It's been a while since I've posted much, and here's a big reason why. This is a diorama I've entitled "Red Devils In The Witches' Cauldron, September 22, 1944." It depicts some paras scrambling to shore up their defenses around a command post as the Oosterbeek perimeter is slowly compressed by the Germans.
I'd been working on this fairly steadily since last November for a recent show. The 6 pounder is by Resicast, as is the 3 inch mortar and crew. The Kubelwagen is by Bego. The figures are a mix of Dragon, Warriors, Jaguar, Resicast, and even a few of the ancient ESCI figures with new heads and equipment. The house is mostly scratchbuilt with windows, shutters, gutters, and doors provided by Miniart, as is the metal fence across the street. The shingles are Hudson & Allen items, the hedges are by Noch, and the cobblestones are Plastistruct sheets.
There are a few more pics in my gallery if you're interested. Hope you like it.

It's nicely done and the Paras look excellent but I have a couple of observational nit picks. It's all very clean considering its around Oosterbeek (no damage apart from the two shell craters but no damage to the house etc) with a sparkling privet hedge which is too regular. By the time the 6 pdrs were brought up there'd been a fair amount of contact. Also the 6 pdr has a very limited traverse being in the garden. It would have been better off in the road to engage German armour as there was no Allied armour until theoretically XXX corps caught up. Minor things aside from that it's very good and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Thanks for the comments. My idea was that this section hadn't seen much fighting yet as it was behind the main perimeter, which is now collapsing and putting the building closer to the front line. I know the hedge is neat, but I have neighbors who would nitpick that hedge as being untidy, so I thought it wasn't completely out of the realm of possibility. Finally, I based the placemen of the gun on a painting of Sgt. Baskeyfield's (sp?) action that earned him a V.C., which shows the gun in the elevated yard of a house.
Not arguing here, mind you, just explaining my mindset a little. Thanks again for your comments.

First of Ed, you have done a good job on the total diorama, and although you have not posted any close-ups, the figures look good to me. I like the sense of action of the group running along the street.
I must echo however that the diorama is far to clean. By the 22nd the Para's had been fighting for 5 days, and were well and trully entrenched all around Oosterbeek. Whilst it is true that the full onslaught of the German attack did not start until after the Second Battalion was defeated at the bridge, there was constant fighting in Oosterbeek before that. Specifially for your diorama, the 6 pounder would have have had to be man handled into that position in the garden. That would have caused damage to the hedge, grass, and possibly the wall. Also the spend ammo casings indicate that the gun has been used a bit, which would have caused more damage to the ground, when the recoil causes the spades to dig in.
good to see that you did not forget the interior of the house. To finish that, add some (broken) furniture by the windows. The Para's piled what ever they could find/move under the windows for added protection.

Thanks for sharing your diorama, always love to see an Arnhem/Oosterbeek diorama.

Cheers
Henk

Pigments and Washes for rescue!

Ok, you heard it already , you need plenty from both of the above wheatering products. You choose a nice architecture for the house and gardens, well done!
Also the layout of the whole dio is good, too.

Cheer
Claude

Thanks again for the replies. I just wanted to let anyone interested know that I took notice of Henk's mentioning a lack of detail shots with my figures and added a few close up pics to my gallery so you can get a better look at them.

keep in mind any archive photo of a gun crew in action is probably only for the press or war archives specific news, it may not be the case with your referecne photo but often these"action"shots aren't actually happening during the battle......diorama is pretty good I like your shell craters, maybe a bit more weathering

The only thing I can say as a native Dutchman is that I have never seen a grey building with red/brown woodwork, not in the Oosterbeek area which I know quite well as I spent my Army days nearby. Woodwork in Holland would typically be white (gloss white when freshly applied), exceptions being various specific traditional types of building/styles of decorating - a great colour and very Dutch is standgroen, a nearly black green (do a Google Image Search and beware of those who call medium green 'standgroen'). it would look great and authentic to have the windows in white and the doors and shutters in that very dark green colour, in my humble opinion.
The house itself could be red/brown masonry (but that would mean heavy reworking of the structure) or white or a very light yellowish creamy plaster.

The neatness of the hedgerows is okay. Those small front gardens are usually well-kept, I think you got that down very well.