Neuschwabenland, Antarktika 1946

A small diorama in 1:35 scale on a 'what-if' topic.

This is my second diorama post on this forum. As always, don't be shy to leave a comment, good or bad. My figure face painting skills have a lot to be desired, I know.

The figures are German Infantry in Wachtmantel from Dragon. The rock castings are Hydrocal cast in Woodland Scenics molds. The snow is from Woodland Scenics. The hangar and the tower are scratch built. The base is a piece of MDF. All the mistakes are mine.

The snow is well done. But we know a lot about snow!

Interesting diorama. I see two little red spots, did you model a fire in the hut?

I don't know if it's a detail that you'd want to go to the work to add, but I remember when my father was stationed in Seattle assigned to the USS Staten Island (GB-5), the photographs that he'd bring back from the Arctic and Antarctic deployments showing the crew would invariably have a line of people in OD fur-lined parkas, with everyone sporting a full beard and mustache, often with ice crusted in the beards. It was a standing policy to suspend Navy regulations on shaving past a certain latitude to provide additional warmth when crewmembers had to go topside.

I don't know whether there would have been a similar policy in a German unit, but the difference between full-bearded troops who'd been there for a while and new arrivals either clean-shaven or with a heavy five o'clock shadow just starting to grow their own beards would add a little extra variation; I recall that if it weren't for my father's height, I wouldn't have been able to tell him apart from the other crewmembers in the pictures with everyone bundled up against the cold.

Certainly something different. Very nice.
As for the face painting- an order of magnitude better than mine

Hello,

Thank you for the comments!

Biggles2:

Oh, yes, we DO know about snow here in Quebec.


JPTRR:

Thank you for noticing the red spot. Well, if you look carefully above the red spot you can kind of notice the faint edge of something circular, standing on odd looking legs. Perhaps a Haunebu flying saucer...Who knows what these soldiers are guarding.

In hindsight, I should've put in a green or blue LED, to make it more odd and eerie. But thank you for noticing it!


srmalloy:

Thank you for the interesting information. The frontmost soldier sports a 5 o'clock shadow (or at least my attempt at making one)!


pod3105:

Thanks for the comment. As for face painting; I just don't know how fellow modellers can paint so amazing faces. Perhaps my hand-eye coordination is not what it used to be...