Feuer! 1/35 Pak40 with Fallschirmjaeger crew.

[sanfrandragon]

I had a spare Dragon Pak40 and found a Fallschirmjaeger crew (probably more suited for a mortar), so decided to attempt a diorama set in Normandy, 1944.

The chalky dirt proved difficult but overall I'm happy with an early attempt at a rural diorama. Any suggestions or constructive criticism greatfully appreciated.

Edited June 25, 2016 by sanfrandragon

[Dads203]

That's nice work, and the FJ mortar crew fit really well fella.

The smock painting has come out really well and I love the weathering on the personal kit, just adds to it..

Just a few pointers, personal weapons such as rifles and MP40's would be right next

to their owners, no more than an arms length away especially in a war.

Also noticed a bit of white plaster showing on the base, I mix in some brown poster paint or pigments

when I use plaster for the base, it keeps everything an even colour ready for the grass and you get any white showing

in areas that you miss with the grass.

I'd also get the trailing arms of the gun dug in to the groundwork, on the real thing they stopped the gun

from running over the crew when it recoiled, plus on a diorama it adds to the weight of the gun.

Regards

Dan

[Badder]

All looks good to me! The groundwork is great (always the most important part of a diorama I think) The tree is great and really comes to life with those apples and the patchy grass is EXCEPTIONAL.

BTW, what did you use for the apples?

Whilst I agree with Dads about the white showing through the dirt, it COULD be chalk bedrock showing through. Personally, I prefer NOT to colour my plaster prior to pouring. It's porous, and will absorb any washes I apply afterwards. By leaving the plaster white, you can then apply different washes and thereby add variation to the underlying earth.

Rearguards,

Badder

Edited June 25, 2016 by Badder

[sanfrandragon]

All looks good to me! The groundwork is great (always the most important part of a diorama I think) The tree is great and really comes to life with those apples and the patchy grass is EXCEPTIONAL.

BTW, what did you use for the apples?

Whilst I agree with Dads about the white showing through the dirt, it COULD be chalk bedrock showing through. Personally, I prefer NOT to colour my plaster prior to pouring. It's porous, and will absorb any washes I apply afterwards. By leaving the plaster white, you can then apply different washes and thereby add variation to the underlying earth.

Rearguards,

Badder

Thanks badder.

The tree is from MK35 in France. It comes with little apple-shaped resin balls, but I did consider using airsoft gun pellets.

[sanfrandragon]

That's nice work, and the FJ mortar crew fit really well fella.

The smock painting has come out really well and I love the weathering on the personal kit, just adds to it..

Just a few pointers, personal weapons such as rifles and MP40's would be right next

to their owners, no more than an arms length away especially in a war.

Also noticed a bit of white plaster showing on the base, I mix in some brown poster paint or pigments

when I use plaster for the base, it keeps everything an even colour ready for the grass and you get any white showing

in areas that you miss with the grass.

I'd also get the trailing arms of the gun dug in to the groundwork, on the real thing they stopped the gun

from running over the crew when it recoiled, plus on a diorama it adds to the weight of the gun.

Regards

Dan

Thanks Dan, useful comments.

I agree and will dig the trailing gun arms in.

The white plaster is supposed to be showing through to represent chalky soil, in fact I did consider leaving the pit mostly white. I'm more disappointed in the smooth look of the plaster as it hasn't captured the texture of dug-out dirt, although I did add sand to the plaster to roughen it up a bit.

I have to say I'm happy with the placement of the personal weapons as in my experience it's a trade off between never losing hold of your weapon and keeping it clean whilst engaging an enemy at long distance!

Edited June 26, 2016 by sanfrandragon

[Dads203]

I have to say I'm happy with the placement of the personal weapons as in my experience it's a trade off between never losing hold of your weapon and keeping it clean whilst engaging an enemy at long distance!

I'm afraid that I disagree with that fella, weapon safety and security is one of the most important things taught to all fighting arms of every military.

I served 12 years in the Army and I can remember in basic training having one end of my SLR sling tied around my wrist and the other end was secured to the butt. If my weapon

was more than a sling's length away I would of been on a charge.

These rules have been painfully brought in due to experiences hard learnt on the battlefields of our Grandfathers, I'm sure the German Army and the FJ elements

were exceptional solders during this time as well so I would find it hard that personal weapons would not be slung around their bodies, If you are manning and firing an AT gun you are on the front line.

You can clean a dirty weapon but its hard to undead a Soldier.

As my Troop Sgt would say in Basic training " A soldier who loses his weapon is a waste of rations"

It doesn't take away from your work fella at all I was just sharing my experience as an ex professional soldier so I hope you don't mind me replying.

Regards

Dan

[sanfrandragon]

I'm afraid that I disagree with that fella, weapon safety and security is one of the most important things taught to all fighting arms of every military.

I served 12 years in the Army and I can remember in basic training having one end of my SLR sling tied around my wrist and the other end was secured to the butt. If my weapon

was more than a sling's length away I would of been on a charge.

These rules have been painfully brought in due to experiences hard learnt on the battlefields of our Grandfathers, I'm sure the German Army and the FJ elements

were exceptional solders during this time as well so I would find it hard that personal weapons would not be slung around their bodies, If you are manning and firing an AT gun you are on the front line.

You can clean a dirty weapon but its hard to undead a Soldier.

As my Troop Sgt would say in Basic training " A soldier who loses his weapon is a waste of rations"

It doesn't take away from your work fella at all I was just sharing my experience as an ex professional soldier so I hope you don't mind me replying.

Regards

Dan

No at all, I enjoy a good natured debate!

Im ex army too and agree with you as far as infantry goes, but I think its different in this case, crewing an AT gun. Also in none of the reference pics I looked at could i see a personal weapon in sight,

[Badder]

Returns to see this dio with fresh eyes.

If you want to roughen up the dug up area and make it look more realistic, it's quite a simple job and would NOT endanger the rest of the dio. Just brush PVA over the areas in question and sprinkle a mixture of sand and grit (or crushed up cat litter/polyfilla etc etc) Let it dry and repeat if need be. For variation you can then glue individual 'stones/rocks' in place with CA. When everything has dried you can then apply various brown washes (I prefer to use thinned enamels ) 'Pin wash' with much darker browns or black in the 'rougher' areas. Pick out individual stones/rocks with greys or sandy colours.

It sounds like a time consuming/fiddly process, but believe me it isn't. The only time consuming part is waiting for the PVA to dry. I reckon the painting can be done in half an hour. It would be well worth the effort.

Oh, and the tree... everything about it is super, except where it meets the ground. You need to hide the juncture with long grass/scatter.

Rearguards

Badder

[DennisTheBear]

One of my instructors used to say "if you don't have your weapon you are a dead soldier, and I don't want you to be a dead soldier, because then I have to fill in extra paperwork!"

Really nice diorama!

[lifeofbrian]

Very well done.

[celt]

The sneaky Germans are planning to ambush a poor Sherman tank coming around the corner,I really like this,great stuff.

[PlaStix]

A superb vignette! Very well done.

[sanfrandragon]

I finally, many years later, have got around to making the changes suggested by my fellow modellers and finishing off this diorama.  I added some plants around the base of the tree, thickened up the bushes, dug in the gun trails and make the earth a bit less chalky using copious amounts of dirt powder.  I hope you like it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Brad]

That's pretty good, I like the camo on the tops especially. Doing some of that myself and it's proving rather difficult to get that camouflage pattern looking random as it is.