Kornet-D Diorama

[Paul_Doran]

Hey,
Currently working on a diorama set in Ukraine.

Have had the Zvezda Kornet-D model for over 5 years now and finally got around to doing something with it, a diorama.
So will be twinning it with some Ukrainian figures and a base made from cork / some PLA.
Hopefully can advance my skills with the combination of figures, battle damage and basing.
Not aiming for accuracy, just something that looks good (hopefully) at the end and enjoying the journey.

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/zvezda-3682-tiger-with-atgm-kornet--1017254
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/master-box-mb35225-defence-kharkiv-march-2022--1411271

Technique Advice - Damaged Bullet Proof Glass

If you are doing the really thick glass, like on a humvee, MRAP, or similar, you can use thin 1/16 or 1.5mm acrylic plastic (Plexiglass, Perspex). Add damage as descried above. Ken

[Paul_Doran]

Work so far.

• Kornet is built and the interior is painted.
• Build was enjoyable so far, with nothing too awkward at this stage.
• Not sure if the Tamiya clear green on the glass has worked at all to be honest, but its on now

[Paul_Doran]

• First pass on the base colour.
• Oversprayed badly on the hood but should cover up with later parts.
• My joins on the roof are very rough but plan to cover the front and back with some camo nets to hide it.

[Paul_Doran]

• Camouflage added, used AK putty to mark it out, which lead to some odd lines on some of the edges.
• Over all pretty happy with the outcome, still have to fill in more of the details.
• the Z on the front is a bit massive, but will chip it a bit and see where it gets to, over spray on the window will maybe get hidden by damage.

[Paul_Doran]

• Base is cork supported by a 3D printed frame.
• Basic B/W on the figures is done.
• Very very poor at figures so the next step is a big leap, hopefully I can do the nice figures justice.

[metalhead85]

Excellent paint job on the vehicle Paul

[Paul_Doran]

Thanks!

[Paul_Doran]

Back after some time away on holidays, but trying to keep myself honest with uploads.
Bench is also a bit cluttered so the photos are not great.

Work Complete:

Did some very light sponge wear with LeadBelcher from Citadel and a sponge.

Then Oil Dots
One of the techniques I really like trying to get better at every time.
I tried Blue this time in the mix which went a lot further than expected (or really wanted).
Still relatively happy with the outcome.
Will look better in the light and after matte varnish and some weathering.

Before:

After:

Figures

Attempted to do some kine of MultiCam / Digital scheme.
But my choice of colours / base coat was too off the cuff.
And… more importantly my sponge technique is not good at all.
Really a skill in itself that I need to work on but it looks passable in real life.
Still have some highlighting and dark washing to do so it should turn out alright in the end.

Next Steps
Gaz

• Matte varnish for all parts.
• Put the whole model together.
• Weathering.

Figures

• Get out the wet palette and start doing fine brush work / highlighting.
• Take on the hardest step of doing the faces to a decent standard.

Overall

• Happy to be back at it.
• Going to full assemble and “finish” the Gaz, I’m at the point where I need to feel like some parts of it are getting completed. Even if its not the best option overall.

[Paul_Doran]

Back from some time on Holidays and have some small updates.

• Wheels are on and most parts have decals.
• Had a massive issue with the front left window falling out, so that will have to be covered with camo netting .
• Overall I think it will be good enough to fit into the diorama and once it has a bit of dust and mud it will look decent.

Next Steps

• Spray some gauze and place it in a few places;
  • Front and back of the roof to hide some ugly seams (not a good blender of gap filling).
  • Left side partially to cover the broken / not fixed window.
• Repaint the gun ports with a darker glaze (currently very bright).
• A bit more wear and tear to front window and around the vehicle.
• Stick on all the doors and then dust and mud to finish.

[Paul_Doran]

The Figures;

• Bit the bullet and got out the wet pallet and started doing details.
• Really happy with the body / guns, they look a lot better with a pass of highlights and clean up.
• The faces ….. are good enough with my skills.
  • I cannot do eyes correctly at all.
  • I struggle with getting contrasts on such a small space. Definitely a time to look at tutorials and try more figures in the future.
• Was happy I finally got the wet pallet out and took the plunge. Most enjoyable figure painting so far by a long shot.

