Hi everyone. I've just found this EXCELLENT site, joined immediately, and am pleased to inform one and all that I'm about three quarters of the way through my first ever diorama. Very simple: a german MG crew with a sMG (MG 42) and a crew commander (NCO with field glasses). All figures come from the Tamiya kit "German Machine Gun Troops " (35038 I believe). Anyway, on the base I have the MG crew in a shell-scrape and the Det Commander in another shell scrape 10 scale metres to the side. I have as the base a piece of crafting styrofoam (quite dense. Same thing as those styrofoam balls and cones they sell in craft stores). On it I placed some twisted up toilet paper and poured Plaster of Paris all over it (quite thick) and then let it set overnight. Next day, I sanded it smooth and then painted it with a mix of black and orange craft paint (acrylic, I think, and belonging to my wife! . I left the sanded portions of the P of P on it, and in the end they add to the bumpiness. The twisted up toilet paper makes a nice knoll. Anyway, the colour is NOT to simulate dirt; rather, it is a base upon which I intend to put some Static Grass. As well, I need some sandbags for the shell-scrapes. Hopefully it turns out! :-) I do have a question about the german machine guns used with the tripod concerning the sight unit. As I understand current MGs mounted on tripods, the sightunit is used almost exactly as with artillery pieces, that is, they sight on an aiming stake so they can engage targets when they obscured . Did the Germans use their MGs this way too, or were the sightunits used to actually aim at the targets? I need to know, so I can put in some aiming stakes, "just in case". Anyway, thanks for reading, and I'll be sure to post some pics when finished, no matter the turn out! Ciao!

Hi,



A warm welcome to the best modeling site on the Net.

I hope you enjoy your stay here.

We will want to see photos of your dio.


#999

Welcome to the site - you'll find it's a great home for the modeling enthusiast (or the nuts out there like us!). Can't really give you feedback on the Aiming Stakes issue, but I do know that the MG34/42 series were very high velocity weapons that had tremendous accuracty. i would imagine with those traits, simple line of sight would have been the primary dead-reckoning method... but not knowing this for fact, I'll defer to others more in the know!

OK, this is somewhat true:

When emplaced an MG in a static position usually has a "fire plan" Under that plan "pre-plotted" targets are determined, like a road, a house, the edge of a woodline, a trail or other likely avenues of approach. Then the gun's elevation and deflection from a known location are calculated and written down. That way, at night or when the target is obscured, if there is movement in a certain location or other indications of enemy presence, or just to keep the enemy on its toes, you can lay the gun on that deflection/elevation and have a good chance of hitting the target.

Tanks and other direct fire weapons did the same when in static positions, by the way.

"aiming stakes" are also used for simple left or right limited of fire or to indicate the direction to certain landmarks and as reference points.

Again, these are done when the position is meant to be around for a while, not in hasty defenses. The longer a gun is in position the more is done, from deepening the pit, to overhead cover to aiming references. Alternate firing positions are developed as well, again, the longer they are are there the more is done.

The infantry types here may know more about this, but that is the crux of the matter.

Welcome on board Von GArvin

As you probably already noticed the unique friendlyness of this site.. Ask your question and it will be answered.. Several times
We have a good bunch of guys here (2000+ members) that are always willing to share there knowledge And remember: there is no such thing as a stupid question

Hope you enjoy your time here and maybe we could see some pics of your dio later on

Thanks for both the warm welcomes and the replies re: Machine Guns. Now, I'm in the Canadian army, and I've been trained on both the C6 General Purpose Machine Gun (FN MAG 58) for use in the Sustained Fire Role (SF Role) and the 81mm Mortar. Interesting point: they both use the same sightunit. Anyway, wrt the MG, when it's in the SF kit (basically a fancy name for "tripod"), the maximum range extends to 1800 metres (vice 800 with just bipod), this due to the accuracy increased due to the stable mount The interesting thing about the sight, though is that when used, you can do exactly what you mentioned: note the dial settings (azimuth and elevation) in order to hit registered targets. Another thing, though, is that it can be setup exactly as for use with the mortar, enabling the machine gun to be fired at targets it cannot see AND hasn't yet registered, thus giving the mg the capability of indirect fire. (Now, by indirect fire, I do NOT mean high angle fire! ) Anyway, I digress. I was just thinking that maybe the germans had the same capability. Cheers, and thanks again!

I've never heard nor seen any photographic evidence of WW2 Germans using aiming stakes in a machine gun nest. from the way you describe your dio, this sounds like a hasty defense chances are they would have just laid down but given the time set up the tripod. check out celluclay for sculpting groundwork. you can precolor it by pouring in the desired color and it's a hell of alot easier then trying to shape toilet paper

I just finished the diorama...almost. Cam net still has to go up. Oh, did I mention that I found THE model shop! It rocked! Multiple brands of paint, static grass, etc etc!!!!! I was in heaven! Anyway, I have to borrow a digital cam to take some pics, but in the meantime, follow this link to some cruddy webcam pics I just took from multiple angles. Remember, this is my FIRST EVER diorama! Enjoy! Also note that the trenches are 10 metres apart (in scale, of course!)
http://groups.msn.com/ModelDiorama/shoebox.msnw?albumlist=2

If you don't mind I took the liberty of putting some of your photos directly onto this post. That way everybody can see them. So you'll the way this is done is to click on the picture you want to load, right click on it, go to properties, hightlight the URL being sure to drag down the mouse to get all of it since it's quite long and copy it. Put img in brackets [] and past the URL, then close it with / and the brackets.

Your dio looks pretty good so far to me.











I didn't put all of them here but this give us the idea.

To Halfyank: WOW! :-) It looks like I have some studying to do Well, hopefully I'll get some sunshine AND a digital camera tomorrow so I can take some clearer pics. Sure, it looks like "war on a golf green", but it's my first EVER diorama, and I'm so happy! :-) :-) :-) Talk to you all later, and cheers!

Hi all.
I've been working on my second dio, hoping to learn from mistakes/errors etc from the first. So far, so good; however, I did goof a bit on the base and I'll have to start again. The figures are coming along nicely, but I do have some problems with painting faces. In short: I suck. Anyway, time will make me better, I'm sure, and I have been reading up on hints, here and elsewhere. The dio will be of a 8cm mortar crew firing from within a mortar pit. Wish me luck! :-)