I've been wanting to do a "big" diorama for a while, and on another forum there was a D-Day Group build, so I decided to do a dio from a short time after D-Day. I picked up the Bronco Bailey Bridge kit several years ago and have always wanted to do something with it. It was only when I took a good look at the kit that I realised just how BIG it is! I've only used two of the three bridge segments in this dio, but it still meant I had to have a base that 500mm x 250mm to get anything else into the scene! This is located about 2-3 km SE of Bayeux.

I used the Tamiya Cromwell, plus their BSA M20 and British Infantry, along with the Livestock kit. Other figures have been taken from MiniArt British Tank riders, British Tank Crew and the farmer/poacher is from the MiniArt Paratrooper set that is included in the Cyberhobby Sherman Firefly kit.

The landscape is made up from claycrete with various MiniNatur bits added along with home-made flora using dried tea-leaves, florists Oasis, plumbers hemp and other materials.

So now for some photos - these are a bit tricky as its a very difficult shape/size to photo graph so please bear with me. I took it out into the garden last week when there wasn't direct sunlight but it was nice and light. I set the camera apature at f22 and with it on a tripod used the self timer to take the photos most of which needed about 1/4 to 1/5 second to get the depth of focus.

Some of these have been put through a bit of Photoshop to tidy up the background and the sides but no adjustment has been made to the model itself! So enough talk here are the photos:


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I still need to decide on an overall title... maybe "Breakfast on the Bridge" ?

I was initially very worried about the seating position of the Sgt figure as he appeared to be lopsided. It was only when the whole thing came together I realised he's leaning over to get a better view of the argument on the bridge!!!

A beautiful and correct (engineering wise) bridge, wonderful! Kudos.

Thanks Michael the Bronco kit is quite detailed but the instructions are pretty bad as there are lots of parts that need to be oriented correctly and the instructions don't give a huge amount of guidance and its only until much later that you discover the mistakes!

Andrew,

Very nice work. I especially like the water effect. As far as a name..."Road Hogs"

Dave

"Road Hogs" - excellent suggestion, thank you

Hi Andrew

Nice dio, nice subject. I like it very much.

One question: What is lying in the water under the bridge?

I think you should definitely weather the road a bit and I also think that at least the tyres of the bike need some dust.

But honestly, since when is a 500mm x 250mm dio considered big?

Greets

Claude

great looking dio i like "road hogs" title

Casting pearls before swine?
I like these big dios. Nice job. Although,next to the dios built by Comte Claude,all dios are puny. Hahaha
J

In the water under the bridge is the rubble left over from the bridge destruction. In reality its a load of doll house bricks I managed to pick up cheap from a local Dolls House supplier

Andrew, excellent diorama! I see nothing that I do not like: models, design, concept, execution - all 5 X 5.

Road hogs! Excellent. The only thing I thought of is Desert Rats meet Bridge Bacon.