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Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Stingers Bridge Build Wed Jul 10, 2013 10:34 am | |
| Glen and I were discussing new buildings and we both felt the need for a new bridge in the middle. Glen graciously volunteered his time and built us a great new bridge. At the same time I saw the need for a hump back bridge at the other end of the field. This would allow for elevated tank angles and remove the "driving through the ditch" part of the field.
Follow along with my hump back bridge build.
Legal disclaimers...
1.) Me and wood don't get along too well. I mean, who the hell calls a 2"x4" a 2"x4" when it's not a 2"x4", it's 1 3/4" x 3 1/2" or something like that. Sheesh !
2.) Artsy fartsy, well that's not me either. So, we'll see how it turns out.
So here we go. Trying to figure out if I can make with anything else but wood... not really. Run out and pick up some 1/4" plywood. I have a general shape in mind and I know I want it to cover a 36" stretch.
I looked up different bridge designs and I figure I want to make it look like an old stone bridge
.
Not bad, yes, I wanted something with arches, but I also want it to be a hump back bridge as it's not really a deep ditch to cross. Being I can't draw by hand, I craft a rough drawing on computer (not good at that either, but better than doing it by hand)
That's a little closer to what I want.
The other criteria I want, is for the middle of the bridge to be long enough for something as large as a King Tiger to be able to sit in the middle and fire from the bridge. So the wall of the bridge can't be any higher than the turret. Also to be fair to our smaller tank owners like PzIII & IV's, the wall has to be small enough so they can rotate their turrets and fire over too.
Next step, pick up the wood and cutting out the general shape.
Stinger
_____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 | |
| | | Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:04 am | |
| Back from Home Depot with my 1/4" plywood. Which by the way, is really 1/4", wish these guys in the wood business would be consistent...
With my trusty measuring tape in hand I draw out the general shape on the wood. To make the arches, a lid off a margarine container seems to fit the right shape.
I measure out two rectangles 8" x 36" (those are real sizes, not like 7 1/12" x whatever) lol I draw a line horizontally at the 4" mark as being my deck height. Measuring up several Tanks from King Tiger to PzIV, I find that a 4"wall above the road surface, should be good for all to work.
Once I figured out how many arches I wanted, I grabbed the margarine container lid and drew my half moons.
I also cut the angles at each end of the top of the bridge that will follow the upper half of the wall. Pics with describe it better. Here...
The two rectangles have now been cut, arches cut out on the one side and working on the other side. I had a few small scraps laying around that I thought I could use to support the road way on each side of the bridge, glued them in place.
Onto the next step...
_____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 |
Last edited by Stinger on Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:16 am; edited 1 time in total |
| | | Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:14 am | |
| Now that I have both walls cut out, I figure I need to be able to support the road surface so I will need to make support to go across the middle of the road. At the same time, I am trying to figure out how to make walls for the arches. Seems both ideas came together when I placed the supports on either side of the arches to make it look like walls. The angles I cut and "saved for later" will work well to support the road on the down angles. I cut the 4 new walls/road supports and were pretty much ready to start gluing/nailing it all together.
_____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 | |
| | | Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:39 am | |
| It was at this point, that I decided I needed a surface to sorta hold all this together as originally I was going to have an open bottom to it. Just not enough support while trying to glue it all together. The Master plan is constantly changing...lol So here we can see it all coming together. Walls going up and now I have a new wood base to glue/nail it all onto.
Saving those angle pieces I cut out earlier comes in handy. Like a good pack rat, don't throw anything out._____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 | |
| | | Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Wed Jul 10, 2013 12:39 pm | |
| With building the bridge, lots of thought had gone into the design from watching tanks go over bridges.
The procedure seems to be: approach a bridge, stop, line ones tank up and attempt to cross without falling into the ditch.
With that thought in mind, it's why I'm building this bridge with walls so that can't happen (unless your captain action) and also, I have made the bridge extra wide. We do have the one concrete bridge and I had noticed how wide it is and that how easily people cross it.
Given the preceding, I made the bridge 15" wide which more than accommodates the 10" wide King Tiger.
