Hi Everyone

I've been building this dio of a Halftrack taking shelter underneath a corrugated barn for a few months now and although there are things I could add to it I am calling it finished. Hope you like it -

Working on the principle that a picture speaks a thousand words.............


















































Thanks for looking so far.









































Many thanks for taking the time to look through all this. Any questions, comments are more than welcome.

Ant

Thanks for the picture show!
This is some really nice setup with a never seen structure, this corrugated bar.
Overall excellent layout and great groundwork. I especially like the barn, except that i would like to see the wooden supports get some darker weathering.

Very good work on the house also!

Cheers
Claude

Hi Anthony, Very nice dio. The details are done very well and the AA halftrack is really nice.....Vince

Claude, Vince

Thanks very much for your comments. I'm glad you like it

Cheers

Ant

Speechless, love it, fantastic!

Like Claude sayed the woodwork might be a little darker and keep focused on the details. Like the shovel and axe, they look a little to clean in my opinion! And maybe you can add some more colour to the rusty plates and door.

Please make us happy and show some more of your work

Nice work Anthony, I like your ground work and your corrugated barn. And your halftrack looks good too. However, I am a little confused on what your figures are doing?
Kirk

Anthony,
Outstanding job here with tons of detail. I was intrigued to see how the pot hole with the broken pen in it turned out but you didn't include a close up of that. I agree with what Kirk said about the figures at first I thought it was a father teaching a boy how to pee but I guess its a comrade helping an injured solider? I sure by looking at it you can tell. But again great job how long did it take you to do?

Thanks guys.

Johan - To be honest with you this is only the second military dio I have built after a break of 25 years plus so There is not much else to show, it was a massive learning curve doing this. I have done scenic work for railway modellers though and it is the scenic side I understand best. There is a link below to the other dio I did last year.

https://armorama.kitmaker.net/forums/142706&page=1

Kirk - Originally I got the figures so I could cobble together a driver for the Halftrack but that plan changed. I think the figures at the back were supposed to be loading shells but I stuck them together to give the impression of one helping the other off the ground soon after a shell had hit the house? the figure at the front was just about to slice his apple. I kind of treated the whole thing as a way of learning new tecniques, with the front left hand side of the dio being relativly peaceful whilst the back is more chaotic.

Sal - I will add a photo of the pot hole soon. I will only ever see a father and son now! I can only guess at how long in total this took, including the halftrack it must be in the region of maybe 200 hours, probably more.

Once again thanks for looking.

Ant

For a second dio it looks fantastic. The first one looks great also. I've got the same story as you have. Started building after 25 years and working on my first dio for a 8 months now. Just like you i want to practise several techniques and the primary object is the diorama itself (scenery, scratch building) and not the model.
Some day i will show when it's finished (in a few months )

You are doing a wonderfull job

Hello,
very nice diorama, I especially like the various plants, also the buildings are very convincing. Have you considered adding some resing figures? This scene deserves better figures.

Hi Anthony. Very nice scene. You captured the rural look and the rusting barn well. Great effort for your second, and you have explained the biggest problem I see with the base yourself .... changing the plot/plan during the build. The figures should tell the story, but its hard to understand the plot without your explanation.
But the main thing is you have experimented with ideas and methods and by the sounds of things, had fun. Looking forward to more, in the near future.

Gabor, Frank

The figures are an old Tamyia set, I agree they could be better and add a more important roll in the story.

Cheers for your honest opinions.

Ant

Hi Anthony

Great work. The corrugated iron barn is fantastic and the other structure is also top notch. With the elements looking so great, the vehicle, trees, ground work, and buildings, I have to agree with others that the figures seem to let the piece down.

I think personally if you ditch those tamiya figures you will get a much better result. They add a vital human element to the scene after all. Maybe some better quality plastics from Dragon for example or some resins? There are plenty of wounded figures in various resin ranges that would fit the part spot on.

Hi Jon

Thanks for looking and for your comments. Yeah I must agree with you all regarding the figures. I will look out for something more suitable at the next show i'm at. That will be the MAFVA show, Duxford. There should be plenty of choice there hopefully.

Cheers

Ant

What happened to the bare tree to the very left of the first picture? Do you have more pictures of it? What is the thin, foam material, shown close-up in the third picture?

Sal - here are a few photos of the crater area.







Ant

Hi Rick

The tree in the original photo was going to be the apple tree which was replaced with the half dead one now on the dio. I thought it was too big for the front corner and took away from the rest of the dio.



The foam material on photo three is actually the tray from a pizza. It has been cut to size and squashed flatter in certain areas. The pitted look came from a reaction with one of the aerosol paints I sprayed it with. You can also score it etc. I'll definatly be playing around with it again.

Cheers

Ant

Anthony, thanks for the pictures. A great job overall.

Hi Anthony, it might be worth a thought,just because everything esle is so excellently done. Not to say that you're painting on the figs isnt good, it's great. But the quality in terms of anatomy and sculpting does let them down a little. It always amazed me how Tamiya can produce some wonderful vehicle kits but still seem behind everyone else in terms of figures.

Surely they have the technology and money to produce figures better than the likes of Dragon and Trumpeter. Perhaps its just not an area they see as important?

Tamiya actually has some singular figures embedded within certain armor kits which exceed Dragon: by exceed, I mean "depth" of wrinkles and folds, in clothing, and, "sharpness" of face and hand detail. The Tamiya Rommel face is right on, and a black U.S. Infantryman converts into a good American Indian. I find Dragon figures quite shallow in these qualities of depth, and sharpness. I have never seen a Dragon figure with any detail between the jaw-bone, and collar--(contrast this with Airfix multipose!). I applaud Dragon, however, for the specificity of their subjects--right down to particular battles and locations [I am still waiting, after all, for their version of The First Special Service Force].

The crouching figure in Anthony's diorama actually has much potential. I placed this character at the rear of a Sdkfz. 250, years ago, an MG-34 in one hand, and an ammo box in the other--put a twist to the head, and the bent gesture is magnified into someone just emerged from transport, now looking around to size-up which way to go.

It all truly comes down to a good paint job. Shepard Paine worked miracles with some atrocious figures back in the 1970's. I still collect these figures as reminders as to what a great painter may achieve--and what hidden potential lies with every figure.