Here is one of the five entries I will be putting into the Arlington, TX show in early September. The system was made primarily using the HANSA SYSTEM of intelocking 1:35 bricks, plus a little Plastruct and some Grandline windows. The overall building is almost two feet long, and about 1 foot tall.

I plan to have the SOL "21 piece German Marching Band" going by in a full parade, in front of about 30 civilians, while city and party officials are standing on the steps.... all the elements are finished - now I just have to put it together.

I have also downloaded a public domain "German Werhmacht Marching Tune" which sounds pretty good - I'm thinking of putting it into the diorama so that at the press of a button, as small speaker will play the loop of music for about 4 minutes. It has crowd cheers that are also pretty appropriate. I just need to decide how to "play" the music... a tape wouldn't work, because it has to be re-wound.... and most electronic methods (MP3 player?) are to expensive... any ideas?

Keith,

nice to hear from you again!

The building looks good! I think the stones need some browntones here and there. I think the grey is to overwhelming right now. But that's just a personal opinion.

about the music... when you own a laptop / notebook computer, you could run the music from there. Otherwise a portable CD player could be available .... Perhaps one of your friends or relatives owns a MP3 or protable CD player... If they do, perhaps you can borrow it for the duration of the show.

Just some ideas...

Oh - also note that this particular photo does not yet have the door hardware (hinges, door handles)... and there are six small metal "knight" statues that go on the pedestals between the columns.... will have to upload another photo to show this off. (I took 107 pictures of the building in a step-by-step for use in another eBook that I am doing with the folks at Hansa Systems. I plan to post the actual diorama "step by step" on Armorama.

KFMagee

Wonderful !!! A big THANK YOU in advance !

I understand - but the building in the photograph IS all grey... If I change it, then I'm kinda playing with the facts of how the building actually looked.

KFMagee

Wow, Keith! This looks like another HUGE one! I can't wait to see it completed!

Dunno if you're interested (or anyone else), but I have a mp3 copy of a song called "Unser Rommel" ("Our Rommel")... I'm not sure on the authenticy of the song, but it seems to have been sung by DAK...

The German words:

Wir sind das Deutsche Afrikakorps
Des Führers verwegene Truppe
Wir stürmen wie die Teufel hervor
Versalzen dem Tommy die Suppe
Wir fürchten nicht Hitze und Wüstensand
Wir trotzen dem Durst und dem Sonnenbrand
Marschieren beim Takt unserer Trommel
Vorwärts! Vorwärts!
Vorwärts mit unserem Rommel!
Vorwärts mit unserem Rommel!

The English translation:

We are the German Africa corps
The leader's bold troop
We storm like the devil out
salts the Tommy the soup
We are not afraid heat and desert sand
We defy the thirst and the sun fire
March with the clock of our drum
Forward! Forward!
Forward with our Rommel!
Forward with our Rommel!

And yes... this was Babel Fished... so the translation may have been babel'ed up a bit...

Anyway... what I'm eventually getting to, is that if you (or anyone else) would like me to email a copy to them (only 274k), drop me a mail or a PM...

Also - a quick note... the book "WWII in Color - Behind the Enemy Lines" simply states

"This building was the SS Reich Headquarters in Austria. Built in 1934, if was originally the National Museum of Natural History, but was converted to a regional government building shortly after the annexation of Austria. Thereafter, in 1942 the German SS Military Command, and the NAZI Party Secret Police shared the building until the area was evacuated by the Reich Command. It fell to the Russian Army in 1945."

The book doesn't mention the city, or if the building is still intact. Anyone recognize this building, or know of the city?

Superb superb

Looking very good. I can't wait to see the band included.
Interesting detail on the column headers, every other one is turned 90 degrees. Different touch.

As far as the music goes, I like the CD idea. A small personal CD player could be set up. You could create a digital copy of the song and burn it 100 times of so so you don't have to worry about starting the same copy of the song over and over.

I have seen "record your voice" greeting cards in the past, but have't seen time lengths beyond 30 seconds or so. That would be optimum, but I'd have to find one that could hold 4 minutes... anybody have information on this technology?

They are battery operated, work at the push of a button, and are fairly inexpensive... that would be optimum....

Just buy a CD player, they are quite cheap these days. Then all you need is a speaker, and two batteries

Wow that is impressive, only today I was thinking how long it had been since I had seen some of your work.
I always like your stuff and am always impressed not only by your work but also by your friendly composure.
For my self personnally the only thing I would change would be where you have rotated the columns, I would have had them symetrical from the centre outwards not alternate (you can blame slodder for this as i hadn't noticed until I read his comment and went back to check it out :-) )
I saw the marching band once, very impressive butalso expensive? I think a colour party at the front would be a nice touch.
Cheers
Robbo

Yes- I have the Color Guard as well... two honor guards and the flag bearer. I also have the band leader, and 18 of the musicians. It is quite impressive. I was going to paint them in the black uniform with the bird's nest sholder pads, but then I saw a color photo of the Lufwaft Color Guard -they wear a sky blue uniform with the same birds nest shoulder pads, and the flag is a White background instead of Red... it is far more colorful than the black, so I am going with that motiff instead.

