Hi everyone,

France, in the end of May 1940. A german infantry group crosses a small river to join a tank of the sparehead of 6th PzDiv.. Bad surprise for a group of french civilians, resting beneath the bridge. As this happend frequently in Blitzkrieg, I wanted to build a dio of that. As kits I would use:

CMK´s 35 (t),
an old french 7,5 cm Schneider antitank-gun,
advancing Infantrymen by Verlinden and ICM, such as
civilian figures by MK1/35 (piddling woman) and ESCI.

The dio had to show springtime ground, foliage and flowers (as it was May) such as a small bridge and water. I wanted to get the typical atmosphere of peacful french landscape to contrast with the reality of war.
So the first step is done. The dio base is ready now, awaiting the actors - and Your coments:


http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/rgellings/lst?.dir=/France&.view=t

The title is yet in my mind: As the german soldiers will be joking about the civilians,
title will be the latin "vae victis" (down withe the defeated) by old
Roman historian Titus Livius. But that will be the next step. I´ll keep You informed about the history.

Very nice work so far!
Would that bridge be strong enough to support a tank? I don't know the answer but someone here might. Any civil engineers?

Ralf ,

First Nice work on the Diorama !!!

For what the question concerns about the brigde :

This bridge is in my point of view not strong enough to carry a tank .
Not even a 2.5 truck with full load .
It will simply snap .
A light vehicle will do ( kubelwagen , schwimmwagen , a demag d7 or a reconnasance ( )
vehicle .
But not the heavy stuff .

Eric

Just added a new pic that explains the movement directions of infantry and tank (pic 9). You see, that the infantrymen are joining a tank that came from the other riverside to protect their advance. The red spots mark the location of the cicilians.

nice folliage and solid bridge. Water looks "deep"... share some of your techniques!

Nice looking Dio Ralf. On the bridge maybe some more weathering like has been well used for many a year to me looks to new. Overall great foliage and rest looks great. Will enjoy next set of pictures (:-)

As it spring of 1940 only say panzer 1's and lite tracked vehicles . No big tiger 1's and twos yet HMMM

Very nice Ralf. What did you use for the grass. I like it. Its a great topic/subject. Nice details.
One thought, the dug up grass/ground where the tank is going. If the tank is facing forward in the direction of the red arrow (nice added photo helped out a lot), the grass would be ripped up all the way to the edge of the base. If the tank had been heading toward the bridge (right to left in the red arrow photo) and stopped and is now backing up then the ruts are fine.
Can't wait to see the final dio.

Fantastic work Ralf. The foilage is brilliant. Overall very real looking and will make for a lovely finished dio. Looking forward to seeing the finished item and a few hints on what you used.

Thank You so much for Your coments. You are right in each detail You´re pointing out.

As Sgt. Reef says, for spring 1940 there are few tanks matching to a "France1940"-dio. Of course Panzer I B would be right. But it´s surprising, that there are only few economic tank-kits on the market, available for that period. As Tamiyas Panzer II and Italeri´s 38 (t) are late versions (1941 and after), I decided to place a 35 (t) by CMK, because it came into service on 1939 and builded the main force of 6th Panzerdivision, pushing forwards through Ardennes ...

Moreover Sgt Reef and Captain Slodder are totally right: There is yet lot of work to do, blending together figures and tank with the environment (Dust, ripped grass and so on). The reason for that is quiet simple: I ordered all kits online and they took a long time to arrive. So I began the dio with the complete scene in my mind, before placing the kits. In some way this is a logical aproach: First there is the environment, later the actors will get into scene.

The tecniques used on the France-dio are very simple and easy to handle:

WATER: Plaster of Paris, painted and covered with 10 layers of brilliant gloss
GRASS: Instead of static gras I used ready grass-mats by "Heki". They sell it for model railroad and it costs about 4 $. Very easy to handle and realistic effects
TREES AND BUSHES: I use STEEL WOOL instead of Sea Foam. Cover a root with clouds of steel wood, give it a black coat then spray adhesive and cover all with a good sprinkle of Oregano. Paint this model-trees as it best fits to Your dio. Advantage of this method: You can build dozens of realistic looking trees, hedges and bushes for only a few cents. FLOWERS: I buyed dried flowers for this dio in my local hobby and craft shop. Price: 2 €.

All ground cover, trees including, was sealed by a good coat of grey and black Auto-Primer, as excelently decribed in dio-doc´s home page. Finally I think that one can achieve very good results by cheap and simple, but creative means.

I´ll keep You informed about figures and tank later coming into action.

Cpl Ralf,

What colour/s did you paint the water before applying the gloss. I was sure from the photos that you must have used some type of resin - I didn't realise you could get that affect from PoP.

Cheers
Digger

Hey man

Dont worry!...you put too mutch work in this sweet dio to be worring about the bridge!...not all pleople see the story behinde it. They may think the tank is going to turn in the other direction. DONT CHANGE THE DIO!...ITS TOO GOOD!...

Cris

Hi "modeling family"
the water is painted by airbrush, beginning with a greenish tone at the border, flowing into a very dark blue-grey-green in the middle. As there are no waves in the river of that dio, the main point in this method (painted and varnished plaster) is to create the sensation of depth by painting. Moreover it´s important to give it many thinn coats of gloss. (I use water based varnish - so it dries fast and without any smell).
When done well, this aproach is very easy, cheap and realistic.
By the way: Armorama has got a lot of interesting articles and forums about that topic. :-)

Beautiful........................ :-)

I really do like the groundwork, Ralf. That grass is longer than normal static grass, isn't it? I don't think I've seen that product around here.
Have you built or started the Pz35(t) yet? It's a neat looking little tank (but it looks like all those little road wheels could be a pain). How are CMK models? I've never built any of them.

Nic

Hi Nic,

You are right: The grass-soil I use is longer than static grass and most of all: It is more irregular and for that more realistic. Surely You will find it, if You have a look into model railroad-shops. There they sell grass-soil it in pieces that are ready to use. You even can choose if You want spring, autumn or winter colours. You only have to stretch them in the shape You need and then glue with wite glue to Your dio.

I look foward to build the 35 (t), because I think it is a very interesting kit for France- and early Russia-dios. I can´t give yet any opinion about this CMK-kit, but I built CMK´s VW-beetle before and I was very pleased with the results. When I begin to build the 35 (t), I´ll post step by step-fotos in this folder.