Hi guys!

This will not only be my first diorama, but my first *real* foray into military modelling. I'm clearly new here and am just starting out so I'll start with some background. I used to build models (mostly ships) when I was really young (9-13yrs old), along with some HO trains. When I was 14-ish I played some of the Games Workshop miniatures games and really enjoyed painting them. So I'm now a college student (budget being a big issue), and I'm trying to appease my mind's desire for military history. I figured I'd start with an Eastern Front WWII diorama since I've got a decent understanding there, but I'm trying to figure out what exactly I ought to do for my diorama. Since I'd like to do this semi-properly, it might get long - apologies in advance.

Since I'm silly, I decided to buy a few kits:
Revell - T34/85 (comes with two sets of decals for units in Belorussia and Eastern Prussia in 1945)
Italeri - Russian Infantry (33x riflemen; 9x w/PPSh 41; 3x Officer/Commissar; 3x Maxim Water-cooled MGs w/rolling carriage) - this seems like an early war set, but I think it should be easy to get away with; also, they are mostly in walking positions, so they can't be part of a high-tension battle
Airfix - German Reconnaissance Set (includes a Sdkfz 222 armored car and Type 82 Kubelwagen w/optional MG34 along with a couple of figures)
Hasegawa - Check Point (includes: watchtower; guardhouse; 2x utility poles; lifting barrier; 2x fences; and some jerry cans, ammo boxes, and a fuel drum)

Okay, so again, help with fleshing out the ideas. I'm thinking I'll do a diorama with the T-34 & troops (probably not all of them) either rolling through or relaxing at a destroyed checkpoint somewhere in Eastern Europe. I thought I'd have the Kubel and '222 burned out beside the road or something - the story being that the T-34 had hit them at long range or they had been victims of a strafing run (I do have a MiG-3 model somewhere...). In any case, that's my idea and my materials.

I've been reading the Digital Diamonds articles by Keith Magee and so I think I'll probably get some plaster of Paris to make myself a cheap base. I posted in the Paint forum about which paints I ought to use, but you can post that here too if you want. Any and all suggestions would be helpful! I'm open to suggestions about splitting it up into smaller dioramas too as I've already been tossing that idea around. Thanks in advance, and I apologize again for the length of this post!

Edit: Forgot to put in that is all in 1:72 scale...

Tito

HI there, and welcome to the site

You rproject do sound ambitious which is good.

First, I assume the dio will be in 1/72 scale. In that case I would like to recommend the website www.plasticsoldierreview.com in case you don't know it. The site presents a very large range of 1/72 models (mainly figures) available, so you can from here decide what figures you want to use.
About the scene: The advantage of building in this small scale is that its far cheaper than bigger scales, and you don't need much space on the dio to make it look large. By placing the models/figures far from eachother the scene will turn out larger than it is. And it is not a bad thing to have figures and vehicles in surplus to future projects - I believe placing about 50 figures in one scene will be too many and attract the atention to something else than the scene itself.

About the scenery it self: You'd probably get a lot of tips and ideas from this site. A road is always a nice center of a scene, with something going on on the roadside - burnt out vehicles etc. Try also to get a tree or two into the scene or somthing (ex building) that'll provide the scene with some height.

Good luck with it and keep us posted as you go along.

Hope it was helpful

Simon

First of all - welcome to Armorama and welcome to wonderful world of Dioramas.

I like the idea of a destroyed recon. column being passed by advancing Russians. What would be cool is to have the destroyed abandonded vehicles pushed to the edge of the road.
You would get to experiment with battle damage on the vehicles and the road, then ruts from the pushing.

A secondary one (as mentioned) is a destroyed checkpoint. Same concept, destroyed vehicles pushed asside. You just urbanize it a bit and add the checkpoint 'stuff'.

A Warm Welcome aboard the Diorama forum.

1/72 is a pretty good way to kick off a dio as it is relatively more manageable. The main thingy I've found working with dios in the smaller scales is the matching the materials of the groundwork to ensure it fits 1/72. Whatever you intend to use should be matched to the tanks, figs, vehicles, etc you plan to use. This will ensure a good fit. For example a pebble for 1/35th will become a huge rock in 1/72nd.

Good luck and do enjoy your first go.

Thanks for the tips!

I checked out plasticsoldierreview.com and their site is indeed very helpful. They support my original thoughts that my Russian infantry are rather badly made and I'l have to get some new ones. Oh well, only $6 down the drain... Anywho, thanks for that site suggestion.

I'll keep an eye on the scale of everything I use too. Thanks for the reminder.

I think I'll be going ahead and doing just a road with the Russian column going by the destroyed vehicles - I was thinking of having the Kubel crashed into a utility pole and the '222 pushed off the road. If I can find some infantry to sit on my tank and then find a jeep or other small Russian vehicle, I might do that instead of having a bunch of foot soldiers following the tank - which wouldn't make much sense anyway. On second thought, another T-34 wouldn't be bad, or maybe a smaller tank (BT-7?) or an assault gun/tank destroyer (SU-85 or -100?) to expand the column. Any other ideas?

Thanks again!
Tito