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"Nice town, isn't it?" - Jagdpanther in Normandy


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Amazing work on the diorama. 

I am think if modellers realised how good this stuff comes out and how much fun it is we would dump the kits and just scratch built dioramas all day. 

 

Great work. 

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On 6/13/2021 at 1:17 PM, Steben said:

Astonishing. Great detailed step by step story. Love it.

Thank you Steben!

On 6/13/2021 at 10:26 PM, keefr22 said:

That all looks excellent! I'm very impressed by all your work, but really like the lamp! 

 

Great stuff!! 

 

Keith

Cheers Keith - I like how the lamp turned out as well

16 hours ago, BKirwan said:

Amazing work on the diorama. 

I am think if modellers realised how good this stuff comes out and how much fun it is we would dump the kits and just scratch built dioramas all day. 

 

Great work. 

Thanks BKirwan - I think it gives you a lot of flexibility to decide on what you want the model to look like, but at least for me it is very slow :D 

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Superb. Period photos are essential for ideas, it's not always easy to think of the smaller details and photos really help get the brain in gear Love the 3D lettering as well, something I shall have to have a look at for future dios. I'm really looking forward to seeing how you handle the debris. Personally I find it the most enjoyable part of the project.

 

Reaguards,

Badder

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39 minutes ago, Badder said:

I'm really looking forward to seeing how you handle the debris. Personally I find it the most enjoyable part of the project.

 

Reaguards,

Badder

So am I Badder to be honest - I've been trying a few things out to see what works. My plan at the moment is to build up the shape of the rubble using the same clay used for the base. This will allow me to press the tank into it so it sets in not on the base and to shape the rubble a bit as it dries. Then I plan to press in medium sized plaster rocks, cork bricks and wood pieces into it, followed by smaller pieces of the same. Then a fine bits and a glue wash to ensure everything sticks. I plan to paint it all afterwards rather than try to ensure it's the right colour first because I think the dust from the buildings and ash from burning debris would probably lead to various muted tones over the all the rubble.

Anyway, all this is just theory, so hopefully I get some time this week to put it into practice :D

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Personally, I'd put down a layer of dust/brick-dust on the road/pavement, tops of walls/flat surfaces first, as that'll be spread about by shockwaves, or just the wind, and settle everywhere, even if those areas weren't themselves 'blown up'. But yeah, after that what you plan sounds good, and then some more wind-blown dust just to finish it off. I've only completed one street diorama, but I just HAD to add some wind-blown pages from a newspaper, oh an a pair of boots, tied together by the laces and thrown up over an electricity cable , the WWII equivalet of a pair of trainers. lol

 

Rearguards,

Badder

 

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Been a while since my last update, but I've been making a mess...literally! Here was my thought process:

xFm4G7s.jpg

1. I'm thinking the rubble from building 1 would land in this area

2. I had in mind that the wall jutting out from the main building formed part of a gated compound for some sort of business or factory (hence the rusty gate hinge points on it. So in my mind, whatever cause the crater in the corner would have also damaged the next part of the compound wall, so some debris would be here. This also means I can have some rubble around the tank so it doesn't look like it's floating on the base.

3. Finally, the rubble from the 2nd building would mostly be in this area.

 

I gathered these things to make the rubble:

TX5vLnR.jpg

The clay is the same Fimo air drying, non shrinking clay that I made the cobblestones with (but in a light brown colour), and I used it to build out the shape and bulk of the rubble piles, and as a surface to press the tank into, before adding the rubble on to it. For the actual rubble I used the mixture in the bowl. This is dried pieces of the white Fimo clay, cork bricks, small rocks and pigments mixed together. I poured this rubble into place on the model, over the semi-dry clay, and then moved and pressed it into position to something that looked natural. Then, I used a sieved mixture of smaller stones to fill in the gaps and at the edges since the smaller pieces would've been thrown further.

Then, to make sure that everything stayed in place, I used the two bottles in the back; 1 is filled with a mixture of white glue and water (50:50) with a few drops of dish soap to break the surface tension, and the other contains Isopropyl alcohol which again breaks the tension and ensure the glue mixture soaks into the groundwork rather than just sitting on the surface and forming a skin that is not actually attached to anything.

