I'm new to the Armorama forums, although I've been hanging out in the Finescale community for a couple months.

I've been back into the hobby since about December after a hiatus of five years or so. I'm getting into armor dioramas in a big way (this is my third since December!).

























Tons more pictures at http://photobucket.com/albums/v111/drucifer67/The%20New%20Driver/


The Kingtiger is Tamiya's Ardennes Front version. The Kubel is scratchbuilt (yes, I actually worked up the nerve to crash it, although not too badly!), and the figures are a mixed bag of Tamiya's Assault Infantry w/ Winter Gear and Academy's Battle of the Bulge figures. The driver is a hodgepodge of parts from many sources, including a Warriors head, and the Kommandant is from Tamiya's Kommandeurwagen.

Feel free to praise or criticise as you see fit

nice ground work and fig conversion tells your story well like the fence kubel droped a far piece to be in such good shape my brother left his vw in gear on night it was a tad flatter in places..

makes me fill the winter chill ... good one.

First let me welcome you to Armorama. The dio is very impressive to say the least. I like the scene. Looks like the driver is getting an ear full. The whole scene comes together very nicely. The snow and the stream is a good effect. There is a lot to see but you have given plenty of space and I have discovered something new each time I look at it. Bravo and three cheers

Brilliant, great story, excellent detail, and crashing a scratch build Kubel.... The dio itself has been build very skillfully, with good use of elevation, telling the story without need for explanation. I love the Kommandant with the bloody rag against his ear giving the poor driver an earful.. :-)
Only thing I think might need that little bit of attention is that the figures could be planted into the snow / ground a little more, to give the impression of weight.
And maybe some mud splashes on the Kubel, it looks rather clean for the suroundings. But the pieces of fence on the bonnet ( hood for you on the other side of the fish pond :-) ) are a great detail..

Show us more!! You said this was no. 3?

Cheers
Henk

Hi drucifer67, welcome to the big A.
Your dio is very impressive lots going on here, and like Animal said it come together very nicely, no explention needed (when your this big you do own the road).. Your snow is very realistic and your subtle touch with it on the vehicles and men adds to the realism.
Why would you scratch build the kubel? (nice job on that by the way)

Bruce

Thanks everyone for the feedback!




Probably very true...it was hard to make myself damage it as much as I did, but it probably could have used a lot more!




Had not noticed about the figure "planting" but you're absolutely right...the two who seem to need it most are the driver (I repositioned him after the snow had hardened because I noticed he was leaning) and the guy on the road attaching the tow cable. I'll give that the attention it needs...thanks!
And as for the mud, you're right again...it's just a bit too clean for a vehicle that's just taken a romp down a muddy hillside. Thanks for the input!




The first and second, called "News From Home" and "Speed Bump", can be seen at

http://photobucket.com/albums/v111/drucifer67/News%20From%20Home/

and

http://photobucket.com/albums/v111/drucifer67/Speed%20Bump/ , respectively...




It's a long story, but it involves living in a small town three hours from the nearest respectable hobby shop! I couldn't stand the idea of paying outrageous shipping costs on a relatively inexpensive kit, and I sort of got tired of waiting...so one night I thought "I wonder if I could scratch one?" I decided it was blocky enough to give it a go, and I had two wheels (one spare wheel and one road wheel) from a kit I built back in the 80's(!), so I decided to go for it. I have a step-by-step of how it was done, complete with lots of photos, if anyone's interested...

Thanks so much, everyone, for the very positive feedback and the highly constructive criticism!

Hello drucifer67, I think your diorama is excellent from story line to application. It seems to have everything. One thing I have to agree that the kubel should have more damage with a drop like that. Great job on the scratch build by the way. I would love to see an SBS on how you made it. Cheers Kevin

Well first let me say :
Welcome Aboard......
And second.... very nice impressive work, looking forward to seeing more of your stuff.

drucifer67 - welcome to Armorama.

