Goliaths deployed - Italy 1943 - Tamiya/Miniart

[Tim R-T-C]

 

A formerly quiet, rural Italian town on the long road between Napoli and Roma becomes the scene of more fighting as German soldiers slowly falling back up the Italian peninsula, resist fiercely against the seemingly unstoppable advance of Allied forces.

 

 

Caught out by the quick advance, German engineers are not able to plant their charges correctly on the town's bridge, leaving it damaged but intact. Withdrawing from the bridge under heavy fire, they instead attempt to deploy Goliath tracked mines, which were being prepared for anti-tank operations, to disable the crossing point before the American Shermans can seize it.

 

 

This one began, appropriately enough, at the Bovington Tank Museum gift shop where I picked up the Tamiya Goliath and Engineer Figures boxing and a resin wall from Vallejo, with a scene rather like this in mind.

 

Originally I had the wall in the mid-scene with the engineers behind it, but it didn't flow too well, so I found a Miniart crates set that filled the role of cover even better.

 

 

 

 

The Tamiya set went together perfectly well, the 8-part Goliath tracks were a little fiddly but far better than vinyl. The figures have nice detail and poses, unlike some of the earlier, rather bland Tamiya figure sets.

 

The Goliaths were painted with AK 3G later war German tank colours. According to the instructions with the Tamiya set, these tracked mines were delivered in the classic Dunkelgelb, with red and green added in the field - so I pictured a bored tank mechanic in pre-invasion Italy trying out different camo techniques on them. (I know I would in the same scenario!)

 

 

The wall is a single piece resin boxed by Vallejo. It has nice detail and adds a pleasant weight to the scene. A full range of weathering fluids added the wear of a rainy autumn and posters from ETA Diorama Graphics helped set the Italian scene.

 

 

 

My favourite part of my occasional 1/35 forays is adding the small detail parts from the likes of Miniart and my full library came into use here with the Italy 1943 road signs, Italian Petrol Station, village details, street cafe, German weapons and German crates all adding colour to the scene.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Tim R-T-C

[Matt P]

Nicely done diorama and well thought out scene.👍

[Stef N.]

That is a good diorama, well made and a good story to it. Nice one.👍👏

[Bertie McBoatface]

Lovely work. Great diorams, well presented with a good story. I  love that wall! It's brilliantly painted.