Well, here it is...Masters of the Gulf. This diorama is for an art show at my university and is the first one I have ever done. I'd like to thank everyone here for helping me out with my many questions about these subjects and techniques.

Two members who I would like to extend a special shout out to are Rob G. (Sabot) for all his vast knowledge of all things armored and for letting me tour the Real Steel and Mario M. (Maki) for all his help with figure painting and for sending me his excellent upcoming article about painting desert camo.

Sorry about the crummy pics, photography isn't my specialty.

If you get that little red 'X' here's the URL - http://groups.msn.com/armorama/m1a1andhmmwvdio.msnw?Page=1

Any comments, questions, or criticisms are welcome.

:-) Looks good, lots of action.
A little help here:








Hope thats got em :-)
Mal

Looks nice with all that... snow! Is this the dio for which someone was looking for a name a few days ago?

Indeed it is scoccia.

Thanks for the help posting the pics Holdfast, I don't know what I did wrong, I used the img button insert.

From the pictures shown the figures and vehicles look really good. The poses of the figures all look good as well. Is that AM barbed wire or scratch built. No problems there.

To improve the overall effect, some work would need to be made on the base. It is a little too big, leaving a lot of empty space. It is very flat...... although that may be accurate, it doesnt give any contours or shape to the dio. And more texture is needed. More rocks, stones, etc. Even though you may be trying to show sand, it can be more difficult to convey just flat sand accurately than something with a bit of a hill or some mounds, even a bombed out house. Another thing that stands out a lot is the bright green bushes. These wouldnt be very common in a desert environment. If they were there it would be more likely they would be a sandy/brown colour. Some grasses from brush hairs is another thing to add some detail.
Im sorry if Im sounding picky, but a better base would do your excellent figures and vehicles the justice they deserve. But its not me you have to please. As long as you are happy with it, it doesnt matter what i think! Only trying to be helpful!

Point well taken about the grass and brush, though from my resources, some of it was very close to that shade. In hindsight, I agree with you about adding some texture (rocks, grass, etc.). There is a bit of terrain there, unfortunately, you really can't see it in my pics. There is a hill behind the the tank and a slow slope behind the HMMWV.

The barbed wire is a bit of my creativity. Take a piece of screen, cut it vertically so there is one main wire and two little knubs off both sides. Wrap around a small tin of paint, politely ask someone to hold it as you slip it off, tie it, and voila, a bail of barbed wire.

Jeff, Lookinjg damn good. I love it. What's not to like. M1A1, Cool, Hummer, Cool, lots of action thingy, Double Cool!!!

Keep up the good work!!!!

Thank you for the comments and suggestions, folks. My next diorama will hopefully reflect some of your suggestions.

very nice work.i liked the posing of figures

I guess my standpoint would be more of how clean the vehicles look. Especially the road wheels of the M1. They are kind of shiny. I would pull the bushes add a little bit of darker dirt and sprinkle it onto the tracks and wheels of your vehicles. Figures are stupendous and the overall weathering of your vehiles looks nice and dusty. Combat is a dirty business man literally

One other note on the diorama. The M1 looks placed On the base, not part of the base. Those monsters are 70 tons (I think) and they chew thier way through the sand.
This is fixable. Just take a bit of white glue and dilute it a bit, you can build up the area around the tracks and then add the sand material over the glue. Do it slowly in layers because the glue may contract upon drying and you want a nice even pushed over appearance.

It's a very nice first diorama. Keep plugging away and take the comments as help on the next one.

Thanks for the comments guys!!!! I think the shine you are seeing on my wheels is actually some of the sand I used. I blew excess off and it got caught in the wheels. I didn't even notice it until after I took the pics (I don't have a digi camera yet, so developing is still expensive, and I'm a poor college student ) Also, in reference to the track marks, they are there, as are wheel impressions from the Hummer, however, I think I used too much light and they just don't show. I had 2 floor lamps and my camera's flash on the dio and as such colors are different, you don't really see terrain, and you lose the details of the tracks/wheels. If you are going to be at Valleycon XIII on Sunday March 30, my dio will be there too, so you can see it in the flesh.

Another quick tale. This was for a college art show (unfortunately it didn't make it in as they only had 20 openings, but, oh well) and I was removing it from the school when a girl in the hall decided it was time to dance. She hit one of my figures rocketing it into a wallwhere it broke into several pieces. The figure is the one closest to the tank. How she missed hitting that tank is beyond me, but thank God she did miss. That would have been a disaster.

I like you setup. I have a question about the troops. What maker did you get them from.I can tell you that Ifor one would like to get some like them so that I add more GIs to some of the set up that I have in the early planning stage.

Thanks for your comment. The figures are by CMK. They are the UH-60 crew Sets 1-3. If you get them, beware of air bubbles in the legs, I had to do major surgery on one of them due to this problem.

GREAT JOB
CONGRATULATIONS