My friends, tonight is diorama time,
featuring this grizzled IS-2 from Berlin 1945. My inspiration comes from this historical photo,
and I’ll try to… capture the essence of it. After I laid down the basic styrofoam mock-ups, I
could establish the length of the scene… 30 cm. In case you’ve seen my previous dioramas, I always
started with a plank of low-quality styrofoam… but this time I’m basing this scene on a piece
of cardboard. It actually comes from the kit box, and the reason for that is – I want to make an
oval base instead of the traditional rectangle or square. Um, there are tutorials on how to
draw an oval using a compass, so feel free to check them out if you’d like one yourself. Now
I could cut the shape, very carefully, mind you, so there would be no kinks, and just to be on
the sure side, I lightly smoothened out the oval with a sanding sponge.
A quick check of the
composition, and I think we’re good to proceed. The entire point of this was to glue the cardboard
base to a piece of styrofoam using double-sided tape. This way, the cardboard cutout will act as
a cutting template. It's something I’ve tried in the past and the good news is, if you have a foam
cutter, the hot wire won’t burn through cardboard, so you can draw and cut out any shape you want.
I’ve also cut all the important elements of the diorama using this method. Sometimes I
fixed them temporarily using toothpicks, in other cases, I glued them right
to the base with double-sided tape. You gotta make sure the cutting wire is
set exactly at 90 degrees, otherwise it’ll cause a mess.
Either way, the cuts won’t be always
perfect, but it’s still a great starting point. So that’s the basic shape of our diorama, and
I kinda speed-ran you through this process because everyone likes the actual construction and
painting techniques, so let’s get to that ASAP. Starting with the brick wall, I again carved
the bricks directly into the styrofoam. Although bricks are never a quick job, I find this method
much faster than making individual pieces and gluing them one by one on a styrofoam or cardboard
template. There’s, of course, very little room for mistakes, but if you measure twice and cut once,
everything is gonna be alright. Bricks are one of the most satisfying surfaces for me because you
can play around with lots of patterns, textures, color combinations, and all kinds of weathering
effects, so the tedious work at the beginning is always worth the fun during the painting stage.
I
especially like the flexibility of this material and how you can easily add all kinds of damage,
and basically sculpt the terrain behind it, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg, building
complete houses from this material is also fun, as I’ve already done in my Normandy diorama. So
that’s the brick wall finished and glued in place. Next up, is another man-made
structure, the bridge. The quickest way to build it was using the
styrofoam blocks as a template and the main construction material was a 0.4mm plastic sheet
from Evergreen. This way I knew the structure will be stiff and the geometry should remain perfectly
in check. I used PVA glue because plastic cement would destroy the styrofoam, and although
it’s not designed to hold plastic together, it worked pretty well and nothing fell apart.
Once the sides were laminated, I gave them a quick round of texturing using diluted Tamiya putty.
The
bridge will be rusty, and even the slightest hint of steel texture will help me during the painting
process. The remaining beams and steel profiles were constructed from 2mm Evergreen strips. I’m
not much of a scratch builder, but it really pays off to have these at hand as the results are much
better than cutting strips of styrene by yourself. Rivets were punched from tin foil,
and here I’m using a 1mm drill bit inserted the opposite way in a pin vice, so only
a small portion of the blunt end is protruding. You can shoot them out of the foil like
a rivet-making machine gun and it costs nothing! Another handy trick is gluing the metal
rivets with plastic cement. The softened plastic, or in this case, putty, will allow them to sink a
little into the surface, creating a pretty strong structural bond and the job is super clean,
unlike using superglue.
So that’s the bridge, ready to be glued in place. Yes, sadly, I’ll
have to paint it attached to the diorama. Next up I had to prepare a few sections of the
scenery. The fake bottom of the river was covered in a thin layer of lightweight acrylic putty,
just to create a sturdy surface and to protect the styrofoam from epoxy resin. The banks of
the river were sculpted from VMS Smart Mud, which is this absolutely awesome diorama clay.
I’ll talk about it in a moment. The main reason for this preparation was… concrete slabs for the
river bank. I decided to make them from sheets of cork, those you’d normally put under a hot plate.
