When Dios Go Pear Shaped.

I started this in November, I tried something new with the bricks, I smeared drywall paste in the cracks after carving the wall. When I went to paint it, there was hardly any texture so I just left the project. It was stupid.

Then the other day I decided to scrape through all of the mortar lines to rough up the brick. After painting the bricks I was pretty happy. The rest of the walls i panted white to make it look like plaster.
I was pretty happy with the outcome.



Then I got the bright idea to paint the walls like the owner painted them blue, before they abandoned the place.
Dumb idea, so now I reckon I'll repaint the plaster all white and just grime it all up.

not too shabby I really like what you did with the plaster work
nice touch on the crumbling plaster as well







i

JohnnyE4 wrote:

not too shabby I really like what you did with the plaster work
nice touch on the crumbling plaster as well

i

Aww shucks! Thanks Johnny!
I mean I guess I was going for like a beat up worn out place, this blue is really vibrant. Haha

I rather like the old beat up look
it kinda reminds me of where I grew in on the train tracks just off the reservation

JohnnyE4 wrote:

I rather like the old beat up look
it kinda reminds me of where I grew in on the train tracks just off the reservation

Personally I love the run down look too. I think the mistake I may have made is using such a dark blue. I was looking at pictures of abandoned buildings and I see lots of pale colours.

cheap paint and drywall maybe wall paper since most old wall work is thin boards and plaster

JohnnyE4 wrote:

cheap paint and drywall maybe wall paper since most old wall work is thin boards and plaster

Originally the plan for this was Soviet. I get the cheap paint, especially for the brick work. I'm always scouting those 90 cent paints in Wal-Mart. I'm not sure how good they'd be on faces or guns, but for bricks and stones they work a treat!

You could always paint some graffiti on the walls? It does look good though!

Looks good Sarah , just my personal thoughts , but it looks much better in white , and the window on the right, the damage looks a little to uniform . It`s far above anything I have attempted or could likely achieve , it does look good . Out of interest what are the dimensions ?

I agree with what Dal suggested about graffiti. You considered adding posters and graffiti to your other wall. I think the “abandoned” vibe of this room dio would lend itself to the abandoned party pad look, with graffiti, old posters, and plenty of trash.

The bricks turned out especially well here.

Chip wrote:

Looks good Sarah , just my personal thoughts , but it looks much better in white , and the window on the right, the damage looks a little to uniform . It`s far above anything I have attempted or could likely achieve , it does look good . Out of interest what are the dimensions ?

I whole completely agree Chip. I realized that blue was a mistake as soon as I pushed it back and looked. This blue would have suited a back drop for one of my leather couches rather than this building.

I'm thinking I'll repaint it with a pale colpur like pale yellow or green. I looked at pictures of chernobyl after deciding the blue was top much.

Also that brick on the right window looks uniform as you say. I might just "add" more Bricktown the side of it. The plan was to make it look like water had seeped in and broken away the plaster.

SCU_HQ wrote:

I agree with what Dal suggested about graffiti. You considered adding posters and graffiti to your other wall. I think the “abandoned” vibe of this room dio would lend itself to the abandoned party pad look, with graffiti, old posters, and plenty of trash.

The bricks turned out especially well here.

I'm not really handy enough to do graffiti. I wouldn't know where to start haha. I mostly just want things to look abandoned.

Trial and error Sarah; trial and error.  We learn from our mistakes.  I predict that in the end, you'll have a nice dio of a run-down or abandoned apartment...


You might want to look at some of Julia Colibry's work on Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/116713661@N02/

She is really good at making not only run-down and / or dystopian dios, but also ones that aren't.

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

Trial and error Sarah; trial and error.  We learn from our mistakes.  I predict that in the end, you'll have a nice dio of a run-down or abandoned apartment...


You might want to look at some of Julia Colibry's work on Flickr

https://www.flickr.com/photos/116713661@N02/

She is really good at making not only run-down and / or dystopian dios, but also ones that aren't.  

Oh these dioramas are awesome! Eriely beautiful.
definitely the sort of look I'm going for. So far I've been trying to look at real picutres.

I just mentioned it because a lot of her photos suggest a dystopian and or post-apocalyptic look. She is a pretty damned good photographer too and her compositions and control of light render moody and evocative images.

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

I just mentioned it because a lot of her photos suggest a dystopian and or post-apocalyptic look.  She is a pretty damned good photographer too and her compositions and control of light render moody and evocative images.  

I definitely appreciate it. I love her dystopian stuff the most! But some of her shots, of 1/6 figures, you almost cannot tell that they're not real people!

Yeah...she also does a very good job on outdoor shots dealing with discrepancies of scale between the figures and terrain. There is a certain moody sadness to a lot of her images.

