just take your time mate and i offer full assistance

Hi all,

Quite a bit of progress today.

Diorama Base


The sidewalls were built up further and the roof glued on. Once dry, the milliput was brought out to texture the plasticard, to make it look like damaged concrete. Can you see the section blown open revealing the re-enforcing metal bars? Does it look realistic so far? In the photos the milliput looks like a blob of poo and it's hard to see the texturing and shell damage. Tomorrow I will sand the edges, make everything nice and square and prime it. Hopefully the details will come up then.

German grenadier


Nothing much done. Legs are awaiting shadows/highlights and the tunic is waiting for a second coat. That's the thing with Tamiya acrylic, to get a smooth finish you must layer the paint on in 2-3 thin coats.

German gunner

Came up really nicely after priming.

Chas

Chas , looks good. Nice job scratchin the Tobruk pit !! The figs are painting up nicely also.
Keep at it, the build is taking on more shape in a good direction.
Glenn

Thanks Glenn,

Just wish I had more hours in a day...

Chas

great progress chas! love the bonker!

keep it up!

yer we need 50 hour days dont we?

Looking good, keep it up.

It's enough to make me go bonkers Don't worry, I know what you meant! Thanks.


Sure do.


Thanks mate.

Chas

Well another day gone and a bit of stuff done on the Tobruk pit. I also had time to do a little figure painting but nothing worth photographing.

Diorama Base

Unfortunately, I didn't get to the stage of sanding & priming but that's ok... there's always next weekend.

Chas

coming along v nicely mate:d

Thanks Jimmy,

It still looks like a blob of poo, I can't wait to prime it.

Chas

no its looking great, honest!

Hi Chas,
Jumped a little late onto this thread mate, your progress so far is looking excellent!
I like the detail you have given to the bunker, adding the opened areas depicting the steel inners is a nice touch!
Keep up the good work mate
Cheers,
Shay

great progress i want to see it finished the figures are comming on great!

Thankyou all for the nice comments.




No worries at all, I'm just grateful for you stopping by.

Friday night is getting closer...
Chas

Hi Chas. Good progress. The milliput job on the bunker looks great. Im sure that´ll give an excellent concrete effect. Maybe you should cover the plastic frame on the mouth of the bunker also .... this will be too smooth when painted??

Definately, I almost forgot about that! I also have some extra detailing to do around the ring. Thanks for jogging my memory.

Thanks again for your feedback mate,

Chas

hello chas

i just realised that seeing this topic a few weeks ago inspired me to build my bunker dio.
it was the verlinden picture that did the trick
great build so far. i am keeping a close eye at this.

ik realiseer mij net dat deze topic mij heeft geinspireerd om mijn bunker dio te maken.
het was de verlinden foto.
prachtig werk tot nu toe. ik blijf dit zeker volgen.

it is nice to speak 2 languages......aint it.

het is leuk 2 talen te spreken .......niet dan.

greets
john

Sometimes it is.

Soms wel

Lars

Hi John,

Thanks and good luck with your diorama.

I don't speak Dutch, I just use an online translator! I didn't realise you spoke English too...

Thanks for stopping by,

Chas

Keep up the great work. Both bunker and nade-tossing Gren look smashing!

Point-du-Hoc is such a dramatic setting and story. Up the cliffs, Rangers lead the way! Anybody know if there was any actual film footage taken, and where I can view it?

Cheers
-Ami

There was a show on History channel about the rangers tanking Pointe du Hoc. Looks like it was just on recently but here is a link to the history channel page (they play it every few weeks).
http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/Conflict/programme_3016.php

Looking good Chas!

Here is some good video footage of Pointe du hoc: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=XvhhOZy4r8w
(check out the video at the 58 second mark specifically for footage of the machine gun pit).

One thing I wanted to point out (and I hate to) is I believe the machine gun pit(s) would be back a bit more from the cliff tops. As the machine guns were used in conjunction with the barbed wire fence to stop anyone who reaches the top. As the main strategical importance of this area was for it's prime location for artillery. The Rangers mission was to get to the cliff tops of Pointe du Hoc to knock out the artillery pieces which had been emplaced there, as from Pointe du Hoc the Germans had an excellent vantage point to site in on any attempted landings on the nearby coasts.

Here is a good overview shot of Pointe du Hoc taken recently: http://www.worldofstock.com/closeups/PHI1891.php

Although (as I'm sure you know) once the Rangers get to the top they find it defended (by German soldiers tossing grenades over the side and by the emplaced maching guns,etc but without the heavy guns since they had been removed from their original positions and hidden in an orchard back aways to prevent them from being knocked out during the air attacks. Of course with Rangers being Rangers they find them, knock them out, and then have to hold out back at the Pointe for awhile (while the Germans were being reinforced and taking their toll).

Of course either way the diorama is looking good and I understand the limitations in space when working on one (so people will know what they are looking at either way). Keep up the good work and I'll keep following along

Too bad I don't have the history channel (or foxtel). Otherwise, it would have been interesting to see. Thanks anyway.



Interesting, thanks.



I'm not so sure. Official and eyewitness reports state that this particular MG was able to fire down at the troops on the beach. It must have been pretty close to the edge if it could sweep the cliff base with fire. Also, the MG position was eventually blown OFF the side of the cliff by naval guns. As the guns were able to bite chunks out of the cliff face, this is evidence that the MG was pretty close to the edge. It probably was a few metres further from the cliff than what I have done, but as you said there is a space limitation.

Thanks for your thought provoking comment! I'm really grateful for the amount of support you are all giving me throughout the build so far.

Chas

Hi Chas,

nice to see your dio is getting more beautiful everytime I hit the internet. I really like the iron protruding from the damaged concrete. Looking forward to see how the figures will become.



Jelger

Not much progress today as I was at WASMex, Western Australia Scale Modelling expo.

Diorama Base


I did manage to do some work on the opening.

Still to come, groundwork, priming, figure painting......

Chas

Diorama Base



Some progress on the wooden walls of the trench. I used balsa wood again.

As you can see, I am taping up the base ready to begin the groundwork.

Chas