Miniart Hotel Ruin

Rui S
I've just be peeking some of your last photoalbuns and I really like your "alternative" methods... As they say, I'm in...Following???...

M.Julian Marles
Thanks! I am a bit older at 43 so I dont mind drybrushing and washes. I use filters and preshading too. Not a big PE guy but I have a few things kicking around!😉

Augie
Dude... not good enough for the ol'shelf.. are you bonkers?? its ruddy amazing!

Rui S
M.Julian I was mainly speaking about your Tamiya Sd.Kfz.251/9 Kanonenwagen project...photos 18 to 21. Keep the wine coming... I'm with you no PE unless it comes with the kit, but I use the nesquick chocolate metal can sealing, hehe... The alternative cames from the John Van Kooten comment, but I added the ""...

Rui S
My Opel Blitz as precisely the same bench covered with tissue (photo 20) as your Late Opel Blitz, only different colour. So It was natural my first comment...

M.Julian Marles
@ Augie.. thanx!

M.Julian Marles
Rui, ha I see what u mean. Yes, wine foil is a real lifesaver! As well as high density styrofoam which is carveable😉

Rui S
Yap, high density or low density, and so many other so called "alternative" material's like coffee grounds, and so on...

Kerry COX
MJM, I was at the local library the other day and I happened to pick up a book about the "Blitz" and the street scenes of the damage was just amazing and I wondered if many modellers actually use these books as reference material, as it is a most complex subject to replicate.

M.Julian Marles
Kerry I've definitely used photos and you are right . Even for a small building the volume needs to multiply five fold to accurately portray all the rubble and debris . Not only the obvious bricks and stones but floorboards , wiring, plumbing, light fixtures etc!

Kerry COX
MJM, I could see that there is a mass of work and thought that has gone into your street scene here, and that is what prompted me to ask that question, because what I see here is some of those images I saw, and beautifully done is what I am saying as well. 🙂

M.Julian Marles
Kerry, thank you my friend....coming from a modeller of your calibre that's really nice😉 ...I've spent a bit of time in the demolition as well as construction business so I definitely look back on that as well as period photos, and of course thinking about the building and what might have been in it when it got shelled. A house would have everything from coal shuttles and china cabinets to stoves, magazines, etc. In this case a cozy hotel ...so I was lucky enough to happen upon some plastic doll furniture that seemed to fit the bill, as well as scavenged and scrounged items (drinking straw pipe, foam stones, spare bits, etc. ) 😛....I found a little bag of railroad door hinges which are perfect for 1/35 doors..they are brass and work! In this case my challenge was to fit a small vehicle in a really small vignette base so I "imagined" this block being taken then retaken - hence the old French poster and the bent German tactical road sign on the ground. Somewhere along the way a unit or two has cleared the street of rubble and tossed the door aside for access inside the bedraggled building. Surely refugees and stragglers woudl have salvaged things too if there was no immediate combat as well...This is a convenient reason why in this case there is less rubble than would normally be found. Thanks for the kind words everybody!