A 1/35 dio showing a German 81mm mortar in action.

It looks pretty good except for the wood floor under the baseplate. You don't want to do that, accuracy suffers. It's dangerous as all get out too.

G

Very nice. The base, except for the wood planking, is excellent as are the figures. I think they would be a bit dirtier, but that depends on the back story. Moving on to the K98, they should have a browner stock. Here is a photo of a few mausers from different companies:

The top rifle is a long-barreled Turkish Mauser.

The next two are Model 24/47 Mausers.

The next is a Yugo 48, and the bottom one is a German WWII K98.
from http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/edu72.htm

Guys

Thanks for the feedback. Not being from a military background it is always good to learn how things should be and not as I assumed they were.

Cheers

Gerry

I was thinking myself that they'd have the base plate heavily sandbagged if they had to set it up on a wood floor like that.

Dear Gerry,
From an artillery guy!
At the bottom of the mortar base plate you can see ribs. These ribs avoid the movement of the base plate due to the force, created by the fired mortar grenade.
Furthermore, you have modeled the soldier who takes care about the adjustment of the mortar. He uses a sight which is, optically, connected to a fixed point ( in most cases a (red/white) pole ). The position of the mortar is known to its crew ( found on a grid map), with the help of calculations ( or tables ) the mortar is set in the right position, both by adjusting the angle to the ground and side ward direction. By taking of gun powder rings the charge for the calculated flight is defined. This leads to the calculated landing point of the grenade.After setting the fuse ( detonation some meters above ground level, at ground level or delayed (which is used by eg. fox holes etc ) the grenade is dropped into the barrel and off she goes!
To make it possible to repeat an effective and quick fire after just more than one grenade it is necessary to fix the mortar as good as possible. A wooden floor would allow the base plate to shift, even if packed with sand bags.
I hope you accept my, positive intended, lectures!
Nice model anyway!

Nicely done,but the mortar you have modeled is a 120mm Grw 42,not an 81mm. Cheers..Murray McLennan

Guys

Thanks for the feedback. This is why this forum is good as it allows people with a greater knowledge in these things to share them. I was not aware of the wooden floor issue and am grateful for the heads up. I don't know where I got 81 mm from of course it's 120mm must have been under pressure from "she who must be obeyed".

Cheers

Gerry

Another nice project. Very compact scene. I especially like the cluttered floor of the mortarpit. Gives it a lot of life. Am I save to assume that the dio's you show here are projects over the course of maybe several years? As there is a bit of quality and skill difference throughout the works you show here? I mean this of course in the positive sense of the word. You are doing a great job.

Robert

Yes you are right I have been modelling for several years and have accumulated quite a large collection of dios and vignettes.

I tend to build kits and have quite a large pool of builds to include in dios when the motivation,time,money, and she who must be obeyed allows.

Cheers

Gerry