Why didn’t I make them from styrofoam? Well, I don’t want the epoxy resin touching any
kind of styrofoam at all, that’s one reason, and second, after I textured the cork with
acrylic wood putty, I could add these awesome and ultra-realistic cracks because cork has a
very good texture for this.
It’s also a great material for building asphalt roads because it’s
sturdy and those cracks are super easy to make. So after supergluing them in place I blended
the upper edge with more VMS clay and blended the transition between the brick wall and the
dirt path using real earth from my garden. With the bank finished, I could glue the bridge
in place. Yes, I added the railing and some quick wood planks. Just to be on the safe side,
although, as you’ll see, none of them will be visible. Here I had to make sure the sides
were sitting perfectly flush with the base, because all of this effort led to the
next, very important step, laminating. For this diorama, I chose a 0.4mm thin veneer,
and to make my life easier, I’ve cut the sheet against the woodgrain, not along it. Having
no experience with oval bases until now, I thought it would be easier to
bend the wood over the round shape. Now it was just a problem of actually fixing
it in place… firmly and securely.
Basically, I started at the bridge, and I fixed this starting
point with a generous amount of superglue. The rest was about gluing one small section at a
time, and I basically started by squeezing a lot of PVA glue behind the wall… hoping it will spread
out and create a firm chemical bond. I didn’t have anything to hold the wood in place, so I pressed
the diorama against my manly chest and poured a lot of superglue at the top. And you thought
working out would have no effect on your modeling! Well, I hope it summed up the process
because it wasn’t very exciting… of course, I was left with a few gaps, but those were
mostly easy to fill with superglue, and once everything was dry and firm, I sanded them as
flush with the oval shape as humanly possible.
Before I could trim the excess veneer, I had to
construct the remaining elements of the diorama. The most tedious and unnerving step was making
the tree bridge… here I had to make a whole ton of logs from dried-up twigs until I had a
small chopped-down forest, although even this pile is only scratching the surface. So why was it
unnerving? As you know, my garden is my favorite and only source of natural materials, and for
this diorama, I picked it totally clean of any twigs laying on the ground. Seriously, my garden
was never cleaner, and I have a LOT of trees there. But okay, fixing them in place was about,
well..
Laying them on a pile, and then I sprinkled some dirt on top of them. I worked in a few
“levels” so to say, and each was fixed like this. Firstly, there would be dirt in real life, and
secondly, the earth mixed with diluted PVA glue would lock them in place, like concrete. Not to
mention, I could seal the bottom layer with earth, so no epoxy resin would start pouring out into the
void and eating through the styrofoam bridge or something.
The top layer required full-length
logs, and this is where I was stretching my resources very thin, but hey, somehow I had just
enough twigs and not a single one went to waste. This is also where I applied a lot of dirt, as
it would be carried here by passing vehicles. It’s basically a corduroy road and those
always seem to be packed with mud and dirt. The main body of the terrain was sculpted from the
VMS clay again, and what I wanted to say is that this is a final production batch that’s available
online. The first time I used it in the previous diorama, it was a prototype, and compared to that,
this one is moister, and it sticks to the surface much better. But you also have to leave it for
a while before you can start imprinting tracks or whatever into the surface.
But it’s still
one of my favorite diorama materials ever. Okay, now I could finally trim the excess
veneer, and because it’s only 0.4mm thin, it was almost like cutting paper. Well, carving
intricate shapes out of stiff wood is never fun, but it’s one of the main reasons I like
this material – you can construct a smooth, seamless wall even if the actual surface of the
diorama is very messy – such as a pile of logs. With the tree bridge finished, I wanted to see how
the tank’s gonna look in place. This is why I kept the suspension movable and removable – because
now I could slice off these positioning knobs that hold the swing arms at an even height. And
now, with the suspension alive, I could fit and glue it in place so it would perfectly match
the uneven corduroy bridge beneath the tank.
So when the tank finally found
its proper place in the scene, I could now better guess where the dirt road would
be. Of course, it would be totally destroyed by passing tanks and other heavy vehicles, so
I just added a few ruts with a paintbrush, and the rest was created by pressing the original
plastic tracks from the kit into the VMS clay. Once the clay was hard I flooded the entire
surface with diluted PVA. It’s easier to add texture in this manner because the loose dirt
would bounce around all day long, but when the surface is wet and sticky, it’ll stay in place.