Really getting anxious to see what this will look like with a deck on it, I get out my table saw and cut up three panels that will work as the roadway.
Once fitted into place, it then becomes easy visualize how the bridge will look and work.
Here is your visualization :
Back of my Avalanche makes for a good work bench. Who wants to work inside on a nice day? View to my back yard is not too hard to take either...
But I digress...
Having the roadways cut, presents a few problems now.
1.) the road needs to go further to actually meet the ground
2.) before I can nail down the road, what the heck am I going to do with detail inside the arches as I do plan to paint this bridge.
Work now kinda comes to a stop.
I figure out that I can put an extensions on the bridge and make it all work as per my original drawing anyway, so just need to cut out some extensions and good to go. Well... not really.
I figure a muddy river would look good under the bridge but, lol remember that creative side? Well, I don't have it, unless you forgot. I ask my wife who is pretty good with the artsy fartsy thing. Yea, well, that's not good either. She tells me that making water look like water is not so easy and blah blah blah. Ok, I'll do it myself. Yikes.
Go to Youtube, that place has everything. Seems everything I research is beyond my painting ability. At this point, after looking at no less than 20 videos or so, I figure I'll just wing it. Worst case scenario is that is can make good firewood if it turns out like crap.
I'm now getting the feeling that this 1 day job of building a bridge is kinda run into a weeks project instead of days project. Do you ever get the feeling of being halfway through a job, it's taking way to long, but ya can't stop now, feeling? Yea, well, that's where we are at.
Onto painting the muddy river bed and the walls on the inside of the arches as I figure I can't paint them when the bridge is assembled.
Pictures to follow...
_____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 | |
| | | Stince General
Posts : 2371 Join date : 2012-03-21 Age : 49 Location : Windsor, Ontario
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:04 pm | |
| - Stinger wrote:
With building the bridge, lots of thought had gone into the design from watching tanks go over bridges.
The procedure seems to be: approach a bridge, stop, line ones tank up and attempt to cross without falling into the ditch.
With that thought in mind, it's why I'm building this bridge with walls so that can't happen (unless your captain action) and also, I have made the bridge extra wide. We do have the one concrete bridge and I had noticed how wide it is and that how easily people cross it.
Given the preceding, I made the bridge 15" wide which more than accommodates the 10" wide King Tiger. Ummm.... cough, cough. Looks good so far Ian. Is this planned for the far end of the field, opposite of where the tents are? And most importantly, will this hold Strato's 20 ton tanks? _____________________________________________ HL Panzer III | HL Tiger | HL Jagdpanther | HL Panther | Mato Sherman Hooben Elefant | HL Pershing | HL Bergepanzer IV | Tamiya Leopard 1A | WSN T-34 HL "Golden" Pan-Tiger | M16 Halftrack | HL Panzer IV | Tamiya KV-1 | Tamiya Tiger
|
| | | Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Wed Jul 10, 2013 11:17 pm | |
| Yes, that is the proposed location. At this point, the brickwork barely extends to this point and if I need to do slight modifications, it should be easy to make it fit.
It should hopefully make a good spot for shooting, we'll see.
Hope to have it done for the 20th.
More pics coming soon.
Stinger _____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 | |
| | | Airbrushler Retired
Posts : 2567 Join date : 2012-04-27 Age : 60 Location : Windsor, ON
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:01 am | |
| looking good Ian _____________________________________________ |
| | | Negaduck Captain
Posts : 813 Join date : 2013-01-03 Age : 40 Location : Grafton Ontario
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:15 am | |
| who doesn't like wall riding but come on lining up on a bridge takes tooooooo long _____________________________________________ I do things in the name of science but first hold my beer
|
| | | Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:23 am | |
| - Stince wrote:
- Stinger wrote:
With building the bridge, lots of thought had gone into the design from watching tanks go over bridges.
The procedure seems to be: approach a bridge, stop, line ones tank up and attempt to cross without falling into the ditch.
