Hi Guys. Base is almost complete, as is the Kubelwagen and 75mm infantry gun. Just the 6 figures now to go. They are all primed, so I´ll be painting them over the next week or two. The lights seem a bit bright and have bleached the wall and sandbags a little, so the variances in colour between different bags or bricks is not as noticable in pictures as in reality. Points of view, comment and critic are welcome.

The un-painted scene. The base and wall are from Keith magee, the kubelwagen is Italeri, the gun is verlinden, all figures are dragon and sandbags are by me. The table, stool and radio come with the Kubelwagen

wow thats really nice,
you do nice work,
are all them sand bags plastic or did u make them from putty??
when u are done plz post more pics thanks

Thanks Tazz. The sandbags are all milliput, 2 part putty. In the unpainted picture, the yellow bags are milliput standard.... a full box and the white are milliput extra fine. The extra fine is twice the price, but for sandbags the standard is perfect as it gives a bit more texture!
Its my first time to make sandbags and I used the excellent article on Roadkills homepage to make them!

Lookin great, you made the sandbags look very realistic, and there are so many of them, how long did that take you to do?

Looking good. Especially the way you painted the brick wall. Looks very real

Hi plasticbattle
I like the plan of your dio, the wall and the sandbags are well done and painted..
Nice also the figures , but if you put too much of them you risk that not all are visible..
I think you can also put an mg machinegun posed on the brickwall hole.. but these are only suggest..in the end I like your dio :-)
I'm waiting to see finished dio photos
regards

GREAT WORK - CONGRATS
ROBERTO

Frank:

Your dio is really coming together. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th pics showing the painting/weathering on the brick, and the radio shack are show stoppers.

The interesting thing that you have pulled off here is the composition of the dio. There is a LOT going on here with all the figs, the Kubel, the weapon, etc, but it does not look cluttered--- so much for the eye to see.

How was the Verlinden arty to build??? Nice looking weapon.

Keep us posted.

Steve

Hi Frank,
i like the subject of your dio, sure something different. Think it show's the other side of war.
Nice painting too, keep up the good work. Hope to see more of you soon.

WOW! I like the layout of this dio. It says a lot to you but is not too cluttered. Keep the pics copming. Bravo

Thanks very much guys for all your nice comments. Hopefully I can get the figures to a good standard and add them in. I should be complete with this in about 2 weeks time, then I start a 1/16 cover-up dio/vignette using a Dream Catcher handschar division soldier and a verlinden 120mm flak 38 ....... maybe more dug in this time!

lestweforget - I made them over two days. I made a row or two and let them harden before I went higher. It was easier ths way to scribe the bag seam and add a little texture to them as well. If you build too high, too quickly it gets wobblyand can squash whats underneath!

Venom - The layout will be pretty much like the set-up in the first picture. I think you can see all thats happening. I have built 8 figures.... 2 boxes with 4 figures each.... but left out the guy on a stretcher and a medic attending to him for this same reason. A MG gunner would be a good idea but I want to keep this to injured and medics. There is actually one guy at the front looking back in a protection pose. The X-factor with this campaign is that there must be a flag and I am making a red-cross flag so hopefully there is a cease-fire while the injured are removed. Another thing is that this dio is viewable from 360 degrees, All sides are modelled. Another way of looking at it is when something like this happened there would be chaos, so hopefully this comes across when finished with wounded and medics running/laying about.

WeWillHold - My first attempt at a multi-media kit. It was hard work and frustrating sometimes trying to align things. It is a bit warped and can be seen on closer inspection. But it went together quickly and when together and painted it looks fine and the detail comes out nicely when washed/drybrushed. Italeri have this 75mm howitzer as a kit as well, and I would love to get my hands on it to compare

Great work so far, the painting is especially well done.
In particular, the chairs and stool are very realistic, what technique did you use?

Looking forward to more,

Andrew

Looking good, plastic!
Great work so far. The sandbags are excellent, as is the brick work. :-)

I sprayed them with tamiya dark yellow/desert yellow (cant remember but it doesnt matter as I use both). then after a few days, I painted them with burnt sienna oils.. straight from the tube. I dampened the brush with thinner. After an hour or so I stated removing the paint again with a clean dry brush. I even used some cotton buds/tips on areas to remove more. This makes like worn areas. Then after a few days again I washed with a very thin wash of black. Viola.
Dont get too hung up on the base colour as different base colours add to the effect. Light greys, light earths or all 3 like a camo colour works well also. Also burnt sienna can be mixed with burnt or raw umber to give differnt shades. I always wash after wards then with black, or dark sap green in the case of the amo crates under the table. This tip was suggested to me a while back and I use it all the time now. It is very easy and gives a good result. It helps if there is a good wood grain cast on the parts. If not, I suggest scribing some for better effect!

PB,

that is some excellent modeling dude !! WOW

Painting of the wall is exceptionally well done, and those are some of the finest sandbags I've seen yet !

Now who would want to attack and damage that then, it just to beautiful!

Beautiful work and inspirational to me. But, I am not one for rules like "too much clutter". If you "see" the scene, do it. Real life chaos has clutter. Combat has clutter. Why is it such a sin to have a busy diorama?
I have been in situations where it was every man for himself as well as situations where it was Three Musketeers time (all for one and one for all). Both were free-for-alls that, if photographed, and thank heavens it wasn't, would be considered cluttered.
Yours is not cluttered, it is great.

Sealhead (Kansas Sunflower)

overall a nice work buddy . i like the scene setting, and how in a comparingly small area you fit many things very well. i also like tha painting especially the walll and the radio . waiting to see it all finished. By the way in what package (amount) comes the miliput you use for the sandbags and how much does it cost? cause i think i am paying them gold in the brand of epoxy putty i use for them .

When the flood comes...I want you to stack my sandbags...great job, bud.

kglack