Greetings, my purpose is to explore how much closer to Realism it’s possible to get. Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion and there is no right or wrong because a hobby is personal. For me, if the whole aim of model-making & dioramas is to “make it look like the real thing”, the final step of that process ought to be photography that doesn’t detract from that aim.



All I’ve ever used is a sub-$200 seven year old camera so I’m hardly a serious photographer, but by trying to maintain a reasonable standard I think/hope it’s possible to tell a worthwhile story.



I started on this project nearly 20 years ago, depicting episodes in the northern salient battles of Kursk in July 1943 - don’t ask me why as I’m still not sure. To date there are around 60 vehicles and 190 photos & counting.



I’m just showing a selection here to see if there’s any interest in seeing more.



It’s up for debate if images like this should be published;



The arguments for and against are easy to imagine. I’m not going to say how I did them because there are too many crazies out there who don’t care about safety, and YouTube tells them everything they need to know without my help. But in terms of realism it seems to be dodging the point if we don’t acknowledge that we’re depicting weapons of war which have only one purpose.



Just so I’m not misunderstood, there is definitely a place for dioramas which are true vignettes i.e. you can see the edges of the base, there are countless superb examples on this site and elsewhere. What I’m suggesting is that there should also be a place for a kind of war-photography diorama, but I don’t know what to call it – any ideas?



Thanks for staying with me this far, enjoy what you do.

Well,I for one,think your approach is outstanding! I also try to take pics that do not show the borders of the dio but my pics don't have near the atmosphere and shading that yours do. Well done!!
J

Some of those images could pass for the real thing. Excellent photo work, not to mention the outstanding modelling.

Fantastic photos of your dioramas! Your use of lighting is excellent.

Those are sweet! Especially like the ammo loading on the Tiger.

EXCELLENT WORK!...especially the photography!

You should submit more of your work as a Feature.

Cheers,
Joe

I absolutely love this sort of presentation! More, please!

And please post any techniques, WIP photos, etc. that you might be willing to share.

—mike

WOW!! Very cool!

I agree with the other comments. Taking pics like these really gives an extra level of realism to a dio. Would be a cool idea for a feature.

The photographs remind me of the work of Marine Sgt. Matthew Callahan, who is using Star Wars clonetrooper and stormtrooper action figures in photographs reacreating actual combat scenes as realistically as possible to help people unfamiliar with combat see it in a new light. It's a perspective that we rarely see in photography of models, and the staging to improve the realism is very well done.

Don't know why there would be pros or cons about this .
It's your genre go for it .
I'm not much of a debater , kinda ride my own horse so to speak .

I do know what I like and I like this approach very much .
It's not as much a story with sub plots told by a traditional dio or vig. as a whole but these are snapshots in time , very cool .

Many thanks gentlemen for your comments & encouragement, it’s good to know there may be a place for what I’m attempting. In reply;
OK I’ll submit a selection of around 20 images for the Photo feature section & see if they bite. I’ll include some notes on techniques in that submission etc., if they don’t pick it up after a week or so I’ll come back to this post and put it all here.
The Callaghan link was interesting – in comparison I’m at a major disadvantage having never experienced a combat situation; apart from school-yard fights, war photography is as close as I’ll ever get.
The trepidation about showing the pyrotechnical images was about not wanting to start some kind of bigger-bang competition which could lead to someone getting hurt. My IED’s may be small but they’re loud, I take cover when they go off mainly to hide from neighbours who think someone’s taking pot-shots at them – which in jumpier parts of the world might not be so amusing.

Tim

I agree the photography is excellent.

I think the question should not be not whether this sort of presentation is appropriate--it absolutely is--but rather is there room in the world of modeling competitions for a separate category dedicated to the photographic presentation (simulation, if you will) of dioramas and vignettes.

Would probably meet a lot of resistance from the hard-liners in the competitive modeling world, but I think what you and others are doing with this media represents an intriguing and under-appreciated 'discipline' within the hobby.

Most impressive collection of photos - I agree with the others that you should submit your collection as a feature. I noticed that many of your vignettes/photos depict the fighting around Ponyri station during the Kursk battle. Kudos to you for shining a spotlight on an underrecognized
(IMO) part of the overall battle. As you know, it was a pivotal series of encounters which determined the fate of the northern wing of the German offensive (most attention has been given to the southern wing comprising the three Waffen SS divisions). I also find it interesting because the two largest and most powerful SPGs on either side took part in these encounters and may well have faced off against each other - the JS-152 and the Ferdinand. Do you have a Ferdinand vignette?

Hi Kevin & thanks,

agreed the northern part of the salient certainly deserves more attention, I think it's true that more new AFVs made their debut on both sides there than on the south side.

It was the SU152 (the JS152 came later in the war) & I've read conflicting views about whether it went toe-to-toe with the Ferdies - I've focussed on sPzJgAbt 654 which operated just east of Ponyri but it's more than likely one was actually knocked out by a 152. Not so sure about sPzJgAbt 653's experiences on the west side.

Yes I built two 1/35 and one 1/72 Ferdy (the latter for artificial distance purposes through the lens) and they feature in 12 images - it's a laborious process to get them into posts, give me a day or so & I'll post a couple of the best.

Tim

As I’ve just mentioned in the Feature section on the home page today, here is a sequence of single frames from the clip of the SdKfz 222 hit by – I like to think – a Soviet ground-attack aircraft, by way of proving I didn’t fake or Photoshop it:






Kevin, I can’t find it now but I’m sure I read on the Missing Lynx site a few weeks ago a thread about Trumpeter (?) planning a Russian loco. If that ever comes out I’d hope they’d go on to produce some railway cars too, but it’s such a specialist area I doubt it’ll ever happen – particularly as none of the russkie brands have shown any interest. Here a few test shots of Trumpy’s Type 52 German loco anyway – I haven’t developed it any further because I doubt German locos & rolling stock ran around on the different Russian gauge, they’d have commandeered local engines so this scene likely wouldn’t have occurred in Orel in ’43. Great fun to build though.

Tim-

Awesome train pics! Any flatcars loaded with Panthers (or your panzer of choice)? Thanks for sharing.

Very nicely done with the modeling and the photography!