This was my usual assortment of fine durst, larger clumps of earth, and whatnot, and I fused
it with the diorama by soaking the loose dirt with alcohol and then dripping more PVA on
top of it.
I also sprinkled some dried sea grass next to the road, to sort of visually
separate these two sections of the ground. Once everything was dry, I brushed
random clumps of undiluted PVA, trying to combine larger uneven shapes with
smaller blobs. This is our bed for grass – and I applied it with a static grass applicator. It’s
been a while since I did this because my last two dioramas were torn-up WW1 battlefields, and it’s
a very satisfying process. I only used one length, roughly 5 mm, because the reference photo shows
almost nothing, and something tells me that grass wouldn’t have the best living conditions
in a place like this.
Frequent traffic, all rainwater would get drained down the
wall and into the river, that kinda stuff. So anyway, my friends, this is the
final look of the constructed diorama. Every element is in place, although I’d prefer
painting some parts individually, the composition, the way things are laid down, didn’t allow
for it. let’s move to the painting workbench. This is one of the most toxic substances ever, so a proper gas mask with at least
30 minutes of air filters is a must. Okay, I know how everyone LOVES it when I
spray over everything with a thick layer of black primer, but that’s just who I am,
you know… it’s my way of making dioramas and how I approach their painting.
Okay, I won’t deny
that it would be possible to paint the individual elements carefully without priming, for example,
the brick wall could be painted with a brush, and the ground could be treated with enamel
effects just to give it some extra variation… actually, now that I said it, maybe
we’ll try that sometime in the future! But yeah, in the case of this diorama,
it was the best course of action, because there are lots of tight places where I won’t be
able to reach, such as under the collapsed bridge.
And now I’ll quickly show you how every element
was base-coated with an airbrush and Tamiya acrylics. The grass started its life with this
dry, sandy tone. It gives the finished grass more variation. Then I gave it a generous, but only
partial, treatment with a vivid green mixture. The thick black primer helps to create
artificial shadows in the grass, making it look denser and more lively. Finally,
a super vivid tone was added in small amounts. I just added more yellow to the previous mix
and sprayed it over the top of each tuft. The brick wall was first sprayed
with this pretty dark rusty color. Once again, the black primer helps to build
artificial shadows between individual bricks, making the brickwork look, you know, more
3-dimensional. Then I kept making the color lighter by adding more yellow, just like with the
grass, and I found this approach more efficient than painting each brick in a different tone using
a paintbrush as I did in my previous attempts. The truth is, brickwork in
real life isn’t that random, and just a few different tones here and
there are more than enough for a base layer.
The trees were painted in different greyish tones.
Here the primer does most of the heavy lifting because there are a lot of shadowed places on this
bridge. Also, varying the opacity of the color adds more tonal variation, because the underlying
primer changes the tone to a more greyish, dull tone. We’ll make the tree bark more
evident with paintbrushes, but for now, this will do just fine as a base coat. And, of
course, the exposed sections where the trees were cut are supposed to be bright, and this
was also very fast when done with an airbrush. The rusty bridge was painted using
the same colors as the brick wall. But here I started with pure
Hull Red sprayed unevenly, and once again, the black primer and how opaque
the paint is gives the surface its own unique tone.
Some variation was of course added with the
yellow, but this might serve as a good example showing how you can achieve different textures
with the same colors if you vary their intensity. Concrete slabs were picked
out with a warm greyish tone, just don’t use white because it would look
very unnatural. The bottom of the river was painted in the same color as I’ll use to
tint the epoxy resin. It should give it a bottomless feel. And finally, the ground received
two semi-translucent coats. I tried spraying the earth tones from above, so the loose stones
would cast their own shadows. The primer can give some trouble here, because even though I
used the same paint for weathering on the tank, here it has a different tone thanks to the black
undercoat.
But I’ll adjust it with enamels. So that’s the base with every element
picked out in its respective base color. From raw materials through a uniform coat of
black to this vivid, sort of smooth, because it’s airbrushed, look. Let’s now treat each
element separately and give it a unique finish. GRASS This one is already finished, nothing
to do here, I love happy vivid grass. BRICKS
Here it’s not gonna be so easy, but it’s gonna be heaps of
fun. I started by adding a very uneven layer of mortar between some bricks. I’m using
lightweight acrylic putty from Bergswerk, and I gotta say it’s an awesome medium for
this job. Previously I tried using wet plaster or a dry mix of plaster and fine sand. But
this process is much cleaner, and faster, and the results feel more authentic.
