My latest everyone, just a plain Jane dio, nothng fancy, just a Firefly going down a country road, passing a abandoned Jagpanther. Kits used: Tamiya's old Jagpanther kit, with Tamiya putty for zimmerit, Dragon's Firefly, Tamiya's British Infantry On Patrol (although these guys are Canadian) Firefly has Ultracast Calgary Regiment Markngs, and an Ultracast Tank Commander. The base is the pink insulation foam, with tile grout as the ground work. The tree is from a railroad shop, with a section of round dowl to make it taller. No ruins here folks! LOL
Enjoy,
Kelly

























I really lost interest in the build, so sorry it's not up to my usual standards, I just wanted to get the thing done and finished, I kind of rushed it a bit here folks... :-) comments and critisizims welcome!

The diorama is a very nice one Kelly, congrats. I enjoyed examining it from every angle.
Just one criticsm.. The grass is very the same green..
Thanks for sharing

Kelly,

and excellent diorama. You caal it plain, but I still think it's very good.

I agree with Wampum that you groundwork deserves to have that tiny extra finishing touch... a some extra color and a few bunches of taller grasses here and there...nothing much, but just to give it that extra cream topping.

Besides that.....all I can say excellent and impressive work !

Thanks guys,
Wampum, it's probably the lighting, I mixed two colors of "grass", a light and dark, maybe I should have added some more dark into the mix, but when you see it first hand, there is a difference. I know I should have added some tall grass, I may go back and do that, thanks for pointing it out, now It'll just bug me until I do it...LOL

I drybrushed the Firefly with a lighter shade of green, and then I used an interesting color to add highlights, it's called "Mudstone" ,and it's made by Delta Creamcoat, in their acryllic line, seemed to work very well against the green.

well done kellyzak, i think its an attractive dio.
i agree with the rest, some more grass vegetation would do it, your spatial association is good. figures are excellent

gj

matt

You sound so humble and modest. I think its a great dio. Only one thing for criticism: I think the "Booby Trapped"-grafitti is a bit to thick. The person/figgie who painted it must have had a very big brush, unless it's you that made it? :-)
But ok, you just wanted to be finish. Know the feeling, believe me. But still, I like your work. Thanks for sharing

Simon

Ciao Kelly,
There is nothing plain jane about your dio. It is really beautiful and imaginative. Great work on it. I love the colors. I guess the grass might be a bit too "uniform colored" but other than that, it's a real masterpiece. Congrats.
Ciao for now
Rob

Your diorama looks awesome. Love the Firefly and the British Infantry. Abandoned Jagdpanther looks cool too, esp for the old Tamiya dinosaur.

Ground work is good, but the tree looks a tad unatural. Then again, I dont live in Northern Italy, so who knows ?

Great work. This really makes me want to work on a diorama sometime soon

Cheers !!

Alpen

Kelly -

There's nothing plain to this well executed dio in my opinion, and I think you do yourself a discredit. On the contrary, I think you've done an great job of creating the scene. The weathering, etc is excellent. I especially like the Firefly tank commander, he's outstanding. I know he's Canadian, but can't help but see a little bit of "Monty" in him. Was only wondering if Jagdpanther, being abondoned would have had a hatch left at least partly open? Might be more tempting to the "booby trap" situation. Or was this a decision due more to the lack of interior detail in old Tamiya kit? Really well done and anxious to see one of your non-plain projects.

Blade48mrd

That dio looks great to me!

love your dio! It looks like the italien nature! Though when i have been Italy well in the nothern italy! The earth is very yellow and very dry! but it looks good! very nice!

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions, I'm glad you all like it, 'cause I'm just ok with it, I guess I put too much pressure on myself LOL What my vision in my head did not equal what was turning out on the workbench, and I just lost interest, but after finishing what I'm working on now, some severe inspiration is coming for a small factory ruin! Just working on my first desert piece at the moment....

.....overall dio layout, the tanks and figs looks great! i like it! any title yet for the dio?

however, as Blade48mrd said, the jagdpanther should have some of the hatches open, meaning the crew had escaped. and some damage like shell holes or blown-off tracks will be nice...

p/s: is the DML firefly any good? been planning to get one myself.

I think the title for this one will just be Northern Italy, if someone has any suggestions, fire away!
This firefly apparently is an older DML kit, it was a fairly nice build, considering this was my first full DML Armour kit I've built, (usually it's all Tamiya stuff), used AFV Club rubber band tracks on it. Everything fit nice, had a little problem with the PE light gaurds not wanting to form properly, and the barrel is slightly warped after construction, hence the netting. Otherwise, a very good kit.

G'day mate
I really like your work here, the figs, AFV's, groundwork, all very well done.
Personally i like the really short grass you have going, fits with from what ive seen of alot of Italy.
Cheers, well done

Kelly,
Do you give some different shades of green on the grass with airbrush? I'm pretty satisfied with the results of this kind of airbrushing on the grassy areas.

Nice dio.

I am having troubles painting wooden crates - but yours looks very good and realistic.

Would you mind sharing your technique and color choise ??

Hi Guys,
Nothing fancy with the grass, I didn't even paint or airbrush it. All it is is two types of the foam railroad grass, mixed together, a light brand and a dark brand, I have a old spice jar that I use and mix the two together, and just pour it on like a salt shaker. I lightly mist the grass with water, so it will allow my glue mix to not bead up when applied.

The boxes are first painted with Tamiya desert yellow from the bottle (by hand), and a wash of artist oils follows suit. then it's drybrushed with a sandstone craft paint to bring out the highlights.

It's not too noticable, but the jerrycan on the Jagpanther was painted again with desert yellow, then I drybrushed some dark grey all over to represent chipping, and then followed by a wash and more drybrushing with the sandstone color.