Video tutorial: how to make a tree from wire for model dioramas

Sometimes a diorama scene needs a tree. 

It might need the height to balance some other element, or it might need it to tell part of the story, or it could just be that a natural setting looks a bit ... sterile ... without a tree. Regardless, you sometimes need a tree to make a statement. It needs to look dramatic and authentic.

Well, you're in luck, because I've just loaded a new video tutorial to my Youtube channel. It's all about how to use twisted wire to make a tree for a diorama.

This technique will give you that result. It's cheap and easy, but it is time-consuming. So you wouldn't want to plan a whole forest diorama full of these wire trees. Or maybe you would, some modellers seem to be masochists.

But if you need one or two statement trees to be the hero of your natural diorama, you've come to the right place.

From this...

... to this.

I made an Autumn oak tree, but this technique will work for any type of tree in any season.

So please have a look, and let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Video tutorial: How to make a tree from wire for model dioramas.

And if you haven't already, please do visit my Youtube channel Dave's Model Workshop and have a browse, there is plenty there to keep you busy. You may even want to subscribe, so you get automatic updates every time I release a new video.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Dave

Welcome to 2017

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2017! 

I'm back from my holidays and ready for a new year full of model making possibility.

I saw on facebook a lot of posts in the last few days where people were showcasing the models they built in 2016.

Tragically, I only really have three to show. A 1/32 Stuka which I completed in February 2016, my Tiger diorama, and my Japanese Kurogane diorama. (Four if you count my partially completed SU-122).

But, while there may not be a lot of quantity, I can honestly state that these three models are the best I have made in my life.

I can also honestly state that I have pushed myself more in 2016, and learnt more new techniques and experimented more with advanced painting and building than ever before.  If I compare my last few builds, they are exponentially better and more satisfying than my earlier work.

How satisfying is it to be able to say that?

What more can you ask from a hobby, than to push yourself and constantly learn?

While we were away over the holidays, I was chatting with a friend who is a professional artist. He makes his living painting in oil paints, on canvas, and has sold out many exhibitions and is extremely collectible in art circles.  He was talking about techniques he has been trying, like thin filters of highly diluted oils, and washes, and pre-shadowing, and the whole time I was thinking, "Well I do that with my models".  It gave me insight into how he works, and it also did a lot to legitimise in my head what many people sometimes think of as essentially playing with toys or building Lego. We modellers make mini artworks, and at a certain level it most definitely is art - a mix of traditional painting, and sculpting.

I guess this all boils down to: I love this hobby, and it is very, very satisfying.

Here's to 2017!

Cheers,

Dave

Here's how I saw in the New Year.
Home-made gin, soda water, lime and elderflower cordial. Rather refreshing for a warm summer's night.

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas - back in 2017

The holidays are here, and I will be taking a little break along with my family. 

We are heading to Sydney to spend Christmas with our parents (my partner and I grew up in Sydney before we moved to Melbourne in 2006, and our families are still there).

As such, I will not be posting any blog posts for the next two weeks.

I hope that Santa Claus brings you lots of model kits if you've been good.

I'll be back in early 2017!

Merry Christmas,

Dave

Just look at the shading that's gone into this model...
Sweet snow diorama base too. Reminds me of the winter in Stalingrad, 1942.

My end of year video

Here's a little video I uploaded, with an End of Year message for you all.

I'll keep it short and sweet today.

Video link: 2016 End of Year Christmas video

Cheers,

Dave

Using twisted wire to make your own trees for dioramas

This week I got a chance to make an oak tree for my SU-122 diorama.

I will be uploading a full video tutorial in the very near future, but I wanted to share one of my in-progress pics with you.

It is a surprisingly fun process making a tree. In the past I have often used found twigs from real-world trees in my dioramas (see for example my Japanese Kurogane diorama) but making your own tree just lends such an air of realism, and the scale likeness can't be beat.

Like I said, a full build video is on its way, but in the meantime I present to you a Young Oak Tree in Autumn.

Cheers,

Dave

And I only pricked myself with the sharp wire once! Hurrah!

Video tutorial: The hairspray technique for chipping paint on scale models

I've just uploaded a new video tutorial to Youtube, this time going into more depth on the Hairspray Technique for chipping paint on models.

The Hairspray Technique

It's such a simple technique, with such dramatic and realistic results. You'll never paint a rusty piece of metal again in quite the same way, and it works just as well for chipped paint on worn areas on tanks, handrails, etc.

Check it out. You will be surprised at just how simple it is.

Video tutorial: The Hairspray Technique for chipping paint on scale models.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Dave

Painted a leather jacket today

So today I used oil paints to paint a brown leather jacket on one of my Soviet tank crew figures.

