tiny 1/700 scale is; seeing the models for real, close up, made my day.
Richard

[zs180]

Marijn,
congrats on winning a Gold Medal and Best Ship prize at last weekend's Mosonshow against a stiff competition! I haven't counted but about a hundred ship models have been entered into the contest - most of them of very high quality.
Your work earned the laurels mentioned above well deservedly nonetheless.
I am honoured to have been able to admire (not to mention judge) it!
George P�k

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks Richard and George!

It was a fantastic show indeed, and I was happy too to see the ship classes doing very good.
It was an absolute pleasure to meet again, and your Barham was an absolute delight to see in the flesh too. Photo's don't do the finesse of the work justice!

I finished the diorama before the show last week, obviously, but hadn't found time to take and post photographs yet. You know how it is when you�re in �the zone�, finishing those last bits and pieces of a project�

Anyway, at the kind and generous advice of Jim Baumann, I added several extra lines and details to the rigging of the wooden seatruck (many thanks Jim!):




I also added a small boat, with a figure on it (as can be seen in the youtube-video of Amagi), blended the ship into the seascape, and added a bit of propeller froth and a small bow-wave with heavy acrylic gel and some white enamel paint. Not too much, as the ship is moving rather slowly.






I also added the last elements to the island. First a railcar on the tracks, and a little trailer next to the building.


And I finished the GMC and Dodge, with some US soldiers checking out Amagi. Maybe it is the technical mission?






And finished!!!



































My friend Philippe Hendrickx came up with a fitting title: �Broken ambitions�. I only have to order the name-plate now�

Cheers,

Marijn

[johndon]

Just WOW - didn't think you could do better than your Lexington but, you have...

[Aop Aur]

I have no word for this Marijn! It just keeps getting better and better!! Did you secure the vehicles down onto the diorama? I think the tyre treads could be whiter, as I notice the tracks colour being quite contrasting and the tyres should pickup quite a lot of dust. Anyway just my 0.02 cents! The quality of your work is something I will never ever be able to accomplish in this life! Not that what you're doing is anything like human, though!

Aop

[Dan K]

As mentioned previously, I've already been rendered speechless by how superb this creation is. Your win seems only appropriate. A heartiest congratulations to you, Marijn.

Love that proposed name.

It occurs to me that you could enter the sea truck separately in a contest, and still win.

[GewoonWouter]

Well, it sure was a fun ride! Happy to be able to follow this unfold. Love the endresult and the title is a good choice! Well done mate!

What's next?

[litvin70]

Its impossible level!Excellent!

[MartinJQuinn]

It occurs to me that you could enter the sea truck separately in a contest, and still win.

Ain't that the truth.

This is one of the most incredible displays of modeler's art that I've ever seen. The words that come to mind don't do it justice. Congratulations on your well deserved win.

PS - shall I move this thread over to the "completed models" forum for you?

[medicmike]

Holy cow. This has been a fabulous WIP thread to follow. The final result just takes your breath away! Absolutely stunning

[Martocticvs]

Absolutely spectacular! Congratulations on finishing, also the awards! How are you going to top this one?

[j.mahieux]

Wonderful work and always extraordinary, almost too beautiful for a war landscape!
Jean

[SovereignHobbies]

I have quietly enjoyed this one. Your work should inspire others to push that little bit harder to bring their models to life with effects with colour. I love the tyre tracks on the ground - that's a very nice touch.

[Pieter]

Surely you built that GMC truck in '350 and photoshopped it in your pictures -:)
Excellent work.

[f14dtomcat]

Mr. Marijn van Gils, I have been following this WIP quietly from the sidelines since 25 May 2015, saw it incomplete at Scale Model Challenge 2016 in Veldhoven, Holland, and now that you have finished it, this sublime work of art is a joy to oogle and a bar set high for us all to try to attain. What I want to say has already been said by many others. Heartiest congratulations on your well deserved win at Mosonshow in Hungary over the weekend. I hope to see Amagi at World Model Expo (WME) in Veldhoven in 2020.

[marijn van gils]

Many thanks everyone for your most kind words!

Did you secure the vehicles down onto the diorama? I think the tyre treads could be whiter, as I notice the tracks colour being quite contrasting and the tyres should pickup quite a lot of dust. Anyway just my 0.02 cents!

Thanks for the tip! They are fixed, but I can add a bit of paint in-situ. I have to be careful not to overdo it though, as the wheels are only a little over 1mm in diameter.

It occurs to me that you could enter the sea truck separately in a contest, and still win.

Thanks Dan! I'm also rather fond of this little model myself. It was really fun to build and paint!
And a good preparation for the next project (see below).

shall I move this thread over to the "completed models" forum for you?

Yes please. Thank you very much!

I love the tyre tracks on the ground - that's a very nice touch.

Thanks! It is one of those things that turned out much easier to do than I had anticipated. I simply painted them on with the lightest dust colour I used on the rest of the groundwork.

Surely you built that GMC truck in '350 and photoshopped it in your pictures
Excellent work.

No way, that would be too much work!

I hope to see Amagi at World Model Expo (WME) in Veldhoven in 2020.

I will be there (and also at the regular SMC show in Veldhoven this year)!

Well, it sure was a fun ride!
What's next?

How are you going to top this one?

It was a fun ride for me too! Glad you also enjoyed!
Next one will basically be this, in 1/300 scale:

Should be fun too!
And I think I'll be in touch with Dafi a lot...

Cheers,

Marijn

[Vladi]

Next one will basically be this, in 1/300 scale:

Should be fun too!
And I think I'll be in touch with Dafi a lot...

Cheers,

Marijn

Well, that will be SOMETHING once again then . Looking forward to it!

[Rui Matos]

I will make a comment and a question Marijn:

Comment:
- Nothing to add that others have already said

Question:
- Do you have a favorite point-of-view on the Dio, Marijn?
(I always have in my works)

Congratulations (dio and awards!)
Cheers
Rui