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Hi all as you may have seen in the gallery I've got some more pictures up of the diorama. I'm really pleased with the groundwork, the snow effect came out really nicely.





a couple of shots of the dio from different angles. i'm rather pleased with how it's looking








a couple of shots of the ground work.. the grass is just grass clumps for dioramas from Fredericus Rex (http://www.fredericus-rex.de/shop2010/Green-Line-scenery/Tufts-of-grass/) though i bought them on ebay. all other plants are just dried plants and twigs i picked up in my garden and on walks in the countryside, apart from a couple of miniature oak leaves which i also bought.




the frozen stream was a bit of an accident really. it started off as a water stream but the water effect kinda went wrong, so, i decided to pour wax over it and it turned out looking rather nice



Figures




the tank commander.. unfortunately the picture quality is a bit poor.. apparently the trousers (according to a history boff) are not the right pattern camo for this campaign.. my response was that he was borrowing them off his friend after he got a hole in his first pair.


half painted Volksgrenadier

i look forward to hearing your comments

Chris

Hey man, guess what? You win

The figures are beautiful, then of course we've all come to expect that from you. What I'd like to comment on is the superb quality of the base. The winter scene you have set is truly incredible. The overall design, the attention to the smallest detail... really amazing. You can tell by looking at it that it was a recent, wet snow. Still clinging in some cases to the fine branches and twigs.

I love the directional snow on the lower part of the tree, as if a light wind was moving the snow onto the bark where it stayed... wonderful touch. I don't see the same effect on the other tree though...

The tangled mass of slash and shrubs on the opposite side of the creek is perfect.

The tank commander looks like he stepped out of a MovieTone news reel.

As a Canadian, I can tell you that your snow is looking spot on.
What are you using for it? And how are you applying it?

Absolutely stunning! The snowy landscape looks incredibly realistic. What did you use for snow effect, is it some kind of miracle product out there, or is it a combination of techniques and skills?

I love it! Such a great and realistic looking base, not to mention the detail on the figures and the tank.
And even though the Splinter patter Trousers the tank commander is wearing weren't generally issued at that time, the German Army's supply chain was so effed up at this point he would have grabbed whatever he could.

A+!

here is the snow product on ebay.. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MODELMATES-SNOW-EFFECT-WEATHERING-SPRAY-200ml-NEW-_W0QQitemZ310288368587QQcmdZViewItem?rvr_id=229222684601&rvr_id=229222684601&cguid=19ae3b2c12e0a47a43f4d0d4fe180746#ht_3015wt_905 it's awesome stuff, you just point and spray really from the direction the snow falls. it has a soft-ish waxy texture and you can push a figures feet into it to create footprint.. i sprinkled a little bit of baking soda over the top for good measure. the only issue with the spray snow is don't leave the finished base in the sun. IT WILL MELT! but yeah great stuff really.. as to one tree having more snow than the other. i sprayed the base before i put on the second tree and had enough left to spray the tree.. that was until my dad decided to experiment with it.. after which there wasn't all that much left so out came the trusty baking soda

I've uploaded the pictures of my work over the last couple of days.. more figures and better pictures


here is the tank commander. i've put the scall 88mm shell next to him so you can see just how large the rounds this tank fired really were!



mucky snow on the road.



the tank commander again. the second picture shows the recon officer offered up in position. He's explaining to the commander what enemy units are lying up ahead.. or something along those lines.



The Volksgrenadier sergeant leads his men into the surrounding woodland (there will be some more troops following behind eventually) the gun strap is just a strip of thick foil cut carefully with some scissors.



i added this tow cable the other day, is there a little to much snow on the front of the tank?




the diorama as a whole from various angles






the second Volksgrenadier in Autumn Oak camouflage. the combats and jacket were reversible for fighting in winter in various conditions. one side was white and the other Oak leaf camouflage. i decided to mix and match for this guy mainly as the camo's a good challenge to paint. if you're a mad painter it'd look good on some imperial guard
i tried to give him a tired look as if he's been fighting for a long time without a break. The Germans fighting in the Ardennes, as far as my limited history knowledge allows, were a mix a raw recruits and hard veterans some of whom had fought in Poland and on the eastern front.

That's all for now, thanks for the feedback and sorry for the lack of 40k

All the Best, Chris








i put this one in Back and white for a bit of fun

WOW!

Thats all i can say, apart from the fact that the B&W pic looks astounding, apart from the slightly unrealistic look to the sculpting on the guy, it looks real!!

Please can you vote on this image http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/217113-.html it'd be nice to get it a good place in the gallery..

My one question is why are there un-spent 88 rounds on the engine deck? Surely no panzer crew would store them there, for fear of them taking a hit and damaging the engine. Spent rounds would make sense, since the loader would be likely to toss them out the hatch in the rear of the turret when he had a chance, but live ones don't make sense.

Nowlan wrote:As a Canadian, I can tell you that your snow is looking spot on.

How right you are!


I was just thinking to myself 'I am sure I have been there before, I recognise the snow...'

Incredible diorama, you should be very proud of yourself!

Commander Cain wrote:

Nowlan wrote:As a Canadian, I can tell you that your snow is looking spot on.

How right you are!


I was just thinking to myself 'I am sure I have been there before, I recognise the snow...'

