That is looking superb Jerry! I love the way you've got him sighting his target. I rethought the one I'm doing for the Artillery campaign and went for Wehrmacht in the end. I followed your lead on figure surgery and it didn't come out too badly for me lol. Nowhere near your standard but I was reasonably pleased with it.I used the Tamiya gun layer, well I say I used him but just used the top of his legs and his seat, the rest of him went in the bin. Everything else was DML including the amputated legs and I managed to get both hands on the traverse/elevation wheels (Hoorah!). Your method of posing figures has been a real inspiration to me. I used to be happy just mishmashing kits to get poses close to what I wanted but watching how you do it and how you get the figure to do exactly what you want has set me off in a new direction with my figures so I'm getting more ambitious with them lol.

You're right there. I always think it's a bit sad when you look at a diorama and can identify every single figure on there as being figure B or D from DML set 61** or 60**. Even more so when some people build all four figures straight out of the box and use them all together. It really takes the edge off a dio for me no matter how well it's painted. I'm quite fortunate in that I have a very well stocked abbatoir these days. I recently Mr Muscled a lot of older figures that weren't attached to any projects (more duplicates than I remember there being. I appear to have had 4 boxes of DML's Wehrmacht Kursk Pioneers at some point?)so now I've got a lot of donors for body parts plus all the untouched figures in the cubby hole. One of the things that I love about your dios is that the figures are unique and are specific to whatever task you have them doing whether it be on crew served weapons or individually tasked. Keep it up mate

Looking great Jerry!

The y-straps, belt etc look really good... smock and natrual looking pose as well.

Excellent stuff.

Cheers

Sean

Your gunner looks great, but...

The gun will kick back and rise up a bit when fired, so isn't that a risky position to be in?

Check out the video Pak 40 and Sherman live fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6zxcyhJJGw

On a hard surface the gun will slide back. However, you're going to block the trails so all is well.

If you watch the side views you will see the gun lift up slightly when the trails are blocked. Most of the time the muzzle blast obscures it.

I looked close at the gun crews and several were positioned like your gunner, so it must not have been as much of an issue as I was thinking.

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Check out the video Pak 40 and Sherman live fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6zxcyhJJGw

On a hard surface the gun will slide back. However, you're going to block the trails so all is well.

If you watch the side views you will see the gun lift up slightly when the trails are blocked. Most of the time the muzzle blast obscures it.

I looked close at the gun crews and several were positioned like your gunner, so it must not have been as much of an issue as I was thinking.

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It wasn't an issue if trained correctly. The gunner had to track the target to the last second and sitting on the trail was really the only safe option. He did have to pull his head to the left though before hitting the firing button on the sighting wheel because the site moved back with the barrel during recoil. This is why when we talked about the AT gun scene in the movie "Fury" the gun scored some misses because this was not as easy as a kid playing a video game. In the video you can see only a small slow roll back and it's not enough to hurt you unless you are really unlucky or unskilled. Now getting caught by the barrel during recoil is a different matter altogether.
J

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Check out the video Pak 40 and Sherman live fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6zxcyhJJGw

On a hard surface the gun will slide back. However, you're going to block the trails so all is well.

If you watch the side views you will see the gun lift up slightly when the trails are blocked. Most of the time the muzzle blast obscures it.

I looked close at the gun crews and several were positioned like your gunner, so it must not have been as much of an issue as I was thinking.

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It wasn't an issue if trained correctly. The gunner had to track the target to the last second and sitting on the trail was really the only safe option. He did have to pull his head to the left though before hitting the firing button on the sighting wheel because the site moved back with the barrel during recoil. This is why when we talked about the AT gun scene in the movie "Fury" the gun scored some misses because this was not as easy as a kid playing a video game. In the video you can see only a small slow roll back and it's not enough to hurt you unless you are really unlucky or unskilled. Now getting caught by the barrel during recoil is a different matter altogether.
J

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I like your dioramas because you have a gift of focus on the event and you research your ideas. I'm looking forward to your finished scene. I haven't seen Fury yet, but I liked the scene in A Bridge too Far where the AT guns shoot up the Shermans near the beginning.

In one of the YouTubes you can see the loader being pushed back slightly by the gun shield, and I think he pushes the gun back into place. However, the rise up I am seeing could be an optical effect, my eyes aren't the best anymore. Shades of black and grey are hard for me to make out.

I thought the sight was fixed to the left side of the gun mount?

Thanks for that Jerry. You've made things a lot easier for me with that as I've been struggling for years to get smocks right (and failing) but at least now I've got the right tutelage and new techniques to try. Also the right colours as that's half the battle! I've got a bag full of SS in smocks destined for a dio, in the planning stage, who are just waiting for me to paint them which until now I'd been putting off and putting off. Methinks lots of practice coming up

hey Jerry!
sure it is a process indeed, but one you master very well!
that camo is spectacular!
can't wait to see it finished!
ciao
edo

Jerry, now I've finished my Pak 40 dio for the Artillery campaign I can have a bash at some SS smocks now you've shown us how to do it. It was originally going to be an SS crew but because I've not got the knack of painting smocks yet I went for a straightforward Heer crew. I know it's a cop out lol. I was quite pleased with how it came out in the end. One thing you may want to pick up if you've not got one is the AFV Club Pak 40 ammo set. It's a really good set with both 3 round boxes and metal tube containers. From memory about 18 tubes and 9 boxes with decals to go on both although I used some DML decals as well. Only drawback with the boxes is that there are no wooden dividers to go inside so I modified some from a Russian ammo box. There are two types of HE and two types of AT shell in there,6 of each so ideal for around the gun. The spent shells need drilling out though. If you have a look at my dio on the Arty campaign you can see the AFV club stuff I used....Karl

Those figures look great. You're making it look too easy:)

great dio!! an amazing job on the SS camo; I just started learning to paint these schemes and they are tricky; but if you carefully consult pics and great work like yours one can get some nice looking results; just a matter of practice; cheers