I am in my planning stages of my first Pacific dio. I have a couple of questions.
1) How in the world do do the plant material for a jungle like the Phillipians (spelling ??)? Does any one have pics of a dio or the real thing?
2) Did the japaense use there tanks and SPG as pillboxes. Such as the type 1 with logs in front of it to make it like a stationary gun?
Any help would be great as all most my stuff is eastern front with a little western thrown in.

Hi,

Its spelled Philippines and locals are called Filipinos . Plants in the Philippines are the same as in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia..etc. There are several features here in Armorama that is very very useful....here is a few....

https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/587
https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/572

Goodluck and hope to see your dio too.

Cheers

Hello Scott,
Great to see your interest in the pacific WWII area.
As to your first question , this is a link to my dio I built concerning a MOH winner on the Omac road in the Philippines; Gallery
Most of my research was done by searching for photos of the specific area and asking the other members for pics of the area.
Warthog gave some excellent examples for making jungle, here is another for palm trees, Making Palm Trees

Here is some great reading with some photos on the PTO USMC;
Hyprtwar

About your second question they were used any way they could, here is a great pic from Tarawa that shows an example of your idea,
log revetments near the west end of the runway

There are alot more examples from just about every area in the PTO, searching will show more, and I can send more if needed.

Bob

Here is a link to a pretty good 'jungle' dio page:
http://www.dynamicdioramas.org/MODEL%20SOURCE/Missing-in-Action/
Dio by J. Neumeyer
One of the shots:

Thanks for all the help. Has anyone tried using fish tank stuff to make a jungle scene. Just I ideal I had as I was watching my kid feed her's. I think with a little painting they may look okay. But I have never been in a jungle or in the pacific so I am reall not sure what it looks like.

I've seen a pic of a dio (just can't remember where:-) ) wherein some of the stuff used for foliage are aquarium plants. Some of them looks OK others are not.

It was someone on Track link who did a Japanese type 97 as part of a blog.....check in the TL gallery under Japanese WW2 and I'm sure you'll find it there.

Found it!

http://www.track-link.net/gallery/3736

I think it looks okay. The goal of this build, if I remember right, was for Glenn to build this dio as cheaply as possible (he had a $ limit). I've seen some better aquarium plants in stores myself, but overall I'd say the dio looks pretty good.

Rob

In quite a few Pacific battles, the Japanese would "dig in" a tank - I have seen photos that showed at grouping of tanks that were dug into shallow ramps, then covered with palm fronds and leaves, with only the turrents exposed. Once American Tanks were either destroyed, disabled, or move onward, the Japanese tanks would then emerge from their positions and try to either engage the tanks from the rear, or would go after support infantry.

Scott- Model Railroading Shops carry plant and foliage materials. In fact I buy all of my Soviet AFV paints at a model railroad shop! Good Luck! Cheers-

Rob-
MiG-17