This is my most recent diorama, which I entitled it "Calm Before The Storm At Calvary Hill." It depicts the arrival of the first tanks from SS Heavy Tank Detachment 102 at Hill 112, which was sometimes referred to as Calvary Hill because of a roadside pulpit there. The tanks have stopped near a headquarters for the 9th SS Armored Division "Hohenstaufen," one of whose officers is showing the newly arrived commander where British positions are strongest from the vantage point offered by the pulpit. As two platoon leaders come up to survey the field, there given a small idea of the carnage that awaits them as a badly wounded tank crewman is rushed past them back to the field hospital.











The Tiger is by DML and has a warriors crew, the Mobelwagen is by Tamiya and also has a Warriors crew in addition to the figure that came with the kit, the Universal Carrier is by Tamiya, and the medical Kubelwagen is by Tasca/Bego/Cyber-Hobby/DML and provided the driver and wounded soldier. The pointing officer and the two walking tank commanders are converted Tamiya figures, the seated tank commander is the figure of Wittman that came with the DML Tiger with a new arm to hold the binoculars, and the Universal carrier's driver was made of various parts from the spares box.
The trees are scratchbuilt using wire and plaster with Woodland Scenics foliage and Noch leaves. Not bad for a first try, but I know that my foliage needs some work. The grass is a combination of Silflor grass clumps on sections of a Noch grass mat. Again, this was another new experiment for me, and seems to be a decent starting point to build on. The roadside pulpit is a really nice and simple resin and laser cut paper kit by Monroe Perdu. There are a few more pics in my gallery if you're interested. All in all, it was a lot of effort, but I'm pretty happy with the results. Thanks for your time.

the dio looks really good , particularly the kubel wagen, and the figs. wasnt hill 112 a battle campaign in CAll of duty 3? great work
calvin ng

Very nice, Ed. Much better than 'not bad'. Cammo uni's are very nice. Well laid out and built. Tree foliage is really nice. I have not heard of 'Noch' products before. where do you get yours?
Cheers!
Rick

excellent work a great dio with a intresting story, and as calvin stated isnt this part CoD3? Great adaption if so, i'll like to do a wolfenstein dio "nazis with beam rifles" lol.

Mat

Thanks for the responses. I haven't played COD 3, so I can't help you there. Noch products are made in Germany but you can get them from Scenic Express. Just be careful because there are a whole bunch of cool and pricey items for landscaping dioramas to tempt you there.

excellent work and well laid-out.
i like the universal carrier 'now under new management'

Thumbs up for:

1) Overall composition - plenty to look at and hold the interest
2) The painting of the figures looks EXCELLENT (especially the camo uniforms)
3) Nice camo paint jobs on the vehicles also
4) The Germanized bren carrier is a nice touch
5) The trees (excluding the foliage). Very nicely done.

Wavering thumb for:

1) I'm not totally convinced by the tree foliage material - sorry. Especially in that first picture. Colour-wise it also looks a bit too vibrant to me (though that may just be the lighting)
2) (Apparent) lack of washing on the vehicles - they seem to lack a bit of depth, though as I said above, the basic camo schemes themselves look great.
3) The Kubel aside, the roadway seems a bit 'empty'.

Thumbs down for:

1) The antennae on the Tiger - look like unpainted stretched sprue.
2) The foliage on the Tiger: Just doesn't look right somehow, and also detracts from a very nice-looking tank.

All comments offered in the spirit of constructive praise / criticism, as my own personal take, and bearing in mind that the camera sometimes doesn't do a job full justice.

In any case, thanks for sharing.

- Steve

Hi ed,
great dio, though i might suggest adding a few washes to the vechiles to give them that 'lived in' look, its not a biggy

thumbs up on the dio, great work

nice composition and excellent work on the figures. the two by the cross would make a fantastic vignete by themselves. Again, my comments are much the same as earier posts, vehicles too clean and foliage fairly unconvincing.

Nice dio Ed, could You take few close up shots of figures wearing camo uniforms ..

cheers
Robert

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think that my camera's flash didn't do me any favors in showing the weathering on the kits. I also didn't do as heavy a weathering job as I often apply because I was trying to show vehicles that hadn't been in service for very long and thus weren't very battered. For example, the Tiger would have only been in service for a couple of months and had not yet seen combat except for getting strafed on the road. Also, as a member of the outfit's command staff, I decided it would have been towards the front of the column and not stuck in as dense a cloud of dust as the others.
Also, I added some close ups of most of the figures in my gallery in case anyone in addition to Robert is interested.
Thanks again for your time and comments.

Hi Ed,

On the camera flash issue, you may try using 2 table lamps if available (one on right, one on left side) and take picture with camera flash shut off. The result is much better.

Paul