Suresh Nathan shares some pictures of his 1/72 Mörser Karl, during the assault on Sevastopol during the Crimean campaign.



Link to Item

If you have comments or questions please post them here.

Thanks!

Normally I'll give a lot of credit to folks who build in 1/72, since it's more difficult to obtain good details. Based on these photos, the Morser looks good and the trees/bushes also look good for this scale. Please understand my following comments are meant as a constructive critique. Very little in this dio makes sense. The Morser required a lot of support, so why would you place it in a position where the support vehicles can't get next to it? Why is the munitions carrier in the river? What's that guy in front of it probing for? How did the jeep end up facing in towards the bank under that tree? How did that cargo trailer end up under those bushes with the towing end facing the river? How did the Kubelwagen get parked on a steep bank without making any tracks in the ground? The fuel drums on the trailer should be secured in some manner. There are two identical "pointing Germans" about an inch or so apart. Sorry if all this sounds like a bash, but it's what I'm seeing.

Some further observations:
During the siege of Sevastopol, the guns were painted in Dunkelgrau. Placing the gun on a riverbank with a Schmalspur railway is stupid. Its hard to believe the riverbank could bear the guns weight of 124 tons. And after the first round fired, the gun would end up IN the river. All photos of the guns show them on flat ground.

So,, you are claiming that what we're seeing in these photos is a "misinterpretation due to the small scale?" A novel approach, but that makes even less sense. As I said previously, my comments were meant as constructive and not a bash. May the modelling gods forgive me, but now I will bash it. (1) The color scheme is the least of the problems, not the most important. (2) The presence of the rail line is irrelevant and no one said it was being used to transport the gun. WHERE it is parked is the problem! The gun cannot be serviced by its' support vehicles properly. It's weight risks a collapse of the embankment, which is supported by your claim that the commander doesn't want to move the gun cause he's scared the riverbank can't take the weight. (3)Why would MP's be involved in this activity? The Morser's crew would have included staff who were trained in how to position it. (4)"The K-wagen is on a flat spot." Right,, the flattest part of an embankment sloping at 20 degrees down toward the river. Still doesn't explain how it got there without leaving tire tracks on the ground. (5)"The jeep was abandoned & rolled into a ravine" is ludicrous! The jeep's front end is bumping a tree while the back end is partially buried in the ground at the river's edge. The laws of physics say "No way in hell" did that jeep "roll" there. Plus, given the position the jeep is in, most-if not all-of the leaked oil would have soaked into the soft ground under the front end of the jeep. (6)You still didn't say how that cargo trailer at the lower left got stuffed under those bushes with it's tow connector facing the river. (7)Also no mention of what the munitions carrier is doing in the river. It's of no use to the Morser down there. Might be of some use as a tracked fishing barge. (8)The guy with the pole probing the water. What's he doing? Checking water depth ahead of the munitions carrier? Probing for underwater mines?
The groundwork and base are generally well done. Did you research any info/photos on the Morser before you "rebuilt" this? Doesn't appear so since the placement of the vehicles make no sense at all from an operational or realistic viewpoint.

While I agree with the the criticism so far, I think we tend to focus on negative aspects too much, which makes the feedback unbalanced.

For one, I think the base/groundwork is outstanding and much better than many bases we see in 1/35 here. One minor criticism I would have here is that the water doesn't look like water enough, it should probably look more translucent. Another small point is that the debris of the bridge could use some more weathering to tell the destruction story better, e.g. traces of burns and rust and fragments scattered around. It doesn't look like a "fresh war wound" here.

The vehicles, in particular the Mörser Karl, are nicely painted and have a realistic look. I noticed the mesh used on the ammo carrier, which improves realism a lot. The issue with the colour scheme has already been pointed out. Regarding the vehicles in grey, to my taste the grey is too bright. The trailer for the Kettenkrad I think is a piece of scratch build. However, it doesn't look like a physically sound design, able to carry the heavy barrels without collapsing.

One word on the figures: They are not poorly executed. However, you seem to have struggled with positioning them based on the pose they have. This results in poses that seem rather random and do not help tell a story. The remedy? I strongly encourage to modify the poses. It is super easy, especially at that scale and with the hard plastic figures used here. you can cut of arms and legs of different figures (ideally from the same manufacturer) and reposition them. any gaps can be filled with putty/ green stuff in seconds. This gives you much more possibilities to tell great stories, and you avoid the pointing arm syndrome.

The overall composition is appealing to the eye as due the different heights of the base, terrain details and the massive vehicle on top. Also, the range of colours makes it interesting and realistic. The issue is that the base seem rather unfit for the story you want to tell, which evolves around the Mörser Karl. Obviously, the heavy artillery was a crucial asset in the German assault on Sevastopol. They wouldn't be stumbling around in open terrain scouting for a way forward. Also, logistics were a nightmare, so movement was carefully planned. For longer streches, the whole thing was dismantled. When at the Sevastopol front, they fired from prepared positions and the rest of the time stayed in dugouts to avoid counter battery fire. Their limited range (4 - 7 km I think) meas they were or could get exposed to counter fire. Also, the crew was sixteen men for the Mörser Karl alone.

Therefore, the setup of the diorama unfortunately is not believable. This applies to the overall situation (what is the Mörser Karl doing there?) as well as to the smaller details. It is unclear whether the Mörser is supposed to be on the move (into a deadend, obviously?) or about to fire (doesn't look ready?). The ammo carrier in the water has already been pointed out, but why is the crew operating the crane? The jeep could have been blown their by bombardment, but then it would be heavily damaged. The details don't add to convey a story, they just remain details. I guess if oe wats to tell a story, it is important to think more in detail what is realistic, and less focus on what models, figures and equipment one wants to put on a base.

Wow tough crowd - Suresh all the components of your dio are very well executed (particularly so at this scale) and you clearly have a lot of talent so I’d like to see more of your work. However the other guys do make some valid points about what’s happening in it.

We’re all learning by experience here, I’ve found it’s useful to transport myself into the diorama and critically imagine if the components all around could have plausibly/practicably arrived in their positions with a believable purpose. Whatever, there’s a huge amount of work here & I still really like it, well done.

Suresh,

Your diorama looks great! I appreciate the technical merit of the criticisms voiced here, but the fact is that while your vignette may not be completely historically accurate, it is still a very attractive piece of work. I too had reservations about some aspects of the scene, but I mainly thought, "how fun it is to see the old Hasegawa THOR actually built up!" I get a lot of enjoyment looking at it, And I bet you had a lot of fun building it too, and, really, isn't that the point? Well done, I say!