1⁄35
Passing Through '42

a build story by Keith Magee
11
Comments

Finishing Details

I truly feel the difference in a nice diorama and a show-quality scene is in the level of detail. The longer a viewer spends exploring the diorama, the better a job I know I have done. Several little pieces and objects of interest were added as the mood hit me. Certainly there are many creates, boxes, and containers to be seen, and these came from a variety of sources, including Verlinden and the afore- mentioned Revell kit which supplied me with the desk, chairs, and some larger crates.

Additionally, I used several pieces of resin castings from FormTech, who manufactures a large series of resin kits for the futuristic war-game series "40K". The scale is not specified as 1:35, but they fit perfectly into the scene. Wine bottles from Verlinden, and the underwear drying from the tree limb come from the wonderful European company Plus Models. The violin came from a doll shop! [photo]

I created the harness strap for the horse and the leather tethers for the supply wagon from plastic strip softened and shaped over a candle flame. Bricks and rubble are a combination of my own bricks and some clay (not clumping!) kitty litter. Weeds were made by staining a cheap bristle brush with dark green paint, and then cut with scissors from the brush itself in clumps. These were glued at the base with Fabritac(tm), and pushed into place through the marine Styrofoam board.

Summary

What a great vacation... plenty of modeling time, no rush, and lots of goodies to play with. The only drawback to making such large dioramas? Obviously, it's the long articles that go along with them!

Project Photos
CLICK TO ENLARGE


Editors Note: Keith had so much activity in this diorama and had so many pictures that they couldn't all be included in the body of the article. Here is a sampling of the pictures.

About the Author

About Keith Magee (KFMagee)
FROM: TEXAS, UNITED STATES

After a hiatus of several years following the sale of my hobby shop (Hobby Annex in Dallas, TX), I am ready to build again... I love dioramas, with a focus on WW2 and tend to spend a lot of time documenting my work... any questions, just let me know! - Keith


Comments

Cactus911
An amazingly impressive piece of work, especially given that you worked on it for a week! Your concentration and execution is inspiring. Stephen
OCT 25, 2003 - 08:43 AM
boosahmer
Keith, That is a fantastic piece of work! Applause!!!
OCT 25, 2003 - 10:06 AM
KFMagee
Thanks one and all... actually, Slodder deserves much of the credit here for salvaging my poor photography with his software skills!
OCT 25, 2003 - 04:12 PM
Sealhead
Your work both inspires me and intimidates me. What was done in a week compared to what I've done over ten years is absolutely the difference between a master and a novice. What a great job! Sealhead (Kansas sunflower)
OCT 26, 2003 - 01:41 AM
SniperSoldier
GREAT DIO - FANTASTIC CONGRATS
OCT 26, 2003 - 01:48 PM
KFMagee
Thanks (I guess!) SealHead.... there was nothing really hard about this one... and with "dedicated time" (ie, no distractions) probably anyone who builds models regularly could do it. It was fun and if you think about it, I probably spent about 40-45 hours on this... in a normal situation, it would have taken me about 4 weeks to finish this, working two or three hours per night. So there should be no intimidation... I was just in the perfect situation!
NOV 05, 2003 - 06:00 AM
Marty
Hey Keith, nice job! I like seeing larger dioramas. It takes a quite a bit of knowledge to pull it off right.
NOV 05, 2003 - 08:34 AM
Anzac
as a novice starting out I look at the talent skill and craftsmanship of model builders like yourself and it makes me want to strive for excellence like you have produced on this occassion. I am inspired Anzac #:-)
NOV 05, 2003 - 08:50 AM
Venom
great work! I love the big dioramas, and this is very nice!! congrats KFmagee!
NOV 05, 2003 - 11:15 AM
KFMagee
Marty - I'm like you...while a smaller diorama may actually be tougher in terms of delivering impact in a small area, the "large diorama" format has the challenge of tying many small vignettes into one larger encompassing story line... I find that challenging. Plus, it's just plain fun to walk into the shows with a monster-sized piece and have people gawk over it! And in my case, I find the REALLY BIG dioramas bring the best prices too!
NOV 05, 2003 - 07:22 PM
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Copyright ©2021 by Keith Magee. Images and/or videos also by copyright holder unless otherwise noted. The views and opinions expressed herein are solely the views and opinions of the authors and/or contributors to this Web site and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions of Armorama, KitMaker Network, or Silver Star Enterrpises. All rights reserved. Originally published on: 2003-10-25 00:00:00. Unique Reads: 14717