I must admit that this is something new to me so having said that I decided to go with my M10 . Decided my recent non-snowy rendition of an m10 backed into an Ardennes farmyard for rest,refit and reload would make for an interesting contrast to the snow scenes.
This was the Academy kit.
The wonderfully molded on tools were removed and replaced with new tools and that about covers the conversion work.

Farmhouse is from Heller,fence is scratchbuilt and rockwalls are from Lemax,beautiful stuff!

The vehicle was built straight out of the box with just stowage and gear items added.

Figures are from Tamiya converted with tankers heads. The hay was kindly donated by another modeler and extra goodies came from Italeri and Tamiya.

Finaly a couple of Verlinden goodies back here!

All of the rest of the pics are in my gallery.Thanks for taking the time to have a peek.

To add on to that, is it possible for a whitewashed tank to be in a non-snowed on area? I know it is, but what would you say? I really love your ardennes dio, your an artist in my eyes and probobly in many others.

Thankyou TsunamiBomb,that is quite a compliment,thankyou very much! A whitewashed vehicle as a nonsnowed-on area,I would call it anticipation!

Wow!

You made that in just three weeks?
Thats very good work indeed.

Im just thinking of joining and have only came up with a few ideas so far.

Wonderful diorama, nice use of clutter, just enough to make it look like it's just backed in there. Not just a lot of accesories thrown on. I love the hay on the tank. Also the rendering of the wall and groundwork. You've done it again..
Two observations, one nothing to do with your dio, If I was to go to sleep in a farmyard, I would pick the haystack, not the engine deck, even if it's warm...
Secondly, the guy sitting on the counterweight seems to be wearing modern webbing? He's not AWOL from his M113 is he now??
The finish of your M10 is very good.

Cheers
Henk

Great Work for such a short amount of time!

Howdy SAS!
Wonderful dedication to the Ardennes campaign! I like everything about your build. It realy does represent a tank destroyer blending in to the battle field.
Well done !

Garry

Hi guys,
Thanks for the wonderful comments and in reality this fun bit of building took less than 3wks to put together,more like 2wks,I don`t believe in wasting time,if one has an idea in mind then get on with it!
....and yes Henk as is the gent standing out front surveying the situation and the gent standing on the front of the tank,all are awol from their timezone,lol!

SAS -

Excellent M10. Your diorama sets the scene outstandingly. I especially like the way you've "accessorized" it. Like Henk said just the right amount of "clutter" to be effective. Nice work in a short time. Maybe enough time left for another? Love to see more.

Blade48mrd

Hi Blade48mrd,
I don`t know about doing another Ardennes setting,
I also just completed this Sherman in the Ardennes forests.

Currently I`m working on a few CMPs.

Man o' man, excellent work on both! I especially like the first one's depiction of makeshifting it and I love the hay! The second dio gives me chills! BRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!

You are a model building fool!! :-)

Hey Bowjunkie,what can I say,I love this hobby!! I just wish I could afford some of the more obscure softskin kits,what`s more is I wish more plastc softskin kits would become a reality.

That looks like the old Academy kit. Very good for such an old kit. The ground work is very good. I, however, noticed a few easy things and one not as easy thing.

The first is the .50cal on the ground has a few errors in it. The protrusion on the bottom of the gun is the support tray that stays with the mount. It needs to go. Also, if you fill in the hole near the front of the receiver group, you'll be in good shape.

The second easy thing is the stowed track and the wheels. they are rubber and would need to be a faded and weathered black.

The not so easy thing is also about the fence. The ends of the posts in the pictures appear ot have no real texture. If you use a rough piece of sand paper to scrape it up and repaint it, you'll have some nice texture. Also, your boards seem much too straight for old wood (the boards themselves and not how they were nailed). I really can't think of anything easy to remedy this situation and given you probably spent a lot of time on it, I'd just leave it as is. Instead, a wash on the back fence would work. It looks a little too much like painted plastic compared to the rest of the dio. Also add a little metal drops at the ends to show nails.


Other than those few things, you have a supurb model. Your dry-brushing and highlighting is very convincing. The hay really adds to the overall scene. The figures look really good and so do all the little details, from the small arms to the map. Good job.

PS try the new Academy M10. You'll find a lot of corrections and additions.

Jeff

Great dio! I really like the layout. My only complaint is that it reminds me of just how slow I am. I'm also building an M10 (kitbashing the AFV Club and the Academy Achilles), but my progress includes only about half the drivers compartment. But I have cleaned the wheels and built the AFV Club T51 track! I better get cranking.