I took the suggestions you all provided for my b1/72 dio to heart. I have most of the corrections taken care of, but still have a few to do. These are a couple of pics of where is stands thus far. The ground work is sanded tile grout. This will get painted. I have layed the figures in to get an idea of how and where to put them. In the one pic, one of the figures has fallen over. The other that appears to be KIA is actually taken a nap. These Preiser figures are great. I am definately buying more when I find them. Again, let me kow what you all think. Thanks. "Q"

Here are two more since I got the grout painted and a few bushes and such put in. Let me know what you all think. Thanks. "Q"

looking good.

Looking good, there seems to be a too much emty space - throw in a Kübel ???

Your dio looks good. I agree with the too empty space idea

hi matthew respect for the 1/72 scale stuff my fingers are way to big for that scale.

I like the way you painted the farm house,

the tree and the wood alongside the barn add very much to the realism.

I personally dont think you need more vehicles or such because when you put the figures in the dio it will be filled enough. good work so far go paint them figs and show us the finished dio!!!

Woaw ! I thought it was 1/35th scale !!!!!!
Agree with Zero cool , let's see the finished dio with figures on first !

WOW!
thats absolutely AWSUME for 1/72, the groundwork and the 251 is excellent, so is the barn, great job, and those presier figures are impressive, got a link to their website? cheers

Nice work, keep us posted

The barn looks much better shorter, I know it was rough cutting that one down. Good decision though.

I think the figures fill this out and you don't need more vehicles.

The ground really pops up and brings this to life. I really like it. I'm not huge fan of lichen, it always seems to have to much color contrast for me. If I were to suggest anything I would add a bit of pastel work on the two tone lichen to mesh it a bit.

From the photo, the roof looks like it could use a touch more dark brown wash where the tiles overlap (up underneeth). It may be ok and just be the lighting tough.

Watch your shoulder seams as you work on the figures.

This is really a nice diorama I like it - you should do well at the competition.

Thanks for all the kind words folks. After looking at the barn and the size of the stones along the bottom, it was pretty obvious that no human could have moved the stones let alone, stacked them up into a wall. Tooeasy to cut off. Dremel to the rescue! I'm glad youguys/gals like the way it is coming along. The bushes are two tones of shredded foam that I mixed together. I am going to tone them down a little more with a light blast from the airbrush. I tried to carry the ground color up onto the bottom of the barn and think I did so pretty well. I here ya on the arm seams Slodder. Being as the figures are so small is making it even more fun! I have tweaked where all of the figures are going to go and it should fill in the space evenly enough. I had thought about adding a Kubel, but I think it will look too crowded. I have all of the figures painted as of now. I did a couple in oils, then decided to go with washes and some selective drybrushing to pop the details out. Once they are dry, I'll get them added and finish up the 1/2 track. There is still a bunch of stuff to add to it at this point. Thanks again everybody for the input. "Q"

Matthew:

Great looking dio! I too will be embarking on some braille scale dios soon, and yours is a great inspiration.

I agree with alot of slodders comments, so I won't repeat them. The only other thing that I noticed from the birds eye view is that some of your ground cover looks too staged. One of the toughest things in diorama building is to create a look of randomness. For instance, alot of your leaves are clustered in distinct areas, and then it looks as if you placed just a few "random" leaves around to make it look natural. In my opinon you could use some more sparse leaves here and there. I found the best way to have random leaf placement is to do just that. Make it random. Hold them 6-8 inches above the dio and just sprinkle them on. Let them fall where they may.

Just my two cents. Hope it helps.

Again, a great dio in the making and thanks for sharing it with us.

John

Forgot to say - good fix on the track!

John, I noticed the same thing when I stepped back and looked at it. I am going to try and fix it a bit. I havent done a whole lot of dios in the past, what do you suggest for adhearing the ground cover? I use just plain ole' Elmers white glue and some water brushed out across the area. Thanks again for the comments. "Q"

UPDATE: The figures are painted and should go on today sometime. I have added foilage to the 251, clothing llaying about the inside of it, the rear doors, three more fuel cans off the sides and fenders, the MG34, extra ammo drums, and redid the ground cover in a few areas. Pics to follow later today. "Q"

Well, here it is as promised. It is still not 100% complete, but I think you can get a better appreciation for the whole layout. I tried to make the ground cover look a little more convincing. I think that in the future I will use something different as the stuff I used on this (Majorim sp?) looks a little large to me, even after crushing it. I need to finish the figures off with some touch up painting and paint their headgear as well. Let me know what you all think. Thanks. "Q"

Nice work red, just wondering what 251 that is, i mean whos it made by. I just bought one today from Italeri and if it is how well did it go together?

again Nice dio

RAF, The 251 is the Italeri release, whichis a re-pop of the old ESCI kit.. Lots of room for improvement in several areas. Overall fit isnt too bad. The link and length tracks are easy to work with even though there is no inside detail on them. The interior is pretty simple. Just bench seats with no back rests, and a pretty vague interior. Thankfully, most of which is hidden from direct view. Thanks for the nice words. "Q"

GREAT DIO FRIEND - CONGRATS

Nice job. I like it a lot. It filled out really well.
Two really small nit picks - the napper - his left arm has some flesh color overpaint on the sleeve and the rock he is next to is kinda 'sittin' there. I would add some lichen stuff around the base to make it look like it's been there for some time.
I can tell the last time the doors of the barn were opened - summer time - the leaves are still 'in the way'. If it's not to much trouble you might experiment with leaving a 1/4 circle for each door where it would have swept away the leaves. This is by no means a nit pick of knock on the dio -just a thought.

Slodder, thanks for the comments. The view on the sleeping guy doesnt show the whole rock. Its imbedded pretty well but it doesnt show in the pic. As to the barn doors, I thought about doing that, and could not for the life of me get the ground cover that was already down to budge. I guess this is going to be an abondoned barn. Its always the little details that seem to need done at the last minute. I got nothing but time this coming week, So I will get things straight.........hopefully! I did notice that after attaching the camo pieces to the hull, that I had forgot to paint the trunks/bark/wood areas of the branches, so that will get done as well. Thanks again for the comments. "Q"

Matthew:

What an improvement! I totally like how you redid the leaves! I agree that they are a bit large, but the random pattern looks ALOT more convincing now than it had previously. Great job.

I too have painted these same preiser figures, but only in HO scale rather than 1:72. The detail is very nice for such small plastic.

You have a real winner here. Thanks for showing us the update.

John