That helped. Looks good : )
I guess you have already thought of doing this, but now you could add equipment in the trench. Ammo, canteens, ammo boxes around the sides the soldiers can sit on. Maybe scratchbuilt one of those gas burners to cook food. Use a helmet as pot with soup in maybe. Im doing that in my own diorama im building. But you have to research if the russians had gas burners.. I don't know.
Just add all kinds of stuff you would think they would use if somebody had to stay there all day on watch.. maybe books to read.. anything.

Cheers Simon.

You should add shell casings if the gun is going to be firing.
Here is where you can learn how:
https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/277

Big improvement. I think you are doing a great job. I think though that you should re line the walls of the MG nest with the lumber you originally had there. I know that you added the sam=nd bags in place of them, but I don't see why you could have both and I think it would not only be more realistic, but also, look more complete as you have the entrance you the MG lined. Just my .02 cents. Also, as far as the gunner goes, I think his boots as a bit too shiny, again just my two cents. Overall I am very impressed with this piece, when I think about what I produced at your age and then look at you dio, it makes me want to cry.

Hey Q, really like what your doing here bro. You have done great on making a realistic ground. Really looking forward to the rest of this project.

Im 16 and its great to see someone close to age here on Armorama! keep it up!

Later,
Johnathon

Looking really good, I think you nailed the Russian uniform color pretty well.

If you want to tone down the boots a little use a color the same as the ground work to tie it in to the scene better.

Faces are hard to do if it's new to you......keep at it, your figure looks good.

You can use styrene rod to simulate the machine gun rounds, I also agree some ammo boxes would look good.

Paul

Hey guys!

Sorry for the lack of updates, but highschool is very busy and I have waterpolo 6 days a week.
Simon: Thanks For the input! Youy have given me great sugestions for stuff to add to the trench. I am going to add stuff, but the nest is quite small. If I could go back and change one thing, I would have made the nest larger. Oh well, mistakes are part of learning, right?
Mathew: Thanks alot! I am going to add some pigments to the boots, and also to the figures knees and elbows, to show that they have been manning their position on Mamayev hill for quite a while.
Johnathan:Thanks for the kind words!
Paul: Thanks! I will add some mud to the guys boots.
Minimodelman: Thanks a bunch for the article. Very helpful!

Alright, here are the germans. Im going to see what they look like in the diorama.

Whataya guys think? Remember, their uniforms are dark because they are in a sewer with no natural light.









The Highlights and stuff are hard to see in the photos, but they are there. Next stop, the Sewers!

Conceptually this is coming along well. You're getting good feedback too.
One thing I noticed on the Germans was a seam line on the first ones foot. Take the time to file that off.

as it looks, i would assume they are laying a relentless barage of ammo at oncoming planes. however, there are no ammo casings anywhere, yet.. also, perhaps an ammo can or two. both empty and full. this would help break up the monotony of the pit. not sure if you had already planned to do so, but that is my 2cents worth.

Looks really good!

It's looking really good so far, keep at it.

One thing to remember, the machine gun pit was made in some fashion, whether a bomb crater or shovelled out. The dirt from the pit had to go somewhere. True, some will be in the sandbags surrounding the pit, yet give this a thought.
Also, the suggestion of dusting up the boots is a very good one. I suggest go a step further and dust everything up! This is Stalingrad, it was pounded and pounded by aircraft, artillery, mortars, and anything else. I would guess nothing remained clean or intact.

G

Hello Q. This is turning out to be a very nice piece. Creative at the least. Aside from the good advise you have recived the only thing I could add to is try and center the M.G. in the center of your pit so it has a 360 degree of traverse which an anti-aircraft gun would require..

a note to the dust. Im pretty sure I've read somewere in here that there was alot of red dust in stalingrad...probably because of red bricks.. im not 100% positive if it was Stalingrad though. I just remember I saw a eastern front dio with a t 34 I think with alot of red dust and somebody commented on it saying there was too much red dust and then somebody corrected him saying that there actually were ALOT of it in that city (which I think was Sgrad). Maybe somebody else can clear this up.

Hey Guys! Sorry for the the failure on my part with updates, but my english teacher is just burying me in homework....

Slodder- Thanks! Ill get rid of that nasty seam
Jesse- Thanks, will do.
Minimodelman-Thanks bud!
Wayne-Okay, makes sense. I dont know if I can do that, because of my deadline
dioman13-Thanks, I dont know if I can, since my pit is a bit small... Ill try though, thankyou
Brynje-Thanks man! I got some red pigments....I never thought Id have the chance to use them! P.S. How is it in Denmark?!

Anyways, expect some stuff soon. I gotta get this done by October the 9

haha no problem. But depending on which kind of red it is I guess you could use it for rust too ?

lol how it is in Denmark..haha I guess it's nice. Most people tend to like it alot. Specially Americans. I don't know why. I guess they like all the old buildings and stuff. There is not so much of that in the US. That's at least what my family from america says. : D Also Danes are just straight up nice people I guess... and we have the prettiest girls ofc. Heard many foreigners say that : D
Seems like many people don't know what or where Denmark is lol. Some think it's the Capital of Sweden and [auto-censored] XD lol But it IS a small country. I've even heard some american say "Danes.. those are the GOOD nazis right?!" LMAO
But you should visit in the summer sometime if you are going to europe. It's a nice country. Especially if you like drinking beer. Danes are a party people.. real Vikings

Simon- haha! Sounds like a fun place to go, may go there in the future! But a 14 year old + beer = bad outcome! I tried a bit when I was in Italy, the stuff was okay.

Anyways: Here is my sewer segment painted. I tried to achieve different colours in different areas just to make it less monotone. The base colour was Tamiya XF-56 Red Brown. Thanks to Ryan for helping me with this sewer part. See his diorama here: http://cs.finescale.com/FSMCS/themes/fsm/forums/thread.aspx?ThreadID=126996&PostID=1286439&PermaPostID=1286439

Here are the pics! Tell me what you think. Thanks!







Thanks!

The bricks look pretty good. I see a couple of spots that could use some touch ups, but overall, very nicely done.

Hey Captnenglish,

Thanks for the words! Ill touch up those few white spots.

Hey Q.. haha you can easily drink here. Most youngsters start to drink when they are about 13 here. And it's legal to buy in stores when you are 16.

I like your brick wall, but I think you should touch it up a little so it looks more like the bricks are actually put together with mortar. You get a feeling this is made out of one piece.. which it is. Hope you understand : D looks good though

Hey guys,

I have a bit of a dilemma here; Im not sure whether the sewer should be on the side of the base or facing towards the front. Here are some pictures of what I am talking about.

Here is the pictures for the left side:





Here are the front views.





Whataya guys think

Oh yeah, and I did some work on the inside MG nest.



Sort of a sucky picture, but nothing is glued down yet. More soon!

Guys, please give me some input on if the sewer should face outward or to the side. The show is on saturday, I cant get started till i find out which way it shoudl be. Thanks!

face it towards the front. that looks best. great job so far man, really looking good.
-mike

Looking good, Q. Very nice to have the multi levelled diorama.

Looking forward to see more

I really like how this dio turns out. The sewer should face front. I really like how this dio is in levels. Looks super cool. I think you should make a pipe comming out of the side of the sewer wall, and make some dirty water come out of it. And also some water running in the bottom of the sewer. Maybe add some rats if you can find some online. I know you are not there yet.. but just some ideas for later ^^

Hey I just found this lerking around the site.

Maybe some inspiration