Here is my first diorama posted on this forum. It is the old Tamiya Panzer III M, retro-fitted to a ausf J of the 15th Panzer Division, as it crosses the anti-tank ditch surrounding Tobruk, June 19th, 1942.

Allow me to be the first to welcome you to Armorama. This is a great site and I think you will find it to be of much use.

On to the dio. WOW! It looks very realistic. I seriously thought I was looking at a dio that had been incorporated into a 3D image. The weathering, lighting, shading, looks almost perfect. Everything looks so real, especially the non-uniform application of the wood, and the supports. My only question is whether the bridge would hold that tank up in real life. Your groundwork is supurb. Simply great.

I look foward to your coming posts and projects.
Jeff

Hi Paska. Welcome to Armorama and congrats on your first post with an excellent dio. The background really sets it off nicely. I cant spot any nit-picks at all. Would love to see more pics and some close ups! All the best.

Welcome to the best site on the net! Come back often.

Love the dio..it looks great! Like Frank said..any chance for more photos?

Thanks for the welcome and compliments guys! Unfortunately I don't own a digital camera yet, so all of my photos have to be via the old fasion method and I don't have any close-ups of this one,....yet. The bridge itself is modeled from several photos of a sapper's bridge at the actual location, so I sure it would have held up the tank, otherwise it wouldn't have been of much use!

Paska, welcome to Armorama. I also would like to see more photos of your work. Have you been doing dio's long? This one is excellent. Cheers Kevin

Thanks Kevin. Yes, you might say I've been doing this for a while, about 37 years! There will be more to come, albeit slowly. I need to re-photograph much of my collection and scan them into my machine, and this will take a while. Still trying to get a handle on everything here and I look forward to seeing everyone elses' work here. Cheers!

Nice model, nice photo.... looks really good to me...
OH.... welcome to the best site on the web.
Have fun, enjoy yourself, get to meet the guys and gals. Join a campaign, join a group build, the main thing is to enjoy yourself.
Once again welcome to the big A.

What a start on the Big-A !. Really excellent diorama, I'd be proud if this were mine!

Welcome in Armorama. Thsi is a very nice dio and very nice blended with the artwork of Background .
I hope we see more works of u in coming time

Costas

hi Paska,
welcome to Armorama . and your start here is a very nice dio. i liked the figure posings and groundwork so much...and the harmony of background photo and your dio is excellent.
congrats.
greetz from Turkey

Welcome to Armorama Paska. That diorama is superb. Could you give us a bit of explanation for how you made the groundwork?

Keith

Paska,
Welcome to the big A.
Fantastic dio! Great photo! Can't wait to see the rest of your work!

Welcome. Yes, that's nice, but where did you get that background? I have been wanting to do something like that for a while

Oh wow! The backdrop gives the feel of reality! Check that paintjob! Really nice!

Thanks again to everyone for the warm welcome and kind compliments! The groundwork is of fairly standard techniques. I use a picture frame for a base and cover it with styrofoam blocks cut to the shape of the basic contours and glued together with white glue. I then cover this with plaster bandage and let dry. Next I spread a thin layer of plaster over the bandage and embed the completed bridge, obstacles, an oil drum and some small rocks. After that, I paint on slightly thinned white glue over the hardened plaster and sprinkle on buff colored sand and let harden. Various washes are used to shadow areas and vary the color of the sand. I dry-brush with several different tans, buff, oranges and yellows and finish with a liberal amount of pastle chalks. The background photo is something I found on the net, but I found out that these need to be high-resolution images if one is to blend this with one's model photos successfully.

Hi Paska: Thanks for the explanation on the groundwork method. Another question for you: do you have a problem with your washes just soaking into the groundwork? If not, what prevents it, as that is a recurring problem I have with my dioramas.

Keith

Excellent dio, i cant find words to say more

for KBM, i think a hardened whiteglue/water mix is keeping the washes "on top"


Mirko

KBM; Sensei is correct, the white glue pretty much seals the whole thing. However, I tend to play with my groundwork with a very wet technique. Usually, I just dry-fit the ground work to the base, then remove the base entirely to prevent any possibility of damage, masked or not. This allows me to get wild with the acrylic washes and a spray bottle to blend them with.

Great diorama ! Outstanding work on the Pz Kpfw III, figures and the groundwork ! The layout is PERFECT.

Cant beleive that that Pz III is the older Tamiya one, wow !! Awesome !

Cheers !

Alpen

Welcome. Like the guys mentioned, sand never looked so good. Thanks for sharing the ideas. With the lighting and the quality of the modelling, I swear while looking at the photo I could almost hear the bridge groaning under the weight of the tank.

When do we get to see more?