And now I
could give it a nice acrylic weathering treatment. I like to add more remnants of the mortar with
a few selective filters using diluted white. Just here and there to differentiate a few
bricks. To blend it more with the ground, I added heavy filters and streaking effects using
diluted Light Mud from Vallejo. This also gives them a nice weathered, dusty look. So much so that
it can be used to differentiate even more bricks, making them look older. Darker tones were added
with black-brown, and I focused it around the damaged sections where bricks are missing. Some
subtle streaks of dirt running down those holes, some extra variation over the bricks,
a few washes for the mortar lines, it’s endless fun! Finally, some mossy residue
towards the bottom because moisture can and will cause such effects.
And it adds more visual
interest, so it’s an absolute win on all fronts! And that’s the finished brick wall. A quick base
coat with an airbrush and a few effects added with diluted acrylic paints. Very easy once you
get the hang of it and you’ll never get bored. CONCRETE SLABS One might find this surprising, but I used
the same color palette to paint and weather the concrete slabs. It’s the different base
coat that gives them their own, unique look, and the weathering visually ties them together
with the brickwork. I just had to keep in mind that concrete affected by water has a
slightly different finish than usual. I found a few reference pictures where I found
large accumulations of dark grimy patina and large remnants of algae.
The cracks were emphasized with
black paint, and this might be very over-the-top, but it kinda works in the grand scheme of
things. Adding a white outline under the crack gives it a more 3-dimensional look. Maybe I’ll try
a more subtle color next time because the white is really strong and unnatural. And the algae
was created with Fine Turf from Woodland Scenics. It’s basically crushed foam and you can make it
at home from a kitchen sponge and a cheese grater. This stuff was also painted, and it’s
my usual technique for painting moss, however, here I added more variation
by making the lower portions darker. Once again, observed in reference pictures.
Good, another element is done, and soon enough half of them are gonna be
flooded by murky river water. BRIDGE This is a large metal structure, so I had to give
it more attention. The first coat was a layer of chipping fluid. Then a thin, uneven layer of
German Grey which is an excellent color for raw, steel finishes.
This paint was scratched and
chipped to give it a nice, textured look. I based this on a reference photo where
the bridge wasn’t completely rusted-out. After sealing this effect with flat varnish
and giving it another coat of chipping fluid, I sprayed a light coat made from german grey
and white. Two layers of this mill scale were visible in my reference, and I think it’ll give
it a pretty unique texture, differentiating the bridge from everything else in the diorama. Rivets
were quickly highlighted with a dark grey color, this is also visible in many reference images,
and larger spots of mill scale were painted with a brush.
This is a pretty interesting effect
and it looks odd for sure, but that’s almost how it looks in real life. Just large, random spots
of grey mixed with smaller patches, almost like chipping for exposed steel finishes. I proceeded
with an enamel pin wash, and I chose this tone because it would also give the surface a grimy,
weathered finish. So I wasn’t too worried if there was too much excess paint, I just blended it
outward creating stains and emphasizing shadows. Finally, the steel texture was completed
by blending various tones of rust-colored enamels. I tried to be random, but not chaotic
with their placement, and some stains were used to blend and tone down the brush applied mill
scale. Some enamels tend to leave glossy stains called tide marks, so you might need to fix
those with a quick blast of flat varnish, but overall, these dried to a completely flat
authentic looking finish.
And it was achieved with these Pigment Jockeys from VMS. Ever heard
of them? Me neither. That’s because they’re brand new and I kinda helped VMS with their development.
Okay, cool, cool, so the bridge is also finished, and we already have 3 important elements out of
the way. Let’s now focus on the least fun part. TREE BRIDGE
This was the only place I wished I kept it in its raw color.
But then again, I wouldn’t be able to add more variation to this pile of wood – for example, I
painted some logs to make them look like birches. These will stand out pretty nicely I think.
Painting the remaining trees individually would drive anyone insane, including me, so I opted for
the dry-brushing method.
