Here is my newest diorama; it depicts a Panzerkampfwagen 38t in snow...
any comments will be welcomed

Good techniques on the AFV and nice white wash camo. The build is good. I like the snow on the ground too.

A couple of things I see that you may want to think about. The tree behind tank is still vertical, this means he backed into position, I would put some track marks in the snow in front of his position to show that.
I would like to see a bit more snow picked up on the inside edges of the tracks too.

Leeran -

Great job and very convincing build. The 38(t) came out excellent and the paint, detailing looks very good. I agree with Slodder on the groundwork. Though your snow is very well done, you need to show more effects of the tank's movement and sitting in snow. You can see the footprints, but the 38(t) looks like it is resting on top of ground. The only other thing noticed is that the antenna looks pretty thick, might want to replace it with stretched sprue or wire. Very minor details on a really well done piece. Hope to see more,

Blade48mrd

Hi Leeran,

That is a very nice tank dio you have there.

I like how you put the slight whitewash on the tank. It's kinda frosty, as if it has been washed off after going on travel. It's really superb. May I ask how you did it?

I won't mention anymore what the other guys said about the improvement that you have to make. However, instead of pointing out mistakes, may I share some suggestions to improve the dio?

First and foremost, take the tank off the dio. Ready?

1. Ground work:
Mix a diluted mixture of white glue...50% water and 50% white glue. Spread this all over the base. Then, sprinkle sifted soil on it. Pat once in a while.

Once the soil is dry, paint another layer of the white glue mix. Add more sifted soil.

2. Tank tracks:

Mix sifted soil with some of the glue mixture. It should be resemble a muddy batter. Spread this over the ground where the track of the tank should have ran.

Take your tank and press the treads on it. You should see an imprint of the track. Take a flat head screwdriver and deepen the imprints. You might also want to smoothe the sides of that muddy batter to conform to the earlier ground work. Let dry for two or three days.

3. Painting the groundwork.

Mix a wash of dark brown and brush it over the whole groundwork. Make sure the wash goes into the crevices. When dry, drybrush the ground with light brown.You can even do slight gradiations of light brown, becoming lighter with each drybrushing. Drybrush again very lightly with yellow ocher. Then, drybrush lightly with white. Make sure you let each color dry before drybrushing another color.

4. Snow:

Before you do this, make sure the groundwork color is thoroughly dry. Or else, it will bleed through the snow.

Sprinkle baby powder or baking soda lightly, avoiding the track imprints. Then seal the snow with hairspray. Repeat if you wish to add another layer of snow.

5. Antenna:

Discard the thick one. Make a new one with stretched sprue. If you don't know how to do that, you can use the thinnest guitar wire available.

6. Add a figure or two. It would look really great if you add a few soldiers checking the tank, taking cover beside it or whatever. You can also add a few accessories such as a few jerrycans, boxes or even splinters of wood beside the tank.

Hope that helps. You have a great start and a great dio, dear.

Angela

thanks everyone for the comments. Dominique, even though your comments were kind of harsh to hear, I guess I learned a lot from them *sigh*... your tank is amazing. This is only my second AFV model ever (I used to build aircraft models in the past) so it's nice to hear all of your comments, they really help me improve my modelling skills. about the tracks; I know how to make track imprints in the ground, it's just that I wanted to make this tank a destroyed tank in the beginning but then changed my mind, so I decided that this tank is just a tank that stayed where it is for some time now and its tracks have been covered by snow already. Concerning the antenna - you're right, I have to change it. This is the antenna that came with the kit, I will make a new one out of stretched sprue and change the antenna. How can I simulate heavy mud on the lower part of the tank like you did Dominique? If possible, without putty?

leeran your dio is not so bad i like it
only like every body said it looks like your tank floats and your antenna is to thick.

if you have an interior in your tank i like to see some pictures of the top of the vehicle if you don't have an interior you have to close the shutter.

And your exhaust looks to red on the picture you also have to aply some black from the exhaust gases and
you must drill your exhaust out.
Good luck,

Greetz Robster!