The soldering iron and wood pieces are there to replicate the collapsed/burnt out roof & floor of the 2nd building - I cut and broke up wood strips, and then burnt them with the iron.

 

Now, because all of this was quite messy, I didn't really grab my camera or phone to take in progress shots (though I did touch my beard and gave a nice earth brown shade :D), but the end result of the above steps was this:

YrU1HED.jpg

1. The rubble from the patisserie was formed mostly into a pile by the footpath and encroaching on to the cobbles only a little - is this realistic? Maybe not, but I wanted to keep the manhole cover visible and keep enough space for the crew.

2. This pile behind the tank was a lot larger than initially planned because I felt the area was a little empty otherwise, and also because I realised that the main building doesn't end where the base ends, and so whatever part of it that exists off screen would have left rubble in this area.

3. As described above, whatever parts of the wall (or even a building) that existed in front of where this scene would've occurred would have been damaged as well, scattering rubble into the scene - here you can also see a cut out for the tank to sit in.

4. Finally, the crater has received some detail work to represent mud/rocks etc.

 

After watching the end battle of Saving Private Ryan, and videos of more recent conflicts in urban settings, the overwhelming thing I see is dust...just a uniform coating of dust, vaguely made up of whatever colours the buildings were, settling on every surface. So after all the rubble & glue had dried, I went about replicating this with various thin shades of the building base colours sprayed at a very low pressure to gradually build up the dusting without obscuring details. As you can see, the variation in the cobblestone colours, the building colours etc is visible, but the place is clearly very dusty, so I'm quite pleased with it so far. After this I picked out some pieces of rubble like bricks and stones.

 

The inside of the patisserie also received some rubble:

zYGRaZK.jpg

1. My logic here was that whatever bomb or shell hit that damaged this building would have blown the walls apart and then caused the remaining wood in the roof/floor to collapse and burn, so the floor received a covering of burnt wood mixed with small rubble pieces, over a clay base. This was glued down as before.

2. I filled the empty space with a scratch built table, stained with oils, polished a little and weathered lightly, before it was placed in the building and had the same burnt wood mixture fixed on top.

3. A small amount was also placed on the edge of the first floor.

Finally, the building interior received several light airbrushed coats of a thinned black mixture to represent the soot.

 

I also took some better photos on the tent of the whole dio:

0qHyPeU.jpgZy9EN71.jpg

lY0Uk4f.jpg3ns8i5J.jpg

kvVEQAN.jpgDarqYlO.jpg

5qABRd1.jpg

 

You might notice some small details in these latest photos that were added whilst the rubble was drying etc. The buildings have numbers (14 &16) which are printed pieces from Reality in Scale. A wonky "E" has been added the to the patisserie sign. And the 2nd building has a radiator on the first floor which is a resin piece from Royal model.

 

So, work still to do on the building interiors, the crater and the crew, but almost done!

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I'm no expert on destroyed buildings, but that all looks tremendously realistic to me!

 

And I was wondering how I'd missed that old radiator before, as it's a great little detail - as is the broken pipe in the crater!

 

All really good stuff!

 

Keith

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23 hours ago, keefr22 said:

I'm no expert on destroyed buildings, but that all looks tremendously realistic to me!

 

And I was wondering how I'd missed that old radiator before, as it's a great little detail - as is the broken pipe in the crater!

 

All really good stuff!

 

Keith

Thanks Keith - I'm no expert either on ruins (unless you count my attempts at DIY :D) so I'm pleased with how it looks now especially compared to my references. I don't think you missed the radiator because I only added it just before starting the rubble. It's a quite a nice little piece from Royal Model and there's a 2nd for the main building.

As for the pipe, my eventual plan is to have water spraying from it in to the pooling water currently covered by the green tape, but I'll wait till all painting is done before trying that.

 

I've been doing a bit of work every evening on the figures as well. Although I like using oils for the shadows & highlights as they can be blended nicely into the base coat and don't damage the paint below, they take an age to dry so I have to wait between coats. That said, apart from a bit of weathering on the shoes and knees which I'll do once the figures are in place, the crew is done.

