Hey all, i just added the pine needles to my base by cutting up woodland scenics tall grass into tiny pieces. I added in branches to simulate dead pine branches. I added in some of my figures just to show what look im going after.




This guy in from a jaguar set and was origianally cast onto a resin base. I had to dremel the base off and i added my pine needle blend to make him "sit" on the base, rather than float. I will paint the needles later.



Tell me what you guys think, im pleased with my results thus far. Also, i got my grass in the mail so that will probably be the next step.

Ian

Great job on the figs! I like the idea for the pine needles, a great one. Is your dio going to contain the figs and halftrack here or something totally differant?

~Chip

The effect of the pine needles is very good. I also liked the SS officer. Congrats and keep going.

Gday Ian Love it!
The dio thus far looks to have a great'flow' to it which is accentuated by some good quality pics from nice angles... Really has a 'wooded' feel about the layout.
Just one thing though, the uncompleted fig in the second pic, combined with your user name and the fact that MTV is on in the background here, well... :-)
Cheers mate
Brad

This is coming along very nicely. A lot of action going on, I really like it. Your ground work looks great. Athough it's a little too late, if you do pine needles again, try static grass over a white glue/water mix. Insted of "blowing" the static grass to stand up, just press it so it stays down. Probably a lot quicker than cutting up the tall grass.

Looks awesome so far dude. The figs are excellent!

Ian, this beauty is really coming along. It's great to see the fruitation of all our little talks about what you will do next!!! The figs are great, the action they are portraying is excellent. The needles are very good also, I like the other tip thrown out there too I'll have to try some static grass sometimes as well. I look forward to seeing the shrubs and grass clumps as I havent even come close to getting to put them on my project, so I have to live vicariously through yours for the time being. Looking forward to the next post. Doing a little drooling here :-) :-) :-) Cheers Kevin

Ian...I really love this...What to say....omg..everything looks soo great. Im Jealous...

Seriously...great job. The figures look great, the layout is awesome. I want more progress..soo..get busy..

Mary (++)

looks great. very energetic!

I really like your Pine needles Ian, they look very realistic. Would we be able to have a photo of the whole dio with figures and vehicles in position please?

So far - definitely so good !

Your groundwork has got some really nice atmosphere to it...I can't wait to see the finished product!

Good luck with it!
Jon

Looks great, most impressive.

Very animated dio. - really looks like the figures are in action.

Keep it up, can't wait to see this one finished.

N E O

Nice work Ian

One question,
How did you make your pine trees?

Steve

Looks pretty dramatic to me, keep going!

Yes, Ian nice work on the pines, I like the way you added the broken old growth on the lower trunks of the trees.
Overall the build looks like its coming along great.
Cheyenne

Amazing, a lot of Energy and dynamic in your dio. The fallen needles come out nicely!

I only have some general questions:
If these guys leave the vehicle for a combat why has the officer only a pistol? Wouldn´t he take an mp or so? And wouldn´t one of them stay in the APC to use the MG?

Best wishes and greetings,

ekke

Concur! I am also impressed that the soil is not the usual brown or tan, but a good rich dark color.




Ekke, it is my understand that until the experiences of Barbarossa encouraged everyone to 'arm for bear' (pardon the pun), officers only carried the traditional sidearm. This is an early SPW, I haven't noticed anything to date it or the troops later into the war (hmmm, I didn't look at the boots), so this could be 1939-41.

Thank you all for your replies! I really appreciate it and it sure does make my day...

Brian, I was thinking of doing the static grass thing as i was cutting the field grass into pine needles, but i chose not to do it because the fibres in static grass are too thin and long for the application at hand. Also, i didnt want to make the impression that the static grass and the needles are the same thing, i kinda wanted some variation in textures and sizes.

Steve i made the pine trees from a product called bragdon enterprises pine boughs. I bought some of the boughs and some pine trunks from this website: http://www.bragdonent.com/
Pretty self explanitory from there, paint trunk, glue on branches.

Ekke, Guten Morgen, wie gehts? Ich koennte ein bisschen Deutch sprechen so....I just thought this figure was great for capturing the mood of the scene, I'm not too big on the historical accuracy and whatnot. If there were figure sets that modeled everything i wanted then i could have more room to be accurate. I wanted to have someone using the MG but the way that i would want the MG turned doesnt allow me to use any figures out there on the market that i know of. All the figures i know are shooting straight.

Fred, thanks for the compliment, i was afraid that it was tooo dark at first, but i guess it will work. Also the two figs that are running say o the box "SS pair 1943-1945" so i dont know...

Thanks for all you other guys for the kind words and motivation.
>Ian

Ah I get it
Well everything that´s left to say is:

Keep us updated, send a lot of pics - I can´t wait to see everything painted

Ian

This is developing well, the pine needles are a great addition and captures the setting well... I'm liking this dio. The action, and storyline, I think you are capturing. The only critique I would caution you on is the dead/wounded soldier (although not permanantly attached yet, and I realize you still have work to do) I would attempt to place him with his body making full/better contact to the ground. You could do this with a combination of building up the pine needles up a bit and sanding the face down part of the body. While the pine needles are still wet I would press the figure firmly into them to put an indentation in them. Good work Ian, figures are nicely done too!

All perfect keep going