Contructing a simple, cheap, framed 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 and cost me nothing. 

I have been slowly 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, and the bases built from them have been very small affairs, showing simple road or track sections. As for buildings I have messed around with a selection of Miniart's vacuum products but didn't get on with them too well!

Sd.Kfz.10/4. Flak 30 & Horch Kfz.15 staff car (Italeri 1/35)

  

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 parts were 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......

12 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 started are Dragon's medical version Kubelwagen, Miniart's Mercedes Typ 170V saloon, and my second Tamiya 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, the plan is 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 sprue 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.

 

Back to the bench...

08 February 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.

  

2015-2016 House move and keeping busy......

Productivity away from the bench 2015-2016

So it turns out I was quite busy for short periods at the (temporary) workstation I resided on during our prolonged house move!  No painting, but under the circumstances I was quite productive!  I started building the Dragon Ferdinand premium kit, an ICM Renault AHN (Lastkraftwagen) and Riich models Skoda RSO Radschlepper. I started the ancient Tamiya Sd.Kfz.7 primemover, Roden’s Opel Omnibus, Tamiya's Tiger I mid production, a Takom Type 2.5 VW crew cab, and lastly I kit bashed a soft skin. This comprised an Italeri ambulance, a Ford V300 chassis, together with Dnepro Model's resin fenders and Einsheitskabine (wooden cab)

 

Sd.Kfz.8 DB10 Gepanzerte 12t (Trumpeter) Chapter 1: Build history

Kit:                 Trumpeter # 01584
Tracks:           Kit indy-link workable tracks
Photo Etch:    Kit photo etch

Aftermarket:  MR Modellbau solid tyred wheels, Eduard fire extinguishire, Notek, jack fixings & 3D printed tool clasps

Start date:      February 2013

This is a kit that I started in 2013 and was about to start painting the exterior when we moved home in 2015. She made it to the new place intact but has sat on the shelf of shame ever since! I am still undecided what paintwork to apply as the box art is not too exciting and I have only seen other completed examples in a simple plain Dunkelgelb. Perhaps as only a few examples ever existed a bit of artistic license can be applied.

 
My original and ancient build blog can be found here Trumpeter DB10 Gepanzert 12T blog

 

The restored vehicle which was rescued from a Polish river. Notice in this image it has the solid tyred front road wheels it was found fitted with.

Chapter 2: Build resurrection

About Me

I live in North Wales in the UK and build mainly 1/35 scale Axis AFV’s

I built my first model kit as a youngster in the mid 1970's. A local shop stocked Matchbox kits, and I built many 1/76 scale aircraft before moving on to their armour kits. Soon I discovered a local hobby shop with a far bigger selection, and I started building whatever genre took my fancy. The hobby didn't get a look in during my teenage years, as we all know there were far more important matters to attend to!

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Forward some 35 years to 2010 and I found, like myself as a child, my young son loved building LEGO. We also built the occasional kit together. This slowly piqued my interest in the hobby again and I started buying the odd scale model magazine. I lurked about on various online modelling forums to see how the hobby had evolved and what products seemed to be getting the most attention. Whilst most of the modelling community has slowly migrated from individual forums to most of the busiest social media platforms, both sources continue to provide an invaluable contribution and source of inspiration.

I had always retained an historical military interest and particularly with the Normandy campaign that my grandad had taken part in, so it was no surprise that I was attracted to fighting vehicles that had taken part. I have purchased and built many of them over the years, nearly all of them in 1/35 scale. With the victors of that past conflict capturing the spoils of war in great detail and having dedicated publications like the Panzerwrecks series devoted to documenting the carnage left behind, I find myself now creating more and more vignettes with damaged, wrecked and abandoned vehicles.

Flakpanzer IV "Kugelblitz" 3cm M.K. 103 Zwilling (Cyber Hobby)

 

Cyber-Hobby's re-released Panzer IV Flakpanzer Kugelblitz

Although very few period images survive of this prototype, and an accurate representation is not guarunteed, the kit still builds into a very pleasing model. A review can be found here:http://www.missing-lynx.com/reviews/german/dml9109reviewcs_1.html

My model making journey starts (2010)

It's late 2010. After starting my first Tamiya Steyr kit I found a bunch of old modelling stuff at my parents. These included some quite well preserved figures, paints, and even the old but battered 1970's Tamiya Tiger I. What surprised me most of all though was that some of the Tamiya paint's were still usable!

I figured the Tiger I would be a great guinea pig so I set about trying out some of the latest techniques I had read about. One thing that I picked up early on is that the large Tamiya spray tins are not really suitable for 1/35 scale kits, and I would have to get my hands on an airbrush. I did some research and soon acquired an Iwata HP-C-Plus and compressor.

The Panzerwreck books really appealed to me so from the very start I was attempting to convey some wrecks. Scratchmod's site was a great inspiration and I soon set about destroying brand new but very cheap kit's, in my attempt to display wrecked vehicles.

Ford V3000 - 1941 early type ( ICM)

 

This is the 1/35 scale ICM Ford V3000 kit. I have added a trailer kit which was purchased at the Azimut stand at the Telford Show many, many moons ago. I’m not 100% but the trailer floor, side mouldings, and the wheels, look to have come from an Italeri kit, with Azimut throwing in their own sourced chassis, axles, and drawbar.