Third diorama since December - Holy cow what a machine.
Very nicely done. Great 're-work' on the figures making them do things they weren't originally created for.
The Kuble is great and I know what you mean about crashing it- I've done that with buildings. Build build build and then blow them up....

I look forward to seeing some content contributions from you. Check into it on the home page, submission link at the top left.

What a fantastic dio! Really dynamic looking and I understood the story just from looking at the first 2 pics. That snow is great and so is the small river , it trully looks like winter over here!




I am! Is it possible to be mailed? I got a gmail account..

thanx in advance,

Francisco

Welcome to the big A a greta dio with a excelent layout everything links well together,tells a great story,looking forward to seeing more of your work.
Cheers Chris

:-) :-) I love the scene. Good work!

Really good, apart from the couple of points already made the story comes together well, and the model fits the tale.

I think you did a fantastic job on this dio, I like the elevation difference and the snow is very good. I agree with the other comments on figure weight, and I would only suggest two more things-add tire marks to the snow where the Kuble went down the hill-maybe some muddy skid marks. And add a border to the edge of your base-doing this would really dress up the base. Great job!!

Wow...lots of great replies here!

For those who have expressed an interest, the kubel step-by-step is at this site.

There's also a little how-to on the groundwork and stuff, for the curious, right here

For those who aren't interested in either...well...don't click

Seriously, now, I have to thank everyone for the very positive feedback and the good points you all bring up on how I could improve the scene. I'm liking this place already

First off welcome aboard, Drucifer67. This is an excellent dio, from the groundwork to the composition to the use of elevation to give it a nice 3D feel and a nice storyline to boot. Nice blend of snow and running water. Its a dio of "HOT" from the poor driver's perspective and "COLD" from the surroundings.

Drucifer: Nice diorama and your SBS's are informative. Also, welcome to Armorama. Its always nice to see another Texan joining up. Where in Texas are you located?

Keith

Thanks beachbum and kbm for the kind words!

kbm, I'm glad you found the how-to's informative. I don't consider myself the most knowledgeable guy around when it comes to modeling, but I always hope to be able to share a little bit of something with my fellow hobbyists.

Also...I just looked around and found your article on the winter scene you did with the Tiger--very good info there. I like your whitewash technique! Are those trees a commercial product (I seem to have missed that in the text).

As for my location...I'm in a place called Nacogdoches, which you may or may not have heard of. I'm surprised at how many people have heard of it, really...anyhow, since you're in the Houston area you probably know of Hobby Island, the place with which I now have an irrepressible obsession...

That is one great looking dio. Very good composition and brilliantly executed. Lots of great details. You can look at this dio for a long time.

Really nicely executed diorama, with good detail and sense of groundwork. Snow has also worked nicely. Keep doing it good !!!

nice story and nice overall. posing of the figures are very good and my favorite is the tent of Kubelwagen.
congrats

Drucifer: While I have never visited it, I am well aware of Nacogdoches as many of my former students (from my previous career) went there to attend college. Indeed I am very familiar with Hobby Island (my wife would probably say too familiar!). David runs a great shop and hosts our monthly armor club meetings (last Thursday of the month). Are you planning to attend Modelmania 2005 on April 2?

Thanks for the comments on my winter diorama article. The trees are made from "scratch" using tree trunks from Sweetwater Scenery (available at a local model railroad store, also online) and tree branches from Bragdon Enterprises (available online). The method is simple and relatively fast. First sort your branches into different piles based on length. Then spray super glue accelerator onto the trunk and dip each branch in super glue and stick them on the trunk.

Keith

It's definitely on my agenda...if I can arrange it and come up with travel $$ I'm gonna be there. Thinking of entering this very diorama in the competition...just to see how it goes, as I've never participated in any sort of contest before.




Yeah, it sounds pretty peachy compared to the way I built mine!

Thanks again for all the input.

:)

Welcome aboard Drucifer67. Definitely a very impressive work you got there.