Next Steps;

• Gloss varnish and then a dark wash, this will make them look way better and add all of the needed shadows.
• The matt varnish, full assembly and a tiny bit of show dusting.
• Should fit very nicely into the Diorama.

The base has yet to be started on but I have high hopes for the clay.

Thanks for reading!

[Paul_Doran]

Some more updates.

Few steps forwards and a few back

Camo Netting;

• Decided to go with a big sheet over the top, with some cutouts for the launchers.

• Will affix with some PVA and give it some more natural shapes.

• 
  

Diorama Base;

• Learning air dry clay != epoxy putty.
• It probably should have been obvious to me but I thought I could get away with rolling a thin layer of clay for the base inset.
• Which promptly cracked in a bunch of places as it shrunk whilst curing.
• I should have assumed something like that would happen, and it mostly stayed intact in the corners where I used a much thicker amount.
• So,
  • have ordered Milliput
  • Cut as much clay off the base as possible
  • And used a bunch of it to create some flagstones / rubble that I will build into a barrier on the base
• So a fixable mistake with some use going forwards. And a lesson learned.

[Bison126]

Nice job on the vehicle. I missed it till now.

Keep on the good work.

Olivier

[Paul_Doran]

Back again and thank you all for checking out the thread and leaving kind words.

Have been making progress on the base (just not on making posts )

Base Work - Road Surface

After the mess that was the Air Dry clay I had to patch up the base with Miliput (forgot to get a picture of this). Was able to get a fairly uniform surface and fill the gaps between the clay I couldn’t remove.

Then it was time for the AK asphalt terrain product. I have used their mud terrain before and had high hopes for the asphalt.

Buy terrains asphalt 250ML online for 9,50€ | AK-Interactive

It took about 3 / 4 coats and a good bit of leveling but I think a lot of that was due to the islands of modelling clay that I couldn’t remove. Also it has the modelling wonder of going on as this weird goo and then slowly drying into a cool road like texture.

I think if I just started with a flat cork base again it would have gone easier.

Once I prime and get painting on it and road markings I think it will look as realistic as I am going to get. Was really nice to have a success with it after the Air Dry clay went so badly.

I also began to build up the features on the end of the base with the intention of using my little plaster bricks to build a wall.

Gaz Work - Camo

I cracked out the PVA and moulded the camo into a more natural shape.

Pretty happy with how it turned out, the pictures aren’t great.

All that remains is some dust and mud but going to add that later on as the rest of the Dio gets closer to completion.

[Paul_Doran]

Base Work - Barricade and Flower Bed (?)

Next up was to build up the flower bed with some bricks. The general idea is the Gaz has taken fire, panic turned and ended up stranded on the bricks. (It won’t look dynamic but thats the story I have in my head).

I went with using plaster to try and grout in the bricks but in retrospect this was not the best idea. The plaster dried too fast and as you can see the brick work is really really wonky. For the top set I used superglue and then washed very dilute plaster into the gaps, which is what I should have done from the start. But hey its all learning and I am going to get out the scribe and try and add back some definition to it.

For the backside I blanked this off with plasticard and then covered in a layer of Miliput. And then while watching it dry I decided to have a go at scribing in some bricks. I’m not sure if its better or worse than the other option but it was fun and will be left black like the surround so won’t impact the display.

The part I was really happy with was the rubble / barricade. I had all of the air clay paving stones I made and I twinned these with some really nice AK pallets and barrels that I have. I tipped them over and filled them with some plaster to make it look like they were the base of a hasty set up. The had some Miliput sand bags and pallets. After dropping all of the paving stones on top I used a good layer of pigment fixer to (so far) keep it all in place. I was really chuffed to be able to reuse the failed air dry clay and I think the rubble looks good (for my skill level).

The base is shaping up to be the best Dio base I have done so far and I really didn’t expect to be able to add so much.

[Paul_Doran]

Overall - Taking Shape

So still a lot of work to do but I feel like I am making progress and things are starting to roll in together. For a long while it has been a loose collection of models, which I guess is the danger of dreaming too big in the diorama (and this is a simple enough one). IT can just feel like its going no where for ages.

But for this one its gotten to a stage where I can roughly see where its going and how it will look together.

Next push is to get the base primed and painted.