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

Yeah...she also does a very good job on outdoor shots dealing with discrepancies of scale between the figures and terrain.  There is a certain moody sadness to a lot of her images.  

"Moody Sadness" is precisely the look I wanted to get with this dio hahaha. Like anything run down that I do I base on thr S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, or the old film, or Roadside Picnic that started it all.

Her work is helpful, because she is from Russia I take it?
I think though once I'm done this little foam building which is more of a test than anything.

Yeah, a lot of them evoke a sense of loneliness and sadness. My favorites are those featuring "Samantha" and I liked the head sculpt for this figure that I got it myself and use it for my "Amanda" figure, and as I've remarked, it looks pretty much like your Ukrainian girl Yelenya. I think she and Samantha might have something in common.....


https://www.flickr.com/photos/116713661@N02/50532247032/in/dateposted/

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

Yeah, a lot of them evoke a sense of loneliness and sadness. My favorites are those featuring "Samantha" and I liked the head sculpt for this figure that I got it myself and use it for my "Amanda" figure, and as I've remarked, it looks pretty much like your Ukrainian girl Yelenya. I think she and Samantha might have something in common.....


https://www.flickr.com/photos/116713661@N02/50532247032/in/dateposted/

Yes! She does, same girl. Work looks heavily influenced by STALKER. She is the same head as Yalena. My story for Yalena is that she is a Ukrainian stalker.

https://stalker.fandom.com/wiki/S.T.A.L.K.E.R._Wiki

Thats why when I saw the female Gorka suit I knew I needed it. I'm going to dye my second one green in the style of a traditional STALKER suit.





These are what I have used for inspiration. More arts based on the game rather than the game. Though there is a modification that is really good that is called Anomaly.

The games is great though. Sneaking in old abandoned buildings looting what you can from stashes. Hiding from what is like a severe type of weather and waiting out the storm. I do not play many games but this one is immersive. I wanted Yalena to be my answer to there being no girls in the game.

Initially my meanish Russian who is now called Yuri and his fat boss Ivan were going to be bandits (crime faction in the Zone). But the idea evolved into them being mobsters in the real world.

For Yalena who is GAC 004, I wanted the long hair one. But the short hair one seems more what you would expect to find in a wasteland surviving. EVentually id like the long haired one to have cleaner Yalena in my story.

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

Yeah, a lot of them evoke a sense of loneliness and sadness. My favorites are those featuring "Samantha" and I liked the head sculpt for this figure that I got it myself and use it for my "Amanda" figure, and as I've remarked, it looks pretty much like your Ukrainian girl Yelenya. I think she and Samantha might have something in common.....


https://www.flickr.com/photos/116713661@N02/50532247032/in/dateposted/

I look at the photos though and I'm like. "Damn, I am a shitty photographer." Hahaha.

Chip wrote:

Looks good Sarah , just my personal thoughts , but it looks much better in white , and the window on the right, the damage looks a little to uniform . It`s far above anything I have attempted or could likely achieve , it does look good . Out of interest what are the dimensions ?

Oh darn, forgot to mention! 16x24!

I used the extra 8 inches of base foam for the sidewalk on my wall dio

You've certainly gotten the look and feel down pat. I had been kicking around the idea myself of modifying Erika's Afrikakorps uniform to represent a gendarmerie uniform of some fictional Balkan Republic with an aesthetic resemblance to WWII Germany and create stories about a female war veteran returning from a disastrous war to find her home in ruins and being forced to take work as a border/guard or gendarme in a fairly lawless area.

I gave up on the idea of course...though I probably would have tried to do something if the Afrikakorps uniform were available in some of the other colors it was made in like Olive or Green-brown. There are some of these on the 1/6th market, but they are for male figures and much too large for female figures.

Kimono Troop Command wrote:

You've certainly gotten the look and feel down pat.  I had been kicking around the idea myself of modifying Erika's Afrikakorps uniform to represent a gendarmerie uniform of some fictional Balkan Republic with an aesthetic resemblance to WWII Germany and create stories about a female war veteran returning from a disastrous war to find her home in ruins and being forced to take work as a border/guard or gendarme in a fairly lawless area.

I gave up on the idea of course...though I probably would have tried to do something if the Afrikakorps uniform were available in some of the other colors it was made in like Olive or Green-brown.  There are some of these on the 1/6th market, but they are for male figures and much too large for female figures.

What about rit dye? Like using a dye to great the colour you want? You suits are tan, a little like Yalenas Gorka. I'm going for green like the girl above.

You could totally do that idea! With a mish mash of old WW2 weapons and soviet stuff!

I've done a coat of white to cover the royal blue, and added more damage to that reallt "perfectly damaged" window. It looks a little more natural now.