three-tone camoulage scheme
which took inluence from actual
schemes rather than being a direct
match, and then added more
chipping and washes. It wasn’t until
I completed the kit that I decided to
show the halftrack on
a base. I had a piece
of MDF which was
just a bit bigger than
the model itself andwent to work thinking about ways
to pack as much detail as possible
into the small space. Two elements I
wanted to incorporate were a new (to
me) technique of making long grass
using hemp ibers, and a section of
rail track which I had going spare. I
positioned the track and rusted it to
look disused and then illed between
the sleepers with cat litter and sand
to look like stones.
After trying the halftrack to the
base, I wanted something in the
background with a little height, so I
used foam board to create a platform
and them carved some blue foam
for the building and added a rusty
hoist made from plastic stock to
add even more interest. This was
all painted up with acrylics and
weathered with pigments. The inal
aspect of the base was the grass. I
took some plumbers hemp and dyed
it with green acrylics which were
then cut into clumps ready for ixing.
I mixed up some dirt and white glue,
applied this thickly to the base and
the grass clumps were embedded
into the dirt, leaving crushed areas
for the tracks. Once dry I used some
lighter greens on the grass tops to
add realistic depth. I then weatheredthe halftrack with thinned Lifecolor
acrylics then various earth toned
pigments to match the base. The inal
touch was adding some stowage
made with Green
Stuf including a
large canvas cover
rolled back to show
of the interior. I
don’t usually start
dioramas halfway
through a build, but I’m glad I
did on this occasion as I think it
deinitely adds more interest to
the inished model.78 SCALE MILITARY MODELLER INTERNATIONAL
diorama
Scale 1:35 / Sd.kfz.250/1