Well me and Slavica are planing a larger (50x30 cm) diorama which will include:

1x 1:35 Italeri M4 sherman
1x 1:35 MiniArt Belgian village house
8x 1:35 Tamiya US infantry soldiers
2-3x 1:35 various German soldiers (revell, heller i Dragon)

SO far we made the sketch plan and i almost finished building the sherman, also few of figures are ready to paint. other stuff is still on sprues. We decided to go further this time and this dio will make us scratchbuild some furniture and some other stuff. Also will need to change a bit on some figure poses (convert).

Story in short: A US sherman coming up the village street and almost in front of a ruined house, first scout soldier (3#) in the pics, was runnin when noticed somethin suspicious inside and throwed himself on the ground, 2 of soildiers behind are running into the house, while the commander is giving a STOP sign with his hand to the tank crew and other soldiers. also there is a dead german and one sneaking in the upper flor with panzershreck.

the sketch


cheers
Mirko

Looks very nice can't wait to see what it'll look like.

Sounds good, the sketch is great. Planning really pays off in the end.

One thing at this stage - I would not have the street running parallel with the base edge. Even a slight angle would provide more visual interest. It is very 'doable' with the layout you have.

Scott is spot on with this advice !

Perhaps you can make this layout as a 3D dummy with some scrap material, like cardboard etc. and then you can look at it from all sides, determening what layout / composition looks best.

Whatever you do, stay away from being parallel to the base edge !

Thanks guys! but this is just a sketch, offcourse it wont be parallel to base sides i have sheep paines book Made a smart move when deciding which book to buy when i could only afford one "how to build dioramas" now sleeps in same bed i do

Still havent decide what to put on upper right "pile of..." thats the only big empty space left.

Mirko

Mirko, you may want to get out more often my firend. You are starting to scare me :-)

As for your sketch, it looks very promissing. Can't wait to see you start rolling with it.

I have to agree with Danny - if you can build a quick cardboard version and moch it up you'll be able to see potiential pit falls and see how things will fit together once you go 'live'. It really helps.

Hi. Good luck with it. Keep us posted. Sounds good.

Simon

Hi there... it looks like a good plan. Will be keeping a lookout for the progress pics..

Anyway, you might want to scratchbuild a shed or a ruined one at the upper right corner? Just a suggestion..

sketches does really make the imagination run wild. Which figures are you hoping to use for the various poses you indicated?

Also what that bit on the top right? I keep reading it over and over again but all i see is " pile of s**t." :-)

Hehe same here. Hope something got lost in translation... :-)
Don't know what is on the right wall of the ruin, but would it be possible to maybe have an attached woodpile shed or similar? Looks as though the building is 2 storey, so with a 1 storey attachment it may take the wandering eye down gradually to a mid sized tree maybe?
Cheers
Brad
Oh nearly forgot. Is it the M4A1 from Italeri? If so, the long 76mm barrel can add to the "surprise" element of the US troops by having it traversed a little away from the building, then a commander (if not 'hatch down' in a hostile zone) looking back to the danger, away from the turret direction...?

Well i like well orginised works . And it seems that from when Slavica engaged with working in same dios with u Mirko , this factor has risen up a lot!!!! The sketch is nice and according to sheps book the road will be not parallel of course !!!
Also height differences , elevetions and other intense characteristics on the groundwork (inclination, etc
) can help a lot to this .

I am really waiting to see a diorama that the groundworkwill smell Vannila ......


Waiting for next steps, and know that if any help of any kind is needed , dont hesitate to ask for it .

L.Y.C.A.T.S.D.A.M.C.A.Y

Costas

Hello everyone,
Thanks for comments on my sketch; it took like 10 min. to do it, the dio. Will take longer :-) ,
so just to clear the point of my handwriting “ pile of smt.” Is pile of something (didn’t want to write garbage ) …… Thank you for all your remarks and help …. Well keep you updated on progress ….

Vagnilia (Slavica)

both the story and sketch are great. i see S&V company not only improving their painting skills but also the imanigation and creativity on making dioramas...this is really really -as donkey said i so good.
I totally agree Scott about paralelism,making it slightly angled will bring dio some depth..i think it can be a corner house .sidewalks and cobblestone road in front and right side(of sketch),some rubble or pile of smt can block the road on the right side. imho there is no need to make a full house ruin,you may cut the wall on the left side and make it a house section...some ammo cases next to fig 9 and maybe a MG34 or 42 and sandbags placed to the upper left window can add more realism to the scene.ladder can be moved to the left a little more to use the upper floor space more easy and effective...

shortly this will be a winner dio as done and please tell if any help needed.
best regards

Good pre-planning by the S&V company.
Can't really add much more that has not already been covered by others.
Sometimes these things grow when planning, especially when you start to place the actual pieces.

Mirko, havn't forgot about you, have had nasty weather here and have been working 7 days a week 12, 14 hr. days, well thats over with, 3 day wknd coming up [ Veterans Day ] and I'll try and get started on the Russian house for you.
Managed to get some small progress on my bridge done, but not enough to be happy about.
Now if the weather will co-operate I could get all kinds of stuff done.
Cheyenne

"S & V Company" -

Great idea and equally great ideas to help out. Think the layout looks outstanding and anxious to watch this develop. Might make a slight suggestion that you think about another German or two? At least a loader or someone to support for the "panzershreck"? I've got more figures then I can use for quite a while and would like to offer to "donate" some if you'd like. I have Dragon as well as several Warrior and/or Verlinden that would work. Alpine also makes a great panzershreck set that I happen to have an extra of. Just PM me and let me know how I could help out.

Blade48mrd