A new diorama from granch: A small oriental river harbour

[granch]

Hello Guys, it's a long time since I showed here something. Slowly getting tired from the my 1/18th military collection, meanwhile I falled in love with the junk and sampan boats and started to make models after looking on many, many pictures (thanks to google and pinterest). My models should be able to float, not sure until now how they will stand wind and open water, though. Full working rigged sail are nice to do, I used old silk shirts and balsa for the boats. Figures are missmatched star wars, indiana jones, harry potter, gi joe, all customised. Making houses is also easy, old beach mats brought me the material for the walls and roof. Today was the final assembly of the complete display outdoor: not so easy with sometimes wind and waves that layed down some figures on the wharf... So here are some pics: click on the small images to get them bigger, hope you'll enjoy the visit.

If there is interest in more detailled views, my daughter came with me and made much better pics than I, so I'll be able to show more.







BTW, for the next one, my daughter called it "DADZILLA":

[grockwood]

Really great photos and props. The last photo looks like you are Gulliver in the land of Lilliputians.

[Rylau]

Very nice, a lot of work went into all of that. I really like the boats. Facebook has thousands of dioramas and tutorials to check out. Hope to see more of this from you. Bob

[normandy]

Outstanding work Granch!!
The junk and sampan are amazing looking as well as your buildings.
I always enjoy looking at your dioramas.

[pickelhaube]

Hey Granch ,

It looks great !

Deff a lot of time and effort went into this project.

Thanks for sharing.

[AJWW2]

Really awesome detail in the boats! Buildings look great too.

[slogan]

Your dioramas are always amazing.

[granch]

Thank you all. So, here are pics taken from my daughter: click on the small pic to make it bigger.

[tmanthegreat]

Branch, your diorama looks fantastic

You need to get the 1/18th scale Proboat R/C PBR (Alpha 1 Patrol Boat) to go with it... It would fit perfectly!

[granch]

tman, I thought about this. But have no US or vietnamese figures from that period and as you can see, the flags and panels are written in chinese (or I hope so, who surely knows if on- line dictionnaries really translate exactly what you want...).
But my dio looks more like something from before the fiftees: no motorbikes, no motorized boats.
I love junk and sampan boats, they are a lot of variation depending on the local conditions (wind, rivers, lakes or open sea), tasks (fishing, bamboo wood or sand carrying, tea or rice trade, passenger transportation or only houseboats) and culture or country that influence the boat design. My creations should look like a compromise between many considerations but are more from some chinese type.
By the way, sampan means simply 3 planks (2 sides and 1 bottom, curved, just add a smaller, trapezoid aft plank) and it is very easy to make. With less than 10 $ balsa wood and cement, you can make a floating 1/18 vietnamese sampan, far cheaper than the 1/35 Verlinden resin boats, about 90 $ in Europe! try it!
But I would be rich, I would allready have bought this wonderfull RC U.S. river patrol boat!

[A-10LOADER]

Pretty cool !! Like the others have said, a ton of work to make that all happen.

Steve

[meirelesmam]

Very nice work. Thanks for share it.

[mutt71]

Granch, Thank you for sharing not only the buildings and the Sampans, etc., but the knowledge that you have shared with us as well. It seems that you have really fone your homework on the subject. I am sure that others, like myself, would love to see how you constructed them, if you are open to doing so.
Thank you again, mutt71 (Jack)

[granch]

Hello Jack,
Well, nothing so difficult. Sorry but I've just finished a new sampan (this time no sail, but a small electro 3V engine from a broken toy). I'd like to build more of these asian small boats and a bigger junk with 2 or 3 rig sails (and possibly RC?). If I start one again, I'll make pics for you. The home made boats don't cost a lot of money, but time and a long lasting interest. I still have it, as I could make sampan and junk that floats, but none of these really navigate well until now under light windy conditions, so I want to try again. I also have the problem of finding some new oriental figures, all the 1/18th - 3.75" figs that I could find and tweek are in place in the allready made boats. So, if somebody has ideas...
Or are you more interested in the houses?

[mutt71]

I am interested in both. The boats and the houses. I have a very small collection of Vietnam era Soldiers and vehicles and a UH-1C. So, I am interested in all things Vietnam era and WWII NW Europe. I look forward to seeing your photos.
Thanks!

[Razor17019]

Very nice. Very impressed.

[granch]

For Mutt71, I can not send you any message, so:
I have posted a procedure with pics about how to make a simple sampan boat:
http://www.warbird-photos.com/gpxd/view ... =9&t=37056
Hope it will give you some inspiration.
Now, as you had also interest for houses like the ones I made for my small oriental harbor diorama (the most vietnamese was made with old beach straw mat), here are pics from the inside, that shows the pine wood stick frame, probably exactly like the real houses are made:



Note that the small sampan in front of the house is made following exactly the same procedure as shown on the topic in the custom&mods section, just the size and proportions are different. It floats well, even with 2 1/18 figures.
The concrete house is really made with concrete, poured on a wire mesh from a hen house in successive molds made for each façades... the final result is very heavy, I used it for a boarder house with a different roof. My straw house is easier to do...

[pickelhaube]

Sweet hooch !!