As promised/threatened at the conclusion of my Arnhem Diorama blog, I'm starting another one. As the title suggests, I'm going to make a diorama depicting a scene close to the conclusion of the small but epic battle at La Fiere Bridge on June 7, 1944. The diorama will consist of somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 figures, most of them troopers from the 82nd Airborne Division, as well as an Opel Blitz truck.
The scenery will present a few challenges for me, since making plants in scale is something of a weakness of mine. On top of that, La Fiere Bridge is much photographed, which means I'll need to make an extra effort to reproduce it as accurately as possible in scale, which is a bit difficult due to the lack of references on its dimensions. To top it all off, I also need to pull off a realistically flowing Merderet River.
Here are a few pictures of my preliminary attempt at figuring out the layout.




Here's a (very) rough sketch I made on the PC of how the main scenery elements will be laid out, minus the many bushes and trees the line the river and roads.

My biggest issues are the big open area in the space bordered by the bridge and the path off the road, and how to maximize the space I have to emplace the paratroopers. Nothing set in stone yet, but this layout looks to be about the best one for my wants/needs.
Any and all comments are welcome. More updates as they become available.

Wasn't it the La Fiere bridge where the Germans counter-attacked with a couple of ex-French Somua or Renault tanks with one being knocked out by bazooka fire? If so, one of those tanks knocked out would look better than the Opal. (Of course, I could be mistaken in which bridge this action took place!)

Agreed. PzAbt 100 had several beute panzers in this fight. As far as dead space a makeshift barracade/allied defenses might work or just throw in MB's farm cart or something. 20+ figures and vegatation and you wont have much dead space anyway IMHO.

Hello there,

I guess as you're putting the truck there you're pretty familiar with the story....
A few things to consider, if you haven't already..... :-)
The foliage was much thicker then than now.
The Merderet was higher due to the German efforts to flood large areas.
No German tank (or German soldier) actually made it onto the bridge (at least, not an armed one). Got close, though.....
There was a concrete telephone pole which collapsed/was shot down, might be nice to include.
If you haven't already seen it, Niels Henkemans did some sterling work on Missing Links regarding German armour on the Cotentin peninsular, which of course includes the unit at la Fiere:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/47207/message/1192224502/Panzers+on+the+Cotentin+TAKE+3+%28long+post%29
Do you have a copy of Bob Murphy's "No Better Place To Die"? If not, it might prove interesting.

Hope this is of some use....

Cheers,

Sean

Thanks for the replies. Yes, the battle at La Fiere did include an armored counterattack, but from what I've read, including the Missing Lynx piece mentioned by Sean, no tank got much closer than a couple dozen yards from the bridge. At 20" x 24" the base is already pretty ponderous, and trying to fit in just the closest knocked out tank, tempting as the thought may be, would only make it even more so. That leaves me with the Opel, which fits pretty nicely into the accounts of the battle as well as the scope of the diorama.
Sean, as for the rest of your very relevant points, I've been studying the period photos of the area and planning how much foliage I'll need, as well as the level of the river. I also have an MK concrete telegraph pole in my collection of accessories for the base, and drew much of my inspiration for making this from Bob Murphy's excellent book, which I highly recommend to anyone reading this post. I know that most accounts say no German got more than 20-25 yards from the American positions, but I was thinking of adding a couple of scared and isolated German troops huddling behind the truck just for dramatic effect. A bit of artistic license, if you will, but their inclusion isn't set in stone.
As for the scene itself, I tinkered a bit with the layout and am a little happier.




I rotated things about 90 degrees so that the American side of the bridge would be on the wide portion of the base. This decreases the size of the open area bounded by the bridge and the path and increases the amount of space available to show the defenders.
I also assembled the basic structure of the bridge.




I made paper templates and traced them onto thin sheets of Cellfoam, then cut out the pieces and assembled them with Gorilla Glue and finishing nails for pins. This was made slightly complicated by the fact that the Cellfoam sheets weren't quite long enough, but that was easily overcome. Also, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you, the road surface does have a downward slant, which is present on the real bridge. Next up is covering this structure with cork stonework, which will cover all those nails and smooth over the rough edges. I'll have another update as soon as it's ready.