Hi !
here's a few quick photos of my nearly finished dio. Sorry for bad pictures, tomorow will take another under daylight.

I like the set up, but I'm not sure on the story you're trying to tell.
Are we looking at a lost US GI, or an attack waiting to happen? If the latter, I'd add another GI.

The small shed looks nice, btw!

Looks really good so far, what vehicle are you planing on putting in the fore ground as my only concern would be that if a large vehicle is used it would hide all the great detail behind it when viewed at eye level.

Well there is another GI, hidden behind bush on other side of road, but I did not take right angle when taking photo so You could not see him. Tomorow I'll add few more pictures under daylight.
About vehicle: not planing any , maybe BMW motorcycle would be appropriate , don't know yet

Cheers

If you are not intending to place a vehicle it seems that there is a lot of empty space but I will wait until you have finished.

Robert, it looks good to me. And I wouldn't go with anything bigger than a motorcycle, if you do add a vehicle. Maybe a log?

How about a log on a saw-horse? Like someone had been cutting firewood?

Robert, Cool ! I like the detail.

Another day , better light, so heres a few more pictures. some repositioning done, added achtung minen sign. For now I would not ad any vehicle, think it would be to crowded. So i guess that's it.

I like the details such as the logs, the bucket, the boxes in the shed and the leaves growing up the outside of the shed.

My main quibble is with the German sitting at the sandbags cutting bread - he appears to be looking straight ahead (past his newspaper) at the GI peering round the shed, yet seems to be totally unworried by him and simply carrying on merrily preparing his lunch.

I think it would have looked better if the bread-cutting German's head was angled downwards and not looking straight ahead.

I could agree with You Steve, but on the other hand maybe german is looking at GI frozen in terror, could not belive that US paras are there. Just joking. From position of german he could not see GI , it may be look like that on photos but it's not, shed corner is blocking his line of sight. Anyway thanks on comment !

Cheers

I like the lay-out, it perfectly shows the complacent calm of troops behind the lines, not expecting any action unless notified by command. The Para have sneeked up, and are a split second away from their attack. The tension of the Para who is peeking around the corner of the shed is almost real, after all, you can't win a battle by staying hidden behind things. You have to expose your self at some point, and that moment from (relative) safety in hidding, to going into action is a tense one.
And yes, the German making his sandwich may well be frozen to the spot when he spots the Para out of nowhere....

Nice work Robert. I agree with not adding a vehicle, an empty space is not neccessarily a bad thing, as long as it is convincing. And lets face it, not every free inch was taken up by materiel during the war.

Henk

Thanks Henk, i guess You have describe sceene just like I was traying to built it. Nothing to add to your post. Thanks again.

Robert,

The scene has a great element of tension to it and the shed has been built fantastically, well done.

Sorry Steve but I don't think your comment about the bread-cutting German is valid. I can tell from the pictures that the para is indeed out of sight to him. Well done Robert and I hope to see some more of your work shortly.

P.S Find a better naturally lit room to take your photographs, and avoid using flash.

Chas

Thank on coments everybody, it make's me keep rolling on with models.
If any planning summer holidays in Croatia be free to contact me for couple of

Cheers

Robert

I would first like to say that I really like this diorama. It tells a story. Not just a vehicle sitting on a road to nowhere or a couple of guys in a non-descript field.
I agree with the majority of the comments made but would like to add a couple more and will try and not repeat anything.
I have this thing for details, these are not anything to change on your diorama, just ideas you might not have thought of.
The logs next to the shed are a nice touch. Combined with the barrier both add good details. The thing that jumps out a bit is that the logs look all the same and all the wood on the barrier is the same. A little roughing up of the wood so the eye sees a change would help, not a bunch just enough to show a change. And wood is chopped or cut not snapped. The barbed wire looks real good.
The barrier is made to be moved, think about one of the Germans moving it. It would be a pain in the rump. It sits down in the rut of the road. It would have to be tipped on one corner and pivoted to be moved out of the way. A little longer and this goes away, it would sit on the upper grass area. Again if moved it would dig a rut where one or both of the legs would scrape the ground. Which also means some one will walk again and again, over and over to move it, need his path shown also.
The sand bags are great. They really look to be the best ones I’ve seen in a while. It looks as if you really filled up something and closed them off and packed them down when placing them. The size is just a hair big, moving a bag of dirt/sand the size of my torso would be a bear. I would swear they were real.
I also did not notice a radio. May or may not need one depending on where they are. And depending on how long the pan would be hanging on the shed would determine some rubbing or not.
The last is minor, the sign would probably be nailed on the stump, sitting on the ground the wind would knock it over.
See just details. I’m sure if you had about a dozen more photos showing every angle someone might see more. You almost have to put yourself in the diorama and act like your one of the figures. But I really do like the set up. Some nice scratch building.
I think you should be proud of this one.
And remember these are just my ideas, take them with a grain of salt.
Congrats,
Bob

