Found these on another site. Bob's dio looks great. Here are the pics of it assembled and on display.





Graet job Bob! Looks awesome!

I'm just in AWE for Bob doing this dio for one of our fellow Brothers in Arms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I wish I was there to see SSG Olsens face when he recieved it.

I love it, and all the more when I imagine some bleeding hart getting all worked up about showing the dead guy, and that he's , well you know, like, you know ,, foreign..

Good to see it finished, well done.

Cheers
Henk

Man, that's the one I wanted to see at the show, but I guess it got packed up before Saturday. If it was still there, and I just missed it, don't tell me. I told my wife on the drive over about wanting to see this one. Oh well, maybe next time.

Patrick

Patrick: You probably missed it because for about an hour it was at the presentation Sgt Olson was putting on in one of the seminar rooms. He was at the show in his Nomex suit, and had his CVC with him, so I took the dio in too. He put on a great speech using a slide show on Powerpoint and even had video of the parts of OIF1 taken from atop two different tanks, and part of the video was during the two thunder runs.

The dio did not win anything, as I was up against better talent, including Chris Mrosko, who took first place in this category (along with many other awards too). I was happy to see a great turnout in the different dio categories. I have a feeling I would have won something if I just entered the tank in the armor category.

But going to the show and having Sgt Olson speak was just a happy coincidence we could work out. The main thing was that I was able to get it to him and then get on some of the REAL stuff at Ft Stewart. I have attached some photos of that. I have a photo somewhere of Sgt Olson at the show with the model but I can not find it. So, I have attached a photo of him in the TC position inside an Abrams in the motor pool. It so happened the tank we were in was a veteran of the first Gulf War and the crew had written a short poem near the driver's hole, along with their names.

I later met with the curator at the Ft Stewart museum, and he allowed me to crawl over the captured T72. This was captured in the first Gulf War and the engine was running when it was found. It appeared that US artillery hit the tank, and that was all the crew could take, so they legged it out of there, leaving the engine running.

Thanks to Gino for posting the pics. I took some at the Sgt's house, with a captured Iraqi flag for a backdrop, but they are too big to upload onto the site.









Cheers.

Bob

Fantastic Dio! I love the little details...the newspaper, the debris. That is the stuff that brings it to life IMHO.

And giving it to a Vet of OIF- Class Act Bro! My hat is off to you, and to Sgt. Olsen an all the other Vets on this site and everywhere else.

Jim

Very nice, I love the way the weathering on the bridge is done, the graffitti on the walls is a nice touch, and well done.

-shain

I saw this one Friday afternoon and it really looked great Bob! The show was a BLAST!! My only regret was I had been going non-stop since early Monday morning, as a result I woke up Saturday and was not feeling to good. I think everything had kind of caught up to me at that point. I stayed home for most of the day and unfortunately missed a couple of programs/seminars I had hoped to attend, including Sgt Olson's.

Mike

I was hoping some Armorama guys would have come to the speech. I was surprised to see some women there.

I am soooo glad to be done with the model and out of my hands. I was VERY nervous travelling with it. It did suffer some minor damage, but I was able to fix most of it.

Onto my next project now.

Bob

Well done and I amglad you delivery it safely
Ian

Now this is modeling with a capital M....

I'm not into modeling modern stuff, but this diorama impresses me big time. The colors, the compostion, the atmosphere....it's totally spot on !!

I take my hat off for this

Oh for sure, this dio is a real class act. Its not morbid, its not over exaggerating in any way. To me, its not one sided, if the man wasn't trying to ambush a tank, he'd still be alive. It simply recreates a moment in time.

Bravo Zulu,

Having watched this build from the beginning, I am still throughly impressed. You did an outstanding job and gave an outstanding gift! I hope you find a way to post the rest of your pictures. Again, you act of gratitude is simply humbling.

Jeff

A masterpiece. One of the most realistic dios I've ever seen.

Congratulations

Great dio and great Abrams. Did you scratchbuild the rack on the back of the turret? Also, which figures did you use for your tankers?

No awards?? Bummer, it's a beauty!

Sounds like a good time was had by all.

Robert's dio is awesome. Cannot believe is was overlooked by the judges.

A truly outstanding dio. If it weren't being shown on a modeling site with a little cropping this could look like a picture in a magazine.

I think the way it's shown here, with the close up of the dead body, it's impact might make it look more morbid than it really is. When you look at the full dio, and see the dead man is just one very small part of the whole, it makes it perfectly acceptable. At least that's how I feel.

I have to agree with all the comments above...it's a superb dio. I usually feel unsettled by people including corpses in dio's. This is professional modelling and it doesn't look out of place at all. In my opinion the corpse is there for a purpose and is very poignant. Tremendous accomplishment, I take my hat off to you Bob....Well done Sir.

Vinnie

I wouldn't say the dio was overlooked at the show. There was just some better ones. One thing I learned in playing sports all my life, is that no matter how good you are, there is always someone who is better than you. My dio probably did not even take 4th place.

I did scratchbuild the extended bustle rack. This was a feature of 2nd Brigade tanks in the 3rd ID. Thus, not all 3rd ID tanks had them. Also scratchbuilt were the two jerrycan racks and the exhaust deflector shield. I think the two main antennas are overscale. I don't like to use stretched sprue. I will have to find thinner wire. The load plan is exactly the way Sgt Olson had it on the 2nd thunder run. That was fun trying to replicate that. I emptied a bit of my parts box to figure it out.

The crew figures are Warrirors with new heads from Hornet. I added the wiring to the helemts, but it is not really noticeable in the photos since the hatches and whatnot are in the way.

Your dio is breathtaking. Your skill is incredible. Whether or not you won, you should be extremely proud of what you have made. Great job.

Very nice diorama.

Great work on the dio.

I see too many dio's with guys standing around, smiling and looking relaxed

Your dio looks like there is a war going on


cheers
Kev

very nice..your diorama captures two of the many faces of war. thanks for sharing.

Robert's dio looks great. Even better, he designed and built everything he wanted in his diorama, which is quite a feat because I'm sure there are many cases where modelers thought of something but either didn't have the time, skill, money, space, or resources to build everything in their dream.