With that thought in mind, it's why I'm building this bridge with walls so that can't happen (unless your captain action) and also, I have made the bridge extra wide. We do have the one concrete bridge and I had noticed how wide it is and that how easily people cross it.
Given the preceding, I made the bridge 15" wide which more than accommodates the 10" wide King Tiger. Ummm.... cough, cough.
Looks good so far Ian.
Is this planned for the far end of the field, opposite of where the tents are? And most importantly, will this hold Strato's 20 ton tanks? He was clearly demonstration his amazing acrobatic maneuvers .... jealousy will get you no were... Next meet, it's the high wire... Stinger _____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 | |
| | | knispel Retired
Posts : 1318 Join date : 2012-07-01 Age : 72 Location : North of Kitchener
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Thu Jul 11, 2013 2:14 pm | |
| "I'm now getting the feeling that this 1 day job of building a bridge is kinda run into a weeks project instead of days project. Do you ever get the feeling of being halfway through a job, it's taking way to long, but ya can't stop now, feeling? Yea, well, that's where we are at." I hear ya thankfully you went with the 2 arch bridge rather that the largere ones shown in your reference photos . The arch bridge has a real nice look to it. Good choice. |
| | | Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Thu Jul 11, 2013 3:34 pm | |
| Welcome back to Stinger's Bridge Build.
Before I start working on the water (procrastinating?) I thought I would get the walls painted first. Grey paint, followed by brown streaking and then a wash of green, to give it a more mossy look. Most of this unfortunately you won't see as it will be covered up by the roadway, for the most part.
With the walls painted, moving on to the muddy water. Takes a deep breath.
First off, I paint the water channel black for base paint to get rid of the wood grain. Next on, is watered down wash of dark brown paint for my dirty water.
It's at this point I decided I need to add some rock and dirt to the mix. Selecting the rock selection.
I get some yellow glue and water it down, paint it on top of the brown to make the rocks stick to it. Ad some rocks, and then more glue. Stick the bridge outside in the sun to the let the whole mess dry.
Here we are so far...
I put a second coat of paint on the roadway and this time added some sand to it to give the tanks traction.
Not looking to bad so far, it's still missing something. Out comes the watered down green paint. I pretty much pore the stuff down the middle so that it can soak itself around the rocks. Once the green paint dried, I still felt it looked rather bland. I paint the rocks very dark grey and highlight with very light grey to make them pop a little bit more. yea, that looks better. The missus was right, water is not so easy...lol
The green mossy water definitely looks better.
This is what it will look like from the outside. Again, most of it you don't see. But if you didn't do all of it, you KNOW it was unfinished...grrrr...lol
Now for the MAGIC ingredient. I read up on this stuff on the internet. It's kinda like a the stuff they put on table tops at restaurants, for a really thick clear. I figure this will add some depth to the whole design.
Yes, I may be getting a little carried away here, but it's gotta look good. LoL.
The stuff takes 72 hours to set up and dry.
Pictures of the finished product later... lol
NEXT STEP
Onto the wall detail. So far my brick wall is looking more like wood, than brick. After researching several methods from wood burning to plaster/hand carving, I finally decide on Styrofoam. Easy to carve and make my own bricks.
More to follow soon.... Keep watching !!!
Stinger
_____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 | |
| | | Glen B Lieutenant General
Posts : 1816 Join date : 2012-03-22 Age : 71 Location : Fort Erie, Ontario
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Thu Jul 11, 2013 5:40 pm | |
| Very ambitious and creative. Too nice to put on the field and drive over. _____________________________________________ "Luck favours the prepared!."
|
| | | Strato50 General
Posts : 2188 Join date : 2012-03-28 Age : 38 Location : Hamilton, On
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Fri Jul 12, 2013 3:07 am | |
| Ian the river bed looks perfect. Excellent work! _____________________________________________ Tiger I - Panzer II - Panzer III - Panzer IV - Chi Nu Kai - Panther G - KV-1b 756(r) M4A3(76) Sherman - T-34/85 - M3 Grant - SECRET PROJECT
|
| | | Reaper332 Sgt-Major
Posts : 400 Join date : 2013-03-13
| | | | Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Fri Jul 12, 2013 1:21 pm | |
| ....Back to work The new Magic stuff has now been pored and is pretty much set. Full hardness gets after 72 hours but it's pretty solid after 24 hours. I had to tape up the ends to stop the stuff from leaking out...some did leak out but it wasn't to bad....sorta. The stuff is crystal clear and gives the look I was after. I now have somewhat real looking water.
