This
is a revised and slightly re-worked version of the diorama I built for the
Ground Vehicles GB here on ARC several years ago. I’ve literally sawed the old
dio base in half, concentrating the action of the scene and improving the
composition.
The
A6M5c Zero being refueled here is the Academy kit enhanced with parts from the
Aires resin cockpit and the Eduard Zoom photo-etch set. It was entirely
hand-brush painted with Polly Scale IJN Green over IJN Sky Gray; sub-standard
kit-supplied decals were used and the model was heavily weathered using Tamiya
Flat Aluminum applied with a Microbrush to simulate chipping.
The
Isuzu fuel truck and Toyota
aircraft-starter truck come from the excellent Hasegawa kits, which also
include generous helpings of figures and accessories; oil drums and carts
from the fuel truck, and the “bomb dolly” from the starter. I used
Polly Scale Br (RAF) Middlestone and Khaki for the trucks, highlighting
with Tamiya Flat Aluminum, Gunze Steel and Gunze Wood Brown. Tires and
underframes were hand-brushed with Polly Scale Grimy Black. I took the
opportunity to do some touching up while revising the dio.
The “concrete”
base was made from Evergreen .040 plastic sheet, scribed with my Bare Metal Foil
Scribing Tool and hand-brushed with a prime coat of Polly Scale Grimy Black and
one or two not-especially even coats of PS Concrete. This, in turn, was mounted
on a plywood sub-base. Some interesting discoloration occurred here and there
when I used acetone-based fingernail polish remover to de-bond the CA that held
some of the figures and vehicles in place. After halving the plywood sub-base
with my table saw and reattaching the removed pieces, I thought the bleached
areas looked right in character and elected to leave them as they were.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Sticklers
for detail or those who get a thrill out of identifying continuity errors
in movies will immediately notice that the trucks are in the wrong colors!
As the Zero was an IJN plane, the trucks ought to have been painted Navy
Blue, and, in fact, I’d originally intended to use two A6M5s for the
scene with accompanying naval personnel and colors, but as one of the
Zeke’s accidentally “crash landed” on my workshop floor, I had to
substitute a Hasegawa IJA Oscar at the last minute, and the trucks ended
up in army livery. A close look at the driver figure in the starter-truck
cab reveals a white naval uniform shirt; all other figures are in the
Middlestone and Khaki army uniforms. Admittedly, figure painting is not my
strong suit!
Cheers
Jerry
(Old Blind Dog)
|