Making a groundwork base

Groundwork

I've not attempted too many bases for my finished models and the ones I have had made have been minimal affairs utilising items I've found about the house. Old wooden name plates and even an Ikea shelf! Not the best looking or ideal material but they have been a test bed.

 

I have slowly been acquiring various groundwork products such as cheap picture frames, clays and sculpting materials, vegetation, ground mats and the like. To date I have only used a few of these materials on the bases I mentioned above, and these have been very small affairs showing road/track sections for wheeled vehicles. As for buildings I have messed around with a selection of Miniart's vacuum products but didn't get on with them too well!

 

I now need to learn the basics and find out which adhesives bond with which materials best and how to construct a base from scratch. I have plenty of vignette/diorama ideas of which many are sketched so putting them into practice is the next step.

 

Italeri Sd.Kfz10/4 Flak 30 and Horch Kfz 15 staff car

The kits

 

Both kits are very basic by modern standards and the detail is not great. There are injector pin marks everywhere and the fold down tarp on the Horch is terrible! As this was a painting exercise no PE or aftermarket was used, although I did thin a few parts and replace the kit's windscreens in both for a better scale appearance

2017 Best made plans......

June 2017

After posting my intentions earlier in the year to get busy completing the numerous shelf queens, guess what? Procrastination set in yet again! 😳 A bunch of new purchases distracted my plans, and I set about building those immediately!  Models built are Dragon's medical version Kubelwagen, Miniart's Mercedes Typ 170V saloon and my second Tamiya's Steyr 1500A. All are ready for a coat of Tamiya fine primer.

There is a plan afoot I promised myself. After inspiration from a series of photographs, I plan to display each of these recent builds on a series of interlinking bases showing a stretch of road with a single or several models on each base.

Dragon's relatively old Medi Kubel is a lovely little kit and apart from some additional sculpting of the canvas roof fitted together painlessly. I found the styrene quite soft so removing small items from the spruce and sanding was very easy. The engine door, driver’s seat and wheels will be left off to aid painting and the all in one clear screen will require some masking on both sides before painting commences.

 

Feb 2017. Back in the room !

Feb 2017

 

So the mancave is finished and the new spray booth is ordered. All I need to do is find a drill bit to make a hole for the spray booth and hope I don't balls it up ! Once that is taken care off I can crack on and its just a matter of choosing a one of the many shelf queens to start on!  It has been a long time since I sat at at my bench and this has left a huge number of kits in varying stages of build! These will need addressing first. 

A count has revealed TWENTY FOUR kits (far too many I know!) of which five have sat as fully built without paint for over three years! Finishing these before starting anything elsa is to be my priority for 2017. 

Back to the bench...

Feb 2017

 

It’s been a long 10 months since I touched a piece of styrene and a great deal more since I boxed all my modelling paraphernalia away for the house move. Over the last month I have been steadily getting the man cave operational. Such is the current state of the memory banks I had forgotten about a few purchases I had made since re-locating which made discovering them again quite a nice surprise! Every day's a new day. 🤔

Anyway, the mancave has been up since Aug 2016 and weathering nicely on the outside. It’s only a 3x2m space but plenty big enough for my needs.