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WWII Diorama - Work in Progress

ArmedGinger

Sergeant of the Hide
Full Member
Minuteman
Nov 11, 2018
390
1,182
BC, Canada
So here is about step 3 of a WWII diorama that my girlfriend and I are currently working on (between looking after the puppy). Waiting for the clay ground to hard before we paint it and add some trees, grasses, and bushes.

DSC_4165.JPG
 
Nice Tiger, zimmerit and all! Tamiya?
IPMS, by any chance?
 
Back when... I deliberately limited myself to jets, not even props.; and definitely not armor.

Of course, that didn't last long. My first model tank.

Way back further (pre-teens); I started building and flying Rubber Powered free flight.

Hip Pocket Aero, and the plans. I am working toward getting back to building flying scale in 24" w/s and 1/24 scale. The garage shop is in the slow progress of getting a second bench and set of shelves for building rubber power free flight built; the existing is a reloading and maintenance shop.

I've been a sport rubber free flight scratch builder since around 1955 (age 9). I especially like P-30 and Coupe d'Hiver.

I'm never bored.

Greg
 
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Shocked how much Tamiya charges these days for a model.

My parents would not have got me as many had prices been similar.

Perhaps they were inflation and all considered.
 
Shocked how much Tamiya charges these days for a model.

My parents would not have got me as many had prices been similar.

Perhaps they were inflation and all considered.

Yeah I picked one up awhile ago, $75 CDN or something like that. Insane. Still haven't built it....
 
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Check out Squadron Models for all kinds of detail goodies. https://www.squadron.com/ Great source for highly detailed photo etched metal bits. Voyager is another. Not my photo, but this shows some of the photo etched scales parts they sell look like.
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1594151059274.jpeg
 
Shocked how much Tamiya charges these days for a model.

My parents would not have got me as many had prices been similar.

Perhaps they were inflation and all considered.
Oh you ain’t seen nothing if Tamiya is what your looking at!!! You can spend thousands on this stuff


 
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Cool weathering technique for scratches on armor is with salt. Paint the base metal color. Moisten with a q-tip and apply salt. Then the top colors. When dry chip off the salt.


 
AG, that's an awesome paint scheme. I wish in the 60's and early 70's I would have had access to color photos to give me the correct paint schemes when I was doing all my modeling. Also spent a lot of time in the woods looking for moss. If I wasn't in the ocean, I was glueing and I don't mean huffing. There are still some in my high school. It's actually great what you've done so far especially the backdrop...
 
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AG.. That is a unique idea using the helmet, and weathering.

Nice to see that I am not the only one, occasionally building model tanks / WWII aircraft still.

When I was a kid , money from doing odd jobs either went to 22 lr ammo or models.
 
used to have a neighbor that loved all his life to set up sets of battle reenactments he kept rooms in his house with tiny models of soldiers and what real equipment he could find from each period . I never got into it as a kid but later many years after his death always love seeing the passion he put into his collection and all his traveling to find missing pieces or anything he could get that he was missing or wanted . stuff like this
it takes all types to make the world go round .
 
I bought a 1/48 Tamaya F-14 with super detail that cost me over $50 back in the 1990's. It even had some diecast metal parts, like in the landing gear.

All the guys in our family are builders. My nephews sometimes do commercial architectural model building, and work up their own photoetched parts. I tend to just shake my head over that deep a commitment.

Greg
 
Oh you ain’t seen nothing if Tamiya is what your looking at!!! You can spend thousands on this stuff


I have done several Armortek kits. It's my winter thing....

Current one is a Silver Ghost armoured car chassis.

LOVE the guys at Armortek.

Sirhr
finished 5.jpg
finished 9d.jpg
 
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I built/dioramaed the Tamiya Tiger I in 1972-3, in my early teens, still my favorite WW2 German tank.
Neat to use the helmet, and great painting too.
 