It was a pleasant change to be able to paint it in natural sunlight, rather than under artificial light. As a result, when I took photos of it this evening under a lamp, it looks freakish and cartoonish and crazily exaggerated.

I'll never get over the difference between working under natural and artificial light.

I find that oil paints are just the bee's knees when it comes to painting leather. The semi-gloss result, the delicious blending between colours - this is the one situation when I will always recommend one medium over the others. Acrylics and enamels are much of a muchness with oils in all other situations, I can make cases for and against in most situations.  But for brown leather?  Nup, oil paints every single time.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Dave

So those yellow highlights look freaky in these photos.
In real life, it looks nothing like as garish.
(Which is a relief.)

Video tutorial: How to use a Wash to bring out detail on scale model figure uniforms

To me, figures really are what makes a tank or soft-skinned vehicle come to life. 

You can have a stunningly built and weathered tank, but without some context it remains a little flat, a little ho-hum.  Add figures and scenery, for even the most basic vignette, and it suddenly tells a story, the viewer connects with it and has a dialogue in their imagination. You don't get that with a single vehicle, it remains a showpiece but there is no emotional connection.

My latest video tutorial is about using washes to really make details pop on scale model figures.

Anyway, this video wasn't pre-planned, I happened to be working on my resin Soviet figures and realised I needed something to improve one of them. Turned on the camera, and voila, the rest is cinemagraphic history.

Do please check it out and see what a difference washes can make. They are so ridiculously easy, and so ridiculously fast, there really is nothing stopping an aspiring model maker from having this in their repertoire.

It works equally well on resin figures, plastic figures which come included in your standard Tamiya model tank kit, as well as Dragon or Master Box figure kits. It works in all scales, although I tend to work fairly uniformly in 1/35 scale.

It is also a technique which translates to different mediums. Acrylic paints, enamel paints, oil paints all work with washes.  My only word of caution is keep an eye out for a glossy or semi-gloss finish which can result from a wash. Easily rectified with a finishing coat of matte varnish or dullcoat.

So yes, try it - what have you got to lose?

Video link: How to use a Wash to bring out detail on scale model figure uniforms

Until next time,

Cheers,

Dave

A new Dremel 4200 rotary tool

Yesterday was my birthday (thank you, thank you) and I must have been very good, because I received the following from my wonderful, wonderful partner Aimee.

A Dremel 4200 rotary tool. Top of the line, baby!

Yes, it's a Dremel 4200 rotary tool. But you already knew that, as you read the photo caption.

I've been wanting one of these for a long time now. There have been many, many times when I've wanted to grind out an inaccessible bit of a model, and have had to chisel at it with a scalpel like a caveman. Now there's no stopping me.

Keep a look out for an upcoming video review very soon, once I've had a chance to play with my new toy.  Just don't tell my daughter I said that, it would undo all the times I've said to her "A tool is not a toy"...

Until next time,

Cheers,

Dave

Painting fabric on my 1/35 Soviet model tank crew figures

Tonight I have been working on painting the uniforms of two of the Soviet tankers and mechanics in my work-in-progress SU-122 diorama.

Shadows in fabric

The mechanic is in a blue coverall. In the below shot, I have painted the blue basecoat, and then using a fine brush I have painted in the shadows a darker shade of blue (mixed in some black with the original blue). It does look a bit glossy in these shots, I may need to spray the finished result with a clear matte coat.

Shadows done.

Shadows perhaps a little overdone!

Shadows from behind.

Highlights on fabric

Then I mixed up a lighter shade of the original blue by mixing it with white. I've heard that you should never use pure white and pure black for mixing shades, you should use yellow or brown or somesuch. Nah, white and black have always worked for me. I'm open to being convinced though, tell me why with photographic evidence and I can be converted.

Then I drybrush the lighter shade on to all the highlights, followed by an even lighter shade on the really upper highlight areas such as the tops of the shoulders, shoulderblades, breast pocket and thigh pocket flap.

Highlights done, it really pops now.

Highlights have been drybrushed.

I am a little worried it looks too exaggerated, so I will check it in normal sunlight tomorrow and see how it looks. I find artificial light can really play tricks with shadows on uniforms, painting at night you can be a bit heavy-handed and it looks a bit too extreme in the cold hard light of day.  I'm also concerned at how semi-gloss the blue looks, but with some dust and dirt that will be toned back.


I also worked a little on one of the tank crew, but after a quick coat of olivey-khaki I noticed that the very fragile moulded collar at the back of the next has somehow snapped off. So a quick repair with gloopy Hubrol Model Filler was called for.

You can see the repaired area here.

So that's it for this evening. It's 9:30pm, time to put the brushes away and relax.

Until next time,

Dave