scratch building

chrisswim · Post by **chrisswim** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:11 am

Andy,
What do you make your antennas with on your Hummv? Thank you.

chrisswim · Post by **chrisswim** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 8:11 am

Andy,
What do you make your antennas with on your Hummv? Thank you.

Andy T · Post by **Andy T** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 5:07 pm

The antenna on the later Israeli stuff are made from the bristle's of a cheap household paint brush I picked up in a DIY (B & Q) shop here in the UK.
The brush had a head of mixed brown/Black/White/Grey bristle - I just cut out the white ones as I need them.

Andy

PostHumanRepublican · Post by **PostHumanRepublican** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 5:55 pm

I also use cheap brush bristles. For $1 at walmart you can get a large brush with black synthetic bristles which is enough to put antennas on hundreds of vehicles. I am considering a switch over to .4mm diameter brass rod though.

Andy T · Post by **Andy T** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 5:10 pm

pmskaar wrote:Andy

All your work is excellent and inspiring. Thanks for sharing it with us. How did you make the tall palm trees?

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

Pete, the Palm trees are from these folks, standard Date Palms in various sizes, not cheap but you don't need many and they are very good.

The Model Tree Shop in the UK (direct link removed per forum rules - thanks! cama)

Andy

ferret701 · Post by **ferret701** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 12:43 am

Alright, inspired by Nazgul's gun truck, I went ahead and created a bunch of HEMTT gun trucks of my own. I'll readily admit that the quality of my work isn't in the same league, but they should look interesting when they are painted up.

I used GHQ's US WWII halftrack crewmen for the machinegunners. I tried using modern US infantry, but they were way too large. Somewhere in the workshop I have packs of old GHQ Air Mobile Inf and Mech Inf from the 1970s, and I want to see if any of those guys would work out.

Pat

And this final item is Gamecraft Miniature's Pallet conversion kick on the same HEMTT:

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 1:42 pm

A lot of inspiring work here

. Thanks for sharing.

ferret701, I really like what you have done, makes me want to make more. At first I wasn't happy with how thick the add on armor looked so I made it look thinner by filing the edges at a 60 degree angle until I reached what I felt was right. Then I rounded the inside edge of the bevel to hide what I did. Its a kind of "make due with what I had" approach and I thought it looked better. I did the same thing with the Viet Nam gun trucks I made. To be honest the thicker pieces are really easier to handle and don't fly off like the .005 thick pieces did.

tstockton · Post by **tstockton** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:38 pm

For thinner panels of armor or other surface details, here's a trick a learned somewhere back down the road...

Cardstock.

You can buy it in 8.5 x 11" sheets, 5 x 8", 4 x 6" and 3.5 x 5" index cards -- or those "annoying" little cards they stick in magazines. (Yep, same stuff!) Rather thin, easy to work with, and relatively inexpensive -- free if you get magazines, or if you get "junk mail" printed on the same stuff! Me likey free!!

There are three tricks to using cardstock that I've found:

1. Use a really, REALLY sharp knife to cut your "panels" -- a very clean, crisp edge will make the finished product look cleaner.

2. Apply to your model with CA, super glue, ACC, Krazy Glue, whatever...

3. When the panel is dry -- affixed to the model -- "paint" the panel with a coat of your choice of super glues. This layer will fill in the "gaps" in the cardstock that you would not notice until you apply a primer and/or finish coat to the model. Think of it in the same way you'd use sanding sealer on a balsa wood model. Works exactly the same way.

OR... if you want even thinner layers -- use paper. The same steps I've mentioned will apply just as well to paper. I wouldn't try something as coarse as a paper bag or newspaper -- but plain ol' copy paper works quite well, as does the envelopes your "junk mail" gets enclosed in. Cheap! Cheap!

Hope you find this of some use in your scratchbuilding and/or modifying.

Regards,
Tom Stockton

shadowspears · Post by **shadowspears** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 10:02 am

Those look great.

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 11:28 am

Hitting the site on and off. A lot of beautiful work here guys!

Finally mounted some of the misc. buildings and they really opened up the city.

The local Police Department finally got some funding and beefed-up its patrol vehicles. Military surplus, just need a paint job for SWAT

. (Just in time for St. Pats

)

Whish · Post by **Whish** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 1:24 pm

That table is looking very good Nazgul. What are the dimensions of it please ?

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 1:49 pm

Its actually a 24" x 36" dry erase board. Its metal and allows the magnet strips that's under the pieces to stay in place. I've played games with modular boards and have had the maps slide all over the place.Too bad we didn't have this stuff YEARS ago

. I'm thinking of getting another and hanging the board with the pieces on the wall between games.

whoa Mohamed · Post by **whoa Mohamed** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 9:57 pm

I also see alot of the Scratch built civilian vehicles you have built over the last few years .
Nas they really shine now on your city board ...To bad you could not have made masters and had them cast I would have bought some ...really great job brother .....Mikey

Nazgul · Post by **Nazgul** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 2:45 am

Thanks, sometimes I luck out and things work out. Most of the things I do is just to see if I can and as therapy. Still haven't gotten to making any reasonable tires / rims for vehicles

. If GHQ wanted I would send some to them so they could clean them up, detail, and add to their lines.

Banging around on the net I've noticed a gap in several scales for modern (1940s to present) vehicles. Too bad some one doesn't make them in 1/240th scale (a nice niche between Z scale, 6mm, and 1/285th). It would satisfy the model railroad and wargaming groups (not to mention architectural models) and could be possibly self sustaining. Make generic enough vehicles so as not to require any license and walla! Just my opinion.

I've still have a few ideas on the old dry erase board (German landing craft, river craft and barges for the Mississippi, and some river front pieces for the Block Party).

The M108s were modified from GHQ M109. I removed some of the detail off of the front sides and the front top. I removed the barrel and mounted thin strips beside the new one. The bore evacuator is a bit long, but it works for me. Have to eventually give them a detailing when I get some M113 FSVs. (Have some ideas for eventual Aussie missions in Viet Nam.)

I have to thank you and the others for inspiration and encouragement.

Whish · Post by **Whish** » Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:43 am

When I was looking at your photos again I just noticed something missing on the board that I thought would help it a lot. Maybe it crosses the line between being a usable gaming table and a display only diorama, but power poles and traffic lights would really look good??? Are there any makers of these in 6mm scale and would they just get in the way when gaming??
Please take this as a constructive suggestion only and not a criticism.

scratch building

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