Oh my! A other weather balloon, just like in Roswell... Contest Rules    |    Entries    |    Home by Sergio Palumbo Scale: 1/72 The weather along the Northern Oregon Coast was mainly rainy that day. The two U.S. military men dispatched from the base arrived at the site indicated, went off their jeep and started walking across the beach. Until they saw it, finally. As soon as the middle- aged corporal looked at it, he just exclaimed " h, my! Another weather balloon, just like in Roswell... ". Then he raised his hands to the sky, becoming clearly dejected. The object looked like a slender thing, mostly orange, full of branches and leaves on it, which had probably fallen upon that from the small tree it had bumped against recently. "Consider how huge it is...and how weird! " the soldier accompanying him said. "Yes, it is... " the older man replied " And that's the second in a row which has crashed within our national boundaries, after the one in New Mexico, I mean...1947 must really be not a lucky year! " "So, should we jump on it and collect the data inside, in order to take them back to our base? " "No, not at all... " the corporal stated " The Meteorological Service is going to send their men who will take care of their mechanism. We are here only to secure the place and to let no unauthorized people enter this restricted area... " "Yes, Sir " the soldier replied " Anyway, what about the strange green lay figure inside that sort of cockpit? It looks like a strange thing...they must be really weird people at the Meteorological Service, don't you think so? " "I don't think, I simply execute the orders, nothing else! The experiments they do at their weather station facilities are not of my interest, anyway… " "But, Sir, look at that strange engine -like shapes, too! " "Listen to me, soldier. The less you look at that object and think of it, the better... " the middle - aged man said in a hard tone " Now, just help me in positioning the security line here around. " "Yes, Sir " he replied, getting back to the jeep at once in order to take all the equipment he needed. Many doubts and unanswered questions yet on his mind, anyway… This diorama is set on a round wooden base, and depicts a sort of little beach where the U.F.O. has crashed recently. The two soldiers are in 1/72 scale from Essex and have been slightly modified. The space vehicle is the famous Spindrift by Moebius Models, which has been transformed a bit and turned into a sort of 1/72 alien spacecraft. Inside the cockpit I placed a sort of creature painted in green - similar to a goblin - not too different from 1/72 scale, even though, actually, coming from a GW miniature box in 1/48 (with some little creatures from the Fantasy Elves' Forest). The water was made by using GW water effect and then the tree is entirely scratchbuilt, with some dead branches left on the space vehicle's surface and on the beach itself just to indicate the hard landing on the ground. The colors are acrylics at most, and oils for some details only. Then I had some ink washes on the groundwork to differentiate the part of the beach that appears out of the water and the rest of the ground slightly covered from the sea waves nearby, anyway. Image: Closeup Image: From the front Image: Back side Image: Cockpit closeup Image: Soldiers Image: A view hrough the branches Image: Those metro boys have weird taste in nose art... Image: Rear view Image: I mean look at it, Corporal - she's green! Image: Starting point Image: Basic shape Image: Base coat Image: Front view Image: Canopy on Image: Just about done ... Contest Rules    |    Entries    Go back up | Starship Modeler Home | Site Map | Feedback This page was last updated 3 February 2012. © 2012 Starship Modeler