Ever had a thought, notion or dream you really believed would make the ultimate diorama? But, no matter how hard you tried you just could not pull it off?
Maybe it really was WAY beyond your abilities.
The effort to scratch build or convert all those kits would have made this a life long project.
The ONE item (vehicle, building, figure) just was not available.

I had an idea for a Russian Front diorama that is still in my files probably never to be built.
The scene was the ramparts of a Russian anti-tank position. The gun is heavily damaged and the crew is long past caring. As a matter of fact there is a dusting of snow on the ground, frost covers the gun and the skeletal remains of the crew is all that is left of them.

Tried as I might I could not come up with suitable 1/35 scale skeletons. (Anybody know where I could pick up 1/35, 54mm or 1/32 scale Skeletons?) So the project has been shelved.

Anybody with similar experiences?

I've had a thousand thoughts for dios, ones just too far out of reach for my abilities or resources.

It's a bit of a morbid idea there but, I'm sure it could be pulled off. I did happen to find some skeletons, they look like they're ready to go out on the town though...

Not really morbid. The title of the diorama was to have been, "NOT A STEP BACK" to mirror the words of Stalin to his troops fighting the Nazis invaders. The scene would have shown the crew heeding the words of Uncle Joe and fighting to the bitter end.

The skeletons shown in your response. Are they scale? Or close to scale? Where did you get them? With Halloween coming up I searching the local party shops - to date no luck.

Regards

I guess it would be a cool dio nonetheless. The skeIetons are two inches tall. I found them here: Hobbies Australia
They are the tenth item down.

i found the same skeletons at MICHAELS in their seasonal section. They are "almost" the perfect size.... I am using them in a diorama where we have some exposed corpses unearthed by a shell exploding in a cemetary. As long as you would perhaps "drape" some tattered uniforms over them, they will work fine. The legs and arms are decent enough to be exposed, but the ribcage is not up to par. The eye sockets can be gouged out with an exacto knfe ot make a true hole rather than a black blob. BTW - great idea for a dio you have there!

Thanks for the skeletal info. I also found them at Mott's Miniatures, Anaheim, CA. So I'm off to by some bones.

Damn,I knew I should have kept my old quote.Had that exact one there GS.

BTW my name is Patton.

I've done a dio like this one where a german antitank gun has taken a hit . The scene is set in the desert and the gun has gone undiscovered for a while with severe weathering .
The gun and equipment has been half buried by sand, two fresh graves have been dug and a figure is building headstones out of a rifle, helmet and some loose rocks.
I am waiting to get a new camera at the moment and when I do I'll post some pictures.
I'd love to see yours when you are done as I had dismissed the idea of a skeleton corpse for mine but thought it would be unachievable, please prove me wrong.
Robbo

The toughest part is to make a skull. The other parts of the body can be covered by draped clothing. Would it be all that hard to transfer a resin head into a resin skull ? It means removing the hair, nose, ears and lower jaw, sanding and drill out nose and eye sockets... I think I'll give it a whirl !
Jan

I love these skeletons! I bought a couple for pennies probably 15 years ago and have used them as a joke at model club meetings -- "The first step in scratchbuilding a figure is ... " :-) :-) :-)

Like others have said, I've thought about using parts of them partially buried in a WWI trench dio. I think a ribcage could be easily made with wire or stretched sprue. Also, some tattered rag clothing would help. They need a little TLC, but the basics are there. They are a tad big for 1/35th (especially the feet), but the skulls aren't bad and are about the right size.

I have managed to get some photos of my dio with the same sort of theme as this.
Sorry for the quality of the pictures. http://groups.msn.com/armorama/remearmrswork.msnw?albumlist=2
Robbo :-)

HI REMEARMR. What dio has the bones or is that what you were talking about?

Sorry my mistake, the dio doesn't show any bones. The scene shows an anti-tank gun which has been hit and lost during a battle. The position has been retaken, after some time, and two bodies have just been buried in graves marked by a stake and a helmet on a rifle. The idea was to show the same sort of theme but in a different way.
Robbo.