Earlier this winter I bought an old VW T4 Transporter as I needed a bigger and better car. I was lucky to find a T4 locally which was in quite good condition. I wanted a van I could use for my expeditions and for going on markets etc with so I began looking at "minicamper" solutions on the internet. There was lots of inspiration to be found and soon I had an idea how I wanted to do it. First task was to strip down all the walls etc , clean it and go over it and take care of any rust. Next I covered walls and floor with some insulation, mostly to soundproof it a bit. At the local plank shop I got material for the floor and walls and both the paint - and hardware shop was frequently visited to pick out vinyl for the floor, paint, screws etc.
It took me and my girlfriend a couple of weeks cutting, painting and mounting it all and yesterday the last screw was attached and the HobbyHistorica logo could be slapped on to the sides of the van.
Having very little experience in carpentry and interior building I am fairly proud of the result and cant wait taking it out on a roadtrip. Hope you like it :)

Last year a friend found this part from a Katyusha rocket engine while searching in the 
Kurland Kessel. He wanted it displayed somehow and gave it to me to do something with it. I cleaned off some 70 years of rust and muck from it and figured out a way to display it on a wooden base I had found. I bought a 1/87 scale BM-13 Katyusha and as soon it arrived I used some oil paintsd and pigments to make it look a bit worn and used. I made a small base in the rocket part and had the BM-13 fixed in place with some strong glue.
My friend was happy with the result and it is on its way to him now :)

A little diorama I put together recently. I wanted a diorama showing how it can look when a fallen and missing soldier is found deep in a forest along the old frontlines of WW2. I am a member of the Latvian War Grave Commission and part of the search group Legenda so this dio is a homage to all the guys and girls working and volunteering in these organizations.
The diorama is in scale 1/35 and the base I used is a german canteen I found in Northern Norway.
​Hope you like it:)

Some more miniature doors ready. Im having a blast making these.
First up some prison doors:

The first two items in a new serie of miniatures I am making, Doors. These are made from wood, metal and plastic, they are ca 12cm tall and mounted in frames. They will be available for sale in the shop. :)
​

The first one is a 12th century church door :

The second door is from a 19th century shed:

About a month ago I built and painted this 1/16 scale figure I had laying around. I really liked the pose of the figure, and quickly decided to make it as a gift to a friend of mine.
The figure is well casted and little clean up was needed. I primed the figure after having assembled it, and the painting was straightforward. I used Vallejo Model Colors acrylic paint, and some oils and pigments for weathering it. I used paint mixes as shown by Calvin Tans book "Modelling Waffen SS figures".
The base I chose to place the figure on is the lid of a German detonator box found in the Kurland Kessel and I had a relic General Assault badge I also placed on the base. The soil is a mix of car body filler and sand from the old Kurland frontlines of ww2.
​My friend was happy to get this figure and it now has a new home in his display cabinet.

This was a project I ve wanted to make for a long time,and when I could afford buying the figure kit from Masterbox I decided it was time to get it made.
I had the helmet for several years. It is a surface find from the old Ypres battlefield, picked up by a local farmer. The top of it was long gone and it is ridden with bullet holes. On the inside of it,in the rolled edge there is still a piece of lead stuck, a real piece of history.
With the WW1 diorama kit from Masterbox I had what I needed to "improve"this relic a bit.
The model kit comes with a section of a trenchsystem, so I cut the lenght I needed and began cleaning up the parts. With the quality of the production this process didn`t take long and soon also the figures had been assembled and made ready for paint.
In the kit comes a lot of extras,such as helmets, weapons etc, so I had an easy job making the trench a bit busy and cluttered. I wanted some S.R.D bottles and searched around a while for something I could use when I spotted the sprue from the figures. The attachment points can be cut off , have the mold line removed and voila,bottle, so easy :D 
For the painting I used Vallejo Model Color and made random mixes of the shads I wanted. Weathering and shading was done using oils,washes and pigments, and again I have realized that my flesh painting skills sucks and needs improving.
I also had a coil of LED lights laying around and decided to just glue it in place inside the helmet so it doubles as a cozy lamp.
After a few evenings of painting things were ready to be put together and final pics taken. Unfortunately the light wasn`t the best so some of the pics are a tad blurry, but I will get that re-done the next sunny day:)

Im fairly happy with the result, and the helmet sure looks impressive in the display cabinet now:)

As I have more diorama projects lined up and not room for it all I am open to offers on this one if you wish to have it displayed in your collection, just contact me with a serious offer:)

Slideshow below:

Here is a little 1/35 scale scene I put together last evening. I call it "For the Motherland" and it shows two fallen Red Army soldiers still missing somewhere in the wilderness that took over a once noisy and violent battle arena. Their Maxim machinegun still stands where it fired its last round defending the Russian soil.
The base used is a piece of grenade shrapnel.

The diorama is for sale here:
"For the Motherland" 1/35  

One of the last mornings I made this kool relic lamp. I used a German helmet from the Kurland Kessel and as the lampstand I took a U.S made 45mm recoilless casing which I found in Northern Norway. I had some old lamps laying around and took a part here and a part there and fixed it to the lampstand. I didn`t fix the helmet so that it should be easier to change lightbulb.
Hope you like it, and I have listed it for sale in my shop :)

http://www.hobbyhistorica.com/store/p464/German_Helmet_Lamp.html