As for the columns, that was the hardest thing to do... the capitals (tops) of the columns in the actual photo are a different and far more ornate than the ones I am using (which are simply the plastic columns used in wedding cakes!), but there was no way I could duplicate the highly ornate work of the original... at the same time, the columns in the photo in the book have the same A-B/A-B rotation... they are not the same facing. Columns 1 and 3 are the same, as are columns 2 and 4. I was just trying to imitate what the photo showed... I knew it was going to raise eyebrows, but what can I do, eh?

Austria's National museum of Natural History is located in Vienna, here's a link with a picture:
Museum

If it really is the right building, youre in for a bit of work. Opposite the building is the art museum in an exact copy of the building!!

Good luck :-)

can't be the same building as Keith showed us... too many differences

Hmmmm...
Yeah, I'm sure you'll be real popular if you play the same tune over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over a few hundred times a day during the show.
That'd be grounds for not being 'winning' anything or getting all your hard work 'accidentally' dropped, I reckon

Seriously, while it might be amusing once or twice, repeated playings will put you at the top of the Going Postal list - I'd reconsider the audio part of your plan.

What's next?
Recorded engine noises, track squeaks, machine gun chatter, screams and oaths..?
Whole websites devoted to tracking down the 'authentic' noise of a Maybach V12 crunching across the frozen wastes of the Eastern Front?
Online flame wars because the noise of an 88 was used behind a Panther diorama..?
Rock and roll and Huey rotor slap behind a VietNam diorama..?
Modelling conests will become just another noise polluted ruin, possibly driving people away from a quiet and contemplative hobby - that said, I'll listen to anything from Woody Guthrie through to the Murderdolls while modelling, but I wouldn't want to inflict that on anyone at a show...

Rant over.

Nice building BTW - good work

acav out

Looks good so far Keith....
How many Hansa bricks did you use??? :-) :-)
As for the music, many years ago, a friend did a vignette from the movie "The Fly", the ending where the little fly is stuck in the spiders web, with Vincent Prices face, crying "Help me" ....
Back in those days all we had were tape recorders, so he used one of those endless loups from a telephone answering machine, and recorded "help me" over and over filling the tape, a little speaker in the base.... worked out great...... with just the right volume, you had to be on top of the vignette to hear the voice.

Maybe looking around for one of those old fashion portable tape players, and a 60 second endless loup answering machine tape would work here also.

Keith,

Very impressive, I have to say big is always good. Not that this suggestion is going to be much help at such a late date, but what you need for the sound element are the basic guts from inside those stuffed toys, the ones in the grocery stores, particularly at Halloween and Christmas, you push the buttons on the hands of all of the ones on the display so they sing five different songs and roughly mimic dance moves of a guy with three left feet. They can play for up to four minutes. Somebody makes the guts and burning the song into the memory can't be too difficult. Just a thought...

The building looks great though

Jay

Certainly not the same building... BTW -was it known that at one time the building you show was converted to a Reich SS command, as stated in the photo caption of my building? I dunno - maybe a different city? Maybe a misnamed building by the books author? Other than the column capitals used, my model is about 95% of the photo I have.... even down to the right number of steps in the stairs...

I tried to scan the photo from my book to share, but it came out all black due to light creeping into my scanner where the book spine wouldn't stay flat enough for the cover.

Ahh well - maybe someone will spot the building... perhaps it no longer exists

Actually a good question - sorry for the delay in response. Interestingly, I thought it would be a good excercise to show the build-out in "bag o bricks" increments... the overall piece (almost 20 inches long and 12 inches high, with sides) took just a bit over 4 bags of bricks... so about 1600. The "how to article" will show the incremental buildout.

Hansa kits are wonderful - while they are 1:35 scale bricks, they can be used to make 1:32 (toy soldier scale) for the kids, re-used, and then re-built just like legos. And of course, I use them quite a bit to create the master units for my mold casting business as well... very versatile - I am actually quite surprised more people don't use them. They have the most wonderful range of windows, doors, railings, roofing materials (rafters and shingles)... it amazes me that I don't sell these by the boat load. I have a few regular customers, and sell quite a few at shows (when people see them, they buy them), but with all the advertising Hansa does, it is not much of an online seller - and I can't figure out why.

Hi keith

nice and impressive looking building agood advertisment for the Hansa system. I have been intrested in seeing the Hansa system for a while and one of the biggets problems from my point of view is that there are no real good pictures of all there products. you see pictures of the odd item but not the full range.

It is very rarely i would now buy any item via the intrenet or mail order with out first seeing it, as i want to ensure it is exactly what i am looking for. Hansa seem to have a good range (from the descriptions) but need to produce good quality pictures of there item and then advertse using those, a bit like Vls does with there construction range

cheers

keith forsyth

Hey
KFMagee

how did you made the columns ?

If I am not mistaken, these columns are used in wedding cakes. I have seen them around in my local arts and crafts store. They were made out of white plastic and were hollow on the inside.