Some excellent advice coming your way. Your progress so far has been excellent. With all the expertise supplying their knowledge this is going to end in an excellent Dio.

Sure is good advice, but it's not going to build my diorama!

To do list:

1. Prune, trim, relocate and paint shrubs.

2. Colour blending and alterations on the cliff face. Thanks Seb I agree with what you have said, although the cliff face looked rocky when I was there?

3. Blending the grass colours.

Thanks for all the input, it looks like I've got my work cut out for myself this weekend!

Chas

G'day,

Diorama Base
Quite a bit done today and last night. Here you can see more grass in progress:

And the product of painting:





I can now say the diorama base is almost done, just a little more painting to do on the bunker and the wooden trench planks. I did alter the cliff layer colours and they are really obvious in real life. They are not very obvious in the pictures. I will try to improve the tones further but now that the grass is done there is very little I can do.

Chas

a lil' bit of constructive comments eh Chas?
the first is a "historical" comment. there's quite a few grass if you consider that the Allies have been vomiting bullets all over the place for a few hours
then what i am not so sure about is the way you placed your grass. it's too evenly placed, too much scattered all over the place while you may have regroup most of it in some bigger tufts -the ones on the slope of the cliff really looks like an intelligent mind has been placing them -actually that's your problem you historical dioramas guys, you THINK too much while building your dioramas
maybe have a look there : http://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/19780/1744.jpg
Look at johndon's abandoned Tiger diorama in the forums, I appreciated the fact he only placed his yellow tufts at one side of the diorama, and not scattered all over the place.
that being said i think it looks absolutely good, there seems to be an interesting balance and something worth looking going on, so keep on!
One last comment. i know i must be the only one caring about direction of light in diorama building down there, but I think a bit of burnt umbra pigments where the shadows of the light should be on the slope could be a plus if you don't overdo it

great work chas almost finished buddy!

Hi Jean,

Thanks for your comment, very much appreciated! I still have to blacken and burn some of the grass to show the effects of the shooting. I will keep your tips about grass placement for my next dioramas. I couldn't stand having to add more grass or pull up some in fear of damaging the groundwork. I need a break from grass application, thankfully my next diorama doesn't involve any grass at all!

I will, however, take on board your light placement hint and try to get some shadows happening.

Thanks Martyn! Yea, almost finished, and not a minute too soon. I'm starting to get excited about really beginning my next diorama 'Over the Edge'.

Chas

Hi Chas, I believe this diorama will be very attractive when finished. I like the structures of the flora, different materials and good use of colors are necessary to build a good scene.
Oke, JB has a point, he's right about the damaged coast.
I think you can rough it up a bit, without risking the quality of your work, for example by adding ripped out grass on the bunker roof. Reference pics can help too.

But as I said : this is going to be such a fantastic diorama, and it isn't even finished.

BTW your potatoe masher throwing Fritz is very well painted and seems to be sculpted to take place on the edge of the cliff you've made.

G.

Thanks Guy,

I like the idea about the ripped-up grass on the bunker roof. I will try to add that.

Thanks for your compliments on the figure

Chas

constructive remark Chas
you should remove the grass on the cliff wall, you will not find grass so scattered so below the upper grass line please look again to my references pictures previously posted here, there are not grass after the first 1 cm (1/35scale)

good luck
Seb

this is another inspiration for all us
congratulations (keep up the fantastic work)

great work chas it's been a pleasure following this thread

Hi Seb,

There was a bit of grass when I took these photos. As I said, I am happy with the grass and I'm not going to do any more major modifications.


Does this look any better? I have not yet added ripped up grass to the bunker, I'll save that for next week's modelling session. I'll also work on the burnt sections next week as I'm still not satisfied.

I've began painting the grenade and MG42.

Thanks kyriakos and John for your very kind words. I hope I am providing entertainment in some kind of form...

Well thats another weekend gone!

Chas

Ok Chas
See your point,
Question the black smoke dot on the wall, the represent what ??

Cheers
Seb

this is a great diorama i love it!!

maybe could do another just like it but a ranger climbing up the cliff face and a german running towards the edge to shoot him? maybe

but this is great love the whole fing!!

Tony

Excellent dio Chas.
i love the grass and the shrubs/bushes they look very realistic.
one query are you adding ropes as here > http://op-for.com/Rangers-pointe-du-hoc.jpg
just a question.

Hi Seb,

The black marks are supposed to represent shell impacts. Are these satisfactory/realistic?

Tony and Ollie,

Thanks for your feedback guys. I opted not to add ropes as it may crowd the scene and be a little unrealistic. Would anyone in their right mind climb a rope leading directly to the barrel of an MG42? I think not!

Chas

Black spot look good but it should be darker in the center of the impact hole t give more depth
my 2 cents
cheers
seb

it looks perfect
good job

Petros and Seb, thanks.

Here's some more progress:





I have completed painting the the bunker, and in the last photo you can see the wooden trench finished.

Almost ready to wrap it up. Just the figure and MG42, some ripped up grass on the bunker roof and cleaning up the base left.

Oh and Seb, here is some more work on the shell damage, is it better?

Chas

Its looking very good.

Well done,continue this fine effort....

Chas - nice job. This is coming along really well.

It is coming into shape very well. Looks very good - the grass and shell impacts are realistic. Keep us updated.

Looking forward to see more

Chas
The shell hit look good
Really a nice piece of work
Cheers
Seb

Yo Chas,

Very impressive! A great topic step by step. I'am learning a lot here.

Witch colors dit you use for the base color of you're groundwork?

It looks very naturally en realistic.

Great job!

Greetz Nico