Hey,
I got a tamiya 1:35 british six pound gun as part of my christmas presents and struggle to think of a diorama idea for it. Its going to be a Normandy '44 paint scheme.
any ideas?
remember that i have limited skills with dioramas, i.e i have fake grass and a 1kg of Das Pronto and this will be my 1st diorama.
happy new year.

I guess this idea wouldn't be for Normandy in 1944, but it's kind of interesting. In the first attack Tiger tanks led in North Africa against the British, they were disabled and thwarted by a couple 6 pdr AT guns. I think it would be neat doing a dio on this, though you might have to take some liberties with the size of it. Maybe have a wrecked Tiger at the crest of a ridge where the AT gun was hidden beneath........

Nic

Howdy Bren
What do you think of the kit?? I have ordered the same kit and it will be here soon. I got the 25lbr and was impressed with it, although the figures arn't that great compared to dragon's. I was thinking of building a small gun pit with a few sand bags and some small brush/trees for cover. Or maybe a piece of foam coated with wallboard plaster to look like a smashed stone wall. Nothing fancy as I have never done a dio either.

If I recall correctly, Tamiya's 6 pdr is one of their early 1/35 kits. Detail is not to good, the gun shields are too thick & the scaloped top edge of the main shield is very exaggerated. There is/was a far better version made by Max/Peerless and later by Italeri. It could also be found under the Zvezda label.

Bren...the kit you have is a great little 6 pounder....it was widely used by the Canadians as well as the British......I know Canadian best though.......I have a great picture of Canadians in Ortona Italy using a 6 pdr to punch a hole through a wall to do "mouseholing" because of snipers the Canadians punched a hole in the end house....went in....cleared it......and so on and so on....they cleared whole streets without ever stepping foot out on the street to take their chances with the snipers.
The other picture I have is a bunch of carriers hauling 6 pdrs across a field of long grass....it looks neat with the tracks in the long grass behind them....I believe this was taken somewhere in Normandy...I've seen it a few times but the book I have with it in is called 1944 The Canadians In Normandy by Reg Roy.
Good luck Bren....you'll do a wonderful job of this little gem of a kit.

During Normandy ground was lost and retaken all the time, so to make an interesting dio why not have the gun in a prepared position but turned 180 degrees and being manned by a german crew, firing at its previous owners. The gun came on a platform and was able to be traversed a full 360 degrees with minimum effort. As you have static grass you could have the gun in a field and show the grass bent over where the legs have pushed it over when the gun was turned.
Anyway just an idea.
Robbo

Bren...be careful of information gained from postings here......the 6 pounder didn't have a platform....when in doubt...always look for pictures.
I'm sure the last posting was mixed up by talk of the 25 pounder which did have a platform.

I stand corrected. What can I say, I started of with the image of the 6 pounder and somehow ended up with a 25 pounder. The idea is still sound and figures of a german crew would be easier to find for this gun,
Robbo

I saw a painting once of a VC recipient manning an airbourne 6pdr in Arnhem (a bridge too far) in a bunch of rubble. I can't find it but it was good inspiration for a diorama. Verlinden makes "Red Devils" figures now, so it might be a possibility.

Jeff

Thanks alot everyone for your ideas.
I will try to find more references.
I think I will actually try convert it to Folgore's Idea as I am particurly fond of North African British artillery escepically under General Sir Frank Messervy. Now that was a great man.
If you don't know about him then you should read "Spearhead General" by Henry Maule. Did you know he was the only general never to get home leave till after the war?
Anyway I not fussy about how accurate a kit is but i love what i got in the kit. 3 men, 2 lee-enfields, spare ammo & boxes, a webley revolver and holster binoculars and of course the gun.
One question, how would I make the sand for North Africa as in Folgores idea.
Thank you all and have a good new year. :-)

In all model/train shops you van buy fake sand....really good and easy to glue down on your dio platform, But it's not cheap! (in my store)

you can use cat litter real sand fine rocks
maybe little pebbles that you find in the desert?
or the fake sand but when you have a gun on a ridge their will be more rock formations
or such

Bren--Glad you like the idea. Here's a top down picture of a North African dio I made with fairly rocky terrain.



I used Celluclay (papier mache) to get the shape of the ground and, while it was wet, I placed in various sized model railroad talus (you can use larger pieces of sand or small pebbles for this too). Fine sand was sprinkled lightly over top to get the right texture and everything was stuck down with a coating of thinned white glue sprayed through a bottle. After this, I just painted it the colour I wanted, using a couple different shades, then washed and drybrushed as I would on armour and finally added some ground pastel chalk here and there. If you want to read more about it, I wrote an article here

Hope that helps,

Nic

Hi,
Please remember that deserts are not always only made of sand. Actually Tunesia has little desert at all! Most of the country was rocky with shrubs (hence the reason the German reportedly painted some of their Tigers green!).
Good luck

Thanks guys, one problem. Here in South Africa there are few shops with the afore mentioned products. My models I order from the other side of south africa. And they don't have the needed stuff. A hour drive away from me is another shop but they only have fake grass. any idea how I can by pass that i.e use household products like cat litter.
thanks again