Hi guys,

I'm fairly new on the forum, but I wanted to show you what is keeping us busy over here in Vienna.
A good old friend and I are teamed up for common projects like this one, as we complement each other perfectly for skills and interests! He likes to build models and buildings and is brilliant at it....and I prefer terrain, figures and slapping paint at anything that comes my way.

So Leo (that's his name) had this idea for a quite little scene showing a Horch and crew from the Deutschmeister Regt relaxing a little on the on the edge of a piazza somewhere in Italy..

The Horch is from Tamyia, the figures are Dragon, the details on the house (door, windows, shutters) are from Miniart, and the house and street are scratched out of Selitron (expanded foam insulation under wooden flooring).

Before I start with the photos, I must apologise for the poor quality of the pics. They are mobile tel camera pics and were not meant to be published,.

first a general view



a few details








and a couple of WIP pics







Hope you like it!

Comments welcome!

Cheers

Romain

Hello Romain,
I really like what you've done here. The aspect of the wall is very interesting, the way you played with plaster, and the crack on the top of the 1st floor is really lifelike. The faded look of the tiles refflects the hot and very sunny weather of Italy. I'm not an expert in AFV and soft vehicules but your're horsh do look good, and his camouflage is in harmony with the tones of the dio.
So congrats, this is a evry good job in my opinion.
If I would have only one suggestion/comment, it's about the composition of your diorama. The figure looking at the cat are visible, but the one on the left should better be close to the car, so that you create an angle for the eye of the viewer, starting close to the front edge for the first left figure, and ending far from the front edge for the far right figures. I don't know if my english is sufficiently clear, but that's the idea. This could also allow you to fill the right part of the dio which is empty.
I guess you could improve the composition by balancing the diorama, meanin adding something on the right part of the dio. If everything is packed, let's take it as an advise for the next time.

Excellent use of the insulation foam. Nice finish. The roof tiles are really well done also ... what did you use for them?

nice diorama Romain with great scratchbuilding work. the roof tiles are very well finished and it looks like you even added leaves to the gutters which is a nice touch.

this scene may have benefited from having the Horch on more of an angle to create visual interest against the building/street which are laid out parallel to the base. another small suggestion would be to have debris/leaves/etc on the street level butted up to the sidewalk. this would help separate these two levels as currently they blend together because they are built, painted and weathered similarly.

i like the newspaper on the hood but it would be a nice addition to have a figure close to it, interacting with it, as it looks like it would slide off the hood. it looks "glued on" without someone holding it in place.

these are simply minor suggestions, this is a very advanced build and i look forward to seeing more of your projects. cheers, bd.

Hi Romain
The building is fantastic as is the roof , and the rest of the Dio is superb.

Tom

Romain, Wie gehts?
I really like your & Leo's diorama ! It does capture that southern Italian feeling. What did you cover the insulation with to create the plaster look ? Along with Frank I would like to know how you made the roof tiles. Good looking figures ! If it is not too late I would add more things inside the Horch ( nice camo on it BTW), wires hanging from the glass insulators and stuff in the street. It's just a little to neat looking for southern Italy. Maybe an Il Duce poster.
Thanks for sharing with us ! What do you and Leo have planned for your next project ? Tom

Thats a superb scene Romain. Like Frank I particularly like the roof tiles- they really are great. I think the detail you've managed to get out of foam is superb.

Very nice job with the building. Are the roof tiles corrigated cardboard with the sides peeled off ?

Hi guys,

thanks a lot for the kind comments!!

Salut Julien!

Je comprends très bien!!

Composition is indeed not as easy as it may seem! You are perfectly right! We should have drawn the eyes of the viewer more from one specific point to the next.
Well, next time then!!

@Ivanhoe: es geht sehr gut, danke!!


To park the Horch at an angle with the house is simply not done in the Deutschmeister!!! They are an elite regt!! :-)))))

More things inside the car....well, that was my thought too, but Leo pointed out that the 4 guys were to sit somewhere..and he is right!! Moreover, Wehrmacht troops did not display "Verlinden style" plethora of different weapons and equipment.

The roof tiles are simply (many!!) pieces of cardboard bent over the right diameter!! In the meantime you can buy them from Royalmodel (and they are real beauties).

I preferred to leave the piazza fairly uncluttered with debris or leaves. Debris would come mainly after combat, o.s. and leaves come from trees. The photos we worked from showed none, ...so....I forgot!! :-)))

The foam is not covered at all! The only thing I did, was fill the gaps, and that was done with a mix of PVA white glue and (very) fine aquarium sand. Dries rock hard and paints without problems.

The building and the aged facade was just painted using DIY emulsion paints.
Quick and clean.

Selitron is a fantastic material. Leo builds all our houses like that. We started off with 28mm medieval town walls and houses, all the buildings for our Aspern-Essling super demo and now end up with 1/35 scale.

I guess that answers most questions so far!

Cheers

Romain

@ bruce d

other projects would rather have been for 28mm demo projects in the last 2-3 years, but there was one more 1/35 diorama Leo wanted to do (Brits in Normandy), so....here are some pics (some of them in b/w):















Houses from MK35, not scratched (and we regretted it afterwards!). figures from Resicast (support section) and Tamyia (rifle section) (great figures from Tamyia).

