Nice diorama, I love the base! The notch in the support wall to store the ammo is a great touch!!

Regards,

I'll be following this build log. I have a soft spot for springers and artillery. Beautiful dog, beautiful build.

Cheers.

Jeff

Thanks Vlad and Jeff,for looking in at my bumbling efforts. Maybe by the time that I"assume room temperature"I will get this modeling thing right! LOL
J

The best thing for me about posting on the net is that you can see stuff about your work that doesn't show up as well in person. Looking at my grass it does not look nearly as good as some other dios I've seen here. I am going to do a little trimming as it looks too clumpy or something. Any other ideas?
J

Very cool Jerry...maybe a bit of camo netting...Eduardo do some PE stuff or I use gauze bandage with oregano glued on

Thanks Harry..I will keep the net in mind but I haven't seen too many(if any) German guns with nets.
Small update. Got some shells done with charges added and opened up some wooden boxes. Finished some bits and bobs. Found a nice PE set for the bottom of the shells. I think I should tone down the brass a little though. What say ye?

The more that I look at this one , the more I like it..............Way to go Jerry.............Al

Thumbs up!

Gt the guy done that is breaking down ammo. Those Alpine Min. hand sets are just superb.

Also got the NCO done. He is a...gently persuading other troops to help serve the gun.

Soryy,here's the correct pic of the NCO

Wish I had caught this thread earlier. Would have asked if you could make a resin cast of the crew. I also have a lfh18 in need of some figures and yours look great. They really make the vignette memorable.

Yep,a little too late for that. The ammo crates and some other accs will be available from Tiger Models though.
Warriers has 2 very nice gun crew from the Afrika Korp IIRC
J

Jerry-- outstanding! What brand and color did you use to get that amazing flesh color?
thanks
DJ

Thanks DJ,
I put on a base coat of acrylic from Polly scale,I think it's called warm flesh tone? I am not at my desk and my antique brain cannot remember things for more than 2 minutes.
I then use oils from about 5 different makers. I just buy them when I need them and so the different manufacturers. Ocher,burht sienna,white,black,red and the 2 umbers(mostly for hair) are the colors. I tried for a "sweat sheen" and was a little successful but time will tell. It may fade as it dries.
The NCO wears a lead foil jacket,btw,forgot to add that tidbit. Most guys use epoxy putty but I can't get the hang of rolling it out.
J

Got some ready ammo done. Tried to represent a ceramic wine bottle and also built a lanyard.(usually forgotten with arty dios) Anyone know what colors the ap and multi purpose rounds were? They are the ones to the right. So far I just painted them to look like the HE rounds.
J

Got most of the stuff done for the LfH18 detail set. The back row has the 4 ammo boxes.Next up is the new corrected ramrod and artillery aiming circle with tripod and battery light source. The box to it's left is the carrying case for the aining circle. In front is a shell with the powder charges,a gunners angle,a bakelite container for un-used powder charges,a gunners pouch,fuse setting wrench and a muzzle cap. These will all be in the detail set plus some powder charges.

Here is where the lanyard goes. The kit is a pretty nice kit,although it had about a bizillion tiny bits to put together. I added some Eduard PE.

I Painted up the bakelite container for the un-used powder charges. The pic is blurry. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on painting bakelite? I also finished a field telephone switchboard. I went with the ref picture in the background, This will go with the arty assy set as the Germans made extensive use of field phone commo for their arty.

Everything is looking great. However, since they're in the process of firing, the aiming stakes would already be deployed, not still on the trail. They'd usually be too far to incorporate into your dio, but as terrain dictates the placement, they may be brought in closer if necessary. You might get by with showing one of them.
The aiming circle you have shown (and it's very nice by the way) is for laying the gun on a particular azimuth, and paralleling the rest of the guns in the battery.

Yes,the aiming circle is for the battery dudes,I know. I made it for the arty assy set that I will be sending to Tigermodels for casting.That's why I also made the telephone terminal,because a baterry control center would nee commo to the fdc/op,etc plus all of the batteries gun positions,etc It will not be in this dio. You are of course correct about the stakes. I fully intended to have them deployed but then one of those senior moments hit. I was looking at the gunsite in relation to the burm and you could not see the stake from the angle the gunsight is at. What now? What would be done in this case with an aiming stake in such a "hull down" position? Maybe a marking on the retaining wall?
I am kind of scratching my head now.
J

Not to worry. The stakes don't necessarily need to be in front of the piece, although they usually are. Alternate stakes can be set up in any direction they can be seen from the sight, as it can rotate 360 degrees. You could theoretically have them behind the piece somewhere at an angle.

My quandry is that my gunner is already molded to be looking in the site straight ahead. What about a home made aiming stick attached to the berm wall in front of the sight the way we used to make aiming and limiting stakes for our 2 man firing positions? A stake is a stake,after all?
J

I started the final posing of all of the bits and added a few that still need paint.