BScgNag.jpgGvKtxbp.jpgo9qNTmO.jpg

 

The Alpine figure leaning on another scratchbuilt table has knocked over his cup of coffee (yet to be added) so the Panzer Art chap is laughing at him, whilst Mr Map looks on disapprovingly. And the Ultracast chap with his head in his hands is focusing on something else which has caught his attention (when I add him to the base, all will be clear...maybe).

 

Other than the 1/16 Legends Navy SEAL I built earlier these are my first figures in a while, and the first 1/35 ones in a long time, so I'm pretty pleased with the faces and shading, especially as black is hard to shade well. That said, there's definitely room for improvement in the details like the iron crosses, buttons & buckles.

 

Thanks for looking.

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Just caught up on this. Looks phenomenal, so good with the rubble and hanging lamp and all the smaller details added, seemed to make a huge jump on after your did the last lot of main painting. I too enjoy Vallejo as a paint, great to use. Figures and 'story line' are good to. 

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Thanks gents! 

Big update today covering the last few days of work! Firstly, I received a package full of things to give both interiors a lived in look:

YjvJPpS.jpg

1. Plus Model Easy line chairs for the main building - cheap, and very warped. I got two with 2 chairs in each and only 1 was useable without heating etc. Their regular stuff is much much better.

2. ETA diorama WW2 German Maps and newspapers for the crew - nice printings on thin paper

3. ETA diorama Black & White photos - very cool set of assorted mostly period appropriate photos.

4. Reality in Scale Enamel signs - Printed on shiny photo paper so no actually enamel but very convincing in scale

5. Reality in Scale Carpets - Not too bad but the colours are a little muted.

6. Reality in Scale Mirrors - nice resin castings with a piece silver foil for the mirror surface - more suited for ornate buildings rather than regular homes I think

7. Mantis Miniatures animals (just for the pigeon) - decent sculpts but packaging could be better as a few dogs were three-legged.

8. Maim Grandfather clocks - 3D printing lines visible in final piece, but other than that the castings are decent

9. Plus Model crates - Good sculpts and castings

10. Plus Model rats - Decent detail, but a bit soft

? - What could this be?

 

FaTZLjl.jpg

1. The clock face is a sticker with nice embossed detail for the ridge at the edge and hands. I tried to match the colour of the sticker with the paints I had to hand.

2. MRP Red brown base, light wood grain with watercolour pencils and a gloss coat of thinned Tamiya Clear Orange.

3. Vallejo brass for the pendulum and chains/weights

4. Mig pigments on the horizontal surfaces

The 3D printing lines mostly disappeared under a couple of coats of polyurethane primer 

 

Now then, the building interiors:

Ft1VgLh.jpg

First, some wood panelling for the main building - mostly wood strip, but the moulding at the top is styrene painted to look like wood. The ceiling has also been painted and weathered slightly.

Tw7WKcE.jpgDAap7JB.jpg

The first floor has received a bit of colour, as well as skirting boards, window sills and the other radiator. Also, I've added a couple of the ETA black & white photos - these were cut out and sandwiched between a two sheets of styrene (clear and white), then I coloured the edges with permanent marker to simulate frames. Finally, you can see a few blocks of foam with a Miliput tarp - just something to fill out the empty attic.

In the next photo you can see one of the Reality in Scale mirrors, with a lead wire to hang it up.

1xXBQM6.jpg

This photo is a bit further along - I've added the grandfather clock (Still a bit shiny) and a scratch built dresser type thing with some more photos. The crate is only there to try out something but didn't end up there.

epxKeJ0.jpg

The tarp in the attic has now been painted and weathered , and a few more items have been added to the attic....also what's that next to the tarp?

The rest of the interior pieces were painted up & weathered before being added to the building. So with that done, all the different components were ready to be brought together into this....

etRBy80.jpgSNqsUoX.jpg

 

Just a couple of photos, and as is the norm here, the finished dio will be posted in the correct forum.

 

Edit: Link to RFI post added

 

Thanks to everyone who looked in along the way!

Edited by theaa2000
Link to RFI added
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Superb work, really great detailing! And when you stop and think about it a very poignant scene - just a few years earlier somebodies comfortable family home - and unfortunately a scene still too often repeated today....