Each log was treated with various mixtures and intensities of dark grey,
black-brown, very dark reddish-brown and so on, based on reference pictures. The bark texture was
emphasized with medium and light grey. Even when I was walking outside and looking at trees, their
trunks are mostly very dark brownish-grey with strong hints of green – that’s moss, of course.
So I started doing that by giving them a generous wash made from diluted oil paints, the same I
used on the tank – Industrial Earth and Sepia from 502 Abteilung. And then, my favorite step
when it comes to wood, blending Slimy Grime from Ammo for those moss accumulations. I went heavy
with this effect because the mass of grey wood needed some additional color. And also, because a
lot of it would get toned down with earth colors. The top of the bridge is packed with earth, so I
sprayed a thick layer of Buff over every patch of dirt.
That’s the so-called pre-dusting technique
because it acts as a base for enamels. This is where I’ll bridge the topic from the bridge to the
groundwork because they both kinda blend together with this technique. As I was adding the enamel
earth effects, I realized how the corduroy bridge is connected to the groundwork, specifically the
dirt road. So I quickly treated it in the same manner – blending Heavy Mud enamel effects from
Ammo and adding a few selective washes made from oil paints using the wet blending method..
In
other words, adding more paints over a layer of wet paint. The only exception was the road
where I added the oils more selectively into the track marks. It’s a very efficient way
of bringing out various terrain features, because sure, we placed them there, but sometimes they’re
too small or shallow to stand out on their own. As such, I highlighted them with the drybrush method
using a light earth color. And it wouldn’t be my diorama if some of the individual stones weren’t
picked out using various acrylics, now would it? Sometimes it helps to paint those
in specific locations, for example, sandy and earth colors can add more variation,
but lighter tones can suggest rocks, pebbles, or gravel.
A large number of rocks at the bottom
of the crater might suggest all the rocks that are underground but were exposed by the shell impact.
So that’s the groundwork and the tree bridge all finished up! Note how I used earth colors
to blend the tank tracks with the tree logs. Not only does it make sense that the trees
would get dirty from passing vehicles, but it also visually ties the tank and the
ground together. And now for the best part! EPOXY RESIN It’s time to make the river, and that
means meticulously taping it off, and creating an improvised dam. Tamiya tape is
more than enough for small amounts of resin. Speaking of which, it’s again gonna by my favorite
resin water from AK. The process is simple: mix it in a 2:1 ratio and your success is almost
guaranteed.
I had no idea how much water would I need for each layer, so I started with 8ml of
resin, and 4 ml of hardener. Stir, don’t shake, because that would introduce more bubbles than
needed, and then I tinted it with 7 drops of Khaki Drab. This is a LOT of paint and the resin
became pretty much opaque. Not a great thing, but not too bad either… at least the fake bottom
of the river will remain invisible. I repeated the same procedures as with my 1917 diorama, which
actually became one of my most successful videos, no doubt thanks to the epoxy water, and this
time I really enjoyed the process.
Everything was sealed tightly, and the shape of the
river was simple, so it was an easy pour. Removing the air bubbles with a blowtorch is one
of the most satisfying things in this process, and it leaves us with a perfectly clean and
smooth surface. I poured the first layer at 9PM and left it to cure overnight, sealed in a
plastic container so it wouldn’t catch any dust. The next morning at 9AM sharp I was met with
a rock-hard, glass-like surface with no leaks. Absolutely perfect. Knowing that I’ll need a
lot more resin this time, I mixed it in 20ml and 10ml ratio, adding only 5 drops of paint,
making it more opaque.
I did the same thing, pouring it evenly, spreading out with an airbrush
needle so it would touch everything that should be touched, and then I poured in the rest. This way
you’ll be sure the resin will spread out evenly. There were a ton of bubbles in this layer,
but that made the blowtorch even happier and I was more satisfied. Cover it up once
again, and get back to it in the evening. 10PM sharp and I’m once again met with a
river-shaped glass surface. What a day, am I right? The final layer was once again
30ml in total volume, but I added only 2 drops of paint. I’m mentioning these ratios
for everyone's sake, including me, so next time I can get back to this video and remember that
you only need a couple of paints for a large volume of resin. That’s, of course, if you want
to see at least something under the water surface. This one had the bubbliest personality
of the bunch, and my Dremel blowtorch was singing from happiness as it was bursting all
those bubbles. Seal it up for the final time, and leave it like that overnight.