Then get the figures matte varnish and put together fully.

And then weather / damage the Gaz and finish the base.

Below is a rough idea of the staging which I think should look alright in the end.

I definitely don’t under stand sight lines and balance, I think the final dio will be overly dense and crowded. But I have done a lot more in terms of techniques and effort so I’m going to be happy regardless.

Cheers for reading!

[Paul_Doran]

Back with a small bit of progress on the base.

• Was able to lay down a general set of grey to the base with the airbrush, along with some other tones to give a little bit of variation to the surface. Also laid down some rough road markings, that ended up being really out of scale when I think about the size of the Kornet now. But hey it looks kind of like a road.

• 

• For the piles of Rubble I painted a few different colours onto various parts to try and give variation and then went over it all with some grey tones after words to tie it together a little bit. Once I can get some varnish on it and then use some pigments etc I think it will fully tie together. And the same with the road surface, with a few small puddles on the surface to give it some depth.

• 
  

[Paul_Doran]

The part I really had to solve for was the upper part of the wall. When I was building the upper layers I became a bit sloppy with the plaster as you can see in the first image there is a bit of a lumpy mess.

So it needed some solution, and to me I thought I might be able to make it look like it was overcome by plants. Looking at the tufts I have that wouldn’t work but I then though Lichen / Moss might be doable & not look too crazy.

Using some basic flock that I have and some PVA + Water I took a couple of passes at building it up with a stippling motion. Then took a sponge and gave it a pass with a mix of greens, sand grey and yellow to make it look closer to the Google Images of Moss. Its probably a bit out of scale (like a number of things in this Dio ) but I was really pleased to turn a mistake into something new.

Next is to build up the top of the wall with tufts and loose grass to fill it in fully.

Tell me what you think and thanks for reading!

[Paul_Doran]

[Paul_Doran]

Back with the final post for this Diorama!

Going to give a roundup of the project and feelings and then just dump a bunch of final images (of varying quality)

The Kit

Overall the kit was decent enough. I certainly messed up a good bit with the construction and I always struggle with wheeled vehicles. The interior always ads an extra layer / time for completion and must of it is not very visible, but I was glad I completed it.

The launchers look pretty wonky and were very hard to build, I think they were designs with too much possibility, which makes them hard to align and a bit fragile. If I was to make it again I would likely pose it with the closed launchers. Besides that and the windows it was an enjoyable build. Keeping sub assemblies separate to the very end helped with painting but has marred some of the finish around door hinges etc. My attempts at damaged glass and bodywork never really came to fruition and is a skill I will have to build on the next few models.

Pretty happy with the paint job too and the camo netting that was used to cover up some of the worse mistakes Also weathering was not bad and I had forgotten how great Tamiya buff at a light level looks when sprayed on.

Figures

The figures themselves are really nice sculpts and I did them some justice. Using the wet pallet was a big upgrade and made it a lot easier. I think they really add both scale and a nice touch to the diorama. I did have some serious issues putting the weapons into their arms after painting but I’m not really sure how it would have gone if I had full assembled then first, I’m just not a neat enough painter to deal with that. You can see the AK mag is very wonky where I had to cut it to squeeze in, and the front hand guard is floating. Will keep a look out for more of the Ukraine series from Masterbox though, they were very nice to paint.

The Base

Probably the biggest step up along with the figures for me. 3D printing the frame and building out the base worked out a lot better than I expected. To be honest when I messed up with the airdry clay I thought I had wrecked the whole thing for good. But persevering and doing some lateral thinking made a difference, same with the moss on the wall. The AK terrain for asphalt is also miracle stuff, I think it easily makes about 70% of the finished look alone.

Conclusion

Really happy with the sum of parts as a result. I don’t think I will every be able to make scale models without at least a simple base and some figures going forwards. The extra work into each of the bits, and the confidence to keep going, more than pays off with the final output. The extra scale imparted by the figures also makes the model seem that much more real, like when you put down a pin wash and suddenly its 3D.

Still plenty to improve on but was a great project and tracking it here means I can see how far it has come along.

Thank you very much for anyone who has read and also those who added likes, it is really appreciated! I’m very glad to be finally engaging in some way with the community here.

Thanks!

Paul.

[Paul_Doran]