Ciao everyone,
I wanted everyone to see my latest dio that I built for a retired Marine friend of mine. It is an Italeri M4 with supporting DML Marines. They are moving over a scratchbuilt beach made of genuine Pensacola Florida sugar-white sand and genuine resin palm trees from Verlinden. I wish that I had a better digital camera, (but I keep spending my money on models.
Please let me know what you think
Ciao for now
Rob

nice build and paint on figures and M4 Rob. IMO a lil larger dio base would be better

I love it. Some palm fronds on the ground would add to it too

Hey Rob, now i get to see that famous dio you were talking about!

Realy neat, i liek the camo on it and the figures look great as always

Maybe add some stuff to the beach. explosion holes, wood logs, things like that, it would look neat

Which beach is it? iwo jima? something like that?


http://www.linkhitlist.com/cgi/LHL_E.exe?G2L&LinkNo=823117&ListNo=41606

Check out the Tarawa dio, see the figures? how the bottom of the pants are darker because there wet? try that out!

Take care, and nice job!

Frank

P.S you have a lucky Marine friend

thats a really nice dio.
i like the camo on the sherman,
and the figures came out.

Very nice. I like them palm trees. I do a lot of Nam dios and I've been thinking on grabbing up some palm trees from them. They look good. I agree that a little bit more debris on the ground would look good. Put a bunch of driftwood and debris. Also, some a few scattered smaller plants scattered around would add to it. It looks good, but the ground just looks to clean

Camo job looks top notch! Where did you find that pattern - I don't recognize it - but it looks great!

Thanks for all the compliments!
I thought about making the base bigger, but I am trying to be more economic with the sizes.
I never even thought about the clean beach. I thought about taking some of the branches off the palm tree (at the last minute unfortunately).
Frank had a good idea about making the pants darker like they were wet. I had thought of that before, but I figured that if the pants were indeed wet, then they would cling much more tightly to the legs, so I just figured that the guys came in on a LCA or something like that.

Lastly, my friend has been nagging me (good naturedly, of course) about finishing it for him so I might have rushed a little bit more than I would have liked to.

Again, I do appreciate all the compliments. I just hope that Santa brings me a really nice digital camera.

Ciao for now
Rob

Oops,
I forgot - to KFMagee - I got the idea of the camo from a guy that I knew who used to be stationed on Wake Island back in the 80's when I was stationed in the Philippines. He had told me that they had a late 40's model jeep on the island, but they had such problems with rust that they would take whatever paint they could get their hands on to paint it. It was supposed to be a specific camo (I think the standard NATO pattern -green, brown and tan.) Anyway, I figured that the marines would be using whatever they could to keep the tanks from rusting through.

And for Bracomader - those palm trees are wonderful, but terribly expensive. I mean $20 US is steep, but I have to admit that they were worth it. In fact, that is the first time ever that I have worked with photoetched brass.

Again thanks for all the compliments. My next project is for the Incoming campaign.

Ciao for now
Rob

I love the Sherman especially the camouflage!!

G'day Husky, i really like it, i havent ever seen those verlinden palms around before, do they come with the leaves? do you have the product number? cheers, looks great!

it couldnt be, well not realistically anyways, the sands of Iwo Jima were black volcanic sands, yes, BLACK SAND, its not that hard to imagine once you see it (they also have black sand in someplaces on oahu island in hawaii, i once lived there) but anyways, the dio looks awsome Marines!! ooh rah! but the sand itself looks a little light (for inland sand) or is it supposed to be right off the beach??
well, i love it

semper fi
carry on
-mech out

Black sand? thats cool. there special i guess.
Hey Rob, did you read the article that came out on how to make palm trees? it woulda saved you the $ and it woulda been fun to try out

Take care
Frank

Frank,
No, I didn't read the article, but I will. My friend is the one who paid for it, so hey - money meant nothing.
But, to answer your question more precisely - this particular dio would have been right after the invasion of Guam. That would most closely match the paint scheme on the tank. It could have been one of the islands in the Marinanas or could have been a smaller unnamed invasion accomplished by the Marines.
And yes, the sands of Iwo Jima would have been black, since it was volcanic ash pulverised by thousands of years of tidal waters. The sand is real sand from the beaches here in Pensacola, Florida. But, the beaches here in the "Redneck Riviera" are famous for being sugar white.
Ciao for now
Rob

il try to get my parents in paying for my dio's could save me a few dollars and id still get to see my finished work since i live with them

unfortunatly i never went to florida, farthest i travelled was up north, 6 hour drive every summer but once my mom went to florida with a friend and brought back sand...i think its illegal is it? lets keep it a secret!

Hey, Rob, if you ever happen to come to quebec il give you some sand we have some realy realy realy white one were i go four wheeling in the summer, plenty of other thigns also

Take care, Frank

hey jsut wondering. lets say i want to do a dio on iwo jima, and ihave white sand, how could i get it black? paint?