I am thinking of building this dio, it is an US Army Airborne ambush on the germans.

Basically it is the germans are on a small road (in a marder iii) when their attention is pointed to a dead airborne trooper hanging from a tree. That is when the other airborne troopers hiding in the shadows behind some thick brush will make their attack.

My reasoning behind using airborne troops, was because i am planning on this being in the middle of no-where france sometime around D-Day.
My thoughts behind using a marder iii, is because i definitely wanted some kind of a vehicle, and i thought since the marder has an open back, that the US would have a chance to get them once they passed. obviously if it was a tank, the US airborne troops would have just let it pass.

Here is a disgustingly crude picture of my idea. i dont want to spend a ton of time drawing it, when i could use that time to build it. I am figuring it will be very small since the marder is a very small model (maybe 6 inches long), the road will be probably 10 inches or so. Nothing too huge. i am thinking it might be 10 inches by 10 inches (or whatever size wood i can find that is close to that size)



Please let me know what you think.

sounds like a good idea for a dio, i would lessen the angle of the road to be honmest,, i love the idea of the hanging para, good luck!

the road is going to be mostly strait. i think it is just the angle that is in the picture that makes it look like it is really angled

do you think that i should not put it on an angle on the dio. I have always heard that you should never have the dio strait on, that you should always make it at some kind of an angle to give it a better appearance.

nah i meant if you keep the angle, but lessen it a little bit, if you know what i mean,
i ahev made a little mock up of what you plan to do if you dont mind,
it obviously wont be the same this way, but i think its a brilliant idea, althougth i couldnt get a man hanging from the tree im afraid

what a good idea
ive got some dragon us paratroopers and i was thinking doing something simliar but in bastone

btw james what software did u use to create the mock up???

yeah that picture is awesome. that is exactly what i was thinking

ah cest tres (simple?? ) i used the map editor from company of heroes (the pc game) its really useful

I use that one to do mock ups too, very useful.

i am workign on this now, but the layout has changed

before i was having the road in the middle, now i have changed it to being the road on the edge and only 1 side of grass. the tree and the airborne troops will be on the same side of the road. where before they were opposite sides.

doing it the way i designed it was too big, and too much open space

The guy in the tree doesn't ring true for me. Unless the paras were in the heat of battle, I don't think they would leave a comrade's body hanging to be fed upon by the birds, and given this is set up as an ambush scenario, suggests there was little activity before we appear on the scene as observers.

Additionally, you're going to have a hard time coming up with a realistic dead and hanging figure. The effects of gravity and the harness on the fully relaxed muscles would require that you basically sculpt the figure almost from scratch.

A chute tangled in the tree with its risers(isn't that what the control lines are called?) cut and blowing in the wind would suggest the same. Even if you had a hastily poncho covered (suggestion) of a body at the base of the tree would get your point across better, I think, that a hanging corpse.

Isn't there a scene in The Longest Day in Ste.Mere Eglise where (IIRC) the John Wayne character angrily tells the troops to immediately cut down the casualties?

Hi Mike,

I think it's a great idea for a dio (except perhaps for that hanging para).

I too thought about doing something similar but using a 251 rather than a tank, similar to that scene in Saving Private Ryan where those Airborne soldiers ambushed that 251 in the middle of an open field.

Keeps us posted on your progress on this, please!

Rob

A chokepoint for the vehicle would add realism.
Here's a VERY brief tutorial on ambushes:
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/134410#1120281

The use of cover and concealment comes into play as well. The bushes may offer concealment, but not cover.

what color do you think a picket fence would be in normandy? white or just wood color

It would also throw up a red flag for me rather than divert my attention. You know, hey, there may be bad guys about.
@18Bravo: Be careful brother. Someone on here may accuse you of being something you're not if you keep posting things that make sense.
@Mike: Surely the imagination comes into play once in a while. Red, white, bare. If you make the diorama interesting enough, the point will become moot.

without the guy in the tree the dio wouldnt work. i would think a bunch of airborne troops would hide from a marder. the only reason i thought it would work was because the germans were distracted, so it gave the airborne troops a chance to surprise them

How about one of those cargo containers hanging by the chute in the tree. You could have it open with stuff spilled out onto the ground. I'm sure some of the panzer crew might be currious about what it contains...food . Coffeee , chocolate. and maybe stockings. My Grandmother said the Yanks always had stockings Jim