¹⁄35

M60A1 in the Austrian Army, 1968

The Figures

It is always difficult to obtain figures with Austrian Army uniforms. I needed something which looked similar to the M57 camo smock and once again investigating the spares box led to success. I had to make a few changes on the uniforms and used heads from Hornet.

On first sight the crew looks rather SS-like, but that’s the way Austrian soldiers were equipped for almost 20 years. According to my grandpa the cloth came from old WWII stocks.
 

Diorama

As I feel that the interest in “modern” armour is not very developed, I was looking for a scene which should attract the spectator at glance. A railway crossing, with the tank sitting on top, seemed to be very promising. I examined some crossings near my home and soon discovered a favourite which served as model.

I used a 29x29cms frame and built up the base with Styrofoam. I used rails from The Tank Workshop, the crossing is made from wood. The surface is done from sand, this time from Greece, diluted with wallpaper glue. I used some static grass and dried plants which were sprinkled onto the wet sand. Track and wheel patterns were pressed into the surface. The sign was downloaded from the internet, printed in correct size and glued onto thin cardboard. A bit of weathering was applied with pastels.