# 1/35 Danger! UXB Diorama



## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Well, for the past couple of weeks I've been working on a small 20 cm x 16.5cm diorama based on the 1979 British ITV show Danger UXB, following the exploits of a Royal Engineers bomb disposal unit around London during the Blitz. I started out with a block of 50mm pink XPS insulation foam, cut out the excavation for the bomb disposal procedure, clad the sides with .080 styrene and covered the surface with a thin layer of Celluclay. I added the planking on the excavation with coffee stir sticks and built up the spoils heap from the excavation with a block of pink XPS cut and sanded to shape. I added sidewalks made from Readi-Board foamcore with the paper removed (Readi-Bord, available in Canada at Dollar Tree stores has a weak glue making stripping the paper off very easy). I used half an Italeri Park Gate (#412) kit and a section of wrought iron fence from Mini-Art's Bricks Pavement (#36048). The 250kg German bomb was made from a plastic model of a 9mm Parabellum bullet from an old LS 1/1 scale Mauser C96 Broomhandle pistol, a length of 10mm styrene tube and some .010 sheet styrene with a little Aves and lift rings from an Academy M3A1. It matches period photos exactly. For the tripod the Royal Engineers used to extract the bomb, I cannibalised an engine hoist from Italeri's 1/35 Field Tool Shop (#419) and used some white cord for the rope. Various plastic crates from my spares bin and tools from the Tool Shop kit round out the scene. I used variety of figures from various Tamiya kits for the Royal Engineers crew. I've mostly completed the scenic base and am ready to paint the figures. When I get it done, I'll post a bunch of pics, as I have a new camera.


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Well it's at times like these you know who your friends are. Yesterday I sent my buddy Cal an eMail asking if he could pick up some supplies for me; i.e. a bottle each of MBS solvent cement and Insta-Set as well as a sheet of railroad grass mat. I expected to have to wait until the weekend or next, but this morning I got an reply saying if I could message the store and have the stuff waiting he'd do it today on the way hove from work. Just got the stuff and it's full steam ahead.

The railroad grass was part of a minor revision of the design. The Celluclay didn't look just right, so I decided to make it look more park-like. I stripped off the Celluclay and cleaned the underlying pink foam before laying down a fresh layer of Readi-Board foamcore preparatory to placing the railroad grass mat. This will give the appearance of well-tended a park lawn in the early days of the bombing. I'm also adding a wrought-iron park bench from the Mini-Art kit. I was looking through a King & Country catalogue for ideas as they have a 1/35 scale Danger! UXB line of figures and a picture of one showed a Bobby holding a Danger! UXB warning sign. It was just the right size and in full colour - a head-on shot - so I very carefully trimmed it out with a #11 blade and a straight-edge. The image still showed the fingers of the figure holding it, but with the #11 I carefully scraped the gloss coating off the paper and the dots of the ink came with it, leaving a perfect sign to put on the pillar of the gateway.


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## Milton Fox Racing (May 27, 2014)

Yea Cal! 🤙


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Well, the Bronco War Correspondents set I ordered came in and I've decided to replace the field telephone operator I'd planned on using for this dio with one of the photographers from that set. I also added a bunch of sods from where they dug the excavation by using small rectangles of the grass mat glued to brown felt. Looks good, just like the landscapers used on the lawn next door in summer 2019. I lined the fence with some Woodland Scenics clump foliage to represent a hedge.


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## Owen E Oulton (Jan 6, 2012)

Well, I've decided which photographer figure to use: Figure E - Sgt Gordon D. Petty, Canadian Forces Photographic Unit, Hoogerheide, 1944 with the helmet replaced by a beret. Note that the kit reproduces the Bell and Howell Eyemo ‘cine’ camera beautifully, but the helmet supplied is the MkI/II "Brodie"-style helmet instead of the MkIII in the photo, and the figure wears a plain battle dress tunic without the rain jacket. Just what the doctor ordered!








Library and Archives Canada photo (left) - Bronco box art (right)


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