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Thanks guys, Deff this is just an underlay, I'll be adding layers cut shorter and layered over the top of each other to recreate the thatch look.

Thanks Disjointed, I know what you mean and actually soviet uniforms can be quite confusing! I'm glad your liking it so far. To be hoenst I havent been able to make the kind of progress I'd like. I only have little bits of time here and there at the moment. If I had a whole weekend free then I would get so much more done!

Sorry to hear you haven't had time to progress with the diorama.Hope to see some stuff soon.


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By the way heres just an intresting site,don't know how accurate it is but it is fun to look around on.




http://www.diggerhistory.info/00-pages-top-level/master-index.htm

Cool, thanks for the Link Deff I'll check it out! Always good to see more resources!

Like I say I am not sure how accurate it is,but I do love there German WW2 Afrika Korps stuff.

I know what you mean Gundam, real life - the bane of us all!

It's a nuisance isn't it?

I managed to get some more work done on the dio.

Worked alot on the base bulking out the grass and flowers to fill out the spaces a bit more and help landscape the scene, I'm not happy with the grass and plants, although I will be adding some loose leaves and ivy once the farm house is attached and blended into the base.

Heres a rough layout of where I am at present:





Scenic base Check list:

Finish off the farm house and attach/blend into the base
paint the machine gun nest
paint the tank barriers
model the river with crystal resin
add some paper ferns to the base and ivy t the farm house
Mount the edges with cut plasticard

I've also bulked up the farm house roof with some layers of thatch, strips of woodland scenics long brown grass were attached to strips of selotape and glued onto the roof, these were then covered with loose long brown grass cut to length and glued with watered down PVA. The whole roof was then sprayed with hair spray as a fixative. It's still a little scruffy and some edges need to be trimmed and tidied with scissors now that the roof is dry. I may also paint the roof, or at least weather it in some way.









I also managed some work on the KV-1 adding paint chips and the first stages of weathering with some oil washes.

Looking nice,the scene is starting to come together.

How well do your crewmen size up against IG?

Cause I really want to get some Valhallans in Summer Dress, and they don't exist.

Also, looking really really good so far, I think the base and flowers etc, look good - not too busy, enough to be realistic.

I think the thatch does need some weathering of some sort, the yellow is much to bright. The thatch I've seen seems to be a much more greyish-tan (if that makes sense).

The only thing that feels out of place to me is the farm house. The way its alone along the back of the diorama feels kind of odd. Maybe a tree or split rail fence along a section of the back to kind of enclose the scene some more? Probably just me, but with the one piece standing up like that, it accentuates how empty the rest of the back is.

Now you come to mention it, I kinda get the same feeling.

I agree, a fence would be a good solution.

Cheers
Dave

Thanks for the feedback and the ideas guys.

I've actually been debating with myself if I should add some trees or shrubs of some kind near the far side. I've been playing with the idea of bulking the scene out, in fact the main reason I wanted to include a building was to give it something of a three dimensional aspect and give it depth.

I very nearly bought a tree last week...

Good news is though that I have some great fences and other components from my Tamiya diorama set. I've been thinking a lot about using these to add to the scene. The problem is that the limited size and space is a bit of an issue, and I wanted to keep the MG nest to make the scene more characterful and true to setting.

My concern is adding too much to make the scene look more aesthetically pleasing, while ignoring the realism of the buildings and fences and how they would be logically placed in a real life situation.

For example placing a fence along the back section takes a lot of thought and has to be done is a realistic way so that the line of the fence matches in realistically to the building (that is cut at a cross section).

After this weekend I'll try adding a few elements and shuffle things about. I agree with Dave though that a simple well placed fence would be the best bet to add to the "empty" space.


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I've also been thinking alot about the grass and vegetation and following some discussion with guys over at Warseer have decided to bulk this out a bit. I'm also going to blend in some brighter green colours for some variation between dry scorched grass and fresher grass.

I want to blend the clumps of grass with some static flock and also add some small vegetation from lumps of turf and foliage from Woodland Scenics. Like this:





Right now the grass sections are a little isolated and need blending in with some flat grass to give a more even effect.

I'm also considering adding a bale of hay somewhere in the scene, I saw it done on another KV-1 diorama (1:35 scale) and I really liked the effect.

I'm finally back from Belorussia and have lots of great photos from there. Actually it ended up being a bit of a WW2 fest in the end. I spent most of my time visiting war memorials and monuments and museums with my relatives!

I'll be updating my T34 log with more photos later tonight, with pictures of me finally handing over the finished article, as well as plenty of photos of the real thing. Suffice to say he loved the present and spent ages playing with it taking the different parts apart. I don't think he expected it to be so detailed!

Now that I'm back I'll also be able to finally get back to work on this Kursk log. I also got plenty of great photos for info there. I didn't manage any photos of KV-1's but I did find an SU-152 thats basically a modification of the KV chassis. So alot of general images of the details were really great. It was also a fantastic opportunity to get lots of close up reference images of the finer details in person, such as the weld seams, the serial numbers stamped onto the hull, and various other bits and peices that arent clear on old reference images from the war.

Hey man long time no post,that link I sent you have any good reference material?

I also can't wait to see those pics,sounds like fun and I am glad to hear your relative liked the gift.

So anyway I can't wait for more updates.As for the idea of adding various types of flocking to indicate different types of grasses and such I think it sounds good.

OT:Would you happen to have any good reference material of the Afrika korps?I have been researching them lately.

This is looking really good ! I really really must do a diorama of some german stuff over my holidays this stuff has just inspired me !

When I was in Belarus I was able to get some great reference photos of an SU-152. While the Tank is different to a KV-1 its built on the same chassis so a lot of the surface details and parts are the same.

Here are some of the reference shots that I've been using, the tracks and hatch details were especially helpful.

Just to show you guys that I haven't forgotten about this blog, heres a small update on some work I did to the terrain to blend in and even out the grass and flowers a little, I also added some clump foliage and some small bushes.













I've been wrestling with the farm house recently and I've decided it looked a little out of place so I'm going to keep it and use it for a vignette scene with some figures instead. The great thing about a blog project is that you can adapt and try things as you go along. Feedback from other modellers really helps too. I'm thinking to maybe add a small tree in the empty space behind the tank?



I also did a little more weathering and colour blending with oils to the tank armour

Oooh That base is looovely very nicel done. It all has a nice, calm feeling to it, I likes this one alot.

Thanks Wolf, thats the feeling I was tying to get across before the battle with the officers and tankers discussing the briefing.

A calm before the storm so to speak.

I've actually added the river water since this last photo, it now has crystal resin water in the river bed.

Niice You know you are driving me close and closer to forgetting what debt is and making my own lol !

Love what you did with the plants. The bushes in the corner look good and I think a tree off to the other side would be a good replacement for the cottage. I agree that the cottage felt a little out of place in this scene.

Thanks guys!

Shellfish its funny you should say that, a guy on Warseer actually complained that the bush was not realistic enough. But to be honest at such a small scale theres very little you can do with a small bush or hedge, it's too compact to add branches etc. So I'm at a bit of a loss as to what I could add to make it look more "real"...

Looks awesome as ever. I'm drooling a bit, still.

sA

After all the detail you put into the base, people and especially the tank, he complains about the bush? Guess some people just need SOMETHING to bitch about lol. And you're right, at this scale, what could be done to the bush? It looks fine as it is, and really peoples attention wont be on the bush when viewing it.