Here is my latest dio (finished it last night). Please let me know what you think. I am more intersted in objective criticism rather than just a friendly pat on a back so have fun and be a critic.

You can find more pictures on my site Modelhut under the Dioramas section.

OK here goes.. it looks great, I like BW photos of models.. somehow adds to the atmosphere. Now the question.. how did you do the foliage? I'm thinking of doing something simmilar and am a bit terrified by foliage as I'd like to depict jungle with lots of botany.

Mario M.

I looked closely at your model........ the ones in colour and what i would change would be the colour you have choseen for some of the plants. The bright green ones would be OK only for the others and the static grass seem to be a very grey colour. The two colours dont blend well and make them all look plastic. I like the bright green colour and feel the other colour should be a tone of this. Maybe it would be an idea to have several more colours. I like the withered leaves underneath the plants and these give it the most realistic touch. You have some fine work on your site. I liked your articles....... especially the one where you showed how you built your other dio. The grass there is in the middle of all the dragon teeth where I feel it should be next to the teeth and the paths in the middle. Hopefully this makes sense! But back to your question. The dio is fine and the figure and the layout are great. The hole and camo lid for the hole are excellent, as is the ladder. Well designed and well painted. Its just the colour of the vegitation that seems to need a little work. But Id give you a pat on the back as well. Nice dios!

I realy love your dio !
But I must agree with plasticbatle : the differences in color of the vegetation don't feel 100% wright... i feel that the dark green one looks more realistic.

Thanks guys, you have pretty much expresses the same feeling I had. I tried to achieve a color contrast in vegetation but in the end I think I may have overdone it a bit. Next time I will probably pick one or two kinds of green and stick to it with variation in shades.

Maki, for vegetation I used dried plants (all different kinds) and moss from my local craft store as well as some fish tank plants I got at a pet store.

Is that ladder part of a kit or scratched? The lashings on the ladder rungs are fantastic. Great work.

Patrick

Patrick,

I made that ladder from wooden shish kebab skewers and some thread.

Its funny-------- I noticed that ladder as well and thought it was some verlinden set and passed it off at that. Scratchbuilt? First class...... that one fooled me.
I tried to copy the picture of the ladder to keep for reference but your site doesn´t allow any copying. Any chance you could send me a picture/close up of that ladder?
Thanks

Are you referring to the close-up picture which shows the tunnel opening with the cover and the ladder or the one that shows the ladder and guy's legs? Let me know and I will send it to you. Unfortunately the ladder is glued in place so I can't pull it out to photograph it in it's full.

I really liked the whole thing. Critique.... I would have placed more detris (dead leaves and such ) on it. The entrance would have been better camoflaged, but that is a minor thing. It is one of the best tunnel rat dios I have seen and there have been a few.

Nice job Marty, I wish I had of stuck to something a little smaller on my Cu-Chi tunnel dio. But my imagenation is much bigger than my eyes. I find Vietnam dios a real challenge do to recreating jungle vegetation lack of figure kits to choose from but in all its really fun to do.

Thank you for all the comments and suggestions. Now that I have had the dio sitting on my shelf for some time I know I should have done some things differently.



PFC, I like your dio. I know what it's like to make a large project. Most times it is very challenging. Heck, I still have a diorama (which I started sometime last year) sitting on my shelf. It is quite large and I seem to have a hard time finishing it.

I'd like to see more photos... hard to make out some of the detail from a single overhead shot!

Marty:
Awsome gob on painting the uniform and figure, really top-notch use of shadows and highlighting. Eyes look a little big, but that's my main isse as well. Well done, nice dio....

Nate
Wisc. USA

I LOVE IT! There is some stuff, most have been pointed out, that could be improved on. The vegetation is the main thing. Some looks real and some looks like plastic. I can't really blame you for that since creating jungle is VERY hard and I think it's the main reason most people prefer to do W.W.II Europe and Africa scenes since jungle vegetation is so hard to recreate. The hole is probably too big for the normal tunnel entrance. There were probably some that were that big, but probably not that many. The other thing, that hasn't been said yet, but which you could add to it, is some smoke coming out of the hole from a grenade. I'm no tunnel rat, but I have seen them on TV (gotta love History Channel specials) :-) I think the standard procedure would be to first check the door for booby traps (that could explain the missing camo vegetation from the top of it). After that, but before looking inside, a person would open it up and toss in a grenade to kill any enemy waiting for him just below. Of course if this guy was a noob, he might have not known the part about the grenade. In which case you could put in some guy pointing a gun up at him from below (explaining the 'oh crap' look on his face). Also, as blaster pointed out, I'd add more leaf debris around the area. Any place that has trees and bushes will have lots of leaves on the ground. The detail on the figure and on the overall diorama is just wonderful. The paint job is great. I love the other stuff at your site too. I really wish there were more of us guys willing to take on Nam modeling

Keith, follow the link to my website (http://www.modelhut.com) and take a look at the dioramas section. This dio is so far the only one there so it's easy to find. :-)

Brad, thanks for all your comments. I appreciate the input. Modeling Vietnam War is hard but I have seen some really nicely done jungle vegetation. With time and practice, I think I will be able to achieve better results.

Ahhh... nice gallery... and excellent work on the uniform... very top notch work there!

Thanks Keith. It helps to have a nice figure (to begin with) to be able to give it a decent paint job. Details on this old Verlinden kit are great.

GREATTTTTTT JOB - CONGRATULATIONS
ROBERTO