Heavy mud can be made with putty (If available), if you have wall spackle, wood filler, cellu clay, even a mix of water, glue and baking powder can get a paste that would work. Just add some fine real dirt, some bits of static grass etc and paint it brown. Use a few different colors of brown, and maybe some greens, and grays.

van de boer i never have posted some of my work oke!
because i'm beginning and still learning.

but why we can't just give advice on things.
the advice i gave i have learned from work from others here on armorama from experience builders.

so why are you saying don't listen to people that never had posted some pics but we also learn them from experience builders.
actualy you are saying don't listen to them because they are stupid and they don't now something about modeling so for the 3rd time our info comes from experienced builders!

Maybe you should look at people's gallery before slagging them off.......



This is off course Angela's work, not mine ( I wish) I did have a look in your gallery Dominique, and you have some fine models and dio's/vingettes there. Just no reason to lay into other people.

Cheers
Henk

Dominique. While your criticisms may be accurate in some regard, I think you really crossed the line by dragging Angela's work into this. In an online community, this is called flaming and is really uncalled for. As far as I am concerned, there are no qualifications for describing techniques to somebody, such as having to post pictures!
I realize what your intent was in the criticism of the dio, but crikey, you went a bit too far in my opinion.
While I will agree that a few of the pointers will help to make this better, I don't think it is that bad to begin with! Looks like a good build and with a couple of "upgrades" will be a fine display piece. Constructive criticism is one thing. What you did was bashing .

beautiful words guys, thanks

Greetz Robster!

Vanderboer, I gave advise to Leeran because:

1) I already did it
2) I got the same advice from the fine people here.

Everyone can give advise here even if they don't have the capacity to put pictures. They might be modelers but don't have digicams, for example. They might be working on thier projects and want to share thier techniques but they just don't have the resources/equipment/etc. to post thier pics.

In my own opinion, I like Leeran's dio...just needs a little improvement which is quite easy to do. If you don't like it, fine, you are entitled to your own opinion.

Angela

Easy guys, this thread has gotten out of hand. I am not a moderator here but I do know how to be one.
Fact is, Leeran's thread has been tainted by harsh criticism and a flamewar that has nothing to do with his dio. I think we need to lighten up a bit and stop taking things so bloody seriously. After all, it is a hobby!! If you gys want to fight, there are other boards where you can do that. Not here please. I don't know if there is a thread lock feature on Armorama, but if there is, I sense one coming and that is a shame. All because a member wanted to show his work. After all, he didn't post in the critics corner where one would expect the harshest criticism. Angela, yes, you were baited, but please, by responding in the manner in which you have, you make yourself look just as bad..
Try to keep this thread open by posting about the initial subject matter and nothing else for Leeran's sake and all of ours.

Mods, I apologize in advance if I stepped on anyones toes. Just trying to nip this one in the bud before it goes any further.

Sorry bowjunkie. I was just a bit pissed off.

Anyway, I edited my post before yours. It's okay now.

....and I like this dio. A little improvement and this will be a good one.

Two things though...try to put your dio on some kind of a base. Also, add a few figs. Your dio will look "animated" with the addition of a few figs.

Angela

Agreed - this is way

Lets get it back on track.

Remember Guys & Girls:
This is a community, we help each other,praise each other and generally promote our fine hobbie. Its great that we have ALL levels of modelling skills and when I need advise I will take all I can get. But I also hope that these words have some diplomacy to them so no hard feeling are out there.Vanderboer
I see you have some fine modelling skills ( much better then mine) and your advise is good, but I disagree with you on having had to do things to give advice on it. I can see when a model or scene isn't quite right and I can give out some suggestions to inprove it. The user may use mine ideas with your methods and come up with a great model of his/her own.

Lets be positive
Bruce

vanderboer it's oke maybe we also were to critical on your posts.

Greetz Robster!

Remember this - life is a two way street.

I think we can all move on now.

After all that bashing, I'll just say.... Nice Dio!

Komet

wow... this thread really went off track... lol
thanks everyone for commenting, I'll put some improvements into the diorama and repost it here when it's done

Hi Guys

I think its a real good dio yes i agree put some figs in tell a story, as yours skills develop so will your confidence the bottom line is did you enjoy doing it, if you did, which iam sure you did that is what its all about.
You picked a difficut subject vehicle, snow, ground work keep it going enjoy i have been modling for over 30 years and i have painted the face of the fig that iam doing at the moment 3 times now lol lol lol :-) and i think i might have got it right i hope.
Cheers Chris Tango 20