WIP 1/35 Scale D-Day Diorama

[Briggsy]

Wow, that's a lot if check and test, more patience than I have. The perfect plastic weld lines look great. Also like the printed rivets, if you look at the world of model railways, yeah I know, there is a firm called Grandt Line who make rivets on stalks in various sizes. It does mean hand placing them but if you use the hole making tool it wouldn't be so onerous. Also glue from the back to avoid glue marks on the business side.

You don't do things by half mate, this is an epic undertaking.

Cheers Simon

 

[blaster]

Wow Neil…. That’s some certifiable dedication. I thought I was barmy but you are, as General MacAuliiffe said…..nuts.

That is going to be a staggering piece!!!!

Rgds Victor

 

[Oda]

Adding to the remarks of all the esteemed colleagues before me,this is an excellent start to a very interesting dio,Following.

Oda.

 

[Malkie]

The thought of such an immense project would scare me to death, but as they say more power to your elbow!

Malkie

 

[NigelR]

Wow. That is a LOT of work!! But well done, keep going......

 

[Merryweather]

Let’s leave rivet counting for now and look at the re-alignment of the whole diorama...
At the suggestion of someone on another forum I have re-oriented the model slightly, so that the whole thing is not completely parallel to the base -as much as I can without affecting the walls I printed earlier.
I used the CAD model to plot the difference between the old position and the new, and I set to with the scalpel -the beauty of foamboard!

I will need to add a small triangle at the left hand side (top), which gives me a horrible polygonal block to work with.
I didn’t mention it earlier but I have made my life even more difficult by angling the back surface backwards so that I can eventually tilt the whole thing over to the front a bit.

So now the only right-angles are the back two corners and the vertical plane.
Thank God for CAD!
I had by this time detailed the two feature walls

Although I managed not to change the detailed walls I did have to change the blank back and side walls, and thanks to CAD I was able to 3D print some braces to the correct angles(they are the blue bits)

That’s all folks
Thanks for watching
Neil

 

[Briggsy]

This is more engineering than modelling! I agree with the shift out of the parallel on the base, it makes the composition that much more dynamic. Still trying to get my head round the sheer size of this.

Cheers Simon

 

[Merryweather]

Still trying to get my head round the sheer size of this.

Cheers Simon

Ha ha,me too!

 

[Ferris]

Great project!

Loving your approach, with experiments and creative combinations of techniques. Old school modelling with the latest technology!

Think I would have opted for laminating the 3d prints with 0.5mm plasticcard. The card would hide the print layers, and the 3d part would control dimensions.

Will keep following!

Adrian

 

[Merryweather]

Great project!

Loving your approach, with experiments and creative combinations of techniques. Old school modelling with the latest technology!

Think I would have opted for laminating the 3d prints with 0.5mm plasticcard. The card would hide the print layers, and the 3d part would control dimensions.

Will keep following!

Adrian

Many thanks, glad to have you aboard, Adrian.

 

[blaster]

Hi Neil

Just tking about this. The ship is also bobbing in the water. Maybe a little off angle for the vertical plane as well as for the landing craft ?

Victor

 

[Oda]

Captivating stuff.Keep posting.

Oda.

 

[Merryweather]

Hi Neil

Just tking about this. The ship is also bobbing in the water. Maybe a little off angle for the vertical plane as well as for the landing craft ?

Victor

Yes possibly, but it wouldn't be so pronounced in a larger ship. I'm definitely planning to angle it over the landing craft so that the scramble net is not resting against the hull. Maybe a slight tilt sideways would work, but it will need to be minimal I think

 

[Merryweather]

Also everyone on deck will have to lean slightly, which might prove to be a detail too far....

 

[BRAN]

What a job, it's remarkable what you manage to do. I think it's not within everyone's reach and that makes this subject quite exceptional to follow.

 

[Merryweather]

What a job, it's remarkable what you manage to do. I think it's not within everyone's reach and that makes this subject quite exceptional to follow.

Thank you Bran, but as I said earlier, I was fortunate to spend my entire professional life building models for architects,so although it's an admittedly ambitious undertaking I have a lot of experience with this kind of large project. My biggest problem will be maintaining interest over the long time it will take me to build. In a work context my team and I would probably have had about a month, so it would have been intense but the time would have FLOWN by!

 

[Richie]

Hi Neil,
Just loving this original, complex and highly detailed project. The draughtmanship alone is worth the entry price.
THANK YOU, I'M NOT THE ONLY BONKERS ONE ON HERE.

Looking forward to watching this one develop.
cheers
Richie

 

[Merryweather]

I’m still mulling over the various options for rivets but in the meantime I have been printing away and I have created the upstand walls (gunwhales?)of this deck, which I am calling the Main Deck. There is actually a break between the main hull sides and these - they are not just a continuation of the hull.

That’s not me ,by the way.
As with the hull sides I had originally expected to make them out of plastic sheet, but these files were created at the same time as the files for the hull side experiment, and happily I DID manage to 3D print these smaller pieces of flat section in resin successfully, complete with their rivets. The handrails were not so successful as they warped like crazy, so rather than persevere with the resin I did them on the FDM printer ,which is why they are blue.
.

The handrails did have their rivets included but they looked awful so as there was only about 100 I decided to do sand them off and do them by hand.

You may wonder why I didn’t include every bit of detail and print each piece complete - well the answer is it‘s a question of minimising the amount of supports to remove; it's the equivalent in aggro of removing mould lines and sprue gates on an injection moulded model. So as I am master of my own destiny this is the way I do it - in this case more bits mean less work - call me ICM if you like!

There are still vertical fins to add to the inside, they are printed but they will have to wait as I am away for a day or two to celebrate my newest granddaughter's first birthday.
That's it for now, thanks for watching and see you next week!
Cheers
Neil