Hi guys,this is a diorama I'm currently working on. It's set in the weeks after the fall of the 3rd reich on the streets of Berlin. It's about 1/2 to 1/4 finished just now and I plan on adding more celebrating soldiers, debris and maybe some downtrodden looking civilians. The base and figures are from miniart, the vehicle is from Italeri with some scratch barbwire. It was all painted in vallejo and humbrol paints. I'd really appreciate some constructive criticism and ideas on placement and things to add. For me this is the first time I've put some real effort into painting figures, so go easy. Anyway-enjoy!

Hi Andrew,

You know certainly very well the areas where you need to progress ( a lot).
If you say that you will ad here and there, it is difficult to judge the layout , as it will change later.
Your initial storyline looks good for me. Perhaps it would be wise to cut the base and leave it as such, keeping the civilians for another project.
Regarding the house, i would advice looking up more reference pictures for brickwork. The red color should go a bit more in the directio of a wine red.
Also you should fill the joint in the middle of the broken wallsection.

Claude

Thanks Claude it's much appreciated. For some unknown reason the pictures look really glossy and over-bright. The brickwork is actually much much darker. I guess I should learn how to take better pictures lol. You're definitely right about leaving out the civilians, I think I'll just add in some more Russian who're sitting around getting drunk and generally partying(maybe even another accordion player). I'm going to give the building a bit of weathering with a red pigment and some smoke pigment. The seam line is really annoying but at this moment in time my budget is highly constrained due to being off work with a severe spinal injury. This is also one of the reasons why the faces aren't as good as I'd like. What I'd really like are some tips as for me this is the first diorama I've ever done with any kind of building in it and I wasn't really aiming for total realism (not this time anyway ). I'm going to keep bashing away at this until I'm reasonably happy with it so this may take some time lol. Once again thanks for the input Claude as having watched your Clervaux work it's obvious that you really know your stuff, so thank you for taking the time to post.

Andy

The basic layout looks pretty good. Painting faces is an art all to itself, so expect a decent sized learning curve. But the figs otherwise look decent for a 1st serious stab. Without the other planned details it's hard to say what is or isn't needed in the dio. The biggest thing that stands out to me is the fact the SWS is sitting so far off of the base. From what I understand of dio construction you don't want anything extending past the border of the base (or if something is, you want it to be minimal. Like a gun barrel etc). Aside from that, it looks to have a lot of promise. Cheers & enjoy!

Note: how was the assembly of the tracks on the SWS? I've got the kit with the rocket launcher & I'm planning on building it soon. heard the tracks were rubbish & a royal pain.

Maybe one or two dejected and shabby civilians walking past on the other side would give the scene that extra something? It would also put something in that area in front of the SWS, unless of course you were planning on putting more soldiers there.

I think it might be your lighting that is giving the figures the 'sheen'. I think everyone has trouble with this at one time or another. You just have to experiment with angles and such.

Thanks guys it's greatly appreciated. The tracks on the SWS were a bit of a pain and I spent quite a few hours sanding and trying to get them to fit right. For a kit that's not too common it was only a minor niggle. I realised that the faces look much worse than they actually are as the vallejo dirt pigment I use shows up way too heavily and discolours the face.I was wondering what paints and colours you guys use on faces? The real problem I have is doing eyes, I just can't seem to get it right. I'll probably use the Dragon-soviet gaurds infantry 1944-45 set which has guys sitting down relaxing and one drinking. I'm going to place them next to the figures that are there already. I'm tempted to remove the SWS and put in a column of POW's being marched off with two downtrodden civilians looking on. If not then I'm I'll add some of the miniart soviet troops who would be standing on, next too and sitting on the SWS. Thanks for the input guys it is genuinely really appreciated.

Andy.

Hi guys here's a little more I've done. I've taken on some peoples ideas and changed it up as it if it were a general visiting some celebrating troops. It's obviously still not finished yet but you should be able to get the general jist of it. If that one russian soldier looks like he's falling over, it's because he's very very drunk. I'm going to add in some spoils of war as well. Some captured weapon piles and there will be stuff cooking over the fire. Everything is hand painted as well. The first few pics are photoshopped to correct some errors but the rest are the originals.





non- photoshop






Let me know what you think, bear in mind thought that it's still a work in progress so the faces won't be quite so 'ahem' freshly scrubbed looking.

yours sincerely
Andy.

Hi everyone, Ive finally gotten to a point where I'm reasonably happy with this diorama. It's gone through quite a few changes from the original idea. The premise now, is:- A general visiting some troops who're celebrating. They're drinking, playing music from home, cooking themselves a hot meal in amongst the debris of Berlin. The streets lie strewn with rubble,as the weeds begin to take hold,the remnants of propaganda newspapers litter the street. One soldier has collected a few for use after for dinner in the latrine. He also sits with his spoil of war, a captured mg42 and panzerfausts. Two soldiers sit drinking, one more heavily drunk than the other and is falling backwards as he wipes the vodka from his lips. Their slightly drunk officer stands with his foot on the generals jeep talking to the driver asking him if the general would like to join them for some food and some vodka. The two men in the back of the jeep who are also slightly inebriated are deep in conversation ( I haven't managed to capture this well). Around an open fire a man prepares a stew while they listen to an accordion played by a frontovik. A 'front wife' wears the overcoat of her NKVD officer lover while an injured frontovik puffs away on a makhorka cigarette. As he stands there smoking he can't help but wonder how much of what they say and do the NKVD officer is keeping a mental note of for a later date.
- So there's the back story to the diorama. For me this is a hobby to keep me occupied as I'm disabled from a severe spinal injury and I've only been doing it for about a year and 6 months. I've put quite a bit of effort into this so I would greatly, greatly appreciate comments and constructive criticism as I've got a few others in the very early stages. Anyway here are the photos.

my attempt at a traditional style photo.


Using a dusk filter

Now the rest:-









And there we are ladies and gents, It's not perfect by any means but I'm happy with it. I'd love to know what other people think though as I deeply respect the opinions of the other people here.

-andy.