The Bishkek 2nd Basilisk: part 4, the trench and hill, new barb wire!

Today I will serve you a long and detailed post with lots of interesting tips and products and I sincerely hope it will inspire readers to play around a bit with a diorama, it's very satisfying!

First of all, if you are a first time reader of this series, check here first and then come back:

Bishkek Basilisk Battery Part 1

Bishkek Basilisk Battery Part 2

Bishkek Basilisk Battery Part 3

OK, so after drying the wet and gluey news paper, the time has come for the building up of the hill in front of the fun emplacement. For that I used some non toxic, synthetic spacke. I just filled up all the holes until the ground was level with the buttressed wood planks.

While still wet, I submerged a bunch of specially chosen bitz, items that would be discarded during the many months of battle: pipes, posts, non exploded shells etc. I pushed them under pretty far but then had them re-emerge with a stiff brush. At the same time I also added some of the highly secret and special Santa Cruz Warhammer sand, drawn from a hidded cache in the mountains above Santa Cruz...

After that I felt the soil was a little too even and flat. Using a sculpting tool I made indentations and (subtle) impact craters. It's hard to see them well but after priming they will be very obvious and during the painting stage I can accentuate them with darker washes.

After having done that I sat back, putting the gun on and looking at it...

It's funny but my wife and I happened to look at each other at that moment and we both realized the same thing: the bottom structur for the gun was too big for the diorama...it was taking up too much space.

I don't know how it is for you, but for me it is really hard to let go of something that took a while to think up and build and then realize that you cannot use it...

But there was just not enough room. So this is what I did instead:

i drilled a hole in the bottom and stuck the gun in it:

In a way, it looks a lot more like the picture that started it all:

and

I will have to add some flexible stands that give a little after the gun fires to absorb shock movement.

With this out of the way I felt relieved and could work on some fun stuff in this piece: barb wire. In my Baby Krieg Project, my wife made me some barbwire and it looked great. But I want this blog to be about giving you all new ideas so instead of replicating it I went on the hunt for other options. GW and Army Painter both make it, but it doesn't have any realism to it and it's harder to change the diameter of the tubes. Then I found an amazing barb wire product from Pegasus Models (here's the link to their website):

I found it going to GameKastle in San Jose with John. It cost 8.99 for a ton and works like a dream. Here's one of the 3 sprues in the box:

Here's a close up: good barbs

The plasic is strong but supple and I did not break any of it while doing this:

Make sure you use a brush that has the right diameter for the size of your tubes, then wrpa the wire around and tape both ends. On John's recommendation I did this:

using the Hello Kitty blowdryer I heated the plastic enough to bend it to my will. My Storm Wardens shirt gave me confidence. And this is what it looked like after:

A very nice and realistic looking piece. It's a great product for a good price, their website has other good stuff as well like crates, barrells etc: Pegasus Hobbies

Hope you were able to bear with me. This project is turning out to be so interesting and fun and it has a lot of angles that I enjoy talking about to kindred spirits. Next post I will share my story line and the warriors in it, plus all the details like stowage, crates etc

Cheers

Mike