'The grand old duke of York- Part 2- Winter (1/72) WIP

[Muchmirth]

Hello all.

This is the work in progress towards part 2 of my 'Grand old duke of York' diorama in 1/72 scale.

   I welcome all comments and feedback, please bear in mind this is my second dio. 

The idea for this piece is that its connected to the first diorama, of the same name, as a sort of before and after project.

  The Part 1 is in the RFI section:

Part 1 is set during early autumn 1944 and the battle along  the Tannenburg line ,in Estonia, is raging. The 3rd Germanic Panzer Corp, consisting of the 11th Nordland division and 11th infantry division, amongst others is fighting to defend against an entire soviet army. In reality the battle was at its height at the end of July and ended with German withdrawal in September.

  Part 2- is set on the same battlefield but the battle is now over, its early winter and the 2nd soviet shock army is clearing out the area, including engineers sweeping for mines, removing barbed wire, tanks pulling out obstacles and used almost as tractors hauling the wreckage away. Their are dead, wounded and surrendering troops scattered across the scene. The remaining Estonian SS are a hand full of stragglers, fighting more for their own country than for the Nazis. This is the idea where the title came from as Estonia was occupied first by the soviets and then by the nazis and then retaken by the soviets. 

   On to the build itself:

     I have some left over parts from my first diorama which I will be using in this-First to start with is the large block of kingspan  insulation, I savaged from a bit of waste land I was running past:

Sorry for the blur!

Then I drew out the outlines with a sharpie. I carved the block up into the shape I wanted. I then plastered the whole thing in my ground soloution: Polyfiller/pva/sand and paint:

I used sandpaper for the road and rocks from the garden for guess what...Rocks!

I have a bit of a mission on for this one as I have to try and replicate the original size and shape. 

After the initial covering I sanded it down and applied more of the same.

 

I then made some of the items to go into the dio- the blue tac sand bags. I shape them, paint black, then a nasty yellow colour, This is a sort of shading. I then apply middlestone with a touch of brown. At this stage the colours don't really matter as all will be covered with snow. 

Below is are the cured vegetation from my garden, I wanted a alpine tree so used some of a shrub and hairspray to lacquer, for three days, hoping to keep some of it bright green colour. 

Next I started to paint, on mass, the tooth picks, carved pencils, skewers and cut up lollipop sticks which form my trench walls/fire step and anti tank obstacles:

This is the result:

I broke some of the trees on purpose and stuck them into place. I also crushed up brick and masonry from my yard to look like the remains of the farm house from the original which was burning down. I enjoyed busting out the trench wall and placing broken trench boards in places where it had been hit by a shell.  Basically to be lazy and save time I put shell rounds into the areas I didn't want to have to replicate in their totality.... it is a battlefield after all. I chose the left over tufts of grass which were too garishly bright for the autumn scene to use in this one because it'll all be covered in snow and I still would like some colour to peek through from the foliage below. 

   An IS-2 tank with riders and a Russian flag will run over the rubble section and a T34/85 will be burnt out and abandoned in the massive icy shell hole in the centre of the battlefield. From the opposite side another t34/85 will have a chain attached to pull out one of the anti tank obstacles.

 

 

You'll see I used brown, grey and black on the ground for some harsh contrast of colour with the shell holes and recessesd areas. 

I have also added graves to this scene to tell part of the story, I will cover these up during the 'snow' process as want them to look freshly dug and not buried by snow flurry's. I have also got some left over airfix infantry from the original scene and will cut the helmets off them and place on top of the wooden match sticks to mark the graves. I may have some soviet solders standing/sitting on top of a grave, to show their contempt and hatred of the enemy. I'll see when I get that far. 

 In the pic below you'll see the crater which I will try to portray as a denotation which the Germans left to blow up the road to slow the progress of the advance. They have left a few futile sand bags in this area, I will place a replica of the original half track burnt out and on its side in front of this crater as a barricade. From this area the 'stragglers' will be trying to protect their surrendering comrades (will make more sense once finished I hope). 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by Muchmirth
Additions to post.

[Muchmirth]

 

Hello fellow modellers, its been a couple week since I started this and think I need to add a progress pic. I've added the snow!!! And what a torture that is!!! I put on watered down PVA and then the baking soda. I was gonna use precisions snow products...but I'm cheap. 

Its  not right at the moment, doesn't look look convincing and yellowing in spots (which I read would happen with the soda). So I brush off and lacquer with hairspray. Then go again.

I've covered the trenches and shell holes with card board as want more muddy than snowy their because I'll be adding resin to simulate frozen water pockets in some places. 

Its  a shame to cover up the tracks the way I have as I really liked that bit but cant have it all ways. 

Still not their yet. Going to keep layering and spraying.

I think the green tufts might look a little too green?

Any opinions welcome.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Muchmirth
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[Muchmirth]

Final update...below is one of the carters in the trench which is 'iced over'.

I found a one pound tube of clear silicone came in handy to make the 'ice'

More bomb craters before they are filled with epoxy resin or the above silicone. I used the silicone on more shallow bomb craters.

 

In the previous dio (part 1) their was a solider with a severed leg, so I thought this time I would include him again but put him at the bottom of the frozen crater.

Again in the first dio (part 1) their was a solider in a 'murder hole' with a machine gun and camp tarp which he could draw over his head. This time I thought I'd include an frozen solid version of him:

 

 

Below I used charcoal and some pieces if torn up, twisted, rusty metal from a rusted tin can to try and look like pieces of buried shrapnel:

Now shots of it filled with resin:

Now some of the build shots from the is-2 tank which will be used in the dio:

 

Next up are the zvezda engineers, which I thought where great quality (much unlike the hat tank riders.)

Then it was the ceasars minitures German figures, which again I thought highly of. I liked their poses and weapons and was happy with the almost militia quality which I gave to their uniforms, I tried to mix and match colours:

Next up a couple shots of the US pilot and gunner which I had to buy to fit my Soviet plane (il-2 stormavik)!!! Yes I know. But do you know how hard it is to get soviet pilots and gunners in 1/72? Well put it this way.... I couldn't find any and the really hawk eyed of you will spot that the dials in the cockpit are hand painted on and the gunner is wearing an oxygen mask. Not sure if a il-2 gunner used an oxygen mask...they probably didn't fly high enough for this but hey ho this is what I had so their we go and yes this will no forever annoy me. 

 

 

I also did a pair of armour fast T34'S for this dio, please Find the WIP for the T34/85'S HERE:

 

Thanks for viewing. The dio and all the models are now finished. I shall post my end article tomorrow in the rfi section.

Edited June 11, 2021 by Muchmirth
Additions to post.