Here is my take on a T-34 in Berlin, itself targeted by Wehrmacht tank hunters hiding in the ruins.

Hi Rob,

I don't know why nobody commented yet on your dio, perhaps it was overviewed in between the dozens of dios from gerrymodels

I read on your reply to the "Faux-pas" thread some explanations already.
I think it would be usweful to include those explanations here when presenting a dio, like manufacturers and/or scratch builds.

Overall very nice, interesting choice of base and facade colors.

You mentionned yourself the lacking interior. There should at least be some remains like in the left house, but even that one (from the kit) does not look very good. Some higher piles of rubble would be good to.
The big piece of debris lying on the floor 8in the house) looks overscale or , considering the fine rubble otherwise, simply to bif to fit visually.

I am basically one of the last persons you can ask for a comment about tanks, but the dents in the steel of the T34 looks strange to me, other comments welcome.

Welcome on the board

Claude

Thanks Claude. I appreciate the feedback. I think the debris issue is valid, but too much of it near the base obscures other house detail that I liked. I take your point re large wood piece, but it's not always the case I think that whatever is laying near the property in fact belongs to that property, e.g. stray fuel barrel.

As I said, it's my first dio, and I'm sure after some head-scratching the next one will be better (hopefully!).

For a first dio its a very nice effort- the scene is well thought out and there are some excellent touches- the flag would be my favourite and the names on the buildings draw the eye to them naturally.

The one thing I think could be imrpoved (in regards to your next dio) is space- I think there is too much 'dead' space where there's not much going on. For instance behind the buildings there is a great deal of space and only two figures and not a great deal of detritus other than bricks and masonry. A couple more broken household items might help in a space like this but if it was me I'd make this area a triangle so the space to fill with stuff wasn't quite as big. Personally I struggle even now to fill dead space in a dio so I'm always thinking about how best to use that space to tell the story I wish to convey. This is part of the endless conundrum that is diorama building!

The dents on the T-34 I think are okay- those on the right hand fender are too deep I think- I'm no T-34 expert mind!!

Anyway- this is a very solid start to diorama building and I wish you the best of luck in your next project.

Hi Karl,

Your comments are much appreciated.

I was trying to find a balance between suitable volumes of building rubble and still maintain a view to the buildings' detail at ground level, but perhaps this balance wasn't very successful.

However, I think I will try to add a little something on the remaining upper floor as it's too clean. Also some of the glacis tank damage may be a little over-egged, but the build itself is not to bad I think (my second armour kit). I think the battle flag was from Reality in Scale, by the way.

I was probably a little over ambitious in the concept, having bought the buildings kit and tank a couple of years ago, only now getting round to trying it (I model aircraft most of the time). I don't think I was exactly prepared for the size of the building units, when you compare them to the small neat configurations often seen on these pages. At times it felt like trying to thread a needle in the middle of a cat fight.

Thanks again. Onwards and upwards!

Hi Robert nice work

Co incidentally I opened up your comments in the Diorama faux pas at the same time



I love miniart buildings and you have done a great job with them and this is a great result for a first diorama.
People tend to view the buildings only as background and forget they are kits in themselves which require a different skill set which you seem to have mastered.



Miniart buildings do need dressing up with additional details such as joists and flooring- the materials are free- just pick up a handful of coffee stirrers the next time you get a take away coffee

we ran a Miniart campaign and you can look there to see how people improved their buildings



Also to address the lack of rubble you have to find a way to use the rubble to draw attention to the figures using different levels or even laying wooden pieces down so they lead your eye towards the figures.



Well done again on a great first dio

Thanks Pat. Good points which I'll take on board. I've already gone back and 'repaired' some of the glacis/fender damage on the tank, and added a few more bits of timber debris, based on earlier comments.

hi rob,

I hope you take my writing as an aid and not as a criticism. I do not consider myself an ace, and it is difficult to say what feels right if you are not sure of what it says ...

then: first of all congratulations, it's a great job. and if it's your first, is really staggering.

things that can be improved, and that would take their effect, are relatively few:

- The debris on the road seem too spread. where a building is almost entirely collapsed, that it should be more than where instead there is still the roof.

- the tank seems to float over the rubble. or rubble give way under the weight, or the wheels fall below where there is a vacuum!

- From the interior side of the buildings it appears to be too empty. roofs, side walls (double, in the case of buildings side by side) floors, furniture, would have produced a mountain of rubble high up on the first floor ... the solution is (in my opinion) to build the interior walls and some of the floors. less debris in total, some of which are retained by the close-ups, more depth to the back of the diorama. and a little 'signs of civilian life ... a chair, a picture ...

right now the row of facades looks like a curtain and in the case of the pharmacy is physically impossible to stand, with that slit in the middle (by the way, there is simply no way that the windows are left in place, in this building).

I repeat, I hope not to offend but to give you a hand to improve a work that is already good.
keep it up!

hello, p.

PS I would like to know, and learn, how you made the rubble, it's really realistic.
also, who produces the two german figures? they seems well done, aren't they?

No problem with your comments. I've found the feedback very helpful. I will of course try to improve the scene, but maybe not to the point of rebuilding upper floors - I meant the dio to be a draw for the public at our local model show, as it is big enough to get their attention and draw them over to view other things; it was never meant as a competition piece.

The rubble is clay-based cat litter, hence its uniformity (not such a good thing I see now!). The German figures are injection set from Dragon, very detailed, with two other figures also in the set.

There are about a dozen photos I took of this scene, but only posted a few here. Maybe if I had added a few others, some details would have stood out a little better for you, but I accept more (varied) rubble is needed generally, although I don't want to spoil the detail work on the buildings at street level, which I like. Oh well.


PS to everyone-

Thanks for all your feedback.

I'm going to set it aside for a bit now, but I've earmarked a set of civilian salon furniture, a baby pram, and some larger stones, to improve the base area around the buildings in due course. Following Pat's recommendation re the MiniArt builds previously, I'll also improve the joist ends of the roof and floor rafters using roughed up coffee stirrers to achieve the natural look of damaged timbers.

Hopefully, these changes will move up the quality of the piece a notch or two.

Thanks again.

very cool diorama and even cooler setting.... I myself am doing a berlin diorama so very cool to see that topic being prevelent in modeling still