After researching for about 2 years now, reading as many stories writen by veterens of omaha beach as i could, watching the longest day and saving private ryan about 50 times each, i have decided to begin my bigest project ever, i dont know if this has been attempted by anyone anywere before, but im going to build the landing of omaha beach, in full and graphic detail, every landing craft will be there, every soldier, every obsticle, and every german, and none of the horrors of war will be left out, i will try to show what it was like as best i can, it will cost a bundle but ill do it, this isnt to ask for sugestions(all though any are welcome) but more so to just see what the replys will be, i do not plan to glorify war, quite the opposite, it will take along time, a VERY long time, well, thats all salute

there is a new kit from verlinden for the lcm3
i will prolly post a review from this kit here next week if I can find the time
look in to it very nice

VERY interesting. I too have read quite extensively about Omaha, and visited it last year while on holiday in France. I wish you luck with your project.

Keep us informed

Roger

LWF,

how big is this dio gonna be and in what scale are you going to do it ?

I dont wanna know how big it will be if in 1/35.Sheesh thats big!!!!!! #:-)

How do put a big ol' wistle in a post???
Wow - Go for it is my thought.

well, it is gonna be bloody huge, coz im goin for 1:35 guys, we already have the table installed in the garange, and a glass cabenet cover thing for it

Hey man kick the tires and start the fires is all I have to say now!!!!!Best of luck to ya also. #:-)

sounds good, I, hus oding the LCT4 and a lcm3 landing brits for my normandy dio, using the AA lct once it gets to me, i contacted AA with an email, should only be a few more month's till it hit s the beach. hehehe LWF maybe we can get together and share some info, i'd like to see what we can do as far as normandy is considered.. good hunting stug

I whish you all of good luck. ANd when do you think you will be reay .....in 2025??

I'm hoping mid 2004. i'm still waiting on AA to finish the LCT kit, but i've started the certaur's and will be doing the cromwells as i wait. stug

:-) Wow! can't wait to see this. Will you be able to post some in progress shots?
Mal

Yes i'll post progress pics but in a different thread, i was wanting to share references with LWF on the invasion. mine is going to be huge as far as the base is concerned. i want to have a sea wall breach, and then of course the lct4 carries 9 cromwells and centaurs, so its huge in itself. but will only use one or two lcm3's with infantry. but as of now just working on the tanks, got one centaur done for the Wall breach.. good luck stug

Is your "garage" an aircraft hangar? By my reckoning, Omaha Beach was about 5.5 miles long -- in 1/35th scale, that comes out to nearly 830 feet. #:-)

lol, well i may not be showing the ENTIRE omaha, just the main infantry divisions landing, alot of the armor will not be included, although on the beach (heres something for stugiiif) out of the armor that landed all of it was almost imedietly destroyed, except 2 sherman funnies, or "bath tubs" as the troops called them, but even they did not last long, so i will have about 15 LCVP's and all the men, also does anyone know of any company that makes dead and injured us ww2 infantry? cheers

Verlinden and Hornet do both, LFW. I'm doing a brit landing myself, th centaurs did a much better job clearing the way than the shermansthey set them up to coordinate firing on the ride in, that's waht the compass marks were there for so every thing got with two or three shells made a better landing for the royal marines. stug

There was only about a total of 3(I think) Shermans that actually made it to the beach.The rest sunk.

LWF are you going to show(unfortunatly) the landing craft that got nailed by the artillery?I would like to see how you would do that if you did.

LWF,

I admire your courage on this project. I want to give just one warning though....don't pack your space with figures and landing craft etc..... I know you have a table to build it on, so "plenty of space", but 1 meter of diorama space represents only 35 meters of beach space. Look at reference material and determine how much you can build on your space. Don't overdo it !

THAT WILL BE QUITE A MONUMENTAL TASK..
..... I WISH YOU ALL THE BEST , GOOD LUCK !

- ralph

LWF, in all your research, have you crunched the numbers? Even if you select a relatively small sector, say Dog Red beach, you're talking about a 75-foot long dio in 1/35th scale.

In June 1944, an infantry division TO&E had a strength of more than 14,000 soldiers. An infantry rifle company was about 190 men.

You may want to determine the number of soldiers in your dio based upon the number of landing craft you plan to use. There should be 30 soldiers for every LCVP or LCA.

Also remember that most landing craft grounded 100 yards off shore, and that the open beach was about 200 yards deep. While this could be compressed somewhat, it is still very deep.

Also don't for get the amount of scratch-building involved. For instance, each soldier would be wearing a life belt and a gas mask bag -- very few figures on the market include these items.

I hate to be the sayer of "nay," but I was researching a similar idea several years ago -- the Ranger assault on Point Du Hoc. I had topo maps so I could recreate the terrain exactly, had plans of their specialy modified landing craft, even had plans to do the DUKW with the London fire dept. ladder ... needless to say I abandoned the idea after crunching the numbers. I could do it, but I'd have to have a huge budget and a room in a museum to build it in. Let's see: three companies of Rangers = almost 600 soldiers (minus about 40% casualties, still more than 300), cliffs were 85-100 feet high = about three feet in 1/35th. The height is managable, but the width and depth were not. I still want to do a small section of cliff face (say about two feet wide by 4.5 feet deep), with Rangers going up and a group oif Germans trying to hold them back. The foot print of the whole thing would be about a square yard.

With all that said, I wish you luck on your ambitious project.

I think our Major Bob has a (Hollow) point here...

Now without kiddin'..... sure I want you to pull it off, but imagine the size of it all....... I think it CAN be done, but it WON'T be done, since it would be too big, has a too long building time and would be too......expensive.....

If, on the other hand, you DO pull it off,...... I'll stand up and openly apologize for these posts.... I will then salute you with ultimate respect..... If ya' start this......finish it, and bring me to my knees to apologize

Roger that. And I'll be right next to Eagle.

Any progress? :-)

Wow, i forgot all about this, lol, i sure sounded ambitious! :-)
well i assume seigmund that you never saw my atop omaha diorama, that was what became of this monstrous idea, i did end up deciding that it was way to big a project, so i just built a smaller diorama of a section of trench system and bunkers atop the cliffs at omaha beach, so yeah....can someone delete this post or make it so nooen can comment to it, lol, it has no purpose anymore other than to embarass me!
cheers

Consider it done !

NB : It takes courage to admit in public that the idea was a bit too enthousiastic. I admire this honesty and I think most of us think about it the same way. Therefore I don't think anyone will even think about embarrassing you.