Incredible diorama, you should be very proud of yourself!

+1 on the snow.

other comments include: AMAZING.

Pfwaaaaafffffffffeeeek!!!

Gahh. DJAAgh!!!!!

EEghk.

Nnyeeeeghh!

The snow. The snow!!!

Happy to vote on that pic, stunning diorama.

My Bad, I just put the 88mm rounds there so i wouldn't loose them, they won't be there when it's finished, though i was thinking of getting one or two ammunition cases to leave on the engine deck, that doesn't seem to uncommon from period photo and other peoples' models.

I don't think there is too much snow on the front of the armour, makes it look as though it's been forging ahead during a snow storm, looks great!

WOW,the diorama looks awesome.

Great Work!

SONS of ORAR wrote:My Bad, I just put the 88mm rounds there so i wouldn't loose them, they won't be there when it's finished, though i was thinking of getting one or two ammunition cases to leave on the engine deck, that doesn't seem to uncommon from period photo and other peoples' models.

Empty wooden cases were commonly left back there, especially if the crew had to reload the vehicle quickly at an ammo dump. Since the ammunition loading hatch was at the very rear of the turret, the usual procedure was to pass the rounds up onto the engine deck while still in the box, remove them from the box there and hand them through the hatch to the loader, who would stow them. Since the engine deck was where the rounds were removed from the wooden crates on the engine deck it would make sense that the engine deck would be where they remained, had the crew been in a hurry or just didn't care.

It was also common for the loader to just toss empty casings out the hatch when he had a chance when the vehicle was not in combat. They would just rest on the engine deck until they rolled off for whatever reason.
However, it was also common for crews to keep one or two empty casings in the tank, for use in the event of a crew member needing to relieve themselves. As you can imagine, there were no such "facilities" in the cramped interior of the tank, so they made do with what they had.

That snow looks amazing.

It has taken me about three hours to read through, love all your work keep up the good work .

So several kudos, and several gripes . The tank in and of itself is well done especially compared to the live ones I have seen back when I did WW2 reenacting. Biggest complant though for it is the tow strap as the way it sits is too unnatural and really throws off the whole front end of the piece. If you had it hooked to something along the side and up through the front that would work a ton better for it. As it stands when you do historical pieces such as these practicality has to come into play and the way it sits now would never be as it would get caught up with the turret.

On the great side of things I think how you did the base is top notch as you didn't just cover everything in snow but instead had local foilage poping through and did a great job working that in. The colors on the actual men are a little flat and I think if you push the recesses a little more and the facial highlights you will have an outstanding piece. Also for the tank crew gent with the pants don't forget to add in the little verticle lines all over the place as it was an oak A pattern I believe, but any of the patterns had that. Cheers mate I hope the insite helped some as you have a great looking piece there that with a little more will be an amazing looking piece.

Hi all

empchild, great productive feedback as always! you've hit bang on it, i thought it looked a bit odd in that position though i wasn't sure, i'll get it sorted ASAP i had one other problem with it, which has hence been sorted which is good .. As to the figures, the splinter pattern does have a couple of lines on but they're so fine they look a bit silly on a 1/35 mini. if it was 120mm I'd definitely put them on.


here's a splinter pattern coat (yes i know they weren't issued on this campaign) as you can see the lines are a tad fine to paint.

as to the faces, i know what you mean they could have a bit more definition, obviously not as much as a space marine who's been fighting for centuries.. i think the flesh on the tank commander is about perfect but on the other's it's a tad messy

@ steeds of war: you deserve respect for your dedication i'm glad you liked it

@ Nowlan : thanks very much for the historical info, it's really useful i'm going to do a Russian summer diorama at some point involving a KV1 heavy tank around june 1941 so if you know anything about them it would be much appreciated.


KV1 tank

Chris





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oh and here is (i think) a period photo modified with colour of the autumn oak leaf camo

Its nothing compared to what youve done with all your models keep it all up.

Beautiful work on the diorama

You are extremely talented my friend!

Solid mate. I wish I still was a reenactor because I would post pics of all of my uniforms for you. I used to have about 10 different German out fits of this camo you are using.

My knowledge of the red army is rather limited in comparison, but if you have any questions I'll give it a shot.

One thing to keep in mind with them though, is that their troops were almost always under-equipped. While they were able to turn out the various PPSH variants in large numbers (Due to it being mostly stamped metal), they still couldn't produce enough for the sheer volume of conscripts they had. Just to give you an idea of their supply issues.

Nowlan wrote:My knowledge of the red army is rather limited in comparison, but if you have any questions I'll give it a shot.

One thing to keep in mind with them though, is that their troops were almost always under-equipped. While they were able to turn out the various PPSH variants in large numbers (Due to it being mostly stamped metal), they still couldn't produce enough for the sheer volume of conscripts they had. Just to give you an idea of their supply issues.

Actually, that depends on what time period you are looking at. By the time the Reds had made it to Poland nearly all of their conscripts were properly equipped. It began to change after Little Saturn (the operation to liberate Stalingrad)

But any time before Stalingrad, then yes many were under-equipped.

That would make sense, reclaiming territory containing factories and all... assuming they were still in one peice.

But like I said, my knowledge of the motherland is rather limited.