This diorama is almost finished. Here are a few pictures of the nearly complete base. The first two show the road with half of the road having only Woodland Scenics static grass and the other half with Heki Savannah Grass added. The other pictures show other angles of the nearly completed base.






As always comments and suggestions are welcome.
Keith

WOW, that looks awesome. Tell me, who makes that grass, and what kind is it? The bricks of the house look a little red. I think youll need to drybrush them. Everything else looks great.

looks really good, but it looks empty maybe a tank and figures :-) iam guessing you know that already so what you gonna add?

Frank

Keith looking good so far. I am very pleased with the head way and the heki looks excellent The building does look a little bright will you tone it down with pastels? Amlooking forward to seeing more poists from you . Kevin

Looks a bit too clear. Throw some debris on the other side of the road. Otherwise, looking good!

Exellent work Keith Building and ground work are doen very well. Great use of the VP Ardennes Farm Ruin too !!

I really like how you used both the Woodland Scenics static grass and the Heki Grass. Seeing this Heki Grass makes me want to get some myself. Still trying find a source for it.

Are you planning to use any snow ?

One thing I noticed, that small bush still has green leaves on it. The Bulge was in December in Belgium/Luxembourg, so I would think it would appear more early Winter ? Same with the green grass. I could be wrong though.

Great work regardless !! Cant wait to see more !!

Cheers !!!

Alpen

Nicely done so far. I like the combination of VP and Kancali. Nicely integrated. The setting is good and nicely planed.

The middle strip is very clean, I would expect some more mud/dirt on/in the middle.

I agree with the rubble comments. The Kancali wall has some nicks in it and that rubble has to be soemwhere. I'd like to see more roof wood rubble.

Keith

This looks really great - obviously tou have put a lot of work into it. I realise that it is still a work in progress and the only thing that sticks out to me is the nedd for lighter colour/dusting where the brickwork has been damaged.

Brian

Viva...

Humm! Very nice work so far, it's quite a scene you've got here!
Just a point, following all the other suggestions (well probably you're already taking care of this, but...), I believe that the building was ruined by a bomb or something loke that, no? Probably after the bombing, the roof, besides falling down, also burned a bit... so you got to weather those roof wood boards... mak'em all burned!!! Just my suggestion...

See yaaa

That's the good thing about in progress shots, you just know that they're gonna look vastly different later on!
Very nice so far Keith, well done.

Thanks everyone for the comments. Since those pictures were taken, I have dusted on MMP pigments throughout the rubble and the house and brick wall. I debated with myself on the issue of rubble by the brick wall (Scott is correct, it is made by Kancali, a member here). I myself could not decide if the wall damage was old, non-war related damage or not. As the consensus seems to be rubble by the wall, I shall go back and add it. Also, as for additional rubble in front of the house, as the front of the house is nearly undamaged, I thought most of the rubble would be behind the house and thus off the base.

For the specific questions not related to "dusting" the structures: Harrison, the tall grass is Heki that I purchased from Scenic Express (Savannah, 1574). Francois: there will be 6 figures and a Dragon Panzer IV Late J, check my earlier progress reports for a look at them. Robert: there won't be any snow, this represents the close quarters fighting in the twin villages of Krinkelt-Rocherath very early in the Bulge fighting, before the arrival of the snow. It was very foggy, which enabled GI bazooka teams from the 2nd and 99th Divisions to get in close and knock out many German tanks. This diorama will have 2nd Division GIs. Also, Heki recommends that you first have a layer of static grass down prior to attaching their grass (done in small sections and attached using diluted Elmer's white glue). As for the color of the grass, I live in Houston, so our grass remains somehat green, even in the winters where we have freezes, so I did drybrush the Heki to make it more of a cold damaged look based on my experience, maybe not enough for a truly cold climate?

Again, thanks for the comments, more pictures will follow once I am finished.

Keith

Looking very good there. It's gonna be a beauty when finished.

Well i have to say that is a nice scene and so far well made , predicted a nice di owhen all is finished. I have to agree on Scott's commnets in all (are u looking in my mind when i am thinkin? LOL) and just add that usually grass is not alone when is present meaning that here and there in the heki u could add some maybe different kind of high grass or some flower or some small part of a bush fresh or dried just to cut the uniformity of the grass.
For the building ...yes i d like a bit more dusting with pastels or pigments to cut the red colors brightness.

Good job in all , neat and with care

Bravo

Costas

Natural looking, I think it is fine. A little weathering at the lower part of the wall would add more life, I think.

Regards.
Cagin.

nice work keith, this has inspired me for my own diorama. the only thing stiking out for me is the grass, it looks like its been trimmed neatly, you should have it with patches of the road visible down the middle, and on the sides have some of the grass growing out a little bit. otherwise, its fantastic

matt

Just finish up the wall and you'll be good to go. What I find interesting about it is how 'generic' (and I use that lightly as that is what that area of European landscape is) the dio looks, yet somehow it still seems like it belongs in a Bulge setting. Great job.

Jeff

First of all, the groundwork is truly superb - I particularly like the work you have done on the grass...

On the debit side, I really feel that using these (commercial)building kits (although well-executed) do give a sameness to many dioramas. Probably just me...Cheers, Jim

Thanks for the additional comments. I have added additional rubble, to late to change the grass layout though. As for the Verlinden building, while the structure they provided was nice, I was a bit disappointed in what Verlinden provided with the kit, the most important items not included were the decorative round fixtures prominently displayed on the box photograph.

Keith

fantastic progress pics the whole layout is very well done.

Ron

Looking great
Great work and attention to detail when it all comes together it will look very very effective
Cheers chris