Hi all,
Here are some pics of my two finished sherman dios.
I will et the pics speak for them selves.
All comments welcome

Overall, both look great. the main thing i see is the huge improvement in your figure painting. The tanker standing on the second sherman looks great .. what figure is this?

Some small details I notice that you may want to watch out for on your next items though. The white fences both stop in the middle of the dio. No pillar, wall, gate, path, etc. this looks a little unrealistic. A gate or path running beside them, run them out to the end ... even tracks and broken fence here would look cool.
The other nit-pick is the cobble scribing. The scribing running up to the seated figur´s right foot .. looks particularly odd ... seems too thin. Then the scribing running up to the dead figure blanket looks very deep or wide. I would also suggest carryingthe scribing out to the end of the plate(nearest side) so it doesnt look like scribed plaster .. it will look like cobbles/paving bricks
These little slips stand out more than the fact there is alot of good work on show. One thing we all have to avoid.

The dioramas looks good, how big are they? Is it 1/35 or what? I also like the weathering on the tanks. What kits are they from?

I like the first one, nicely done. The second one has lots of good techniques.

One thing I'd like to see on the first one are shutters.
I can't tell so you have to make the call on this. In the second one, the guy sitting doesn't seem to have anything he's leaning against. THe photo is dark so there may be something there.

G'day Andy
mate those are really great! i like the second one better because i like that sherman more :-)
can i make one suggestion about the cafe diorama.
maybe a lil grass in the front yard, the soil and dirt just seems a bit to barren to me, and maybe some paving or stepping sotnes leading to cafe door, thatd be a good little extra
cheers mate, great job

Thanks guys I really appreciate the comments.
Frank: I think my figure painting has improved alot too thought there is still more improvements that can be made. The tanker on the Sherman is a Alpine minatures figure no. 35010 and the other tanker standing is also Alpine no.35009. Both were kindly given to me by Alpen.
I agree on the scribing, this was my first serious attempt at scribing cork and I have learnt alot from it.

Gunther: Both dios are 1/35th the shermans are made by swapping the turrets off Italeris M4A1 76 and Italeris Marine Sherman.

Scott:The guy sitting is leaning against a bucket, sorry for the bad lighting.

David: yeah I think I might add some grass to the front of the building. There is a path leading up to the building, again because of the lighting you can't see this.

Is it me or is the front of the building a tad boring. It would be sweet to run some vines or put trees infront of it. Just my two cents. But other than that they look great. Both done very well...

Harrison, hehe thats the look I am going for I wanted the building to look plain because it is meant to be in a village where not many people live and they don't have many passer by's.

Hello Andy .
few things for ur work .

At first ure seriously improving as a dio builder and considering ur age u have a brilliant future ahead.

Some remarks on the dios:

Your armora building looks nice - at least at the distance the photos show -

Your figure painting has improved quickly and a lot , which means u have lots of space to improve evenmore in this .

On the building of the first dio the only think that would have taken more notice is the shutters and especially the upper that shows a black blank. But thats something u can easily add even now and will correct a lot on this.
The overall look of the front view is nice and the general coloration of your dios is very good.

The dusting - dirtying on the white fence is a bit unifromly and slightly shows a brush stroke of pastel or dry brush (the left part as we look at it). Fences exposed to weather conditions probably would have more paint chipping and generally fading and also garying of the white colour, since it wouldnt be likely that in war time the fence has been recently white painted .

If u d like to cut off some flatness of the fron face of the building u could have some iron or wooden sticks coming out of it , like an old veranda mounting or something like that .

On the second dio , i believe that u could have achieved a much better result only by trying a different painting on the stone road. using some lighter drybrush colours on the stones surgace to inhance and add contrast with the stones scribbing , and thus u d have a more nice look on the depth of it and also ud have a lighter coloured surface that would add some volume to ur dio.
also the paralel placin of the stone wall and the sleeping soldier to the base lines on the second dio are saved by the angled position of the tank. But maybe at least the stonewall could have been a litle differed to provide a multi angle picture on the dio.

I believe that your work is paying off good and u have the skills to be good, more than u already are.

Please dont hesitate to ask any help

Costas

Thank you very much Costas, I will take notice of these things and remember them for my next dio,
Though I may still add another shutter to the top floor.

Ola andy,

I was home , sick, for 5 days so i wasnt online to see this when u posted.

Now, others have said enuff sugestions for you, we will talk more on MSN when we meet :-)

Overall, as i told you few times, a very nice works on both dios, you learned few new tricks and tehniques,...

now, i wait your next one, carefully planned and made!

cheers
Mirko

Hi Andrew,

Where is the cafe in first diorama :-) :-)

Thank for dios...

Thanks guys
Mirko:Hopefully we can chat this week and I am glad to hear you are feeling better.


Zzzguy: actually dios are pretty cheap to make (well mine are anyway) on the cafe dio the only things I bought specifically for it was the cork for the buildingand the tank. The rest of it I scrounged from around home, the dirt is a mixture of soil and mixed spice, the flowers are from a flower arrangement, the fence is made of Coffee stirring sticks.

Erhan:lol I think a cafe is a bit beyond my skill level at the moment hehe

Andy you are making great improvements in all your work I see here. I wont waste time suggesting anything as all has been covered already. Great work and cheers Kevin

Lord Kiwi

First Dio
In my opinion a strong point is the composition/layout of the scene -- the Sherm/road/Cafe all nicely angled relative to the rectangle base --- everything is balanced, busy- yet uncrowded-- Nicely done here!

Your trademark is also evident, i.e. the bucket on the Sherman-- The bucket, plus the partial Cullen device, and barrel next to the building are all nice touches that give this dio the distinctiveness that it is yours Thet texture on the cafe wall looks authentic as does the groundwork----- all in all a very very fine effort here. Congrats!!

Second dio:
The Alpine Minatures are really well done. Your fig skills have always been a strong suit for you and it shows again here. The insignia work on the fig with the .45 is very very good!

The Sherman--- I know how much time, study and analysis you have put into this one. Lots going on here with the stowage, sand bags, racks, and the overall weathering of the vehicle.

Both these are well done my young Jedi friend. Congrats on both of them.

Steve

Thanks Kevin and Steve, Comments from guys like you really mean a lot because you two are both Excellent modellers.