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Me, I've a thing for 'big guns', so at the moment I'm building a 1:350 Tamiya model of the BB-62 New Jersey. This one will simply be a static 'shelf-sitter' while I go "all-out" and build a 1:96 version of the same. Both of these are "post 83" re-fit. The latter though, will be R/C'd, armed, and articulated.

It isn't a case near-so-much of "getting it done" as it is the "how GOOD can you build it"? That is my challenge to myself. The local model boat builders club here, they too are crazy like that. Not nearly as crazy as I am though, apparently, as they keep saying "get one-piece fibreglas hulls" and whatnot. They're only $1,200 USD plus shipping and duties....

I've already got the plate-plan, and am doing this out of aluminum.
 
Have you ever been on the Big J ? shes docked in beautiful downtown Camden NJ. Seriuosly though the part of Camden its docked in is safe during the day. Dare I say ....nice. Anyway, took the kids on it like 5 times before fleeing NJ. Learn something new everytime. I still find it hard to believe that she was used during the gulf war. I also marvel at the sleeping quarters of the crew. Planning to take the family down to the gulf to see among other things The Mighty A in Mobile. As for building models my oldest and myself are heavily into it and as someone pointed out earlier the rabbit hole does indeed run deep and expensive in this hobby. LOl we've come this far there's no turning back........
 
Senior year in High School spent a shit ton of money, at that time, on a 1/25 Tamiya Tiger Tank.

Spent money for an air gun for painting, bought a compressor, putty because I was going to actually fill seams and sand them up to make the tank look legit.

Spent hours getting the road wheels right, trimming casting lines, putty any seams, took weeks with breaks in between. I was going to do it right.

Went on in USMC that summer after graduation.

Came back 4.5 years later.

Mom had thrown the road wheels out.

Rest of tank is in the attic still incomplete.

Used air gun 4-5 years ago to paint my M40A1.

Compressor came in handy for bike tires.

That incomplete kit is still worth some cash.

I should try to get the road wheels from Tamiya and go at it again.
 
I should try to get the road wheels from Tamiya and go at it again.

Indeed you should! You can probably get road wheels from a number of suppliers that will be more detailed than the original kit. Verlinden, Armorpax among others.

Modeling is a very relaxing thing. The art of miniatures is something that anyone who likes precision (and what shooter doesn't) understands. It's hard enough to make something large. It's way harder to shrink it down!

This guy is probably the worlds master at miniature guns... His son, Zavie, is following in his footsteps. I visited his workshop about 5 years ago. A remarkable man.


Oh to have his patience and talent.

Sirhr
 
Indeed you should! You can probably get road wheels from a number of suppliers that will be more detailed than the original kit. Verlinden, Armorpax among others.

Modeling is a very relaxing thing. The art of miniatures is something that anyone who likes precision (and what shooter doesn't) understands. It's hard enough to make something large. It's way harder to shrink it down!

This guy is probably the worlds master at miniature guns... His son, Zavie, is following in his footsteps. I visited his workshop about 5 years ago. A remarkable man.


Oh to have his patience and talent.

Sirhr

Damn! $8,500 for a miniature firearm!
 
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Grew up on Masonboro Sound in Wilmington, N.C. The USS North Carolina, BB-55 is there and still open to the public. Tours are still pretty good. They used to do a light and audio show until folks complained. Her nickname, "The Showboat" in WWII happened after, as a new battleship she went close in for fire support during a kamikaze attack late one day. With all guns blazing, it was said that sailors were stunned at the firepower almost showering over the carrier. "Damn, looks like a Showboat" was heard by one admiral. Anyway, they used to light up the 16 and 5 inch guns (powder charges only), then went to light special effects for the shows. I enjoyed making mostly air and ship models with battle damage using hot needles and aluminum foil for battle damage. Might have to get back to it...
1594209223399.png
 
Talking of battle damage, back in the 60's I have vague memories of attaching Airfix models to a length of tightly stretched fishing line with paper clips, strapping on a Jetex motor, pouring acetone over it and lighting the fuse.
 