what did you use to make the grass? I like the grass a lot (esp. because it is longer than you normally see in dioramas), and want to know how you did it.

thanks.

Robert -

This is very nicely done and as the others have commented, it does an excellent job of establishing the mood for the scene. A casual atmosphere soon to erupt into action. The added details nicely accentuate the scene rather than look just thrown in. I also agree with Henk and others about not adding a vehicle as I think that would look like it was put there to fill space. Besides I doubt if the GIs would have been able to get that close with a vehicle right there in the road. Only thing I noticed, and this may be just bad eyes not seeing the photos which are slightly blurred, but I'm not sure the Germans would be so casual as not to have the mg34 with no ammo? Again this is very well done and anxious to see your next work. Thanks for sharing,

Blade48mrd

HI guy's ,

first I have to say that I'm glad to see such interest about dio, so thanks everybody.
Now answers :

Bob: You have a excelent eye for details, when I look at dio now You'r right about logs, barrier etc. I guess those are begginers mistakes (in fact this is my first dio of that size, made only few vignetes before). I'll wright your observation for future projects to keep it in mind (thanks). Sandbags are realy filled with sand (paper tissue method + white glue). I agree that they are little to big , If You could tell me aprox. dimension for sandbags would be helpfull - I'm planning some Vietnam dio and I would need lots of sandbags.

Vance: about grass, first layer of static grass, then I cut coconat rope ,hemp rope and florist grass with scissors in tiny parts, mixed it together and spread it all over static grass

Mike : ammo for MG34 was stray in my spare parts box , I will correct that

Robert
C[ ]

Well - that's me well and truly put in my place

My comment about the guy cutting the bread was only a minor quibble - albeit one I stand by, although others may disagree. It was only meant as a constructive remark and I wasn't having a pop just for the sake of it.

But like Bob says, take the opinions of others with a pinch of salt, because after all they're just opinions and as long as you're happy with your work than that's the main thing.

In fact I think that on the whole your dio is very nicely composed. Those Tamiya "German Soldiers at Rest" (I think that's the name of that particular set, IIRC) perhaps aren't the best available on the market, but you've used them to good effect here to tell a little story.

The hut is also excellent (better than anything I could scratch build for sure) and I also echo Vince's comments about the grass - nice work on that too!

- Steve

No hard feelings taken, I always say two pairs of eyes sees more than one, and here's a lot's of eyes. Any comment is usefull if it's taken in right way.

Cheers

Bag sizes varied by what was on hand. So maybe a good rule of thumb is what would you carry? Looking at the German in the road maybe something as wide as his feet are spread and as tall as maybe his upper thighs. I think I could toss around something that large filled with dirt. OK maybe only 3 or 4 without some kind of pain medicine.

Bob

Robert - thanks for the tip on the grass!

after looking at it again, the one thing I really keep wanting to see when I look at this is a GI ready to toss a hand grenade behind the shed. That is the way I'd start this attack at least.

But then again, maybe they are out of grenades...?

Well there's lots of ways to do it, but I'm quite limited with resource of figures and conversion parts for them, I'm forced to order lots of things from USA, then wait 20 days for delivery etc. of course price makes difference and my salary is not big so I try to scratchbulit everything I can.
Right now I'm looking for lvcp 1/35 which is around 45$ and with my monthly salary of 1100$ its quite an expense.

Cheers