We can see the green mossy paint under the "water" which gives it nice depth and turned out better than I expected. My son came home from work, looked at it and said, "you put real water in there ?"...nice....lol
Here's a peak.
Back to work on the bridge walls. I call around to see if I can get 1/4 in thick high density foam and no one seems to have the stuff in pink or blue, just the low density white stuff which will not work for what I want to do. I do find some 1/2 pink stuff so that will have to do.
I set out cutting the shape of the bridge and the holes for the two arches. Remembering I will need to add a section to the ends as mentioned earlier, I make sure this is in the design I cut.
As you can see in the picture, I had planned to cut a section out when I realized it was right over top of the arch and would have really made it too weak with the lack of material.
Like this.
Now that the basic shape is done, I set out drawing lines very lightly across the foam for my bricks. I make sure the lines are not all equal in thickness as I don't want it to look to uniform.
Once the lines are drawn, I start drawing the bricks, one at time. Yes, it's a long tedious job. Each panel takes about 2 1/2 hours each to do. Here are some pics of the first finished panel.
Oh and... that's not a really a kitchen table I'm working on, ummm it's my work bench, honest... (looks around to see if wife is reading this...lol)
Time to temporary install the wall onto the bridge for fit and to see how it looks.
The bridge is starting to take shape now and is lookin pretty good so far. Here are a few close ups of the bridge and new water features.
Projects to finish:
1.) Start and finish the other wall 2.) I'm not totally happy with the road surface just having sand on it...will give that some thought. 3.) I need to do something with the walls, they look too clean. I have an idea I'm going to try. 4.) Glue down the angled roadways once detailed 5.) Paint walls 6.) Add some weathering to walls and roads
Ok, getting 3/4 of the way done and I have 8 more days to finish this before the next battle day. Totally doable unless the honey-dew list gets in the way.
Keep Posted for more updates.
Stinger
_____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 | |
| | | Stinger Captain
Posts : 948 Join date : 2012-06-10 Location : Niagara
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:04 pm | |
| Bridge UpdateThe battle day is coming close (weather permitting) and I need to get more work done on this bridge. Here are a few more updates.
As mentioned earlier, the roadway looked too clean to me so I thought I would add more rocks and stuff to it. I set about pouring all kinds of glue on the roadway and dumping down a pile of dirt and rocks.
After the glue was dry, I shook off all of the loose rocks. A lot more rocks had actually glued themselves to the boards than I expected. A LOT MORE.
Do you ever have one of those moments that goes like....what the heck was I thinking?
Well yea, this was one of those moments and I realized, I had just ruined my roadways as there is no way a tank of our scale, will ever be able to drive over this roadway without jumping all over the place.
What to do? Trying to salvage what I had, I took both boards, rubbed them together like two pieces of sand paper trying to get most of the rocks back off again.
After 20 minutes or so of vigorous sanding, I was able to get the boards back to an acceptable level...phew.
You will have to wait and see for the final result. Pics when completed.Now the walls... I didn't like the "clean" look of the walls on the inside area of the bridge and had it in my mind to draw cracks in the wall to simulate the plaster was cracked away.
I took a test piece of wood to try and draw them on to only confirm one thing, I can't draw.
I came up with an idea that seemed to work and I will share that with you, for the artistically challenged.
1.) Get some inkjet compatible film from Staples. 2.) Print the bricks onto the plastic film. 3.) Cut out your shapes and glue them on the wall.
Ok, yes, it's cheating, but it works.
Have a look...
I found a graphic of a brick wall on Google Images...just type in "Brick texture" and all kinds of them come up.
Just pick the one you like and print it.
