A Stuka in Winter
After finishing my last diorama depicting a jungle scene, I decided to go for something from the other side of the globe. So here is my little snow scene with a Stuka, and a crewman pondering whether he will be flying today...
The Stuka is Academy's 1/72 kit, completely OOB. A buddy of mine and I decided to do a "simul-build" - that is, both of us will simultaneously build the same kit. He lives on the other side of the country from me, so we update each other via email. I was going a little more quickly than him, so to slow myself down I decided to build a little base for the Stuka. Our rules said OOB, but didn't say anything about a base :). I carved the basic groundwork out of a sheet of insulation foam, then cut dozens of wooden coffee stirrers up for the planking. I put down a layer of Vallejo "European Mud" and then pressed the planks into this. Once dry, I used Vallejo "Snow" for the underlayer. This and the mud are both acrylic pastes that dry rock hard. On top of the Vallejo product I used several of the AK Interactive Snow products to get the right texture for newly-fallen snow on top of the packed down stuff. I played around with various other AK products to get the mud effect. The trees are just twisted wire, with a coat of white glue to thicken parts, and then a few coats of paint. The little bushes are from Army Painter. Various crates/barrels/tarps are some neat little resin products put out by Value Gear, and the aircrew figure is from CMK. Although he probably shouldn't be smoking around the airfield, his pose called out to be for him to be doing just that.
The Academy kit was pretty smooth building - with a few little glitches here and there. Since it was totally OOB, I concentrated on doing a clean assembly and paint job. This was my first time using Mission Models paints, and I have to say I love them. I used Eaglecal decals as I wanted an Eastern Front Stuka that wasn't Rudels.
Some light snow on top of the Stuka finished off the work, and now I can park this next to my jungle scene. Next up (at least in my head) is something from the Mediterranean
Hey Paul. Nice job. Love the snow. I'm currently in the middle of a snow scene dio myself.
BRRRRR! It sure looks cold, Paul!
You've done a great scene here. I love snow scenes. They seem hard to do believably for one reason or another. Thanks for the product hints. Boris @raikisan and I have plans to do a similar (to each other) winter scene. I suspect he'll finish his before I do, but the hints will matter to us both.
Bravo!
Nicely done...you really captured the "look" there - I like it!
Very nice dio! Never did a snow dio, and I find yours quite motivating and inspirational. I'll have to give it a try one day I guess.
Cheers!
Dolf
That's so cool it's cold enough you can see the guy's breath frost. Better get some folks with brooms out there to clear those wings or there's going to be a big crash at the end of the runway!
Really enjoyed looking at this, Paul. Lovely effects and great build. Liked the snowman, too!
very nice...the Stuka always reminds me of a Pterodactyl ...like everybody else the scene gives me a chill
Beautiful job and you really pulled off the realistic looking snow! The idea of trying snow scares the life out of me ha ha!
Great build and diorama!
Thank you all for the nice comments!
two quick additional thoughts.
for some reason, the Vallejo 'mud' and AK snow products did NOT play well together at all. initially, the whole base was covered in the Vallejo mud, and then when it was dry I used the AK snow products on top. One day later I had yellow snow. Seriously, it looked like some large creature decided to make yellow snow on my diorama. I had to strip the whole thing down, except around the planking, and then base it with the Vallejo snow. That was pure white, so the AK stuff went down without any issue
the AK stuff is really great and I highly recommend. I used 3 of their products on this: 8011 Snow Terrain is a good base to represent old, packed snow. 8009 Snow Sprinkles is representative of wet, new snow. and 8010 is Snow powder/microballoons for powdery, newly fallen snow. I did a thin layer of Terrain overall, then added the Sprinkles in selective spots (including the planking), and then while things were still wet applied the powder. For the snow on the aircraft I sprayed patches of clear flat, then quickly sprinkled bits of the powder on. The powder needs a fixative or it comes right off.
hope that is of some help to those working on snow dios!
I have done a few practice runs and little scenes with AK's beach sand products, and that will be incorporated in my next project.
Excellent additional info, Paul! Thanks a lot for those very useful tips!
Cheers!
Dolf
Great looking model and dio! I also love the snowman - great touch.