Passing by frequently from “Lefka”, a local district of Piraeus, I could often see a small old outpost at the corner of Falirou and Vasilikon streets, right next to the old Athens/Piraeus/Peloponnese Railroad plant. This is a huge area with its own history. The vastness of the area along with its history led me to build the diorama which I am going to present here.
First thing was to take a lot of photos from different angles, always from the outside as access to the inner side is not possible.
In order to come as close as possible to scale, I used a 1/35th scale figure as a guide for the dimensions of the perimeter wall and the outpost. For the construction I used 6mm thick maquette paper for the outer walls and 3mm maquette paper for the outpost respectively. I removed the glossy layer from the maquette paper, revealing the rough surface underneath, making the following step of applying the next material easier. Using a hobby knife and a ruler I constructed the outer walls of the building and the “suspended” outpost. The entire construction was coated with AK Terrains Concrete using a small wet spatula. Allowing a 48 hour drying period, I sanded the walls with sanding paper of various grids until they resembled the appearance of plastered wall. At the end I coated the entire construction with Vallejo’s white primer and filled in all the gaps with Vallejo acrylic putty.
The challenge of the build was to capture the appearance of an (unfortunately) abandoned building as it looks like today, damaged by time and nature. I applied a lot of washes, mainly gray and white, as well as green where the moisture was more evident. According to my photos, I added greenery and dry branches and dry brushed all the edges and dirty areas of the building. The searchlight was build entirely with various pieces from the always useful spares box.
Next step was the graffiti, which were done using colored pencils. The road signs “headache” was …cured with the help of my good friend and fellow modeller Alexandros Amarandos who kindly printed them on decal paper.
As I thought that the project was finished, a very windy day revealed a wooden door od the outpost! Using balsa wood, the new feature of the build was added!
This was an especial build which hopefully will mark the beginning of more similar ones in the future, as my next project is only a …couple of streets further down the road!
Build: Kostas Katsikadelis
Translated by George Roumbos