Next projects are Sicily 1943 (in the streets of Palermo, o.s.) from Leo...and marines in Hue from my side, but that's another story (or rather 2).

Comments welcome as usual!

Cheers

Romain

Beautiful work!!!

Salut Romain

I like the look of the house, well done! Nice detail work on the gutter (fixings).
Successful work also on the arches, this is always a bit difficult to do.

The cobble layout is also very interesting. Something else for a change!

Greets

Claude

Salut Romain,

Encore une très belle pièce !
I really like MK35 buildings, you can play with the absoprtion power of the plaster they are made of to fade the color. The stone wall are lifelike.
On the second dio, the composition is perfect. Nothing more to say except "toutes mes félicitations".
I'm also planning a dio on Marines in Hue. Semms that we gonna have fun.
Best,
Julien

Merci Julien!!

Another Hue dio...sounds great!! Seems to be a popular topic...and I'm not surprised!

I must say that for me Eric Hammel's book was an irresistible inspiration!!

Cheers

Romain

wonderful work, that moss on the roof looks fantastic
stan

hi,romain
i like your dio very much!
it gives more a feeling of north-center Italy than south to me, but i like it very much.
i think too that the streets should be clean, but a Duce poster is a must, and also a Duce's motto painted on the wall would be a nice add, some of them are still visible today.... try to google it , i'm sure you could find a lot of them...
another thing could be an emergency exit arrow like the one i talked about my post "us is for emergency exit" here on the site....
ciao
edo

Ciao Edo!

I worked from photos showing buildings in Emilia Romagna (forse anche Brescello, chi lo sa!? ), as the Deutschmeister were engaged more in north/central Italy, not in the south.

We actually opted against a typical Duce poster (as being too typical), but you are right, they were everywhere!!! If we can find a void spot, we put one up! ..and the "W" too!!

Cheers

Romain

hi Romain!
Emilia Romagna is what I was thinking of.... you really caught the feeling of the place very well!
My compliments also for your italian: i wish my german were half as good!
hope to see something more from you and your friend soon....
keep on modelling
ciao
edo

Some excellent work! I enjoyed the photos. What did you use to make the gutters? Again, really great dios!

Hey Romain
Some really nice touches from both of you on this project, and it all appears you work well together.
Much has been said on composition, but for the building used and space to use it in you have done pretty well. One thing that strikes me is that the figures are contained within the building's perimeter alone. In addition to Bruce's comment re the newspaper, a figure just outside the building would tie both the internal and external sections together and have a flow from left to right?
Good stuff
Brad

@ Edo: grazie a te for the kind comments!

@ Michael, thanks to you as well!! The gutters are plastic tubing cut in half with a "lip" attached to the outer top edge, but I think we might use Miniart's in the future!

@ Brad: you are right...but Leo convinced me that these guys would stay in the shade, as the italian sun is baking the area. (I must admit that we had an extremely hot day here in Vienna when we discussed this, and he had me convinced in no time! )
Seriously, it is Leo's diorama (his idea) and I don't interfere with it. I help him as he helps me, that's all. We are all entitled to our own ways, and if he sees the necessitiy to modify his dio, I will be there to assist, and if he is happy with it as it is...fine with me just the same!
I personally find the little scene quite fitting, but mine would have been different for sure. Different tempers, different ways! .
We do indeed understand each other very well and enjoy collaborating on all kinds of different projects. And we are both aware that we can learn a lot from each other as well!! And Leo is just such a nice, reliable and talented fellow!!

There is nothing like a good teamwork!!

Cheers

Romain

Hi Romain,
Nice dio’s, great work. Brilliant use of the foam! I also like the fact you ignored the standard rule of not placing building parallel to the dio’s edges; shows it can work and makes it stand out compared to other dio’s with buildings placed at an angle.
You know I will be watching for your Hue dio!
Best regards
Mark

Yo Romain,

Just pop in in this one!! Looks very good!

Fine scratchbuilding on the house. Looks realistic.

Street looks real, maybe some more color variation with pigments on the street .

Folowing this one from now on.

Greetz Nico

Hi Nico,

I feel I owe you both a reply and an apology!

Your post went online exactly the day I was brought to hospital where major surgery and 4-weeks in intensive care changed my life completely!

Afterwards I never went back to this thread...until today!

And so ...here you are now:

thanks for the kind comments m8, and yes, the road could benefit from a few dabs of colour here and there!!

Cheers

Romain

Romain,
I didn't know how I missed this thread until I read the dates of it's origin. Nice work none the less!
I love those roof tiles and the structures overall look a lot. Brings back memories for me of sunny Italy as yes,the guys would be in the shade. I recall some freekin HOT HOT days there walking through Cittadela and admiring the city walls.
At first I was not a fan of the street surface as I thought the cracks were too deep. Then I realized this could be a very ancient road from the Roman times as they still exist and they look a lot like yours!
Nice job on the figs and the vehicle. The newspaper was brought to focus by some one. Maybe instead of a fig with it you could just put a paperweight on it? Bottle of wine? Binos?,camera.etc?
I agree about leaving room in the car for the 4 guys to sit. You can make it look busy without taking up the seat space. Bravo for your nod to realism.
Lastly,and most importantly,I knew that you had been in the Krankenhaus but had not been aware of how serious it was. After reading this whole thread I can only be doubly thankful over your return to health.
Model on Herr Hauptmann,
J