I have noticed that many diorama builders choose "tight" shots of tanks, etc. This, of course, makes sense, because it forces the eye to see the model and any buildings, etc. are mere background.

But what about the larger vista, even within a city? I am currently looking at a Third Battle of Kharkov diorama and am so far disappointed with the impression. I'm using a MiniArt Ukrainian city building model with a Panzer IV and perhaps a Sd.Kfz. 251, but the vehicles look "puny" in the setting.

The challenge is that in real life, tanks are probably more likely to be in large vistas or wide streets:

http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=39

Can you master diorama builders offer some suggestions on how to render the larger canvas in 1/35th detail without the vehicles getting lost in the space?

not being a master builder I'll drop my two cents worth. Problem exisist that city buildings are rather tall and any tank in a city street will be like an ant. Climb the tallest building in your area and look down at the street. See all those ants running around? The only way I've found is to use severly damaged buildings that are all most gone , unless you use tall buildings for a supporting back ground they will certainly get lost in the big picture.

I was rebuked quite severely by one member of this forum for his perceptions that I don't know much about the street widths of Europe, and that dios with tanks in tiny spaces are perfectly OK (though I question why any intelligent tank commander would send an AFV to do what is an infantryman's job).

In any case, here is a photo I ran across in an on-line archive that is FABULOUS for those interested in images of Wehrmacht soldiers:

http://reibert.info/gallery/v/foto_album/1/096.jpg.html

Bill, While i am no expert, its very true that most european city's are small in how the roads are built. I have been to germany and most of the other country's in europe and one minute you are in open city streets that you can drive three semi's thru side by side and you can make a right turn go 100 yards and you are completely closed off . I believe this is due to the fact its been torn down and rebuilt so many times thru the ages. Some of the roads are no bigger than goat paths while others are exagerated. I believe that tankers would have kept to the wider roads for deployment and let the infantry sweep the sides or back alleys. Besides that i like the tall buildings it gives the dio scale. Just two cents worth. Mike

Being from Europe and having lived here all my live and because I have visited a lot of countries in europe and the balkans I think I can clear up some of the questions about European roads and why they are small to American standards.
It is true that in the countryside the roads are wider this is because of the larger traffic that goes around there. In the early days these were haycarts. A lot of the smaller settlements often came after the cities. Most roads in the countryside were dirtroads around WW2. But space was abundant and the villages made good use for that. often you have a mainroad which branches out into smaller less wide roads. Often you'll find the Church on the mainroad with a little square in the neighbourhood because that is how pretty much 80% of all the smaller villages once started out with the church being the centrepoint of the village. Contrary to popular belief the streets did not get smaller because buildings were demolished and built up again. The roads were there already... Often villages had a lot of water in ditches and canals running through it So the roads were already there and the plots of land too. If a building was demolished it would have been built up on exactly the ground it stood on. And this for 100's of years. I live in a village which is approximately 300 to 400 years old And most of the roads as they are nowadays were already like that in the early years when the village started out.
Same actually goes for the cities in Europe. Pretty much most of the bigger and older cities of Europe exists for a very long time. And with a long time I mean like Roman Era (Often even pre roman era) And the Middle ages. Which means existing 1500 to 2000 years for some cities. What you often see in European cities is that you have a couple of mainroads all leading to the centre of the city (thanks to the romans) all connected with each other by smaller streets and alleys. Even in the time the cities started space was limited and even though buildings got on fire... or had to be demolished for whatever reason. They were built up on exactly the same patch of ground the former building stood on. The roads were kept where they were. This means that a lot of groundplans of old european cities still match up with the groundplans as they are now.
This is also the reason why European cars are smaller then American cars... The cities and roads were already there.... We had to adapt the cars... In America it was still easy to adapt the roads to the cars... you were still young.

Robert, Mike, thank you for your contributions to the discussion.

The topic comes from my own dislike for dioramas that are too "crowded." This is, of course, as subjective opinion, and I have seen photos of tanks covered in city rubble or "stuck" in a tight space. But overall, tanks are meant for combat with other tanks, not to fight in city streets. That all having been said, my original question was how to render accurate scenes where the buildings make the AFVs look small.

@ Bill

One solution to your problem is creating the suggestion that the tank is rolling in a wide street somewhere in a city. You can do this by not bordering the street with buildings... So only one building on one side of the road. Next to that. If you have a big city then often you have 4 to 5 story appartment buildings. a lot of these had and often still have a shop of sorts at the bottom floor. Since space is very limited in cities you would find that buildings are built against each other so you have minimal loss and use the ground optimal.
You could have half a crater on the edge of your dio... suggesting that there is a really large hole in the middle of the street and also suggesting that the street is wider then what the dio shows.
Make the dio somewhere close or onto a crossing of 2 big roads in a city. Have the tank has it's turret turned in a direction also to give the idea it is aiming to something that is further away.

With the above ways you don't have to built a large dio to create the suggestion that the scene plays on a large surface somewhere in a city