Hello one and all. I'm starting work on a diorama, my first, and since I've just been to Normandy I decided to do it in that area. My tamiya Churchill Crocodile was begging to be used so I decided to do a British diorama.
The premise: A group of British infantry are making their way towards Caen, supported by a Churchill Crocodile. At the end of the road is a house, partially destroyed and inside it are some infantry from the Houfenstaufen division, armed with Panzerfausts and Mp44's. In behind back some german infantry with machine guns and more panzerfausts are coming to support the first guys. The germans cleverly planted a helmet on a stick on the other side of the road, and the brits have spotted this and are advancing on it.

I'll post pictures soon. It's going to be a big diorama.

Hey Kieran
Sounds ambitious mate, especially for a first!
The basic premise sounds fine, although the helmet on a stick fooling the Brits is taking the p1$$, I reckon I can only make this as a suggestion, but why not do a smaller diorama focusing on the tank and a couple of accompanying infantry instead, to keep things a little simpler and maintain your interest? You could allude to the fact that there is trouble ahead maybe...
Keep us posted either way
Brad

Yeah, the helment on the stick was a little excuse for the Brit's alerted state. I think I can make it work without it though. I don't know why I always make things hard on myself, but my goal is to paint all of the Germans with splinter camo.

Ok, I finished bullding 10 out of 14 total guys. Pretty east so far. And I did a practice paint on 2 figures with some new vallejo acrylics. This didn't go so well. I think the face is ok, but the clothing...it's bad. If anyone can give me a link to some articles about painting faces and clothing with acrylics I'd be very grateful. BTW the half-model has good clothing in my opinion, but a bad face but I think I can duplicate that clothing on the second one.

Hi Kieran,
Your figures are looking good mate!Maybe some shots under better lighting?
Figure painting used to be a chore until i received some tips from a great figure painter seen here on the site Gino Poppe.
One tip that Gino couldn't stress enough from, and that is thinning the paint down until you get a milk like consistency.
This way you can build up facial features etc. gradually and smoothly as opposed to using paint "straight" out of the bottle where chances are you will get unsightly brush marks all over the figures!
If you do a google here on the forums you will come across a stack of links in regards to painting with acrylics.
The place for most figure info is found right here on the site: Historicus Forma
Cheers,
Shay

Kieran

great idea your figures look brilliant!

keep up the good work!

Martyn

Finally, an update!
I've decided to do 2 dioramas, one with Germans, and the other with the Brits because it was getting too crowded. I have finished painting the British, maybe a few touch ups here and there but I'm pretty satisfied with it right now. I'm just finishing the terrain now.

Attempt at Painting Camo

My new way to paint faces

Some pictures of the brits.







Some awesome flowers I found outside (exscuse the dirty painters nail used to show scale)

Some Germans done

Everyone together now.

My crowded workspace.

My terrain (unfinished)

Tree (not painted)

I'm not sure if you are still looking for figure painting info but if you are there is a nice tutorial for painting figures with acrylics on the Vallejo homepage here. Once there go to the Miniatures and Model Color page then the Model Color heading and the tutorial is at the bottom of that page.