Hi,

I am working on a LAV III and plan on doing a diorama with it and have been doing some research on ideas. Here are some photos of the Canadian forces in Operation Zahar in July 8-9 2006. Any preferences? Comments?

Bob

Drop me another PM, will help you out with the Lav-3 Dio idea as well.

Anthony

Hi Robert,

What ultimately matters is what you think is the best for your diorama. First is it going to me more of a vignette simply displaying the LAV III or will it tell a story in a full diorama? What will the story be?

The images you posted are all good starting point for your project.....the LAV III on the road with the walls is a great starting point and shows some unique features of the Afghan terrain. The images showing the LAV III crossing the ditch is also interesting as it shows the LAV III's suspension articulated. The only thing about this type of scene is that it lacks any visible Afghan terrain features....you could always add some.

Are you planning on adding Canadian or Afghan National figures on the ground? If so how will you develop them into the story?

The wall and road scene to me stands out more to depict an Afghan based dio. You could use a higher wall in the background and a lower damaged wall in the foreground. If you angle the walls on the base it will provide more of a view of the LAV III.....you don't want to build a scene that hides the details of the LAV III and any figures on the ground. Having the LAV III turret at 90 degrees to the hull will for sure give it a better sense of an off base threat being engaged.

Just some ideas and thoughts for you....in the end you need to be happy with what you develop and build.

I would like to hear what you think would be best! Good luck with your project!

Thanks for the replies. and the offers of assistance.

I am going with the scene with the walls and forces amassed in front of the LAV and against the wall. I have started with the foam base and here are some pictures. The next step is to plaster it up and then do the details of the stone morter etc. I have some fine sand ballast that I plan on using for the road. Not sure what to use on the walls. Any suggestions? Textured concrete "paint" and then paint them the right colour? I bought some Trumpeter 2005 Iraq figures that I will paint in Canadian colours. Additional help on the colour scheme would be helpful. Otherwise I will do up my own research. Hard to get closeups of the uniforms in the shots I have.

Go to Combat Camera and look at the Op Athena images....there are thousands of good images of the CADPAT uniforms in high res.

For the mud walls I would use spackle or some kind of plaster. Maybe try mixing in some paint. As for the road, I'd use spackle as well, mix in some of that ballast to give it a bit of texture. The road and the mud walls will be about the same colour.

Hello again. I have plastered the foam and pained it with some ballast on the road and textured the mud bricks and have worked on the turret of the LAV III.

You can see the inspiration image at the start of this post.

Thoughts?