Siege of Bastogne diorama

[Bradley25mm]

      I've always wanted to do a winter diorama. This diorama will depict tanks on a road march, with the M-10 in the lead. The Panzerkampfwagen will be knocked out on the side of the road. The jeep will be by the Sherman tank, while the "higher-ups" go over battle plans on a map. I still have to do a white wash on the panzer IV. The jeep and driver are both Tamiya. The stowage on the jeep is a mix of Value Gear, and Verlinden. The Sherman is Tamiya. I applied a "hasty" camo scheme with a make-up sponge. Stowage was a mix of, Tamiya, Value Gear, and Verlinden. The trap cover was tissue paper soaked in Elmers glue.  The figures are Tamiya, and Dragon. I used Hornet heads on three of the figures (Ones standing on the back deck). The M-10 and figures are Tamiya. Stowage was Value Gear. The tarp was tissue paper soaked with Elmers glue. For this white wash, I sprayed the enitre model with hairspray, to simulate chipped, worn whitewash. After the white paint dried, I took a Q-tip soaked with water to remove the white in spots.

       I normally don't do Armor. If anyone see's anything out of place, or incorrect, please let me know.

Thanks

Chris

[Dick Montgomery]

Wow! That's a great deal of high caliber work! I'm looking forward to pics of the completed diorama.

 

[Mark Deliduka]

Incredible job so far! This is gonna look fantastic when you get it all done.

[RGronovius]

Great work there!

[Eric]

Very nice.  What did you use for the snow on the vehicles?

Eric

[Bradley25mm]

Thank Gentlemen for the nice comments.

Eric, Woodland scenic snow

[Bradley25mm]

                                             All that's left to do is add snow to the top of the tank, and build the base. The battle damage was obtained using a Dremel tool with a grinding bit. I used the same process to simulate a worn, chipped whitewash. (Hairspray applied over the camo pattern before the white was applied). After it dried, I sprayed the white as normal. After the white dried, I wet the area I was working on with water.  I let it sit for about 3 minutes, then used a Q-tip to remove the whitewash. I ground the teeth off of both the inner and outer gear ring on the drive sprocket. I glued the track with a lot of slack, to each return roller. The mud from Vallejo is very easy to use, and realistic. The trees were a mix of Woodland scenics, and Timberline Scenery. The direction sign, and telephone poles are from MiniArt. I purchased EasyLine to simulate phone wires

Chris

[Bradley25mm]

                   Finally finished!. I have a few things left to do.(Make deeper tank tracks, and put more sag in the phone/power lines). This was my first time working with snow. If I could give anyone advice on attaching this stuff to your base, one word comes to mind. HAIRSPRAY!. With the advice from Ron Bell, I decided to give it a try. The Woodland Scenics cement works just fine. No issues using it. "I" prefer to use the hairspray, because I was able to get a thicker affect. (a total of 5,light applications of snow is what you see here)I also found out (By accident) that if you hold the can close to the loose snow, you can create some really cool chunks of snow. At the end of each application, I would mist the entire base from far away to lock everything down. I will say this, I've never had a diorama smell so good.

                  The wheat, and saplings were purchased from Hobby Lobby. I took a razor knife, and stripped most of the dead foliage from the saplings. I was able to get help from my local club here in Louisville, for creating an accurate diorama. Thanks to Stu and Rich for all the technical help.

 

Chris

[Mark Deliduka]

Wow! Stupendous work man! Most impressive! I'm feeling cold just looking at this!

[Type59D]

Is that a block of foam you're using to dry the wheels

 

 

[Bradley25mm]

Thanks a lot Mark. Type59D, yes, it is a block of foam that I picked up from Walmart in their floral section. I wrap each block with blue painters tape to keep down the particles that come out of the block. They were extremely handy, and very cheap.