Hey everyone,
This is a diorama I've done for the 'Medic!' Campaign that's currently running. It's based on a medical convoy having been caught up in the Falaise Pocket during the German retreat from North West France in August 1944. I wanted to try & convey the chaos & destruction the allies air superiority had over the retreating German forces, bombing & machine gunning them from the skies, with little or no retaliation possible from the German on the ground, and just the helplessness of it all.





The figures are mostly from Tamiya, the guy right out front is from 'Masterbox', the old bloke on his bike & the guy with the bandage & sling are from 'MK35'. The Opel Blitz & Horse Drawn Convoy are from 'Italeri'.





The wooden gate was made from plastic card, the groundwork was the normal plaster, sand, paint & glue combination. Airbrushed with various shades of brown & finished with MIG pigments. The hedge was made up of twigs, roots, lichen, dried herbs & seaweed. Yes....., seaweed. I washed it well, dried it, sprinkled with herbs & painted it in various shades of green. I was pretty pleased with the result it gave, unlimited source of heges for future projects!! The tree was a branch, with steel wool on top, again sprinkled with herbs & airbrushed. The grass was hanging basket lining, static grass & long grass.









The reason for including the French civilian on his bike was to add abit of 'normality' to the scene, with civilians trying to go about their daily life whilst all hell was going on around them. No doubt a German would've attempted to commandeer his bike....but that was futher on up the road......



Thanks to everyone for looking, all comments gratefully welcomed!!
Cheers for now,
SIMON.

Simon,
Nice work! I like the flow of the diorama. You might try to use a light wash of raw umber or burnt sienna on your figures' faces it will really bring out the detail on the faces, you could then dry brush for contrast, no flame here, just a suggestion.

Model on.......
Chris

Nicely done Simon !!
However, you may want to alter the legs of the dead horse and possibly the hands and legs of the two fellows under the Zeltbahn quarter shelters or tarps.
The unfortunately, grisly reality of war is that the muscles in the legs and hands would have relaxed somewhat after death, unless rigor mortis had set in.
Otherwise, all in all, a nice effort.
Cheers

jjumbo

I was thinking the same thing about the horse when I saw this ealier. It might be tough to get his hind leg right if your not familar with horses. Still, it is a nice build!

Nice work.
Just one comment - the bed of your Opel truck would most likely be made of wood.
Battle damage would be splintering or burning, not warping or denting.

But keep it up.

acav out

good job and great overall but i would add abit more blood to the wounded guys fir a but more desperity in it

Hey Simon
I really like the idea you have conveyed here...
You have captured the feel you were after I reckon. Utter chaos and a broken army.
(Even though about a third of the Germans escaped the pocket to fight on...)
As mentioned some washes would help on large objects such as the nags.
What are MK35 figures like for quality? They have some original ideas in their catalogue.
Good stuff
Brad

Hello again,
I just firstly like to say thanks to everyone who took the time to leave comments and crtiques on my diorama. Much appreciated.

Chris and Bradley, you're right about the washes on the faces and horses. I think that with each and every new project comes the opportunity to improve on techniques and painting. When I look back on my earlier figure painting, the faces were just pink, plain, lifeless blanks. I'm pretty pleased with how the faces are turning out now, however they'll never get upto the exceptional standards some people manage to get in their painting. I know too I could've spent more effort on finishing the horses, but somehow I just didn't have as much motivation with them as I did with the figures and vehicles......I can't think why
I spent a whole evening manipulating the legs of the dead horse, and giving him a new neck so that they lay as flat to the ground as I could get them. Obviously the original pose would have had them rigid off the ground. I spent a time too looking through wartime photo's of dead horses to try and get it all as close as I could, not something I visualised when taking up this hobby, playing with horses, but hey ho..........

Acav, you're 100% right about the back of the Opel truck being mainly made out of wood. It wasn't until I'd finished it, and posted the photo's to this site that afew people gladly pointed that fact out to me. A case for doing some research in future I think.. I only changed the rear part, replacing the buckled meatl one with a charred wooden one, but that was all. I didn't have the heart to redo it all again.

The figures from MK35 Bradley are very good. I've already got a couple for a future project, and wiil definetly buy from the website again. Their civilians especially are well posed, and along with the accessories they sell enough stuff to populate and equip a whole village. They do some decent German figures too. The detail and quality is good, to be recommended.

Thanks again to everyone

SIMON

Hi Simon, you have a nice little scene here, well filled with a good layout. Well done!


I have some reservations regarding the MK35 stuff. I bought quiet a few to get placed in my castle, only 1 or two made it, mainly because of lack of quality ( One sweeping womem, i don't remember the ref, had monstruous hands, bad face, badly detailed clothes; another figure ended as a bust, the rest was unusable) . The poses are interisting, but the executioon sometimes amateurish. JMO

Cheers
Claude

knowing the kits you used, you did on hell of a dio , RESPECT man

I know, being honnest, it's not in the line of Masters, but hey, neither am I
but you got it right ,(not considering small horsie things)
there is a flow in the dio, it comes alive, when you look at it,action, poses, interaction,

...great, thank YOU for sharing it

Tha Pit