Hi Everyone,

Here is some photo's of my latest diorama, based on the German withdrawal and ultimate defeat in Eastern Europe in the Spring of 1945.
The idea is a handful of German prisoners being escorted back to the Soviet rear, with the continuous flux of Russian troops & vehicles going forward in the opposite direction. This all going on past a farmyard on one side & an anti aircraft battery, defending an airfield on the other.
The farm is from 'Miniart', the vehicle is a Soviet Tank Destroyer from 'Dragon'. The plan is to make the dio look 'busy', there are actually a total of 18 figures adorning the scene, including German Captives from 'Masterbox', Soviet Infantry & Tank Riders From 'Miniart', & 3 farmers from MK35.......plus afew chickens.....& a pig.







The gun emplacement was made up of plastice card, dried flower 'Oasis', plastercine & then plaster. The anti aircraft gun is Tamiya's 2cm Flakvierling 38. The site will have remnants of recent activity, such as a used MG42, boxs, containers etc.....







The biggest problem I had was space, or lack of it, especially for the front of the farm. Ideally there should be alot more room for the barn doors to open, & for the gate at the front to open inwards, but the base would have had to have been too big for me to put it anywhere afterwards. The interior is to be kept busy with boxs, barrels, equipment etc..., the trailer for the Flak Gun will have been pinched by the farmer to be used for his own purposes.











There's obviously alot more painting, weathering, building to be done, and alot more to be added. The farm needs some weathering, filters added, etc..., the gun emplacement needs working on, all the groundwork is to be painted any dry brushed, plus of course the Tank Destroyer, but this is where I am at the moment.........

Any critiques, comments, suggestions are more than welcome, I look forward to any replies.
Cheers for now,

SIMON

Maybe put planks on the Flak trailer and turn it into an improvised farm trailer? it does seem to be going to be a very busy. It could be a bottle neck in the route to the front and if so, the tight bend will work. Maybe the AA position is a little to close to the barn . The Flak emplacement might have been more inportant than the barn and you could have the barn doors block up and not used? If the farm gate was open then it would have been diffucult to have put anything in the barn, the other smaller door could have been the main way into the barn. With it being such a tight bend you could even have the fence on the corner knocked over, I would imagine lots of military traffic had pasted through this tight bottle neck. Geraint

Hey Simon,
I like the layout of your dio. The curvature in the road is good and the different heights are good, both make a scene a little more interesting. You did a good job on the building - it looks good but it takes up SO much space. You really do need more room between the fence and the building. That building needs to be cut back some so it can be moved back from the fence BUT I know that would take a lot of work. Frankly, I wouldn't want to do that either...
Anyway, it looks good for the most part. I know I'll be watching

Bill.

looks good!. add more broken stuff around the edjes of the roof.

Great start so far mate.

Nice work, but if you accept the correction, it is absolutely wrong for a Hungarian scene. In springtime the front was on the western part of the country, around the Lake Balaton, (the last fights in the country was on 4th of April.) and this kind of building is nowhere to find there. Most of the farm buildings were with thatched roof not with tiles and built of dried clay blocks not of bricks. The wooden framework is also tipical to far northern buildings (in Czech and Germany). Barns were not integrated into the buildings mainly not to their street facade. So it is a nice - and I agree with the previous comments, quite crowded - dio but definitely not a moment in Hungary.

Hey everyone,
Firstly a big thanks to everyone who were kind enough to leave some comments & remarks, very much appreciated.... This is one of them 'slowbuilds' unfortunately, but hope to have some progress pictures within the next few weeks.
An extra thanks to you László, for pointing out my shortcomings...... To be honest, my diorama's aren't always 100% historically acurate, I do try to have the right looking figures & vehicles in the right part of the world at the right period of the war i.e. Eastern Europe early 1945. However, to make the roadsign, I needed some names, so just looked up a few towns in Eastern Europe. Hungary just happened to be where they were, they might not have even existed at the time. So obviously there's no geographical or historical connection there.......
I appreciate the observation though, and your useful comments on the building, so will obviously omit the "Hungary" part from the title. The building offically is 'MINIART'S' German Shed, so perhaps I'll have to move everyone up afew hundred miles
Cheers for now,
SIMON.

I think it looks really good. The comments about broken fence etc are very good ones imo. Keep up the excellent work

very nice diorama!hope to see it when it finishing

I like what I see so far...nice dio. The only thing I'd do different is to bring the fence back to the house right where the gate starts. Forget the gate and the far section of fence. It doesn't look right so close to the barn doors. I think that area in front of the barn doors would be better open to the lane.
Looking forward to seeing this as it progresses.
Cheers,
Charles

Hi, nice work so far!

I concur with Charles and think you should drop the fence completely. The nonsense of the non-opening doors hurts your dio.

Cheers
Claude

Hey everyone,

Well it's been a while since the original post, this ones been abit of a slow burner..... I took your comments on board Geraint about converting the Flak trailer into something more 'farmer friendly'. It was supposed to have straw stored on it, so the wooden boards make more sence. I also knocked a little of the corner fence over, those Russians had no consideration...
The interior of the barn has been built up, the barn itself has been washed with oil paints, the fence & sign painted, grass & twigs make up the grass bank & the Flak gun area completed.











The floor of the barn needs painting still, & the oil drums & trailer need finishing off. The figures are painted & ready to put on, there's 4 civilian farmers, 8 Russians, 4 German POW's and a tank commander, as well as the Soviet SU 100, & afew chickens.







Thanks for looking, any comments or more suggestions welcome. I appreciate the previous comments abot the barn doors etc, but the size of the building did limit the size of the rest of the dio. The front was supposed to be abit more of a farmyard, but the positioning of everything else put paid to that. The barn door would theoretically have enough room to open, as long as the gate opened out into the road. Better planning required in future....
Cheers for now,
SIMON.

Hi everyone,
Here's the finished model...eventually!! As I mentioned a while ago, I know the title says 'Hungary', but we moved up north afew hundred miles and I situated the events in the Pomerania area, around the border between Germany & Poland afew weeks before the end of the war.
All that were needed were to add the farmers from MK35, which at just over £10 each aren't the cheapest, but they're good quality resin figures. The farmyard animals also came from MK35, and then just added the washing line, finished the trailer and added the log pile. Framed it all with plastic card painted black, finished off the German & Soviet infantry & painted / weathered the Soviet tank destroyer.









Part of the story is the German guy whose eluded the Russians, and is hiding out in the farm, but can't resist the temptation of having a look outside.









The tank destroyer from 'Dragon' was a joy to make & paint, the commander & riders are from 'Miniart'. Just added a Maxim machine gun from an old 'Tamiya' kit, scratch made box, tarpaulin made from foil & the obligatory fuel can.









That's it guys, hope you like the pics, undoubtedly there's a number of things that could be improved on, the fact the Soviet infantrymen at the back have their thick winter coats on, and yet the guy at the front carrying the straw has a shirt on...???? There's always something!!! Anyway thanks for looking... all comments & remarks appreciated!!

SIMON.

a lovely dio , the only real contradiction i can give is , did the tank levitate to get where it is ??

i should imagine it would leave a lot more damage in the mud ( paticularly on a turn )

other than points made earlier terrific detail and scene !!

Ireally like it! One suggestion is that you could make the straw out of hemp rope, as it looks sort of fake. I think the wood on the upstairs farm supplies looks really good as well.