The next morning I was once again, it’s hard to believe, met with yet another
glass-like surface.
What a day, friends. So I quickly ripped off the tape and was met with
this interesting color transition. It works pretty well with the black outline on the veneer, right?
Not wasting any time, I trimmed the raised edge where the resin crawled up on the Tamiya tape and
treated the sides with glossy varnish from Tamiya. It looks so good I wanna taste it,
but I don’t recommend biting too hard. Okay, let’s destroy the beautiful surface with
waves. I wasn’t so sure what texture a flowing river has, especially if it’s partially blocked
with a collapsed bridge, so I looked up some references. Lo and behold, the actual river
in Berlin was exactly what I was looking for. I don’t know how you read it in English, is
it Spree? I think Germans pronounce it as Spree, right? Anyway, it was the same
texture as I made in my 1917 diorama, but I added some extra contours with an airbrush.
Once the gel was dry, I added another, thinner layer, this time stippling it with a soft
paintbrush and pushing it towards the bridge. Basically, even a calm flowing river has
a very chaotic surface and this might represent it pretty well.
The final stage was
adding water foam with a dedicated product. I never used it before, but as it turns out, the
application is simple. Just be absolutely sure where you wanna place it, and less is definitely
better. It totally makes sense around the bridge, and even if it’s not totally authentic, it looks
pretty good. Where it didn’t look very good were some of the larger waves. The
bad news – it’s impossible to remove, so I had to hide it with some airbrushing
and whatnot… pretty much ruining the surface. I know, this is so sad, but I take it as a lesson
for my future self. So that’s the river finished! IVAN The final element is a resin figure from Evolution
Miniatures. This is my first experience with this brand and if every figure is as good as this
one, then I’m totally sold.
I painted it using my traditional glazing method, which I’ve
meticulously described in a dedicated video, so here’s instead the finished soldier. I
enjoyed painting every part of this miniature, and to be as efficient as possible, I was
painting it while the resin water was drying. So I superglued him in his honorable spot, and the last touch was painting the sides of
the diorama black, so all your attention would be directed towards the scene, not the fancy
veneer treated with some fancy wood stain.
And that’s the finished diorama, my dudes and
dudettes. What do you think about it? It’s based on a historical photograph, although
I didn’t copy it to the last detail… for example, in the photos there
are Polish IS-2s passing the river, but I really wanted a Soviet one with those
invasion stripes and bears painted on the turret… after all, that’s why I named the diorama
Bears Crossing… like those road signs you have in America and Canada, right? Sometimes
it’s fun to copy a historical picture, other times it’s more enjoyable to be inspired
and take some elements from a photo, or multiple photos. Well, I certainly had fun with this scene,
except for the tree bridge, but I knew that would be a chore… however, I kinda wanted to build
this diorama for many, many years, pretty much since I saw those photographs for the first time…
I just didn’t know I’d be into dioramas back then, so now it was the perfect excuse to finally
give it a try and pull it off to some extent. It took me a little over two weeks from start to
finish, and I’m glad it’s now gonna be a part of my collection.
But hey, this is probably my
longest video so far, and that means you’ve probably stopped watching at this point, so I’m
just gonna give my usual copy-pasted speech, okay? Thank you for watching my friends, and also, thank
you to my Patrons who make this show possible! If you like what I’m doing, wanna get
more of it, and in return support my work, you can go to my Patreon page and see what kind of
rewards would you like.
I’m posting there almost every day with updates from my workbench, we can
get in touch through DMs, comments, and e-mails, I’m posting one week early ad-free videos
so you could watch the next video right now, I mean, if there is gonna be a video next week
because I wanna surprise you with another full diorama video, also these beautiful studio
photos which you can download in full resolution, and last but not least, some
real-life references for dioramas, sceneries, and landscapes. And, of course, small
3D models for detailing your tanks and dioramas. Okay, so that’s gonna be it for this
one, and I need to clean my workbench. I also resumed my house renovations, and that
means I have to ration my time between work, aka modeling and filming, and modeling in a
real-life scale on my home… I also wanna make another diorama that should be pretty simple,
and I want it to be a surprise for all of you, so I’ll try to make it into one full video, okay?
And you, my friends, stay safe, stay awesome, build your models, don’t just collect them
and I’ll see you in the next one, cheers!
