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Somewhere in France, July 1944 - Typhoon, Panther and Tiger in 1/72


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This project was made as part of the D-Day Group Build and I had originally put it in the Armour Vignettes and Dioramas section. A key feature, though, was the Typhoon so, when I saw this new section I thought I could post it here as well.

This was my first ever diorama and it's made up with a lot of other firsts. First Typhoon, Panther and Tiger kits, first tank(s) for many, many years, first plane kit in flight, first use of a Prop Blur, first use of aftermarket decals (for the Typhoon) and first 1/72 figures.

Nearly everyone who contributed to the WIP thread helped with ideas for the building of various elements of the project so a big thank you to them all - it wouldn't have been possible without the help of the BM team. Also it was seeing Kallisti's Typhoon base that got me thinking about doing a diorama - so thank you to Kallisti for the idea.

Typhoon: Airfix 1/72 Mk.IB Typhoon (new tool version) - MN526/TP-V - No.198 Sqn., 123 Wing, 84 Group, 2 TAF B10/Plumetot, France - July 1944.
Panther: Dragon 1/72 Ausf G with Zimmerit, no. 135 of 12 SS Pz,
Tiger I: Dragon 1/72 Ausf E with Zimmerit, no. 131 of sSSPzAbt 101
German and British troops from Ceasar Miniatures
Baseboard: Softwood, Sundela, MDF, filler and various leftover scenic materials from model railway projects made a long time ago.

The WIP can be found here
The RFI for the Typhoon can be found here
The RFI for the two tanks can be found here

Time: early evening, July 1944 - Location: somewhere northwest of Normandy
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This last photo shows the actual diorama and the background I used to give it depth. The background is actually the display shelf I made for my Spitfire builds but it seemed to work well as a backdrop - I thought it would look better than just a plain wall.
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Although this project is finished as far as the D-Day Group Build is concerned I've still got some ideas for developing this diorama further but I'm going to make a couple of Spitfires first!

Thank you for looking. Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

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Beautiful dio Stix,nice to have a reminder of this one,seem's an age since the excellent D-Day GB!

Hi Steve. Thank you. Yeah it does seem like a long time ago now. Good memories.

Superb! How did you manage to get the rocket launch to look so good? What ever technique you used it's looks realistic

Thank you David and well done for suggesting this section!

The rocket trails were made from ordinary pipe cleaners. On one end I painted a mix of red and yellow acrylic paints. I practiced first on a couple of spares until I got the fiery effect I wanted. I then sprayed the pipe cleaners all over with hair spray and then quickly pulled the cleaners through my fingers, painted bit first, so that the white areas looked like they were the smoke coming from a rapidly moving rocket. The hair spray, once set, keeps them in place. I repeated this process a couple of times. Once thoroughly dry cut them to the length I thought I wanted them before attaching some thinned out cotton wool to the end. Once dry I teased this out to try and get a more smokey effect. On the back of the rockets I carefully drilled out a small section which included drilling away a bit of the fins. I then used Superglue to attach the rockets to the painted end of the pipe cleaners. I then glued the last bit of the pipe cleaners to the rails under the Typhoon's wings so that the cotton wool trailed out behind the wings. Hope that's of some help. Let me know if it's not particularly clear.

Very cool

Absolutely excellent diorama. It's of a standard that one would expect to see at the RAF Hendon museum.

Thank you both, that's very kind of you.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited by PlaStix
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Yep COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL .This diorama inspired me to get off my backside and have a go when i saw it come together in the D Day G/B My entry to the Bof B H/B is my second attempt , so my thanks must go to you Stix :guitar:

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Very smart indeed

Thank you F-32.

Excellent combination of modelling genres, figures, armour, planes and groundwork. I've probably missed something, there isn't a boat in there somewhere is there? :)

Hi Roger. Thank you. There were a lot of firsts for me on this project but boats wasn't one of them..........although there is a small stream that's not really evident in the photos - I could add a toy boat!? Maybe not........

Yep COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL .This diorama inspired me to get off my backside and have a go when i saw it come together in the D Day G/B My entry to the Bof B H/B is my second attempt , so my thanks must go to you Stix :guitar:

Hi Mottlemaster, that's very kind of you to say but your C-47 drop-zone project for the D-Day GB was brilliant before I'd got properly going with mine.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited by PlaStix
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A very well excecuted diorama indeed. Very well done.

May I ask how you made the photographed backdrop? Was it a panoramic multi shot affair?

Also, the trees and ground work, what have you used there? Its really very good and much like I would like to make myself for my Lightning vs Starfighter do. I have a load of stuff for the ground work, but little idea on how to go about it, any advice would be brilliant.

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On 8/31/2015 at 8:20 PM, RMP2 said:

A very well excecuted diorama indeed. Very well done.

May I ask how you made the photographed backdrop? Was it a panoramic multi shot affair?

Also, the trees and ground work, what have you used there? Its really very good and much like I would like to make myself for my Lightning vs Starfighter do. I have a load of stuff for the ground work, but little idea on how to go about it, any advice would be brilliant.

Hi RMP2. Thank you for your kind comments.

With regards the backdrop - it's a very large panoramic landscape photo which I worked on in Photoshop. I blurred it slightly and enlarged it to spread over several A4 sheets - each with a slight overlap of the next page. Once printed I laminated them with matt finish laminating pouches.Then I cut them to size so that the image was as continuous as I could get it and then carefully attached them onto 6mm MDF. I actually have the image as a backdrop for a shelf that I display my Spitfires on.

The trees and ground work are mostly left over stuff from my model railway building days (a long time ago!). The trees are mix from a variety of sources but the most easily available ones today are from Woodland Scenics. The ground cover and bushes are a mix of Woodland Scenics and Greenscene although there may be a some from other manufactures - most of my stuff is in tubs - not the original bags.

The base for the diorama itself was build up as below:

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Hope that is of some help. Please let me know if you need any more information.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited by PlaStix
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An action packed diorama there. Love the effect of the spinning prop.

Hi TinVin. Thank you very much for your kind comments. The Prop Blur is quite a useful item for creating action on a static plane!

Sick I believe is the current slang for spiffing.

I will have to take your word for it Speedy but thank you very much!

Wow, er, wow, er well just when I think i have seen it all, this comes along, the firing of the rockets is spot on and the photography is splendid.

Hi Head in the clouds. Thank you very much for your kind comments.

Kind regards,

Stix

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Your reply was a lot of help, especially the photos, thank you and apols for the late reply.

The sneaky Brits on the treeline are a nice touch for a very close air support hit, its all there, again - well done.

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Your reply was a lot of help, especially the photos, thank you and apols for the late reply.

The sneaky Brits on the treeline are a nice touch for a very close air support hit, its all there, again - well done.

I'm glad it was helpful. No problem about the reply - I find it difficult to keep track of everything going on here on BM! And thank you again.

Kind regards,

Stix

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