Once you print out your texture on your special plastic sheeting, cut out the shapes you want.
I taped them to the wall so that I could out-line them with black marker to give the cracked wall shadow effect.
Again, found this idea on Google images.
Once completed, I glued the shapes onto the wall and although not perfect, it achieved the look I was after with my limited artistic talent.
Just look at the reflection of that water, it's beautiful thing...lol
One more.
Painting the bricks...
Before I set out to paint the bricks, in one of the Youtube videos, it mentions about hitting the foam with heat from a heat gun to give it a wavy texture. Of course they didn't mention they were using 2" inch foam.
I applied the heat, maybe a lil too much heat for the 1/2" foam and sure enough it created a bit more of a natural look texture. Although I would warn you, do not to use too much heat on this thin material as it can ruin you project really fast as it almost did mine.
I've taken some water base paint (grey) and painted the foam bricks. Once the paint was dry, I dry brushed the brick with some white paint to give it some highlights.
Being that the bridge is over water, I added some more of my famous green moss to the some of the brick on the bridge to try and give it a more realistic look.
I glued the walls on with this stuff. Thick consistency, 15 minute work time and does the job.
Whatcha think ?
I cut 1/4" x 7/8" plywood for the top cap, mixed up my own concoction of paint with the left over Tan, white & Black I had laying around.
Here's a sneak peak of the wall with cap installed.
The bridge build is almost coming to a close. Just need to finish with the cap. Some finishing touches to do and we are almost there.
I'll post some pics with the walls glued on and the cap in place soon.
_____________________________________________ My Tanks <<== Click hereCan-Am Tank Club <<< Web site linkTiger I | King Tiger | Panther G | PzIII | PzIV | Stug IV | SturmTiger | Pershing/Howitzer | M16 Halftrack | M26 Super Pershing | M48 Patton | M41 Bulldog | Gepard | Leopard | KV-1 | KV-2 |T-34 | |
| | | Strato50 General
Posts : 2188 Join date : 2012-03-28 Age : 38 Location : Hamilton, On
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:58 pm | |
| Holy moly Ian. What can i say? The bricks looks amazing, great work. I really like the water effect!! _____________________________________________ Tiger I - Panzer II - Panzer III - Panzer IV - Chi Nu Kai - Panther G - KV-1b 756(r) M4A3(76) Sherman - T-34/85 - M3 Grant - SECRET PROJECT
|
| | | Airbrushler Retired
Posts : 2567 Join date : 2012-04-27 Age : 60 Location : Windsor, ON
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Tue Jul 16, 2013 11:08 pm | |
| Wow Ian that is amazing you have a talent for weathering that looks real, oh and i don't think cutting out that one area will do anything to the structure of the bridge if you cut it out
Again Excellent job on the Bridge _____________________________________________ |
| | | Stince General
Posts : 2371 Join date : 2012-03-21 Age : 49 Location : Windsor, Ontario
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Tue Jul 16, 2013 11:25 pm | |
| I like Stinger! But the only thing missing is some " Kilroy" graffiti. _____________________________________________ HL Panzer III | HL Tiger | HL Jagdpanther | HL Panther | Mato Sherman Hooben Elefant | HL Pershing | HL Bergepanzer IV | Tamiya Leopard 1A | WSN T-34 HL "Golden" Pan-Tiger | M16 Halftrack | HL Panzer IV | Tamiya KV-1 | Tamiya Tiger
|
| | | CJ781 Lance Corporal
Posts : 81 Join date : 2013-01-26 Location : Colorado
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Thu Jul 18, 2013 1:21 am | |
| Really looks great! Can't wait to see it in action! _____________________________________________ My Tanks = HL PzIII, HL KV-1, Tamiya Leopard (unbuilt)
|
| | | kaptain Jack Staff Sergeant
Posts : 316 Join date : 2012-06-15 Location : Richmond Hill, ont.
| Subject: Re: Stingers Bridge Build Tue Jul 30, 2013 9:41 am | |
| Wow,that's gorgeous,I never new you had such a talent. |
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