 

But what a superb piece of modelling, and I really love this picture;

 

1 hour ago, theaa2000 said:

 

Ft1VgLh.jpg

 

Imagine opening your front door and seeing that thing parked outside....!!! :)

 

Great stuff!

 

Keith

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2 hours ago, keefr22 said:

Superb work, really great detailing! And when you stop and think about it a very poignant scene - just a few years earlier somebodies comfortable family home - and unfortunately a scene still too often repeated today....

 

But what a superb piece of modelling, and I really love this picture;

 

 

Imagine opening your front door and seeing that thing parked outside....!!! :)

 

Great stuff!

 

Keith

Thanks Keith, glad you've been following the whole time! As you said it has turned into a more poignant scene than I originally planned - the sadness is in contrast to the funnier scene outside.

 

:D That photo is cool - I think if it were me I'd just shut the door and go back to bed.

 

Cheers

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Awesome is a word I hate, but I've run outofsuperaltives and am left with no choice other than to use it. AWESOME!

 

Love the Jurassic Park sign! Always great to see a bit of humour! You've given me the idea to place a wheelie bin in my WWII dio. lol.

 

Congrats on a magnificent(ah-ha, I found another superaltive) piece of art.

 

Rearguards,

Badder

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  • 3 weeks later...

I just found this thread. As others have said, fantastic work! When I started I thought this must be an older thread because I swore I had seen a video of this build. I did some searching through my YouTube subscriptions and found what I was looking for. It's a similar diorama with the blown out street, though many details are obviously different. It's an interesting watch. 

 

 

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  • 7 months later...

This is insanely good. One of the reasons I joined this forum was to congratulate you on this diorama. There aren’t many that can make realistic tanks and a realistic Dio, well, perhaps Martin from “Nightshift”. 

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4 hours ago, Dulux said:

This is insanely good. One of the reasons I joined this forum was to congratulate you on this diorama. There aren’t many that can make realistic tanks and a realistic Dio, well, perhaps Martin from “Nightshift”. 

Welcome to the forums! I'm flattered to be one of the reasons you've joined, and for the comparison to Martin, who is excellent!

4 hours ago, Dulux said:

I also notice you are skilled at figures as well. 

Also very kind of you :) 

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I'm a bit of a WW2 Normandy nut so this was exciting to see. It's such a beautiful region of France and my family and I visit every year (last 2 years for obvious reasons hasn't happened). In 2019 we visited Faliase where the German 7th army and 5th Panzer were surrounded and given an ultimatum by the allies. The rest is history but it was this fascination with Normandy that prompted me to look into modelling and Dio's, I'm in the process of creating a Normandy street scene with a "Tiger" as the star of the show. I'm an airbrush artist in the day so that side of things shouldn't pose too much of a problem.

 

May I ask, the zimmerit on the Jagdpanther, did you recreate that yourself? I notice that its the "square" type which is spot on for that late period in Normandy. I do find the tank side of things slightly daunting in that when creating these models everything has to be correct. 

 

Congratulations once again!

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It's a great place to visit! I went with my dad ages ago and we were stunned at how many little museums & memorials there were all over the place - even the smallest buildings had amazing pieces from the war in Normandy. Looking forward to seeing your diorama!

 

The Zimmerit is from a company called Monroe Perdu (website) and it's laser cut card. I also found the other Zimmerit options (PE, resin or scratch built) daunting and opted for this since it's easy to glue, trim to size (although it fit very well), conform to curves and damage. Once it was sealed after gluing it took paint really well. I would definitely recommend it.

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29 minutes ago, theaa2000 said:

It's a great place to visit! I went with my dad ages ago and we were stunned at how many little museums & memorials there were all over the place - even the smallest buildings had amazing pieces from the war in Normandy. Looking forward to seeing your diorama!

 

The Zimmerit is from a company called Monroe Perdu (website) and it's laser cut card. I also found the other Zimmerit options (PE, resin or scratch built) daunting and opted for this since it's easy to glue, trim to size (although it fit very well), conform to curves and damage. Once it was sealed after gluing it took paint really well. I would definitely recommend it.

I see that site is based in the States, how long did it take?

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