I have a diorama idea, and I'd like to run it by you guys/gals, and I have a few questions.

Okay, it's very post-World War II, and a few GIs have a Deuce and a Half loaded up with "souvineirs". (i.e. German weapons, wine, basically just looted stuff.) The only problem is, they've run into a MP Checkpoint, and an MP is "checking the merchendise".

Here are my questions:
1. What kind of stuff do you think the GIs would have?. I was thinking something like MG 42's, MP 40's, Rifles, Paintings, Wine, etc.

2. How can I keep the canvas on the top, but still show the "souvineirs"?

Thanks for your time.

Now that is a good idea! I hope I can help you!

Merchendise:

- Lugers and small arms. I don't think they would want to have a large and heavy MG42 to send back to the States.

- German (nazi) flags, zeltbahn's

- Wine, alchoholic drinks

- Medals etc from German soldiers (maybe a bit hard to do in that scale)

- Forks, knifes, spoons....silver if possible, think of the last Band of Brothers (no.10)

- Uuuh.....every other small object that is worth money and easy to take back home!

About the canvas.....make sure you can look in the back of the truck. If you can only see some flags, a box with wine and a luger etc, you already know that the whole truck is loaded with that stuff. You could even place a soldier in the back of the truck pulling down the canvas to hide their stuff!!

Hope this is of some help. I hope you can complete this diorama!

Martin

Medals! I hadn't even thought of that! How could I do some silver in 1/35, I wonder? Thanks for your response, you really gave me some great ideas!

I like the soldier in the back idea. Gives you the oppertunity to have the canvas half open so you can see all the stuff. Either that or you can make it look like it was hastily done, with a lot of bunches and not cover everything so it looks like they are about to get busted.

MEMB,

My suggestion would be to scale the whole thing down a bit. Instead of using the truck, why not use a jeep instead? That would give you a lot less space to fill. Fill the bottom of the back of the jeep with crates of wine and throw some "liberated" painting and silver candle sticks on top and you are in business.
Just a suggestion. I am a fan of small "tight" dioramas.

Shaun

You might try looking in a hobby and craft store in the doll house section you might be surprized what you will find and you might also look in the section that has stuff to make neckleses. Sounds like a cool idea for a dio.

MEBM,

In some ways, I have to agree with Shaun, small and tight, however I have a tendency to go towards the big. A suggestion, maybe think of the canvas pulled back some, the front loaded with supplies that are being delivered and with each delivery a little something winds up in the back of the deuce and a half.

However you go about it, the idea should make a interesting dio.

Good luck

Jay

MEBM, how about drunken looters with a duce fenderbender into stone wall or something, and canvas blown half off and looted items in the back and strewn behind for quite a ways in an s pattern to show the pryor swerving. Add pissed M.P.s and a jeep. - Cheyenne

MEBM -

Think this is a terrific idea. "Pfc" had a good suggestion about the Craft store and doll house items. My wife does some of this and it is great for things like silverware, candlesticks, other "household" type goodies. A picture, art work would fit also. Many uniform items as mentioned medals, knives, hats, helmets, and other "Officer" stuff were very popular. How about an MP holding a samurai sword, scratching his head trying to figure out where it came from? :-)
Your diorama is a great idea. Have fun with it and keep us posted,

Blade48mrd

why not have the MP lifting the canvas up and looking in the truck.THis will show the MP is searching and you could do the soldiers looking sheepish

I agree with the "scale down" suggestion. Try a half track or scout car, maybe with a trailer, and have the MP's pulling back the tarp covering the loot. As for the contents:
. The doll house section is a good suggestion for paintings, candlesticks, silver serving sets, etc.

. Add gold bars by painting some brick rubble, and also some jewels from the craft store.

. If you want to try making medals in small scale, use a tiny drop of solder and flatten it while it's still soft, then trim to size, or cut the head(s) off of straight pins.

Art

Small is good, but you could one MP talking to the GI's while one or two other MP's are making a list of the loot on clipboards. Have the stuff unloaded beside the truck, arranged in piles.

I think it would be easiest to make medals from lead foil. A stamp could be made from brass tubing, or something similar, and stamp out dozens of medals.

There is diorama FSM, or one of FSM's special issues with a simiar theme. One cool trophy they had was the rudder off of a fighter plane. Good luck with this one.

Patrick