Let's make a present! Combat divers on the beach

[SisterMaryNapalm]

When my first present - please check here ->Let's present a ... present! Owl Mage<- was received pretty well by our female colleage, my boss asked me to do more.

 

This time the task was to make a present for another colleague who left us. As he was in the military and also is a passionate diver, I thought of something military.

What would be a better fit than German combat divers (Kampfschwimmer)? Luckily I found a bunch of German frogmen miniatures and ordered them immediately.

When I told my boss what I had in mind, she asked me to include the following elements:

 

1st: Frogmen
2nd: An owl (of course)
3rd: an exit
4th: a sign that links the colleague to our work.
Everything else was free for me to develop.

As Frogmen often use beaches to infiltrate or exfiltrate an area, the overall idea was to create a beach setting.
So I went down to the beach, spent some hours there swimming, enjoying the sun and making sketches, until I finally had an idea what I wanted the diorama to be like.

 

The owl should be sitting on a sign that warned of mines - but instead of a mines warning there should be an inside joke written on the board we often did at work.
The exit should be between two dunes and be marked by another sign. And the Kampfschwimmer unit should be astonished by what they witnessed.

 

So I started painting the combat divers.

 

After that I assembled the owl, used plastic styrene to cut out two signs, assembled them an started painting.

 

Still I had one problem - the showcase I ordered ... *chuckles* didn't show up. That sounds funny at the moment but should be a problem later on. And as I was doing a second diorama at the same time, the pressure increased ... *Insert creepy music here*

Edited August 2, 2017 by Knochensack

[Glitterwolf]

Awesome idea!

[SisterMaryNapalm]

Thank you, sir.

 

We'll continue later^^

[SisterMaryNapalm]

Let’s continue with our small diorama.

 

 

While the commando frogmen were drying, I continued creating the sand dunes. Both are made out of foamed material – or rather: remnants of it. So it was no big deal “cutting” them into shape.

 

 

 

 

Then I went on painting the combat divers. Started to call them beach boys afterwards.

 

 

 

 

I am not all too happy with their faces, but considering that their eyes happened to look so good, I decided to leave them as they were. Stronger faces - that's alright. And I didn't have so much time left. So I couldn't bother do it all over again and maybe mess up much more.

 

After a time gap of a few hours …

 

 

Time Gap travelling music

 

 

… I was ready to put everything together. Luckily the diorama itself had arrived – like 10 days later, which made my "Well this time I have got 12 days left" into a "oh, I just have got 2days left" disaster, filled with panic, awkward moments and aggression.

 

So I put everything together, filled the holes, cracks and everything else that looks like it could be filled and then started to color everything.

 

 

 

Some intense time of work later, the colors of everything matched and I was happy. Time to apply a wash to the signs.

 

 

Oh – wait – just a short step back: I had the signs painted and highlighted beforehand and then once again created some decals sheets using my trusty PC and printer …

 

 

And now it was time to wash them. I don’t know why I didn’t do it beforehand, but the effect was rather hilarious.

Guess what happened? Right …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arrrrrgh-naaaahaarhaghtzuuuashaaarrrghathaugfazgrzfghhhg-na-ha-ha-ahaaaaaaaaa *sob*

 

This is absolutely not my day.

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2017 by Knochensack

[hosercanadian]

Not the end of the world with the washes.  A bit of flock/statuc grass to cover it will look natural and give a bit of colour/focus on the signs.

[SisterMaryNapalm]

The anger was not because of the washes - it was because of me messing up like a complete idiot and because of the time I lost, as the washes needed to dry for quite some time.

 

And yes - static grass - I'll get to that later ...

Edited August 3, 2017 by Knochensack

[SisterMaryNapalm]

And we are back.

 

Quite some time and several dry brushes later, all the mishaps had been taken care of.

 

Time to get to the remaining details.

 

Using some toothpicks, I created some stakes which were – CAREFULLY! – painted and glued to the diorama.

 

 

 

After giving the whole construction some time to dry, I continued with a roll of barbed wire, which was laid around the stakes.

 

 

 

And then I went over to the water. I had some good experiences with Noch Water Effects, so I chose to use it this time again. But first I had to fill in some gaps to smooth out the surface.

 

 

After half a day of drying time, I applied the water.

 

 

Let’s leave it to dry a few hours and then continue.

 

 

[Glamberry]

That looks really cool!!!

[Guildenstern]

Excellent!

[SisterMaryNapalm]

Back to our Diorama.

 

Our guys are almost done. Some more spackle, color and water mass for the creation of the sea.

 

 

 

 

Finishing the water.

 

 

 

 

A few last dry brushes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Sign says: “Beware! MIZ” – Closed! Mortal Danger!). MIZ doesn’t mean anything. It is an inside joke that came up due to bad handwriting on a single day and stuck with our colleague for the rest of his work with us.

 

 

Well then – we are done here. Let's get over to the Show Off Section.

 

 

->Let's present ... present: Combat divers on the beach<-

 

 

In conclusion: I am not all too happy with the outcome.

Nothing went as I had planned and so it all became a silly mess. In then end I even did not finish it completely. I had ordered some desert grass I wanted to glue on the base, but it didn’t arrive in time, so I told my colleague I would bring it with me next time we meet. Still a bit embarrassing that is, considering I had like a couple of days more and had to wait for all that stuff for like 10 days.

Nonetheless he was amazed and especially the look on the faces of the combat diver made him laugh. I am sure: I could have done better. Particularly the water was my problem this time. Though I used the water effect well before and they worked every time without causing any problem, this time they broke up every time I applied a new layer. Gnaaar. How unfortunate.

Well then – next time I will do better. I promise.

Edited August 3, 2017 by Knochensack

[Glitterwolf]

Looks great!

 

I think you're a bit too hard on yourself.

Most of us are.

 

But it really looks great!

[SisterMaryNapalm]

3 minutes ago, Glitterwolf said:

Looks great!

 

I think you're a bit too hard on yourself.

Most of us are.

 

But it really looks great!

 

 

Thanks - yes I guess it's like that. Still: I am not very satisfied. That bothers me.

[Glitterwolf]

Let go, learn from it, and move on to the next project.

 

And try not to be too hard on yourself.

Most of us are our own worst critics.

 

I recently painted a Bones Bat Demon, I didn't care much for it, but many people seemed to like it.

Just paint and build more..

[SisterMaryNapalm]

Yeah.

 

I know, I know.

[Cyradis]

This is really swell. I can't show one of my friends or else he'll make me start doing war dioramas for him too!