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Talking of battle damage, back in the 60's I have vague memories of attaching Airfix models to a length of tightly stretched fishing line with paper clips, strapping on a Jetex motor, pouring acetone over it and lighting the fuse.

I found a Fisher Price School House toy in the trash and brought it home.

Id put my duplicate Tamiya soldiers in the windows firing out down range from my BB gun position in the basement.

Guessing the scale would have been equivalent of a 75 round.

A great shot was a cleanly decapitated soldier.
 
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Talking of battle damage, back in the 60's I have vague memories of attaching Airfix models to a length of tightly stretched fishing line with paper clips, strapping on a Jetex motor, pouring acetone over it and lighting the fuse.
^^^^^^^^^^^^ this

Many of the models I built, met an untimely demise from a 22lr or left over fireworks, and Estes rockets . I watched to many early Godzilla movies as a kid
 
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Man those were the days... I was really into all that. I had a paper route at 13 or so in order to fund it all. I got pretty serious with it.
 
Very nice work, and I'm not detracting from it in any way whatsoever. I'm asking if you've seen the "lighted" versions that some have accomplished. They have a projectile that has 'left' the muzzle, and mimic'ed the "smoke" with cotton-batten that's been spray-painted. by inserting a/some LED's inside it, they really do mimic the "firing" effect.

You've done so well with this, that THAT Is about the only think I can think of, for taking it 'to the next step'. Not that it needs it.
 
Grew up on Masonboro Sound in Wilmington, N.C. The USS North Carolina, BB-55 is there and still open to the public. Tours are still pretty good. They used to do a light and audio show until folks complained. Her nickname, "The Showboat" in WWII happened after, as a new battleship she went close in for fire support during a kamikaze attack late one day. With all guns blazing, it was said that sailors were stunned at the firepower almost showering over the carrier. "Damn, looks like a Showboat" was heard by one admiral. Anyway, they used to light up the 16 and 5 inch guns (powder charges only), then went to light special effects for the shows. I enjoyed making mostly air and ship models with battle damage using hot needles and aluminum foil for battle damage. Might have to get back to it...View attachment 7369334

Wilmington was a great place to grow up, dad and I used to crawl all over BB-55 on saturdays in the winter, rarely another soul there. I Still get chills driving east over the bridge and seeing radar masts, funnels, and those 9 16” barrels rising out of the trees when I go home to see my folks. Those huge rifles, the fire control systems, power plant and armor are what got me interested in engineering. Absolutely the most fantastic machines this country produced. Sadly, my kids will just have to settle for being drug all over Cowpens and Kings mountain battlefields for history lessons.
 
Very cool. Grew up building model tanks and planes with my Dad in our MD basement. Lot's of second hand smoke, airbrush fumes, and rock and roll. That feeling of patience and triumph. The height of joy for this kid was a full summers' day of Andrews AFB air shows and fast rope displays and finger banging the interior of APCs and Helos and whatever jolly green weaponry was on display, then returning home to add the details. Unfortunately, I have none saved, and the German tanks were my favorites too. Great memories. Dad's Dad was 3rd Armored at D+18 with a bronze star through all the Ardennes madness, so I didn't realize the significance of the Tigers until later in life. RIP Pops!
 
Im thinking drop the cotton candy.

Great presentation.
 
I'm looking to build something similar for a bud of mine that was a 19K on M1's. What do you use for the clay base? Standard modelling clay or....? Looks great!
 
I'm looking to build something similar for a bud of mine that was a 19K on M1's. What do you use for the clay base? Standard modelling clay or....? Looks great!

We use DAS Air-Dry Modelling Clay. Any brand of air dry clay will work, we just get this stuff off Amazon. It's really soft and easy to work with and dries within 48 hours. Be aware that it does shrink a bit. If you look at the picture after the grass is on, you can see the gap on the left hand side. We had to fill this in afterwards.