Over the past few weeks I spent some hours working on my Snow Crash diorama. My last effort to actually building something diorama-ish dates back roughly two years. And something of this size (32*42 cms surface) I can’t even recall the last time, perhaps 4-5 years ago. Working on the various elements, figures, aircraft, groundwork, planning etc.  reminded me though, that building dioramas requires all the skills you’ve got.

As the title already mentioned, the Aerosan crew is done, with some slight modifications to a set by the company TANK: They still require some weathering, but I’m saving that for when the diorma is nearing final completion.

There’s no question about it: modellers do need elaborate reference material and an extensive library. Here’s why:

Several steamy nights including hot carpentry and messing about with styrofoam lead to this translation of the previously shown layout:

From Balsa wood rods, bark paste, Asparegus fern leaves, 3M Spray Mount and static grass I made two fir trees and some fir tree parts (The Storch had hit into something, remember?). Here’s the green version of one of the trees….they will become white in the end:

Roughly testing the lay out of the different elements, always an exciting job as the idea comes to life:

I also started painting the Storch..finally. Pre-shading and base coating the bottom of the fuselage and wings:

One piece of advice: Masking the canopy with bare metal foils is the best thing you can do….said no modeller ever.

I applied it months ago, left it there for much too long and found last week that it was a helluva job peeling it off, finding glue residue all over the canopy. After removing all the bare metal foil, scraping it off actually, I removed the glue residue with Revel Painta Clean (don’t ask !) and then buffed it as well as I could and decided that I actually had something quite handy available and it may not come to a surprize to aircraft modellers:

Yes indeed. Alclad’s Aqua Gloss brought back the canopy  to an acceptable state, after I applied several layers with the airbrush, resulting in a look that is feasible for harsh winter conditions.

A hard lesson learned here….  After taking these images I used low tack masking tape te re-mask the canopy for futher painting.

I am going for a two-tone green camouflage for my little Storch. No white wash as I need some nice contrast to all that friggin’ white stuff, ha!

So that’s all for now folks….to be continued