Tiananmen Square Build Part 2

So in the first post, I got most of the base and tank finished. Of course, the true subject of the model will be "Tank Man" himself. My plan originally was to buy a generic male figure in 1/72 scale. However, it's actually surprisingly difficult to get a figure suitable for the conversion with a reasonable level of detail at a reasonable price. Then I had a moment of madness!

In my collection of unpainted models I had some Napoleonic French in 1/72 scale. I found a drummer in a fairly neutral pose.

For some reason he doesn't have a head! The first thing to do was to cut off the drum and drumsticks with an X-Acto knife and a file.

I cut notches into the figure's shoulders, elbows and knees and bent them to get a "straighter" pose. I filled in the gaps with epoxy putty. Then I cut off the tassels and buttons on the figure's jacket. 

Next, I cut the head off another French infantryman with the X-Acto knife. I sawed off the shako helmet from his head. Then I glued the head onto the "drummer".

I sculpted Tank Man's satchel and shopping bags with Milliput. Since the head originally wore a shako, it was flat on top. I needed to sculpt hair onto the head.

And this is where it started going wrong! I was really unhappy with the detail on the figure's face. I painted washes and a lot of highlights onto the face, but I found it really difficult to bring out the facial features. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to bend his legs so that he would stand with his feet together (as in the original footage). I think my figure's pose looks a bit aggressive because of this, but it probably is the best I can manage. If I find a more suitable figure, I'll substitute it.

Using cheap PVA glue, I glued some felt to the underside of the base. I trimmed off the excess once it was dry.

Finally, I gave the tank a few coats of matt varnish (the oil paint was given a week to fully dry) and positioned everything on the base.

Here are some photos of the finished diorama!

This project was a lot of fun. I'm mostly happy with it but I'm a bit disappointed with how the Tank Man figure turned out. It's certainly encouraged me to build more dioramas, and I hope to do more of them in the future.

Tiananmen Square Diorama Part 1

My friend reminded me of how much I love this image, and being at a loose end this weekend I decided to try to build a diorama of it. This is a picture of "Tank Man", an unknown man who famously blocked tanks as they entered Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989. In the famous footage, "Tank Man" stands in front of the oncoming tanks, stopping them in their tracks for several minutes before being pulled away by passers-by. His identity remains unknown, and many believe he is still alive. It's a powerful image.

I ordered this Trumpeter 1/72 scale Type 59 tank kit from the internet. I'm very impressed with the detail on the kit, and the parts were very well moulded, with minimal mould lines or flash.

The kit went together quite easily, but I needed to make a few additions to make the tank accurate to the photo. I added an aerial made from a guitar string ( a low E), and I removed the "wrapping" from it. In the photo, the gun atop the turret has a cloth covering it, and I made this using Milliput. I also sculpted the tank's spare tracks from Milliput. The main gun on the tank has some sort of "cover", so I took a small drinking straw and covered one end with putty. I painted the model with very thin acrylics over a white primer.

The base was quite simple. I used an MDF cake base (I think it was 8" square) and tore off the silver paper. I then covered it in pre-mixed filler. My idea was that the grains of powder in the filler would stimulate the road texture. I think it worked quite well! I then painted the base black and used a sponge to create a broken grey effect. I used masking tape to lay out the road markings. 

It didn't take much time or effort, but I'm happy with how the base turned out.

Once I was finished painting the camouflage on the tank, I gave it a coat of gloss varnish and applied the decals. Unfortunately the tank's "number" isn't visible in the original photo, so I just used the "308" decal that came with the kit. Once the decals were on, I gave them a few more coats of gloss varnish to seal and protect them.

Next, I moved on to weathering. For this, I decided to give oil paints a try. 

I mixed some black and brown oil paint together, and thinned them quite heavily. I wanted to make an "oily" appearance for streaks of grime down the sides of the tank. I painted the mixture onto the model roughly at first.

Doesn't look great right now. The next step was to soften and shape the streaks of oil using cotton buds once the paint had had some time to dry.

Now that looks better! I'm going to leave the model for at least a few days before I matt varnish it, because oil paint can take a long time to dry, even when thinned. 

The project is well on its way to completion, but there are still a few more problems, most notably representing Tank Man himself. I don't think a miniature of him is available in 1/72 scale. My plan is to take a generic figure of a man in a neutral pose and convert it to be Tank Man. 

Thank you for reading my first blog post! Hopefully there will be many more!