Well, like the title says, this is my first real attempt at a WWII dio since I mainly build modern armor. I know some of you all are gonna say that this scene is not historacly correct, but I just want to let you all know that I just built this for fun to see how it would turn out. But please feel free to correct my inaccuracies for future reference.

As you can see, these are Dragons newest kits, the Dragon "Desperate Defense" Gen 2 figure set and thier Sd.Kfz.234/4 Panzerspahwagen. I cheated a little bit and used one of Verlindens resin and ceramic ready bases, I just added some bass wood for window trim, extra wood rubble, and the second floor. The figures where painted with Vallejo's (which by the way there is a SBS over on Historicus Forma on these figures). The vehicle was painted with Tamiya paints and all was weathered with MIG powders.

So, what do you think?

Hi Pete

Well, for a first attempt, I must say its a very good one!. I like your figure work, you have a good eye for composition. The painting of the figures and vehicle are very good. Nothing wrong with building for fun, thats what the hobby is all about! Not all dioramas are going to be 100% historically accurate.

My only suggestion for the futre would be to finish off the base with a good veneer or moulded edge. Other than that a very good effort!!

Regards
Garth

Pete -

Very nicely detailed and composed. Especially like your figures, though I'd recommend some crew figures for the 234/4 as it looks kind of empty there. Maybe a bit more ground rubble around buildings too. Overall most definitely an excellent job.

Blade48mrd

Mike,
I thought the same thing, but didn't know what type of figure would be appropriate for a crew figure for the 234/4. Can you suggest something?

Pete -

I'm sure there are plenty more similar sets out there, but I've used these from Verlinden on a Marder. They're resin of course, but excellent figures. Set #VP 1716.



Blade48mrd

Thanks Mike, thats a starting point. I still have some more figures in the closet, I'll look and see what I can find. Darn it, and I just got back from my LHS on my lunch break.

VERY NICE! Your figure painting is excellent, the A/C looks great too.

A couple of things to maybe tweak it a bit:

1. I assumed the vehicle was abandoned/broken down due to the lack of crew. If the main gun will be firing (if there was a crew), then I would not want to be standing as close to it as these guys are. If it is supposed to be abandoned, then I might switch around its direction, only b/c it looks like you just forgot to put figs in it.

2. Straps on the small arms are missing, and that really stood out to me, believe it or not.

3. As an adendum to #1 above, the A/C seems like it's a bit too large for the base. I think it really crowds things. A smaller vehicle there, or a larger base, would maybe balance things a bit.

Mind you, these are only my opinions. I'm still struggling with the dio world myself, and have only completed two to date. And yours looks better than mine do, I can assure you.

Rob

Hey Pete.

The Dio looks very good. (Far better then anything I could do.)
I love the camo job on that one figure.

I agree with the others about the crew and while I wouldn’t try to depict the main gun in action I would try to put someone on the machine gun.

Once again, thanks guys for you nice and helpful comments. Thanks for not talking down to me becuase it is not accurate, I really appriciate that.

You know something though, i was showing my wife the coments you all left me and she said she didn't want to say anything, but she thought the same thing.

Extra rubble will be no problem. Adding a figure to the 234 shouldnt be a problem either, just means if i don't have something in the closet, i'll just make another trip to the LHS tomorrow at lunch.

Robert,
The starps, I know, I got lazy with that. I still have some of the Dragon photo etch straps.

Gday Pete
I won't start on inaccuracies, basically because I don't know! :-)
Allied stuff is my bag at the moment (read: 5 years;-) )
Everything looks very well constructed, and the figures and vehicle are well painted and weathered also...
One tweak I would do is to traverse the gun to face more or less parallel with the building front, just to add that sense of balance... If you are to show it as knocked out/abandoned, then some rubble between the building and the wheels would be great... Heck you could even have the story told that the vehicle backed into this defensive/ambush position, and then the building was struck by shellfire and half collapsed next to/partially onto the vehicle? Would give the two front men some extra cover too, and explain the lack of crew... If you place it so that the open ends of the buildings are not visible at ground level, it would tie everything in nicely!
Great job!
Cheers
Brad

Nice work, Pete! I reallay like your figures and your 234/4! Very Well built and painted, as well as weathered! I would use though some crew members as already memtioned! The 234/4 looks abandonned like that!
Cheers and happy modelling!
Prato

Pete,

Very nice work!

I just had an idea for a figure for the 234/4 for you to consider... How about a dead Russian. The story is that the initial ambush position failed and was over run, and what we see now is the counter-attack to retake the ground. Just a thought.
-zon

Very impressive, Pete! The figures are exquisite.

The main thing that catches my eye, though, is that while the action is at a good angle to the base and the buildings, all the foreground lines are parallel. The lines of sight of every man and every aimed weapon are parallel to the hard lines of the vehicle, its main gun, and its machine gun. If you take Honeycut's suggestion to give it a more "claustrophobic" backed-into-a-corner feel, the focus of the lines might work better. But it seems to me that you could really increase the drama by focusing the men's attention in several different directions, implying multiple attackers. Think of the popular images of Custer's Last Stand or the Alamo.

They look to me like they're more in a defensive stance than an offensive one; more rubble for them to use as cover would help. Last thing: I'd also use more rubble or groundwork of some sort at the bases of the walls, which kind of look like they were placed on top of the debris rather than the other way around.

You've got a really good eye, though - judging from your site activity statistics, you've probably posted quite a few of your modern dioramas. If you could post some links to them, I'd love to see more of your work...

John Antkowiak
Manassas, VA

John,
Thanks for the nice critique. Here is the link to my LAV-25 diorama thread in the "Feed Back" forum:

LAV-25 Diorama

You can go to my profile and you will see all the articles I submitted, plus at the bottom of my signature, you can click to go to my PhotoBucket album to see more of my work.

I like it personally. Nice touch with the smoke damage on the windows btw! Actually, quite a few nice touches to this.

Thanks Steve. After all these suggestion, I'm still gonna work on it a bit. I might even change out the vehicle with somehting else.

Pete,
I love it it looks great.Now Im gonna have to build my 234