Hello, this was going to be my new 1-72 WW1 trench dio, however 2 or 3 things immediately went wrong, the trenches were too small, the trenches weren't high enough, and the overall appearence is too busy, then I had to decide if the trenches were held with wood or carved from the surrounding stone hills, either would have worked, but now I am back to square one, and another 1-72 trench diorama begins, I have also noticed that some 1-72 are slightly larger than others, the new Airfix WW1 British troops are a lot smaller than the German sailors of the same 1-72 scale, so I guess it might be wise to buy your troops first, then build accordingly to their size. If anyone has any comments, then please letme know.

I agree with the busy comment you made.

As far as the figures go, some variation in size is ok, its actually natural. Also spacing of the figures can reduce the visual impact of the size difference.
Be neat with your ground material it will make painting and finishing easier.

A good site for 1/72 scale figures is the Plastic Soldier Review. They give the heights of the figures in scale.

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Index.aspx
Also great for wallowing in nostalgia

You mention New Airfix British Infantry - if these are the same then they not new as they were first issued in 1966.

Sadly WW1 is a very neglected area in any scale

Another tip is to mix some dark brown water based paint in the water for your plaster mix that way if anything flakes off or scratches the groundwork you won't see white plaster.

posted edited for hot links

keith

go to the landships website, its dedicated to ww1, lots of info on whats available for the ww1 modeller.

her's another tip Alec, put some kind of leaves in your trees or they will look like lichen. you might want to paint some of the thick parts grey/brown for the limbs as they will partialy show. other than the other tips, good work in progress. Personally I like a dio that's busy, keeps the eyeballs moving. hope to see more of this as you go.

Thank you to everyone with these tips for my 'part 2' 1-72 trench dio, as obviously the one in this thread has been abandoned, I especially appreciate WW1 advise figures, trenches and the like, how few and very far between they are. At the moment I am still planning the 2nd dio which will more than likely be a bomb-site rather than part wooded, thank you once again.

You can find some really good source images on google that may help, but try to focus in on one section of the trench, and make it really stand out, try putting the trench on a slight slope, that might help, also I realize how hard 1/72nd scale is, I am just starting out. Is is an allied trench or axis? depending on what it is, it would differ I think, German front line trenches in wwI for the most part were quite well developed and were sometimes surrounded by a small blockhouse or wooden "schwarzlose"machine gun emplacement, Finally think of a story for your diorama, is it the calm after a front line charge, are they resting, is it a defensive battle?............I applaude your effort on WWI as this is seldom approached, I am taking too long in my 1?35 diorama, so I will make a WWI diorma as well........thanks for putting up with my long writing, hope I was of use

Tom, thank you for your kind constructive words, oddly enough for my search of WW1 trench there are so little on offer, this is why I have decided to scratch build the trenches and then went completely OTT with the rock and veg, the next dio will be basically a trench or 2, open bombed out waste-land and not much else, that's the plan for my 1-72 dio, sadly I have also discovered there are varied sizes with 1-72, some slightly smaller and some the other way, I should be recieving another set of British WW1 Mon or Tue, also while I am here, why are there so few 1-35 1-72 'British' troops ?

Sadly I fear it's because there isn't enough demand for them. This is a shame because it was the British who carried both WWI and WWII on their shoulders during the early years of each, at least that is my understanding of things. But hey, I wasn't there now was I?

Hello there, I built this WW1 segmented diorama a long time ago, since then my computer crashed and among diorama pix, more important to me, I also lost my family pix as well, the following 2 are all that's left of my original project.

The British (I am English born and dreading it) have always been the same, locked into the time of Nelson, where we simply have to turn up and win any battle any war, its when we get our backside kicked through our teeth we realise we have to do more then simply turn up !

As regarding WW1 yes it was upsetting considering the serious lack of intrest, 3000 viewed and less then 10 offered any sort of comment, the segment diorama was something I had never seen before, that on its own I thought would have generated some comments, but sadly no, WW1 would appear to either be warship or aircraft, very little land type diorama especially several dioramas locked together that can form a single large diorama or several small and yet complete dioramas, I still believe this to be a good and solid idea, and as my work proved, also a complete waste of time money and effort.
Its a method I will not repeat on any land diorama.

Alec I think the lack of figures and vehicles for this period result in a limited number of people willing to say anything, you also have the problem of the kits that are available being of a questionable quality (at least judging by comments by people who have built them)

On the subject of the earlier diorama I thought the troops would be behind the the tanks, using them as cover and mopping up. I also believe that the troops not being used to support the tanks as they advanced was one of the problems, as the tanks captured land that could then not be held.

The second diorama with the artillery guns, I believe that artillery guns of this period would be resting on planks, and believed that this was how the Artillery got the nickname "Planks". I may be wrong and it is just for moving the guns that planks were used.

Many thanks for the reply Darren, the female tanks at their top speed is 6mph and during WW1 made quite an easy target for the German gunners, made from steel these would normally splinter on inpact, anyone walking close by becoming injured by flying fragments, also the tanks were prone to braking down quite a lot, over heating engines and so on, the tank diorama shows two femail and British troops rushing in to clear up, it is quite a problem showing more as there are no more photo's of my diorama, the mud of the trenches wrapped itself onto anything and everything that obviously came into contact, these gunners are only just arrived on site, the British troops that you can see behind the guns are in no hurry as if they would be if the gun were firing. You're probably right about the planks although I have never seen any original photo of this, I do know for fact these would be dragged into station. Lined up and fired, no health and safty in those days.
As I explained to Jeremy, while there quite a lot of tank and figures for WW1 there are of course more demand for ship and aircraft. However the aim of my diorama was to promote the fact that this was a multi segmented diorama that I have never seen before or after for that fact, and option for a small single diorama or one huge diorama, I used several buildings, 100 plus 1-72 figures British and German, tanks and even aircraft, it was never the best diorama, but it had a lot going on.

Alec I have a few books covering WW1 and various battle locations, If you are interested I will see if I can find some pictures for you

I would have to agree there. The Emhar kits are a nightmare in terms of fit and build quality. It was only after a lot of swearing that mine went together in anything approaching a good fit. Luckily the conditions under which the landship operated dictates a very liberal weathering, in my case the weathering hides a multitude of modelling sins.

ICM now does British and German WWI Infantry, not bad kits, but the poses are a tad on the unnatural side.

Alec, I had run across these a few months back and forgot about them. You may find them useful in your future projects.

Emhar 1/72 Mk IV Male

Flandern Fields 1917 1/72 diorama

While not directly informative regarding techniques and such, you may find some useful info in the pictures, especially of the Flandern Feilds diorama.

Many thanks for the link and all the best -
Alec.